Commies

Commies OXP
Download Link	N/A
Version	2.19
History	History
Stations	Stations
Ships	Ships
Missions	N/A
Equipment	N/A
Alternative HUD Available	None
Sound Set Available	None
Category	Systems OXPs
Author	Dr. Nil, Amaranth, Eric Walsh, Norby, phkb, GearsNSuch

Commies OXP
Communism is the state in which people work for the betterment of all, not for personal acquisition and advancement. Many communist worlds are economic powerhouses in which all citizens are employed by the state in farms or factories to fuel the economy, even convicted criminals are put to useful labour in the Asteroid Mines. Unlike other systems, communist planets communicate freely with each other, exchanging technology and resources. It is for this reason that many unique space stations and ship may be found, such as the Solar Laboratory And Production Unit (SLAPU), the Collective Zero Gravity Factory, the Worker's Commuter transport ship, the Commissar Limousine and the Ray Police Cruiser. Communist states dislike the corrupting influence of other commercialised governments, even to the point that they insist that GalCop have only a minimal presence in their space-lanes. It is the role of the People's Police and the Thought Police to patrol these regions, in their unique Ray Mark I police ships.

Ships and Stations

Pictures are taken from v2.11, there are even better textures in v2.12. And GearsNSuch's v2.18 has totally new ships (see Downloads, beneath).

	Ships
Ray Mk.I	Giant Ray	Military Ray	Astrogulag Mining Pod
Astrogulag Scavenger Ray	Commissar Limousine	Worker's Commuter
	Stations
Astrogulag Penal Colony	Collective Zero Gravity Factory	Solar Laboratory And Production Unit

Lore

From Cim's Ship's Manual, tucked away inside his Ship's Library OXP:

The official description of a Communist system is “a system where the majority of the means of production are controlled by the state”

Geonerbe in Chart 4 is typical of this government type, with private ownership of business on the planet's surface illegal. A single world government controls all production and most consumption, though some minor flexibility in personal consumption is permitted. A few independent businesses do exist off-planet, though many of these are also controlled by senior government officials. The appointment of government officials is by popular vote, though the Communist Party is the only serious contender for all senior and most junior government positions.

Argema in Chart 7 is a little different. A heavily forested world, it receives most of its planetary income from the tourist and logging trades, both of which are solely owned and run by the planetary government. Private enterprise in other areas is encouraged, though with few other natural resources these mainly reduce the system's dependence on industrial imports, and do not make significant profits. The government itself is almost plutocratic, with most senior government positions either held by the heads of the tourism and logging state corporations, or given to favoured friends of those individuals.

Xesoon in Chart 3 counts as Communist mostly because it had to be filed somewhere. The citizenry communicates entirely through poetry, and the Constitution is a fifty-thousand word epic. Government business is carried out through an annual song-poem, to which any citizen may append a verse to set out and approve of their business for the year. While private enterprise is technically allowed, the locals prefer to add their work to the song-poem, and outsiders who can compose poetry to the standards required to do business are extremely rare.";

Lore links

• Commies – Dictators question: Why are there GalCop police in these systems? (2008)

Commies and Dictators add a certain flavour to the respective systems, e.g. by giving them their own police force. But this is about the system, meaning the planet and its government.

And while the system's government may exert a certain influence in its spacelanes, we should never forget that the main orbital stations are not run by the system's government, but by GalCop itself. So it is not only correct and understandable that GalCop has its police ships on and around the station, but it wouldn't be possible otherwise. If you never would meet any GalCop presence in Communist or Dictatorship systems, something would be very wrong. You would perhaps witness the very beginning of a secession-movement that could end in the break-up of GalCop itself...

(Note: This is not to say that a scenario like this couldn't be scripted and implemented in the Ooniverse, and BTW it has been discussed before; but in their present form neither Commies nor Dictators feature this scenario.)

• Powers and Organisations: Communist Worlds and see the links there.
• Lexuq, the Xequerinian lobstoid poet whose death in the fourth galaxy on Sector4/Dienon allegedly gave birth to the Coomunin.
• See also the wiki entries on the the various stations and ships for much more material.
• Ships That Pass In The Night Fiction by Malacandra (2013) set in communist Sector6/Aqutebi.

• Drawings from the Gulag (English)

Musings

The emphasis on productivity which is emphasised in this OXP (see the blurb on the various stations which Commies introduces) might help explain the relative high ranking of Oolite communism as a political system, compared to Dictatorships. The quest for increased productivity means that there is more of a need to control pirates - and increased resources for doing so.

