dude and spob annotated templates

3 in one! Two TMPLs and one poll!

Poll: Is Zacha Pedro making too much? (23 member(s) have cast votes)
Is Zacha Pedro making too much?
Sure enough
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
I think yes
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
Maybe
(1 votes [4.35%])
Percentage of vote: 4.35%
Don't think so
(1 votes [4.35%])
Percentage of vote: 4.35%
Not at all
(3 votes [13.04%])
Percentage of vote: 13.04%
At any rate, such guides were sorely needed
(7 votes [30.43%])
Percentage of vote: 30.43%
Such dedication is so moving I have to help him
(6 votes [26.09%])
Percentage of vote: 26.09%
I don't vote in polls
(4 votes [17.39%])
Percentage of vote: 17.39%
I abstain
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
I vote blank
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
I don't have an opinion
(1 votes [4.35%])
Percentage of vote: 4.35%

Annotated template:
the düde resource

The purpose of a düde resource is to act as a container for ships, storing their behavior, alignment, respective probability (etc...), to be in turn used by the s˙st, spöb and mďsn resource for the ships that are found in system, make the defense fleet, and constitute the special/auxiliary mission ships, respectively. This is the main way of making ships appear in systems, and is necessary for ships to appear in missions and defense fleets. The data in here references the ships there can be and their probability, and there's stuff that pertains to all of them such as affiliation, carried cargo, etc...: stuff that has to be specified for ships the player meets in space and is not specified in the shďp resource.

The AIType field
This number field, which is probably a popup menu in your editor since there are only 5 significant values, tells which general behavior the ships will apply.
"use inherent AI": 0 will make each ship in the düde use its own inherent AI type, defined in each ship's shďp resource. The behavior for each AI type is given below.
"Wimpy Trader": 1 will make all ships act as wimpy traders; wimpy traders visit planets, then hyper out. When attacked, they run away and attempt to hyper out. This is often associated to cargo-ferrying ships without any real combat capacity.
"Brave Trader": 2 will make all ships act as brave traders; brave traders visit planets, then hyper out. When attacked, they fight back at close range, but once the attacker is away they flee. This is put for groups of semi-combat capable ships which main purpose is still ferrying cargo or warships/fighters used as cargo ships.
"Warship": 3 will make all ships act as warships; warships check if there are ennemies in the system. They fight them if there are any, or hyper out if there is none. This is put for combat capable ships (well, warships) for them to act as military forces.
"Interceptor": 4 will make all ships act as interceptors; interceptors checks if there are ennemies in the system. They fight them if there are any; if there is none, they park in orbit around a planet. They also scan incoming ships (including the player's ship) for illegal cargo and outfits. Also, they attempt to prevent piracy acts by attacking non-allied ships that attack or attempt to board ships that are not ennemies of the interceptor (still with me?). This is to be given to combat capable ships that are to act as system police (usually fighters and gunboats). Notice such ships will never hyperspace out, other than for fleeing.

Notice this is considered only if the düde is called from a s˙st or as a mission's auxiliary ships, as missions' special ships have a behavior specified in the mission and defense fleets attack the player no matter what.

The Govt field
This number field stores the ID of the gövt resource of the government these ships will belong to. As with many other Govt fields, you can put -1 for the ships to belong to the "independant" government; independant is a government like any other, just there is no gövt resource for it so it is not as fully-featured (it uses the values from gövt ID 128 for some purposes, and has no ScanMask, for instance). More details in the gövt annotated template.

The Booty field
This hex field, which is as usual probably a number of checkboxes in your editor, stores which kind of stuff can be plundered from the ships in the düde.
"Food" makes ships of this düde carry food when plundered. Notice this is not exclusive with the other cargo flags; if there is more than one set, the cargo offered for plundering will be a random one in those set.
"Industrial Goods" makes ships of this düde carry industrial good when plundered.
"Medical Supplies" makes ships of this düde... you see what I mean.
"Luxury Goods"
"Metal"
"Equipment"
"Money" makes money available for plunder when the player boards a ship in this düde. The actual amount offered for plunder depends on the ship price, which makes sense.
"Can't be hit by nor hit player": nothing to do with carried stuff, this flag makes the düde allied with the player (as are escorts) by eliminating any possible friendly fire. This is mainly useful if the düde ships are to serve as AuxShips in a mission; there is no use of this at all in the default Nova scenario.

