EVONE Progress Update

EVONE is progressing quite well, and version 1 of the program itself (all editors are plugins) is done, until I decide it needs another feature or one of the editors requires more support.

All features of the program are fully functional, including its registration system. The final registration scheme is as follows: EVONE will be available to download for free and will function as a 30-day demo. During the demo, EVONE will be fully functional, and users will be able to create and save as many plugins as they want to. When the demo expires, however, EVONE will cease to function at all, and the user will have to register in order to keep using it. EVONE's registration fee will be $10.

One of EVONE's exciting new features is complete file recovery in case the computer crashes. When a file is opened, EVONE automatically creates a temporary copy of the file. To prevent file corruption, all writing is done to this copy of the file, and when the user chooses save, the changes are then restored to the original. Also, every so often (can be set from once every 15 minutes to once a minute), EVONE will save the file hierarchy to the temp file. Remember that the main feature of EVONE is the ability to organize your plugin into folders of your choosing, such as organizing weapons and ships by government. Every time EVONE is started, it offers to recover any file that was closed incorrectly. The user can then choose to either restore from the backup, or discard it.

I am currently working on the mission editor, which is progressing nicely. The editor's interface is now complete and work has just started on reading in the specified resource and setting the many fields with the correct values. While I was working on this, I noticed something very interesting about the AvailRating field in the misn resource. First, it is important to note that, as defined in the templates, the AvailRating field is a DWRD, or short, just like almost all of the fields in the misn resource. What I noticed was that, in Nova, the combat rating Frightening is defined as 51,200. This is great, unless you want to require the player to have a combat rating of Frightening in order to play your mission. Doing this is impossible, because a short can only hold values up to 32,767. Just to make sure I hadn't missed something (and to make sure it was not actually an unsigned short), I typed 51,200 into the Avail. Rating field in NovaTools, and sure enough, the value doesn't fit in the variable. (I closed the resource and opened it again and the number given was around -14000.) This isn't a big problem, just an interesting note, unless you wanted to require a Frightening combat rating...

If people are interested, I was thinking that when I was done the misn editor, I would release basically an alpha version of EVONE as a mission editor, while I worked on the other editors. If people would prefer to use a more thoroughly tested version, I will wait and release a Public Beta later on, with one or two more editors. Comments?

I have recieved an amazingly large and positive response from the plug developer community, and I would like to thank everyone for their interest in EVONE.

Jeffrey - Arios SoftWare

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/upcoming")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

That sounds great about the backup systems. Nice ideas.

I'd perfer a public beta, but that's just me. I can see why some people will be wanting the alpha.

Just out of curiousity, do you have a full idea of what order you will be making the editors? What comes after mďsn?

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Sounds like its moving along quite nicely...

Bah, if you get a chance please respond to my email...

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Quote

Originally posted by mrxak:
**That sounds great about the backup systems. Nice ideas.

I'd perfer a public beta, but that's just me. I can see why some people will be wanting the alpha.

Just out of curiousity, do you have a full idea of what order you will be making the editors? What comes after mďsn?

**

I am only making the mďsn editor first because it was specifically requested that I do so. As a part of the mission editor, I will, of course, be making the dësc editor, but other than that I have no other plans. What editors would people prefer I make next? Feel free to make a whole list.

Jeffrey - Arios SoftWare

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/upcoming")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

Personally, I would prefer a public beta, but that's just my opinion.

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Um, editors for everything that can be done in Nova Tools...

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Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
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HE is not asking if people want him to do a complete editor, but rather what order to design/implement the editors (so we can use them before the final release). In other words, which editors do you need the most, but can't be burdened with the use of the Nova Tools editors.
Joe

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"Life is tough, but it's even tougher when you're stupid."
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If that's the case, I'd like to request that the second set be the graphic s˙st/spöb editors -- I'd like to request that, so I will.

Could the second set be the graphic s˙st/spöb editors, please?

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It is better to feed the goat than it is today.

I second that (ha ha).

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Don't just respond "me too", or "I agree". Copy and paste what the other person said and post it again!
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They system one for sure... I cant be bothered to even open nova tools for that one...

And the ship stuff, I wish to start putting in ships once the first beta is released

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Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
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I did most of my systems with EVO Developers Map, then copying the s˙st resources from the evo plug into my nova plug. Of course, since the resources are different I had to fix all of the nav and dude fields, EVO only has 4 nav defaults and dudes.... But at least it put the x and y coordinates in the right place, and thats all that matters. 😉

At your site you said saving was semi functional... does that mean it doesn't work yet? If not I think I may have a solution to your problem, I usually use the same method for saving in my programs. Of course, that all depends on what the problem is...

