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Oolite Full Game Changelog

What's new in Oolite Full Game 1.86

Oct 26, 2017
  • In this version we have improved significantly the look of planets by adding shader-based atmosphere scattering effects, deploying a new terrain generation algorithm for more realistic looking land sections, bringing back the cloud layers and adjusting ambient lighting for an overall more aesthetically pleasing result. This is the main feature in this release but certainly not the only one. The maximum resolution the game can support has been increased to 8K UHD levels. We improved heavily on the HUD and UI customization options to enable HUD designs previously not achievable. Furthermore, following player feedback about the difficulty of the game in its early stages, we added an Easy Start scenario which can be a preferred option for those commanders who struggled to get their Lave based MkIII combat-ready.
  • As always with a new release, there has been a number of stability and gameplay fixes and various other features for further enhancing the gameplay experience. Those include but are not limited to, high-DPI support on Windows, ability to load expansion packs over HTTPS, ability to use the mouse wheel for speed control when piloting your ship using a mouse (Windows / Linux), ability to launch the game in silent mode and more. If you would like to get more detailed information about the new feature set, please refer to our What's New page in the Oolite website and the full changelog listing all the changes since the last stable version.
  • This particular release has received significant input for its features from the Oolite community, both in form of suggestions and code submissions. We are grateful for your support and thrilled by the drive and dedication of this community. We hope and expect that Oolite v1.86 will offer an equally thrilling gaming experience in return.

New in Oolite Full Game 1.84 (Jul 21, 2016)

