User:Phkb

About phkb

phkb stands for "play hard, kick butt", to which there is a long and funny story - but not funny enough for this forum. phkb's real name is Nick Rogers, which is what he tends to call himself, rather than an unpronounceable acronym. If you absolutely have to have a pronunciation, then he would suggest adding an "i" and "o" to make it "pihkob", PIH-kob.

Nick first played Elite on the Commodore 64 in the late 80's, rising to the level of Deadly before his C64 was "borrowed" and then never returned. He discovered Oolite at around version 1.70, and has been playing quite a bit since.

Sometime after the release of 1.80 he decided to try his hand at writing his own components and customisations for the game. He now requires a constant supply of dark side cookies to feed his habit.

Nick is currently CEO of Xenon Industries, whose operating mantra is to "make it look good". He can be spotted in various locations in G7, piloting a (now) slightly used Yasen-N, but still seems to spend a lot of time writing expansion packs.

Welcome players of all sorts

Thanks for stopping by my personal section of the Wiki. If you're a long time player and know your way around, I won't stop you getting to the good stuff below. But if you're a new player, or at least new to this page, I have some suggestions and recommendations on where to start, because my mod list is getting a *bit* long now, and it might be a somewhat overwhelming to begin with.

The Essentials

I consider these OXP's to be corrections or improvements to core game systems or interfaces. There is no gameplay changes in this lot at all. Consider this list a "Quality of life" upgrade. If you're looking for the best place to start with my OXP's, this list is it.

Category Description of OXP Gameplay Balance Download count Min Oolite version Miscellaneous Change View Sound plays a sound as an audible confirmation whenever the view direction is changed during flight. green 64 1.80 Mechanics Display Current Course displays your current course on contract detail screens (and most other mission screens that display a long range chart), enabling the player to see if their current course is similar to the proposed course. blue 2490 1.80 Miscellaneous Equipment 'Sell Item' Color changes the color of equipment items described as "Remove", to make them stand out from standard equipment items. green 246 1.86 Mechanics Escape Pod Slave Fix prevents escape pods ejected from destroyed ships from having slaves only when scooped (ie, no insurance payout or bounty reward). green unknown 1.80 Miscellaneous Expanded Weapon Info adds weapon specifications to the F3 Ship Outfitting screen to aid players in making informed choices when buying a new laser. green 0 1.90 Equipment Fast Target Selector helps pilots target ships on their scanner quickly and easily, and also highlights the current target on the scanner. This OXP is probably the only one in this list that comes closest to changing gameplay, but I consider it almost manditory in giving the player the same abilities as NPC's. blue 3400 1.80 Equipment Laser Arrangement allows lasers to be moved between the different laser mounts available on the ship, when docked. green 0 1.84 Miscellaneous Loadout by Category reorganises the F3 and F5 screen by adding category headers, and collecting all related equipment under those categories. green 1.90 Miscellaneous Missile Summary adds a summary of your current pylon-mounted weapons to the F5 Status screen. green 0 1.90 Miscellaneous 'No Market' Notification displays a more meaningful message instead of an unusable market screen on stations with no commodities market. green 113 1.80 Equipment Remove Individual Pylon allows a single pylon mounted weapon to be removed. green 0 1.80 Ambience Planet Forests and Oceans (BB link - manual download links in first post) ensures that planets with descriptions of 'forests' or 'oceans' have a visual representation to match, tweaking the look of the planet texture. green 1.85

Level 1

These OXP's are what I would recommend new players include in their Ooniverse. Again, not much in the way of gameplay changes, although there are a couple that tweak things in a minor, but a lot of stuff to help you on your way. Some of it will be personal taste, which is why I didn't include these in the Essentials list above. For instance, Ship Comparison reveals a lot of ship specification numbers that you would not normally be able to see. You might consider that as giving the player too much information, and that's fine. You are free to pick and choose, but from this point on it's worth checking out the relevant wiki pages for the ones you plan on using.