The InfoTypes field
This hex field is probably four checkboxes with an attached number field. These flags serve the purpose of telling what the ships of this düde will say when greeted. If more than one is set, the answer will be haphazard between the ones set.
"Good Prices": ships in this düde will answer the player with a "static price" advice, in the like of "xxxx is a good place to buy/sell yyyy".
"Disaster Info": ships in this düde will answer the player with information about a currently running disaster (i.e. an event that affects the price of one commodity in one planet, described in an oöps resource), in the like of "last time I was at xxxx, the price of yyyy was really low/high".
"Specific Advice": ships in this düde will answer the player with an hail picked haphazardly from a pre-determined list of strings; the list of strings is in the STR# resource with ID the one set in the field just next (in the 7500-13595 range). If you wish the string to be always the same, just put only one string in the STR#. There is no use of this in the default Nova scenario.
"Generic govt hail": ship in this düde will answer the player with a generic hail that depends only on its government. The string is chosen haphazardly between the strings in the STR# with ID 7000+gövt idx (7000 is fed answers, for instance); STR# ID 6999 stores generic hails for the independant government.

Notice düde ships cannot hail the player with a bottom in-space message; only përs can.

The ShipType fields
These are 16 number fields that store each the ID of the shďp resource of the ship type that can be found in the düde; as a consequence, you can set one düde to potentially have 16 different ships types. That doesn't mean that, if you put more, more ships will appear: the number is determined by the calling resource (s˙st, spöb or mďsn), just that the engine will have more choices when haphazardly picking ships. You should fill at least the first field, but notice you can leave some fields as unused if you don't need 16 different ships in the düde (unlike the EVC/O engines): just put -1 in the unused fields.

The Probability fields
These 16 number fields store the respective percent of probability of appearance of the 16 ship types above: the first Probability field stores the probability of the ship in the first ShipType field, and so on. You'd better set the probability for unused ships to 0. Also, it would be best for the sum of the probabilities to be 100.

For people porting EVO plugs, notice there is no AppearOn field for each ShipType field as there used to be: the appearance or not of one ship type in space depending on mission bits is now in the AppearOn field in the shďp resource itself.

The name of the düde resource itself is completely ignored by the engine, you can use it to keep track of your düdes like is done in the data files. There can be a maximum of 512 düde resources, which means düdes ID 128 to 639 can be used.

.

And now comes:

Annotated template:
The spöb resource

The spöb resource (spob stands for SPace OBject) gives information for an object that can be any kind of stellar thingy you wish to appear in-space in a system (you can tell the player it is a sun, some kind of debris field, black hole, etc...), though there are two main kind of objects: planets (including moons, giants, etc...) and stations (battle stations, refuelling posts, listening posts, etc...). You can decide the player can land or not on it, if it is inhabited, what kind of services the player can find on the planet, its technological level, the size of its defense fleet, etc... Notice there is no field to tell in which system the planet is: it's up to the s˙st resource to tell which planets are inside the system, though having one planet show up in more than one simulatenously-existing system is not supported (and having a planet appear in no system doesn't make any sense and gives a debug log warning); more on this in the s˙st annotated template.

Notice the name of the resource itself is the name of the space object, as it will appear in the "ports:" list of the galactic map, in the nav section of the interface side bar, in communications with the planet, above the planet description when landed, in mission briefings in place of <DST> and the like, etc...

The xPos and yPos fields
These number fields tell where the stellar is in the system: 0 in both means the stellar will be at system center (which is the point towards which a ship exits hyperspace in the system); positive values in the xPos field will put the stellar this many pixels to the right of the center, negative value to the left (to give you an idea, the radius of the zone from which you can't jump out in hyper space is 1000 pixels). Positive values in the yPos field will put the stellar this many pixels below of the center, negative values above. Combine both (and experiment) to place your stellar the way you want it. Notice some editors provide you with a graphical system editor that allows you to place the stellar in the system; this replaces (and saves you the trouble of filling) these xPos and yPos fields.

The Type field
This number field states which kind of object the stellar will be, setting mainly its appearance in space, but also some details such as "(Small Class M)" that shows when contacting it (these strings can be found at STR# ID 1100). Putting x (comprised between 0 and 255) makes the graphic be specified by spďn ID 1000 + x; if you wish your stellar to look like another one, put the same value as the one found in the spöb of the original stellar (for instance Earth with its Kane band has type 0, hyper gates have type 1, broken ones type 64, wormholes type 59, etc...). If you're doing a lot of planets (for a TC, for instance), let me forward Bomb's advice:
"Also: VERY IMPORTANT To make your life easier, before you do the planets, grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down a list of the planet types. For example:
Type 01- Habitable/Green01/Medium
Type 02- Habitable/Green02/Medium
Type 03- Habitable/Blue01/Medium (Note: these aren't the actual types in Nova)
Type 04- Habitable/Blue01/Large
Type 05- Inhabitable/Red01/Large
Type 06- Inhabitable/Orange01/F-ing enormous

Etc.

This way, you can plug in that data well beforehand, and when you get the planets graphics sets, they all match up. The temptation will be to use the presets for EVO Developer's Map. Ignore what the planet looks like. Rather, just go by the spob type, and when you do insert the graphics, they'll all come out right. A tough thing to do, but it'll save you many brain cells when you start banging your head on the table because none of the spob types are right. Nothing freaks out beta testers more than a planet that tells them they can't dock because it isn't stable enough."

