Open Source TC

I'm working on a weapon sprite and outfitter picture to go with the Inertial Compression Cannon. Coming along nicely.

I like Qaanol's idea. If this is any sort of democracy or republic, then I vote for it.

Fine with me. I'll probably just be chucking in text files with descriptions and pictures.

EDIT:
I just put the first outfit picture of the ICC up in the dropbox. It looks pretty cool, I think. Using Blender does wonders. If people want me to change something, just let me know. Now I'll start writing a short blurb for it, and then the long blurb for the technical manual. My first contribution is done! Woohoo!

This post has been edited by 101181920 : 18 October 2008 - 03:26 AM

Qaanol's idea is good, but can lead to a mess even if we are careful and just start making systems with no scenario guidance. Hence why we probably should settle on a general concept for the scenario before we get going. Otherwise there's a good chance we'd have to go back and edit half or so of everything we already placed, which is a pain. I had to redo and rebalance all the ships in Colosseum twice, and I knew where I was going. We'll probably have to do mass edits like that anyways, but knowing what the systems we're creating are going to end up being will help reduce that.

This post has been edited by JoshTigerheart : 18 October 2008 - 12:53 PM

Okay, I've put together everything for the ICC. It's in the dropbox, and it's got everything: animation, description, outfit, outfitter picture, weapon. The only thing that's got to change is the outfit stats. I don't know how we're going to balance cost and max number carried, can't assign a tech value, etc. So all of those are the same as the light blaster, which it has all the same resources as. Just go into the game and you'll find this instead of the light blaster. Naturally, everything is subject to balance.

I made this a while back as a concept possible intf for the groovy govt in EnigmaTC (I don't have the ETC files, I lost them on my old HD, along with the files from Darkstar TC, which became Acheron TC).
http://webserver.smp.../etc/groove.png

You can find the .psd in webserver.smphoto.com/etc/groove.psd if you want to edit it.
I don't care whether or not it gets used.

As far as story goes, it may be possible to adapt one of the (already well-written) stories from the Nova Bars or the EV Chronicles forum.

This post has been edited by LNSU : 18 October 2008 - 04:32 PM

the idea Qaanol has could still be used, but trimming it down so there isnt a constant flood of new systems being submitted.. like for the first few weeks/months; dev's could submit systems and planets and the like and there could be an initial release of a set map. after a while, once players get a feel for the TC, open up submissions again, and by general consensus; pick the best maps and patch the game. sorta like an expansion pack for it.

and since im gonna guess this is gonna be dev'd on macs, looks like its time to hit ebay for a cheap tower

and @ LNSU, ill see what i cant dig up. no promises... TBH i think its on my computer back home. hopefully not my G3, cause i corrupted the OSX HD ages ago on it.

You don't need to buy a new computer to do any work on this. Windows can participate just fine by converting plugs should they not be .rez. For us on the Mac end, we can use Mission Computer to open and edit a .rez without needing to convert it. And to run it, we can just save it in Mac format. So if you're running Windows, EVNew will be fine.

Anyone else have any general scenario ideas in the works? Or thinks they might come up with one? If not, I'd like to go ahead and have us choose from what we already have.

I might work in a mission line for the weapon developers, but I don't know. Seems a bit too much like Gli-Tech-nia. That, of course, is assuming that this is even in the TC.

This post has been edited by 101181920 : 20 October 2008 - 02:43 AM

I’d like to hear what people think about making this a constant-time-progression TC. There are a lot of interesting things that can be done with this hack, as I’ve seen in my own TC. I’ve realized reactors with diminishing fuel supplies (fuel rods or capacitor charge, depending on the type) that are completely separate from the energy bar on the interface. Using this, I’ve made energy management something more than simply “do I have enough to jump out of this empty system after using my afterburner?” There are weapons that can be fired quickly if you have a fully-charged reactor but must operate at a lower firing rate proportionate to how much charge remaining. You can have the PC’s radar, shields, and engines drop offline as the reactor fuel runs out. Another perk of CTP in the TC is that you can have reinforcements jump in on cue during a long battle or fire cron’s while flying around space. Useful.

The cons of constant-time-progression is that it makes the days chug by quicker, depending on how you set the daily timer. Rush missions will need to be looked at, as it might not be possible to complete missions in a preset amount of days if just flying around a system eats them up. Furthermore, I think it adds a bit of instability to the game, psychologically. In all three of the EV’s, days have only passed via landing or jumping (or special missions advancing the date, I suppose). However, the PC would need to get used to the timer always clicking away, even if to no purpose apparent to the PC.

