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The technicalities of making a plug are all lined out in the EVO Bible, but I want to how people actually go about at doing this. What are you doing when you get your ideas? What order do you edit the resources? What kind of notes do you take? Do you outline the story beforehand? Exactly how many people are part of your development team? How do you communicate with them? How do you merge the plug-in? How do you consult the EVO Bible (search, contents, etc)? Anything else along these lines?
------------------ Signed, Brian Schack "DOS Computers, manufactured by millions of companies, are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form." --The New York Times, November 26, 1991 (also quoted in MacAddict 4)
Well, I develop my plugs solo, so here's how I go about doing it. I think about it for a while, then search through the Add-On page for plugins with a similar theme, e.g. what I am working on now, Star Wars. Then, in my boring classes in school, I outline the storyline and missions, and make crude layouts of some of the resources I want to use. The order I make my resources in is: wëap, gövt, shďp, oütf, düde, flët, s˙st, spöb, and then mďsn. It doesn't really matter at what time you make the other resources. If I ever do work with someone, which doesn't happen too often, I try to communicate on AIM or IRC, and I assign people to non-conflicting resource development. This means that if you are doing shďps, don't assign someone else to do düdes. There's another post on this topic somewhere else on the boards; you'll have to look for it.
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Originally posted by Ellmist: **The technicalities of making a plug are all lined out in the EVO Bible, but I want to how people actually go about at doing this. What are you doing when you get your ideas? What order do you edit the resources? What kind of notes do you take? Do you outline the story beforehand? Exactly how many people are part of your development team? How do you communicate with them? How do you merge the plug-in? How do you consult the EVO Bible (search, contents, etc)? Anything else along these lines?
**
I don't believe there is any single method of building a successful plug; different procedures work for different people. I would recommend that you plan as much as possible before actually starting to create resources. Write things down, either in text files or the archaic pencil and paper method (I have about a dozen legal pads lying around with notes on various plugs). You should probably outline the main story and subplots, create descriptions and histories of the various races and governments, decide what types of ships and technology each group uses, what sort of society they have, how much (if any) of the galaxy they control, what types of planets they colonize and how they develop them. The more advance planning you do, the less you have to make up as you go along.
I suggest creating any systems and spobs first, the they are sort of the 'framework' of the plug, government should be done early, also. Ships and outfits could come nest. Missions should probably be the last resources actually coded, because they depend on all the others. (But you should know what the missions are going to be before you start coding at all.)
As for development teams, my experience is that a team of more than 2 or 3 prople doesn't last long, a larger group tend to be very fluid as people lose interest or develop other demands on their time, while others learn of a project and ask to join. Communication among team member can be by e-mail, mailing list, chat, webboard, or any combination - but it should be frequent.
How do you merge the plug-in? With great difficulty Very early in a team development project the resource ID numbers are divided and assigned to the various members of the team, so that (if everyone follows the plan) there are no conflicts with two or more people trying to use, say, ship #145. It usually become the duty of one of the more masochistic members of the team to assemble all the parts into a functioning whole.
Hope this vaguely resembles what you wanted.
Good luck with your plug.
I have never released a plug, but I made some for myself. I develop in fragments. One plug file per major resource (ship, syst, outf, govt), one file per misn string. Each resource file works alone in EV for testing, and they work together to create an extended EV universe. Some are mutually exclusive, this condition is readily detected by the filenames. My files are named after the major resources and ID #s used in the file. This system breaks down when dependencies get complex (misn string uses 6 dudes, which use ships in other files, which use outfs in still other files, govts all over the place).
I also have a file, EV mods, which does nothing but modifies the standard resources.
I get my ideas while cruising the net. Right now, I have several idea fragments sitting on my disk.
------------------
Does it matter?
I started with ships, went to weapons and outfits, created government, started on systems, created planets, made a bunch of dudes, made graphics for the outfits, started thinking about the exact detail of missions, debugged, typed this...
