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Well, because of the initial support I've received for this, I've fleshed out my ideas considerably on this. First off, thanks to Jules, Lequis MX, Regulus, Divals the Conqueror and Slav for your help, you've all earned a ship in the very least!
Anyway, on to the lowdown. i know the title probably has been taken by another plug. Suggestions for a permanent name are welcome:
The universe is much as it is in EVO. Same systems, same planets. But everything else has changed...
Confederation:
At the dawn of starflight for Humanity, we knew nothing of aliens. as far as we knew, we were alone in the universe. Our ships reached tentatively for the stars, and slowly we began to colonize the hospitable worlds around us.
Then They came... The Phage.
We didn't have many weapons of war... what we did have was primitive at best, and ineffective against the technorganic warships of the Phage. they swept down on our colonies, consuming... they harvested organic material as we would mine metals. There was no reasoning with them, no defeating them, no running from them... no way of surviving.
In the final days the last few colonies banded with Earth in a Confederation, hrowing all their knowledge and resources into our defense. newly-built warships and starfighters armed with new weapons stood at our last line against the invaders.
They lasted all of five minutes.
Earth itself lay bare to the Phage, a world full of life for them to harvest.
And then they stopped. No sudden reversals... no apparent change olf heart... they just stopped. Their ships disappeared, their harvesters vanished from the worlds they were ravaging... it was like they had never been. Except for the dead.
Humanity recovered... we brushed ourselves off, and after a time, we reached for the star again. But we were wary now. This time when our hands quested into the unknown, they were gauntleted in steel. Where unarmed colony ships once explored, now warships cruised. We were never again going to be at the mercy of an alien menace. For more than a century we carefully probed space for a sign of our old enemies, and found nothing. I suppose that might be why we fell so easily into conflict with the Hinwar...
Hinwar
We were a peaceful race before the Vonians came... before the conquerors. we were enslaved by them, forced to work in their mines, their shipyards... for nearly a century we toiled for them. But we were not fools. We watched, we learned, and we shared what we knew. As we worked for them, we learned how their ships worked, the principals behind their technology. It took time, but we learned.
In time we rose up against them, and took back our world, and a few of their mining colonies. For decades after our war raged, as we sought our vengeance against them. And in time, our warriors stood on their homeworld, atop the bodies of dead Vonians, and at last we declared their race extinct.
We turned then to rebuilding. War had ravaged our worlds, and the worlds we had taken from them. we spent our time improving on what we had learned, remaking ourselves into a true interstellar civilization. We found other worlds, worlds the Vonians had oppressed, and eventually destroyed, and we counted ourselves lucky that we had risen up when we did. Others we met were like the Vonians, and we clashed with them, gaining strength with each victory. The Gadzair, the Bra'Kell, the Miranu... all we met and tested.
Then we met Humanity.
No one knows who fired the first shot, but after the first battle our people cried out for vengeance. Here was another conqueror, another Vonian Empire. so we girded ourselves, built great weapons of war, and we struck.
The humans struck back. They were devestatingly prepared for us, as if they had been waiting for our assault all along. We battled back and forth for a time, two great titans grappling with each other, neither possesing the advantage. Until today, our strength spent, we do little but snipe at each other.
And now, there are rumblings in the Galactic East...
Miranu
The Galaxy has always been a place of conflict. Before the Humans or the Hinwar first reached for the stars, we were alreadly plying their waters, as were other races. The greatest of these races though, were the Gadzair.
A warrior race, they had split themselves into three factions, or Strands, known as the Azdgari, the Zidagar and the Igazdra. For centuries they fought a carefully choregraphed war without end, containing their bloodlust by turning it on each other.
Then came The Phage.
The Humans experience with them was limited, their conflict nothing more than a footnote to the horrors that occurred. The Phage spread like a virus across the galaxy, destroying whole worlds. If it were not for the Gadzair, Mira itself would have been destroyed.
When the true strength of the Phage was known, the Gadzair turned their attentions from each other to this new threat. They fought side by side with the same ferocity they had once fought each other, and for a time it seemed they would hold back the menace. But the Phage simply continued to come... endless and inexhaustible. In time, even the Gadzair's great strength began to fail.
The Azdgari were the first to fall, first in the Phage's path. Then the Igazdra. Then the Zidagar. Soon the Phage spread to ravage Miranu and Human worlds. Even the Vonians felt their terrible might, which only hastened their downfall to their own slaves.
