My TC's Story/Progress/Info

I'd be happy if you told me wether or not you liked it, reviewing,

Okay, I know, this is a long text. This is the introduction to my TC. It doesn't contain any spoilers though and only slight bits of things suggesting things that I will be exploiting to make missions, major strings and all that stuff. As for outfitting and ships, you can get an idea of how I want to balance things here.

And currently I'm done creating the systems and spobs, I have a very small bit of outfits and I am starting to balance ships the way I want them. Some systs and spobs may be added later however.

Chaos Theory

Introduction

Year 2304: Earth as we know it is getting short on raw materials and food. People keep
living normally in this state but the world seems to be covered by a fog of unspoken
despair. Governements desperately attempt to gather ressources from the moon and the
asteroid belt. But ships are too slow and too few in numbers and the process is very slow.

Year 2316: During the 12 past years, the situation remained much the same. However, during
early June, a scientist named Robert Brow made a decisive discovery. Using nuclear energy,
he managed to focus the created power into a steady stream of atoms. His invention was to
become the next generation of spacecraft engines. Two years later, many mining ships were
equipped with the engines which sped up the production process.

Year 2320: Earth begins terraforming mars. The governement's faith going into Brow's
research, they decide to send him a team of skilled scientist to help him along with
precious ressources and much needed money. A few month later, he managed to reproduce,
at a larger scale, the effect he had produced with fission reactors but with fusion.
The result is so much an improvement that, before the end of the testing program, mass
production was launched immediatly.

Year 2323: The First and Second Colonial Exploration ships are launched during the year.
These ships were filled with humanity's last hope. Hundreds of people boarded and launched
into the unknown with the hope of finding other worlds where humans could live. These ships
were to be self suficient for more than two centuries. However, in the end of the year,
communication was lost when it reached the far end of the Sol system.

Year 2324: Scientists found out that the new engine that was used on the colonial ships
couldn't maintain a precise course and that the effect would become worse with time and
that they could end up very far from their objectives. The engine was sent back to the labs.

Year 2326: The fusion engine was reworked greatly. While it is slightly bulkier, the
controls is now extremely accurate, stronger, and much more in control. Also, the fusion
cores were improved and represent far less a danger if left alone. A huge battery system
also devellopped to save some of the wasted power from the power core and now the energy
loss is only the exceeding amount that has no use because fusion reactors produce much more
energy than needed.

Year 2329: The Third, Fourth and Fifth colonial ships are launched with great hopes. Also,
with progress in technology, the ships now have destinations. The Third was to go in the
Isis system. The fourth was to go in the Alpha Prime system. And the fifth was heading
further for what the scientists had their best hopes for: The consequently named New Hope
system.

Year 2330: A branch of scientists working on how to optimize the output of fusion reactors
devellopped something that was yet only imagined in Sci-Fi books. By using negatively
charged particles, they managed to create a large repulsive magnetic field. While it
isn't exceedingly efficient in stopping solid objects, it helped immensely to reduce the
percentage of particles from radiation, light, other negatively charged particles from
hitting directly the ship's hull and helped greatly in saving maintenance costs.

Year 2331: Contact with the Third Colonial ship was lost somewhere in the Alpha II system.
The Fourth ship still didn't reach his destination but is well on his way. Communication
with the Fifth ship is predicted somewhere between magellan and New Hope. A group of
scientists are also hired to make research on communication systems to avoid this from
happening.

Year 2334: Communications were immensely improved, but the lack of equipment on colonial ships
caused the loss of communication, however, plans were transmitted and it is expected that
they will manage to create devices capable enough to re-establish contact in the next year.
Nonetheless, scientists in that branch have came up to the conclusion this was as far as
space communication could go. There were no way to make them more efficient as the presence
of space dust, particles, asteroids and other obstacles made it hard to maintain
interstellar communication.

Year 2336: Scientists in the new shield branch have made again an enourmous progress in
their department. Also, they managed to recreate the effects of long range and interference
on actual communications. They were able to create substantial improvement on the quality
of the reception but they ascertained that while this may prove useful for sensor equipment
and navigation, there was no way around common obstacles in space.

