User:Stranger

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Stranger's World - the complete Russian Roolite version with Universal Sky

Personal Note on the man himself

Based in Eastern Siberia, active in the Roolite community and favours an exploration-style game with more scientific realism - hence many of the ensuing oxps!

Stranger has written insightful essays into Oolite for the Russian community (see bottom section below), Fiction & has created an alternative version of Oolite with more scientific realism (planets & suns, trade, workings of one's ship etc). A formidable oeuvre indeed!

Stranger's World

Stranger has developed his own Ooniverse. What one sees on the screen differs hugely - as do the mechanics of the game. It is a comprehensive attempt to make Oolite more scientifically realistic. It is recognisable as Oolite unlike Cim's Song of the Labyrinth) which is a radically new game. It might be most enjoyable to explore this after you have acclimatised yourself to more orthodox Oolite - then the combination of different game mechanisms combined with a new-look Ooniverse will be more greatly enjoyed!

Solar Systems

An Ice Giant with orbital station

• On the Solar System front, the distances between suns, planets et al have been tweaked to make them more realistic - as have been the star and planet sizes, the planetary and lunar orbits etc. Several dozen star types are defined (with some 56 spectral signatures) thus affecting solar radius, colour, solar flares, corona flares and solar wind. The star types are further synthesised with the appropriate planet types and orbital distances.

• There are some 9 texture packs which flesh out the looks of the heavenly bodies. These combine with the oxps tweaking the underlying physics of the suns, planets & moons. The new planet sizes impact on such matters as gravity wells (affecting the Torus Drive), moon orbits etc. These tie in with the description of the planet as technological/agricultural and also with its technology level.

• The emphasis on realism means that there is now only the one large orbital station in each system (of the more orthodox coriolis or dodecahedron varieties, with hanger space for hundreds of spacecraft) as usually only the main planet is habitable and capable of meaningful trade with the orbital station above.

Stranger has also thrown in a new set of Orbital Stations with differing functions appropriate to their location in the solar system and with relevant market demands (hint: alcohol may be much in demand depending on the function and location of the station!).

Conflicts with other oxp's

Note: Stranger's World introduces more realistic distances based more on astronomy than playability but it also introduces a different coding technique for placing objects in a solar system.

1) Individual system oxps: it adds to/overrides such individual system oxp's as Lave.oxp & Diso.oxp.
2) Stations:
in solar orbit: solar stations from other oxp's are often thrown into deep space instead (eg SLAPU & CZGF)
- Phkb has crafted an AddOn for Commies which fixes the issue for them: CommiesOrbitUpdate.oxz - just add this in to your regular cocktail mix of oxps, shake and enjoy!
in orbit around main planet: replacement stations: some of the possible replacements for the main system orbital station such as the Globe, Torus and Riredi's Coluber stations are suppressed and never appear.
in orbit around main planet: secondary stations: (eg. Aquarian Shipbuilding Corp. HQ) can end up being a looooong way away!
3) In-system activities such as Taxi Galactica and In-System Cargo Delivery: Planets and moons where you may be told to take your fare (or stations orbiting planets or moons) are now so far away that either you cannot actually get there within the time limit or if you can, it now takes so long that gameplay wise it isn't worth taking the missions. Note that Stranger's World does have its own replacement oxp for in-system trading.
4) Mission oxps which rely on placing objectives in a particular part of a solar system and have told you where to find them (ha!).

See here for more detail.

Game Mechanics

Mechanics: changes due to realistic solar systems

Then there are the game mechanics. The above changes necessitate some modifications.

• Landing on planets is affected by the changed gravity wells - so a customised altimeter is needed for one's HUD (for those capable, instructions for customising your favourite HUD are given in his SW HUD CAI oxp).

• The massively increased distances within the solar system and the lack of other large orbital stations (with their own dynamic markets featuring shifts in the valuations of many different commodities) leads to a tailored demand for a handful of goods in an orbital station which may be over 100,000km away from the main station - requiring specially chartered In-System Cargo Delivery missions.

• There is a new MFD (multi-functional display) which

  • lists the planets in the system with details of their general class (gas giant etc)
  • and can then toggle to details of the system's sun when that sun is selected on your Advanced Space Compass.
Mechanics: changes due to realistic energy use

All movement and ship operations now consume fuel, as does energy generation.

• This engenders a need for more fuel tanks (reducing the space available for carrying cargo and thus affecting the economics of trade due to smaller holds).

• There is also a need to recharge fuel as one travels the vast and immense distances in the solar systems: hence the Solar Wind Flux modifications.

• Since running out of energy is death, there is also a need to rebalance shields and energy use for combat and for vigorous travel: see Energy Rebalance.

• There is a further need for urgent priority docking at busy Orbital Stations when one is running out of energy: see Traffic Lights OXP!