The Flags field
This hex flags field, which is probably a number of checkboxes, maybe with 6 popup menus, allows you to set a number of characteristics of the stellar:
"Can Land/Dock" makes the stellar suitable for landing/docking. This means you should set this flag unless you intend the stellar to be unladable, and the player to be told that "you cannot land on xxxx, the planet's environment is too hostile" or "you cannot dock on xxxx, the hull's integrity is too unstable" (depending on the fact the stellar is a planet or station, see below).
"Has Commodity Exchange" makes the stellar have a commodity exchange ("trade center" in the Nova scenario, but us plug makers don't change our habits easily), for the player to trade. Notice you'd better put one of the cargos below or at least one jünk for the commodity exchange to have any purpose (otherwise there will be a debug log warning).
"Has Outfitting" makes the stellar have an outfitting for the player to buy outfits. The actual outfits present depends on the TechLevel and SpecialTech fields below.
"Has Shipyard" makes the stellar have a shipyard; the actual ships available for sale in the stellar depend on the TechLevel and SpecialTech fields below.
"Is Station" makes the stellar be considered a station by the engine instead of a planet. The difference lies mainly in text changes such as the player being said that he can "dock" instead of "land".
"Uninhabited" makes the stellar be uninhabited. The consequences are there is no traffic control (you can land whenever you wish and with one "L" hit), you cannot contact it nor demand tribute, there is no mission computer (mission BBS in the Nova scenario) nor refuelling, the planet won't show up in the system list of ports, AI ships won't park around it, and it will be shown grey in the radar display of the player if he owns an IFF outfit. Notice you'd better set planets the player cannot land on as uninhabited, unless you want it to appear in the list of ports of the system in the galactic map, though the player cannot land on it (this is actually done in the default Nova scenario for a fairly neat effect with the Wraith "inhabited" but unlandable gas giants)
"Has Bar" adds a bar to the stellar; this is necessary to gamble, watch news, hire escorts, but also to get missions proposed in the bar. Don't forget to put a bar description (at dësc ID 10000 + spöb idx) if you set this flag.

  • "Can land only if stellar destroyed first": as it says; don't forget the planet-type weapons, ships, destroyable stellars, and this flag, are completely unused in the default Nova scenario.
    Note: the next 6 groups of 4 flags each are exclusive within a group (i.e. one per group only), so each group is probably implemented as a popup menu.
    Food trade:
    "No Food Trade": the stellar won't have food for trade; this is quite rare as most planets trade food, also don't forget that a commodity exchange needs at least one traded commodity to be useful.
    "Low Food Prices": the stellar will have food for trade, and it will be cheap. Notice prices are computed from a base price, and low price is 4/5 (or 80%, or 8/10) of the base price, which evaluates to 60 in the Nova scenario.
    "Medium Food Prices": the stellar will have food for trade, and it will have a normal price. Medium price is the base price (75 for food in the Nova scenario), which is specified at STR# ID 4004, and can be patched with STRs ID 9300 (for food) to 9305 (for equipment; with industrial goods, medical supplies, luxury goods and metal in between).
    "High Food Prices": the stellar will have food for trade, and it will be expensive. High price is base price plus 1/5th (or 6/5, or 120%, or 12/10, of base price), which is 90 in the Nova scenario.
    Indutrial goods trade (what has been said for food applies as well save for the remark that most planets trade food):
    "No Industrial Goods Trade"
    "Low Industrial Goods Prices" (280)
    "Medium Industrial Goods Prices" (350)
    "High Industrial Goods Prices" (420)
    Medical supplies trade:
    "None"
    "Low" (600)
    "Medium" (750)
    "High" (900)
    Luxury goods trade:
    "None"
    "Low" (720)
    "Medium" (900)
    "High" (1080)
    Metal trade:
    "None"
    "Low" (160)
    "Medium" (200)
    "High" (240)
    Equipment trade:
    "None"
    "Low" (440)
    "Medium" (550)
    "High (660)
  • "First Frame After Any Other": for animated stellars, this will make the first frame come back each time after another frame. This can be used with the flag below, and maybe Frame0Bias, to make the first frame be the "normal" state of the stellar and other frames be lightning flashes or other such effects. Notice animated stellars (other than hypergates and wormholes) are completely unused in the default Nova scenario.
  • "Random Order": for animated stellars, this will make the next frame be chosen each time at random between all frames but the one shown (i.e. the same one will not be picked twice in a row). This can be used to create interesting blinking effects, or in combination with the previous flag.
    "Loop Ambient Sound": instead of playing the ambient sound (referenced by the CustPicID field below) once at landing, it will be looped as long as the player is on the planet, to stop only at takeoff. (unused in the default Nova scenario)
    "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!": stellar is always dominated by the player; this is meant to be used as (temporary) legal ownership in a mission or some other plot, but go ahead, do satisfy your dominating pleasure... there are not even Bounty Hunters anymore... isn't life insanely great? (unused in the default Nova scenario)
  • "Starts Destroyed": stellar starts the game destroyed and will be undestroyed only after the regenerating delay (if it can regenarate); notice stellar destruction is completely unused in the default Nova scenario.
  • "Animation When Destroyed": if the stellar is animated, this flag will make the stellar be animated when it is destroyed and still when not; this is the opposite of the default behavior, which is still destroyed stellar, and animated otherwise. As usual, unused in the default Nova scenario.
  • "Deadly": the stellar is deadly, as any ships touching it will be instantly destroyed, as simple as that. This is unused in the default Nova scenario.
  • "Only Fire On Domination Attempt": if the stellar has a weapon, it only will fire it if the player is attempting to dominate it; by default, the stellar fires its weapon to any ennemy in the system.
  • "Buys Anything": if there is an outfit shop, it will be able to buy (i.e. the player will be able to sell) any non-permanent outfit the player owns, regardless of TechLevel and other such limitations, like Sirrusa does.
  • "Hypergate" Makes stellar an hypergate, that allows the player that lands to go instantly to the place of his choice in the (maximum of) 8 hypergates (or any stellar, for that matter) whose spöb ID is in the HyperLink fields below.
  • "Wormhole" Makes stellar a wormhole, that transports the player that lands randomly to one in the (maximum of) 8 wormholes (or any stellar, for that matter) whose spöb ID is in the HyperLink fields below. If they are all -1, the wormhole will point to any other wormhole that has no HyperLink defined as well.

