~A P O P H I S~

New tc idea

here is an idea for a Nova TC I had. it is called Apophis, after the egyption god of evil and darkness. the story? in the year 2147, mankind discovered a means of traveling between the stars and quickley began to colonize other worlds. but as mankind spread, signes of a great calamity in space began to appear. dead worlds, stripped of life and light, scattered across the milky way. Evidince of many great empires wiped off the face of the world. then the Apophis apperead. (Hence the name) a vastly superior alian race determined to rule the universe, they quickly and efficiently began to attack and destroy the outlying regions of earth space untill only 3 planets were left, and a massive force of Apophis warships was met by a tiny fleet of Federation ships at saturn, in the last battle of the war. the Federation fleet was decimated, but it allowed time for a single ark to escape earth before the the settlements of mars, Eoropa, and finaly Earth fell to the Apophis. the Apophis settled the conquered worlds and enslaved the few humans left on them, but the Ark that escaped, called the Renegade Sky, made it to a small forest world on the edge of the milky way. dubbed Aether, the roman goddess of light, the people of Aether quickley settled and spread just enough to ensure their survival. 7 worlds were colonized, and on the edge of the milky way, can mankind survive?

rather than have several different mission strings, I was thinking there could be just one, but the decisions you make really have an empact on the outcome.

what do you think? If I can get some help making it, I might actually do it myself.

edit: anyone who would be willing to help, contact me at xivo123@yahoo.com. thanx!

This post has been edited by Yoda Almighty : 05 July 2007 - 04:05 PM

For starters. I hate to say it, but the story sounds very very cliche. It seems like half the TC suggestions involve evil mysterious alien races destroying humanity to some degree, or soon to destroy humanity. There's always clever ways to take the story, but the concept is nothing new.

So, what is your TC going to offer? What is its primary focus? Story? Combat? Puzzles? Varied? Something else?

Third, I recommend holding off on asking for help until you have something to show and significantg work done (like maybe 1/3). Very few people are going to be willing to form a team with yet another guy proclaiming that he is going to make a TC. And to be blunt, most people who jump on early tend to not know what they're getting in to and vanish. Not to say all do, just my experience.

Fourth, and most importantly, have you ever created plug-ins before? If not, I strongly recommend you go and make several so you can get an idea of what you're doing and learn how to do everything else rather easily. It'll make things forty times easier, trust me on that.

I believe said cliché has been rectified to some degree. thank you for informing me. as for what is has to offer, it's going to have all new graphics, more variety of ships, 8 or 9 different alien races, (and maybe a couple more minor races, like sirens. a race of aliens that feeds off radio waves that can scramble your radar and get you lost in a nebula.) but the main selling point is going to be the story. rather than have many different story-line's, I am going to have 1 to 3 ways of starting out and up to 40 possible outcome and what you say or do really has an effect on what happens. will you be a spy for humanity and rescue slaves from the Evil Apophis? will you uncover files that point to a terrible secret about the human race? will you leave the humans and join the Apophis to fight an even greater threat? will you finally bring peace to the universe?

will the world get taken over by hippies? probably. (Who knows? it could happen.)

I still have to work out all the kinks, but that is the gist of it. I will also add to it as time goes on. I already have someone helping, and for now, that should be sufficient.

any advice you would like to post her would be quite welcome.

Thanking you in advance, YODA

EDIT: I hace created plugins before, but never on this scale. also, I have no idea how to write missions, and how control bits work, but I am going to save that for when there is someone who does.

This post has been edited by Yoda Almighty : 06 July 2007 - 09:52 AM

@yamfries, on Jul 6 2007, 02:47 PM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

rather than have many different story-line's, I am going to have 1 to 3 ways of starting out and up to 40 possible outcome and what you say or do really has an effect on what happens.......I have no idea how to write missions, and how control bits work, but I am going to save that for when there is someone who does.

While I applaud you initiative, I've gotta say, this particular combination of statements really does not inspire confidence.

Word of advice: Don't overreach yourself. Branching to 40 possible endings? That's an enormous number of missions if the storyline is going to have any length at all.

This post has been edited by Lindley : 06 July 2007 - 03:14 PM

Think carefully about the branching. If there are only a few branching points with a few possible endings, this isn't too difficult. But what you're suggesting will be tough, perhaps much harder to do than six 40 mission linear-storylines. From the way you describe it, it seems that every mission has an effect on future ones? This could mean something like...

1 leads to 2A and 2B

2 leads to 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D

3 leads to 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G, and 4H

4 leads to 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F, 5G, 5H, 5I, 5J, 5K, 5L, 5M, 5N, 5O, 5P

...and so on. This list has 31 missions total, but the player has only reached mission 4. It also has a possible 16 endings if mission 4 was the last. I suggest only a few branches here and there and just go with however many endings you wind up with.