Economics & Markets

The Vanilla game economics are of a bipolar economy (stretching from poor agricultural systems - buy furs! to rich industrials - buy computers!).

SW Economy replaces this with a more usual triangle: agricultural - mining - rich industrial and different products are produced depending on planet size and wealth (fewer computers from poorer industrials, medicine - a new commodity - from richer agriculturals etc). Luxuries and Narcotics have their size downgraded so they now go in your cabin safe rather than the cargo hold. There are also tweaks to allow miners to always sell their produce after the 127 unit limit has been reached in the market. And missions sending urgent supplies out to the minor planets and orbital stations in the system.

Conclusion

This is a well-thought through set of oxps which comprehensively alter one's immersion in Oolite, and represent the fruits of a decade of hard work. To enjoy the full effect you may well find it necessary to uninstall a number of other oxps which conflict with the experience which Stranger is trying to create (as well as those oxps which the Expansion Manager flags up as problematic!).

Note

Choosing where to land (full Roolite version)
Landing (full Roolite version)
Land here! (full Roolite version)
Teraed from Famous Planets Overhaul (FPO)
Vetitice from Famous Planets Overhaul (FPO)
Zadies from Famous Planets Overhaul (FPO)

Of the oxps listed below, Leesti is Moon, SW HUD DAI (default altimeter), Hard Eject & Here be Dragons do not seem to be essential parts of Stranger's Ooniverse. However, adding in Here be Dragons will help emphasise the very different feel of his Ooniverse.

SW Equipment (a full suite of equipment designed for Stranger's Ooniverse), Planet Land (with several hundred landing sites on moons & planets), System Make Up (which further details the solar systems) and Universal Sky (making the skies more representational of what one really sees) have yet to be made available here (they are available through the Roolite website for Cyrillic readers!). Aspects of these older OXPs are incorporated into the newer ones currently on the in-game Expansions Manager. There is also a several hundred page long instruction manual for the world and its oxp's! It might just be worth learning Russian!

OXPs

Rather than divide these up by the traditional Oolite divisions (ambience, mechanics etc), the list below splits up Stranger's oxp's conceptually, to give you a better idea as to how it changes Oolite.

New versions are available from within the expansions manager, except for those which only exist as oxp's (Famous Planets Overhaul & Feudal Raiders).

Careers

  • Start Choices Addenda adds 2 extra choices: expeditor start (Planetary Landing equipped Transporter) & advanced miner start (fuel scoop & mining laser equipped Bushmaster)
  • In-System Cargo Delivery opens an in-system mission interface in the F4 screen for local cargo delivery (for expeditors).
  • Mineral Store Reset facilitates asteroid mining by preventing saturation of the main system market (for miners).
  • Here be Dragons a Discovery .oxp: deletes all information on distant & unvisited systems from the F6 galaxy map & F7 screen (for explorers).



Astronomy

Specific systems

Two of these are available through the Expansions Pack manager:
  • FPO Lave Famous Planets Overhaul (Lave): gives a more lore-based look to Lave, using the new graphics of Oolite v.1.90.
  • FPO Zaonce Famous Planets Overhaul (Zaonce): gives a more lore-based look to Zaonce, using the new graphics of Oolite v.1.90.

Solar systems (Moons, planets & stars)

Note that these oxp's introduce new screens/MFDs to show data on stars, solar wind flux, planets & moons.

Only available through the Roolite site:
  • SW Population - changes the population statistics, increasing populations for agricultural worlds, decreasing populations for industrials.
  • SW Resident Filter - changes the system species in 64 systems, increasing the proportion of humanoids. No more democratic insect worlds!

Space Stations

  • Orbital Stations enables orbital stations to dynamically orbit planets!
  • Traffic Lights helps with manual docking at the system's only main station & gives priority docking after 15 mins; also crucial for fuel-less Hard-Way oxp.



Physics

  • Hard Way: all flight consumes fuel - hence 4 modules - collapsible shields & fuel consumption; gravity wells; solar wind scoop & warp drive
  • Dark Ray turns off all laser beam glows - they are not scientifically justifiable in the vacuum of space!
With fuel now powering everything, including the energy banks, low fuel means low energy, and thus low shields.
  • Energy Rebalance rebalances energy between shields & energy banks to prevent damage - unless banks are almost empty and death is imminent
or Energy Rebalance SCC as above but compatible with Ship Configuration OXP

Equipment

The changes in Astronomy & Physics have led to some new equipment. Vast solar systems where all travel costs fuel - and where one cannot scoop solar flux due to distance from the sun, means that one needs more fuel (and an MFD to display Solar Wind Flux rating). Further, the gravity well of the planet now relates to its mass/size so the vanilla game altimeter is no longer as reliable. With so many in-system cargo deliveries involving planetary landings, a better altimeter is needed. (Roolite's Planet Land adds more to the planets surface - choices of landing sites, different views, etc).

