Features List for EV4

Terek E`Ban

Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
Side firing guns are half-implemented today with negative inaccuracy, the AI just cant use them effectively.
Read all about it http://www.ambrosias...m9&topic=004881
Masa: Real counters would be nice, but it would make our lives too easy Sides, what would Jonathan Boyd and I spend our time doing if counters were built in?
-Az

Make more complicated counters by using up to six implemented counters and let them work togehter as single unit ... ... ...

Or you can just help me to test my BEVOC
(See "lobsters Evolving Ship Idea" - Page 2 - in the middle of the page)

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orcaloverbri9

Quote

Originally posted by slouch:
- Allow the developer to set their own values for combat rating levels. What the level is, and how many levels there are.

I second that.

Az: How 'bout you actuallyGod forbid Develop something instead of coming up with workarounds?

I also second the idea of more exit points. It also makes it impossible to do a realistic Borg ship (aside from the top and bottom weapons)

- An "easy mode" or tutorial for beginners. Not me, but when I first started with EVC, I couldn't land because my hand-eye coordination SUCKED. It would be nice for those weird people who want to start with EV4.

- Not in the scope of EVC > EVO at all, but an "old mode" compatible with old plug-ins. That would be so cool. All those plug-ins we could run without porting them...

- Again, not in the EVC > EVO, but stealing an idea from Ares, zooming in and out in-game.

- A "fuel drain" field for weapons, so that it would drain on each fire, in conjunction with the AmmoType field (taking a cue from someone who wanted to launch fighters and take away fuel).

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(This message has been edited by orcaloverbri9 (edited 01-10-2004).)

Azratax2

Quote

Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
**

Az: How 'bout you actuallyGod forbid Develop something instead of coming up with workarounds?

**

Excuse me? Actually develop something? What do you think this is, the developers corner?
Oh... so it is... nevermind.
I thought i was in the EV Workaround Corner
-Az

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Masamune

Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
Side firing guns are half-implemented today with negative inaccuracy, the AI just cant use them effectively.
Read all about it http://www.ambrosias...m9&topic=004881
Masa: Real counters would be nice, but it would make our lives too easy Sides, what would Jonathan Boyd and I spend our time doing if counters were built in?
-Az

True... it would take some of the fun out of it, and make you and Jonatan kind of moot...

But in any case, if one looks closely, almost all of my ideas are solutions for things you can do ALMOST, but not quite. They are just a little something to open up new possibilites. Let's face it, with all the new counter designs and many of the cool ideas and workarounds we've just recently discussed, most anything is possible with effort. However, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to simplify some of those things. My take on it is this: Look, we figured it out the hard way, no let us do it the easy way. Kind of like learning math.

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~Charlie
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Katana

I can't believe nobody mentioned this before, but: MULTIPLE SUBMUNITION TYPES PER WEAPON!!! Sheesh, that's probably the greatest feature that is most lacking. You people disgust me...

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everywhere a slice slice.

Tiresmoke

Az is developing something. Err at least helping someone to develop something.

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Azratax2

(quote)Originally posted by Tiresmoke:
**Az is developing something. Err at least helping someone to develop something.:p
(For The Record: I am betatesting and consulting on two plugs (one a TC), and playing with a TC of my own)
-Az

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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.

(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 01-12-2004).)
**

pipeline

Quote

Originally posted by Bomb:
Yeesh. All I asked for was a customizable spaceport and more mission text flexibility and BOTH got bitch slapped down, so I'm afraid you haven't got much chance mate. Still fun to dream, though.

Tell me about it. I wanted true alpha transparency and that got munted on, too.

Dave @ ATMOS

Bomb

Quote

**Originally posted by pipeline:

Tell me about it. I wanted true alpha transparency and that got munted on, too.