Category Description of OXP Gameplay Balance Download count Min Oolite version Miscellaneous Auto-prime equipment helps pilots manage connections between MFD's and primable equipment items by auto-priming the associated equipment item whenever the MFD is changed or selected. green 197 1.86 Miscellaneous Bulletin Board Contracts moves all the cargo, passengers and parcel contracts onto the Bulletin Board, instead of having three different F4 interface screens. Smuggling contracts from the Smugglers OXP are also moved onto the Bulletin Board. Can optionally include Escort Contracts, Rescue Station missions, Random Hits contracts, In-System Taxi contracts, Mining Contracts and Taxi Galactica contracts. green 1256 1.84 Miscellaneous Bulletin Board System is a utility designed to help OXP authors add custom missions to the Oolite universe. green 3813 1.82 HUDs Comms Log MFD displays all communications received by the player in a scrollable multi-function display, as well as an interface screen that provides access to the communications log while docked. green 11516 1.80 Miscellaneous Compressed F7 Layout compresses all the information on the F7 screen, removing all the blank lines, as well as moving data from Distant Suns and Explorers Club into the top part of the screen. Requires the System Data Config OXP. green 206 1.86 HUDs Damage Report MFD lists all damaged equipment in a MFD, as well as providing an interface screen that can help locate the closest system where repairs can be carried out. green 3775 1.82 Ambience Death Comms attempts to add a bit of flavour to battles by sometimes having ships give a final comms message when they die. green 3959 1.80 Equipment Email System gives pilots an email interface, and they will start receiving emails from GalCop and other entities, confirming actions that have taken place. green 13666 1.80 Mechanics External Docking System provides a means by which stations can be given external docking ports. blue 0 1.84 Dockables Extra Rock Hermits adds variety to the types of Rock Hermits that can be seen in systems. green 0 1.84 Ambience GalCop Galactic Registry gives pilots access to galactic chart data to aid in course plotting. green 4357 1.80 Miscellaneous LaveInitialShipyard.oxz ensures that, regardless of what ship OXP's you have installed that might adjust the RNG process, there will always be a Cobra MkI and an Adder for sale at Lave whenever you start a new game. Discussion can be found here: BB Link. green 1.89 Mechanics Modern Start adds new starting options to the game, providing a small selection of equipment that is considered standard in many other space combat/trading games. a_violet 1291 1.80 Miscellaneous Ship Comparison helps players in the market for a new ship, by providing a means by which the specifications of up to 3 different ships can be viewed at once. green 2772 1.80 Ambience Ship Respray gives players the opportunity to purchase a new paint job for their ship. green 10222 1.80 Ambience System Features: Solar Flares adds visible solar flares to systems with solar activity green 159 1.80 HUDs Vimana-X HUD is a system-wide tweak, refinement and rework of the Vimana HUD. green 0 1.82 Ambience Xenon UI adds computer console-like backgrounds to all the various displays, plus new title screen theme music. green 4462 1.80

(Obviously, this is a work in progress! Stay tuned for further updates to come)

At this point, the sky's the limit. Feel free to peruse the full list below, but hopefully you'll be a bit more informed about where everything fits together.

phkb's OXZs

You can download all these OXZ's via the download manager within Oolite itself. Or you can download them from here. It's up to you!
For information on what the "Gameplay Balance" color means, visit the Gameplay and Balance Indicator page.

