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Originally posted by Blue Burp Whurp Warp Hole:
I think I had a demo of Epsilon at one point in time. I have no idea where it is now, but it was realy cool and may have been a product of Ambrosia's secret Area 51, or a test game that was in VERY early beta stage and working on it halted. All I know is that I was in a dinky litle manta fighter. I couldn't shoot, and all I could realy do was bump into asteroids floating about like dead possums. BUT IT HAD A 3D ENGINE!!!!! serious, I'm not kiddin.
Actually thats not epsilon, its Exobattle, a freeware thingamajig, mostly game, made by Matt Burch.
I'm guessing you had an older version, go here to d/l the newest version, you can also get the source code and stuff, he stopped working on it, its not done theres still a few bugs, but its playable. (url="http://"http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~mburch/exobattle/")http://falcon.cc.uka...urch/exobattle/(/url)
Here's my friends site, it has a few things he made for it: (url="http://"http://www.jps.net/aierroc/exo/index.html")http://www.jps.net/a.../exo/index.html(/url)
Chamrin
Originally posted by Soviet mikee: **ahem
Who was the first one to guess that Nova would be packaged with its own engine? Mmhmm... back on the old EVO boards =p **
I didn't say that I don't enjoy reading your posts mikee, or that I thought that your suspicions were correct or otherwise, and yes, you were the first person to say that Nova would be packaged with its own engine way back when. However, I am not at liberty to say whether or not your guess (and the subsequent guesses of many others, including Shade) is correct.
BTW I'm glad you decided to stick around...
------------------
WHATS ATMOS!?!
heres another idea (they just keep on coming): make the player pay per square meter of armour plating and thickness.
ooh, i had another few but i lost them. i do really hope that matt burch and andrew W. are reading all my posts... :eek:
In EV and EVO we could run out of shielding, fuel and armor. But why do we have unlimited ammunition for our guns/turrets. I think their should be a gauge to show how much power is left in the guns/turrets. If they run out they would regenerate just like the shields. This would provide a challenge for players, and I think it would be a neat feature. I got the idea while playing Wing Commander IV.
------------------ "All will bow before the Icelandic Emperor."
"Join the Icelandic Coalition -- or be killed!" Someone should understand that.
Well while were at it lets make a high end EV3 for all those g3 and 4s and a low end one for old machines
but as for all your multiplayer begging, I have found a site for a new freeware cross platform (mac windows linux ect.) game called parsec. Its not out yet but it looks awsome and is supposedly going to be masively multiplayer (like ultima online)... go here for more info: (url="http://"http://www.parsec.org")http://www.parsec.org(/url)
------------------ Raptor ~If you find yourself trying to gather your thoughts ask yourself: 'How do you gather chaos...'
a few problems with parsec: a) its a space shooter. no trading/whatever, and no capital ships. its over 200MB download. even on cable that would take a long time. it requires 8 MB of VRAM to play. even my rev b imac cant do that.
conclusion: get termanius instead, its already out
I'd like to second the request for shootable missiles, bombs, etc. Maybe special projectile-targeting guns, that take up gun space, so it wouldn't be too easy. It just annoys me when this little missile waltzes through a hail of cannon fire.
------------------ "The impossible is easy; it's the unfeasible that poses a problem."
**heres another idea (they just keep on coming): make the player pay per square meter of armour plating and thickness.
ooh, i had another few but i lost them. i do really hope that matt burch and andrew W. are reading all my posts... :eek: **
umm...your paying for it per unit of armor already, just that your limited to however much is available in EV/EVO and plugs. In other words no matter how big your ship is the armor you buy will still sustain the same amount of damage for the same price.
Have you ever heard of a nuclear powered submarine or aircraft carrier running out of power? not happenin. the amount of energy expended for the weapons is so miniscul that you will never run out of power ( compared to how much you generate). but actually, to tell you the truth, i have never tried to fire for more than a few minutes straight. maybe you should try shooting for a few hours, tell me the results...
well, why dont we make asteroids and other ships collide too. wouldnt that be more realistic? <rolls eyes> come on now, do you think the missile would walk into the laser fire? we already have air-to-air missiles that recognize planes from chaff and flares by the angles the sun bounces off planes, dont u think it would be more advanced in the future? i mean we already have flares and jammers in ev/evo...
S
Dude, on offence, but do you have any idea how much energy it would take up to use the weapons that are decribed in EV/O? It would easily take up a full nuclear reactor just to power a focused laser capable of acually causing damage to anything long range. A focused particle weapon would also use enormous amounts of power, due to that you have to break apart the atoms or whatever, then you have to acelerate the particles to suficient speed, then you have to make sure that the particles are traveling in the same direction, and bla bla bla bla...
All said and done, it is quite costly in terms of energy consumption.
------------------ Confucius say: "Man who stand on toilet, is high on pot."
Originally posted by Sebastian: **well, why dont we make asteroids and other ships collide too. wouldnt that be more realistic? <rolls eyes> come on now, do you think the missile would walk into the laser fire? we already have air-to-air missiles that recognize planes from chaff and flares by the angles the sun bounces off planes, dont u think it would be more advanced in the future? i mean we already have flares and jammers in ev/evo...