The last of the Gazdair rallied, and somehow, some way they stopped the Phage. Unfortunately, the secret of that victory died with them.
today the universe is a darker, more dangerous place. We Miranu have taken it upon ourselves to try and bring some order to the chaos, but with Human and Hinwar, Laertian and Bra'Kell, all at each other's throats, it is not an easy task.
And now, we fear, the ancient menace stirs once more...
Laertians
We came to this nearly a century ago, refugees from a great horror that had bled our galaxy dry. When we arrived, we found that here, too, the horror had visited. But somehow, some way, it had been turned back.
We settled on abandoned worlds, scarred but habitable, and began to make our new homes. We began to research how this galaxy had survived the ravages of the Phage, when we were attacked.
They called themselves Bra'Kell... a warrior race that had been a client race of the Gadzair. Now that the Gadzair were no more, they considered themselves their heirs. And it seems we occupied territory that had once belonged to the Gadzair.
We were tired of running. We were tired of being afraid. We were tired of being homeless. So we fought. And we will continue to fight until the Bra'Kell accept us, and our right to exist in this place.
Bra'Kell
We are the children of the Gadzair. Our people were found by them, nurtured and taught. Given the secrets of starflight and taught the ways of the warrior. When the Gadzair fought the Phage, we fought at their side. When their race breathed its last, we bore witness. We are the heirs to their legacy. they were the protectors of this galaxy, and so we must become.
But the Laertians now occupy and defile the worlds of the Gadzair. They tear down the ruins that should stand as an eternal monument to the Gadzair, and build their cities. They are invaders from outside our galaxy, and have no place here.
If we are to be protectors, then we MUST drive these invaders out. No compromises. No quarter.
Phage
Consume. Evolve. Adapt. Expand. Survive.
------------------
Very interesting. Sounds damned big - I might suggest you start small and work your way up. Even Pale started out as nothing more than "Altered States", and EVGE began as a pretty crummy ship pack. I don't really understand what's going on with the Phage (good name, btw. "Eaters") vis a vis the events in EVO - did the Humans never make contact with the Hinwar before the phage struck in your universe? Did the Humans even meet the Voinians? If the Gadzair are so fractious, how do they have "client races" as a whole, instead of on a per-strand basis?
It sounds like the path of the Phage starts in Kade and moves generally west, which squares with what we know about those regions "Beyond the Crescent".
Finally, are the Phage the Red Aliens from EV? Are you trying to make a tie-in by relabeling United Earth the Confederation? If so, mad props - it's more plausible than Things to Come was, by far, but I still think it's misguided to try and connect the universes.
I do have a few quick criticisms for you, though.
Quote
And then they stopped. No sudden reversals... no apparent change olf heart... they just stopped. Their ships disappeared, their harvesters vanished from the worlds they were ravaging... it was like they had never been.
This is cribbed directly from the end of the Earth/Minbari war from Babylon 5, except you havn't explained why they just stopped. Did it have something to do with what the surviving Gadzair did? Where were they hiding, anyway, in Voinian space?
Cribbed directly from EVES's Klaxion race. Maybe just "Hunger..." if you want to be enigmatic and mysterious.
-reg
------------------ "Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again." -Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs
Originally posted by Regulus: **Very interesting. Sounds damned big - I might suggest you start small and work your way up. Even Pale started out as nothing more than "Altered States", and EVGE began as a pretty crummy ship pack. **
Thanks. And this isn't my first plug. just the first one I'm going to bother to publish. And I have trouble with thinking small
Besides, I've got all these pretty graphics...
**I don't really understand what's going on with the Phage (good name, btw. "Eaters") vis a vis the events in EVO - did the Humans never make contact with the Hinwar before the phage struck in your universe? **
No. The Phage struck some time before the humans would have met the Vonians. Basically around the time all human ships still had those solar collector arrays (the NEW, most advanced ones). Getting two jumps from Earth was incredibly distant, and Blaze cannons were a fanciful dream.
**Did the Humans even meet the Voinians? If the Gadzair are so fractious, how do they have "client races" as a whole, instead of on a per-strand basis? **
The humans never met the Vonians. The Vonians fought and lost to the Hinwar around the same time the Phage appeared, so well before humanity had the range to get that far.
And the Bra'Kell were really a client race of the Council, since they're the only ones organized enough to do it. Essentially, when the Council needed something done and didn't want to use one of the Strands (In other words, they were doing something they didn't want the trands to know about) they used the Bra'Kell.