Category	Description of OXP	Gameplay Balance	Download count	Min Oolite version
Equipment	AutoDock gives players without a docking computer the ability to use computer-controlled docking systems at main stations for a small fee.	green	2897	1.82
Miscellaneous	Auto-prime equipment helps pilots manage connections between MFD's and primable equipment items by auto-priming the associated equipment item whenever the MFD is changed or selected.	green	197	1.86
Mechanics	Bounty System changes the way bounties are stored and processed, making the bounty system a bit deeper and richer.	orange	2617	1.82
HUDs	BroadcastComms MFD provides a way of communicating with other ships during flight.	green	6129	1.80
HUDs	BroadcastComms - Digebiti Variations alters the responses of BCC to be more inline with the cultured expressions of a native of Digebiti.	green	0	1.80
Equipment	Bulk Cargo Processor provides a way to quickly dump or destroy cargo in your hold during flight.	green	597	1.82
Miscellaneous	Bulletin Board Contracts moves all the cargo, passengers and parcel contracts onto the Bulletin Board, instead of having three different F4 interface screens. Smuggling contracts from the Smugglers OXP are also moved onto the Bulletin Board. Can optionally include Escort Contracts, Rescue Station missions, Random Hits contracts, In-System Taxi contracts, Mining Contracts and Taxi Galactica contracts.	green	1256	1.84
Miscellaneous	Bulletin Board System is a utility designed to help OXP authors add custom missions to the Oolite universe.	green	3813	1.82
Miscellaneous	Change View Sound plays a sound as an audible confirmation whenever the view direction is changed during flight.	green	64	1.80
HUDs	Comms Log MFD displays all communications received by the player in a scrollable multi-function display, as well as an interface screen that provides access to the communications log while docked.	green	11516	1.80
Miscellaneous	Compressed F7 Layout compresses all the information on the F7 screen, removing all the blank lines, as well as moving data from Distant Suns and Explorers Club into the top part of the screen. Requires the System Data Config OXP.	green	206	1.86
HUDs	Damage Report MFD lists all damaged equipment in a MFD, as well as providing an interface screen that can help locate the closest system where repairs can be carried out.	green	3775	1.82
Ambience	Death Comms attempts to add a bit of flavour to battles by sometimes having ships give a final comms message when they die.	green	3959	1.80
Mechanics	Display Current Course displays your current course on contract detail screens (and most other mission screens that display a long range chart), enabling the player to see if their current course is similar to the proposed course.	blue	2490	1.80
Equipment	Email System gives pilots an email interface, and they will start receiving emails from GalCop and other entities, confirming actions that have taken place.	green	13666	1.80
Missions	Enhanced Passenger Contracts expands on the standard passenger contract system, trying to add a bit of variety and interactivity.	green	0	1.84
Miscellaneous	Equipment 'Sell Item' Color changes the color of equipment items described as "Remove", to make them stand out from standard equipment items.	green	246	1.86
Mechanics	Equipment Storage allows equipment to be put into storage at main stations, and reinstalled at a later time.	blue	0	1.82
Mechanics	Escape Pod Slave Fix prevents escape pods ejected from destroyed ships from having slaves only when scooped (ie, no insurance payout or bounty reward).	green	unknown	1.80
Mechanics	Escape Pod Tweaks changes the way escape pods are processed to make it more logical.	green	272	1.86
Miscellaneous	Expanded Weapon Info adds weapon specifications to the F3 Ship Outfitting screen to aid players in making informed choices when buying a new laser.	green	0	1.90
Mechanics	External Docking System provides a means by which stations can be given external docking ports.	blue	0	1.84
Dockables	Extra Rock Hermits adds variety to the types of Rock Hermits that can be seen in systems.	green	0	1.84
Retextures	Factory Paint Jobs adds some colour to several of the core ship designs.	green		1.80
Equipment	Fast Target Selector helps pilots target ships on their scanner quickly and easily, and also highlights the current target on the scanner.	blue	3400	1.80
Equipment	Fuel Injection Cruise Control allows the fuel injectors to be operated in a similar fashion to the Torus drive, whereby it can be turned on and off manually (or automatically), rather than having to hold down the injectors key on the keyboard.	green	0	1.86
Mechanics	Fuel Tweaks attempts to make fuel scooping a more desirable pastime by adding Quirium Fuel as a new commodity, and by providing functions and controls to change the way fuel is handled at stations.	orange	671	1.82
Ambience	GalCop Galactic Registry gives pilots access to galactic chart data to aid in course plotting.	green	4357	1.80
Missions	GalCop Missions adds a number of replayable missions, accessible through the Bulletin Board System, to give players more things to do in and around each system.	green	746	1.84
Missions	GalCop's Most Wanted expands on the Bounty System by adding a list of criminals who have a significant bounty with GalCop. The player can try to track down these bounties down by using logic and deduction about where those targets are likely to be.	orange	281	1.82
