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Lately there have been suggestions on the 'boards re. plug-ins that change asteroid types. I've been thinking about this myself for a while, and had decided that the new systems in the plug I'm working on for the port of Override to EVN would be the perfect place for new asteroids -- Override has only 2 kinds of asteroids, so I'd have 14 'roid slots to fill with blastable goodies to make my strange and extra-dimensiony systems stand out.
Or maybe not. On inspection, I found that though it looks like only 2 sorts of rock ever float across your screen, the port actually uses all 16 asteroid slots! There are 16 roid resources pointing to 16 spin resources, and each of the 16 spins points to one or the other of the 2 RLE graphics. Here's the kicker: each syst resource points to several of the roid resources, in what appear to be pretty random collections. I looked at 5 or 6 syst resources and found that among them they used every one of the 16 roids.
My first thought was that this was a disservice to plug-in makers, and that the next update of the EVO to N port should change this so that only 2 of the roid resources were used in the game, with the others reserved for use, abuse, and replacement by plugs. On 2nd thought, I noticed that the situation as it is presents an opportunity: if you don't care that you would have no control over where each kind of roid appeared, without touching syst resources you could easily make a plug that increased asteroid variety all over the galaxy. On 3rd thought, it came to me that a compromise would be best: 8 roids pointed to by existing systs, and 8 reserved for placement by plugs. On 4th thought I realized that if an update changed the existing situation, it would change the behavior of any plug made before the update. On 5th thought I was struck by the idea that I was running off at the mouth, and that I wasn't the guy in charge of officially updating EVO for N anyway.
So. I don't know when or if I'll get around to making a roid-enhancement plug for EVO for N. Anyone else who wants to do it, go for it -- you've got an easy job. For now.
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It is for reasons like this as well as the general instability of the EVO port that I decided long ago that for my Total Conversion set in the EVO universe, I would simply recode the entire universe. Better to put in the work from scratch and know what exactly what to expect than to save a little time now and discover something nasty later.
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Just pull the whole syst resource into a text file with ConText, then open it with a spreadsheet and reset all the roids on the existing systems so they point to the proper roids. You should be able to just fill them all in with whatever the appropriate code is for just the first two roid types. Then export to text and ResStore it back to resoruce format. -Az
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Originally posted by Azratax2: **Just pull the whole syst resource into a text file with ConText, then open it with a spreadsheet and reset all the roids on the existing systems so they point to the proper roids. You should be able to just fill them all in with whatever the appropriate code is for just the first two roid types. Then export to text and ResStore it back to resoruce format. -Az
**
Yeah, that would work, of course. I wish it wasn't necessary, though -- if the plug didn't have to rewrite every syst resource in the game I would think it would be less likely to conflict with other plugs. I've got this long-term dream of a series of small plugs on a particular theme, all co-existing happily even though contributed by different authors.
UE R&D;: I think the problems with the official port are finite and surmountable; my only question is when Soviet mikee will actually release an update. He discouraged me from posting piecemeal solutions to the addons page, though my web site does have a fix for the bug that I consider to be the biggest fun-killer. Recoding from scratch? Youch! Still, I do see that it's not necessarily a bad idea if your plans for changes are large -- and if you've got the time to do it and to debug!
I think the problems with the official port are finite and surmountable; my only question is when Soviet mikee will actually release an update. He discouraged me from posting piecemeal solutions to the addons page, though my web site does have a fix for the bug that I consider to be the biggest fun-killer. Recoding from scratch? Youch! Still, I do see that it's not necessarily a bad idea if your plans for changes are large -- and if you've got the time to do it and to debug!
True, true. I do plan on changing much in the EVO universe, and it would still be worth my time to recode. The port would be suitable for a smaller project, but given the fact that I'm going to be replacing the default scenario and all those other bits, I'm probably better off with the coding from scratch.
Originally posted by UE_Research & Development: **It is for reasons like this as well as the general instability of the EVO port
Instable, how?
Well mikee, you gotta admit, it's a little buggy. Things like, for example, I keep being offered the voinian missions, despite being well into the UE thread. Other stuff too. It can't be expected to be perfect on the first release.
As for asteroid types... do you really want so many? Sounds a little complicated.
~A~
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Originally posted by Azdara: **Well mikee, you gotta admit, it's a little buggy. Things like, for example, I keep being offered the voinian missions, despite being well into the UE thread. Other stuff too. It can't be expected to be perfect on the first release.
That's not a bug, that's the way the game was originally designed.
Originally posted by Soviet mikee: **Instable, how? **
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Is it still unclear whether this bug shows up under normal play. It's also unclear to me if this is engine related, or caused by the port.
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What specifically do you know you are having a problem with, as I haven't found any problems.
Hmmm. This thread is wandering off topic, but it's heading in an interesting direction all the same....
Sorry to just jump in with something unusually relevant to the topic line, but I'm curious: Mikee, why did you choose to use all 16 of the (mostly identical) roid types?