SpacePirate

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Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
**I did most of my systems with EVO Developers Map, then copying the s˙st resources from the evo plug into my nova plug. Of course, since the resources are different I had to fix all of the nav and dude fields, EVO only has 4 nav defaults and dudes.... But at least it put the x and y coordinates in the right place, and thats all that matters.;)

**

You know NovaMap still exists and is much easier than using EVODevmap on a nova file.
I will finish it if anyone wants me to but no one seems to care. Just let me know if you guys still care about NovaMap. all it needs is some tinkering on the Undo and a syst editor.
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(This message has been edited by ThorPrime (edited 07-14-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by ThorPrime:

You know NovaMap still exists and is much easier than using EVODevmap on a nova file.
I will finish it if anyone wants me to but no one seems to care. Just let me know if you guys still care about NovaMap. all it needs is some tinkering on the Undo and a syst editor.(/B)

I just wanted to let you know I use NovaMap for all my system placement needs. I consider it a fabulous program and it certainly has saved me a considerable amount of time. I think all it needs is a system for placing spobs and editing their decriptions and the program would complete. I think you should finish work on it regardless of EVONE's status. You've crated a wonderful program, why back out now?

Edit: Fixed quote.

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(This message has been edited by Al Coholic (edited 07-14-2002).)

Well, I tried novamap, it worked much better than dev map (for nova)... It would be great if you finished your NovaBurst tools, though, and added TC support... that would rock. What are you using to program novaburst? RealBasic? The more competition means the tools end up better in the long run. The more the merrier they say....

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Quote

Originally posted by jdh545:
**HE is not asking if people want him to do a complete editor, but rather what order to design/implement the editors (so we can use them before the final release). In other words, which editors do you need the most, but can't be burdened with the use of the Nova Tools editors.
Joe

**

Correct. Of course it will eventually have editors for everything, but they won't all appear simultaneously : ) I was asking what order people wanted me to make them in. It appears that the consensus is that I make the s˙st/spöb editor next. In fact, I will be using SpriteWorld (www.spriteworld.org) to handle the graphics for this editor, which the engine for Nova itself was based on.

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
**At your site you said saving was semi functional... does that mean it doesn't work yet? If not I think I may have a solution to your problem, I usually use the same method for saving in my programs. Of course, that all depends on what the problem is...
**

Perhaps I should update my dev log... The program itself is now done, and all features, including saving, now work correctly.

In a nutshell, EVONE (obviously) saves all of the resources of the plug in the resource fork of the plug file. That was the easy part. EVONE also saves huge amounts of information (on the range of 32k, but it depends how big your plug is) in the data fork of the file, for its private use. During testing of the plug, this data has no effect, and the game does not even know it exists, but EVONE has an Export Final command so that when the plug is done and ready to be distributed, the file size is much smaller. (Basically, the private data is plug preferences, file hierarchy etc.)

Jeffrey - Arios SoftWare

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/upcoming")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

(This message has been edited by AriosSw (edited 07-14-2002).)

Maybe you should host a poll for each resource, and the one which gets the most votes goes next (Obvisously, some are dependant on others). But other then that, do which one you feel most comfortable with next.

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Quote

Originally posted by flamingantiçhimp:
**Maybe you should host a poll for each resource, and the one which gets the most votes goes next (Obvisously, some are dependant on others). But other then that, do which one you feel most comfortable with next.

**

It appears that this topic has served as its own pole. I will ask again when the misn and syst/spob editors are done. By then it will be time for another update anyway....

One quick note, EVONE now runs flawlessly in OS 9, as well as in X.

Jeffrey

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/upcoming")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

(This message has been edited by AriosSw (edited 07-16-2002).)

Another side note. EVONE will have its own webboard on (url="http://"http://jager.evula.net/")The Swamp(/url) once it is setted uped ;). the address to view it can be found (url="http://"http://jager.evula.net/webboard.html")Here(/url) Once its there ofcource. Right now is the rules....

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Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
(url="http://"http://evula.com") EVula's Lair(/url)| (url="http://"http://starfleet-ssf.com/index2.html")The SSF(/url) | (url="http://"mailto:jager@evula.net")mailto:jager@evula.net(/url)jager@evula.net

the webboard is now up. and there is a complete section for it...

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Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
(url="http://"http://evula.com") EVula's Lair(/url)| (url="http://"http://starfleet-ssf.com/index2.html")The SSF(/url) | (url="http://"mailto:jager@evula.net")mailto:jager@evula.net(/url)jager@evula.net

the progress log is there. see the link in my sig

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Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
(url="http://"http://evula.com") EVula's Lair(/url)| (url="http://"http://starfleet-ssf.com/index2.html")The SSF(/url) | (url="http://"mailto:jager@evula.net")mailto:jager@evula.net(/url)jager@evula.net