The Tribute field
This number field allows you to choose the amount of money given per day to the player should he succeeds in dominating the stellar; -1 or 0 will make the default amount (TechLevel x 1000) be given, while any positive value will be the number of credits given per day.

The TechLevel field
This number field holds the technological level of the stellar, which in fact determines which outfits and ships will be available for sale. Remember the TechLevel field of the oütf resource? If all other conditions are met, an outfit (or ship) will be shown and available for sale in this stellar if its TechLevel is below or equal to the value in this TechLevel field. The more there is in this field, the more the number of available different outfits (and ships). Putting -1 will make no outfit or ship be offered (except if some do via SpecialTech just next).

The SpecialTech fields
These eight number fields answer a question you may be wondering: if you wish two different stellars (for instance of two opposite factions) to have each some faction-specific outfits (and ships) that the other does not have, you may realise it cannot be done with simple TechLevel. The SpecialTechs answer it this way: on top of the outfits (and ships) available via the stellar's TechLevel, the outfits (and ships) with TechLevel EQUAL TO (and not below or equal) any one of the 8 values in the SpecialTech fields will be available. You can now give an absurdly high TechLevel to the outfits (and ships) specific to faction 1, and another absurdly high TechLevel to the outfits (and ships) specific to faction 2, and use one SpecialTech field in each stellar for each to have its faction-specific stuff. This has a number of other uses, like making some outfit(s) or ship(s) available only at one place where its (mad) inventor lives, or making some station have some high-tech items on top of some low-level ones, etc... Leave the unused SpecialTech fields to -1.

The Govt field
This number fields tells which government owns the stellar. -1 for an independant stellar, or the ID of the gövt resource of another government. Putting a government different from the system's government is not completely supported (for instance, the legal record is stored for each system, not each stellar, so the same record, that varies according to the system's government, is considered for all stellars in the system), so unless you're at * level, put the same as the system's government.

The MinStatus field
If the stellar is inhabited, this number field tells the minimum level of legal record the player has to have to be allowed to land; neutral record is 0, and the scale can be found at Appendix II of the Bible. So, putting a negative value will mean the player will be allowed to land by default, and his legal rating can go down to this value before being prevented to land; putting a positive value will mean the player won't be allowed to land by default, and has to be liked this value before being allowed to land. Also, putting -32767 will make the stellar always allow landing, and 32767 never allow landing.

The CustPicID field
This number field allows you to reference a PICT resource to use as the stellar's lanscape: putting -1 will make the default lanscape be shown (the default lanscape depends on Type and is at PICT ID 10000+Type), while putting a value superior to 128 (usually, 11000 and up) will make the PICT with that ID be used as a custom landscape (the PICT has better exist at that ID). Don't forget the PICT should be of dimension 612 x 285, or it will be resized.

  • For animated hypergates, this is used instead to tell which frame is the transition between the opening animation and the working animation (37 for the hypergates in the Nova scenario); if you put 0, the engine will consider by default that the first half is opening and the second half is working.

The CustSndID
This number field allows you to add some ambience sound to the planet, to be played after landing. -1 for no ambient sound, while another value will be the ID of the snd resource to play (values of 10000 and up are traditionally used).

