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I' m just curious:
How did/do the TC or EVN developers around here go about designing their universes? I mean, where does one start? Do people develop a map and work a storyline out of the map? Does the map come from the storyline? Do some people make their storyline fit in with a list of "cool" outfits?
It's just that this concept has eluded me. Where does one begin? Where does one end? What does one do in the meantime? I mean, were all of the ships completed before the missions came into being in the EVN universe? Were extra ships tacked on at the end to fit into the storyline?
Please, just give me a rundown of the general design processes used here.
------------------ When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!
Well, I know for a start that I've started by laying out the basic system and planet positions. They may not end up in exactly the same place as they are now, but I imagine they will be broadly similar. Then I made all the planet graphics. I've made basic place holders for the station graphics which will be added at a later date. I just need to learn how to add the graphics now (never learned how to do that). Think my next task is to start on all the planet and spob descriptions and to set up the hypergate network. Dont know after that. Probably adding all the ships and outfits. As soon as I get it to a stage where it is playable without missions I will be happy. Then Im going to find someone to do that for me as I am not very good at missions and the like. Might need to get saomeone to help with the fleets and dudes too. All pers ships (besides those essential to story lines will be added at the very end.
ewan
------------------ 'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames' - Harry Hill
I don't want to give too many secrets away, but I pretty much started out by playing around with a galaxy editor. Naturally I started in the middle, and worked my way out. Then I realized <censored> and the rest is history. Or at least will be if I ever finish the TC.
Never underestimate the creative process of laying out systems and naming them.
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I laid out Retribution's systems only after writing planetary descs for every stellar object. After I release Retribution, I'll probably also release some of the design documents so people can get a glimpse of what went on in the background.
------------------ Retribution: An Upcoming Plug-in for EVN. 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 ' (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics &number;=20&forum;=*EV/EVO+chronicles&DaysPrune;=100&article;=000262&startpoint;=")Fiery Descent(/url)'! (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga(/url): An upcoming TC, visit the web page today.| | | Both the best and the worst plug-in editor for Windows! (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW")EVNEW(/url)!
The order in which you do things is a matter of personal preference, of course.... That's not to say that planning a strategy is a waste of time, though!
The "B" link at the far right of my sig goes to Bomb's Plug-in Guide, which has lots of TC-project-planning advice that is worth considering. Check it out. Best of luck!
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I began with a moment two men entering a frozen maze under a pyramid. How did they get there? What were they looking for? What were they like? Why a pyramid? Why frozen?
From the moment grew the storyline immediately around the pyramid the week before. From there, the main characters, and from there a vestigial universe. Two decadent empires, struggling for a technological edge that would give them the victory. In between, a narrow band of free worlds, technologically vibrant but too weak in resources to threaten the empires. From, there, I tried to put the words into a game. But a game, unlike a book, cannot have flashbacks, so I needed to take the player from the end of his teenage years through the life-shaping choices which would take him to the pyramid. And then the story wouldn't stop. It got mixed up with a romance that had to be completed, for better or for worse. In the mean time, the basic game became transformed, every world was bent to the new shape. Every desc. And then the gameplay took over. Challenges for the pilot, things that would bring him to the point of being able to threaten a world. During all of this, the engine wouldn't fit the story, so there had to be new tricks, new work arounds. Stuff that no-one had done before. And then testing, testing. Almost a year of testing before another soul saw it. And then more changes, more testing, all the graphics remade twice, three times.
Finally, release. Marketing. Some people liked it. Some people couldn't fathom it. Growing popularity. Finally, a classic, a standard, the one everyone tries to beat.
And then, a new engine, time to start again. Completion - release? One day. Maybe.
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It's purely a matter of personal preference, but what I do is figure out the basic storyline first. After that, it's easy to make a well laid-out galaxy. After that, the first resources I create are generally the ones that don't rely on any others, like the govt and the weap.
From there, I progress to the resources that rely on those, usually the ship and then the dude. I find it easiest to save the missions for last, once I have the galaxy and basic scenario set up.
------------------ "Nothing is impossible with crons and submunitions." -me
I think that the idea of coming up with a basic plotline first is a good one, deciding on wether there'll be aliens as well, whether the plug is based in our galaxy, then Government concepts, Race concepts, draft of systems etcetera.
Basically starting from really general things is probably a good idea. Getting on top of graphics early is also good.
Speaking of which, better go remake that fighter. UER&D;: This one is taking a while because I did it **** first. Have to redesign my redisigned design of your design. If you follow me.
~A~
------------------ "How can I make it go faster?" -Me-
I should expand upon my previous statement. Thats what has been done since the concept stage was complete. Before that I spent quite a few months writing prologues and back stories about the Universe visualized for the plug. Ive done sketches for all my ships, weapons, and outfits, and written out a basic mission plan for one of the government strings. The rest of the mission writing will be done if and when I get to the stage of coding my missions. Also, all the governments have been coded
Let's cut to the chase.
No plugin is worth playing unless there's a good storyline.