Year 2350: Brow's death sadened the scientific community. However, in his honor, they
launched the Brow Project. Based on a new theory, a small team of the greatest scientists
were to work on making space travel even faster. Mars' Terraforming was also completed and
a lot of people were moved there. Communication with Alpha Prime system was also made but
all the other ships had not been heard from for several years now.

Year 2354: The Brow Project has its first success. Though they still aren't able to produce
the same effect on bigger objects, the assistant of the late Robert Brow apparently managed
to send his team mate's violin to jump speeds into the outer reaches of the Sol system in
what was supposed to be a funny prank. Basically, by creating a thick layer around the object
with technology similar to shieldings and releasing instantly a huge amount of energy they
were capable to maintain the object in one piece while it was going at near-light speeds.
The scientist declared, "I was just trying to stop him from playing with the thing, he
really isn't good at music". Note: his team mate suffered a major burn to his hand and also
didn't wake up for 3 days.

A lot of times passes without much technological improvement.

Year 2410: A supply ship coming back from Alpha prime bring a small quantity of unknown
material to the governement's laboratory. The new Brow Project crew is shocked by the
discovery. The official from the ship claimed it was found on an asteroid. He said it is
pretty rare but that it seems to have some interesting properties. By the end of the year,
the scientists had made, from a handful of that material, an extremely effective energy
source. They named the mineral Niguuit, in honor of Robert Brow's hamster.

Year 2412: governement authorised the lab to create a reactor from the material. In late
September, the reactor is done and shut down immediatly after almost melting down from the
excess energy. Using past research data about jump speed, the team successfully created the
a "jump coat" big enough to cover a small ship from the Niguuit reactor's produced particles.

Year 2417: After much testing, the scientists managed to extract enough power from the
fusion reactors, retain it and release it instantly to allow jump speeds for a small ship.
A protoype was made, the Brow Shuttle, sporting the new Violin Jump Engine, a system
sporting the niguuit to coat the ship and the fusion reactor with a accumulation chamber.
The shuttle jumped successfully. The team determined that the niguuit, while very efficient
was too dangerous to use any more than sparingly on a ship because extracting more energy
from it would cause it to shatter like a fragmentation grenade and if the energy was not
extracted, it would produce so much heat that it could melt a watermelon sized niguuit core
could melt an entire colonial ship.

Year 2418: A competent scientist left the team to create the Astral Company. With the money
he had gained from his work and all that he saved, he established a small mining operation
that was to grow extremely fast in the MS-02 System. Quickly, he assembled a huge research
team and established a fair amount of production.

Year 2439: Earth has now changed to a federation and stands united. Exploration has begun
slowly. Somehow, humanity fears the unknown space opening up in front of them.

Year 2441: Space weaponry begins appearing. Privateers apparently employ ships to attack
cargos and make profit out of it. The federation reacts accordingly and starts creating
fighting ships to maintain order.

Year 2501: Contact was made with a human race who call themselves the Kelen. They are a bit
reserved and think highly of themselves. They seem to have much advanced technology but they
refuse to share it. They have claimed that in they were to accept contact with the
Federation, they would first have to be converted to the Righteous Ways. They explained
that for this, they needed to abandon their existing technology and spend some time in the
Kelen temples where strict rules and teachings were to be taught. The Kelen have refused
any and all excuses for the federation to scout their space or trade technology. They have
however remained very peaceful and patient toward the federation. However, the way of life
of the Kelen seemed like worlds apart from those of the Federation and very few have been
tempted to join the Kelen. Actually, defection is an extremely rare thing to see.

Year passes with relationships staying the same. The Kelen remain an almost total mystery for
the Federates. But the Federation was eager to discover about their technology and several
attempts have been made to retrieve any information. After a few months, the Kelen grown
impatient and the relations got tense. The Kelen then declared that if any more attempts
that violates their beliefs were made in their space, they send back the federate ships
back where they belong with force. A few attempts have been made soon after that statement
because the federation did not believe that the Kelen would seriously use force against them
since they were always so patient and peaceful. But the crew of the ships were returned
along with damaged ships into the federate space. No casualties were suffered however.