  • Internal Fuel Tank: a single-use fuel tank using 5t of free space in the cargo bay. Select/activate as primed equipment.
  • SW HUD CAI: modernised CB HUD with MFDs and customised SW altimeter for Hard Way.oxp (conflicts with SW HUD DAI)
  • Not by Stranger! Useful MFDs has been modified by Dybal to include a rating for the all-important Solar Wind Flux (also downloadable in the Expansions Manager).
Only available through the Roolite site:
  • Destination ETE - modifies Wildblood's Destination ETA OXP for Sun Gear, using Astrolibrary for the spectral classes and estimates the time enroute (hence ETE, not ETA).
  • Equipment Bay - simpler version of Phkb's Ship Configuration, limiting the amount of equipment installable on the ship.
  • Market Info Plug - prevents in-system broadcasts of the market pricing at the main orbital station (ie the F8 screen no longer works in-flight).
  • Navigation MFD ST - incorporates the Navigation MFD with the ASC and tweaks it in several ways
  • SW Equipment: part of Stranger's Set - changes pricing and availability of equipment. And removing lasers now costs money.
  • Xternal OXP Tweaks: more realistic costs for repairing the Breakable 'Standard' Equipment OXPs; Ore Processors now conflict with Cargo Bay Expansions.



Miscellaneous

  • Feudal Raiders adds wild feudal raiders to feudal states - and their neighbours!
  • Green Jameson changes the reputation of a young Jameson to make him less liable to pirate attacks.
  • Hard Eject reduces insurance cover so that only half of lost equipment is replaced (ie: shown as damaged on the F5 screen)
  • Not by Stranger! XenonUI has an AddOn for SWEconomy using Stranger's nomenclature (Xenon UI SW Economy Addition).



Weapons

  • Missile Tweak makes regular missiles less susceptible to ECM - and more expensive. Hardheads become cheaper.



Experimental (not really "Strangers World")

  • SW HUD DAI: modernised CB HUD with MFDs and default vanilla game altimeter (conflicts with SW HUD CAI)

For experimenting with the new planetary depictions in Oolite before updating the older planetary Systems textures (adding clouds & city lights, etc).



Playing Strangers World - tactics

Hard Way and Sun Gear really change the game mechanics.

  • The type of sun you are flying to becomes much more important. So, trading between Isinor and Ensoreus, with Hard Way you have little fuel for errors when you arrive at either Ensoreus or Isinor (both tend to be pirate-infested). Stopping off in the Bemaera system becomes much more important - especially since you do not need to dock - the sun type is such that you can scoop fuel pretty closely to the witchpoint beacon, if you have fuel scoops fitted.
  • Torus travel is now dangerous. If you fly by accident into a group of pirates, they will scrag you! With your shields down to 25% when you exit torus, you are much more vulnerable until your shields have fully recovered. And when you start adding more shield equipment it has a much greater effect. So the Naval Grids OXP, for example, allows recharging the shields more quickly, but at the price of depleting your energy banks more quickly. With the Vimana HUD, one gets warning signs for low shields, followed by warning signs for low energy. With an Extra Energy Unit, a (civilian) energy grid and shield boosters all installed, it can take 15km of full speed travel in a Cobra Mk.3 (after exiting Torus) to recharge both your shields and then another 10km until your energy banks have recovered! And if you exit Torus, deplete your energy banks and then re-enter Torus, when you exit the second time it can take forever to return to normal. When you combine this with the limited manoeuverability of Torus (pathetic yaw and feeble pitch), it all starts becoming much more of a skill.
  • SW Economy changes trading too. Not all high tech industrial planets have computers for sale, but the relative weightlessness of luxuries changes the ability to make good profits at the system which make both. The lack of agricultural products (food, textiles, wines, furs and medicine) from small sized agriculturals (which are now mining systems) changes profits on agricultural exports. The details on the F7 page (GDP, planet radius and TL) gain a new significance.



Playing Stranger's World - conflicts/issues

Missions

The vast distances change the nature of the game when it comes to in-system missions. Many of these which involve time-limits are broken by the increased distances. And if one uses the Galactic Almanac which replaces the Planetary Compass, Stranger's replacement for these missions (In-System Cargo Delivery) is also broken as it relies on Planetary Compass.

Solar stations

The distances are created initially by Sun Gear which moves the sun well away from the planet, but then tweaked by Planetary Systems which adds more planets and changes their positions each time one leaves and reenters the system. This means that the sun's position is also changed a second time. Hence some stations which are placed, for example, in solar orbit are left stranded when the sun is moved to another position and end up in the middle of nowhere!

