In the spirit of (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum60&topic;=000624")this(/url) topic from the (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Just+Games&number;=60")Just Games(/url) forum, here are the some of the little quirks that make up the principles of EV, EVO and EVN. Sure they don't all make logical sense, but they're part of what makes the EV trilogy the amazingly fun phenomenon that it is.

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The Indiscriminate Karma Principle
Any crime you might commit against any government, up to and including assassination and serial genocide can and will be forgiven if you just blow up enough pirates or enemy vessels.

The "Physics, Schmysics" Principle
Any missile which is fired by a spaceship will inexplicably disappear and cease to exist after a set amount of time, despite this whole "conservation of mass" thing that most scientists believe.

The Perpetual Happy Hour Principle
No matter how busy the lives of government officials, company executives, and powerful merchants are, they will always have plenty of time to wait around bars to offer passing strangers missions.

Corrolary: Despite the fact that major governments have entire military complexes at their disposal, any vital meeting or battle planning session will invariably occur in the local spaceport bar.

The Crew Expendability Principle (Does not apply to EV: Nova)
In the unfortunate event that your ship is destroyed, no more than one escape pod will ever be launched, no matter how large your ship. Your crew, no matter how good, innocent, or qualified they may be will all go down with the ship, because for whatever reason your life is the only one worth saving.

Corrolary: When your ship is about to be destroyed in battle, the pilots of your carried fighters will never jump in their ships and fly to freedom. Instead they'll stand in the hangar bay and stare blankly at their fighter in a state of ignorant bliss until they are vaporized along with the rest of your unfortunate spaceship.

The Miniature Clown Car Principle
Any major planet will have a defense fleet of several hundred large warships, despite the fact that even one of these warships is half the size of the planet in question. No doubt the people who design the spaceports are the same guys who designed the seats for airliners and movie theaters.

The Selective Amnesia Principle
You can be the most wanted criminal to a particular government, but no matter how bad your legal record you will always be welcome on any of their planets if you've got as much as a trivial excuse to be there (ex. meeting a contact, picking up or dropping off some cargo).

The Enron Principle of Spaceport Management
No matter what anti-terrorism laws there might be, a few well placed credits are all it takes to get into most spaceports, no matter your reputation.

The Warfleet Minituarization Principle
Despite most major governments having defense fleets numbering into the hundreds and even thousands, any battle which changes the course of history or changes the ownership of a star system will invariably consist of just a dozen or so ships from each side.

The George W. Bush Principle of Geography Simplification
Every system will only have planets from a single race. Every planet will be ruled by a single government. No matter how many cities or people there are on a particular planet, it will have only one spaceport, only one shipyard, and only one bar.

The Fed-Ex Boycott Principle
Before starting any construction project or new branch of scientific research, the people doing the work will always need a shipment of 10 tons of some readily available commodity, such as metal or equipment. For some reason you will be stuck with this tedious task, because for some reason the thought of hiring a courier or mailing the shipment is simply out of the question.

The Principle of "It's always the last place you look..."
If you want to start working for a particular government, the best way to do so is often to go to the space of some other government and loiter around a bar until someone walks up to you and asks you to ferry them or some of their cargo to the government in question. Especially true in EV Nova.

The Aura of Invincibility Principle
No matter how badly one side is outnumbered as you fly from system to system, the enemy will never succeed in taking over the outpost. A UE planet could be surrounded by 4 Voinian Cruisers, but if you land on that planet and take off again, the Voinians will have gotten bored and gone home, the idea of taking over the planet never having crossed their minds.

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{Edited to fix UBB code}

"One day you'll find your whole life has changed - act quick, be brave, your heart will show you the way"

(This message has been edited by Thunder (edited 06-27-2002).)

The not-so-Luxury Cruise Principle

Passengers don't care; you can pick them up, travel through raging combat, and wait for months before dropping them off at their destination. They'll still pay you, and happily depart.

