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That's actually a really clever concept for Hypergate usage. It makes the player think twice about using them. Sure, you could get where you need to go in no time at all, or you could be cheap and take the long way through Hyperspace.
As for the 'long-jump' Hypergates, will players have the option to travel through Hyperspace to go from one galaxy to the other (obviously taking up a lot of sÿst resources to make the journey long), or is the 500 credit charge something we'll have to live with?
On hypergates:
QUOTE (darthkev @ Apr 30 2010, 05:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Well, just like in stock EVN, hypergates don't go everywhere. They're expensive to build and maintain, so they're only in a limited number of strategically located systems. The hypergates are just shortcuts to get where you need to go. And I'm afraid the 'long-jumps' are a fact of life, for which I have both an "official" reason and a "practical" reason:
But really, is a smallish fee too much to ask? Most NPCs treat it like a shuttle fare. Let's face it: the majority of the hypergate system was ancient even during the stock scenario, and the gates aren't getting any younger. The reason there is such a ship as a "hypergate tender" (no joke) is because the gates are like my 26-year-old motorcycle: something breaks almost every week.
I'll also be using three different graphic sets for the active hypergates (not including the destroyed hypergates like Aldebaran's). The first set is the original, Colonial Council-era hypergates like Kerella and Aurora. The second set is the new(ish) version, typified by Dani (a Sigma-built replacement for the one the Anz'kalarads destroyed during the UP War), Meridian, and Twin Stars. The third is for the long-jump gates.
One other note before I leave for the night: unlike in stock EVN, it's possible to return to S7evyn. That's right, I kept it, and even added two more systems connected to it. Just like in the original, though, you have to complete a major storyline first. Here's a hint on how to get back: go near Baticlearan and Anz'kalarad space and fly down a deity's throat. (That's not a joke, though it is a play on words.)
This post has been edited by StarSword : 30 April 2010 - 08:17 PM
I spent most of today fiddling with the TC's website at http://starsword.webs.com. I added a story page that's more like a narrative than the Timeline file, and fixed the factions list on the site to match the new, copyright-free scenario.
Seems to be unfinished as of now, but looks good so far. I know where you got two of the images on the first page, but I don't recognize the third, the one with a (fighter, cruiser?) ship firing at an explosion.
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 2 2010, 01:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
That's supposed to be a gunstar, an Anz'kalarad gunship. I borrowed it from Kamisama/Virmor's gallery at evula.org. (Sorry, Kamisama. I hope you don't mind me borrowing some of your designs.)
And you're right. The website isn't finished yet. I'm almost done with the "story" pages (and I'd already be finished if the website hadn't crapped out on me :mad: ).
This post has been edited by StarSword : 02 May 2010 - 10:15 PM
I thought you were mad at me for a second there. Is the host giving you problems? I'm just curious as to what you mean by the site "crapping out."
Ok, the site's finished for the moment. Take a look, people.
EDIT: Mostly out of boredom I took a look at the site's activity log. Somebody had logged on from a university in Berlin. Was that you, dk?
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 2 2010, 05:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
It kept giving me "Bad response from server" messages. Turned out they were doing some sort of maintenance. Why they chose to do it in the middle of the afternoon instead of at night, I have no idea.
This post has been edited by StarSword : 02 May 2010 - 10:16 PM
Damn, it's past midnight.
I managed to find the picture I made of an Aegis -class command ship.
UGN_Command_Ship.JPG (95.52K) Number of downloads: 12
This is a top view; the bow is pointed to the top of the screen. The thing on the stern is its main engines, a set of six six Republic Heavy Engineering AG-98 Heavy Ion Thrusters, powered by twin matter-antimatter reactors. Amidships is the command tower (the small teardrop-shaped thingy). At 7.8km in length and breadth, the UGN command ship is, quite simply, a beast.
QUOTE (StarSword @ May 2 2010, 02:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nope, I'm in California, nowhere near Germany. Looks like you're going global!
Just because it was afternoon for you doesn't mean it was afternoon for them. It's possible it was nighttime in their time zone. Do you know for sure what time zone they're in?
It looks good StarSword. Still a few bugs (most notably the 'previous' button in the Story section doesn't work in some places) but I'm sure you knew that. The updated faction page also still says 'Protoss' where it should say 'Axe-Tails'. That said, the faction page give me a lot of insight into the EVN:UGF Universe that I didn't have before. Good going!
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 3 2010, 02:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah, I figured the time zone thing out about ten seconds after I posted. Ain't globalization grand?
I fixed the Protoss/Axe-tail thing and the bug in the forward/backward thing.
IN OTHER NEWS:
I started to implement the ship upgrade outfits but I quickly ran into a problem, due to a lack of clarity in Pace's previous contribution to the topic:
QUOTE (Pace @ Oct 5 2007, 11:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Actually, it's an advanced version of the simple technique Cosmic_Nuisance suggested, because just changing the ship with that operator isn't enough. You have to give the new ship to the player, along with all the new ship's standard weapons, but you also have to remove the standard weapons that come with the previous variant. Otherwise, it's really "cheaty".
And yes, you keep your old ship name.
You're sure about this? You need to remove all standard outfits? Or just the weapon outfits? Does that include ammunition? What about regular outfits?
An example for the upgrade from Apache-class (SHIP 129) to Aegis-class command ship (SHIP 130): if you have to include ammo, the OnPurchase field would be incredibly long:
QUOTE
H130 D134 D134 D135(x100) D136 D136 D137(x60) D140 D141(x10) D147(x10) D169(x4) D157 D157 D158(x8) D159 D160 D160
Including standard, non-weapon outfits adds this to the string:
D174 D176 D178 D178 D196 D196 D172
Can I get a little help here?