See the discussion here.
Alnivel has come up with a partial fix (August 2022) for this which will be found here: it does so at the cost of dismantling the dynamic orbits which Strangers World implements.

Economics

SW Economy is not yet fully implemented. The mining/extractive worlds appear identical to the agricultural worlds, with the same icons and the same market prices. The only difference is the lack of agricultural goods and the presence of mining materials. So the trade run between agricultural worlds and "mining worlds" will not yield much of a profit.

Fiction

  • Hermit started in 2012, translation from 2021.
Who am I ... Where am I ...
I emerged from the cold darkness to light and life. Overcoming the numbness, the ribcage rose convulsively, drawing air.
– Alive. – I heard through the fog. – Breathes.
Someone's fingers removed the remlock mask from my face and unceremoniously raised eyelids. A blinding light hit my eyes.
– Pupils are reacting, boss. The brain is intact.
The medistim injector pressed against my shoulder. I fell again into unconsciousness, but it was a deep dreamless sleep, not the emptiness of nothingness.
– Creator Giles! – Jeff exclaimed. – It was a fire ship with a cascade bomb!
A bubble of blue flame swelled as it approached the station. The chain reaction captured more and more ships and secondary explosions turned the fireball into a bunch of stuck berries. Having run out of fuel, the reaction died out – the wave front slowed down its rapid expansion. The blinding fire dimmed, transformed into a translucent residual glow, and faded into the black sky. The station survived, but the swarm of ships in front of it disappeared, evaporated without a trace. The merchants disappeared, the GalCop patrol ships that were on duty in the control zone of the station disappeared. Jeff and I were left alone in the free space.
But not for long.
– Station Biarge for Blue flight. – the traffic controller got in touch. – Bogeys at ten o'clock, below. Closing.
I responded.
– Blue One for Biarge, roger. Engage.
We turned towards unidentified targets. The ships were kept in a tight formation. I locked the recognition system to a large target in the center of the group.
Frigate and four escort fighters. Too much for a couple of Vipers.
Jeff and I were on a long patrol. One missile and one external fuel tank is the usual configuration in such cases. And now we will have to solve the problem on our own, without waiting for the rest of the HMS Tethys wing.
The Navy frigate in the hands of the separatists – this cannot be allowed. A robust and heavily armed ship is a formidable threat to trade routes. And her first target will be the station. Fortunately, the frigate does not have long-range laser guns, so we had some chances.
– Blue Two, check my six. Engaging frigate.
We opened the formation and went in from the direction of the sun. A common surprise attack tactic in the good old days. With the advent of modern scanners and optically active filters that dim the luminary and suppress glare, this tactic has somewhat lost its meaning, but still gives some advantages to the attacker. Let the target see you on the scanner – it needs time to realize the danger and lock the weapon on you. Seconds. This is enough to impose your own battle pattern on the enemy.
We took the bastards by surprise. Jeff's gunfire landed on one of the renegade Vipers. The tiny silhouette flared like a firefly and turned into a fireball.
– Got it. – said Jeff.
The escort fighters turned on Jeff and snapped back fire. He went into a turn, pulling the escort over to himself. The frigate's angular hull filled the gap in the reticle.
It's time.
I put the sight under the bridge of the frigate, pressed the trigger and held it until the laser gun warmed up to its maximum temperature. The frigate's shields took the hit, flashing the absorbed energy in a cascade of spectrally clear colors. After hitting the target with a full charge, I exited the attack with half-loop. A cyan mark lit up on the scanner. Then another one.
And further. The frigate opened fire. Letting the missiles come closer, I pressed the ECM button. The bunch of cyan flashing marks went out.
... (click Hermit above for the rest!)
There is more fiction available through the Roolite website, but so far in Russian only!

Concluding Unscientific Postscript

This article was not written by Stranger!
For insights into his thinking try More real astronomy in Oolite & Preferred .oxps
You might also like to read his summary of Oolite as a game: Roolite in Google Translate and there click on Forum (in green in the red scanner at the top). From the selection:

Roolite.png
Discussion of the game and OXP
Creation of OXP
Author's headings
Translations and Russification
Elite and other games of the genre
On other topics

Choose the first (Discussion of the game and OXP). You will be presented with a new set of choices:

Of public VK ( seventh ) 		
Oolite - questions and answers ( stranger ) 		
Ooniversum [Per page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ] ( stranger ) 		
Gallery [Per page: 1 ... 15 , 16 , 17 ] ( seventh ) 		 	
Links only !!! on our OXR ( Tch ) 		 	
Oolite 1.90 ( stranger ) 		
Joystick selection and configuration ( sanata )
 etc

Select the second (Oolite - questions and answers (stranger)) - there is a long and insightful essay by Stranger on both the good and bad points of Oolite.

Show Stranger's First Essay (original translation)