**It sounds like the path of the Phage starts in Kade and moves generally west, which squares with what we know about those regions "Beyond the Crescent". **
Exactly. The whole 'interdicting the one stable jump beyong the Crescent' is what sparked this particular idea of the Gadzair and the Phage squaring off. It's also the best evidence we have that the three Strands obey whatever orders the Council gives.
**Finally, are the Phage the Red Aliens from EV? Are you trying to make a tie-in by relabeling United Earth the Confederation? If so, mad props - it's more plausible than Things to Come was, by far, but I still think it's misguided to try and connect the universes. **
They are indeed! I cribbed the free EV Aliens graphics from Matt Daily's free resources (He gets to be an Admiral for that) and some truly stellar Confed shipgraphics from Saber Studios. The connection is largely loose, though... I'm just using the EV aliens because A) The graphics are available and good and Players will be expecting them to be extremely dangerous.
**I do have a few quick criticisms for you, though.
**
Yeah, it was. I hate to admit it, but the Phage are very much like the Klaxions. But then, they're also very much like the Borg. Or the Zerg. Or just about any other Sci Fi hive mind.
But you're right about the quote. I will change it in the next write up.
Thanks for your comments and criticism. It's nice to have a well thought-out review of my ideas.
Sorry, I missed one question, about WHY the Phage stopped.
That's a big mystery the game solves. Promise you won't tell?
Okay, you're on your honour.
The Phage are a hive mind. However, it's not just the soldiers, the 'race'... the whole damned thing is part of the hive. Ships, weapons... what was thought of as 'Phage' were just soldier units extruded from the organic mass. The Phage could be thought of as less a race than a single entity. The ships and soldiers and such are antibodies, and the harvesters are digestive systems. We are a morsel of food in its mouth, more or less.
The Phage 'brain' is located in a system that exists partially out of phase with normal space/time. There is only one stable jump to that system, and it's a jump or two past Kade.
In ancient times, back when the Gadzair were only just starting out towards the stars, the Miranu were experimenting with internal combustion engines and humans were in loincloths, there was another race, the Drakkhai. They were the first race to encounter the Phage. They fought the Phage, and like all who faced them, were getting their butts kicked. But the Drakkhai were advanced and powerful, and had a few tricks up their sleeves. They devised a way to seal off the Phage system, using a device now known simply as The Great Machine. It worked... and as soon as the hyperspace link was cut, all the remaining Phage literally dissolved into their component organic matter. Without the link to the hive mind, they couldn't exist.
Now this was only a temporary patch on things. The link wasn't gone, only sealed at one end. As long as the Great Machine functioned, it would remain that way, but should it fail...
The Drakkhai dedicated themselves to permanently sealing the Phage. They began to construct other Great Machines, on worlds all over the Galaxy. But their race was failing, and they never got a chance to activate their final creation. They passed the knowledge of the Phage and the Great Machines on to their client race, the Gadzair, and then passed into oblivion.
The Gadzair took up the mantle of Galactic protectors. To that end, they trained themselves constantly, throwing themselves into a philosophy of perpetual conflict. Conflict weeds out the weak, the infirm, leaving only the strong, and the Gadzair split their society into three 'Strands', so that they might war endlessly. ut not foolishly: hey created The Council, which would watch the war and the galaxy, and who's orders the Strands would obey without question. The Azdgari were charged with ensuring none of the lesser races would pass Kade and find the Great Machine. Unfortunately, knowledge of the other Great Machines was lost.
In time, inevitably, the Great Machine began to fail. The Phage were returning... beginning with a few isolated attacks, then spreading as the link became stable. The Gadzair immediately stopped their warring and turned to face the enemy they had been waiting for for centuries. Unfortunately, even they couldn't stop the Phage for long.
In the end, when the Gadzair knew they were doomed, they rediscovered the other Great Machines. They knew of their purpose, but didn't have time to complete them. So they made one last desperate ploy to buy the universe time: They rallied what remained of their forces, and pushed through past Kade, to the original Great Machine. There their forces held off the Phage, at terrible cost, while their scientists made repairs, and reactivated the Great Machine. As soon as they did, once again the Phage, cut off from their Hive Mind, dissolved into organic goo. But the Great Machine was old, and it simply would not last much longer, not matter what repairs they made.
