Plugin Brainstorming

This is an 'EVolution' from the (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum26/HTML/002757.html")Vacuum Soldiers(/url) thread on the EVN board... in it, I mentioned someone having talked about doing a dragonball z plug-in (I don't watch the show, however). Anyway, I got to thinking about some of the 'features' in the plugin (using the Nova engine), and I thought that I would post it here to see if we could think of anything else for it. I doubt it'll ever be an actual plug-in, but this is the Developer's corner, so I figured you guys would be interested. πŸ™‚

Β• Ships: each ship would be a character. Banking graphics could be the character's head turning. High shields, no armor (so that they can't be captured). Multiple versions of the same 'ship' can give the illusion of "growing stronger" (ie: you are forced into a newer ship, but you can't tell).

Β• Primary Weapons: animated fists, maybe with a bit of a glow instead. They would be extremely short range

Β• Secondary Weapons: Projectiles of some sort, they would all drain fuel to some degree (which wouldn't be for jumps, more on that later).

Β• Outfits: Stuff like a cloaks, ramscoops, and fuel pods would be rewritten as 'abilities' that you learn (or are given to you in missions). They'd all have 0 weight, as it would make no sense for a single person to be able to hold 10 tons of weaponry. πŸ˜‰

Β• Missions: fight people, duh. πŸ˜› Missions here and there that will make you get stronger so you can fight more powerful enemies.

Β• Hyperspace: scratch that, there are just a few 'arenas' that you can go to, via Hypergates. That way, your fuel is left for you weapons and/or Afterburner.

Well, that's all I can think of right now off the top of my head. I'm going to be posting to this topic all through the day as I think of stuff. Any thoughts or suggestions?

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I'm not sure whether this is a good idea. Dragonball Z is a show with a paper-thin plot, and I'm not sure a plug-in would be much better.

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ΕƒCafall

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Originally posted by Cafall:
**I'm not sure whether this is a good idea. Dragonball Z is a show with a paper-thin plot, and I'm not sure a plug-in would be much better.

**

Dragonball Z has a plot? πŸ™‚

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

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Originally posted by EVula:
**I mentioned someone having talked about doing a dragonball z plug-in
**

Hehe. That was me. I was wondering if it could be done, not thinking about making it myself, and ended up with a ton of flame nukes. Because of that quite annoying experience, I would ask that anyone who doesn't have anything good to say in this topic go somewhere else. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you should take up a topic with annoying posts that have no relevance to the topic. Thank you.

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You would have to be ignorant, derranged, demented, or dead to turn down the oppurtunity to fly an Azdara.
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Remeber that Coldstone's coming out soon, and it would be easier to do a bunch of this stuff in that. πŸ˜›

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"My guitar gently weeps." George Harrison, 1943-2001

Hmm, it seems some people don't know what the purpose of this thread is: to discuss -how it could be done in the EV Nova engine.- I'm just having fun thinking of how this stuff could be done, I have no interest in actually doing it (I have no time to, either). If you don't find joy in brainstorming stuff like this, don't post.

Sk: You imply that I'm planning on doing this myself. πŸ˜‰

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(quote)Originally posted by EVula:
**Hmm, it seems some people don't know what the purpose of this thread is: to discuss -how it could be done in the EV Nova engine.- I'm just having fun thinking of how this stuff could be done, I have no interest in actually doing it (I have no time to, either). If you don't find joy in brainstorming stuff like this, don't post.

Sk: You imply that I'm planning on doing this myself. πŸ˜›

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"My guitar gently weeps." George Harrison, 1943-2001
**

Quote

Originally posted by Azdara Ace:
**Hehe. That was me. I was wondering if it could be done, not thinking about making it myself, and ended up with a ton of flame nukes. Because of that quite annoying experience, I would ask that anyone who doesn't have anything good to say in this topic go somewhere else. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you should take up a topic with annoying posts that have no relevance to the topic. Thank you.

**

Don't worry. This board is so calm that any flames will be dealt with particularly enthusiastically - I don't get to karmaslap very often πŸ™‚ (demonic smile)

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{ MAZCA }
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REEEEEEE!

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Originally posted by EVula:
**
Β€ Ships: each ship would be a character. Banking graphics could be the character's head turning. High shields, no armor (so that they can't be captured).
**

Well, it's a silly idea for a plugin, but since you said we're just having fun thinking theoretically...