Year 2586: The federation was stubborn and their ambition and desire to become even greater
drove them to use desperate actions. A small ship was built, mounted with the best existing
engines and heavily armored hulls and strong shields they sent this scout into Kelen space
in the hopes of reaching their home world and ask directly to the leaders to trade.
A special crew was created, counting 2 scientists (1 from astral company and a federate one),
a diplomat, 2 elite pilots and 2 expert tactical soldiers sent directly by the ministry of
defense boarded the ship along with some cargo that was the latest technology they were
hoping to trade against some Kelen equipment. The ship was then equipped with a special
device to create a lot of interference in the hopes that this way, the kelen wouldn't catch
it before they could land and meet with the leaders.

The ship launched and scouted Kelen space. They activated the interference device and
contact was lost. A month later, which was a surprisingly long amount of time compared
to other ships, the ship was thrown back into federate space. The ship didn't seem to
suffer much damage, aside from the hull being slightly and strangely bent. But to
everyone's astonishment, the crew, except 1 pilot and the soldiers had died. There were
apparently no corpse left. In the official announcement, the federation only mentionned
that they had acertainned that the Kelen had killed those people. The surviving crew members
were not seen after making their report to the ministry of defense. The ministry of defense
has been very reserved lately and even the President seemed confused about the matter,
claiming they were still investigating what had happened. The minsitry of defense however,
did not make any official comment.

The relations got as tense as ever.

And here is where the player starts.

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 26 March 2006 - 05:41 PM

Sounds interesting. Good luck!

Thanks! But it's not luck I will need, it's time and determination.
Currently I'm messing with the whole rebalancing ships and creating outfits thing. Not very far in it yet but I'm starting to have enough to actually start making a few dudes and flets to test my weapons and outfits on.
The one thing that's slowing me down is estabilishing a new balance between damage, regen, fuel drain/ammos, and ship stats.
You can get a general idea of how I want to balance outfits, weapons and ships in the beggining of my previous post.

And I will have to fix something weird happening.. ships having Null as a name which are in none of dude types and pers and appearing somehow... probably going to find I did a mistake somewhere in the ships or govts or something.. not bothering me much for now.. I hardly cower in fear when a weaponless shuttle says it hates me.

Progress:
Systs: 90% (only need to set Dude Types and %)
Spobs: Done
Ships: 2%
Outfs: 5%
Weps: 5%
Descs: 0%
Misns: 0%
Dudes: 2%
Flets: 2%
Pers: 0%
Background: Done
Story: Rough draft: Done
Time spent working on it: roughly 20 hours.

Since most people must've already forgotten about it, or must think it went vapourware, I'll post a progress log of the work I've done so far. I'll also bump the thread up because I didn't have much constructive criticism about my ideas for the TC so far.

Updated Log
Ships: 95% (some variants, some testing remains, but that's pretty much all.)
Outfits: 50% = > 75%
Spobs: Done
Systs: Done
Weps: 99,9% (A more extensive testing and a bit of fine-tuning is all that remains)
Descs: 10% = > 15%
Misns: >0% (I started ) = > >1% (outlined every mission for a grand total of 103 "string missions" and some random ones will be added. Also done a bunch of bbs missions and done the intro to a string)
Significantly updated the files, matched picts, set availbility, started playing a bit with graphics, doing lots of concept art.
Other: if you look at my my 1st post in the thread you can see the background for the TC. I also outlined quite clearly what is going to be going on in the universe, relationships between factions, etc. I have a pretty clear idea where I'm going. Oh, and I'm alpha testing about everything I make though it will need better testing to ensure that everything is exactly as intended and to squash bugs I could've stuck here and there.

So, overall, it's going slowly but surely. I'm still kind of stuck, graphic-wise. While I may be interested in learning to model and all, it's still quite a bit of work. Anyway, right now, everything is made so it still looks fine with original nova graphics. But hey, who wouldn't like a good feeling of total newness by making some brand new ones. Plus I would ditch the weird feeling you'd get from seeing nova things in the TC where they are kinda different things, but look the same.