This post has been edited by StarSword : 03 May 2010 - 10:47 AM
You have to use the Exxx operator, and then remove weapons, ammo and normal outfits. Here's what I had for the first Illyana upgrade:
d488 d450 d485 d446 d216 d216 d132 d498 d498 d498 d498 d499 E457
"d498", repeated 4 times, represents 4 Hayai fighters (= ammo), and d446 is the Arpian cloak (= normal outfit).
The reasoning behind the use of Exxx rather than Hxxx is that Hxxx will remove all the non-persistent outfits on the player's ship. By using Exxx and then removing the "standard" outfits (i.e. those that came with the ship), the player keeps the outfits he/she bought, and those are the only ones that get transferred. Also, that enables you to determine the correct price for the upgrade: it's based on the standard price of the ship, not on the "trade-in value", which varies according to the number and price of outfits bought by the player.
QUOTE (Pace @ May 3 2010, 12:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
That doesn't answer my question, though. The problem is, this ship (and many others) has several weapons which take ammo and come with a large amount; the twin Stingray missile launchers alone have 100 missiles in their magazine. Is there a way to remove multiple items in a single instance of the Dxxx field? (Or is there another operator that can do that?)
There is a way to avoid coding 100 "Dxxx" operators: use a counter (see the Cool Nova Hacks topic for links to two methods, if you're not familiar with counters). Basically, set in the ship upgrade a number of bits representing "100 of this ammo", and then use a counter with cröns and the like to remove those 100 ammo. You can either have the counter system remove the missiles one by one, or you can have it remove them ten by ten…
Wait a second. I thought the Hxxx operator removed all outfits on the player's current ship and then gave them what came with the new ship it was also giving them. Do you guys mean it doesn't take away ammo outfits? Or have I missed something?
The only other possible action I believe you may be trying to take would be to only remove the standard outfits of the player's previous ship while letting them keep anything extra they bought after-market. For this, couldn't you use the Cxxx operator? After that, just use operators to mount the standard weaponry of the new ship and remove the weaponry of the old ship.
You know what, I'm probably not helping much since I don't fully understand what you're trying to do. Explanation please! :huh:
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 3 2010, 03:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
What I'm trying to do, darthkev, is create an OUTF that turns one version of a player's SHIP into a different version of that ship. (Example from stock Nova: the conversion of a Class A Starbridge into the Class C Mod Starbridge.) What I'm debating with Pace is which operator is best for the job.
Ship-change operators: Cxxx change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will keep all of his previous outfit items and won't be given any of the default weapons or items that come with ship type xxx. Exxx change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will keep all of his previous outfit items and will also be given all of the default weapons and items that come with ship type xxx. Hxxx change the player's ship to ship type (ID) xxx. The player will lose any nonpersistent outfit items he previously had, but will be given all of the default weapons and items that come with ship type xxx.
The easiest method for an outfit-style ship upgrade is to use Hxxx (which is probably what I'm going to end up doing). The downside is that the player doesn't get any money back from his outfits.
Pace suggested I use Exxx, which, without the use of Dxxx to remove outfits, would mean the player has the outfits of both the original ship AND the standard outfits of the new ship. The problem is that many of my SHIPs have multiple ammo-using weapons (the example, the UGN Apache -class command ship, has two Stingray missile launchers + 100 ammo, 2 electropulse torpedo launchers + 60 ammo, a Devastator MIRV tube and 10 MIRVs, and its fighters. Exxx and Dxxx would make the OnPurchase string impossibly long.
This post has been edited by StarSword : 10 May 2010 - 12:46 PM
I see. Then I would say the easiest would be to use Hxxx and simply state in the outfit's dësc that outfits should be sold if the player wants money from them. Similar to how the Chrome Valkyrie upgrade said all outfits would be removed and only the 'stock' armament for the Mod Starbridge Class C would be installed.
Alternatively, you could state that is the cost of convenience. Make the ship that the player is upgraded to available for purchase from shipyards, but only in a few places. Make the outfit to directly upgrade available in several places. If the player really wants to save money (or get money back, rather) then they have to go find somewhere that sells the upgrade ship. Otherwise, they can be lazy and buy the upgrade outfit.
QUOTE (darthkev @ May 3 2010, 05:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Works for me. Since the plan is for you to be only able to buy government military vessels at military shipyards*, I'll be using a SpecialTech field for the SHIPs anyway.
Status Report:
Spent most of yesterday evening copying sounds from my other Nova loads (Classic, Override, Polycon, and so on) into the UGF Sounds file.
I don't know if any of you remember Master of Shadows, but he might be rejoining us; he's back from Western Carolina University for the summer.
I've got a new ship to show off: the Varellavites' bomber, nicknamed "Theta-Wing" by Galactic pilots due to its shape. Mvleng-Ulngaas "Theta-Wing" Heavy Bomber Theta-Wing bombers are slow, unresponsive, and cantankerous, and by all rights should have been consigned to the scrapyards decades ago. Alas, bureaucratic inertia has been the bane of many a military service, but in recent years, with the advent of the E-Wing escort fighter, Theta-Wing losses have significantly dropped.
The two gray cones on the front are its primary weapons, a pair of Lava-class heat rays. The Varellan heat ray is a high-energy infrared laser. Individually Varellan weapons tend to be more powerful than Galactic weaponry, but Galactic "lasers" (actually particle beams) are more accurate, recharge faster, and tend to have greater effective range. (The Varellavites are similar to the Aurorans in that they go for brute force instead of finesse, which is purely a result of technological inferiority when compared to their Galactic neighbors.)
This post has been edited by StarSword : 09 May 2010 - 08:13 AM
What's the purpose of its actual shape? I see a semi-circle cockpit/weapons area, a rectangle box for engines, and what appear to be supports holding metal cylinders in the back. Focussing modules for the engines, perhaps?