Rather than not giving the characters sheilds to avoid capture, couldn't you just set the "crew" to zero? Ships with zero crew can't be boarded. (Oct 31 ed of Nova bible) But is being able to 'rob' other characters important? Too bad there isn't a "can't be captured" flag in EVN.

Quote

Originally posted by SD:
Rather than not giving the characters sheilds to avoid capture, couldn't you just set the "crew" to zero? Ships with zero crew can't be boarded. (Oct 31 ed of Nova bible) But is being able to 'rob' other characters important? Too bad there isn't a "can't be captured" flag in EVN.

Ack, I should have said "so they can't be disabled". If you replaced the explosion sprites with something similar to a body explosion (or give a REALLY good reason...) it would work as a "death" of the person. Setting the crew to zero may not do much for the player's combat rating (which is, as I recall, based on the crews of the ships the player has destroyed), so that wouldn't be a plausable idea.

The ability to rob other characters does sound like a good idea, though; maybe if the text could be changed to something like "knockout" then make the mission objectives for combat missions to be to at least disable the target ship, that could work for a few (like, say, some character has stolen something, and you need to retrieve it).

If there are any "robots" for players to fight, then those should have armor (disabling a robot makes sense...), but the explosion sprites (bloody guts and all) wouldn't make as much sense (unless it's a cyborg, blah blah blah).

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Yes, I suppose there really isn't any need to have characters become disabled. I just hate it when things have no armor B

I hadn't thought of the combat rating thing though, but it is crew in EV and EVO. However, in Nova bible appendix 1 we have:

Quote

Your combat rating is based on the number of kills you have made, which is the
sum of the strengths of all the ships you have destroyed, adjusted to a
baseline where ship ID 128 represents 1 unit. The scale is as follows: etc etc

Now in the EVO bible for example it certainly says "crew" so this leads me to think its an actual change in Nova and not just misleading wording in the bible this time around, but who can be sure?

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Originally posted by EVula:
**Ack, I should have said "so they can't be disabled". If you replaced the explosion sprites with something similar to a body explosion (or give a REALLY good reason...) it would work as a "death" of the person. Setting the crew to zero may not do much for the player's combat rating (which is, as I recall, based on the crews of the ships the player has destroyed), so that wouldn't be a plausable idea.

The ability to rob other characters does sound like a good idea, though; maybe if the text could be changed to something like "knockout" then make the mission objectives for combat missions to be to at least disable the target ship, that could work for a few (like, say, some character has stolen something, and you need to retrieve it).

If there are any "robots" for players to fight, then those should have armor (disabling a robot makes sense...), but the explosion sprites (bloody guts and all) wouldn't make as much sense (unless it's a cyborg, blah blah blah).

**

Hmm, I guess I haven't really watched dragonballz for more than 10 minutes. Are we still talking about dragonballz? Do they not wear armor when they fight in space on the show?

Heh, they don't really fight in space very often; at least in the couple episodes I have seen.

Well, it does have a paper-thin plot, but I think the point of an such plug-in was just to have some fun and give the dbz enthusiasts something to be excited about for a while.

I think the best way to do this would be to make a single system with a few planets. You could basically take the plug-in Arena, change the graphics and STRs. You could call it the World Martial Arts Tournament where you have to prove your strength, and then once you complete the missions there, you go to fight a big-bad-guy who tries to destroy the planet.

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--ares
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"A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." -- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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Originally posted by SD:
Hmm, I guess I haven't really watched dragonballz for more than 10 minutes. Are we still talking about dragonballz? Do they not wear armor when they fight in space on the show?

I don't think they do, I figured it was just them (of course, I'm sure that at least one character wears armor of some kind...).

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Originally posted by ares1:
Heh, they don't really fight in space very often; at least in the couple episodes I have seen.

shrug Well, one of the benefits of the paper-thin plot is that it can be twisted around to suit the goals of this plug-in. πŸ™‚

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Originally posted by ares1:
I think the best way to do this would be to make a single system with a few planets. You could basically take the plug-in Arena, change the graphics and STRs. You could call it the World Martial Arts Tournament where you have to prove your strength, and then once you complete the missions there, you go to fight a big-bad-guy who tries to destroy the planet.