  • For hypergates and wormholes, this is used instead to control the angle at which ships emerge: a value between 0 and 359 will make ships emerge at that exact angle (counted in degrees, clockwise, from the upwards direction), while any other value will make the ships exit at a random angle; the value 120 is given for both all hypergates and all wormholes in the Nova scenario.

The DefenseDude field
This number fields holds the ID of the düde resource from which to pick the ships that the stellar will launch as defense ships to the player should he attempt to dominate it; put -1 for no defense fleet (pretty rare!)

The DefCount field
This number field holds the number of ships in the defense fleet... or so you thought. Indeed, if the value is below 1000, the stellar will launch this number of ships all at once (so you'd better not set this to be above 64). However, if the value entered here is above 1000, the ships will be launched in waves (i.e. a first group of n ships will be lauched, then each time a defense ship is destroyed another comes out of the planet to keep the number of defense ships to n, until exhausting of total number of defense ships, N), and the formula is a little more complicated. The last digit (i.e. the units) of the value in the DefCount field will then be n, while the other digits, minus 100, form the N number. For instance, say 1082 is entered. This means there will be two ships launched, and the total number of ships in the defense fleet will be 108 - 100 = 8. If it's 2005, this means five ships will be launched first, and there will be 200 - 100 = 100 ships total. Conversely, suppose you wish the stellar to launch 7 ships, with 300 ships in total in the defense fleet. You should then enter 7 + 10 x (300 + 100) = 4007. Understood? That's the reason why, in some editors, this field is implemented as one checkbox (telling if the ships should come in waves or not), and two fields (one for n and one for N), to make your life easier. Notice most planets in the default Nova scenario have 2206 in here, i.e. 120 ships total in the defense fleet, with 6 launched at first. Leave -1 if there is no defense fleet (pretty rare!)

  • The AnimDelay field
    If the stellar is animated, this is the number of game frames (1/30th of a second, do you still need to be told that?) between two consecutive image frames of the stellar; more will make the animation slower. If you need the animation to be faster than what 1 gives, you can trash some frames of the stellar animation Rle/PICT. Leave -1 if the stellar is not animated.

  • The Frame0Bias field
    If the stellar is animated, and the value is superior to 1, the time the first frame will be shown will be multiplied by the value here, making it last longer that the other frames. Leave -1 if unused.

  • The HyperLink fields
    These 8 number fields hold the spöb ID of the stellars that can be reached with this stellar if it is an hypergate or a wormhole; if you need less than 8 destinations, leave -1 in the unused fields. A wormhole for which no destination is defined (i.e. all fields are left to -1) will make the player go to another such no-destination-defined wormhole at random.

  • The OnDominate field
    This text field is a control bit set expression which is evaluated whenever the player success in dominating this stellar; it can be used to put your own Bounty Hunters as there is none by default in Nova (conversely to EVC and EVO that had them built-in).

  • The OnRelease field
    This text field is a control bit set expression which is evaluated whenever the player releases this stellar from servitude.

  • The Fee field
    This number field holds the fee, in credits, that the stellar charges the player when landing (as spaceport tax, hypergate usage fee, or any other justification you care to give). Leave 0 to charge nothing. This feature is completely unused in the default Nova scenario.

  • The Gravity field
    This number field tells which amount of gravity the stellar will produce: 0 will make nothing, a positive value will make the stellar attract proportionally to the value, a negative value will make the stellar PUSH(!) proportionally to the value. Be warned that this feature highly confuses the AI, so it shouldn't be used at all in systems the AI can go, but only in some places that only the player can go in. This is completely unused in the default Nova scenario.

  • The Weapon field
    This number field allows you to give a single weapon (that must be something other than a beam or PD weapon) to the stellar, with unlimited ammunition, for it to fire to ennemy ships: enter the ID of the weapon to give, or -1 for no weapon. Many stellars have a weapon in the default Nova scenario, but most don't fire it unless threatened to be dominated.

  • The Strength field
    This number field is the amount of damage the stellar can take before being destroyed; stellars take 100% of both mass and energy damage, but can only be hit (and damaged) by planet-type weapons. Notice destruction can be reversible: the stellar can be set to regenerate after some time. Put 0 or -1 to make the stellar invincible. As there is no planet-type weapon in the default Nova scenario, this feature is completely unused, though there are some values here in the data files (probably leftover from attempts to use this feature).

  • The DeadType field
    This number field allows you to choose a different appearance for the stellar in the destroyed state (as no difference will be seen if the original is not animated): -1 will make the same graphic be displayed for the destroyed stellar (just no longer animated), while putting a value between 0 and 255 will make the destroyed stellar look like this planet type.

  • The DeadTime field
    This number field is the number of days the stellar will remain destroyed. 0 will make the stellar regenerate as soon as the player lands/hyperspace/etc..., while -1 will prevent the stellar from regenerating on its own (only a Uxxx operator can regenerate it).

