Oolite 1.90 - Let's Play Poorly - Episode 1 - the video that started it all

[@mathias7777777777777]

I've been playing Oolite for years. It's open source so it's just fantastic. When you begin as a new commander you will start with trading. Sell all of your pylon mounted weapons for additional credit for trading. Don't engage in combat until you have enough credits to buy fuel injectors. Speed is key. Keep trading computers from high tech to low tech planets and furs from low tech to high tech planets until you can afford military lasers. The next goal is shielding and extra energy units. When you start out trading, when approaching trading stations at planets, veer off to the left for thirty seconds or more to avoid trading lanes before focusing your ship towards space stations. Always save every time you dock. Enjoy.

[@animatewithdermot]

Loving this! I had no idea Oolite even existed, only found it through a retro amiga binge on YT. Very tempted now to break my 20 year hiatus from gaming and give it a go. This is the game I wanted the original to eventually be when I was a kid playing it on an Acorn Electron!

[@arquebusx]

It’s such a great game! The forum is nice and active and there’s a decent modding community so you can tailor the game to your liking.

[@badpiggies988]

I found this in a list of "free and open source Linux games", I wanted to learn more about what our gaming experience used to be like pre-Proton. Sounds interesting.

[@arquebusx]

It is an excellent game! Lots of great mods, too.

[@badpiggies988]

@@arquebusx Although it did take me a while to find their new sites for things, the old ones have ceased to exist (and their wiki doesn’t allow new registrations anymore)

[@arquebusx]

@@badpiggies988 The old oolite.org site went down because the registration expired; everything operates from oolite.space now. If you want to register on the wiki, go to the oolite forum and chat with Cholmondely, he's the wiki guy.

[@arquebusx]

Also if you want to check out my most recent playthrough (which is fully modded up), it's here: kzbin.info/aero/PLsYaAtYv_5eX7B6Gw9SAUoETT9GsCXDQL

[@jalomcurameng530]

Played oolite for many years, this is my absolute favorite of the Elite style games. Tons of oxp's and it's fun using a joystick. Random hits, towbar, and galcop's most wanted are just a few of my personal favorites oxp's

[@arquebusx]

Eventually I'll become competent enough to actually do the fun missions!

[@kadirunaloglu]

Thank you for the video. As an old player, having seen how much it has changed in a positive way has made me really happy.

[@frankj2879]

Well this game has changed a lot since I last played!

[@arquebusx]

You should see it fully modded! It's fantastic.

[@ASquishyBean0126]

Thanks for making these videos, it's nice to see this great game get some love

[@arquebusx]

Yeah, I love this game. It's frustrating sometimes (especially when you load 500 mods....but that's on me) but it's really such an elegant game.

[@XPGlowWorm]

Today was exploring space games and my thoughts went via Elite Dangerous to the original Elite 1984 and how cool it'd be if there'd be a way to play it on modern computers. FFWD I discovered Oolite and your cool tutorials. Excellent stuff to help me get back into the modern Elite. Thx for making the Oolite vids: no fluff just useful info.

[@arquebusx]

My whole channel started because I saw there were no (current) Oolite videos out there!

[@75338]

Nice work. Good game.

[@TheUKMikey]

I haven't played Elite since 1984 and normally avoid Let’s Play videos due to the constant jabber of the commentators. However, your narration is one of the first I've heard that doesn't make me want to tear my ears off as your genuine enthusiasm for this updated classic shines through. Can't wait to see this classic properly updated for modern hardware in a way that David Braben's sequels don't seem to have quite managed for me.

[@chrisbtoo]

Interesting to see how different the game is with expansions. I just picked it up again recently and have been playing it completely vanilla so far, but having finished the Constrictor mission and looking at how many kills I need to get the next one, I am starting to consider adding a bunch of OXPs.

[@arquebusx]

Yeah I can’t play vanilla anymore - even just having a good HUD makes a world of difference

[@clarapfundt9767]

Thanks Kevin! You Rock!

[@zzodr]

Played the hell out of this on the C64. Brutally hard until you got a beam laser then it started to get easier from there. Once you had Mil lasers on all four sides it was awesome.

[@antwan1357]

hey thanks for making this content .

[@evilweeja]

Mr Arquebus .. where can I find / download the HUD you have showing with the functional menu F1 - F8 in the top left etc please ???

[@arquebusx]

This video should have it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ope1lXlte8SYjNk I go through most of the mods I'm using. The station interfaces and the HUD are separate mods, but they both come from the Expansion Manager at the main menu. I believe the station screens come from this one: wiki.alioth.net/index.php/BGS

[@evilweeja]

@@arquebusx Alas I watched ur video and also visited the link but still cannot find the mod that gives you the F1 - F8 etc top left of screen .. so I will sit here an sulk lolz

[@arquebusx]

@@evilweeja Check with the forum - aegidian.org/bb/ - they might be able to answer the question!

[@evilweeja]

@@arquebusx got it up an running an working fine now thanks .. just need to get the HUD you use on ur video's .. Is it the Vimana-X HUD you are using ?

[@arquebusx]

@@evilweeja that’s the one!

[@truthorpropaganda9001]

My Brother! I also play games badly and am SUPER slow at them. Usually because my over-active imagination is "running a movie" in my head.