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Beware the substance '(url="http://"http://www.EVula.com/")e(/url)'
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evn&category;=utilities&display;=date&file;=ID.formulas.sit")EVN ID formulas(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Blackdog:
**The not-so-Luxury Cruise Principle

Passengers don't care; you can pick them up, travel through raging combat, and wait for months before dropping them off at their destination. They'll still pay you, and happily depart.
**

This is a variant of
The Universe On Hold Principle

No matter how pressing the mission, no matter how important the passenger, no matter how many lives or credits hang in the balance, the entire universe will wait for you. Unless the mission has a time limit explicitly specified, you can take all the time you want. Oh, sure, they SAY you have to get there right away, but there's time for you to build up from a Shuttle to a Crescent Warship and amass a few million extra credits, the Voinians will wait...

The "Memory? What Memory?" Principle

You can abort missions to save humanity, deliver critical components, or test weapons any number of times, and yet when you land at the right place and go to the bar (hub of the universe, as noted previously) the exact same people will offer you the exact same job again. Even if THEY were ejected from your ship without a spacesuit earlier.

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Sea Wasp
/^
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp

Oh, I forgot the most obvious one:

**The Ego Principle, or "Why yes, the universe DOES revolve around me!":

Despite employing millions of people, owning thousands of ships, having access to the latest technology and political power, and decades of experience, the star nations and gigantic corporations of the universe will instead give missions of vital importance to you, often before you've finished drying off the vacuum paint on your new shuttle. Similarly, although a "diplomatic corps" is mentioned from time to time, it's oddly impossible for races to contact each other for any kind of negotiations -- political, trading, whatever -- unless you, and you alone, happen to be available to assist. Strangely enough, they can't use one of their own ships or personnel for these delicate missions, but instead must use some unknown independent.

The Selective Omniscience Principle:

Sent out on some mission to destroy some target, such as a notorious pirate, you can intercept them somewhere in the nameless depths of space and blow them to powder, and get paid. No one will ask you to PROVE that you actually killed the pirate, they'll just KNOW. Oddly, this amazing sensor capacity that allows them to determine whether or not you actually did the job cannot be used to guide their own fleet to the target.

The "It's the THOUGHT That Counts" Principle:

When the planet you're on is attacked -- by pirates, alien government fleets, whatever -- and you're called on to help in the defense, you don't actually have to DEFEND it. If you run away screaming like a girl from a '50s B-movie, they'll still pay you large sums of money for having survived at all.

"I'm Sorry, Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That." Principle:

You know how to board disabled ships. Oddly, if the ships were part of a storyline event -- like, they were part of an opposing defense fleet, for instance -- you can't board them. Their airlocks were apparently hermetically sealed with battle-steel to prevent anyone from escaping.

The "You Can't Go Home Again" Principle:

You can successfully board a vessel and even think about keeping it as an escort or making it your own ship. Once it IS your ship, you're stuck. Even though you still OWN your old vessel, you can't switch back to it. Similarly, if you say "no" and then reconsider, you can't board the same vessel that you just boarded. In fact, you can't board a vessel that someone ELSE boarded -- what, it's not possible they missed something?

(b) The "Termites, I tell you! Space Termites!" Principle: **

A vessel that you capture which is armed to the teeth with all sorts of incredible weapons will suddenly become a boring generic member of its standard class when you make it part of your fleet. Your own vessel, tailored to your specifications and upgraded with millions of credits worth of Kewl Rad Stuff, will ALSO become a generic member of its basic class if you turn it to an escort.

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Sea Wasp
/^
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp

And once again, a topic where everyone's exulted opinion of themselves will lead them to turn to making mildly humourous comments about EV's engine rather than actually doing something so simple as commenting on everyone else's comments. In other words, your standard political meeting.

Interesting idea for a topic, Thunder, although personally I think you're losing your touch (humour, reality, the basics.) Stick with insane acronyms, maybe?

The Hypocritical Communication Principle:
While United Earth scoutships have been everywhere in the entire galaxy and have informed their government of everything already, you alone are needed to find out for a government what is going on in <SN>, even if <SN> is somewhere in U.E. space.

The No-Hailing-Scoutship Principle:
The United Earth scoutships that travel the galaxy must under no circumstances hail anyone except the player, and therefore although they appear practically everywhere, they have never said so much as; "hey there" to the Miranu.

The Babel Fish Principle:
Every species, be it human, Voinian, Miranu or one of the Strands, has only one language, and that language is identical to the language of every other species.

The Mono-Colour Principle:
No species, under any circumstances, must consider a different type of vessel style or colour. Ever.