I'm not saying much more because I don't wanna spoil anything to anyone. If you want more info just for the sake of it, to give a more accurate opinion or, even better, to offer a bit of help, feel free to PM me.

Oh and by the way, at the rate it is going currently, I'm estimating it's going to be done by the end of August (this year.. heh) if nothing changes. By nothing changes, I mean not getting any help and not remaking all the graphics from scratch. For those who need proofs here is a preview from the intended map. I didn't want too large a galaxy, but I am considering making it bigger - will do for now though.

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 13 May 2006 - 10:38 AM

(nevermind)

This post has been edited by floop : 23 April 2006 - 09:44 PM

What pics you want, there is no new graphic :mellow:

Well, there are. A few. Mainly weapons graphics because they are rather easy to alter and even then I mainly only altered their color.

I'll try getting a few nice screen shots from a fight when I go testing what I add. It's probably going to be different than what it's going to be when it's out though. Because I'll have to change fine-tune how things are balanced and it's going to be way different if I can get my hands on new graphics.

EDIT: Got a few screens:
Fight #1 Pirates vs Feds
Fight #2 Pirates vs Feds again, this time however it's the other way around :laugh:
Fight #3 Me making feds angry, in Sol System, their home.
Fight #4 Me getting jumped by angry feds.

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 24 April 2006 - 06:41 PM

@mumbling-psycho, on Mar 26 2006, 02:59 PM, said in My TC's Story/Progress/Info:

Thanks! But it's not luck I will need, it's time and determination.

Alright. Nobody wish him luck. Or at least bad luck.

Sarcasm aside, sounds interesting, hope it come to fruitition.

This post has been edited by The CrimpMaster : 24 April 2006 - 07:38 PM

Well, thanks

What about the story?

And while I doubt most read the linked post as well, explaining my goal in the balancing of the game, I'd like to hear some words about 'em, too

I'll make a brief recap of my balacing ideas just to avoid boring you with specifics but allowing you to tge the general idea:
Basically, compared to the stock game, ships are going to be much more "extreme" in the sense that capital ships are going to be really what capitals ships are: Big, slow, tough chunks. As the size goes down, ships become a bit faster but maneuvrability is where it's at. That's going to be an important aspect.

Weapons are going to be much more specialised as well. Some weapons may be made to tear shieldings while others are made to tear armor. Some trade firepower for accuracy. A good example is how I set up missiles and torpedos. Missiles are going to be bad news on fighters, but on a capital ship, they'll fare about as well as a toothpick especially because of regeneration. While torpedos are quite hard to aim (trust me on this one) but it will carve huge chunks of your capital ship.. however your fighter is most likely to shrug it off when it sees it fly by a good 10 miles away from you without you even noticing.

Overall, while it will still be possible to make your ship good all around, picking specific tasks for each ship is going to be way better.

That's it for the recap. Other than that, I think I can pull my current goal off, given time. The problem is I can't help the weird feeling of seeing the same stuff as in the stock nova flying around. This is especially true when I see a Fed. Destroyer turn slower than it used to be, then unleash it's plasma battery, which used to be polaron torps. While you can still guess it hurts, it hardly has a similar effect. Polaron torps were those limited things that totally blew the hell out of ships, now you're looking at a barrage meant to be fired at large ships, or enemy fleets.
I would definetely love new graphics. I've actually already thought of what ships could look like. But I'll start by finishing the "main" things, only then will I worry about actually getting those new graphics in.

Well it sounds good so far. If I could help trust me I would offer. But being as I can't I will offer the only 2 things that I can. Keep up the good work!. And, Lemme know when you need beta testers, 'cus it sounds like fun and I cant wait. Oh and the story sounds good. Its lengthy but whatever. I did find some gramar errors and spelling ones as well but thats not that important, well, least not to me Have fun makin it!

Why thank you!