**
What I am saying is, the missile wouldn't be maneuverable enough to avoid the shots, if this were to be as realistic as possible.
Originally posted by Nadekim: I Think different
Mark another hidden apple supporting message within a sentence ;).
------------------ "Do or do not. There is no try." -Yoda
First off sorry to everyone on the board. I was a little uptight last night...anyway, I think in the future their reactors would not have any problem running the weapons, but thats my opinion. I also think there should be a charge up time when the weapons go online. That would make sneak attacks better.
Maybe if you targeted them you could shoot them down...that certainly happens.
----------------------------------- Have you ever heard of a nuclear powered submarine or aircraft carrier running out of power? not happenin. the amount of energy expended for the weapons is so miniscul that you will never run out of power ( compared to how much you generate). but actually, to tell you the truth, i have never tried to fire for more than a few minutes straight. maybe you should try shooting for a few hours, tell me the results.. --Posted by Sebastian ----------------------------------- I'm sorry, but submarines and aircraft carriers don't fire energy weapons. Not to my knowledge, anyway. There must be some sort of energy needed to fire weapons, and that energy can be spent.
If this was already said, then well, I'm sorry. I don't have time to go through all those replies. I would like to be able to actually take over a planet. Not just demand tribute and collect money, actually take it over. As in make it part of your own government. Get stuff there for free, be able to get free escorts, etc. It'd be cool if you could design your own outfits and ships in the game itself. Being able to actually destroy planets wouldn't be that bad, either. Orbital Bombardment...heh heh... And, I'm sure this has already been said, make it networked. I wouldn't mind taking on some of my fellow EV/O players. Well, that's all I have for ideas right now.
------------------ -- Greg -- AIM Screenname: Food Velocity -- E-Mail: foodvelocity@mac.com -- Website: (url="http://"http://sites.netscape.net/foodvelocity/index")http://sites.netscap...dvelocity/index(/url) --"In the frozen bowels of hell, you will be flogged." -Greg Anderson
IMHO, the most important change from EV to EVO was the plot. In EV the only plot was the progression of one single pilot, in EVO, the whole universe could change as a result of your actions. I think that in EV3, this could be taken to its logical conclusion: The state of the universe could change gradually over time to reflect the strengths of the different governments, depending on the success or failure of the different governments, not just the player. For example, (taking the EVO universe), if the player doesn't intervene in the human-voinian war, the Voinians would gradually get stronger, voinian fleets would appear more frequently on the edges of human space, and eventually the humans might lose outpost gamma, the pax would go over to the voinians, then Verril prime, and so on, until if the player didn't realize it all of the western human systems would be gone. Then the player could push the voinians back by taking "destroy the fleet" and "bounty hunting" missions. If the player takes a "defend the system" mission and screws it up the voinians might capture the system.
To continue this possibility, each of the governments could have an overall strength value, which would reflect the frequency of their ships in and around their space. EVO already has multiple governments per percieved government, so it wouldn't be too hard to create an "human Frontier" government which would gradually lose systems to the "Voinian Frontier" if the player continued to screw up. Each of the human frontier systems could also have a voinian strength value for the attackers, when this value exceeded the human frontier strength, the system would be lost to the voinians and the player would have to work to get it back. These strength values might change as a result of the random bar missions such as "destroy the fleet" or "defend the fleet" and others.
I think the weakest part of the two games we have is the handling of the computer-controlled ships both allied with and against the player. Computer ships should be able to detect the monty python maneuver. They should also fire their turret and cannon weapons (the ones with unlimited ammo) even when the player is slightly outside the range. I know I fire mine when the enemy is just outside the range, knowing that they will probably close on me. AI ships with fighters should use their fighters intelligently to attack vessels that are attacking them, instead of launching immediately at one target. I should be able to choose from several different choices of AI for my fighters and escorts; examples off the top of my head include a "protect" mode for fighters where they will only attack enemies within a certain distance of my ship but not stray outside of that range, an "attack" mode like "f" on the default keys, a "defend" mode for turreted ships, where they will fly in formation with the player but attack any enemy within range and perhaps others. When I am flying peacefully in a fleet with my escort ships, they should turn to match the orientation of my ship, rather than the direction we are moving; this be graphically appealing. When the player launches fighters they should spread out a little, like they do comming out of hyperspace, instead of staying bunched up under their flagship. Renegade AIs in particular should know when they are up against hopeless odds (like a helian against a UE carrier and three crescent warships, a lazira and a voinian frigate) and they should run away. AI ships could even try using the monty python maneuver against the player. I think the player should be able to switch freely among the ships in their fleet, on second thoughts perhaps not freely but only when launching from a planet or exiting hyperspace.
Finally, in response to those of you who are calling for fancy 3D graphics and so forth, I say that this is a game in a 2D genre that has drawn a large following, and that because it is a 2D genre the 3D animation is entirely unnescessary. If you want 3D rendered ships go play wing commander or something, but you will lose the unique essence that makes Escape Velocity an awesome game. Putting 3D ships in a 2D simulator is wasteful of resources that could go to making devious AI's, an intense plot, and a dynamic galaxy.