------------------ Silent Night will be converted to Nova! Should be done in 2 years! ------==========------ If you look far enough on the horizon, there will always be a cloud.
When I did The Dark Beyond, I went in this order: Govs Weapons&Outfits; Ships Dudes Systs Spobs Misn Pers Junk
------------------ (url="http://"http://members.home.net/genea16/Rift.html")Rift Homepage(/url) (url="http://"http://pub101.ezboard.com/briftwebboards")Rift Webboards(/url) (url="http://"http://members.home.net/genea16/Dark.html")The Dark Beyond Homepage(/url) Apparently, common sense isn't so common...
I really just implement things as I figure out how I want to implement them.
------------------ David Arthur (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for Classic EV(/url)
I ushally completely develop the story, plot, and universe in my head before I do anything on the computer. Then, I do things in this order:
govt weap outf ship dude syst pers misn
The rest of them are pretty much not dependant on other resources, so I just do them when I get bored with one of the above.
I'd like to get a team togather, but I've gone solo in the past, except now I'm working with Pecimist Guy on The Silent Runis of Earth(aka the "Incomplete Plug").
------------------ Cuz I'm a 21st Century Digital Boy I don't know the Monty Python but I've got a lotta toys My daddy is a Renegade, his name is Hellcat Helian Wait a second...
Here's how Galaxy's Edge was developed.
1: I thought up the setting, governments, and a basic idea of the plot (no specific missions yet)
2: I came up with a detailed set of rules for designing ships and weapons so that they'd be balanced for their cost. I can give you the rules if you want. Then I made a list of all the ships and weapons to make, stating their names, tonnages, governments, tech levels, and ship type (freighter, fighter, warship), but not the actual statistics for the ship. I used the design rules to complete one ship - the shuttlecraft.
3: I made the map. This was done using Forge, the map editor for Marathon Inifinity. I created a new map, called it "Solar System," and saved it. Then I used Chisel to create a series of circle off in the corner of the map with 128 points (0 - 127), so that the next point would begin at 128. Then I created a series of concentric circles in the middle of the map. I quit Chisel and opened the map again with Forge. Then I connected the circles and added moon systems where I wanted planets to be. Then I double-clicked on the points one at a time to get their coordinates, and assigned the same coordinates to the s˙st with the same number as the point, and linked it to all systems it's next to. I also made the first spöb - Earth.
4: I created all the major gövts.
5: I created all the sun, and all rest of the planets and their moons (but not all the asteroids, stations, and comets)
6: I made all the weapons, ships and outfits.
7: I finished the system with all the asteroids, stations, and comets, and created the Aristotle system.
8: Made all the missions.
------------------ Download Galaxy's Edge for EVO at (url="http://"http://www.galaxys-edge.f2s.com")http://www.galaxys-edge.f2s.com(/url)
i just do everything as it comes into my head, which is why i'm stuck on missions.
------------------ well, with a little gas, some love, and a bottle of ketchup
Originally posted by Ellmist: **The technicalities of making a plug are all lined out in the EVO Bible, but I want to how people actually go about at doing this...
What did I say? There have so far been 9 replies and 9 different answers to your post. There are many paths that lead to the same destination.
May I suggest you also look at the topic on this page 'Production Values for plug-ins" started by Martin Turner .
Originally posted by Deepwood: **Well, I develop my plugs solo, so here's how I go about doing it. I think about it for a while, then search through the Add-On page for plugins with a similar theme, e.g. what I am working on now, Star Wars.
Do you have any method for knowing if any similar plug-ins are being designed but have not been released yet?
Then, in my boring classes in school, I outline the storyline and missions, and make crude layouts of some of the resources I want to use.
Originally posted by Joseph Burnette: **I don't believe there is any single method of building a successful plug; different procedures work for different people.
I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough. I meant that I wanted to ask as many people as possible what they thought to find out my options.
