Oolite

[Kyonshi]

So, I haven't really been playing elite that much, but I have been
playing Oolite, which seems to be a rather decent clone to my uncultured
eye. What's your opinion?
Or is something like Elite: Dangerous better? (which I have but haven't
found the will to actually play for as long as Oolite)

[Rayner Lucas]

Post by Kyonshi
So, I haven't really been playing elite that much, but I have been
playing Oolite, which seems to be a rather decent clone to my uncultured
eye. What's your opinion?
Or is something like Elite: Dangerous better? (which I have but haven't
found the will to actually play for as long as Oolite)

Big fan of both here.

Oolite is a great fan-made remake that retains a lot of the atmosphere
of the original 1984 Elite, while making the game world feel busier and
more fleshed-out. NPCs act more like real pilots going about their own
business, the graphics are much slicker, and you can do a lot more stuff
like flying different ships, running transport missions, and docking
with rock hermits. There are loads of fan-made expansion packs that you
can mix and match and you choose, and you can even code your own to
customise the game however you like. As an open-source, grass-roots
community effort, it's remarkably impressive.

Elite Dangerous looks spectacular and the galaxy is unfathomably vast.
If what you want from a game is to fly cool spaceships and look at
beautiful stars, it feels pretty close to perfect. And, of course, it's
multiplayer and online, giving you the ability to team up with friends
or take part in community events and storylines. Later expansion
activities such as scanning alien plants and taking part in on-foot
battles feel a bit more bolted-on, but can still be a decent diversion
if flying around gets a bit samey. I'm particularly impressed by the way
ED has motivated players to create their own external tools and groups
to make the complexity of the game more tractable; the encyclopedic
inara.cz, the star catalogue of edsm.net, and the shipbuilding tools of
edsy.org are ones I'd be struggling without. I'm very much enjoying the
current Thargoid War storyline, which has led to players organising,
gathering intelligence, and forming bold strategies to hold the invasion
forces back.

I do find it interesting how the two games have clearly grown from the
same roots, but have such a different feel to them. Oolite leans heavily
into the space-opera side of sci-fi, and some of the expansions are more
than a little tongue-in-cheek (reminding me of the original Elite's nods
to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). ED feels more "realistic"
(though still with a fair bit of handwavey space-magic) and there's a
genuine sense of awe at being a very tiny speck in a full-scale 65,000-
light-year-across replica of the Milky Way.

I should be working but now I kind of feel like a quick game.

(there is no such thing as a quick game)

R

[Kyonshi]

Post by Rayner Lucas

Post by Kyonshi
So, I haven't really been playing elite that much, but I have been
playing Oolite, which seems to be a rather decent clone to my uncultured
eye. What's your opinion?
Or is something like Elite: Dangerous better? (which I have but haven't
found the will to actually play for as long as Oolite)

Big fan of both here.
Oolite is a great fan-made remake that retains a lot of the atmosphere
of the original 1984 Elite, while making the game world feel busier and
more fleshed-out. NPCs act more like real pilots going about their own
business, the graphics are much slicker, and you can do a lot more stuff
like flying different ships, running transport missions, and docking
with rock hermits. There are loads of fan-made expansion packs that you
can mix and match and you choose, and you can even code your own to
customise the game however you like. As an open-source, grass-roots
community effort, it's remarkably impressive.

I should get into it properly again. I haven't really been playing that
much of it lately, although it ends up on all the computers I have at
one point or another. But it is quite the time commitment.

Post by Rayner Lucas
Elite Dangerous looks spectacular and the galaxy is unfathomably vast.
If what you want from a game is to fly cool spaceships and look at
beautiful stars, it feels pretty close to perfect. And, of course, it's
multiplayer and online, giving you the ability to team up with friends
or take part in community events and storylines. Later expansion
activities such as scanning alien plants and taking part in on-foot
battles feel a bit more bolted-on, but can still be a decent diversion
if flying around gets a bit samey. I'm particularly impressed by the way
ED has motivated players to create their own external tools and groups
to make the complexity of the game more tractable; the encyclopedic
inara.cz, the star catalogue of edsm.net, and the shipbuilding tools of
edsy.org are ones I'd be struggling without. I'm very much enjoying the
current Thargoid War storyline, which has led to players organising,
gathering intelligence, and forming bold strategies to hold the invasion
forces back.

You make me want to try again. I have it waiting for me.

Post by Rayner Lucas
I do find it interesting how the two games have clearly grown from the
same roots, but have such a different feel to them. Oolite leans heavily
into the space-opera side of sci-fi, and some of the expansions are more
than a little tongue-in-cheek (reminding me of the original Elite's nods
to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). ED feels more "realistic"
(though still with a fair bit of handwavey space-magic) and there's a
genuine sense of awe at being a very tiny speck in a full-scale 65,000-
light-year-across replica of the Milky Way.
I should be working but now I kind of feel like a quick game.
(there is no such thing as a quick game)
R