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But it just might work. What if I were to develop a plug-in for Nova, but not test it myself (which I am incapable of doing), and just sextouple-check every id number (I'd be developing with ResEdit) before release so that I know it's perfect?
Told you it was insane...
------------------ The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug." (Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?)
Could work, but it is nothing compared to testing it yourself. There are little balance things you need to change, which you can only find by testing it in-game.
------------------ Eat blazing electric death!
If a particular mission is too hard, or a ship obtained by the player too easy, people will become tired of your plug-in very quickly. You can't balance just by looking at the numbers, you have to try it out yourself. As well, if you have a story, you want to at least skim through the descs to make sure they are logical in the context of the plug-in.
------------------ (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")Fatal Alliance- an upcoming quasi-TC for EVN.(/url) Secret Project: In intermediate planning stages. (No links available) Visit the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=20&SUBMIT;=Go")Chronicles(/url) today! Be sure to read the short story ' Fiery Descent '!
Why cant you test it yourself? -Az
------------------
In other words, you will want beta testers.
Quote
Originally stated by Jace, my ME211 TA: "Programming is 10% coding and 90% debugging."
Just today I had an error in a chunk of FORTRAN code I was doing. The computer thought it was perfectly fine, but the program was not doing what it was supposed to. The error was a missing letter, small enough that it took two people looking through the code ten minutes to find, but totally destroyed the functionality.
Having other people test and abuse your code will help find the problems faster, and thus you will be able to fix them quicker and make a better product. It is very much worth the time and effort to beta test.
------------------ "If you can't feel the Force, you're not pushing it." -Prof. Li on the "Force" Got g? (url="http://"http://www.badastronomy.com/")Real astronomers use kilometers. Hardcore astronomers use centimeters.(/url)
Originally posted by Azratax2: **Why cant you test it yourself? -Az
**
Obviously he hasn't paid for nova... Pay already, then make a plug! NOVA is cheap as all hell for what you get.
~A~
------------------ "How can I make it go faster?" -Me-
Originally posted by Azdara: **Obviously he hasn't paid for nova... Pay already, then make a plug! NOVA is cheap as all hell for what you get.
Obviously you don't know my age...
Bri:
Go earn $30 using allowance, working around the house, etc. Thirty bucks should take you a couple weeks, provided you have some sort of monetary self control. Once you have the $30, ask your parents if you could exchange it for a different form (IE a credit card payment). Load up the Ambrosia Store onto a web browsers, tell them what you are purchasing (show them the EV:N page if necessary). When they ask why, give a good explanation, and ask if it is OK for you to purchase with their help, but with your money. Hopefully they will acquiesce. Let them fill out the form online, print it out, etc., then give them the $30 of hard money that you posess. I did this a couple times when I was younger, it worked like a charm. All you have to do is be polite, be honest, and have the cash in hand to pay them off.
Originally posted by Chuckles: **Bri:
Eh, I don't need to go through all that. I just need to deduct 30 bucks from my money currently held by them, pay the extra in cash, and boom, they'll pay for it (that was all I had to do to get Ultimate Ride Coaster Deluxe :D). Let's see...mowing the lawn gives me 7$, and since I have around 4 or 5, I just need to mow it 4 times...1or I could do a chore every oppurtunity...hmm...I'll take the latter.
(This message has been edited by orcaloverbri9 (edited 09-26-2003).)
OK, so you have the means and the method, so "Just do it"Ž.
Originally posted by Chuckles: **In other words, you will want beta testers.
Try debugging machine code. I spent two hours switching circuit boards, re-entering my program, getting other people to check the system out, only to discover that I'd written down all the correct assembly instructions, but for one of them, I'd written down the wrong machine code instruction beside it - E0 instead of A0. Very annoying. This is why we don't use machine code anymore.
------------------ (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/evn/index.html")Classic4Nova plug-in(/url)
You get 7$ just for mowing the lawn? Dude, if I don't do that, I don't get food. You're so lucky.
------------------ You can run but then you die tired
Azdara Sings
"Pay for the game orca, game orca, game orca, pay for the game orca, game orca, game!"
Yeah. It's fairly easy to do if you get 7 bucks for the lawn. Hell, that means you only have to do it four times, and there's your nova right in the bag. Just do it, it's worth it, and it supports the company we all know and love.
Originally posted by The Vortrex: **You get 7$ just for mowing the lawn? Dude, if I don't do that, I don't get food. You're so lucky.
Ouch. I don't get much food, anyway, though... Take today's lunch: I grabbed a fish patty instead of a chicken one (damn cafeteria people, they looked like the same thing!), and the fish is, trust me, not edible. I took one bite, realized it was fish, and would have spat it out, had I not been in a group of people (though they were talking about things that dont need repeating here...).
Originally posted by Azdara: **Azdara Sings
Where have I heard that tune? I know the rhythm, but not the original words...
Anyway, yeah, I know it's only four times...you know, if I hadn't wasted $8.49 of my 10 bucks on URCD (although it was worth it), I'd have almost $20...then December 26 the next year, I'd have wither $30 or $40 (depending on how my dad does it)...
It's a pity we have such a friggin' huge lawn...
