Realism in EV3, or EV4

Good for you. Is it total conversion? I hope not.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

I am a proud member of Dogbert's New Ruling Class

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

My list of things that would be Good:

1. Visible damage (this could be done like in Mars Rising, with the bomb craters)

2. A real physics model (the one that kberg made in his Build 12 is really nice)

3. Along with #3, you could have it so the plug designer provides the ship's mass and a thrust (in Newtons). Then when you add more weapons/cargo, you, umm, speed up slower (accelerate less rapidly, I guess).

3 again. No velocity cap. Just smaller acceleration levels. Because, really, the current acceleration levels are ungodly! I will provide a small skit to demonstrate this problem:

(On the bridge of the USS Weasel, a UE Destroyer)

Captain: Ensign, full thrust!

Ensign: Yes sir!

(Ensign pushes the thrust-o-meter up to "ludicrous speed")

Everyone: AAAAAAUUGUAH erk! squish.

(A fine pinkish mist fills the bridge)

THE END.

You see? Accelerating in EV is currently like being instantly teleported to the surface of a neutron star. Not a good thing.

5. Well we're on the subject of realism, why not have warp times depend directly on the mass/length of the ship in question? I know that now you can designate a travel time of 1-3 days, but what if you have an Imperial Death Star weiging in at 1.410^18 kilos, do you really think it's going to take the same time to "warp jump" as a Rebellion Cruiser (8.910^6 kilos)? It's a rhetorical question.

6. I have some other good Ideas but I do not intend to share them with you.

7. -Machiavelli

Essentially, what you said, machievelli, is that we have to sacrifice most of the game mechanics and fun- ie moving around in a ship, just to make it more realistic. Under no circumstances should EV sacrifice fun for realism. Who cares if we would get squashed, its just a game. Most of my proposed changes, and some of the others are minor, and do not affect the game play that much. However, if some of you like the realism, and others don't, why don't we make it preferential. For example, these major changes, and possibly others, can be switched on or off.

Asteroids can hit your ship

Fighters controlled by computer AI/Manual Fighter Control

Planets/Spacestations can participate in battle

Damage can affect the way your ship moves

Computer controlled landing/Manual Landings

Etc

That said, I would like to propose some more changes-To the crew.

Change 14-You can increase the size of the crew beyond what came with your ship, but with a sacrifice to cargo space. For example, for 20,000 credits every 7 days, or 2,000,000 once, you gain 200 crew members, and lose 10 tons of cargo space. Also, if this is not offensive, you can coerce (sp?), or enslave the crew of captured ships. Doing this my make your legal status change, depending on if your gov approves of slavery.

Change 15-Combat performance can change depending on the makeup of your crew.

Example: Adzgari are quick, fanatical, and specialize in engineering. Having Adzgari pilots increases the performance of your fighters.

Zidagar are scientific, and melodramatic. Having a Zidagar gunners increases the accuracy and speed of your weapons

Humans are defiant and intelligent, but also primitive. Human armor technicians will decrease the amount of damage done to armor.

Voinian security and marines increase the chance of capturing a ship.

Miranu communications officers always get you a good price, when you need fuel, or access to a hostile or forbidden world.

Etc

Change 16-Lastly, morale. If a ship you capture has low morale, there is a chance that some of the crew will surrender. The higher the morale of your crew, the better the combat performance in general.

Change 15 and 16 are major. Feel free to say so, if you don't like any of these changes.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

I am a proud member of Dogbert's New Ruling Class

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

#13:
asteroids DO hit you (black holes & anomolies too) in the frozen heart / femme fatale.

#14:
marine outfit. it's in 1.0.2, ie plug ins. and, add the tribble flag & your crew propogates.

#15 & 16
well, those two kinda sound like starcraft, sim city, etc. or the oregon trail (kick ass game!)... it'd be neat, but not quite fit into the EV ness.

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"the bathroom ain't preety, let's keep it that way." - Adam Corrola

(url="http://"http://calcwire.calc.org/tiev.shtml")Calcwire: Ti-EV(/url)
~ Robin ( (url="http://"mailto:funky_cheeze@usa.net")mailto:funky_cheeze@usa.net(/url)funky_cheeze@usa.net

I have decided that #16 wouldn't work. The whole point of EV is doing what you want, and if you were forced to do missions, it would suck. #15 probably is too drastic. It should be made into plugs, not crew. Ie if your ship has human armor, its easier and cheaper to repair, but not as effective as voinian armor. I like the idea of Miranu Communications officers though. I also like the idea of voinian security. However, if EV3 doesn't use the EVO universe, than some of these ideas are pointless.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

I am a proud member of Dogbert's New Ruling Class

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

how about mutinies? if you arent being nice to the crew (no escape pods for them too, or not enough food) they should capture you and take over the ship. speaking of food, you should be required to buy food, or some sort of food producing device...maybe a tomato plant :eek:

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About planets and stations fighting back:
I beleive I saw a plug that had this a while back, but I forget what it's called.