Dave @ ATMOS**

**Good thing we didn't ask for true 3-d or multiplayer or touch screen interface for Dark Age, eh?

Imagine the response. Nothing like getting punted down to size by Mr. Burch to snap one back to reality... :)**

_bomb

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"that'll be 15 cents hippie!"

mrxak

-I'd like to see more PD types. Ones that home in on a missile or fighter, for instance. Bring back flare-type behavior too.
-More classes of weapons exit points, in addition to more of each type. Not just four broad categories, but more more more!
-Scripts. A mission or crön could load a script to determine how things happen. For instance, in a battle, a fleet might come in, and another fleet would come in 30 seconds later. Once three of one side's cruisers are destroyed or half of their fighters are disabled/destroyed, reinforcements arrive in the way of a carrier or two frigates depending on a random variable or ncb. However, if the flagship is destroyed, half of the remaining ships withdraw, and the rest concentrate all of their fire on whichever ship or group destroyed the flagship. During the battle, if the player personally destroys x amount of strength, then the mission ending will change to give the player a certain award or rank. If the player's ship takes greater than x amount of damage to armor, certain ncbs are set. You can do some of this as it is, but ultimately a basic scripting language (or complex resource-type) would be very helpful. Ideally, you could run as many scripts as you want during normal gameplay (think of them as super-cröns that can test for many more specific types of things), and also use them to play out certain sequences.
-More negatives. Negative time, negative impact (for non-beams), negative jam (for outfits), negative decay...
-Beams that can get larger farther away from the firing ship. Set phasers on wide spread.
-More ons. onFire, onBoard, onLand, onHit, etc.
-Outfits that can be destroyed by x amount of damage. This isn't just for components that get damaged, but for armor and shield outfits that get used up and need replacing. Naturally, onDestroyed would be nice.
-Outfits that can do more than four things. Eight should do it.
-More mission texts.
-jünk randomization flag. On any particular day it might grow, sometimes it perishes, sometimes it doesn't do either.
-More jünk bought ats and sold ats, and a new one that acts like a middle price.
-The ability to switch all of a particular government's behaviors to another government, without having to have many duplicate resources.
-More ncbs

(This message has been edited by mrxak (edited 01-11-2004).)

SpacePirate

I can see it all now... In a few posts, Matt comes by, and with one fell swoop, he states: "No new features will be added to Nova." Or perhaps, "Make your own damned game." Tough choice, that one... Probably both.

Alpha masks would have been incredibly useful. :frown:

The majority of comments I see here can be worked around, if you use a little creativity. However, some ideas are really good. Of course, you must keep in mind the amount of work, not only for Matt to implement any of these features, but the amount of work you will be adding to the casual TC developer. Adding more exit points, or multiple versions of planets, or any number of features to make the game more complex will make it even harder for independent developers to make a TC. It's hard enough getting good graphics guys...

Similarly, adding multiple targets, or the ability to control escorts manually, or forming tactics for escorts, or using multiple weapons at once, or other things like that would make the game harder for the end user. I do like the idea of strafing, though...

There is also where adding in so many animations would make it much easier to make it a 3D game, than it would be to render all of the different animations... I used to be kind of mad that you were limited to only one animation type, but I see now that it would have only given me more animating work to do.

I'd really like to see fleets usable in missions, going back in time and negative damage (or perhaps remove the less than zero tests all together, leaving even more undiscovered features?), and user-specified combat ratings, commodity ranges, and expanding the Map's find feature... Mainly because these will only take minor changes to the development tools, and the fact that they are not so much new features as they are expansions of existing ones.

As for my contribution- put back in flares, or, even better, make a new weapon flag that causes it to "attract guided weapons".

~ SpacePirate

(edit: Yeah, and pretty much exactly what mrxak said. ;))

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Eat blazing electric death!

(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 01-11-2004).)

Mantaray

Let me see...

Ship collisions flag - yeah
Gun smoke, or at least blast particles - I guess I'd better check to see if they already exist. If they do, disregard entirely
Texturable starfield - would be abused by many, but if it was in there, some people would be cool about it
Second, third alt sprites layer - there's only one in the Nova engine, which is enough, but more would be cool
NCB to set clock backwards - sort of a reverse time warp
NCB to change name of player - I know you can just rename the pilot file, but that doesn't work for me.
Planet repel - sort of like a deadly spob except you don't die, you bump off. Anti-gravity doesn't really work out too well.
AI support for gravity

orcaloverbri9

var player_name = *PN;
if (player_name != "mooness")
{S189;
A189}
else
{S190
F190};

Eh?

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The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url)

(This message has been edited by orcaloverbri9 (edited 01-11-2004).)