It's a lot easier to build a universe around a strong storyline than to create a universe and hope a storyline emerges.
This applies to TCs just as much as it applies to plugins that add a couple of missions and one new planet.
I'm still really, really skeptical about this whole obsession with TCs that's been going around for the last four years. There have been only a tiny handful of worthwhile TCs ever in EVC, EVO or EVN. Actually, I'm going to go out on a limb and say there there were only three (but I'm not saying which they were). But there have been dozens of really first rate add-on plugins, some of them as big as TCs but without the desire to change everything.
Maybe I'm just old and jaded. and reflecting too much where I've personally come from, but I've also seen hundreds of TCs announced on this board, usually with the rider 'this is definitely not vaporware, because '.
For Nova, there are now three complete game universes you can write a plugin for - the EVC universe, the EVO universe, and the EVN universe. Modifying what there is (and who knows, it may develop into a TC) is, in my opinion, a better way to go forward. It means you can jump straight into writing the story, only changing what you have to change.
My first attempt at plugin making was in playing around at modifying the STEV plug from years back. That's usually a good way to start----make modifications either to the game, or another plug. It gives you a feel for how everything works.
After that, I made a serious effort to make an EVO expansion based around Crescent Station. I wrote out a (IMO) good mission string leading up to the crucial juncture.....and then, when it came to designing my own systems and graphics, my interest kind of fizzled out. Writing planet descs is harder than one might think. So, one conclusion you can draw: If you've got a good story idea, but not much else, you might be better off trying to fit it into the Nova/EV/EVO scenario as an add-on, rather than making a TC.
Last year, I made an abortive attempt at starting a Babylon 5 TC for Nova, using red-tinted systems and hypergates to better simulate the B5 universe than I had seen done before. Its possible I might eventually go back to that, but again, it was the descriptions that really killed my interest.
So, on my most recent project, a Firefly TC ( Firefly is a very EV-like show-----I highly recommend the DVDs to anyone who hasn't seen it), I went straight for the heart of the problem. There's already a rudimentary universe and storyline in place from the show; my problem is just figuring out how to expand on that, and what came before....and possibly, what came after. I figured all of that would fall together once I gave it a framework on which to reside: So, I started with the planets.
The very first thing I did, was write up a bunch of planet descs, and create their associated spobs, with some basic settings that I thought up in a few seconds. Then I wen back, and did some bar descs.
After all that was done , I drew up a basic galactic map in Photoshop, and then systed it up in Mission Computer. Then I used Terragen to create a few landscapes.
That's about where I am now. I've got 75+ stellar objects; at best, I might crest 100 in the finished TC. Its not going to be huge, just big enough to (hopefully) not get boring as I tell the story I have in mind.
But I couldn't have done all that on my own. I don't have that kind of motivation. So I put out a general request for aid from Firefly fans------I asked them to make up planet descs, and send them to me. I screened them, edited them, and added them. Its made the work go very fast, and I'm more than satisfied with the result.
The only major stumbling block that I can see at this point, is graphics. I'm making an effort to aquaint myself with some free 3D programs, but its not easy----not at all. If there's any graphics people on this board intersted in contributing a ship, a landscape, whatever-----let me know. I'll probably even be starting a thread on this in the near future.
Oh yeah, the point of writing all that. I guess my advice is: Get a dedicated team together. Don't try to do everything yourself.
------------------
Quote
Originally posted by PBoat101: **It's purely a matter of personal preference, but what I do is figure out the basic storyline first. After that, it's easy to make a well laid-out galaxy. **
That's exactly what I did. I started out with the concept of two separated races battling against an almost insurmountable enemy, and then joining up and eventually defeating it. That formed the basis of the galaxy, and the missions too.
------------------ (url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")mazca(/url), king of pork Ruling with an iron fist The pig farms fear him
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **
**
Here is the problem I have experienced with the idea of writing addon plugins: The classic and override ports are buggy, and really need some heavy work done on them (including a graphics remake) in order to be viable settings to add on to. They could also stand to be novarized. The stock nova scenario is impossible to add on to. Everything there is so tightly integrated, and the effects of the major storylines so far reaching, that any addon would not fit into the stock scenario. With EVC/O on the other hand, there was no problem with adding on to the scenario - they were open enough that things could be added with no ill effects.
I am developing my TC map-first, with some ideas of how some storylines might go. I do NOT want a single linear storyline - I am a big fan of branching storylines, and side missions (trying to play up the RP aspect, not the novel aspect). Remember my counters? As charachters do things that would influence thier attitudes or reputation, counters get incremented. -Az
------------------ It is here. EVNEW Public Beta (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW")www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW(/url) Stuffit is a piece of .sit.
I'm still really, really skeptical about this whole obsession with TCs that's been going around for the last four years.
You can be skeptical all you want (and your skepticism would certainly not be unwarranted), but only time will tell. Two years from now, we may have six new TCs out. Or all of these projects will have disappeared as vaporware (very, very unlikely). I hope the former scenario turns out, but the situation could very easily change.