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Meh....RL....You know.... <_< ....Ugh, just 1 more month....
Updates:
5/30/07 -- Yeah...don't be expecting any actual progress until summer (i.e. late June). Real Life (by which I mean high school, of course) is just keeping me too busy. Especially because of (a) finals (in every class), (b) last minute projects (research paper...ugh...), and (c) teachers (well, just one, really) who are (is) trying to cram 4 chapters into the next week and a half.
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 30 May 2007 - 05:54 PM
Project Alpha: Prepare yourselves for the (nearly) complete story of this strange, mysterious project that I've hinted at. I'll warn you now: it's quite long. If you want to spare yourself the details I spent so much time and effort hammering out, just skip down to the fourth paragraph. But don't expect to understand what PASE is, along with other things. And, mind you, it'll still be long, so make sure you have a good amount of time to sit and read.
The concept of Project Alpha is an ancient one. Before the invention of the hypergates and the discovery of hyperspace, there were many theories as to how long-distance space travel might be possible. After the first Mars landing and the completion of the Second International Space Station, the Planetary Association of Space Exploration (PASE) began looking into the legitimacy of some of these theories.
After many years of research, it was decided that the most likely of these theories was the concept of 'sleeper ships'. Sleeper ships are space ships which keep their travelers in suspended animation for the majority of their journey. PASE also selected sleeper ships because of the basic cryogenic technology already available. Despite said advances in cryopreservation, PASE had a long way to go before it was ready to begin construction. It was also decided that nuclear fusion would be used to power this project because of its efficiency; however, even by 2040, there were only three nuclear fusion plants around the world, and each required tremendous time and funding to make. Due to limitations in energy use, interstellar travel was put on hold for almost 60 years.
By 2096, nuclear fusion was readily available in a less expensive, more compact form. Representatives from PASE met and voted to renew planning for what they dubbed "Project Alpha" because it would mark the beginning of interstellar travel on Earth. Designs were drawn up, statistics were pounded out, and funds were allocated to this new prospect in space travel. PASE had its hands full.
Some 30 years (lots of complications with a project this big, you know) and tens of billions of dollars later, the planning stage was complete. 3 separate convoys of 10 colossal ships each, with one million people on each ship, would launch to 3 different inhabitable systems -- all 3 systems as close to Earth as possible. Average travel time was estimated to be about 350 years.
The 30 transports were to be run entirely by highly advanced computer software. One ship in each convoy would hold only 800,000 passengers, but would contain extra software bordering on artificial intelligence to govern the other ships. This lead ship contained the cryogenic clock that would wake the convoy in 349 years to give them a year to prepare for colonization. The lead ship would also control the navigation to the distant stars and was responsible for keeping the other 9 transports together and on course. Once every month, the lead transport would send a short, tight-beam transmission to Earth, informing PASE of its location and status.
Construction finally began in 2135. Materials from everywhere PASE could get them -- the moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, Venus, and of course Earth itself -- were gathered to prepare for this massive undertaking. In an Earth-wide effort, Project Alpha appeared to be nearing completion in time for the next centennial. Launch date was set for 2200. Colonists, excited by the idea of their very own deep-space adventure, lined up to volunteer for Project Alpha. However, PASE was having a hard time convincing nearly 30 million people to abandon their planet and lives only to awake 350 years in the future to find that most of their friends and family died long before they made planetfall. PASE desperately began propagandizing the expedition, encouraging anyone and everyone to join Project Alpha.
PASE certainly got its 30 million volunteers, but at a price. An age-old conflict that had been steadily escalating recently suddenly erupted into all-out warfare in 2187. The Earth, having finally been united, was being savagely torn apart by the simply devastating crisis. With many of its funding and materials now being used for war, Project Alpha hit a dead end. There was no way it could be ready by 2200. On the other hand, citizens of Earth and its in-system colonies rushed to sign up for the expedition; they were fleeing their home planet in fear of the destruction that now ravaged its surface. PASE was forced to not only tell its volunteers that they would have to wait a while longer, but also that they probably wouldn't be chosen at all: more than 300 million people signed up to escape what was quickly turning out to be World War III.