Ambience	Home System adds some flavour text to a variety of messages received by the player in systems designated as their home. As well, there are some other benefits achievable the more players visit their home system.	green	0	1.86
Ships	Illicit Unlock unlocks player versions of all the core ships, including the Constrictor, Gecko, Krait and Sidewinder.	green	2014	1.82
Equipment	Laser Arrangement allows lasers to be moved between the different laser mounts available on the ship, when docked.	green	0	1.84
Equipment	Laser Mount Switching System (LMSS) enables multiple lasers to be installed at each mount point, and easily switch between them during flight.	blue	4747	1.80
Miscellaneous	LaveInitialShipyard.oxz ensures that, regardless of what ship OXP's you have installed that might adjust the RNG process, there will always be a Cobra MkI and an Adder for sale at Lave whenever you start a new game. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	green		1.89
Dockables	Liners Markets adds a trade market to the dockable liners in the Liners OXP.	green	0	1.80
Miscellaneous	Loadout by Category reorganises the F3 and F5 screen by adding category headers, and collecting all related equipment under those categories.	green		1.90
Equipment	Maintenance Tune Up provides the ability to do a maintenance tune up, even when the normal overhaul is not available.	blue	0	1.80
Mechanics	Manual Witchspace Alignment makes the process of entering hyperspace a bit more interactive by requiring the player to manually align their ship with a hyperspace destination beacon.	orange	240	1.86
Miscellaneous	Market Script Interface provides a common interface to market scripts for OXP's to utilise, allowing for easier integrations and preventing conflicts.	green	0	1.82
HUDs	MFD Fast Configuration helps pilots manage MFD configurations by providing up to 6 different sets that can be loaded quickly and easily.	green	1924	1.82
Miscellaneous	Missile Summary adds a summary of your current pylon-mounted weapons to the F5 Status screen.	green	0	1.90
Mechanics	Modern Start adds new starting options to the game, providing a small selection of equipment that is considered standard in many other space combat/trading games.	a_violet	1291	1.80
Ships	Night Adder for Escort Deck (v1.0 download) adds Ace56's Night Adder as an option for Escort Deck.	green	0	1.80
Ambience	No Flare OXP removes the flare effect from suns. Coupled with Glare Clarifier, will reduce the impact of solar flares and screen glare effects in game.	green		1.80
Miscellaneous	'No Market' Notification displays a more meaningful message instead of an unusable market screen on stations with no commodities market.	green	113	1.80
Ambience	Planet Forests and Oceans (BB link - manual download links in first post) ensures that planets with descriptions of 'forests' or 'oceans' have a visual representation to match, tweaking the look of the planet texture.	green		1.85
Equipment	Remove Individual Pylon allows a single pylon mounted weapon to be removed.	green	0	1.80
Mechanics	Risky Business aims to make Multi-Gov, Feudal and Anarchy systems more rewarding for traders, by tweaking prices on a few goods. Goods that are already over the average could be increased. Goods that are below the average could be reduced. Not all goods will be impacted at all locations. Now also incorporates cim's Risk Based Economy OXP.	blue		1.82
Miscellaneous	Ship Comparison helps players in the market for a new ship, by providing a means by which the specifications of up to 3 different ships can be viewed at once.	green	2772	1.80
Mechanics	Ship Configuration aims to make the process of adding equipment to your ship more deliberate by adding space and weight factors to all equipment in all ships.	red	1109	1.82
Mechanics	Ship Repurchase aims to make escape pods a more integral part of the player's life, by forcing the player to eject and by giving the player options about the replacement ship they will receive when they are rescued.	red	107	1.86
Ambience	Ship Respray gives players the opportunity to purchase a new paint job for their ship.	green	10222	1.80
Mechanics	Smugglers - The Galactic Underworld broadens the appeal of illegal goods by making it far more variable, adds smuggling compartments and a Black Market interface, and generally tries to shake up the cargo business.	orange	2445	1.82
Retextures	Space Bar Facelift updates the textures and general look of the Seedy Space Bar, from the Random Hits mission.	green		1.88
Mechanics	Station Dock Control simulates the arrivals and departures of a space station, and gives the player full view of most ships docked at a station.	green	4958	1.80
Miscellaneous	System Data Config allows OXP configuration of the layout of the System Data (F7) screen.	green	244	1.86
Ambience	System Features: Solar Flares adds visible solar flares to systems with solar activity	green	159	1.80
HUDs	Vimana-X HUD is a system-wide tweak, refinement and rework of the Vimana HUD.	green	0	1.82
Retextures	WildShips Facelift updates the textures and general look of the stations in WildShips, and also in Orbital Stations.	green		1.88
HUDs	Xenon HUD groups important gauges around the crosshairs, and uses custom crosshair images.	green	3880	1.82
Ambience	Xenon UI adds computer console-like backgrounds to all the various displays, plus new title screen theme music.	green	4462	1.80