I would recommend that you plan as much as possible before actually starting to create resources. Write things down, either in text files or the archaic pencil and paper method (I have about a dozen legal pads lying around with notes on various plugs). You should probably outline the main story and subplots, create descriptions and histories of the various races and governments, decide what types of ships and technology each group uses, what sort of society they have, how much (if any) of the galaxy they control, what types of planets they colonize and how they develop them. The more advance planning you do, the less you have to make up as you go along.
Originally posted by David Arthur: **I really just implement things as I figure out how I want to implement them.
What you mean when you say "as I figure out how to implement them"? Do you figure it out in your head? What questions do you ask yourself? If you use notes, can you give me an example of them?
Originally posted by 21st Century Digital Boy: **I ushally completely develop the story, plot, and universe in my head before I do anything on the computer.
What questions do you ask yourself? How do you make the most original of your plots?
Then, I do things in this order:
I often set myself a problem, and then try to see if there can be a solution within the game engine.
For example, in original EV, there were varioius systems (Altair, Zebetrious, a couple of others) that had no planets. I got to wondering, what could the reason be for having no planets. Two of the answers I came up with were 1) the planet was destroyed and became an asteroid storm and 2) the system was eaten up by a black hole.
My next question was: in the game, is it possible to make an angry asteroid storm, and is it possible to make a black hole.
It took me a few days to figure that out, and then a few hours of tweaking to make them actually work.
Next question I asked myself: what impact would that have on the storyline? For example, if you were going to rescue someone from a wrecked ship, there would have to be something that wrecked the ship in the first place. So, rescue missions in asteroid storms.
Also, if you have a black hole, wouldn't it get bigger? Wouldn't it one day get so big it would have an impact on other systems? And wouldn't the very greatest pilot in the galaxy be asked to sort it out. And, if so, what kind of weapon could be huge enough to destroy a black hole, and who would have it?
After that, the story writes itself.
Another case in point. According to the Nova Bible, there are jump gates and worm holes. However, in my universe there are no jump gates. So, I have three choices. I could 1) Pretend they were always there but no-one noticed in EVO Frozen Heart (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer's sister) or 2) Ignore them entirely and not use that feature (seems such a shame) or 3) work out some reason why jump gates are no longer used, and why it would be incredibly dangerous to attempt to use them, and why somebody would decide to do it anyway, and how this would tie in with black holes and time travel and all kinds of nasties.
3), on the face of it, seems the most rewarding path to take.
We'll see where it goes.
------------------ M A R T I N T U R N E R
Secession, my only released plug, (as opposed to the many ones which I have thought up and occasionally actually began to work on as well), began with a plot idea from playing EVO. I said, "What if Huron wasn't the only planet that desired its independence from the UE?"
I developed and revised the plot a number of times both before and during the creation of the actual resources. I discarded a number of ideas which just didn't fit with the way I wanted the plug to go (an alternate plotline where you work with the UE to stop the secession, a massive battle between the CC and the UE, further exploration into and beyond the Proxima Nebula by the renegades, etc.) I also redid the plot in much greater detail after the very first beta test (v0.8) made it clear that my initial conception of the plug was far too brief.
I think as far as actual resources go, I started with the missions, and added in other things (systems, spobs, govts, dudes, fleets) as they became necessary. The ships and weaponry were designed more or less simultaneously based on two ideas: 1) to create things which had not been previously seen in the EVO universe (thus raptor bombs and a carrier with two different types of fighters), and 2) to produce a plausible merger of UE and Strandless technologies which was powerful, but not unbalancing to the game. Perss and junks were the very last resources I added, because they are basically "eye candy" with very little effect on the gameplay.
My development team consisted of me, myself, and I.
I printed the EVO bible out on paper for reference, and put it in a binder with tabbed dividers for the different resources. But I also make heavy use of the Annotated bible, which has a similar layout.
I didn't especially worry about whether another plug with a similar idea had been made (although I was pretty sure there hadn't). As I see it, if I'm making a plug from my own ideas, with my own story concepts, my own graphics, and my own resource editing, it's fairly unlikely to be bothersomely similar to anyone else's work.