PASE scrambled to prepare Project Alpha ASAP. The final programming on the transports was rushed and still slightly buggy when PASE announced that P.A. was ready to launch in 2213, just 13 years after their original deadline. The only positive thing that could be said about loading the colonists was that it was fairly well organized. The location of Project Alpha was kept secret from nearly everyone who took part in its construction, and the chosen colonists were only told of its location during their massive exodus from humanity -- the gigantic submarines specifically designed to take the colonists to mainland Antarctica, the true location of P.A. No one was informed of the departure of Project Alpha save the President of PASE, his advisers, the mechanics involved in the launch, and the colonists. The President personally oversaw the departure of the convoy.
It was while the colonists were being transported via submarine to Antarctica that the President of PASE was faced with a particularly difficult decision. He wished, whatever the cost, to see the vision of his predecessors be successful. However, he was as concerned with the War as anyone, and could see that, whatever the outcome, the Earth would never be the same, nor would humanity in general. The President painfully made his decision. Broken-hearted, he boarded each of the three head transports and personally disabled the program that would relay the convoys' location and status to Earth. He was determined to give the colonists a chance to survive on their own, away from the influences of war-stricken Earth and its violence. In disabling the locater, he gave the colonists a chance to truly escape from the Earth they would leave forever. Perhaps, the President thought as he walked away from his dream, the colonists would learn from the mistakes of Earth and establish a peaceful government on their new home planets. He certainly hoped so.
Trivia:
-- The years I used correspond to current Earth years (i.e. 'AD'). This sort of helps connect the current world with the Novaverse.
-- These events took place loooong before the events of EVN. I haven't quite decided how long yet, but I know it's on the up side of 2,000 years.
-- Existing records of Project Alpha are nil. On Earth it was generally assumed the project had been abandoned and never launched at all. This was reinforced by the fact that most people involved with its launch were actually passengers on the convoy. The President and his advisers who remained kept their mouths shut for the remainders of their lives, telling not a soul, and those unlucky few mechanics who stayed were drafted off to fight in World War III. They didn't last long. As for Project Alpha itself...well, as you'll find out, the colonists felt there was little or no reason to remember such details as Project Alpha.
-- Can you figure out the mistakes made by PASE and its President in particular? They're in there; you'll pick up on them if you pay close attention....
-- Hm... I wonder what happened to Project Alpha? ( Ahem. I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO PROJECT ALPHA? :D) Just curious. I'm sure it won't hold any significance in the plot or anything like that....
-- Where exactly do the Hyperoids come into play...? ( Cows with Guns: Udder Destruction!! )
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 01 September 2007 - 01:34 PM
It wouldn't be an AI that realyed the convoy location and status to earth, it would be a simple status-checking system with a transmitter attached (probably a rudimentary one to avoid possible problems). No need to code an AI for it.
And by AI do you mean AI in the movie/story sense of the word or in the programming sense of the word?
@lnsu, on Jun 6 2007, 10:30 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Point taken. The 'AI' thing was to point out that every system on Project Alpha was controlled by a single piece of software, which I figured would have to be pretty advanced technology to perform so many tasks simultaneously, plus it has the ability to adapt to unforeseen complications. Think I should change 'AI' to 'software' or 'program' or something else?
Programming. There's no robotic little boy on Project Alpha, if that's what you mean. It's a computer that communicates with and controls the other transports. It's a big piece of equipment, though -- the technology is still fairly new. Remember how big computers were when they were first invented?
@warlord-mike, on May 7 2007, 07:22 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Oh, 'Bridge, you (are an) evil, evil person, you.
Yes. Yes I am.
That's all for now.