As far as the mistakes go, I'll admit my native language is not english, that's why. Even if it was I guess every one makes mistakes every once in a while

Well if your native 'tongue' isn't english you did quite good. I probably would have had more mistakes but I dont know how many times you have checked your rough draft. When I make a post I look over it atleast 5 times and I still often have mistakes. Then I edit my post once or thrice(3 times). Oh and what is your native language by the way?

I'm a french bastard, not from france though. A damn canadian :laugh:
And I checked it only once. I'm usually pretty good at intuitively correcting myself. And I have found I do not have that much of a hard time to learn new languages. Anyways, this is off-topic.

Anyone has comments/feedback/ideas/suggestions/peanuts on the story or balance?

EDIT: Here is a link to a FAQ/ReadMe that will come with the TC
I will also create a small guide for the TC when I'm done.
Download if you're interested. Give me a poke in the ribs if the download doesnt work or if the FAQ's format isn't very friendly with you (ie totally messed up, or your computer can't read it, something like that.)

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 27 April 2006 - 08:52 PM

Well.. after reading a topic about free modeling apps I decided to give a try at making new graphics since I was heavily bored today.

Here's the result of my 1st day of messing around. I present thee an angle of what I want my federate destroyers to look like, in a not yet textured screen shot!

Note: I'm a n00b at graphics.. except hand-drawn and even then I'm not that great an artist.

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 06 May 2006 - 06:34 PM

I do graphics and I'm not very involved in anything as of now. If you would like some assistance, just get my attention. Be it through this board or email...

Hey! I started that topic! Well more serioulsly(sp?) my offer for beta testing still stands just let me know when you need someone and I check this board more often than e-mail so talking here is the best bet for getting my attention. Wait...Nova or WinNova? Not that it matters a whole lot for me(I have both comps but the Windows is significantly faster). Keep up the good work! And have you made much progress sence your last progress log?

I updated the existing progress log you can see above.

@Dr. Neverhood:I would LOVE to get help with graphics. I could do hand-drawn concept art, scan it and upload it. Anyways, look at your pm inbox, I'll send you some contact info.

@Wonderboy: thanks for the beta testing offer. I'll let you know when I reach that stage. It's not too far but not quite there, either.

I don't like double posting but I'll have to anyway since editing won't bump the post, so here we go.

First, a playable alpha version is around the corner.
Second, here is yet another progress log:
Ships: done
Weapons: done
Outfits: 95% very few remains.
Spobs: 95% thought they were done, will have to update them, forgot the domination part.
Systs: done
Dudes: 95% only those tied to dominating spobs remain.
Fleets: done
Descs: 10% this is going to be the last and longest part to finish. From missions, by hiring to bar descs, many remain to write.
Missions: 1% going smoothly but taking a while as I'm writing their descs as I create them.

Overview, basically, everything but the missions and descs is done. A few other minor things may add up on a need basis for the missions.

Also, there is a high probablity that there will be lot more than a few lightly modified graphics. Yes, I just stumbled on an old friend of mine who is skilled in modelling and such things who happened to be bored and has a bit of time. Not too much time, but some. Also, I've been doing concept art here and there to help the designing of ships. So another plus for the TC, completely new graphics.

And finally I've been thinking of setting up a few soundtracks to spice things up a bit during "crucial" moments.

I'll be relasing an alpha version when I will have, at least, a basic complete universe with all its descs, ships, outfits save maybe for new graphics and possibly not every missions but at least several done. A cautious estimate says about one or two more months, but definetely it will certainly be out only when it will be out.

I will keep my word and even if I should not be getting those graphics, I will release something playable you can count on that. It's been made a matter of pride because of the 'vapourware' comments I got when I started this.

Mumbling Psycho, on May 14 2006, said:

A cautious estimate says about one or two more months

I know its only been 9(ish) days but a progress log would be nice sence this still sounds like a excelent TC. I say it feels like it has been longer but that may just be me.

Mumbling Psycho, you are a FAST worker. geez.

@nelsonic, on May 23 2006, 09:37 PM, said in My TC's Story/Progress/Info:

Mumbling Psycho, you are a FAST worker. geez.

Maybe he doesent have a life other then Nova? Not that I'm complaining mind you.