Really, there's no one way that works. It depends entirely on your own work habits and creative methods. I'm pretty sure that I would go insane using magicianeer's "multi-part plug" method, or Martin Turner's "I wonder if I can make the game engine do this" method, but they work just fine for them.
It also depends quite a bit on the type of plug you plan to make. Since Secession was an extension of the existing EVO universe, spobs, systs, and govts were not a big concern for me, as they were mostly variations on things which already existed. If I had been making a TC, or something like F-25, though, they would have been much more important, and I would have probably developed them before worrying too much about the missions.
Just start making plugs! If you're at all like me, your first three or four concepts will fizzle or be unsatisfying, but don't worry about it. Sooner or later an idea will hit you that you just have to make into a full-blown plug, and you're off!
(edit - just fixed up a couple of mistakes)
------------------ Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. - Albert Einstein The loss of enemies does not compensate for the loss of friends. - Abraham Lincoln The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. - Mark Twain
(This message has been edited by Glenn (edited 07-15-2001).)
Originally posted by Ellmist: ** I would recommend that you plan as much as possible before actually starting to create resources... ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please tell me as much as possible about your method of planning and what your notes look like. **
Frankly, my emphasis on planning comes from not having done as much as I should, and from being involved in projects that were not planned.
The first step in planning would be deciding what you want to do: Do you want to extend the basic EV or EV:O scenario in some way or start from scratch and build a completely new universe? If you want to do some form of expansion, what you wish to do will determine what resources you need to make or modify, if you want to go for a TC, then you start with a clean slate and can put in anything you want within the constraints of the game limitations - and that is a lot of work, but gives you more freedom to design things according to your ideas.
My notes are generally rather cryptic, often just a word or phrase to serve as a memory aid, as time and inclination allow, I may expand on the original notes as ideas occur to me - a rare event Notes might be names I want to use for planets or systems, a weapon or outit, a description of a character, a fragment of dialogue, characteristics of a government, almost anything. I might write things like "Crazy Eddie's Shipfitters" or "Dinosaur Planet " or "Rush passenger missions-lawyers, engineers, medical team?" or "fighter without jump engines", then later add on, expand and develop the idea - or dump it if it doesn't seem to work out.
I suggest creating any systems and spobs first, the they are sort of the 'framework' of the plug...
What do you think of the orders others have mentioned?
If a different method works for someone else, that 's fine for them, and it might work for you. Again, the type of project will determine some of this. If you are making a plug primarily to add new missions to an existing scenario, you may not need to add any other resources.
** .... Communication among team member can be by e-mail, mailing list, chat, webboard, or any combination - but it should be frequent.
You don't have any favorites? **
I prefer e-mail; I don't like chat, and e-mail doesn't depend on everyone being on line at the same time - if members of the team are in different time zones and on different continents arranging conferences can be almost impossible. E-mail with ccs to all members of the group works well for most communication.
I have heard of something called the Concurrent Version System (CVS) that is most often used to merge open source code. I would appreciate it if you would look into this and tell me of its practicallity as an experienced developer. **
I'm just a resource hacker, I don't know from nothing about source code.
Interestingly, I never intended to make a TC when I started on Frozen Heart. I actually wanted to use EV as a way of planning my novels, with the constraints of real time and a 'real' map.
At first, I made just one ship - the Tachyonic Fighter - which initially had the graphics of the Lightning, because I'd never done any 3d graphics and didn't know where to start.
I then wondered if it would be possible to put my story in as a plugin - really for my own amusement. My first real problem was that the novel uses a lot of flashbacks or people telling other people what had happened in the past. Obviously you can't have flahsbacks in EV, so I had to start the story much earlier, which is why it begins with the death of the character's father, goes through university, meeting Emile, the Devorian civil war, the Aphrodite dig, the Frozen Heart itself.