Here are a few other things that I would like to see: A limited view of the space around a planet when the player is docked so the action would not really stop; spread-out turrets on the larger ships which aim independantly so the fire converges on the target; AIs which know how to use space mines; AI fighters which actively defend the mothership; Fighters in general which know not to attack from the direction of the enemy rocket-launcher; turrets on AI ships that know to shoot at any enemy figher in range, not just the targeted one (this includes AI ships that destroy your escorts and fighters).
I believe that if changes along these lines are made, EV3 can be much more than what EVO was to EV, but an entirely new genre-defining game, not to mention enjoyable and addictive. The original EV and EVO engine seems to have been designed very well as a single-fighter, mission oriented game, but the time has come to build on top of that a deeper level of tactics and game play. Of course, the design of EV3 is not at all up to me and will certainly differ vastly from what I expect but even if there are is no new graphical stuff at all if attention is given to some of these issues it will be one awesome game.
Poulenc.
Whoa! A newbie (I think) with an intelligent thing to say, doesn't ask for EVMP or EV3D and uses punctuation and paragraphs.
If your not a newbie then sorry, but I haven't seen you around. By the way, i think your suggesyoins (particularly the multiple escort AI one) were excellent.
------------------ Oh, I'm sorry. Did that break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue. I believe you were saying something about "best intentions." -Jules. Pulp Fiction
Message from Chamrin: Delete the url out of your sig, it messes up the webboard.
(This message has been edited by Chamrin (edited 07-03-2000).)
Targeting more than one ship might be nice. This sounds weird, but allow me to explain. It would be useful if a big slow warship is getting swarmed by fighters, i.e., each turret goes after one fighter. This would be more true to life, and it isn't quite so hectic, to have to keep hitting R, and holding down the fire button.
Along the escort line, carried fighters and escorts should definitely be more intelligent. What I would really like to see is a "disable only" mode, where they would just disable the ship, not kill it. If I sik (sp?) my fighters on an unsuspecting turncoat while I deal with his kraits, I have to keep watching the turncoat, to tell my fighters to cease and desist so that I can board him later. That makes it hard to fend off the kraits at the same time.
Escorts also should be aware of when they are outmatched, and stick with the mothership in that case. I've lost several escorts when they've gone after a Voinan cruiser before I can stop them.
Thirdly, fighters should break off a fight and return to the mothership for restocking after their shields get to a certain percent, or they run out of missiles, or something like that. In this case, I think an option to relaunch docked fighters automatically would be good.
Or, even better, have more than one secondary weapon key. An example would be: 1st secondary(insert key here): Pursuit Missiles. 2nd Secondary(insert key here): SAD Modules. 3rd Secondary(insert key here): Crescent Fighter Bay. Those ships with more than one secondary weapon wouldn't have to switch.
I have not posted in a great deal, so I'll elaborate on an idea that I had before. I said in my earlier post that when you land that it is like a get out of jail free card for you if you were being chased by rebels, voinians, etc. I thought that that was kind of lame because the chasing ships could land too and then they could capute you or whatever they wanted to do. I think that the spaceport needs a separate docking bay button where you can see what ships are docked/leaving or going. This would allow you not to simply walk-away scot free. An add-on would be the ability to perhaps steal technology/upgrades from docked ships...a shield computer, an extra cargo pod. This might be based upon you skill rating. You might end up getting caught, or you might not. It would be nice if you wouldn't lose any weapons space by doing this. Don't get this confused with boarding disabled ships. I like doing that, but it does have a few limits. You can't sabotage ships, or steal nonweapon upgrades. Anyway, enough of my wants. This forum is full of a lot of good ideas. I bet that some my end-up in EV3, and others will not. Between EV and EVO, correct me if I'm wrong, there didn't seem to be much of a big difference. There was a different universe, ships, plot, and weapons, but not anything major in the mechanical sense. I mean in EVO you weren't suddenly able to do new things. You could still board disabled ships, trade commodities, take over planets, etc. If EV3 follows suit, it may just end up being an EVO with a different universe, and with new ships/weapons/governments/plot. Not a lot of mechanical upgrades. Who knows? I may be totally wrong, wouldn't be the first time. But i encourage people to post new ideas about the game even though I won't believe anyone who says that the game will be this way or that way because the know someone who knows someone. Not until it is posted on the ev3 section of ambrosias site and not on the forum will i believe anything.
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"Thats one plus two plus two plus one."
Wadsworth Clue
3DEV??? Who'd of believe such a thing.
Tho a fight with a Voinian Dreadnough in a certain modified Exobattle engine does look pretty cool
evil
------------------ tear it down / AIM: G2uidehatr
Just a couple of feature suggestions:
1. non-sprite weapons, like vector laser weapons.
2. a shield effect when you get hit, similar to Ares.
3. ship blind spots. Depending on the directions you approach any enemy ship (or visa versa) they would be "invisible".
4. a more complex navigation map, possibly a 3D coordinate map that could be rotated.
Well, there's my thoughts, feel free to expound on them or trash them.
Allenthar