Oh, and missions and bits aren't too difficult. Play with them a bit and you'll figure it out in no time. Its using missions for something other than basic missions that is difficult.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 5 2007, 11:43 PM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

It seems like half the TC suggestions involve evil mysterious alien races destroying humanity to some degree, or soon to destroy humanity.

Agreed. Where are all the mysterious alien races bent on stealing the secret of traffic lights and marketing a range of innovative hair-care products?

The interesting thing, though, is that as cliché as isolated-humanity’s-last-stand-against-the-alien-hordes stories are for science fiction in general, they’re relatively rare in Escape Velocity. Even stories based on the original game’s Great War usually involve a fairly large area of human space.

I’d echo JoshTigerheart’s warning about excessive branching, though. Even if you can get past the difficulties involved in creating a simple branching storyline, which created immense problems for the developers of EV Nova (who at least had the promise of being paid to keep them going), it can very easily end up making the player’s experience less enjoyable as they try to work out which branch they’re following and face the inevitable repetition.

Ya... I gotta practice with mission bits too :mellow: Other than that, I hope you have a lot of spare time on your hands (that's not an insult, I do :D) Making BIG plugs with a little knowledge of doing so can be grueling. Before I used spin app, I had to go into phtoshop and manually rotate each ship (ugh, memories). So in summary, good luck!

This post has been edited by Snaily : 06 July 2007 - 06:35 PM

okey, not 40. maybe 15. 8 good, 7 bad. and what I had in mind was something more like this...

start 1 leads to A1 and A2

start 2 leads to A2 and A3

start 3 leads to A3

A1 leads to B1 and B2

A2 leads to B2 and B3 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5

A3 leads t0 B3, B4, and B5 A1 A2 A3

...and so on. 1 2 3

it gets more interesting as the number's appreciate. (increase in value.)

I've also decided that I am going to have lots of mini empires scattered across the map, having little wars totaly oblivious to your existence.

As tempting as it might be, focus on the main stuff first. Worry about creating the mini-unimportant empires later.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 7 2007, 11:53 AM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

As tempting as it might be, focus on the main stuff first. Worry about creating the mini-unimportant empires later.

Of course. this is for a later date. as of now, the map is about 10% finished. I have 5 of the main Gov'ts, and several ships designed, though not yet spinned or rendered. I have started the first draft of the story line and I have it down on paper. I will post a sample later.

Happy flying!

Mission bits aren't actually that complex. Think of it like a switch.

0000
0000
0000
0000

For this example the first number will be bit 1, the next bit 2, etc.
Say your starter mission ends. You would make it activate bit 1.

1000
0000
0000
0000

The next mission would only be available if bit 1 was active (provided you set it that way).
On that completion you get:

1100
0000
0000
0000

Note that bits are non linear.
Nothing prevents me from setting the OnCompletion bit to, say, 7.

1100
0010
0000
0000

When the game reads a bit, it looks to see if it is active (1) or inactive (0).
You can also set multiple bits, for example, accepting a mission sets bit 5, but refusing sets bit 6.

On accept:
0000
1000
0000
0000

On refusal:
0000
0100
0000

That's the gist of it.
Test expressions look up or "test" to see if a bit is set or not. It returns 1 if true and 0 if false.
Set expressions set bits. They set 1 if true and 0 if false.
Note that a bit can be any number, so pick an unused one and use it. There's not a set amount of them, one is created to be true or false when it is included in the data. For example, bit 5 may exist, but bit 4 may not, because it is not used in the game (ever).
I hope you can understand this. For working with bits, a copy of the nova bits bible and nova bible are essential.

That's probably not the best example.

NCBs, aka Nova Control Bits, come in many flavors. However, the most used one you'll need is bxxx. By default all mission bits are turned off. You can change which ones are on in the char resource for that particular character. But basically, when you want a certain mission to be available that has bit requirements, something needs to activate it. This can be the char resource, another mission, outfits, crons, ships, perses, etc. If this mission is a one time only deal, when it completes, you'll want to !bxxx it, which will turn it off.

For example, the mission "Destroy John Doe!" requires b15 to be set and is a one-time storyline mission. Let's assume that this is the 5th mission of the string, the previous ones using b10-b14. So, the previous mission, on completion, will do !b14 & b15. This will prevent the last mission from recurring and will enable access to the next. Since the mission has no other requirements, the player can access it. On completion, it will do !b15 & b16, ending it for good and getting the mext mission ready.

Now, if you want it to branch out, you could do multiple things. You could evaluate bits for accepting, refusing, aborting, failing, completing ship objectives, etc. You can even use others that missions utilize Sxxx and Axxx and the like to abort and start new missions. Maybe say during a mission the player goes out of the way and lands on the enemy homeword and get captured. This mission is activated by b4330, which is set when the previous mission is accepted. The new mission requires b4330. When the player lands on the planet and is forced to accept the mission, it runs Axxx and aborts the mission they were doing (or Fxxx if you want it to fail). Say the mission resource I.D. was 747, then it'd be A747.