On the way Katherine Baxter invaded the story, and demanded that entire mission strings be devoted to her.
In one of the early drafts of the novel, there was action aboard a derelict space ship. I took this out, because I thought it was too derivate of Andre Norton's the Zero Stone (a favourite book when I was a teenager), but the derelict made its way back into the plugin story line, along with my archaeology tutor from my own student days, by another name and with another resume.
When I'd got as far as the end of the novel, I had too many loose ends. What would happen to Katherine? Would the character ever get it together with Alana, and why would he want to with Kath still on the scene. And then there were left over bits from the earlier New Venus thread. This resolved itself unpleasantly, so I didn't want to leave it there.
And then there was Lindi van Roth, based on the character of Amelia Earhart. Lindi had to make a final appearance, and there was still a black hole to be dealt with.
On the way, various planets had to be invented, and all the descriptions for existing planets rewritten so as to refer to the Magellans and the Rigellians, not to mention the nine worlds and the non-aligned worlds.
This also meant that the ship descriptions had to be redone, and then I discovered banking, which meant I had to make all the ships again.
By this time I was fed up with the EV landing pics, and I'd just got Bryce 2 with a magazine subscription. So all the landing pics had to be redone, and then all the planet pics, because I felt the original ones looked a bit flat.
I was also concerned about the general non-astronomicalness of EV, so I got out a star atlas and reworked everything again, including all the solar system stuff.
At that moment, I was about to release Frozen Heart, which had been in beta for some time. But then EVO came out. What had begun as an add-on had now become a very large universe-shift. I either had to import all the remains of EV into FH in order to make it EVO compatible, or I had to replace them. I wasn't sure that importing them would be legal, so all the vestiges of EV were then replaced with FH stuff.
What I'm saying is that no planning was involved. It grew organically, as the story grew. This is one reason why I'm always sceptical when someone comes along with their grand plan for a TC.
That said, and this goes back to the production values thread, I did have some fairly firm ideas about how I wanted the universe to be. The story had to be brighter than anything that EV (or EVO) had produced. But, aside from saying that Katherine was really really really beautiful, and that the tachyonic ship was really really really fast, there didn't seem much scope for it. The solution I chose was to make the overall scenario much darker to give some space for contrast - like the white in a photograph of the sun on a dark sky, which isn't any brighter than the white on photographs of white sheets of paper, but seems searingly bright because the rest of the image is so dark.
I also wanted a fairly strong thread of destiny and moral choices and the supernatural running through as an undercurrent, and surfacing at critical moments. Likewise, I wanted the archaeology stuff to stack up and be interesting on its own account, discovering more about ancient civilisations.
I also had some firm ideas about how I wanted things to look. The outfits especially had to be much more detailed, and I wanted people living on the planets, which meant they had to have buildings on (which EV and EVO didn't have for the most part). Likewise I wanted people appearing in the outfits, and a more human feel to the ship descriptions and the missions.
I also wanted to include some real challenges which were different from the kinds of challenges in EV or EVO. These ranged from purely intellectual challenges, like the anagrams, finding the University Labs, and decyphering the inscription on the ring, to combat challenges, like the asteroid fields and the Hawk, and, ultimately, the Black Hole.
Finally, I wanted to give the player the ship that everyone dreams of, and yet still make the game play as difficult as possible.
Various other surprises came up as solutions to problems in the plot. Tesken Alpha had to have two ports, but this was not something EV supported. Several cups of coffee later, I realised it did.
Likewise, I wanted concurrent missions so that the player could choose which threads to follow, but still had to complete groups of threads before moving on to later points in the plot. This wasn't really supported by EV, but with enough tedious logic-table tweaking it was kind of possible.
The final production value was that I felt that space itself should be dangerous. So, hence the asteroids, and the black hole, and the gas clouds, and the mines in Aurora.
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **So, hence the asteroids, and the black hole, and the gas clouds, and the mines in Aurora. **
Yeah. Evil sentient meat-eating asteroids that chase you.