[@Graylegs]

Your intro had me hooked 😄

[@DoItYourselfAndy]

Thanks for the video, I was so excited to play the game after watching, but fell at the first hurdle. I've tried alsorts, but the expansions list will not download. A search tells me people have suffered from this before, I just can't see a definitive answer to fix it :(

[@arquebusx]

The expansions list from inside the game or in the Oolite Starter? If it's the list inside the game, go to the oolite forum and ask there - there's a definitive answer there and folks can point you to it. It involves changing a line in a text file (I don't recall exactly what at the moment). aegidian.org/bb/ If that's the issue you're having, it's because they lost the domain oolite.org (forgot to renew or something like that) and had to switch to oolite.space, but the game itself expects oolite.org when loading the expansions list. But it can be fixed by switching it in a text file somewhere in the install. If you're using Oolite Starter, though, you don't ever even need to worry about the expansions manager in the game. Starter handles all that stuff by itself and does point to the right spot. In fact, the guy who makes the Starter did so partly to future-proof the expansions manager from issues like this again. Although the version is a bit old (he keeps updating), I do go into some detail into how to use the starter here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqO9YXqfqa1lp68

[@DoItYourselfAndy]

@@arquebusx Thanks, it is in the main game, not the Starter. I did look on the forum but couldn't find anything with the obvious keywords, but I'll try searching for fixing the domain change or similar. Thanks again for your help.

[@arquebusx]

@@DoItYourselfAndy Here's the thread: aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21368 I believe the fix is in the first post. Good luck!

[@DoItYourselfAndy]

@@arquebusx thanks again, I did manage to find it, though I got there from a link on the WIKI. A big banner saying go here or use the starter 😅 So i'm using the Starter now. Wow, a lot of expansions. Now I'm going to search for a comprehensive list of recommended add-ons, or maybe just whack all the ambience and your recommendation for HUDs etc. sounds quicker 😊

[@arquebusx]

@@DoItYourselfAndy I just updated my set today! tinyurl.com/3cczhf4x

[@dariusduesentrieb]

The glitch with the unnamed systems in the map might be due to the "Here be Dragons" OXP, though that is only a guess, I haven't used it myself. The other comment maybe doesn't show up, because it contains a link.

[@arquebusx]

It usually fixes itself with a reload of the save, at least temporarily!

[@savmass]

Interesting video thanks for the detailed explanations. I'm wondering though, why would you opt to play this over Elite Dangerous, it seems pretty old graphics and playability wise (I tried it last year for a bit and uninstalled)? Is it the freedom of mods. Also, you mentioned in the video that if you increase the asteroid density to high , that it would slow it down. Is this a game engine limitation or your hardware.

[@arquebusx]

Regarding the asteroid density - it's mostly a game engine or mod limitation; my hardware is a few years old but Oolite is designed to work with some pretty low end machines. I think the mod just taxes the game in a way that it wasn't meant to be taxed. As for Elite Dangerous... well, I have played ED, for about 80 hours, and I found it incredibly dull. Yes, it's graphically superior and the flight model is better (though not as good as Evochron Legacy), but travel times are ridiculously long, trading is tedious (with an unnecessarily complex UI) and the grind is more annoying. Most of the gameplay loops in Oolite are the same as in ED, but they're compressed into shorter scales of time and distance. (The first time I ran into a 20 minute real world travel time between stars in ED was the last time I really tried to play the game.) And the availability of hundreds of mods in Oolite is also a plus, since it means the variety of things I can see, do and buy in the game are considerably greater than in ED.

[@savmass]

@@arquebusx Thanks for the reply 🙂. Elite's notorious grind is also what turned me off of it. One more question (sorry), do any of the mods give some sort or a storyline/campaign or is it totally sandbox?

[@arquebusx]

@@savmass I'd say it's 95% sandbox. But there are some mods that create long mission chains that do have story elements to them. I can't speak to how detailed they are (I haven't encountered the mission starts yet) but you can see what's available in the Expansion Manager under the Missions category. They should all have descriptions about what they involve (or they point you to the wiki entry about the mod).

[@savmass]

@@arquebusx will do. Thanks again

[@krisztm7221]

Is cockpit view in this game ?

[@arquebusx]

There's no cockpit other than the HUD, which is why I used the Vimana HUD instead of any other, or the default. It's the only HUD mod that looks almost like a physical object.

[@majorleeuseless]

I'm curious, how would you pronounce buoyancy or buoyant? Other than that, nice vid.

[@arquebusx]

I pronounce all three words the way most people do on the East Coast (U.S.). Boo-ee for "buoy" and boy-un-see / boy-ent for "buoyancy" / "buoyant." Sometimes I'll end up going halfway between boo-ee and boy-ee, but that's usually because I'm talking too fast. It's weird that the standard pronunciation for those three words (well, for one and then the other two) isn't consistent. And none of the pronunciations match the spelling!

[@iou0]

Touch panel? can you tell us a little about it?

[@arquebusx]

I cover it in one of the episodes in this series or the other Oolite series!

[@iou0]

@@arquebusx Thanks for the reply

[@arquebusx]

@@iou0 Found it! Oolite unmodded - Let's Play Poorly - BONUS EPISODE! ... my setup kzbin.info/www/bejne/op20nJKAZbmsaZo

[@leonvalenzuela8089]

Could you make a .zip with all the mods? i´ve spent the last two days downloading a lot of them

[@arquebusx]

It wouldn't be much more efficient, unfortunately. All of the mods are already zipped so a single zip would still be 2.2GB in size.

[@johalun]

@@arquebusx Is there a way to export/import the list of mods (not the mods themselves, just the list) so other player can match the experience easily?

[@arquebusx]

@@johalun Yes there is a way now! Using the external Oolite Expansion Manager. I’ll get my mod list exported as a list and post the file when I get a chance. Then you can use the manager to import it.

[@arquebusx]

@@johalun I made this one about 5 months ago. The only new thing I think is Vimana-X HUD instead of Vimana. www.dropbox.com/s/9jpfnc1bivsnc30/Arquebus%20X%20Expansion%20Set.zip?dl=0

[@arquebusx]

@@johalun Oolite starter is the name of the external program: github.com/HiranChaudhuri/OoliteStarter

[@miguelrodrigues4661]

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