now formally mission ready...

First, my apologies for the delay in providing updates as to my beta test plug status. After an exhaustive evaluation, every known bug and problem has been fixed and several updates have been made, including all new ships for one major government.

Those interested can download the tester here:

http://evula.org/emp...taTestFinal.zip

Note that as before there are no major mission strings as of yet and that many systems, planets and tech that will be hidden or unavailable in the final release can be accessed for testing purposes.

Future topics concerning this plug will be moved to the appropriate NOVA board.

Regards,

Tim

Awesome, thanks Tim.

I've been enjoying flying around your plug, Tim.

Comments:

• Onyx makes beautiful ships, and I hadn't seen many of them in flight. It's a joy! I think rmx286 may have made engine glows for some of these, but I don't know if they're publicly available.

• Some BBS misn-offer texts are just a tad too long, so that the last line is half-hidden by the dialog box edge graphic. You could shorten them or, I think, rejigger the DITL/DLOG to make the text box larger.

• The Star Dragon uses the ThunderForge RLE and hail PICT, but the Auroran Carrier target PICT.

• If it were I, I'd change the remaining holdover system and spob names to better hide the EVC origins of your map.

• If you aren't familiar with Artanis' Absolute Minimum TC base, you should be.

• The intro text is perhaps a bit long. Perhaps introduce some of the history in the course of early missions?

I've been playing scavenger, waiting for warships to be disabled and then swooping in to grab their credits before their opponents blow them up. Overall, this looks like a solid base for a TC, and I'm looking forward to the mission strings. If anybody else out there has (more) time for playtesting, I heartily recommend it!

OK, wow. I thought I was 98% done with exploring the map, only to discover that I was very, very wrong. Fantastic.

Not much to report in the way of bugs, either -- some pers-es and (Auroran) flet-s from EVN show up once in a long while, as do EVN storyline-start misns. There's at least one landable planet (in a very remote location) that uses a big gas giant sprite graphic. It think you may be misusing the word "coaxial," since a weapon is only CO-axial if it shares a turret or direction of fire with another (usually larger) weapon. Hopefully your boarding party outfits will only be available after being unlocked by missions, since they make it quite easy to capture very expensive ships when flying quite cheap ones. There are too many ships (usually pirates) flying around in some extremely remote systems where they'd have no business. That's about it.

Am I really the only person checking out this beta? I'm hoping there are "private" testers as well, 'cuz I really don't have time to give this the attention it deserves....

@dr--trowel, on Sep 11 2007, 07:25 AM, said in HEART AND SOL Beta Complete!:

Not much to report in the way of bugs, either -- some pers-es and (Auroran) flet-s from EVN show up once in a long while, as do EVN storyline-start misns.

I'd suggest making it an actual 'TC' where you replace the Nova data files, rather than throwing in a few plugs. Way easier that way.

Well, I wasn't informed of this, so I will download it later. Tim, shame on you!

It's not as if he has to inform you, Kirk.

@guy, on Sep 10 2007, 06:21 PM, said in HEART AND SOL Beta Complete!:

I'd suggest making it an actual 'TC' where you replace the Nova data files, rather than throwing in a few plugs. Way easier that way.

This is why I pointed him toward Absolute Minimum, which eases that transition.

Oh right, missed that :rolleyes:

@dr--trowel, on Sep 10 2007, 12:25 PM, said in HEART AND SOL Beta Complete!:

Am I really the only person checking out this beta?

No. I tested it quite a while ago (as did others), but stopped the last month or so, waiting for him to do some tweaking.

I am going to check it out.

My report:

Will there be more simple cargo missions in the BBS for starting pilots? Everything seemed to be a bulk delivery, or something going somewhere far, far away, usually a Pirate outpost.

Weapons are great. I hope the mini-laser will be available at the beginning, as it is a great weapon to start with. Are all the small ships going to have that impressive shield regen rate? Like Dr. Trowel, I noticed that pretty much every uninhabited planet was crawling with Pirates, even way out in the Eastern expanse. I enjoyed the combat, but it grew boring fast.

Is there such a thing as a planet you can't land on?

Wow, with the asteroid drones the Empire has, why are they still hiding out in the Northeast?

Great plug. Can't wait for final release.