  • General:
  • Added shipdata property to OXP verifier
  • HUD messages can now be drawn under the console messages
  • Tumbling ships on demo screens now do so in a more interesting way, more reminiscent of the original BBC Elite way of tumbling
  • All ships can now carry multiple lasers
  • Removing the entire trumbles array from the savefile is now recognized as a cheat
  • Atmospheric fog is now applied also with shaders enabled
  • Windows only: Entering the OXZ info screen in the OXZ Manager copies the OXZ's info URL to clipboard automatically
  • Added mobile external view camera
  • Added ability to inspect system information for all systems along ANA route
  • Added distance information to system info screen
  • Expansion pack development:
  • Modified Plists:
  • planetinfo.plist: link_color can be defined both ways in interstellar space for gradient effects (also works via JS)
  • planetinfo.plist: Star and nebula count multipliers are now floats rather than unsigned integers, making multipliers like 0.5 etc. possible
  • Scripting:
  • Main planet radius can now be set by script if not in the same system
  • Allow "concealment" parameter in systeminfo for selectively displaying information about a system
  • playerDockingClearanceExpired world event
  • player.ship.hudAllowsBigGui property
  • shipDumpedCargo ship script event
  • oolite.resourcePaths property for retrieving the list of currently running OXPs in Javascript
  • player.audioMessage method, speaks a message without displaying anything on screen
  • player.stopAudioMessage method, stops any message currently being spoken
  • Allow setting of null values (i.e. unset) for sun/corona properties
  • playerStartedAutopilot event now fires after the docking music has started playing
  • player.ship.infoSystem property
  • infoSystemChanged world script event
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fix some full-screen resolution changes on Windows
  • Fix entry of '*' OXZ filter taking screenshot
  • Fix nova system description
  • Fix exhaust drawing when far from origin
  • Fix some docking computer/queue problems
  • Again allow commodity name as well as key in cargo_carried
  • Fix texture generation on secondary planets inheriting too many properties from primary
  • Fix bug with equipment scripts and can_carry_multiple
  • Scanner "V" now follows FOV changes
  • Comms / console GUIs are now properly repositioned on screen resize
  • Tidied up drawing of galactic chart so that behaviour is consistent on chart based mission screens
  • Fixed mission screen charts to show routes properly
  • Fixed rare case of memory leak under Windows, when the game was getting minimized by means of Windows hotkey combinations while running in fullscreen
  • Cargo hold status is now reported correctly on fuel scoop icon also when docked
  • Missile desired speed is now set to maximum speed on launch
  • Fixed bug in search for connected systems while galactic jumping
  • Fixed rare exception that could happen when switching to a player ship without missiles and back
  • More than one connected joysticks are now listed correctly in the stick mapper screen
  • Fixed repair of cargo space requiring equipment requiring cargo space as well
  • Fixed rare case of not being able to set max cargo space capacity via JS
  • Fixed inability to refresh equip ship screen in the cases where buying a laser would result in the player remaining with less cash than the laser's price
  • Fixed missile AI apparently ignoring cloak activation
  • Fixed trumble mission so it ends after nova if not before
  • Fixed case of unintended reset to stick mapper first page when setting or unsetting stick functions
  • Credit values for contracts in the manifest screen are now formattable
  • Fixed distorted sound on some Windows 32-bit systems
  • Applied tentative fix for occasional null docking instructions in priority AI JS script
  • Fixed potential energy gain when shield boosters got damaged
  • Fixed incorrect model reference in alloy shipdata definition
  • Fixed potential division by zero crash in station market creation
  • Capacities are now honoured for main system market
  • Fixed long standing cached octree issues, resulting in interesting and quite hard to reproduce collision bugs
  • Fixed mission screen when background special is a chart so the chart is fully zoomed in (for SHORT_RANGE_CHART) or fully zoomed out (for LONG_RANGE_CHART)
  • Fix for chart on Mac retina screen
  • Fixed crash when attempting to modify goods properties on a nil station
  • Fixed incorrect parcel contracts indexing when more than ten parcel contracts were present
  • Fixed problem with tangent vectors not being orthogonal to normals
  • Fixed a bug where diving into the atmosphere and then resetting player ship
  • position into open space via script would not reset the air resistance factor
  • to zero, with catastrophic results on sun glare, fog and cabin temperature
  • Fixed bug where turning off the hud in a multi-page status screen would result
  • in the More and Back selections remaining, even if the equipment could fit in one page
  • Fixed inability to remove OXZs with ogg files in the Music folder on Windows
  • Fixed some Alt-Tab and fullscreen handling issues on Windows
  • Fixed applying air resistance to the camera viewpoint rather than the ship
  • Fixed sudden switch to black sky in certain external views in atmosphere, when the
  • camera was positioned far away from the ship
  • Fixed bug where contracts would disappear upon assignment if the sender's name was
  • already existing in a different contract. Senders of the same name are now possible
  • Fixed right arrow key (More) not working on status screen with big GUI enabled
  • Fixed stray soft edge on Boa model
  • missile_role had 10% chance of not being set for non-Thargoid ships (random missile
  • role was selected instead). This is fixed and changed so that the 10% chance of
  • random missile role selection happens only when auto_weapons is set in a ship's
  • shipdata.plist entry
  • Removed inconsistency in Windows build, where Shift+Q was used as instant quit

New in Oolite Full Game 1.82 (May 27, 2015)