It could be done though theoretically, I've never tested it out though.

Make an invisible ship that can't move. When the player demands tribute, you set a guardian ship to your invisible ship. It might look like the planet is shooting at you.

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Remember, it's the man, not the machine.

-Chuck Yeager

Once i don't know if i did it with one of my plugs, or what but some planets shot out moons that didn't shoot, but were indestructable! I couldn't take over the planet because the name of the ship was H!@#$I@H#B$@K#J$HB and it couldn't be destroyed, also does anyone know why they dont allow you to blow up escape pods? It would make the game more fun! (Maybe I should edit the game so it has no shields but a little armor! Hey what a thought....)

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ZZOOOOMMM 'n ZZZIIIIP
tttazmania918

Quote

Originally posted by Machiavelli:
**My list of things that would be Good:
2. A real physics model (the one that kberg made in his Build 12 is really nice)

3. Along with #3, you could have it so the plug designer provides the ship's mass and a thrust (in Newtons). Then when you add more weapons/cargo, you, umm, speed up slower (accelerate less rapidly, I guess).

3 again. No velocity cap. Just smaller acceleration levels. Because, really, the current acceleration levels are ungodly! I will provide a small skit to demonstrate this problem:

7. -Machiavelli**

I tried realistic physics for a very early build (build 7 or smthing I think)... Build 12 has essentially the same physics model as EV, just the acceleration field is a little different now. The acceleration field stands for the force applied by the engines, ships mass is variable regarding outfits and cargo. So if you had a 20 ton ship frame and then added 10 tons of weapons and bought 30 tons of cargo for a total of a 60 ton ship, it would accelerate really slowly compared to the bare 20 ton frame...

The real physics model sucked... If you were in combat trying to get away from someone, holding on that acceleration key (since there is no top speed, just an asymptotic limit) for 5 mins just to squeze out those last few AU/hour close to light speed, you'd end up spending another 5 minutes flipped the other direction trying to slow down again. It REALLY changes gameplay, to the point where you just don't want to play anymore, it's too painfull to move (too slow :frown: )...

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Quote

Originally posted by RenegadeMan:
**About planets and stations fighting back:
I beleive I saw a plug that had this a while back, but I forget what it's called.

It could be done though theoretically, I've never tested it out though.

Make an invisible ship that can't move. When the player demands tribute, you set a guardian ship to your invisible ship. It might look like the planet is shooting at you.
**

Hey... that gives me an idea! You could make a ship that was invisible, immobile, and the same size of the sation. When you demand tribute, that ship could be part of the defense fleet, so it would look like the station is blowing your ass to pieces.

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I've twice been conquered.
Three times more.
Never again shall humanity purge me.
And never the pfhor.

-Durandal

asteroids DO hit you (black holes & anomolies too) in the frozen heart / femme fatale.

Yes, but Frozen Heart is not EV3, and the way that black holes and asteroids are handled is just absurd. Black holes and asteroids should not chase people.

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Quote

Originally posted by Jack:
**Good for you. Is it total conversion? I hope not.
**

No, it isn't. I've already taken a lot of the ideas from this list to use. A few things:

A lot of these are great ideas, but would require re-writing the code for EVO, and even if i felt like messing with the code, i don't know if that could be done through a plug-in and i don't know advanced enough porgramming to do that. But keep discussing the ideas - i origionally didn't think the firing stations would work.

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If anyone has some good ideas, post'em. I want to keep this topic on the first page.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

I am a proud member of Dogbert's New Ruling Class

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

MAKE EVO MULTIPLAYER PLEASE!!!!!!!,

ALSO HAVE A THING THAT YOU CAN BUY THAT LETS YOU SET UP A BASE ON A PLANET THAT IS NOT CURRENTLY INHABBITED, (only you and your friends, certain people can land on your new planet, or base) HECK EVO HAS A TON OF PLANET'S AND WITH THE PLUG INS YOU COULD EXPAND THE EVO UNIVERS 10 FOLD!!!!!

PLEASE EMAIL ME @ Jorus16@hotmail.com
if you agree or just want to tell me something about what i just said.

thanks a ton

Don't shout Jorus.