Terek E`Ban

What about:

- Much more explosions on screen... (128!?) Its really useful!!! - And allows to make cooler weapon effects. \- A way to implement new "standard" junks to the game. The extra junks are a nice feature but I dont think that`s enough.
- A greater junk list to let you use up to 15 different junks on one planet/station.
- A way to insert background pictures in systems or something simmilar. System color fields are fun but to have a good looking nebula as system background would be so cool.

I found this in another post:
Once upon a time, one could creatively exploit the fact that if you specified a link in system A to system B but not a link to system A in system B, the player could go from A > B...but not back. This made for creepy settings of things like "all those who have entered have never returned...". Unfortunately, this isn't possible in Nova.

- Insert the missing feature from above.
- If ränks got negative salary let them say "expenses" in the pilot info

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Guest_UE_Research & Development_*

I see several popular ones being repeated multiple times (PD types, scripting in-game for predetermined/branching events, fleets in dudes).

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mrxak

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
**I can see it all now... In a few posts, Matt comes by, and with one fell swoop, he states: "No new features will be added to Nova." Or perhaps, "Make your own damned game." Tough choice, that one... Probably both.;)

<snip>

As for my contribution- put back in flares, or, even better, make a new weapon flag that causes it to "attract guided weapons".**

Well, I consider this topic more of a "if only" rather than a "DO IT NOW!!!!" type of thing. A purely academic exercise.

Well yeah, a flare flag would be ideal.

Eegras Studios

Quote

Originally posted by Terek E`Ban:
**I found this in another post:
Once upon a time, one could creatively exploit the fact that if you specified a link in system A to system B but not a link to system A in system B, the player could go from A > B...but not back. This made for creepy settings of things like "all those who have entered have never returned...". Unfortunately, this isn't possible in Nova.

**

Ive done it with a hypergate. You go through Hypergate A to B but B is a station not a hypergate. I think its a glitch with mission computer.

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Terek E`Ban

Quote

Originally posted by The Cheat:
**Ive done it with a hypergate. You go through Hypergate A to B but B is a station not a hypergate. I think its a glitch with mission computer.

**

That sounds interesting - good to know this... funny glitch

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Hey, check out the new version of my plug-in. It`s called PlugPackV16.
You can download it (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/PlugPackV16.sit?path=evn/plugins&file;=PlugPackV16.sit")here(/url)

Dr. Trowel

I seem to be on a "make trade and mining more interesting" kick today. EVN's commodities system is there in my face every time I land my ship -- I want to see it relate more to storylines! I see that adding a working market simulation would be too big a job. So -- here's more stuff along the lines of my earlier post (re. missions testing for non-misn commodities in the player's cargo hold):

Cargo/junk as misn rewards. I like this idea a lot. "I'm sorry, Capt. Outaluck, but it turns out I won't be able to pay for your recent services in cash. You'll have to accept 20 tons of Obscurite instead -- though no one has much interest in this stuff in the Allaroundus Empire, I hear it is actively traded among the planets of the Wayoverthere Cluster. Have a nice day."
"Slow tribbles" (& perishables?) with a growth (or decay) rate that is measured in days rather than seconds.
Un-ejectable junks. They could just clog up hold space, or they could also be illegal. "Sir, the PETA and ASPCA inspection ships are closing fast! I'm trying to flush the hold, but the Venusian Suction Monkeys won't let go of the bulkhead!"
An outfit or set expression to override the InherentAI of the player's ship. This would allow freighters that players have tricked-out for use as warships to get warship-specific missions, and vice versa.
Ability to add more asteroid types. It's frustrating to me that ATMOS filled all available slots.
A way to make AI ships eject cargo (either during a misn or when the ship is destroyed) for the player to scoop up with an "asteroid" scoop.

(Lots of good stuff in other people's posts! Flare weapons and fleets in dudes & missions come to mind as two particularly good -- and hopefully easy -- ideas.)

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AceBlack

I'd like to see an AI editor of sorts.
For example, you could be able to specify formations of fighters, flight patterns, and how a ship behave when attacking you.
I tried to make a fighter that circled aroung its target by giving it just a side turret and it still charged head on.

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