phkb has authored a couple of font OXP's, which you can find on the Oolite Fonts page.

Experimental/Utility OXP's

These OXP's were made to explore some ideas or to foster some discussion. They aren't available via the download manager.

Category	Description of OXP	Gameplay Balance	Download count	Min Oolite version
Miscellaneous	CompressedJSON.zip is a utility designed for OXP developers. Many OXP's use JSON to package up data into the save game file, and then extract it again when loading the game. JSON is a rather bulky format, though, and it doesn't take long for your data to start making your save game file quite large. Compressed JSON simply reduces the amount of space the JSON data takes up, thereby reducing your save game file. See the readme file inside the ZIP for details on how to use it. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	green		1.82
Activities	Hermitage gives you the opportunity to own your own Rock Hermit. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	green		1.82
Mechanics	PiratePlayer.oxp.zip is an experiment that forces every role of the player to be "pirate", with the goal of observing how the NPC AI responds to the player. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	orange		1.80
Mechanics	PopulationControl.oxz is intended to limit the size of pirate groups in safer systems. The number of police patrols is also increased slightly. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	blue		1.80
Mechanics	SpaceLanceAdheranceBonus.oxz was intended as a way of dealing with the "go off-lane to avoid pirates" recommendation, which is normally given to new pilots who are struggling with combat in the early part of the game. This OXP encourages players to stay on the witchpoint-to-planet spacelane by giving a small monetary bonus to players who stay on or close to it as much as possible. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	blue		1.80
Miscellaneous	TestShipModel.oxz is intended to help ship model creators by providing a simple in-game way to view any ship model, spin it around, and zoom in and out. Discussion can be found here: BB Link.	green		1.91

Maintainer

phkb is the maintainer of the following OXP's
For information on what the "Gameplay Balance" color means, visit the Gameplay and Balance Indicator page.

