Your browser does not seem to support JavaScript. As a result, your viewing experience will be diminished, and you have been placed in read-only mode.
Please download a browser that supports JavaScript, or enable it if it's disabled (i.e. NoScript).
Okay, I have found a way to significantly reduce the time it takes to create a total conversion. it's called adaptation. It is, basically taking al of the available graphics (stock, shipyards, plugins), adapting them (colouring, size, lights, glow, etc, etc), and give full credit in the readme to all of the contributors. Ask them first, but you get a ton of stuff. In three days, I got the graphics for all of my planets, all of the landscapes, some ships (have to add glow and light), some outfits and shots, etc. It kickstarted the plug about 6 months forwards. What is your communal take on this system? Note that the adaptation is severe and that credit is given where appropriate.
------------------ Captain Mephistopheles
I think it would be nice if you could post a screenshot of these adaptations. I think I can better form an opinion on the subject then.
Entarus,
------------------ "Don't wait for your life to happen , find something you are happy with and do it" (url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/products/evone/")EVONE 1.0pb2 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url) (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Uplink+web+board&number;=69") Uplink Forum(/url)
Basically, you can reuse any of the EVx graphics and you can use anything which people have posted in shipyards for publid domain use. You can't reuse anything from a plugin unless you have permission from the author.
------------------ 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)
I mean a wide variety of thingws, like grabbing posted textures and adapting them (like from nasa, etc), concept pictures from artists (of course with permission), everything. the only problem I have is getting ship animations. With those, I could do the entire game only doing adaptations (well, that and the shots). Now adaptations are a lot of work too, but significantly faster. For example, take a planet. Apply a cloud texture. Change the colour with a filter. Boom, new planet! Things like that. The only real problem here (other than the shans (help?)) is that it takes a ton of work to make the images mesh. I have photorealistic, concept art, etc and it will make for a very unusual plugin.
Quote
Originally posted by omeomi: **I mean a wide variety of thingws, like grabbing posted textures and adapting them (like from nasa, etc), concept pictures from artists (of course with permission), everything. the only problem I have is getting ship animations. With those, I could do the entire game only doing adaptations (well, that and the shots). Now adaptations are a lot of work too, but significantly faster. For example, take a planet. Apply a cloud texture. Change the colour with a filter. Boom, new planet! Things like that. The only real problem here (other than the shans (help?)) is that it takes a ton of work to make the images mesh. I have photorealistic, concept art, etc and it will make for a very unusual plugin.
**
The main problem with this is if you get images from various different places, your plug-in will look very inconsistent. Some Images will be better than others, some will be in different styles etc etc. Also, one of the main things that first of all draws someone to a plug-in is the graphics. If yours are just re-hashed ones from Nova, it's not going to get as much attention as one with brand spanking new graphics.
I'm not saying that re-using graphics is necessarily a bad thing, but you have to be careful in what you choose.
------------------ | (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=56&SUBMIT;=Go") EV Image Gallery.(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go") EV Developers Corner.(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=20&SUBMIT;=Go") And lest we forget, EV Chronicles.(/url) | (url="http://"http://directory.uroboricforms.org/profile.php?id=00076")My Profile(/url) | "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain.
(This message has been edited by TheRedeemer (edited 04-03-2004).)
Oh I agree. however, to me at least graphics are not what make the game (else I'd not be playing nova, I'd be playing Halflife2 or Deus Ex 2 or Far Cry or something). Also, the amount of revision does turn out newish graphics, they do look reasonably similar by the end and very, very nice. Also, I am using mostly different resources, not rehashed nova resources. My ships will all be new as well (hence why I am still nowhere near done, as I am still overwhelmed by the 3d modeling stuff (which I had to learn in 3 weeks)). It is true that some things will make for oddities, but the months it saves me and the only minor inconsistencies it brings make this process worthwhile. This is especially true because very few people have done this already, so there are lots of graphics for me to use.
Originally posted by omeomi: **Oh I agree. however, to me at least graphics are not what make the game (else I'd not be playing nova, I'd be playing Halflife2 or Deus Ex 2 or Far Cry or something). Also, the amount of revision does turn out newish graphics, they do look reasonably similar by the end and very, very nice. Also, I am using mostly different resources, not rehashed nova resources. My ships will all be new as well (hence why I am still nowhere near done, as I am still overwhelmed by the 3d modeling stuff (which I had to learn in 3 weeks)). It is true that some things will make for oddities, but the months it saves me and the only minor inconsistencies it brings make this process worthwhile. This is especially true because very few people have done this already, so there are lots of graphics for me to use.
I do agree about graphics not making a game, but it is nice to have good graphics. Anyway, Just go for it, and If the story is good enough, maybe you'll get some excellent grpahic designer offering to redo your graphics for you.
Maybe. That would be nice. Don't worry, the story is gold, pure gold.
Basically, Terra had an environmental collapse. In only nine years the planet was made uninhabitable, all because of human stupidity. Although the majority of the population died, some people weresaved. There was an exodus off of the planet, helped by off-world ships, but the majority of the people who got away did so in massive colony ships, built hurriedly when the situation became hopless. Some of these ships colonized planets in the general vicinity of Terra, keeping in contact with the budding Terran Empire, but a very few left known space altogether, looking for a new start away from all of the insanity that made up their culture. Only one of these ships survived the trip across deep space, landing eventually on a barely habitable world. The spaceship, from which they launched their landing pods spun away, lost. Conditions were harsh, technology and history were lost, many died, but human adaptability won out and a flourishing culture sprung forth. This planet was called Pil, and as humanity made the long march back to spaceflight the planet rapidly became a better place to live. Primitive terraforming techniques were applied with limited success and everything seemed right with the world. The day humanity acheived spaceflight marked a turning point in Pilan history, but an incredible discovery schismed the culture. On the dark side of Pil's only moon laid the smashed remains of the colony ship, and investigation, while revealing little about where it had come from, gave no doubt that this was the source of humanity. The technology gained from the ship kickstarted Pil's technology, but all was not well on the planet. The people had a very strong religion, based around multiple gods, which said that people came from divinity directly. A new religion destroyed this. These people said that the gods had sent them forth from somewhere else in punishment, and only in spiritual purity could the find a way to return. Science grew but the people were divided, and this built up for over four hundred years. Eventually, long after the first colonied on other planets were explored there was a cataclysmic war. The primitive ships, with no shields and weak armor turned space into a bloodbath as powerful weapons tore each other apart. Eventually a truce was reached, but already over 160 million had died. Most of the supporters of the old religion were on the galactic east, the new on the west and they made a line of demarcation, a huge network of hyperspace inhibitors through which no ship could cross. The Pilans (as the western group stayed named) controlled this with their marginally more advanced technology, while the Melkiori, on the east, simply grew out further and further until they formed spinoff colonies of their own. Several hundred years passed, then a huge ship came to Pilan space. They told of a huge Empire to the north, the home of humanity from which all Pilans must have come, who oppressed them. They has escaped the Melkiori rule, but has onlyentered a new one where they were second class citizens and curiosities. They had built this huge ship underground, where it could not be seen, and as a group left the planet. The force of the takeoff destroyed all surface life, and they barely escaped. The Pilans, in desperation, quickly erected a second line of inhibitors to the north, and all was good. Then again, after hundreds of years, rebels on the pilan border destroyed the inhibitors to the north and the universe held its collective breath as to what would happen next....
Good? What do you all think?
------------------ 'truly, if there is evil in the world, it lies in the heart of mankind.' -Edaward Morrison