6/14/07, 9:12 EST: Good news (for once). Just 2 more finals and I'll be done. Chem should be cake, and that's not 'till Monday, anyway. So I can finally get back to...this...thing...that's called :mellow:...um...what's it called?...how 'bout for now the temporary name can be The Omega Wars , just so I can refer to my TC as a title ( EVTOW ).
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 01 September 2007 - 01:31 PM
Well, it's June 21: the first day of summer ( finally ). And you know what that means. ...right? Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means??
Alright, enough of that. It means I can finally get started on EVTOW.
And I plan on getting started today. Probably around 7 (EST). Sorry I'm too lazy to convert to UTC.
I suppose the best place to start is with descs, huh? Any suggestions as to a better place to start? I just figured I start small & simple: not only do I figure the descs will be the easiest part, it'll help me refine the story. So, without further delay, I'm off!...
....Oh right, I don't start for 2 hours...so...um...yeah. Wish me luck?
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 21 June 2007 - 03:50 PM
If you're starting from scratch, get to a playable stage ASAP. That way you can test everything the moment you make it. Otherwise, start with ships and weapons. Those are what'll take the most tweaking and balancing, and it's better to get them done early and modify as needed rather than make them late and discover things don't quite work as intended.
@joshtigerheart, on Jun 21 2007, 11:28 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Thanks. Hm, I'll probably copy/paste the files to a new folder, then edit the starting Nova resources. Then when they're all done, I can add the new resources. I guess 'misn's will be last? Well, 'last' doesn't really matter at this point; 'first' is what matters now. One thing at a time. So first is ships & weaps? And, by association, shan & outf?
Actually, due to...unforeseen...unexpected...unavoidable...circumstances... <_< yeah, tomorrow's my sister's birthday. It somehow slipped my mind in all the I-can-finally-start-EVTOW excitement. :huh: So I haven't started yet, and I probably won't until Saturday. Sorry for the false alarm.
Don't forget the spins and dudes. Once you have most of your ships and weapons set-up, you might want to start staging battles in various systems using dudes and maybe even missions that you'll delete later. That way you can see how they fight each other and make whatever adjustments you need so once side doesn't always obliterate the other when it's not supposed to.
This is my personal preference of the order I'd do things. This isn't the absolute best method, just my suggestion. Also, you don't have to finish everything to go onto the next step. Just at the very least get a good start so you have an idea of how things will mesh.
-Weapons and ships, with associated spins, shans, outfits, and descriptions. Also start on graphics and sounds if you can do them, preferably for the associated resources.
-Dudes, major govts and other outfits, without associated graphics if you can.
-Major systems, minor govts, and spobs with associated descs. Associated graphics/sounds if you can.
-Missions. You should have most, if not all, of your ships created by now, not neccesarily done. Also do associated descs.
Whenever you feel like doing them, since they're more minor, don't forget about junks, oops, strings, chars, unassociated crons, fleets, nebulaes, perses, ranks not needed by the main storyline, minor missions (like Ferry Passengers), and asteroids. If you can't do graphics or sounds, I recommend to hold off in searching for people to do them until 33%-50% in. That way you have significant work to show and also are reducing the odds that they'll think your work is going to be vaporware.
@joshtigerheart, on Jun 22 2007, 01:39 AM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
If you can't do graphics or sounds, I recommend to hold off in searching for people to do them until 33%-50% in. That way you have significant work to show and also are reducing the odds that they'll think your work is going to be vaporware.
Well I wouldn't want anyone to think that. :rolleyes: Heh. Thanks for the tips though.
In fact, use placeholder graphics until you've done as much work as you can without the final graphics.
@lnsu, on Jun 22 2007, 06:22 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Good idea. Honestly, I haven't given much thought to the graphics. I pretty much know what I want them to look like, but the artists would be given a fair amount of leg room to adapt the graphics to their own style and that of EVN. Beyond that, I'm not very concerned with the graphics.
Woo! Post #150! In celebration, have a pie.
Hmm...I've been putting this off for a long time....
Okay, this is my first update in about a month and a half. Let's see what's on the agenda today....
