Oolite Bulletins

Folks,

Without wanting to go all 'Bilbo Baggins' on you, I thought I'd let you know what I'm planning to do...

I've been playing Oolite since 2006. When I started there were no space dredgers, no famous planets, no behemoths, no extra weapons, a half finished TOGY, and the coolest ship to own was the SuperCobra.

There was no fiction section in the forum, no maps, no ship guide, no oxp guide. There was a single piece of Oolite fan-fic - 'The Virtuous Misfortune' by Dylan Smith on the Oolite wiki.

There were no shaders, no wireframe, no javascript... there were more bugs.

A *lot* has been done since then! It's incredible to see the amount of effort that has gone into the game.

Looking back on 4 years shows how immensely this game has grown in both technical capability, graphics, gameplay, add-ons and all the accompanying material in the form of maps, ships and stories that have fleshed out the Ooniverse. It's an awesome achievement.

So, on to my announcement...

I'm increasingly finding that I have less and less time to play the game itself, and I've not been able to make any fiction contributions for a year now, as I've been consumed by my other project (see sig). I've got lots of other stuff I want to get done in the next few years and I can't do everything - I need to prioritise. But before I go off and start my next (hopefully) fee paying project I want to do one more thing...

I'm going to do one more story for Oolite. 'Incursio' will be the sequel to Mutabilis and turn that set of stories into a trilogy. There were a few threads I wanted to wrap up and some bits of the Elite 'canon' I wanted to answer. I'm going to aim to have it available as quickly as possible in 2011, so this will be my last 'Oolite' contribution (cue one hundred and eleventy one speech...)

To whet the appetite, here's the teaser...

Incursio (Due 2011) – “When a deadly alien attack is launched across the galaxy, humankind finds itself under-prepared and overwhelmed. As star systems begin to fall, privateers take up the battle alongside the military forces and a desperate plan is hatched to stop the invaders once and for all, before humanity is eradicated.”

Whereas Status Quo and Mutabilis are set in the years 3138 and 3140 respectively, Incursio will cover the years 3149-3151, according to Selezen’s excellent Elite Timeline. For reference Elite is assumed to have been set in the year 3125, and Oolite in the year 3142.

I'll update on facebook and twitter as to my progress. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Drew.

Woot! Will there be any guest stars?

drew wrote:

cue one hundred and eleventy one speech

Enjoy the journey to Rivendell.

I would certainly like the good Captain Hesperus to make another appearance, and I'd be very keen to introduce some meaningful cameo's from other Oolite characters who have their own ships. (as per teaser)

If any authors would like their characters specifically included/excluded, please advise.

What I we do in the former is I'll indicate the outcome of a scene to the owner-author, and write 'vanilla' dialogue on behalf of the character - then allow the owner-author to shape dialogue on behalf of their character, to ensure it has a genuine feel. Having seen the fun in the 'wot are you writers up to' thread, I think there could be some excellent mileage in Rebecca teaming up with Derik or Coyote in some fashion ... who knows, perhaps Alex Ryder could put in an appearance.

This is going to be a darker novel than SQ or even M, as it's taking place within the Thargoid war as described in Selezen's timeline. Desperate times will call for some desperate measures.

Disembodied will be called in to act as typo obliteration as per normal!

In the words of Aragorn son of Arathorn.... "What say you?"

Cheers,

Drew.

I say onwards to Mordor!

Full steam ahead!

I have sent you a pm

So it is true. In a dream, I saw the Eastern sky grow dark. But in the West, a pale light lingered. A voice was crying, "The doom is near at hand, Isildur's Bane is found."I will find no rest here. I heard her voice inside my head. She spoke of my father and the fall of Gondor. She said to me, even now, there is hope left, but I cannot see it. It is long since we had any hope. My father is a noble man, but his rule is failing, and our people lose faith. He looks to me to make things right and I would do it. I would see the glory of Gondor restored. Have you ever seen it, Aragorn? The White Tower of Ecthelion, glimmering like a spike of pearl and silver, its banners caught high in the morning breeze. Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?

Coyote would be more than happy to take-up the sword again… see you at the The Prancing Pony.

Prrreciousss...

Would love to see Cmd. Cheyd in a small walk-on bit part. He doesn't even need to speak. He could be background scenery and I'd love it none the less. Oh wait, that's right... This is a book... Oh well, same principal.

Oh, not to stretch it, but I'd be delighted to find Cdr. Myy'q in there as well

I think I was a ruddy great cargo carrier last time... (in name at least - and I still had a huge grin on my face!)

Excellent! From the ashes, a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadow shall spring. Renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king.... etc.

Could all authors willing to have their characters included write me (or point me at) a brief bio of the characters, description, a little background, distinguishing features/mannerisms etc? Would be v. helpful! Also - what ships do they anticipate flying in the years 3149-3151?

Clearly there is a danger of an epic space battle of some kind...

Cheers,

Drew.

Finished the outline plot for this today- came together surprisingly easily. Will flesh out some more details in the next few days. Major parts for Daddyhoggy, Coyote, Derik, Shulth and Blaze O' Glory so far. I'm looking at Cmdrs Cheyd and Myy'q next. (Maik - need a bio on Myy'q please!)

Can't wait to get writing this one, I think it's going to be a cracking story.

Cheers,

Drew.

drew wrote:

I'm looking at Cmdrs Cheyd and Myy'q next. (Maik - need a bio on Myy'q please!)

It's on its way.