I think there should be a thing like the planet/base idea but also maybe you could tell your escorts to go somewhere. Another idea is to srt up trading routes with freighters of yours. You should be able to buy escorts, not just hire them.

Oh and jack, i'm glad your not spamming...

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

1. To make you shields regenerate faster, or be stronger, you must buy new shield generators.

Done

2. To make your ship move Faster, or Accelerate more quickly, you must buy a new engine, and to make your ship more maneuvorable, you must have hull modifications.

Done

3. Capital Ships will always move slower, and be less maneuvorable than smaller ships, except in extreme situations.

Already happens

4. Hyperspace time can be changed, but only at great expense.

There are plugs to do this.. it is possible

5. Personal Fighters can be individually controlled. Example: Fighter 1, 2, and 3 will defend you against other fighters, while 4, 5, and 6, will concetrate on enemy capital ships.

Also do-able... (esp in V1.0.2)

6. Space Stations can have weapons, shields.

FH had a similar trick up it's sleeve...

I would perhaps add a feature to make damaged ships (below 50% armour) trail smoke...

I also like the idea of getting less manuverable as your damage increases... that is a nice idea...

-Gildor

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(url="http://"http://jonpearse.cjb.net")jonpearse.cjb.net(/url)
jon@jonpearse.f2s.com
AIM: HEGildor

WARNING: I cannot be held responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.

v1.0.2 does not let you individually control fighters, Frozen-heart doesn't have mobile spacestations. And the Zidara is faster than the voinian fighter adn interceptor.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

I want a doughnut. And I want as doughnutty as only a doughnut made out of flour, milk, cinnamon for flavoring, eggs, butter, theat brown stuff, and those fried bits, can be. This doughnut is not a doughnut, its a donut. In essence, mind, body, and spirit, it is a donut.

Everyone, Im building a TC plug, I would like to include quite alot of these ideas in plug (mainly the outfit based ones.) if thats alright?

Also the idea about the torpedo that freezes you. Personally I don't think that is an at all good idea. In real space you would need a huge amount of liquid nitrogen. Plus liquid nitrogen would not work in space. As it would almost instantly evaporate as there would be no pressure to hold it together. However weapons that have effect on the ships apperance, could work.

Cya

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Jt

Here's what I want in EV3:
Ā• Render the ships from a 3/4 perspective, not a top-down one. It's just a minor change, and could be used in plug-ins, but just compare the graphics from the Magma plug vs/ the original Escape Velocity Override graphics. The answer is evident. šŸ™‚
Ā• Give us a reading of how much armor the other ships have left. I have fought Vonians many times in my Freight Courier. Being Vonians, their shields disappeared in no time, but the you could not find out their status, it was just "Shields down." Whether they had just lost their shields or on the verge of being disabled I had no idea. Really, saying what percentage of amror the enemy had left would take a lot of frustration out of fighting ships with strong armor.
Ā• Have a easy-to-use plug-in developer that comes with the game. Sort of like "Fantastic Worlds" for Civilization II. Make the developer like EV-Edit, but better- let us name the special techs that allow only UE (or whatever the "Human Democracy Good Guy" nation is) planets to sell the "Human Democracy Good Guy" (Herafter known as HDGG) Fighter & only after you do some mission. Instead of puttin in the tech number on the planet screen & the mission screen, let us name the tech, something like "Get HDGG Fighter!" to make it easier to make the plug in.
Also, DO NOT make EV3 3D as in polygons. The mere fact that EV and EVO are in plain-simple, sprite-driven 2D universes is the very reason why they are so easy (relatively) to modify (via plug-ins). To add a planet or a ship for a EV or EVO Plugin yuo just have to make a few drawings. To add a planet or ship to a 3D EV game, you would have to make a full 3D model, a MUCH harder task.

That's it for now.

God bless,

The Patriot

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(This message has been edited by The Patriot (edited 07-21-2000).)

Dude: No Total Conversion!! NO!!!!
Also, the liquid hydrogen weapon wasn't very realistic, you're right, but the idea is cool. Besides, we could call it MAGNETICALLY CONTAINED Liquid Hydrogen Torpedoes, and then it would be realistic. If you add MAGNETICALLY CONTAINED to the front of any weapon, it legitimizes that weapon.

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"Happiness is a warm gun"-John Lennon

You don't blow it up, you just, how shall I put it,
"Let the smoke out"-Jack

I want a doughnut. A Doughnut as doughnutty as a doughnut made of flour, water, one large egg, sugar, a pinch of yeast, cinnamon to taste, and jam or jelly filling, depending on preference. Its not a doughnut as something in any way metaphorical. Just a doughnut.