First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for the insane lack of updates (among other things), and verify that this is not vaporware. <_< I assure you all that I am as determined as ever to make this TC work, if it takes me 30 years, then I will do it.
Second: what do I have to show for my determination? Ah...well... sigh...nothing. You've no idea how much it pains me to admit that. Programing is 0% completed. I'd like to apologize for this, as well.
Why have I gotten nowhere? Well, I've got a lot going on at the moment (such as lying through my teeth to everyone who read that, myself included). Okay, honestly, every time I open EVNEW to start this thing, I am stunned by the enormous task I have set for myself. :blink: I open a few resources, look around, tell myself I accomplished something, then smack myself when I realize I haven't done anything. This is usually followed by me suddenly remembering that I have more important things to do at the moment (e.g. raiding the fridge, playing EV, rereading a good book, or pretending to do my summer homework). I sadly close EVNEW, saving nothing, because nothing was done.
So, there you have it. I feel so ashamed of myself right now. But I do feel slightly better for admitting all of this.
Third, the heck with it, I think I'll go back to calling this EVC (Escape Velocity: Collision, for all those who were not present 5 pages ago). The first Escape Velocity is and always shall be EV, so there's no harm done in calling it EVC.
And fourth...any and all advice on how to get out of my present condition (a slump perhaps?) will be eagerly accepted. Unfortunately, the immediate future looks bleak and update/progress-less, as I have a week long family vacation from the 8th to the 14th, and I really do have to get that summer homework done. I have a pre-calc packet, a bunch of Chem/Lab reviews, and I have to read "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving. It's going to be a loooong August.
Ugh...I still feel terrible...I hate disappointing people, it's the worst thing in the world for me.... :unsure: I understand, of course, if you want to jump ship after waiting all this time for an update, feeling increasingly certain that this was just another vaporware, finally giving up on me altogether. It was horrible of me to have done that to you all. I've nothing to say in my defense. All I can do is beg for a second chance that I probably don't deserve.
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 07 August 2007 - 03:42 AM
Well, I'd recommend A Prayer for Owen Meany any day over EV.
However, I've been creating a TC for the past 3 years. That really means that I have the ideas, story, characters, systems, ships (and graphics), and so forth to pretty much get it to the halfway point. Well, maybe the 40% point. However, the point I'm trying to make is that I spent most of my hours working on it during the free moments I had throughout a busy 8 semesters at college, not those few burning weeks where I thought I could start and finish the whole project in weeks if I was enthusiastic enough. The problem is that making a TC is one of those things that separates grown-ups from kids. There is no amount of enthusiasm that will take the place of persistence or dedication. I have many free hours in the day that I could model ships or write desc's or whatnot. However, every time I make an effort to start work, there is a pretty lengthy cost-benefit analysis that subconsciously occurs. I have so many other desires and projects and things to be enthusiastic about that working on something as vast and varied as a TC just doesn't set me on fire like it did that first week. I don't have any advice to set you on fire about your project; however, I find that it helps when I think that I am doing this for more than me. Somehow, me writing yet another syst desc is going to add value to a project that will in turn add value to another person's life. It has to be more about entertaining yourself, on some level.
Good luck.
Werhner
@werhner, on Aug 3 2007, 11:30 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
It's that good, huh? I'm a chapter in, and I've gotta admit, so far I'm unimpressed. But I'll keep it up, see if my opinion doesn't change.
However, the point I'm trying to make is that I spent most of my hours working on it during the free moments I had throughout a busy 8 semesters at college, not those few burning weeks where I thought I could start and finish the whole project in weeks if I was enthusiastic enough.
Trust me, I never thought I could finish this over 1 summer. At the very least, I hoped that I could finish by the end of 2010, but even that seems unlikely now. Maybe I'd be better off not trying to second-guess my progress.