Category	Description of OXP	Gameplay Balance	Download count	Min Oolite version
Ships	Ace's Cruzer	green	0	1.80
Ships	Ace's Hornet	green	0	1.80
Ships	Ace's Night Adder	green	0	1.80
Missions	Cataclysm OXP is a galaxy-spanning mission, continuing the war against the Thargoids. Download the update here: Cataclysm_2.0.oxz While I've left the balance indicator as Green (because non-mission gameplay is not effected, this is a difficult mission set.	green		1.90
Equipment	Deep Horizon Advanced Navigation Computer adds a primeable piece of equipment that improves interstellar navigation in the form of fuel savings.	green	578	1.80
Equipment	Deep Horizon Emergency Witchspace Initiator adds a primeable piece of equipment that improves the countdown time required to initiate a hyperspace (or witchspace) jump, but at a cost.	green	271	1.77
Systems	Dictators adds a range of ships and stations to each dictatorship and offers new trading opportunities to players.	orange	962	1.82
Ambience	Docking Fees adds a small docking fee and docking messages to all GalCop stations based on system tech level. Many OXP stations are also given unique fees or docking messages.	green	0	1.80
Equipment	Flight Log adds a simple log of the last 100 systems visited in the current galaxy (latest 10 viewable in-game), which can be dumped out to latest.log. Your kills and profit/loss made whilst in-system are also logged.	green	9483	1.80
Dockables	Free Trade Zones adds a Free Trade Zone to some Multi-Government systems.	green	2722	1.80
Ships	Generation Ships adds encounters with the mythical Generation Ships from time to time in interstellar space.	green	2922	1.80
Dockables	Globe Stations (infrequently) alternates Globe stations in high TL systems.	green	0	1.90
Mechanics	Hyperspace Hangar allows storage of ships in the Hyperspace Hangar service.	green	787	1.82
Mechanics	Illegal Goods Tweak introduces interaction with Galcop customs when docking at a main station with contraband in the hold.	orange	3662	1.80
Dockables	Imperial AstroFactory adds Astro-Factories to some Dictator systems. Can be installed independently of Dictators OXP.	green	1412	1.82
Activities	Interstellar Help adds some interactivity between the player and other NPC ships caught in interstellar space.	green	0	1.80
Missions	Long Way Round is a simple mission for beginner commanders in Galaxy 1, starting at Biarge.	green	0	1.80
Missions	Lovecats.oxp is a tale of love and betrayal amongst the vicious furry feline races of galaxy four.	green	0	1.90
Weapons	Missiles and Bombs adds a variety of new missiles and mines to the game.	orange	0	1.80
HUDs	Navigation MFD displays navigational information in an MFD. Information includes data from hyperdrive system and space compass.	green	361	1.82
Ambience	Satellites adds some small satellites to every main planet.	green	1773	1.80
Missions	Scourge of the Black Baron is a small mission pack, a sequel to the Long Way Round mission.	green	0	1.80
Missions	Spy Hunter adds the Spy Hunter mission to galaxy 1.	green	1708	1.82
Mechanics	Skilled NPC's enables higher-quality flight AI for routine NPCs. Can be configured with OXPConfig or Library for even more challenge.	orange	369	1.80
Missions	Taxi Galactica adds Taxi Stations in corporate systems that offer exotic passenger contracts.	green	155	1.80
Missions	Taranis OXP adds the Taranis Corporation HQ to the Learlace system in G1, and will offer the player a mission when you visit it.	green	Template:Downloads:Taranis 2.0.5.oxz	1.90
Ambience	Tianve Adds the famous Tianve Pulsar to the Tianve system, as well as updating the planet texture and general system feel.	green	0	1.80
Dockables	Tionisla Chronicle Array adds the Tionisla Chronicle array to the Tionisla system. An array is also added to one system in each galactic sector.	green	292	1.80
Ambience	Tionisla Orbital Graveyard adds the Tionisla Orbital Graveyard (from the novel 'The Dark Wheel') to the Tionisla system. Also available are the Shipwrecks, Monuments and Memorials addons, which expand the number of types of grave markers at the site.	green	432	1.80
Missions	Tionisla Reporter adds a simple mission for a starting commander, which starts in the Tionisla system, in G1.	green	1458	1.82
Dockables	Torus Stations adds the massive Torus stations to select systems throughout the galaxies.	green	0	1.90
Equipment	Trophy Collector helps you keep track of your kills. When in-flight, view your 10 last kills (Bounty Log) in an MFD. When docked, view your all-time kills (Trophy Collection) along with a kill log (Trophy Log) of 38 events in the interfaces screen.	green	3738	1.80
Missions	UPS Courier adds several random missions that run simultaneously. The first set of missions offered will be various transport missions. After you have run enough of these, a series of combat jobs will be offered.	green	841	1.82
Equipment	Waypoint Here allows you to set up to 8 waypoints to mark your current location so you can find your way back there later. Does not use any missile pylons.	green	402	1.80
Mechanics	Wormhole Restoration allows for your original wormhole to be re-opened and provide an escape route out of interstellar space.	green	0	1.80
Dockables	Z-GrOovY Small System Stations adds the Octahedron Outpost and the Tetrahedron Depot to selected systems.	green	1103	1.80
Retextures	Z-GrOovY Variety Pack (v2.0 download) adds some paint variations for the Cobra Mark I, Cobra Mark III, Sidewinder and the YellOo Cab.	green	0	1.80

Alternate Download Location

An alternative download location for most of these OXP's can be found on Box.com

HTML Galaxy Maps

phkb has also put together a downloadable version of the New Galaxy Guide, which provides a way for players to have offline access to most of the information contained on the Wiki pages.

See this BB Link for details.
The zip package can be downloaded from here: OoliteGalaxyMaps.zip

You will need a browser that supports HTML5.

Contact

phkb

Oolite Teaser Trailer

Finally, phkb has released a short "teaser trailer" for Oolite, based on version 1.86. You can find it on YouTube here: Oolite 1.86 teaser trailer