And note that, unlike most NCBs, bxxx can be any number 0-9999. The rest rely on I.D.s of various resources.

Hopefully that helps some. The best way to learn is to toy around with it all.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 23 2007, 02:28 PM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

That's probably not the best example.

NCBs, aka Nova Control Bits, come in many flavors. However, the most used one you'll need is bxxx. By default all mission bits are turned off. You can change which ones are on in the char resource for that particular character. But basically, when you want a certain mission to be available that has bit requirements, something needs to activate it. This can be the char resource, another mission, outfits, crons, ships, perses, etc. If this mission is a one time only deal, when it completes, you'll want to !bxxx it, which will turn it off.

For example, the mission "Destroy John Doe!" requires b15 to be set and is a one-time storyline mission. Let's assume that this is the 5th mission of the string, the previous ones using b10-b14. So, the previous mission, on completion, will do !b14 & b15. This will prevent the last mission from recurring and will enable access to the next. Since the mission has no other requirements, the player can access it. On completion, it will do !b15 & b16, ending it for good and getting the mext mission ready.

Now, if you want it to branch out, you could do multiple things. You could evaluate bits for accepting, refusing, aborting, failing, completing ship objectives, etc. You can even use others that missions utilize Sxxx and Axxx and the like to abort and start new missions. Maybe say during a mission the player goes out of the way and lands on the enemy homeword and get captured. This mission is activated by b4330, which is set when the previous mission is accepted. The new mission requires b4330. When the player lands on the planet and is forced to accept the mission, it runs Axxx and aborts the mission they were doing (or Fxxx if you want it to fail). Say the mission resource I.D. was 747, then it'd be A747.

And note that, unlike most NCBs, bxxx can be any number 0-9999. The rest rely on I.D.s of various resources.

Hopefully that helps some. The best way to learn is to toy around with it all.

Yeah, I'm probably not the best one to ask. I am completely self taught, so that was just my impression.

NCBs refer only to the actual bits. All the other operators are just called, well, 'operators'. But yeah, there are a set amount of them - always exactly 10000, from 0-9999.

@cosmic_nusiance, on Jul 23 2007, 01:53 PM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

I am completely self taught

That mkes two of us. Though your explanation was pretty accurate for Contribute/Require bits, even though that's not what you were trying to describe.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 23 2007, 10:15 PM, said in ~A P O P H I S~:

That mkes two of us. Though your explanation was pretty accurate for Contribute/Require bits, even though that's not what you were trying to describe.

LOL, at least I got SOMETHING right!

That actually sounds quite a bit like Ares. Not a terrible thing, mind you, but it is a story many people have probably heard before.

If you want to go for it, I don't actually see a problem with many different possible endings. But it's one thing to program and entirely another to write the story for. Is there actually 40 logical outcomes to the set-up you've given? Perhaps there's only a few good ones and the rest are there just because that's what you set out to do.

So, by all means, if you want to start programing it so that each mission has one or two choices for the player to make, and then your success or failure at those missions determines how things progress, go for it. But I would suggest that you start out by writing just what you want to have happen.

Start simple. Write some introductory missions and where it makes sense to branch, branch. Continue down one branch, and so on until you've reached a satisfying conclusion. Next, go back to the last branch and fill out the rest of the tree from there. Then go back further and do the same. Go back further and do the same.

But, my point is, don't start from the possible list of endings and work backwards. Let the story be the guiding force and only branch when the story wants to. Let each storyline end come about organically.

Honestly, don't let these other people get you down. Lots of branches isn't a bad thing, and really shouldn't take up too much of your time compared to the other things an EV Nova plug-in needs. Just make sure that you aren't having 40 endings because 40 is a nice number. Don't make every mission a possible fork in the road, let forks happen between mini-storylines. You are probably going to find that a lot less branches make sense for you and you can have a detailed and compelling story with relatively few choices leading to relatively few but fully fleshed out and unique endings. In other words, people are playing your plug-in again not because they want to see if one of the other 39 endings is more interesting but because they enjoyed the first one so much that they want to try the other 4 or 5 that are just as good.

That's very very similar to the storyline of halo. Mankind begins to reach into the stars, covinant (a vast and advanced alien race) declare hostility to them. In the battle of reach (second planet to earth) one ship (the pillar of autumn) escapes while the rest of the fleet is destroyed.

I was bored, so I did you a title screen. Tell me wacha think!
BTW, this image is at 500x500 pixels. The original is 2000x2000.
Apophis.gif (89.06K)
Number of downloads: 35

Jaw drops and hits floor at sight of Cosmic's Title Screen

A little help here?!

It looketh quite awesometh.