User:CommonSenseOTB

In the spring of 2011, a new user joined the oolite community with the single purpose of making oolite a better experience by developing oxps through a process of thinking creatively "outside-the-box" to bring near impossible/extremely difficult ideas that have been talked about for a long time from wish to actual fact, and of course to make really long sentences that cannot be finished on one breath.

His belief is that nothing is impossible but simply takes the will to sit down and figure out how to do it, rather than just talk about it, and talk about it, over and over and over for years, wishing someone would do it.

He has no formal computer education and has never done programming commercially. He has been absent from even using computers since the Amiga went under and only got back into things in November of 2009 with an acer netbook. After playing Oolite for a year he started back into scripting in november of 2010 and after many months decided he would like to contribute and joined the oolite community as a member in May 2011 under the name CommonSenseOTB. The name was chosen to reflect the combination of reason combined with outside-the-box creativity. It fits him and his personality as well as a name could and gives an indication of what part he wants to play in the development of oxps for oolite.

Shortly after joining and with no idea as to how he would like to contribute, he stumbled onto some old conversations about types of HUD displays people would like to see(in this case pie chart gauges) and after sitting down and thinking about how he would try to create such a display, it just suddenly came to him. From that point on it became obvious that there are a lot of things that can be done in the area of HUDS and other related areas and it was at this point he sort of just ended up specializing in this area as each thing he discovers leads to more discoveries and eureka moments.

The current progression of discoveries is as follows: pie chart gauges==>numeric gauges==>zoomable sniper camera==>gauge morphing==>curved animated bar gauges==>custom missile displays==>compass as target tracker==>multiple forward lasers on player ships==>aimbots==>grey or flashing lines made from status indicator lights==>?

As of Apr 21, 2012 he is working on:

• a more advanced chupacabraHUD and pieHUDs.
• an external missiles HUD (long-term workaround project for equipment added missile slots externally/internally for the player).
• a music oxp which reacts to various conditions and combat to play specific music which reflects the mood of what is going on in the game.
• sporadic work on many secret side projects.
• needleHUDs and buttonHUDs which are on the backburner but still there.

Creativity cannot be scheduled however, and new works will be posted as they progress.

Pie-style HUD

Numeric-style HUD

Sniper Camera HUD

Chupacabra HUD

Custom Shields OXP

Revelation

The last 2 years I decided to isolate myself from the influence of others with regards to what oolite/elite should be. During this time I basically created the long awaited Oolite 2 as an OXP. About 20% remains to be finished but this works only on 1.77.

• I've solved the torus drive/TAF problem, the scale issues and precision issue.
• Ships have damageable sections of hull and scorching,
• engines are damageable and destroyable with effects and no exhaust on damaged engines,
• hit locations like hatches can be shot out when shields are down

with other effects like, for instance,

• cargo hatches will release cargo,
• missile hatches release missiles which can be salvaged, etc,
• control interface computer to allow side and rear lasers to be aimed properly,
• thousands of random paint jobs per ship possible without the need for a shader capable computer,
• the scale of ships and stations has been adjusted along with the damage resistance based on size of ship,
• added some possible crew oxp tie ins for the future, for example, found a way for crew sensory ability to be used to reduce the time required for a hyperjump when the ship is going with the 'currents in hyperspace' and if used while going against the current the jump will take longer,
• elite manual-style lasers and missiles imagined right out of the manual including swarm micro-missiles 'anime-style',
• improvements to the scanner IFF system which increase situational awareness,
• the MTS now works using the built in keys to acquire and update targets and lists one at a time with each keypress,

...it goes on and on and on.

An average of 4 hours a day was spent for the last 2 years pursuing my artistic vision of what elite should have been.

Is this outside-the-box type of oxp even wanted? After I finish it, which will be at least a year from now, I will still need to spend countless hours to insure it works even for this latest release.

Well anyways, it's good to see there is development in the core game, although looks as if it will set back my mega oxp release at least another 6 months later than at least a year from now. Thought I'd let you all know I haven't died and still have an interest in all the oxps I originally created.

From I'm still alive!! (2015) - details of his magnum opus work on Oolite 2.0 for v.1.77!

Links

HUDs

• Pie Chart Style HUDs current version 2 (May 20, 2011)
• Numeric Style HUDs current version 3 (April 21, 2012)
• Sniper Camera System HUD current version 1.1 (July 30, 2011)
• ChupacabraHUD current version 1 (October 15, 2011)

Equipment

• Custom Lasers (2012): 8 new lasers including 2 dual mode mining/combat lasers
• Custom Shields awards shields to NPCs and gives useful ambient signals in dogfights.
• Shield Equalizer+Capacitors current version 1.3 (July 3, 2011)
• Q-Charger current version 1.2 (July 25, 2011)
• MFLPS (Multiple Forward Laser Player Ships) current version 1 (October 19, 2011)
• SniperLock current version 1 (December 17, 2011)

Viewtopics of interest

• ExternalMissilesHUD long-term work-in-progress

• Animated HUD gauge requests ideas for HUDs and HUD gauges can be posted here

• NeedleHUD long-term work-in-progress

• Pylon Icons tips on creating missile and compass icons

Flickr site with some super Oolite snaps

• Flickr