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-- added two new ships, a freighter and a scoutship -- reduced the price of the shuttle from 888000000 to 10000 -- added missions, planets, and a few systems -- set mission bits to allow the player access to expanded areas of the galaxy - the player starts out restricted to the Imperial Cluster, but can find new areas by completing missions -- added new main-gun type weapons to make VLS and GWDF cruisers more competative with the Scrren cruisers and each other -- added new original smoke trails to most missle weapons -- fixed lots of other little things (including comm dialogue ship pictures)
I'm getting really sick of working on this thing again, so I'm going to try and finish it up once and for all this weekend. I have two questions:
Is anybody waiting out there to try and finish it up?
If you're planning on adding to my plug, would you rather have me upload it as a sigle gigantic plug-in, or leave it separated into several smaller plug-ins? Right now I have it split into a "Main" plug, a "Missions" plug, a "Titles" plug and a "Graphics and Sounds" plug.
As usual, I will take any complaints, compliments, or suggestions.
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It's almost not-finished? ALRIGHT! I don't plan to add on to it.....yet. I just plan to play it! Keep it up!
Quick Question: Any missions for the Scrren? Those are my favorite guys and ships, have you made it so the player can help them and eventually buy their ships? I hope so!
BTW, thanks for semi-finishing it, though I have never made a plug-in, I am sure mission work, and touch-ups, and all that stuff is REALLY boring, but don't give up yet! I am looking forward to it!
------------------ - Captain Stud Beefpile - UE Naval 238th Squadron - Azdgari Squadron "Firebird" Leader - Member of the Zacha Renegade Elimination Corporation
Unfortunately I have no plans to write missions for the Scrren (or for pirates, or Nassanites, or slavers, or the Pleiades Union, or the Guild Worlds, or for most of the major corporations), although since you request it I'll consider putting one or two in just as a teaser. The good news is that there are many mission improvements in the Imperial Cluster area, so if you're just going to play the plug-in, you'll likely have more fun.
I must say, though, this would be a perfect oportunity for you to try your hand at mission writing. It's really not hard, just a bit tedious. Better yet, get a couple other people together and try to finish the darn thing.
Overall, I think you'll enjoy the improvements I've made.
Yes, from what I have heard, mission writing is the worst part of making a good plug-in. I was playing the old version earlier, and bought myself a VLS Cruiser, and headed out to Scrren space, try beatin up some of the sweet looking aliens. I noticed a few things:
When I got back to Vespasian Space, they hated me, but they hate Scrren, I kill Scrren and they hate me? Hopefully this has been fixed.
I used some of the Tempests, and those are amazing fighters! A few times, they actually split up into 2 squadrons, and began circling around a Scrren Cruiser, confusing the ship, and rarely got hit! Did you modify the AI, or was this just a fluke? I have NEVER seen EVO fighters do anything of this sort!
Where can i get this plug or previous versions?
It's on the addons page for EVO, it may be on the second page. I do reccomend waiting for the next version, but get the older one for a preview. It's a bit big (4.5 megs) but it's AMAZING!
About the VLS hating you for destroying Scrren vessels:
I think this had to do with the fact that the Scrren come in more than one variety. Some will attack you and others won't. Whatever the case may be, I think the problem has been solved.
About fighters:
The fighters in my plug-in are especially deadly, but not because of their firepower or performance. The only thing I really did was make them tiny, so turret guns and huge capital ships have a hard time dealing with them. Individually they're still easy to kill, but a swarm of five or six can do some serious damage. The Scrren have an especially tough time with fighters because they never used them until after they started fighting humans. On the other hand, the Scrren are native to the nebula, so they have weapons the humans have a tough time dealing with. The prime example is the Scrren torpedo. It will eat you for lunch unless you have the proper equipment (but that's another story).
About missions:
Writing missions isn't so bad, but coding them can be really annoying.
I'm shooting to be ready to upload the new version tomorrow, but it might be as late as Tuesday.
Oh no! You're going to finish it up!!! Why? I'm using lots of graphics from there (mostly outfit and weapons sprites/masks, some ship sprites/masks, and LOTS of sounds) in my plug in that I plan on putting up on the Add ons page when I finish it. Great, now where am I going to go for homemade weapon sprites, most sites just have ship sprites and images along with a few out fit images, only a few have weapon sprites and they only have one or two sprites that arn't very original. Please leave it as a plug for developers that can't do graphics or sounds and don't have the money to pay for custom graphics and sounds or enough to buy the soft ware (and hardware in my case, b/c for Strata I need OpenGL which requires a graphics accelerator card which I don't have, and I'd need a sound program and an electronic Keyboard, not the regular one I'm typing on mind you). I love it that I can use the graphics and stuff in my plug as long as I give you credit for them (which I'll do gladly of course). Please don't put this out as a complete plug for players!! Let us developers use the graphics and stuff you've done in our plugs, its such a great resource to use.
~Jedibrass
------------------ -author of "Dragerron" -OotS member -Star Wars and EVO nut.
JediBrass - Don't worry, he's making an incomplete updated version. He doesn't plan to finish it, he's just adding a few extra missions, and fixing a few items.
UniversalWolf - As long as it gets uploaded, I won't mind!
Once you release the new incomplete version, I would be happy to start adding mission strings for anything and everything. I need to polish up my mission-making skills because I'm hoping to help with the missions in the plug (url="http://"http://web4.integraonline.com/~ckey/cold/overview.html")Cold Blood(/url).
------------------ "Frogblast the Ventcore!" (url="http://"http://allenthar.50megs.com")Allenthar's Depot(/url)
(This message has been edited by Allenthar (edited 03-11-2001).)
Just so everyone is clear on this, I will not be finishing the plug-in. What I am doing is finshing a small portion of the plug so people who download it can play a little bit and get a feel for how it's supposed to go. Think of it as a free demo. The goal is to entice folks to think about finishing it, or at least adding to it.
Yes, the graphics and sounds and whatnot are still going to be usable by other people for their own plug-ins. Keep in mind though, that if you're using them, other people may be as well.
All for now.
Had a blizzard here in the Land of Cheese yesterday. It screwed up my plans a bit, so I'll need another day or so. Keep your fingers crossed.
fingers crossed
Things left to do:
--write text for 1 more mission --edit said text --tidy up (make sure starmaps don't reveal all systems, make sure the shuttle can't be sold for 250,000,000 credits) --write a good ReadMe file
If you can think of anything you'd like to see included in the ReadMe, now's the time to speak up!