The Classic Ships
Contents
Overview
"Classic Ships" is a shipset OXZ which has been produced to bring the original Elite-style Oolite ships back into the game. With high-quality modern graphics, these charming Retro designs ensure that Nostalgia has never looked so good.
The Ships and their Background
In the 31st Century, spacecraft of all types are needed in large numbers as the inhabited planets can only survive and prosper through inter-system trade. But ship losses are high - space is inherantly dangerous, and more perils await the spacefaring community than just natural hazards. Many ships do survive though, and indeed some of the ships encountered could be hundreds of years old.
Due to frequent losses and also to sustain the burgeoning galactic economy, ships, lots of them, have to be built quickly and cheaply, but they also have to be incredibly strong and durable.
With one or two exceptions all the ships of this time are pure spacecraft, built solely to fly between Star Systems, with the GalCop stations that orbit all inhabited Worlds as their departure and arrival points. As a consequence they have no atmospheric or planetary-landing abilities as these are simply not needed. They are therefore built in space at huge orbital shipyards which are dotted around the Eight at suitable planets and moons.
Due to the difficulties of working in zero-G, the need was for designs that can be fabricated relatively quickly and easily. It therefore soon became clear that the optimum manufacturing method was to design and build large, un-sophisticated hulls, with huge panels of Duralium Alloy being welded together into simple, easy-to-construct forms. The Duralium panels used can be as large as five by three metres and are nearly 1/2 metre thick, as this offers maximum protection against micro-meteorites and radiation, and also some protection against laser fire.
By building the ships as large as they are, it is also possible to include all the equipment, running gear, engines, fuel tanks, holdspace, living quarters, life support and ordnance within the hull itself. This offers maximum protection to all the ship's systems.
These ships would be just as effective (and even easier to build) if they were just big cubes, but most sentient races possess a sense for aesthetics, meaning that the demand is for something more attractive than a flying brick. So despite the minimalist ethos behind the designs the various models are still stylish and distinctive.
Gallery
Images to be inserted.
Special features
1) Where appropriate the ships have flashing navigation strobes. 2) The Thargoid Warships have the alternating red/green colour scheme described on the Wiki. 3) The Moray Starboat and Medical boat (submarine flying boats built by aquatic races) have a unique 'organic' hull, and special 'HydroStellar' drive units capable of propelling the craft in water, atmosphere or space. 4) The ships will become visibly derelict if the pilot ejects in an escape capsule. As the ship shuts down the navigation strobes are switched off, followed a few seconds later by the main interior and hull lights. As the exhaust starts to fade, the ship begins to gently tumble, and finally the engine powers down completely leaving the ship dark and dead, drifting in space. 5) Six extra textures have been added, bringing the total to Thirty Seven. Previously, variants of three types of ship shared common textures, and three new Pirate ships were introduced in Oolite v1.80. Each ship specified in shipdata now has its own unique texture.
This Expansion Pack
The "Classic Ships" are facsimilies of the original Elite ships, first seen as wireframe graphics in 1984.
They were re-modeled and textured by Giles Williams (Aegidian) when he first coded Oolite in 2004. In this form they were the default ships until the release of Oolite v1.80 in June, 2014 by which time they were looking rather tired and dated. Although now superceded as the default shipset, they are still held in high esteem by many, and have a strong nostalgic and Retro appeal. The author's aim was to re-imagine them in a thoroughly modern way for Today, while preserving the heritage they represent.
The original models have been used and are unchanged. New models have been produced to add engines to the ships and a Gun model has also been utilised. This approach retains the authenticity of the classic shapes while giving them the more rounded, complete look demanded today. The texturing has also been completely updated to meet modern standards. The texture designs are heavily influenced by Aegidian's original set, but have been extensively re-worked to meet today's standards of detail and quality. Using diffuse, emission, normal and specular mapping this shipset requires a shader-capable computer to look at its best although it will work (and still look good) on most non-shader machines.
Two versions are available in line with recent shipset convention, a 'Replace' set which replaces the default ships with the Classic Ships, or an 'Addition' set which adds the Classic Ships to the default set to allow a mix. Users of low-end computers might find them too heavy on resources however, but a 'Lite' version of the set with much smaller graphics files is scheduled for release very soon.
This OXZ has no affect on gameplay or game mechanics.
Complementary OXPs
At least two complimentary Expansion Packs are planned for future release.
Licence & Credits
This work is Licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence. To view a copy of this Licence, visit
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
Author and credits
The Classic Ships expansion was developed by Smivs.
A very big Thank You to all the community members who helped during the development phase with encouragement, comments, observations and suggestions. Particular thanks to Disembodied and Rorschachhamster for decals used on some of the ships, and Capt, Murphy for some scripting I borrowed.
Version History
v1.0 - First released on ??? March 2015.
Download Links and Installation
To be completed.....................................
Oolite Forum thread
Any questions, problems or bug reports should be posted on this OXP's BB thread here
Gameplay and Balance indicator