Actually, I was thinking that since it would be using the Nova engine, you could have different systems (for different purposes) all connected via Hypergates; no direct system-to-system via actual hyperspace would leave fuel for the afterburner (or whatever it would be called). That way there would always be a place for you to go if you just wanted to fight other "people".

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I don't think it needs a plot, just going around, beating the bejebus out of people sounds fun enough for me. Of course, reasons for it could be good too...

It would be easier to make it Coldstone (maybe) but that isn't the point. The point is its a game that has nothing to do with people beating the crap out of each other being used for that purpose.

(quote)Originally posted by Mazca:
**Don't worry. This board is so calm that any flames will be dealt with particularly enthusiastically - I don't get to karmaslap very often:p

Anyway, my idea is that you get a mission to kill a certain 'ship' and then after completeing that, you can go to another system, and do it all over again. In that new system, you can buy a new 'ship' (Just used ship because it works for me)

Also, with dieing, you could make it look like blood was splurting out, then have them explode in a not so happy way.

I don't watch the show, and have no idea what it is about, so my ideas are probably useless.

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No one knows EV like I know the back of my hand
**

(quote)Originally posted by champion:
**
That's a demonic smile? (me fears) πŸ˜› to you too.

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{ MAZCA** }
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Quote

Originally posted by Mazca:
YOU find me a proper demonic smiley.

Posted Image

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As I see it, after you complete you're "kill the bad guy" mission, have it change youre ship to a variant that is a little stronger, thereby making it seem like you gain XP in an odd way.

If you kept the jumps in, you could have fun with the shΓ€n's animations for Jumping... having your 'ki' surrounding you while jumping... Eh, just an Idea.

This could be an interesting idea, the only problem is that it might become quite complex very fast...

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Prepare to be disabled and boarded!
.
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(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 12-21-2001).)

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
As I see it, after you complete you're "kill the bad guy" mission, have it change youre ship to a variant that is a little stronger, thereby making it seem like you gain XP in an odd way.

That's what I was thinking... have many variations of each "character" (maybe even let the player pick a player via the chΓ€r resource or whatever) and as the missions progress, they are "upgraded". Weapons may need to be just given to the player (as payment for missions) and stay with him when he is "upgraded". For example, the first "ship" has a set amount of weaponry, but each upgrade has nothing, only the shields, speed, etc. are 'upgraded', but the player retains those weapons (they take up no space, so no reason to get rid of them). Or, you could have a single weapon with each upgrade, so that you get even more powerful that way, too.

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
If you kept the jumps in, you could have fun with the shΓ€n's animations for Jumping... having your 'ki' surrounding you while jumping... Eh, just an Idea.

Hmm, maybe a shΓ€n for the Afterburner... I was thinking that it could be like a "hyper" mode, maybe a glow around them when they do that...

Even though I think it will never happen, this would be fun to play, if nothing else, from a technical aspect. Maybe ATMOS could do it after EVN comes out... πŸ™‚

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I always thought EVN would make a better Engine for a DBZ game than a fighting game (like all the existing DBZ games) or an RPG (eg Coldstone) because of the fact that every character can fly and had dozen's of energy attackd it generally taxes the rules systems of many RPGs to the limit (what do you do if one character is supposed to be 10,000 times stronger than another?).
You could make the "Crew" stat "fighting power" so you would get a higher combat rating by killing things with a higher FP (You would need to change the numbers requred to get a particular rating so it doesn't go straight to 'ultimate' with one kill)

The cloaking device could be used to simulate "Instant transmission" there a character dissapears and re-appears behind his/her opponent (they are supposed to me moving so fast you can't see them)

Completing missions could grant massless invisible 'outfits' that power up your character by increasing various attributes to save having to make two dozen varients of the same character.

I can envisage one problem: some attacks are beam attacks that are about 3 times as wide as

Oh, EVula it does make sense for a DBZ character to hold 10 tons of weaponry Gokucan act normally while having a 10 ton weight attached to each art at 10 times earths normal gravity and Vegita works out at 450 times earth's normal gravity (so his body would weigh more than 5000 stone) the just don't πŸ™‚

Apologises for double posting
Oops forgot to finish sentennce there (duh im so stupid)

as the character and really wide beams look terrible but this may have been changed in NOVA