  • The ExplodType field
    This number field stores whic kind of explosion to display when the stellar is destroyed: as in the oütf resource, -1 for no explosion, 0-63 for this kind of explosion (defined at the bööm resource this index), and 1000-1063 for an explosion of type 0-63, plus type-0 explosions around it.

  • The OnDestroy field
    This text field is a control bit set expression which is evaluated whenever this stellar is destroyed. It never happens in the default Nova scenario since there is no planet-type weapons (the only ones that can damage stellars).

  • The OnRegen field
    This text field is a control bit set expression which is evaluated whenever this stellar regenerates at the end of the DeadTime delay. It never happens in the default Nova scenario since there is no planet-type weapons (the only ones that can damage stellars).

There can be a maximum of 2048 spöb resources, with IDs from 128 to 2175. Notice the limit has long (in the development cycle, it was already 2048 at release) been 1500, which is the reason why many places in the Bible assume a max of 1500. As always, assume the bigger (2048), these parts have not been updated.

The description for the planet is at dësc ID equal to the spöb ID; the bar description is at ID 10000 + spöb index. Bomb (and many others actually) advises you to do the planet descriptions as you're making the spöbs, it will save you time; you won't have to go back and wonder what you wanted planet ID 354 to have as desc.

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Just so you know, I'll do a syst annotated template, rewrite the starting tutorial for NovaTools, an make an uploading guide. Then I'll take a break.

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 24 September 2004 - 08:10 AM

ZP, I'm amazed at your work. Truly, I am. Now, I'm not sure if everyone who could do with it will read the collection of templates, but I'm sure I'll be going through quite a bit of it (extra info is always good). Dude, do you need any help?
And good to see you'll be taking a break.

A question:
"* The AnimDelay field
If the stellar is animated, this is the number of game frames (1/30th of a second, do you still need to be told that?) between two consecutive image frames of the stellar; more will make the animation slower. If you need the animation to be slower than what 1 gives , you can trash some frames of the stellar animation Rle/PICT. Leave -1 if the stellar is not animated."
Don't you mean "faster than what 1 gives" instead, or am I not getting the explanation?

Apart from that, no comment.

Oh, yes indeed, it's faster. My bad. Thanks. Corrected. I had added this just before posting as I reread it and thought people might wish to know.

For those that may be wondering, you can't make faster than what 1 gives because the engine cannot show more than one frame in one game frame, so "faster than what 1 does" would mean not all frames are shown, so some are not necessary in the Rle/PICT.

Wow. I've missed the past few of these... Sorry that I've fallen way behind... I'm in far too many projects to be keeping up with.

Keep up the excellent work!
~ SP

It'd be great is these were html-ized some point and hosted somewhere... SP, is that plugdev site still in the works? That'd probably be the best place.

If these guides became HTML, we could add footnotes for more advanced features, exceptions to general rules, quirky behaviors, undocumented features etc. That way these documents could seve as a reference to beginners and advaced developers at the same time.

I'd be happy to assist with any HTML-izing, although where they'd be hosted would probably affect what they would look like (colors, CSS etc.)

Any thoughts?

-Brindy

I still intend to put these all on the site. However, I haven't really had time of late to do it. If you'd like to add in the basic HTML tags, please do so, that will make my job much easier. 🙂 I have CSS all set up, so there is no need to worry about styling. All it needs is the <br>'s thrown in, and some HTML anchors, so the reader can jump to individual points within the document. If you'd do that, email it to me at hypermike at adelphia dot net, and I'll upload it.

~ SP

Very well, I will try to do that within the next few days...

-Brindy

brindyblitz, on Sep 25 2004, 03:44 PM, said:

It'd be great is these were html-ized some point and hosted somewhere... SP, is that plugdev site still in the works? That'd probably be the best place.

These guides were intended for exactly that purpose, actually - HTML-izing and hosted on SP's plug-in guide site.

Quote

If these guides became HTML, we could add footnotes for more advanced features, exceptions to general rules, quirky behaviors, undocumented features etc. That way these documents could seve as a reference to beginners and advaced developers at the same time.

They will become HTML, just like this (SP has it somewhere on his site, but I keep forgetting the URL...). 🙂

Quote

I'd be happy to assist with any HTML-izing, although where they'd be hosted would probably affect what they would look like (colors, CSS etc.)

