User:Cholmondely

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Revision as of 10:14, 3 July 2022 by Cholmondely (talk | contribs) (→‎Musings: Added link to Wolis's post with screen shots of volcanoes etc.)
Appointment new-flash (courtesy of Cody)
Ship's Library Manual
click to enlarge
Vimana HUD adds flashing alerts
Hints allows you to overhear hints in the station bar
GNN gives you news flashes when you dock
BGS: I prefer this older hyperjump effect
System Features Rings adds rings to planets
Riredi OXP gives the Riredi system some colour!
Killer Wolf's Hathor station
Telescope shows up Masslock borders
Equipment 'Sell Item' Color: turns sell entries red on the F3 screen
Log Events adds more information to your Latest.log to help track down problems
Oolite v1.88 Base Shipset N & S/G Maps upgrades the basic Oolite ship textures
Commies adds the CZGF station near some suns
Dictators adds the Imperial Freighter carrying goods between the Imperial Astrofactory and the main station
Feudal States adds missions and duels at the Royal Hunting Lodges
Paddling Pool neuters the nastier systems west of Lave (the anarchies in Riedquat & Uszaa...)

Cholmondeley (Pronunciation: IPAc-en ˈ tʃ ʌ m l i or CHUM-lee). See Ghoti is pronounced Fish

With a deep abiding loathing of grammatical infelicities and typographical misdeeds, Cholmondeley is slowly assaulting the pages of this Wikipedia in an attempt to bring serenity and syntactical splendour to its contents.

If you can replace any of my ghastly screenshots with a better: please, please do so!

I should mention that both Montana05 and Cody have been very helpful in all this. As have Stranger, Redspear, User2375 & Hiran. I think that I would have to argue that Hiran has really helped me make major improvements to the functionality of this wiki - both with his databases and his enthusiasm. If I've forgotten your name, I grovel!

The following lists incorporate various musings!

List of recommended OXZs/OXPs (2021)

These are the ones I like! Not all are on the in-game Expansions Manager. Note that I'm not personally into lots of different ships.

Vital

There is a lot of information in Oolite. These vital OXPs help give you access to the information you need to play/enjoy the game

  • Hints - visit the station bar while docked and eavesdrop on some professionals...

Ambience

These help bring the universe around you to life:

These give the solar systems a bit more variety

These add bits of Oolite lore

Dockables

Equipment

HUDs

  • Vimana HUD - vital warning systems if altitude/energy/shields are too low etc.

Mechanics

Miscellaneous

Retextures

Ships

I used to be against adding any ships (apart from Liners, DSD's, Behemoths and those which came for example in Commies or Feudal States. But then I discovered these:

These are ships with personality and purpose. They add moral choices to my game and add a welcome layer of complexity. Try them!

Systems

These give these systems much individual colour. If you can handle it, add Anarchies too!

Optional - for difficulties with Combat

Intermediate

Look at Career Options for more tips if you favour a mining/piracy/courier etc career

Advanced

These all add a layer of realism to the universe - but increase the complexity of play.

Some of the New Wiki pages

  • Language tips and links for non-fluent English speakers

Game-play

In-game equipment

  • Torus Drive felt this was very much needed (I spent about a month with Shaky Drive .oxp installed - thanks to Norby's combination packs - and could not work out why I was not flying normally! - scoured the wiki, found nothing). This led to a reworking of the Equipment pages (originally for FFE) and the adding of Standard Equipment to both the page and the template. Also added a taster of .oxp equipment to what was previously just standard optional equipment.
Also added Altimeter, Astrogation Console, Cargo Hold, Compass, Engine, Hyperspace Drive, Life Support Systems, Shields, Ship's Hull & View Screen. No others left to do (unless I find some!)
New pages for F3, F5, F6, F7 & F8 pages

Out-game equipment

OXPs

People

And all the Developers for whom I could work out what they did!

Some of the above I find quite admirable. Another_commander is very modest and has done so much for both our little community, and for the game. Our artists (of whatever bent) have had some truly inspirational ideas (Clym Angus, GS Agostinho, PA Groove). Stranger's work is just truly awesome. And then there are those I've not mentioned. And a lot of the work I'm unable to appreciate - such as that on ships for example. I really must mention phkb, too. Again, very modest. In the past year since I joined, he's been working away updating other departed authors' oxp's, as well as devising his own. When you look at his own, they are very unassuming (like him). And, like him, they make a massive difference to the game. I first noticed his common-sense oxp's (maintenance on demand, making planets look like their descriptions, e-mail system, XenonUI, liners markets, red fonts for "selling" items in the shipyard, etc. But then he came out with his GalCop Galactic Registry and I discovered his GalCop Missions, Home System, Broadcast Comms, Smugglers...). He has added an entire new dimension to the game. Just look at the equipment he has created for GalCop Missions: Cargo Stopper, Ejection Damper, Range Finder, Seismic Resonance Scanner, Solar Activity Scanner, Mass Passenger Transport Module ... And then look at his Ship Configuration.oxp! And of course, his experiments: Pirate Player, Hermitage... Just Brilliant!