  • Rebalanced combat:
  • The combat balance in 1.82 has been significantly reworked to make the early game a bit easier for beginners, while still allowing plenty of challenges in the later game. AI responses to many tactics have been made more realistic - sometimes benefiting them, sometimes not! - and missile and laser performance has been tweaked to make fights last a bit longer and reduce the chance of the player being destroyed in seconds before they realise the danger.
  • Graphics and interface upgrades:
  • We've made some improvements to some of the graphics and interfaces, with the main one being the fully zoomable and scrollable galaxy map, which replaces the separate short-range and long-range charts. Route plotting has also been improved: with the Advanced Navigational Array, you can set a route to the other side of the chart, and then jump along it a step at a time without having to re-plot.
  • We've also made improvements to multi-monitor support, explosion graphics, and planet textures, and introduced a "field of view" setting to Game Options.
  • The Expansion Pack Manager now lets you view additional information about packs (press 'i'), filter the list in various ways (press 'f'), or extract an installed pack to an OXP in your AddOns folder so that you can easily look inside it and customise it further (press 'x').
  • New expansion pack possibilities:
  • Expansion pack authors now have many more options available to them for editing data which was previously hard-coded. As always, every Oolite release is more customisable than the last - here's some of the new options:
  • Market and trade expansions can now define entirely new trade goods, with improved features for station OXPs to handle these goods. Economies can be completely rewritten - you're no longer limited to eight economies in a single Industrial to Agricultural line.
  • GUI settings, colours, and display styles can be extensively customised through a new plist.
  • Editing of system information has been significantly extended, with many more properties open for customisation - all the way up to the system coordinates - and an enhanced management and conflict resolution system for these properties to make it easier for expansions to coexist successfully.
  • More HUD options, including runtime-editable image dials.
  • The implementation of many core equipment items has been rewritten to allow much more customisation.
  • In the OXP Developer builds, the OXP Verifier has a lot more syntax checking of key files without having to start up the full game, and various deprecated practices will be logged to help you keep your OXPs running smoothly.
  • As usual, lots more JS properties and methods for additional flexibility.
  • All of this additional functionality can be extremely powerful, so as well as using it carefully in the normal Oolite universe, the Scenario support has been significantly upgraded to let expansion authors make full use of it as their imaginations permit.
  • Expansion packs can now be restricted to only load in their own Scenarios, which means you can make much bigger changes than before without needing to worry about compatibility with other packs, and do things which just wouldn't have worked before.
  • Make a mini-series of mission OXPs which wouldn't work if the player could bring their own ship and experience, or wander off mid-mission to go and trade for a bit.
  • Set the player in the middle of a major war between powers with definite front lines, regions, and battles - can they still make a living as a trader, pirate or bounty hunter when there's a full-scale Thargoid invasion on, and hundreds of systems have already completely fallen to them.
  • Completely rewrite the galaxies, ships, equipment and rules to make your own new space game with the Oolite engine.

New in Oolite Full Game 1.76 (Dec 17, 2011)