The Star Wars Principle:
Despite being only a hundredth of a size, fighters are faster than warships because they have smaller engines because they're smaller but they're faster... and due to their fast shield recharge which comes from having smaller shield regenerators, they are easily capable of destroying warships, because...uhh... only good guys pilot fighters.

The Weapon Limit Principle:
No-one will, under any circumstances, sell you more of an item than they think you should have by some unexplicable rule, even in the case of governments, even if you easily have the room for it.

The Blow Up Your Own Wings Principle:
All turrets can fire in a 360ş angle... even if in the image there's a wing in the way.

The Sensor Interference Principle:
Sensor interference can prevent you from seeing ships on your "radar" every now and then, although it has absolutely no effect in you targetting those ships and gaining advanced information about them... apparently without knowing where they are.

The Ghost Mass Principle:
Ships are capable of carrying weaponry that quadruples their mass without increasing their actual statistical mass and thus slowing them down. Vessels such as fighters can also weigh 14 tons while carrying 60 tons of weaponry alone.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

Quote

Originally posted by Thunder:
Any missile which is fired by a spaceship will inexplicably disappear and cease to exist after a set amount of time, despite this whole "conservation of mass" thing that most scientists believe.

In most cases, you see the missile explode, as if its containment systems gave out.

Quote

Originally posted by Thunder:
Any major planet will have a defense fleet of several hundred large warships, despite the fact that even one of these warships is half the size of the planet in question. No doubt the people who design the spaceports are the same guys who designed the seats for airliners and movie theaters.

If you were talking about space stations, I could understand, but ships half the size of planets? Remember, every ship in Escape Velocity is supposed to be capable of landing.

Quote

Originally posted by Thunder:
No matter how badly one side is outnumbered as you fly from system to system, the enemy will never succeed in taking over the outpost. A UE planet could be surrounded by 4 Voinian Cruisers, but if you land on that planet and take off again, the Voinians will have gotten bored and gone home, the idea of taking over the planet never having crossed their minds.

That's because a day or two passes while you're on the ground, and United Earth has plenty of time to send a few warships to deal with the Voinians.

Quote

Originally posted by Sea Wasp:
Sent out on some mission to destroy some target, such as a notorious pirate, you can intercept them somewhere in the nameless depths of space and blow them to powder, and get paid. No one will ask you to PROVE that you actually killed the pirate, they'll just KNOW. Oddly, this amazing sensor capacity that allows them to determine whether or not you actually did the job cannot be used to guide their own fleet to the target.

I'm not sure if it 's talked about in EV Override, but there's occasional mentions in some of the games of examining your sensor logs to see if you actually did what you were hired to do.

Quote

Originally posted by SilverDragon:
And once again, a topic where everyone's exulted opinion of themselves will lead them to turn to making mildly humourous comments about EV's engine rather than actually doing something so simple as commenting on everyone else's comments. In other words, your standard political meeting.

Whoops, too late for that, as I've already responded to several entries.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Forums / Classifieds / Upcoming Plug-ins / More
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
Whoops, too late for that, as I've already responded to several entries.

You don't count, you're superhuman. <glares at his stats> Are you posting more, or am I just not bothering these days?

On a related matter, why are you still a plain old "member"? Moderator wouldn't surprise anyone, and you should at least have a title...

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**In most cases, you see the missile explode, as if its containment systems gave out.
**

True, though you never see any of the debris, it simply piffs out of existance without hitting anything.

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**If you were talking about space stations, I could understand, but ships half the size of planets? Remember, every ship in Escape Velocity is supposed to be capable of landing.
**

Fair enough, I realize that the ships are not drawn to scale, nor are the planets. For the most part this one's a play on the way the game appears on the screen - the only place it has any sort of actual importance would be in something like Council Station.

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**That's because a day or two passes while you're on the ground, and United Earth has plenty of time to send a few warships to deal with the Voinians.
**

Okay, got me on that one. I'd forgotten that you can spend as long as three days on the ground depending on how many escorts you've got.

Please realize that I'm not trying to insult the Escape Velocity engine - as I said in my little comment at the top of this topic, Escape Velocity is one of the best games I've ever played, despite little things like this. After all, most of these "principles" are in there to improve the strategy and gameplay of EV - it isn't always perfectly realistic, but it's certainly fun.