Lore

Talking about Oolite


Structure of this wiki

  • With Hiran's help, new pages/redirects for all unlisted OXZ's in the Expansions Manager (zillions of the blighters!)
  • Redirect pages for ANA, STE, MTS etc. Also for most equipment listed in Hiran's invaluable Index of artefacts
  • New categories: Lore, Stranger's World, Racing, Classic Elites, Classic Ships, Lasers, Missiles & Bombs, Legacy Scripting, Concepts, Help pages
  • Collecting the various Help pages and linking them together with a new head page: How do I ....

History of this wiki

The Dark Side

Major Edits

Sorting out messes

  • Adding links & lists of relevant OXPs to Hyperspace/Quirium/Witch Fuel Injectors etc
  • Sorting out the various Rock Hermit (Oolite) pages and their OXPs
  • Sorting out the ghastly Lave & Tionisla messes with lashes of lavish linking
  • Sorted out the Ascension - Sector1/Sori‎‎ mess. Also referenced Ascension in Weapon Laws OXP for those using it.
  • Tried to sort out the muddle with 4/5 different library pages (library.oxp, cim's ship's library, spara's technical library, etc.) by adding a disambiguation section at the top of the most confusing pages: BB beg.
  • Tidied up the OXPList‎ page, reducing entry sizes to just the one line on my screen (11 inch?), and sorted out the Ship's Library oxps.
  • Sorted out all but the gnat's link on Complete Ship List
  • Linked all the various Thargoid OXPs together.
  • Linked the various fuel tank OXPs together to enable comparison.
  • Tried to make sense of the Racing pages Zorg Racing, Ring Racer OXP et al.
  • Linking together the disparate pages on systems/planets: the Oolite Planet List family with the Galaxy Guide family with the new pages on The Eight & Maps

People matter

  • Lots of work on User:Cim with links to the fascinating debates on the development of v1.80 & v.1.82
  • Ditto for User:Ahruman
  • Editing various user pages and then pm-ing the people in a desperate attempt to draw them back. People are important and deserve recognition for the things they do right. I'm fed up with only ever blaming people for things they do wrong.
  • In the handful of cases where I've been able to contribute meaningfully to the various Frontier pages, I've done so too.
  • Adding in a little historical context and links to the Realistic Shipyards page
  • Listed Cody's fiction

Unearthing treasures

  • Trying to raise awareness of SOTL and Strangers World, so bunged in links right, left and centre!
  • Ditto with User:Redspear's work
  • Links for downloading older versions of Oolite
  • Snark was fun. Montana05 was very helpful.

Lore

Help pages

  • Links for the various Help pages (some of which have hopefully been thus rescued from utter obscurity)
  • Fleshed out Milkrun with sample routes and maps - also Short Range Chart‎
  • More links for the Career Options page

Style

  • Replacing cr./cr/credits with ₢ (Dybal did it first!).

To do

General Guide

Guides to all the GUIs (if that is what these things are!)

F1 page (launch)
F1 page (forwards view)
F2 page (commander "jameson" options)
F2 page (aft view)
F3 page (ship outfitting)
F3F3 page (Dockyard ships for sale)
F3 page (left/port/larboard view)
F4 page (ship and system interfaces)
F4 page (right/starboard view)
F5 page (commander "jameson": details)
F5F5 page (ship's manifest)
F6 page (galactic chart "1")
F6F6 page (long range chart)
F7 page (data on "system")
F8 page (commodity market)
F8F8 page (commodity "item" information)

OXP programming pages

I find these almost entirely incomprehensible. If I ever learn enough I would like to make them more accessible to the uninitiated. Aegidian wanted to teach people how to programme via Oolite. I wonder if the introduction of both Javascript and of the OXZ format has defeated that ambition. Especially when combined with the failure to keep the programming pages on the wiki up-to-date - or to write updated introductions for beginners.

Hiranical

Listing all OXZ's and all Equipment on the wiki

This might be more than I can cope with!
Humph! Now mostly done!!
  • Links for all names/terms appearing on "GUI" screens

Pre-Hiranical

  • Finish Redspear's oxp pages (where he has rejigged everything several times and one can't work out what is what anymore!)

Also swapping roll vs yaw. Could do with an OXP?

  • Extract lore from The Dark Wheel and incorporate into wiki pages (mostly done).