Oh, I also uploaded another TC idea, "TC.rtf", to the drop box. Look it over. I'm trying to put out some structure with these. I don't think the best scenarios just come together from the aggregation of multiple disparate ideas of cool weapons or factions or map layouts. Anyway, I'd like to see some other overall TC scenario ideas.

This post has been edited by Werhner : 20 October 2008 - 10:59 AM

Quote

A true three-way war. Not like Nova's vague three-way conflict, but total war more like EVO's strands. Could be between multiple human factions, or have aliens thrown in. Or even have each side mixed of humans and aliens. In this scenario, I'd be neat if none of the sides were ethically superior, but rather each has their high points and low points so that none can be called either good or evil. Naturally, the player could work for any of the three sides.

I really like this idea with three human factions. I think there should be a Pirate/Renegade storyline not at all like the free traders but truly nasty. some missions being illegal bounty which offers lots of money but lowers your legal rating. others would be raid target planet, destroy civilian ship etc.etc.

finally finds the time to make a brief post

Likewise, I'd suggest going with the three-way-war scenario. Its a bit over-used, but it leaves a lot of plot options open for exploitation.

Going a step farther, I will make the point that the three warring super-powers need not be the only factions in play; just the important ones. Smaller "buffer state" factions could get caught up in the galactic schism whether they like it or not, as a matter of course.

I wish I had time to contribute to this... or even to read the entire thread.... That said, I'm going to go ahead and say a few things. Sorry if I replicate what's come before and/or miss the point badly.

• Werhner, your CTP idea is probably too complex to require it of everyone who wants to contribute to the TC -- to maximize growth, the technical bar to entry should be set reasonably low so that the TC doesn't scare off potential contributors. If you want to add some ships and/or outfits that work the way you describe and can live alongside others that don't, though, that would be awesome.

• In my experience, it's too easy to have a TC wind up full of gorgeous graphics and elaborately designed ships, and nothing to do with them -- people put off mission writing, and then it never gets done. How about a rule that every contributed plug must include at least one mission? It would be best if the misns related to the other resources in the plug (outfs, ships, systs, etc.), but if all a coder feels they can handle is a basic repeating cargo run, that should be OK. Just so there's something there.

• Consider having limits on contribution size -- each addition should include no more than 8 spobs, ships, outfs, or whatever. Otherwise you can wind up with vast underdeveloped tracts of space (think SFA), outfitters crowded with useless items, etc. If someone wants to add more than the limit, fine -- but they gotta break it up into chunks that fit within the limit, make sure each chunk is playable before adding it, and write those missions for all the chunks!

• Finally, my standard bit of inspirational text, which I present here for the fourth time on these boards. This is my idea for a theme for a themeless TC built from parts written by diverse authors. Modify or ignore it as you wish -- my own TC uses something dimly similar, but who knows if or when that will ever get done? Maybe it's too wild for current tastes, but the core idea is this: trying to make the galaxy graphically, thematically, and perhaps even game-mechanically consistent is going to be challenging. Therefore, simply acknowledge that the universe doesn't make sense and start with a story that explains why this is so:

Quote

The Magrathean Proving Grounds

The story begins something like this. Our hero wakes up one morning to find him/herself in a universe that no longer makes sense. Looking down, s/he notices two tattoos, one on each arm. One reads "Property of Magrathea Planet Works," the other, "Copyright Megadodo Publications." Is one tattoo true, and the other false? As our hero explores the galaxy, it becomes very apparent that things are seriously disjointed -- planets, ships, technologies, and even peoples look and act ridiculously differently from one region of space to the next. The strangest systems may be those between the inhabited star clusters: Naboo fighters and X-Wings spew forth from Auroran carriers. Frogs fly, and WWII planes and tanks fly with them. Sailing ships battle Starfleet vessels and Mobile Suits, as Miranu freighters ply their routes unconcerned.

Is this universe some sort of giant catalog or sales lot -- and is anyone minding the store? Is it all an electronic simulation for testing or research purposes -- and who is at the controls? Is it all too, too real, the outcome perhaps of madness among the gods, or of some horrible Pan-Galactic Improbability Incident? Is our hero the human s/he thinks s/he is, or some sort of artificial sentient construct? No one s/he meets seems overly bothered by the state of affairs. Is there any point in worrying, or should our hero just take sides in a couple small wars, carry some trade goods to a few interesting marketplaces, get rich, and buy some really expensive drinks?

