OXP

What are OXPs?

An OXP (Oolite eXpansion Pack) is an enhancement to the game Oolite. Typically, an OXP is downloaded as a ZIP file, which is expanded and placed in Oolite's AddOns folder. On the Mac the OXP is a shown as an application, which takes the form of the icon shown here. On Windows the OXP appears as a normal folder ending ".oxp". An OXP could be a new game object (such as a ship, space station or a moon), a mission, or a combination of several elements. OXPs can use all of the facilities of Oolite, including some that are not used in the standard, unexpanded game. Whatever your OS, you need to move the OXP into Oolite's AddOns folder. Oolite will only read an OXP if you move the .oxp folder (or Application on the Mac) into Oolite's AddOns folder.

Most OXPs are not placed on this site itself but hosted externally. This means when you have problems downloading from a certain host, other OXPs might download without problems. Additionally many of the Mission OXPs will contain lots of other ships, stations or weapons that are not listed here.

Some older OXPs can also be found at The Oolite Satellite Resource Site (Oosat2) or the older Captain Hack OoSat Site (Oosat1). Please note however that neither of these sites have been updated for a long time, nor will they be. This means that most of the oxps hosted there will simply not work with current Oolite versions!

Finding OXPs

Information regarding Oolite's expansion packs, and the latest OXP download links.

The most up to date source of information on OXPs is the Expansion Pack Forum, where you can post questions about OXPs if the information is not already there. The tables below are helpful but may not be fully up to date.

Enhancements

Enhancements are for improvements to the visuals of the core game that have no impact on gameplay eg. Ship Sets, Objects, Scenery, HUDs, Sounds or combinations thereof.

Expansions

Expansions are for additions to the core game that affect gameplay in some way eg. Missions, Equipment, Weaponry, Characters, Organisations, Dockables, Environment, Training, Activities or combinations thereof.

Ships

Ships is for new Ships.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous is a catch-all header for the things which don't fit anywhere else including Utilities, Development and International.

Correct Categorising

If you are unsure how to categorise your OXP or if you wish to update the details of an OXP for an author who has disappeared, please seek advice on the Expansion Pack Forum before proceeding. Put your OXP in one category only.

In the sortable tables, each OXP's row should fit on one line for screen resolution widths >= 1280.

An auto-generated alphabetic list is available here: [Alphabetic List of OXPs]

Installing an OXP

Unzip the OXP and place it in the folder named AddOns. Sometimes the zipped files contain several folders, make sure you only copy the folder -or file for Macintoshes- ending with .oxp into the AddOns folder. This folder is found in different locations, depending on the platform:

Mac OS X

Found in the folder that contains the Oolite application.

Alternatively you can also have the AddOns folder in your user area at ~/Library/Application Support/Oolite/AddOns/. When both places contain an AddOns folder, both contents are read with the content in the user libraries loading last.

Troubleshooting: If you get an error saying "The item could not be moved because "AddOns" cannot be modified", that can happen if you weren't the user that installed Oolite. The solution is to put the OXP's of your choice in ~/Library/Application Support/Oolite/AddOns/ instead (you may need to create this folder). The error could also be triggered because you’re running from the disk image, you’ll need to copy the game somewhere else. Having done so, if you still get the error, use the Get Info command on the AddOns folder, open the Ownership & Permissions pane and check that it says You Can: Read & Write.

Linux

The OXP directory can be found in $HOME/.Oolite/AddOns. for all current versions of OOlite

Windows

If the installable package was used (post Jan 06) then the AddOns folder needs to be created in C:\Programs Files\Oolite. Note that this applies if the default installation location is used. If the install location is changed then use the path to the Oolite folder that corresponds to your installation. If the GNUStep dedicated versions (pre-Jan 2006) is used, then the AddOns folder must be created in the oolite.app folder.

After unzipping the file, make sure that it is the OXP folder that put into the AddOns directory - some zipped OXPs can contain a top level folder with a readMe file, and the actual OXP folder is a level further down. If this is the case, move the item with the .oxp extension into the AddOns folder.

Caveats

If you purchase a ship that is an OXP ship and save the game, you will only be able to load that commander as long as this OXP is installed in AddOns. If it's not, Oolite will give you an error instead of trying to load the commander.

Creating an OXP

It is intended to be easy to create expansion packs. With a few simple tools, a player can make small or big changes, and customize the gaming experience.

• How to make OXPs

Deprecated OXP Pages

OXPs Sortable List OXP List Categories • Activities • Ambience • Dockable Objects • Equipment • HUDs • Mechanics • • Miscellaneous • Missions • Retextures • Ships • Systems • Weapons •