WIP pages

  • Unfinished WIP pages (under construction)
Immersion
Realism
License

Musings

Things I'd love to see in-game

  • Solar flares which really flare, planetary rings which contain asteroids and dust which affect one's ship (there may be relevant code inside the Planetfall OXP), asteroids in belts or in clumps at the Lagrangian points (see discussion at [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=283298#p283298 Method for placing asteroid belts), black holes. A more realistic pulsar would also be nice!
Wolis wrote this in 2009 - with links to screen shots of proper asteroid belts, volcanoes, lightening, etc. Is any of this possible in Oolite?
  • I think that the MFD in Ship's Library should be free to encourage in-flight use of the Ship's Manual
  • I think there should be a variant of Illegal Goods Tweak focusing more on the ethical than the legal - where you are not stopped by GalCop/Amnesty (as in the Vanilla game) but you can step forwards and free the slaves you bought/picked up.
  • It would be nice to get rid of those ghastly kilometres and use other units of measurement (miles, cavezzi, leagues, plethrons, versts etc).
  • Does the pirate AI recognise me when I return and carry on beating up on a pirate pack?

Adding depth

Apropos of Stranger's Roolite essay: some adventures or whatever giving purpose to various worlds. We have "anywhere" missions which fail to mark out places as special (eg. in RRS, Galactic Navy, GalCop Missions, Taxi Galactica, Random Hits... ).

The following call out for dramatic depth and politics:

  • Lave (Monument, Lave Academy, the moon, the planet)
  • Tionisla (TOGY & TCA)
  • Scandal-ridden Onrira (Obnoxicorp)
  • Larais's industrial orange haze (what lies hidden there?).
  • Tianve (Pulsar)
  • The relationship between Lave and Zadies (both homes to significant bits of GalCop).
  • Ceesxe TL 15 vs backwards Lave & Zadies (TL5 & TL9) - might this be a possible fight for prestige?
  • Xexedi vs Laenin (home of the Comoonin) - and its three chums (Terea, Oresri & Xeoner)
  • Teorge Home of the clones (The Dark Wheel), the Shulth dynasty (Oofiction) & 3.3 Billion (tedious) Black Bony Lobsters (Elite/Vanilla Oolite description)
  • Communist Vetitice & Inonri and Communist Usanat & Entizadi vs the bridge systems in-between
  • Stuff about some of the more colourful "famous planets" (eg Aesbion's invasion of Aronar).

Ideally one wants more than a mere mission. Something special which keeps one coming back, and marks out the system as special in some way.

  • Special price for a commodity (New Cargoes - mission involves picking it up and then one returns with more of it)?
  • Special servicing for some piece of equipment, which can only be done there?
  • Something building on phkb's Home System or on Feudal States which gives one a stake on the planet. Politics (... Diplomancy).
  • Romance?

More ideas along these lines

Brainstorming: Making geography more relevant

Romance: if the romantic interest stays on the planet, that is a reason to return there. The RI's family could provide incentives too - missions, better prices for certain commodities [i]etc[/i].

Family: I suspect that this might go against the grain of what is out there (Oolite seems to presuppose that one has divorced one's family and run away to space - even Diplomancy requires one to buy citizenship of a system, rather than automatically getting citizenship of where one was born). But family, and messages from dying parents or siblings getting married, would add some flavour to one's homeworld. Especially if one starts getting recognised as one gains in Elite Rating (tweaking Phkb's Home System .oxp)

Vendettas: an enemy. Imprint depicts a vendetta which develops over the course of time. Is this doable in Oolite (game code needs to remember the enemy. Need for credible escape when defeated. And is it possible to develop the enemy's skills over time)? If the enemy is based in a particular system, then again, that system is marked out as special (to visit or to avoid).

Causes: for example, joining Amnesty InterGalactic, and fighting against slavery. The HQ thus becomes a place to visit for mission details, get cheap repairs, etc. Or joining the Bounty Hunter Guild to fight against pirates, etc. If there was one specific cantina/bar where one had to report, then again, there would be a geographical focus for the player. (See Resistance Commander)

Political Involvement: if one got politically involved with a system (along the lines of Feudal States or Home System, say, but with a bit more to it).

I'm unsure to what extent Vendettas are do-able within the game code as it stands. The rest seems oxp'able to me.

References

My oxp's

My tweaks to other people's oxp's

OXP HowTo

Links

Fascinating threads

Attempts to elicit a response

Other Links

  • Sunless Skies - I came across this on the Pioneer BB. Very suggestive - I do like the interactions while docked and it would be super to have something similar in Oolite. Also to be able to build up the persona of one's in-game avatar in someway.
  • Quote: ... Oolite is not "just a shooter" game. But it would be very interesting someday to see what it could be like if even half of the attention and effort that has gone into the combat related functions was expended on the economic and cultural possibilities Ganelon
  • Inspiration: A man I would be honoured to meet
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