What few remained of the Gadzair completed what repairs they could make on the Great Machine and scattered, each heading to the other Machines, to complete the work of the Drakkhai before the Great Machine inevitably failed once more.
Now the player's job is to find these lost Gadzair, and with their help activate this galaxy-spanning Great Machine, and seal off the Phage forever.
Bit long of a reply for such a simple question, huh?
Sounds good. What are you using for the confederation graphics? EVO-UE or EV-Confed graphics?
ewan
------------------ may contain nuts
But i haven't done anything yet...
i've got to finish up that mecha so i can start on your stuff... I have some ideas, mostly modifications of stuff i've already done. Kind of simple compared to what you've seen so far tho...
Divals
------------------ "And then god did come up from heaven and said, 'Do my bidding, you pitiful, powerless, weak humans! Go and spread my li... er, I mean truth, throughout the world!' And then he did laugh most evilly, and the planet of Mososuis did split in half, with one half becoming the moon, and the other half, bearing all its inhabitants, did fly into the sun. Yes." -from the Book of Relics, planet Rikka Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? (url="http://"mailto:micahg@microserve.net")mailto:micahg@microserve.net(/url)micahg@microserve.net
Definately needs a new name. 'Event Horizon' is a movie. Otherwise, it sounds like a welll thought out and enrapturing TC plug. Quick question:Is it for Nova or EVO?
------------------ "Take me to your dealer"-Bumper sticker "You may not throw things at my dragon!" "We remove the furry killing things. We think only of removing the furry killing things."-The Skies of Pern, Anne McCaffery
I'm sensing a little bit of David Brin's "Uplift" series going on here too. Interesting. I think there are going to be some serious problems putting this into plugin format that you havn't considered yet, though. Now that we know the universe's timeline, what about the players? Where does he go, what does he down and when? I'm not sure that it's going to be very easy to condense your plotline down into something that a single mercenary captain can take part in. But good luck.
Originally posted by Jules: **Sounds good. What are you using for the confederation graphics? EVO-UE or EV-Confed graphics?
The EV confed graphics found at Saber Studios.
Originally posted by Admiral Benden: **Definately needs a new name. 'Event Horizon' is a movie. Otherwise, it sounds like a welll thought out and enrapturing TC plug. Quick question:Is it for Nova or EVO?
It's EVO. I don't have a beta copy of NOVA, nor are there any graphics or development tools available.
Once I've actually had a chance to PLAY Nova, and some development tools are created I might actually try adapting it... but until then i'll stick with EVO. As far as i can see from the quicktime movies for EV:NOVA, the graphics are much more involved, so I'd need an entirely new set. Blech.
Originally posted by Regulus: **I'm sensing a little bit of David Brin's "Uplift" series going on here too. Interesting. I think there are going to be some serious problems putting this into plugin format that you havn't considered yet, though. Now that we know the universe's timeline, what about the players? Where does he go, what does he down and when? I'm not sure that it's going to be very easy to condense your plotline down into something that a single mercenary captain can take part in. But good luck.
Actually, it's not that hard.
I'm going to recycle a lot of the EVO missions... the basic trading stuff is going to stay almost unchanged. The Nebula penetration line will be altered to become vital to finishing the story. There will also be basic war stuff between the Hinwar and the Humans, depending on who you choose.
But the end plotline goes something like this: You start out innocently enough, leading a Miranu archeological expedition to a fringe world to examine one of the Great Machines. Its there the whole string starts, and then that the Phage begin appearing. You run around gathering clues (And eventually a surviving Gadzair who tells you the whole story.)
The final climax involves leading a fleet to assault the Phage homeworld itself, to damage the hive mind enough to cause it to pause... long enough for the Miranu to activate the Great Machines and seal the jump link forever.
It's not any harder than one merchant captain changin the course of a war
Sounds very nice ย I like the out of phase stuff, which seems to pick up where Angels of Vengeance stops (Angels of Vengeance, for those who don't remember the classic EV plugin, ends with sealing off the system of the Maursians, begging the question - what happens when they work out a way of getting back?)
As far as EVO, Nova is concerned, you're facing the same issue I was facing a couple (or is it three?) years ago. I was just finishing Frozen Heart, which adopted the systems but not the scenario of EV, when I heard that EVO was coming out. I concluded (I'm not sure if I was right) that there would be much more of a market for EVO plugins than for EV, but that would then require porting the entire universe. Having decided to do that, I realised I might as well remake the whole lot. Four months added to the project, but I suspect that it was worth it after all.
