Oolite Bulletins

First off, sorry in advance if I'm beating a dead horse...

I'm from the old skool camp I suppose, that wants to get as close to the original game as possible but still enjoying some of the benefits of modern hardware (both in visual and computational capabilities). So from that perspective I don't mind add-ons that enhance graphics or tweak game-play for a more "realistic" experience (I'm thinking in terms of user/NPC interaction. AI enhancements for instance). In all honestly though, I can't really think of any necessary enhancements or flaws in the current incarnation of Oolite.

Having been away for a while I've been wondering if there were any OXP that were considered "essential". Like a good netizen I've been reading the forums before posting and it seems that the general conclusion is that, no, there are NO OXPs that are considered essential. That is to say there is no necessary functionality that is considered "missing" from the base Oolite, and furthermore that no missing functionality has been created by an OXP which should be a part of the base game by default but isn't*. Is this a fair statement?

<sarcasm>*Exlcuding MassivelyMultiplayerOnline.OXP. if you find pleeease let me know!</sarcasm>

MassivelyMultiplayerOnline.OXP would create this problem:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

Multiplayer over a LAN or even over the intenet...even with 64-256 players at once...need not have this problem, as it can be a policed environment where the game is hosted only so long at a time and the players are almost "invite only".

But once you create a persistent "universe" with people vying for greatness, you risk griefers and cheaters that will play simply to increase everyone else's misery. Managing such an environment, especially with Clans forming and the wars they can cause, would be a nightmare best killed off before it gets beyond theory.

Even the ancient game Diablo 1 which only allowed 4 players per game had problems with griefers/cheaters jumping in and killing everyone in the no-fighting town zones. An Oolite equivalent would be hacked destruction of the main station, killing every player+ship in it.

Reloading savegames would be a huge problem.
Clock desynchronizing problems also occur, with jumps typically taking many hours gametime, and even docking/launching taking 10 minutes gametime.

Like a good netizen I've been reading the forums before posting and it seems that the general conclusion is that, no, there are NO OXPs that are considered essential.

For techy reasons I play with almost no OXPs (electrical typewriter here, kind of.)

hm, maybe the gap in truly useful ships between Cobra3 and Boa2*, that I find is an oddity you can only "repair" by OXP(s)**.
Else for a while the game can start to drag until you got like 400-500 K spare credits.

*for those of us who don't get along with flying a Python.
Maybe I should try again.

**editing vanilla Oolite shipdata myself - I consider that as practically an OXP that does this for me being installed.

I think you're right in essence. Oolite, in terms of gameplay, is pretty hard to improve if you're looking for a 'Pure' experience. Obviously if you want to add gameplay features you are spoilt for choice.
In terms of visuals, yes some room for improvement exists, and again you are spoilt for choice. For the purist, perhaps just new prettier planets and one of the re-texture sets for the original core ships and objects. [Blatant Plug :- see below]

There are a couple of OXPs which each enhance one aspect of Oolite. The benefit is that you can install the OXP if you think that aspect could/should be enhanced, and you don't need to bother if you don't care for that aspect in the first place.

As others also have made more or less blatant plugs, I am perhaps allowed to do as well:

Out of my own OXPs you could be interested in
- Status Quo Q-Bomb: only modifies the behaviour of Q-bombs slightly: in accordance with what is described in the Status Quo novella they won't explode if close enough to planets or suns. Instead you can re-scoop them.

- Total Patrol: only modifies the behaviour of police ships: instead of patrolling between planet and witchpoint only they patrol the two other routes as well (planet - sun and witchpoint - sun). To make up for the multiplied patrol area some additional police are added.

- Sell equipment: exactly what it says on the tin: makes the standard equipment items (and some OXP equipment) re-sellable, adding a funcionality which never existed in any Elite.

- Interstellar Help: randomly adds traders in interstellar space who ask you to help them to return to normal space. Also works the other way round, if you are the one stuck in interstellar space with insufficient fuel.

Feel free to have a look at my Wiki user page, where I list my other OXPs and link to their pages.