Develop for what engine?

After several years (four?) of playing EV (and EVO, and its plug-ins), I still haven't made a significant plug-in. Projects have come and gone, and I've participated in developing many of them, but I hope that before EV dies out or undergoes some kind of evil fate, I would finish actually creating a real plug-in - most likely a large total conversion.

The question now, however, is which engine I should develop this for. Actually, I came across this question before - when Override came out. I decided EVO was the better choice, but I waited, because EV had some tools that facilitated things that Override didn't have (Schmelta-V, Pontus's Map Tool; and no, don't tell me about the ways to get around the inconveniences). Eventually, things grew stale, and I never finished my plug-in (or got much done anyway).

Override has finally established itself. Yes, there are still some avid Escape Velocity fans who dislike Override, but I think EVO is very much alive and in good condition.

So do I start now (well, considering how busy I'll be, I probably wouldn't start until a long break from school) with Override and the tools it has, or do I risk waiting for EV3 and tools for that?

The risks involved in waiting for EV3 are depletion of the EV community (which has happened somewhat), the chance that it'll actually stay unfinished, and my own eventual disinterest.

Enough ranting by me. Suggestions, anyone?

heres what you do, you develop a plug now for EVO 1.02, so you can use all the new features. While people like me who like EV better than EVO, that just goes for the storyline and the ships and stuff, the engine, we're all in agreement is much better. If you make a tc for EVO, they'll play it. So make a Total Conversion, add on plugs usually aren't worth d/ling (some are) but total conversions let you set the rules for everything. Then when EV3 comes out, either port your plug, or make anotherone.

Chamrin

EVO has a much more advanced engine than EV. Pontus released EVO Developers Map earlier this year. You can easily work around Schmelta-V's EV-only compatibility, as the mďsn, düde, and përs resources aren't too modified from EV. Whatever you do, do not wait for EV3, because it will probably be in beta well over a year from now.

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•AndrewˇM•

I only use Shmelta for missions. It's eaten my plug before with Dude's and Pers's. Besides, the res versions of those resources aren't that hard to deal with.

Missions are another story. Unite would not be in Alpha if it was not for Shmelta-V...

As for Pontus's (Ponti?) map tool, it's available for EVO now.

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EV Haiku- by Matt Burch

Floating chunks of rock
Space bomb drops too soon- kaboom
time for escape pod

Well, the way I see it, the most time-intensive parts of a plug-in are the graphics and the plot/universeconcept. You can develop the graphics independantly of any engine, and then render your models in whatever format is required when you actually make the plug.

And you can work out your stellar map with gasp pencil and paper beforehand, so you know exactly what you're doing when you make the plug. I mean, everything else is just number-crunching, right?

(BTW- There's now another engine- Ares!)

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Sundered Angel ,
The One and Only

Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

Quote

Originally posted by Sundered Angel:
**Well, the way I see it, the most time-intensive parts of a plug-in are the graphics and the plot/universeconcept. You can develop the graphics independantly of any engine, and then render your models in whatever format is required when you actually make the plug.
**

You shouldn't even have to do that... anyone with even a modicum of graphic skills and experience knows how to jump from file format to file format while minimazing loss and compression nastiness. In other words:
(list)
()Do your sprites now, rendering to RGB tiff files with an 8-bit alpha channel. Keep original copies of these as you can derive your sprites for EVO and EV3 from the same source files. (Everything i've heard about EV3 is 16-bit sprites with an 8-bit alpha. 8-alpha = GOOD THING.)
()Prolly do your landing pics now, but render at 2x of final size for EV3. Why? Gives you room to crop in Photoshop. The more pixels to work with, the better.

(/ist)

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Hey Mike, have you been getting my emails? There's lots to do on Nemesis which you said you would at least try to do. I have sent numerous emails and haven't recieved even 1 reply. If you don't want to work on Nemesis (which would be too bad since I hoped you would and if you don't then the plug is pretty much dead and buried) then please have the decency to at least email me and tell me. Also I will be posting a new Alpha release of Nemesis with numerous system fixes. There aren't any mission changes though. EMAIL ME!!!!!

Phoenix

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(url="http://"http://commonwealth.cjb.net")Commonwealth Software(/url)