The difference is that the Nova engine is much more advanced than EVO, whereas, in the event, EVO was really a minor tweak and a new scenario for EV. I suspect this will mean that enthusiasm for EVO plugins will be on the wane much more quickly than it was for EV plugins. There will no doubt be a rush of 'all the ships you want for 1 credit' plugins, and then months of boards full of people saying 'why are there no good plugins for Nova?'
I'm guessing here, but I suspect that a new plugin with a new scenario will actually be easier to make than a really good Nova add-on, because it will take so long to really get into the minds of the Nova writers. I'm guessing that an original TC (ie, not Star Wars, not Babylon 5) will go down very well.
What I suppose I'm saying is - go for it, develop your plugin for EVO, but be ready to port it to Nova and develop it as a whole new game, cut loose from its EVO origins, if Nova appears before you're ready to release it.
By the sound of the storyline, it could be the next BIG thing.
Regards
Martin
------------------ M A R T I N ย T U R N E R (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url)
Wow. Congratulations. That sounds like guite a plug-in. I'm working on a TC right now myself, done for EVO, but taking place between EV and EVO in the timeline. It involves a multitude of governments and races, but the primary plotline is two way. It concerns two governments, the Argent and the Xanth. The Argent you could call the "good guys" and the Xanth "bad guys", but like in EVO where you can play both UE an Voinian (but not both) plot lines, it would run like that. Their main conflict is a blood feud over a delerict frieghter that changed the course of history (The Argent found a bunch of really neat gadgets that boosted them light years ahead). However, the real richness comes from all the other plot lines - the Miranu are in civil war, although the side you meet first denies it, The confederation is now functioning democratically, the rebellion has disbanded, parts have sided with the pirates and formed the Maverick government, and there still are some optomists out there that think peace can be given a chance - through better technology. Of course, throughout all this, some things don't seem to "click." It is then that the real enemy is discovered (and hey, by coincidence, it comes from the Galactic northeast!) The Voinians are not involved at all, even though humanity has started moving west, I would guess they're still expanding. The strands have not been created or discovered yet. In the end, to succed, the player will need to face the true enemy, equipped with weapons and assistance from almost all governments.
Hopefully, a beta will be out in the next few months (hopefully, folks!)
I've told you too much. Now I'm going to have to kill you.
As well, this is not my first plug-in, but my first published one
------------------ Gage Stryker ---------------------- A fellow who says it can't be done is likely to be interrupted by someone doing it.
(rant)Why is everybody convinced that EV and EVO take place in the same timeline?
Hint hint, guys: They are different games. Frankly, EV's universe doesn't deserve to be soiled by trying to integrate EVO into it. The latter is stupid enough on its own.
cough
Sorry. (/rant)
Looking fairly promising. I will have to read over it more thoroughly later...
Good luck.
-Lequis
------------------ Lequis Design lequis.netfirms.com PhantoM_63ff@hotmail.com
This sounds good!
I think that possibly a name like "Phage" or "Five Minutes" might be more in order (Five Minutes being that Earth was overwhelmed in Five Minutes, for those who don't get my logic). Ah, hell, sometimes even I don't get my logic.
Possibly a mission could be a return to the homeworld of the Drakkhai for some documents (vis รก vis the Great Machine) and I really, really think that you should wait for nova and novatools, because if this plug is as good as it sounds, it'll be worth it. Maybe you'd have to wait a little longer, but the added freedom to work is inspiring.
Anyhow, I think that if you can, you should try to use new graphics wherever possible, and not just use others work. There are plenty of good plugs with premade ships, but they just don't have the same magic as the plugs with all-new ships.
------------------ A man once said that power corrupts. Killjoy.
Originally posted by Antares: **This sounds good!:D
Yeah, new ships are better, EXCEPT I have no 3-D modelling software, nor any skill in that area, and I can't pay for my graphics. So I'm using exclusively free shipyards. Though as far as i know the vast majority of what I'm using has not been used in a released plugin yet.
Ok, I have read over this in close...detail. If you want, I can make you all the graphics you need. Contact me in #ev3 or AIM, or e-mail me(as the email address in my sig, I think...) about specifics of what you would like.
Well, wel, well. Looks to me that this could be another Frozen Heart. By the way, Go Canucks!
------------------ All rise in the presence of Dark Helmet