Oolite Bulletins

I'm currently carrying out a couple of passenger runs in G2, leaving Argezabe (I like earthquakes and cats, although don't call them that - their claws are quite sharp).

I suddenly realised as I spun out of dock - I don't eat!

Perhaps I'm a thief - I grab a few sandwiches out of the food containers when I come across them. I suddenly feel sorry for the poor merchants that I short change - I must be a bloody good thief because I don't even realise I'm doing it.

I know I spend my credits on my ship, upgrading it, maintaining it, repairing it, buying fuel.

So what am I? Maybe I am the ship. Maybe I'm just an AI with old Earth delusions.

Oooohh look, my hallucinations are playing with their little iPhones. How quaint!

Bugbear1973 wrote:

So what am I? Maybe I am the ship.

As far as the actual coding of the game goes you're right. You are your ship.

(Some efforts have been made in preparing a separation of player and ship, for instance in the scripting distinction between Player and PlayerShip, but in principle you still are indistinguishable from your current ship.)

do really need to get all "simms" on this?

You and your ship are as one... ...it is you and you are they... ...all your mundane needs are supplied by the ship... it is at once you and other than you, that which sustains and nurtures... ...you are the guide... ...you are pilot...
...enjoy and be at peace...

Arg! Head exploding at the thought of a ship based religion!

Blessed be the coils of Main-He'fold that channel the fuel to the holy engines. Guiding our path through Vac-hu-hum's blackest night bringing us the faithful, unto the spinning jewel set orbs of the cosmos!

Reet-hon!
Reet-hon!
Com'hand her!

I am my ship… my ship is me… I am a Cobra Mk III?
That makes me a lean, mean, fighting machine… with a penchant for quirium smoothies.

You're all bloody mad!

Think of the Bentusi, and you will fell better, trust me. Witchspace sings around you

Your ship comes with food dispensers. You simply say "Tea Earl Grey Hot" and it creates a random type of food for you to consume. It makes for interesting meal times.

The Beootles, a rather popular Alliance band had a song called The Cobra,
which spoke to the pilot/ship dilemma
I'm my ship as you're your ship as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like James' from a monk, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

As Disembodied pointed out not too long ago (and others have mentioned), we wouldn't want to focus on "reality" to the point where it could interfere with gameplay and fun.

I have around 1.2 million CR in the game. My fantasy self image in the game is therefore comfortable assuming that it can afford good coffee and the best chocolate for those occasions where I feel I need a treat.

However..(Handwavium alert).. Obviously most of the time in the game, I am eating and drinking good spacer chow. Which is to say that I eat what the ship's computer calculates I need nutritionally based on health factors and activity levels. Probably most likely as some nutrient drink, like the smoothies El Viejo mentioned, and something chewy or crunchy, both of which are flavoured and textured artificially. It comes out of the food synthesizer in my ship's galley, which is restocked inexpensively as a part of refuelling at stations. I don't know if the raw materials for the spacer chow are algae or Soylent Green, and don't much care to think about it.

There are places in some of OXPs, like the seedy bars in Random Hits, where you *can* buy a meal and a drink. I visit such places fairly often, though I consider them overpriced. But you're not just paying for food and drink, it's the congenial social atmosphere and entertainment too, y'know.

Handwavium aside, if you consider how little you eat or drink compared to a ton, the cost for food and drink for the commander (and crew, if any) would be fairly negligible. A ton of food costs let's say 10 CR. Ok, so if you're buying raw food for provisions, you might eat say a kilo a day. So that'd be like .01 CR? Amounts that small can comfortably be ignored for the sake of keeping gameplay simple and fun.

More bar, restaurant, space hotel, etc OXPs would be nice options for game atmosphere, though. After a profitable run and/or a rough fight, it'd be nice to have more places one could "get a real meal", have a few drinks, or pay for a night in a comfy bed with a good bath or shower and maybe a swimming pool. Dirtside could do with some developments like that, in particular.

Does this mean we can expect a "Restaurant at the End of The Universe" oxp to appear...??

ClymAngus wrote:

do really need to get all "simms" on this?

It's ok, i took a red pill last night and I'm feeling all better now.

I agree, we don't want to get all Simms on this.

The nearest thing we want for a religion in Oolite is the Black Monks.

Bugbear1973 wrote:

The nearest thing we want for a religion in Oolite is the Black Monks.

Don't disrespect Giles the Creator! His missionaries won't bite you in the back like the monastic followers of St. Herod, but His Church is true!

(However, you may or may not take serious the Happy Eye Preacher and Zenarchy Monk; and you may disregard the Witchspace Lobster Worshipper.)

ClymAngus wrote:

Arg! Head exploding at the thought of a ship based religion!

Frank Herbert, of Dune fame, wrote a series of three boks where there actually had a ship-religion quite prominently as part of the plot. The spaceship had become sentient and people had to wor-ship it (groan)

see Destination: void and following books

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination:_Void

I'm rereading the Foundation series by Asimov. He has it that when the first Foundation is setup they have to set it up a religion, complete with acolytes who maintain the 'Holy' Atomic power stations and other associated technologies lest they fall into disrepair whilst the Empire collapses and the knoweldge is lost. It is becomes one of the casualties of a Sheldon crisis.