Yeah, I saw that Josh started out by saying that all ideas in the new TC should be original, and in the above I talk about cribbing freely from HHGTTG and all sorts of other sources. If all-original is what y'all want, that's fine, -- the essence of the "Proving Grounds" is in the mixing, not in what the ingredients are. The results will probably feel rather like playing through a bar thread.

More things I said when posting this before are here: 2005, 2004. Those two threads might more generally be interesting to you folks, too, since they both discuss collaborative TCs.

Building off what Trowel put, would the Empire and JR/VA not be considered original? Granted, there's stuff taken from real life, and most of the ship-based weaponry (and the ships themselves) are taken from Star Wars and all 3 EVs. However, they're also inter-meshed with stuff I came up myself (antimatter cannons, Inter-Dimensional Time Gates, etc.), so it seems (to me) to fall into a gray area.

@Werhner: I'm going to agree with Trowel here. It's nifty, but quite complex. Admittedly, my skills with crons are not very good, despite tinkering with them quite a bit. It'd work well for the "Pocket" if we went with that idea, however. As for your new idea, I only have about seven minutes before I leave for class as of the writing of this sentence, so I'll have to look it over in a hour or so.

@ Dr. Trowel: Good ideas there. It'd probably be a good idea to at least have people include complimentary resources when they make something. For example, if you make a weapon, make the outfit for it and write its desc. If you can make graphics, create the outfit graphic and firing sprites too. If you can do sounds, get a sound for it as well. For the TC idea, personally if I went with it, I wouldn't go that strange, but I can see quite a few possibilities with it.

@Mike: Voinians are from Escape Velocity Override, don't forget that. Your JR/VA could best be described as cross-over fan fiction with a few original elements thrown in. The time travel and all that would be a bit complicated for a plug-in, not to mention scaling issues with ships of the size they use. Already a Shuttle should be a dot next to a Raven and a planet several screens big if scaled proportionally.

This post has been edited by JoshTigerheart : 20 October 2008 - 01:30 PM

@joshtigerheart, on Oct 20 2008, 09:56 AM, said in Open Source TC:

@Mike: Vanolians are from Escape Velocity Override, don't forget that. Your JR/VA could best be described as cross-over fan fiction with a few original elements thrown in. The time travel and all that would be a bit complicated for a plug-in, not to mention scaling issues with ships of the size they use. Already a Shuttle should be a dot next to a Raven and a planet several screens big if scaled proportionally.

I believe you mean Voinians?

But, yeah, I kinda figured the Imperial Universe(s) would be hard to do, considering everything that goes on.

The Omegas and other similarly-sized ships could be stations with Mass Guns and Missiles of Doom™, but it doesn't sound very attractive for something that's meant to be mobile.

Otherwise, I could hire out my services as Grammar-Nazi/Spellchecker Extraordinare, if interested. Might be able to do some lore as well, but school would make things tough (and my Lappy's still not fixed yet).

Meanwhile, I very much like the idea of an Open Source TC - I'm especially fond of the "True 3-way war" idea, like was done in Override (which, to this day, remains my favorite in the trilogy).

I've been scrounging around my unfinished projects and I dug up some ships to donate. They're not detailed or especially pretty, but they're clean.

I'll throw in a vote for a 3-Way WarTM since I've got no better ideas. The monolithic empire and the rebels are overused and a bit cliche. I'm thinking that the warring factions should be different alien races. You could pick which one you wanted to play as. To add spice there could be major corporations (like Sigma in Nova), pirates, rebels (ugh), and minor races.

I also want to throw in a vote for a 3D map. Also this:

This post has been edited by gray_shirt_ninja : 20 October 2008 - 06:11 PM

I guess I'll vote for some kind of 3-say war. Perhaps the player's actions could influence the which of the other two his faction attacks principally? Would it be interesting, for example in Nova terms, if the Polaris could take out the Federation ^ the Aurorans?
Edit: clarify that ^ means XOR, in mathematics a similar symbol has different and contradictory meaning, and in addition there is the exponent.

This post has been edited by Nonconventionally Creative : 20 October 2008 - 06:04 PM

The rampant A.I. thing is pretty nifty, Wherner, could be used in any of the scenarios really.

Seems like the three-way war is quite popular. Want to go with that? We can always integrate parts of other scenarios. I mean, some factions have to get caught in the middle and others go unaffected.

i like the 3 way idea, but i dont want it dead-ended with the 3 factions (sorry if this sounds redundant). i would like to see some side factions that lead into or support a certain faction, ie- wild geese ala EVN; and some other factions that are staunchly seperate or supportive of all sides- ie Sigma ala EVN..

but those can come later as needed
*i never got to finish EVO before my mac crashed X(, hence both ref's being EVN