Indeed. When you HTML-ize, screw making it prettier altogether. Make a simple, clean webpage with no CSS, no special colors, etc., and SP's stylesheet will make it all nice and pretty. 🙂

Also, if you want to make it even easier on him, add in the include system. Just start it normally, i.e. the <html>, <head>, and <title> tags, then include _hstart.html (<?php include('_hstart.html'); ?> - you could use SSI like me, but he'd just change it anyway :p), then just type your body code (without the <body>, just start typing it), then include _hend.html the same way with _hend instead of _hstart, then just end the page normally with </body> and </html>.

orcaloverbri9, on Sep 26 2004, 08:04 PM, said:

They will become HTML, just like this (SP has it somewhere on his site, but I keep forgetting the URL...). 🙂
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It's http://www.evula.org.../guides/bfd.php - I looked at your work for inspiration 🙂

orcaloverbri9, on Sep 26 2004, 08:04 PM, said:

Indeed. When you HTML-ize, screw making it prettier altogether. Make a simple, clean webpage with no CSS, no special colors, etc., and SP's stylesheet will make it all nice and pretty. 🙂
View Post

I suppose I really should do it this way, but I have issues with not being able to see how it will actually look, so I copied the source from one of the other plugdev pages and worked on it that way (changed the CSS reference to an absolute link to SP's CSS).

Example hosted on my clunky personal webserver:
http://brindyblitz.h...ugdev-dude.html

orcaloverbri9, on Sep 26 2004, 08:04 PM, said:

Also, if you want to make it even easier on him, add in the include system. Just start it normally, i.e. the <html>, <head>, and <title> tags, then include _hstart.html (<?php include('_hstart.html'); ?> - you could use SSI like me, but he'd just change it anyway :p), then just type your body code (without the <body>, just start typing it), then include _hend.html the same way with _hend instead of _hstart, then just end the page normally with </body> and </html>.
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Hopefully he can just quickly replace the static code in my version w/ PHP, since I'm PHP illiterate (I'm an SSI guy too, and for CGI I use Perl).

I love Perl...but I'm a PHP convert now. I just can't help but love all the built-in features it has - MySWL/PostgreSQL/Oracle/etc. database functions, uploading functions, automatic conversion of parameters to variables...and without modules! 😄

PHP is based on Perl, so the code is similar. Sometimes you can write something that runs perfectly in Perl, then run it as PHP, and have it work perfectly.

Anyways, I'll try that link when I get home.

So, we have 3 people that don't vote in polls so far... and one without opinion. 4 people think they were needed (I'm one of them), and five think to help me. On this matter, HTML web pages is exactly what I intend these guides to be, so many thanks to anyone that does HTMLise them, it is indeed helping me; by the way, the main section should be a <dl> list with field names in <dt> and the explanation in <dd> (or is the other way round?); list of flags and menu labels should be <dl> lists as well. I just ask you as well to reread the text and make it easier to read for English-speaking people: correct grammar, typos and spelling mistakes and bad or otherwise odd phrasing (need I remind you I'm French?); Orca did it with the BEtD and I'm very happy with what he did, I trust you all people. Another thing that would help me, just so you know, is making the intro tutorial adapted for EVONE, another adaptation for Mission Computer, and a last one for EVNEW, for the reasons I've explained in the topic there. And making other annotated templates in this format (that I explained in the desc one), save for the syst one I'm currently doing, wouldn't harm either. The only ones to actually answer the question at hand said I wasn't doing too much at all, I'm sorry to say those 2 I'll take a break soon to make ~real~ plug work: test the stuff I wrote here, adapt old EVC/O plugs, actually play other storylines than the Pirate one (I saw my brother play the Polaris and Aurorean ones though), and maybe some plugs (Polycon comes to my mind), etc...

Actually, a correction: in the "Loop Ambient Sound" flag in the spöb resource, in "(referenced by the CustPicID field below)", it should obviously be "CustSndID"...

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 27 September 2004 - 09:54 AM

Oops, hadn't thought about using a definition list. ZP, can you check out my conversion of the dude template at the link above (reprinted here)

http://brindyblitz.h...ugdev-dude.html

Is this OK? Or do really want me to use <dl>'s ,etc...

Your call, since you're the author.

-Brindy

Brindy, I've found your home-based server very 'clunky' indeed... in fact, I haven't gotten it to work at all.

You may want to try this link. 😉

http://www.evula.org...v/tmpl_dude.php

I've done a little more work in getting the site to be as clean as possible, deleted a few extraneous things, and made everything submitted so far accessible (assuming I've uploaded it. ;)). This uses temporary pages, but they'll do for now.

Oh, Brindy and Orca, if you want to send me some contact info, I'd be happy to put you on the contributors page. I suppose I have to write in ZP's sometime, too. 😉

Removing the static HTML wasn't a problem at all. But for future reference, copy and paste from here. I'm certainly no expert on PHP, but it does things much nicer than SSI. I'll extend my knowledge of the language as I need it, I suppose.

~ SP

This post has been edited by SpacePirate : 28 September 2004 - 02:17 AM

brindyblitz, on Sep 27 2004, 10:24 PM, said:

Oops, hadn't thought about using a definition list. ZP, can you check out my conversion of the dude template at the link above (reprinted here)

http://brindyblitz.h...ugdev-dude.html

Is this OK? Or do really want me to use <dl>'s ,etc...