It is also worth noting that when one looks at the various political systems, that the Commies can be present in many other systems as legitimate actors. There can be Communist parties in Democracies. Communist states co-operating with the other states in Confederacies. Communist states on Multi-Government planets, possibly even at war with some of the other states.

Download

Latest version (also available through the Expansions Manager.

• Commies v2.19 in OXZ format (downloaded 0 times).

GearsNSuch's v.2.18

• GearsNSuch produced a v.2.18 in 2019 - see here

Old versions

• Commies v2.17 in OXZ format (downloaded 0 times).
• Commies v2.16 in OXZ format (downloaded 1454 times).
• Commies v2.15 in OXZ format (downloaded 601 times).
• Commies v2.14 in OXZ format (downloaded 326 times).
• Commies v2.13 including new textures from Amaranth in OXZ format (downloaded 1328 times).

In Oolite 1.79 or later put it into your AddOns folder without unzipping.

In Oolite v1.77 make a Commies.oxp folder into your AddOns folder, rename the oxz file extension to zip and unzip into the newly created folder.

Older versions still: Commies v2.12 including new textures from Amaranth in OXZ format (downloaded 5100 times). "Commies 2.11" released 22 May 2010

See the Commies retextures topic for the better textures included in v2.12.

Stranger's World issue

Problem: position of solar stations

The coding used to move the sun further from the main planet in Strangers World can lead to conflicts with some of the other methods for placing stations, especially those near the sun. This is especially problematic for Commies OXP (SLAPUs & CZGFs) as well as Hathor Trade Stations and a few others. See Bizarre locations of Stranger's World Stations for more on this.

Solution

Phkb has crafted an AddOn for Sun Gear & Commies which fixes the issue for them: CommiesOrbitUpdate.oxz - just add this in to your regular cocktail mix of oxps, shake and enjoy!

Tweaks

• Tweak to allow fast docking by Docking Computer for the SLAPUs & the CZGFs. See code here. By niteowl (2020)
• Tweak to allow saving at SLAPUs & the CZGFs. See code here. By Dybal (2022)
• How to tweak OXZ's

Commies OXP also provides propaganda posters!

History

v 2.19 Sept 2023 (by GearsNSuch and phkb)

• Incorporated ships and textures for v2.18 below. Added a new texture and normal map for the Astromine Penal Colony while we wait for GearsNSuch's updated version. Added a normal map to the Manta Ray Carrier. Added extra shipyard.plist entry for player version of the Military Stingray.

v.2.18 Dec 2019 (by GearsNSuch - not yet on the in-game Expansions Manager)

• Completely new models for all Commies ships
• A shiplibrary.plist file, complete with descriptions
• A slight cleaning-up of the config folder, removing the "demoships.plist" file

v 2.17 June 2019 (by Phkb)

• Fixed populator issues that were (a) preventing Commissar Limousines from being spawned, and (b) preventing Giant Ray's from being spawned in Intergalactic space. Also made it possible to save the game at Astro Factories and Collective SLAPU stations.

v 2.16 March 2017

• Fixed semicolon problems in Mac, thanks to hoqllnq.

v 2.15 January 2017

• Added code to utilise Station Validator, if installed.
• Added improved texture files, courtesy of Keeper.

v 2.14

• Updated scripts and config for current version of Oolite (1.82 and onwards) by phkb.

v 2.13

• Edited the quotes out of the name of Sun Ray to avoid the computer pronouncing them audibly when it's passing on the radio chatter.

v 2.12

• New textures by Amaranth.

v 2.11

• Improved the smoothed shape of some of the stations.

v 2.10

• Fixed bug with wrong role for ECM proof missiles, recommended for Oolite 1.73 or newer.

v 2.09

• Centred the stations so they are now centred in the players target-reticule.
• Changed the addition distance for solar stations from a general distance into a value relative to the sun radius.
• Stations no longer explode because of being added to close near big suns. With smaller suns the distance is even closer to the sun now.

v 2.07

• Last version by the original author, Dr Nil. His Oolite page can be found at Commies 2.07

Feedback

BB-Link (This line should be part of 'Infobox OXPb', but for some reason that template does not show any pictures anymore so the link is now here.)

Known Problems

It is reported that users of a "nVidia GeForce 7950" might expect crashes in combination with this (and some other) oxp. When you have such an old card, please read the enclosed read-me file how to fix the problem.

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