  • Gameplay:
  • General:
  • When using docking clearance, player now gets an extra few seconds when very close to the dock. (Bug #17997)
  • Enhanced missile logic for missiles approaching head-on to a target.
  • Enhanced damage calculations for collision and missile damage; damage is no longer dependent on target size.
  • Changed the manifest screen to better handle situations when too much cargo, passengers, or contracts were being displayed.
  • All mission screen choices should now also be selectable by mouse.
  • The game now ignores all keys except ‘Space’ on the Arrival Reports screen.
  • Enhanced mouse controls to allow maximum pitch.
  • It’s now possible to pause the game when the autopilot is running.
  • Improved AI for ships scooping cargo.
  • Improved sun-skimming NPCs.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Non-tonnage commodities are now cleared correctly after a game reset.
  • Avoid negative cargo capacity under certain conditions, especially in conjunction with passenger cabins.
  • Various additional checks to ensure ship equipment is not lost when it was already installed (eg, damaged during a fight, loading a Commander).
  • Fuel price is now displayed correctly for ships which have a fuel charge rate other than 1.0.
  • Large ships no longer block the launch queue in stations.
  • Fix NPCs getting far-away holding positions while waiting to dock.
  • Docking Clearance: Player is no longer given clearance while ships are in the launch queue.
  • Aft-firing weapons on an NPC no longer trigger forward-facing weapons.
  • No unnecessary auto-save immediately after a manual save.
  • Various bug-fixes to better handle entities when the Universe is full which could lead to crashing.
  • No more double spaces in the randomly generated planet descriptions.
  • The short range chart no longer shows pre-nova system data for nova systems.
  • Regression fix: The autopilot disengages when pressing ‘fast-dock’.
  • Escape pods should no longer disappear immediately after they launched.
  • A damaged Galactic Hyperdrive now correctly aborts the jump.
  • Fixed the first witchjump after a galactic jump.
  • Improved handling of ships exiting wormholes; various values are properly reset now and NPCs following the player should no longer crash into the NavBuoy.
  • It’s no longer possible to pause the game in invalid situations (such as the witchspace tunnel).
  • Fix docking music either ending before docking was complete, or continuing to play after a hyperspace jump.
  • Sounds no longer continue to play after player death or resetting the game. (Bug #18108)
  • Various fixes for large escort groups; especially Thargoid/Thargons.
  • Fix Thargoid message overflow. (Bug #18055)
  • NPCs now have the same inactive cloaking behaviour as players.
  • Ignore passengers and contracts in hacked strict mode gamesaves.
  • Fixed various memory leaks.
  • Expansion pack development changes:
  • Equipment:
  • The plasma cannon now uses the ‘weapon_position_’ keys from shipdata.plist.
  • Weapon names are now always displayed as “ laser”, irrespective of what is defined in equipment.plist and descriptions.plist.
  • Other Configuration Files
  • Script names are no longer expanded unless enclosed by [] in mission text or mission info.
  • Resizing message_gui & comms_log_gui via hud.plists now retains the comms log and the last 2 message lines.
  • Added the key to turn the HUD on and off to keyconfig.plist (default: ‘o’).
  • A wrongly defined ‘titleKey’ for missionScreens now logs a warning instead of an internal error.
  • Javascript:
  • Fixed rounding errors for the angleTo method which sometimes returned a NaN for identical vectors instead of zero.
  • Fixed the rotationTo method which sometimes returned an illegal quaternion for some anti-parallel vectors.
  • Fixed isValid for entities which were destroyed during the current game tick; always returns ‘false’ now.
  • system.addShip() and system.addGroup() now only returns the ships actually added to the Universe, instead of the whole group.
  • viewDirectionChanged() now fires correctly when switching between gui screens.
  • The startUp event should now fire properly after the Universe is fully initialised.
  • Fixed reliability of the Javascript engine when resetting itself.
  • Improved logging when loading a commander fails due to JS issues.
  • The frame callback is now only called when the game is actually running.
  • When the player aborts a jump countdown, the type of the jump is now reported.
  • Scripting bug fixes:
  • Regression fix: the legacy_spawnShip function should work again.
  • system.name, system.population, etc. should now report the correct values when in interstellar space.
  • Changes to system.name, system.techLevel, etc. are now shown correctly on the short range map.
  • ships should now always have the correct orientation after being spawned.
  • restoring sub-entities on the player ship now adjusts the trade-in factor correctly.
  • The AI commands becomeExplosion and becomeEnergyBlast now also trigger the shipDied event handler.
  • The game no longer freezes when a script tries to resurrect a ship after it dies; the ship just dies now. (Bug #18054)
  • Specifying 0 Cr mandatory equipments no longer freezes the game.
  • Specifying illegal flasher declaration no longer causes an exception.
  • New AI properties and methods:
  • checkHeatInsulation - returns either INSULATION_OK or INSULATION_POOR.
  • OXP Verifier:
  • Fixed bug in the oxp verifyer not recognizing ‘escorts’ in shipdata.
  • Added CLASS_MINE to the oxp verifier.

New in Oolite Full Game 1.73.4 (Sep 24, 2009)

  • Fixed nova mission.
  • Fixed missing planet name in Constrictor Hunt mission.
  • Fixed bug where subentities of sold ships could come back to haunt your log.
  • When buying a ship which does not specify a HUD, the default HUD is now used
  • immediately.
  • Scooping can no longer overfill your cargo bay.
  • Fixed some cosmetic issues with equipment list UIs.
  • removeEquipment scripting method now works with damaged equipment.
  • awardEquipment scripting method now works with EQ_REMOVE_MISSILES.
  • Fixed spurious OXP verifier warning about display_name key.
  • Hyperspeed is now turned off when dying.
  • [Windows] Installer now uninstalls old versions correctly.
  • through the right channel at the end of long sounds.
  • Fixed a problem with mouse control.
  • Added option to suppress splash screen, which forces the game to run
  • with software rendering on some systems.