I don't have any advice to set you on fire about your project; however, I find that it helps when I think that I am doing this for more than me. Somehow, me writing yet another syst desc is going to add value to a project that will in turn add value to another person's life. It has to be more about entertaining yourself, on some level.
I couldn't possibly think that making this TC will add any entertainment to my own life. Where's the fun in playing a game you designed? I'll know every twist and turn of the story by heart, I'll know every ship/weapon combination possibility, I'll know exactly how to beat the tricky obstacles I set up. All the fun of this game is for other EV fans. Besides, it would be a sin to let this wonderful idea go to waste, becoming just another piece of vaporware in a virtual trash bin. Because EVC is truly the largest, most interactive EV game to date. Er, it will be, when it's done. And it's got a story that's easily as (if not more) mind-blowing as the stories of EV, EVO, & EVN combined. :blink: :huh:
This TC has to be made, and if it so happens that I'm the one with the light bulb over my head, then I'm the one who has to make it. I could certainly pass the idea along to someone else, someone more experienced than me, but they wouldn't be able to replicate it quite right. It would always be lacking. It has to be me. But don't think I feel like I'm being forced to make it, because I'm really looking forward to it. I like challenges.
Thanks for the luck!
P.S.: I'm already on fire about this TC. The trick is turning that fire into something constructive.
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 07 August 2007 - 03:43 AM
How to motivate yourself to actually do some work varies from person to person. Some ideas...
*Set a quota. Maybe do something like five resources a day. No more, no less.
*Focus only on one specific area of the plug. Do all of your weapons. Though I personally recommend against this if you can't test right away.
*If you haven't, get tot he stage where you can at least boot up the game and shoot stuff. That way you can test what you make right away and amuse yourself doing that.
*Imagine all the praise you'll get when you're done.
*If you're really in a slump and are almost at the stage of quitting like I was, scale your project down. Something is better than nothing. You can always release addons to the main thing later.
Oh, and playing your own work isn't as boring as you'd expect. Sometimes when testing something in Colosseum, I find myself fighting ten more battles than I need to, just because its entertaining at the very least. Another project I did a couple years back known as Battle Arena on RM2K3 I play every so often still.
What Josh said. I find it helpful to just say: "Ok. Today I am going to do five (insert resouce name here). I will not bother with images or discriptions. When I'm done I will tweak (what I did yesterday) until I can work most of the bugs out of at least one." Setting goals like this is a helpful way to motivate yourself, and when your done, you can honestly tell yourself that you completed something.
@joshtigerheart, on Aug 4 2007, 03:10 AM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
It's not really motivation I need, I just don't seem to know how, when, or where to start.
Even so, that all sounds great.
I have no problem there. :rolleyes:
Oh no, no, no, no. I'm definitely not 'almost at the stage of quitting'. Far from it. And the only thing that could make me scale this down is if my imagination has gotten ahead of myself and some things are simply not possible on an EVN engine.
Point taken. I suppose it could be fun. But it's not for me.
@cosmic_nusiance, on Aug 4 2007, 12:14 PM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Thanks for all the advice, guys. Much appreciated. Too bad I can't really put it to good use until...September, probably. <_< :unsure:
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 04 August 2007 - 12:38 PM
Well, today is the first day of my vacation. Er, will be, as my flight doesn't leave until 7 AM. So, yeah, updates will be kind of nonexistent for the next week. Just letting you know.
3:38 AM -- Right, I've gotta leave in 35 minutes. And in case you were wondering, I'm going to Florida. Jealous? Heck, I would be. Well, this is it then. See you all in a week!
This post has been edited by Starbridge21 : 08 August 2007 - 02:38 AM
@starbridge21, on Aug 8 2007, 12:32 AM, said in Escape Velocity: Collision:
Okee-Dokee.
nusiance wonders why he just said that
Phew! Well, I'm back, and I'm exhausted. I slept 'till 3:40 this afternoon. The heat index was 105-107 the whole trip. (That's combined temperature and humidity for how hot it feels ). Okay then. Yeah...so...yeah.