Your call, since you're the author.

-Brindy
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Oh, well, as long as the title is emphasised so that the reader can see it well, there is no problem. I just ask that subsequent annotated TMPLs are coherent with the layout of this one.

SpacePirate, on Sep 28 2004, 07:13 AM, said:

Brindy, I've found your home-based server very 'clunky' indeed... in fact, I haven't gotten it to work at all.

Haha... yes indeed. See, I have DSL, so its only accessable within 5 minutes of me using the internet (then I lose my IP address).

SpacePirate, on Sep 28 2004, 07:13 AM, said:

I've done a little more work in getting the site to be as clean as possible, deleted a few extraneous things, and made everything submitted so far accessible (assuming I've uploaded it. ;)). This uses temporary pages, but they'll do for now.

Excellent...

SpacePirate, on Sep 28 2004, 07:13 AM, said:

Oh, Brindy and Orca, if you want to send me some contact info, I'd be happy to put you on the contributors page. I suppose I have to write in ZP's sometime, too. 😉

You can list me as "brindyblitz" w/ email address brindyblitz@yahoo.com (probably won't have a website till I sort above issues out...

SpacePirate, on Sep 28 2004, 07:13 AM, said:

Removing the static HTML wasn't a problem at all. But for future reference, copy and paste from here. I'm certainly no expert on PHP, but it does things much nicer than SSI. I'll extend my knowledge of the language as I need it, I suppose.
~ SP
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Will do...

ZP, yes I agree that layout should be constant throughout. Its very confusing when it isn't...

Cheers,
Brindy

Okay, uploaded the latest versions.

http://www.evula.org...lugdev/tmpl.php

Brindy, as you can see, I modified them a bit from your layout, and put the emphasis on the individual section headers, as opposed to the start of each paragraph. This way, it is much easier for the user to find the start of the next section, not just the start of the next paragraph.

I also replaced the use of your <br> tags with <p> and </p>, as I have the <p> tags set to indent each paragraph, making them easily distinguishable. Also, this way, I can more easily modify they layout using my CSS sheet.

Check out the source if you want to see how I did it for future reference, it really only took a few minutes to redo the page in the new style, and should be just as easy to do with the new method.

Lastly, do you have a description to go with that? I've got ZP's up per his instruction (what do you think, ZP?), and I'm still waiting on orca's, if he's still reading these topics... I'll email him about it.

~ SP

(edit: Argh, I just noticed you didn't fill in a title, brindy. Just replace the 'Title here' bit with the page name, and there you go. ;))

This post has been edited by SpacePirate : 29 September 2004 - 06:49 PM

Bother -- I missed that. Will correct on future versions.

Will also implement paragraph tags + change emphasis in future versions.

As a suggustion, might you be able to decrease the space around <h3> tags using CSS? I feel the space is just a wee bit too big...

-Brindy

SpacePirate, on Sep 30 2004, 01:47 AM, said:

...Lastly, do you have a description to go with that? I've got ZP's up per his instruction (what do you think, ZP?), and I'm still waiting on orca's, if he's still reading these topics... I'll email him about it.

~ SP

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Excellent, my friend. All is as I had foreseen, victory will be ours. And soon, peace and order will be restored throughout the galaxy: there will be fewer newbs asking how to do plugs, and we'll know what to answer to the remaining ones (links to there!). Peace and order, I tell ya.

These Invision Boards features are sure nice; I especially like the mail form that allows me to be mailed anew as a board member while not having to display my email.

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 30 September 2004 - 06:51 AM

brindyblitz, on Sep 29 2004, 09:13 PM, said:

Bother -- I missed that. Will correct on future versions.

Will also implement paragraph tags + change emphasis in future versions.

As a suggustion, might you be able to decrease the space around <h3> tags using CSS? I feel the space is just a wee bit too big...

-Brindy
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Good, good... As for <H3> tags, how do you mean? I can change pretty much anything via CSS, but I need to know exactly what space you are talking about...

Zacha Pedro, on Sep 29 2004, 07:47, said:

These Invision Boards features are sure nice; I especially like the mail form that allows me to be mailed anew as a board member while not having to display my email.

Heh, yeah... I did a similar thing using phpBB's features, and figured I may as well try it with Invision. However, I'm not sure how (or whether) it will work for guests and people not currently logged in. Yet, I'd assume it would prompt the user to log in if that were the case.

And 'my friend'? I thought you were sworn against all Space Pirates? 😉

~ SP

SpacePirate, on Oct 1 2004, 04:46 AM, said:

And 'my friend'? I thought you were sworn against all Space Pirates? 😉

~ SP
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(wolf)It's to better betray you later, once peace and order will have been restored, my friend...(/wolf)

Plus, I think the DVD release of a certain trilogy influenced me...