Oh, and if anyone wants to know my age, let me put it this way: I'm probably the youngest developer you've ever seen. In fifth grade, my teacher would always call on me to fix the computer...I was the computer guy AND the Mathemagician (gician from a book we read that year :D)...and so, I had the responsibility of handing down those two titles to the fourth graders (I'm bad at making important decisions such as those)...
In any case, I got interested in web programming at like, nine years old. My mom kept teasing me saying that that must be what those 15 year old hackers look like at nine. By the time I turned eleven, I was doing my sister's site for her (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Perl...I'm the freakiest person ever).
I asked my mom if she'd be willing to buy Nova as a birthday present (though thats in five months), and she said maybe...eh, maybe I'll get a bunch of money for Christmas (not that I'm counting on it)
Oh, Azdara, if you were to make a përs for yourself, what would you name it? Just ahem curious...
Originally posted by orcaloverbri9: **Where have I heard that tune? I know the rhythm, but not the original words... **
I don't know Azdara's thoughts, but the cadence matches "Have you ever seen a lassie." It's a childrens' folk song.
Actually, it's a tune that has been used over and over for a looooong time. No idea what the "original" source was. It kinda sounds German/Alpine -- I can imagine it being played on a tuba in an "Oompa" band.
Until you've got the mowing done, I expect you can familiarize yourself with NovaTools, etc. thus: rather than putting a new plug in the plugs folder, back up the Nova Files somewhere safe, then mess with the installed copies of those files. You can try out sprites that you want to use in your plug by using them to (temporarily) replace the graphics for the ships in the game, for instance. (Unless, I suppose, Ambrosia built a checking mechanism into the engine to prevent the game from working with tampered files until you've registered.)
Just be sure you DO buy the game eventually -- it's the right thing to do and, besides that, it's pretty essential before you release your ideas in a plug that the rest of us can use!
------------------ (url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~drtrowel/")Dr. Trowel's E.S.W.P.(/url) -- Featuring Cold Fusion Graphics for EVN Override, and an EVN/O outfit bug fix. Om Noppo Noppo Om!
(This message has been edited by Dr. Trowel (edited 10-02-2003).)
Originally posted by Dr. Trowel: **Actually, it's a tune that has been used over and over for a looooong time. No idea what the "original" source was.
Oh. Okay then.
Originally posted by Dr. Trowell: **(Unless, I suppose, Ambrosia built a checking mechanism into the engine to prevent the game from working with tampered files until you've registered.)
Yeah, they did...unfortunately.
Seriously, you can't possibly write a plugin without playing it through yourself at least twenty times, any more than you can evaluate someone else's plugin by opening it in ResEdit, looking at a few Descs and saying 'that doesn't look very exciting to me'.
A great plugin moves the player away from thinking that they are playing with altered resedit resources on a 17inch screen in their bedroom. When it all comes together, it makes the characters and their stories believable. It makes you identify with their hopes and fears. It makes you desperate to find out what is going to happen next, but unwilling to spoil it by just opening up the files.
This you can only achieve by playing over and over again until you have made your world as convincing in its own small way as the world.
Is $30 too much to ask?
------------------ M A R T I N • 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)
Originally posted by orcaloverbri9: **Where have I heard that tune? I know the rhythm, but not the original words...
... He steps on the clutch and the toilet goes flush! ...
(This message has been edited by TrevorG (edited 10-03-2003).)
Heh, you poor guy! I get $5 for doing nothing. Ok so its a tiny allowance compared to my friends (one gets $40 a week for doing nothing, this is Australian dollars so 65 point something US cents) but I don't have to do any work to get it.
Seriously? Come on Canteen food can't be that bad! At my school its pretty darn good. We get REAL chicken, fish, beef, Turkey, Pork, Lasagne, Ravioli, and Lobster (on a Thursday).
Oh yeah, but the Jerkey is... how shall I put this? Best to be avoided...
-Starbridge42
------------------ Hey! If I want cheesey poofs, I'll get cheesey poofs! -Eric Cartman Law Enforcer "Respect my Authorita!"
(This message has been edited by Starbridge42 (edited 10-05-2003).)
Originally posted by orcaloverbri9: Oh, and if anyone wants to know my age, let me put it this way: I'm probably the youngest developer you've ever seen. In fifth grade, my teacher would always call on me to fix the computer...I was the computer guy AND the Mathemagician (gician from a book we read that year :D)...and so, I had the responsibility of handing down those two titles to the fourth graders (I'm bad at making important decisions such as those)...
In any case, I got interested in web programming at like, nine years old. My mom kept teasing me saying that that must be what those 15 year old hackers look like at nine. By the time I turned eleven, I was doing my sister's site for her (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Perl...I'm the freakiest person ever). (/B)
I'm almost exactly the same only I learned C and C++ before html, javascript... Interesting. I'm twelve and am already building cutsom websites. i get paid too :p.
PS for cutting the grass, i get 20 bucks and 5 bucks for doing nothing.
------------------ - Stephen My English Teacher: "Close your eyes and imagine that you are at the beach. Think of some good nouns and adjectives that descibe it." Me: "Beachy!"