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"One day you'll find your whole life has changed - act quick, be brave, your heart will show you the way"

(Edit - stupid typoes...)

(This message has been edited by Thunder (edited 06-28-2002).)

Thunder dear, would you please get on AIM?

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

Quote

Originally posted by SilverDragon:
And once again, a topic where everyone's exulted opinion of themselves will lead them to turn to making mildly humourous comments about EV's engine rather than actually doing something so simple as commenting on everyone else's comments. In other words, your standard political meeting.

And where you will of course follow along like the rest of us sheep, eh?

Quote

_
The Star Wars Principle:
Despite being only a hundredth of a size, fighters are faster than warships because they have smaller engines because they're smaller but they're faster... and due to their fast shield recharge which comes from having smaller shield regenerators, they are easily capable of destroying warships, because...uhh... only good guys pilot fighters.
_

This is based off real-life navy experience. As a general rule, the larger warships move more slowly than the smaller ones. There are exceptions, but usually only when there's some crucial essential difference (i.e., the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise is actually faster than the destroyers in her escort group, but she's nuclear powered and is thus using an entirely different and presumably more efficient power source).

IIRC, this has to do with smaller ships being able to be made with proportionately larger engines that still work efficiently.

In space I don't think it'd really work that way, but it does have precedent. Good enough for space opera, which is what EV* is.

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Sea Wasp
/^
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp

Quote

Originally posted by Thunder:
**Okay, got me on that one. I'd forgotten that you can spend as long as three days on the ground depending on how many escorts you've got.
**

Giving rise to

The Mini-Bureaucracy Principle

Even if all your escorts are faster than you are, they slow you down. Apparently there's no coordination between any of you.

And

The "Frontal Lobotomy" Principle

Your escorts will use the most straightforward, and often suicidal, combat tactics available, even if BEFORE you captured them they fought in a way that actually took advantage of their unique capabilities. Also, despite them being former pirates who could capture any vessel without ever making a mistake, they will now be just as likely to blow a ship to pieces as to disable it.

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Sea Wasp
/^
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp

Quote

Originally posted by Sea Wasp:
Your escorts will use the most straightforward, and often suicidal, combat tactics available, even if BEFORE you captured them they fought in a way that actually took advantage of their unique capabilities. Also, despite them being former pirates who could capture any vessel without ever making a mistake, they will now be just as likely to blow a ship to pieces as to disable it.

Ever heard of "work-to-rule" campaigns? Let's just say that you're pirate escorts probably aren't too happy about being forced into servitude.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Forums / Classifieds / Upcoming Plug-ins / More
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

The Disregard-Of-Vacuum Principle, Number One

Explosions make sound, even though there's no air in space.

The Disregard-Of-Vacuum Principle, Number Two

Things (ie starships) explode in balls of flames, despite there being no air for combustion to occur.

The Disregard-Of-Vacuum Principle, Number Three

Although there's no air in space, laser cannon are still coloured.

(mainly, this post was just a sig test. I still say David Arthur is the Webboard Angel, whether it says so in his title or not)

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(url="http://"http://www.angelfire.com/mac/bluesuedecat/")Shade's Shipyard(/url), the source for your ship needs.
The Universe does not care whether we sin or not; sin is meaningless to the Universe. The Universe does not care whether we exist or not; our existence is meaningless to the Universe. We simply are; ergo cognito sum. I think, therefore I am. And I want to know why that is. - Me

Quote

Originally posted by Shade:
**.

The Disregard-Of-Vacuum Principle, Number Two

Things (ie starships) explode in balls of flames, despite there being no air for combustion to occur.

**

True, but that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be at least an explosion of some type, you forget that while outer space has no air at all, there is however air inside the ship for fire to burn up but not alot to make a significant difference.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus

The Unusual Mix of Cargo Principle

You ship can have x amount of garbage and x amount of passengers, you wonder if they complain about the horrid stench.

The Overweight Passenger Principle

While it would make sense that regular ferry missions will have few numbers of passengers weighing certain amount of tons. Some missions will have only one passenger weighing 1 ton and not even their luggage is enough to match that.

The Passengers are Actually Crates Principle

Let's say you ditch the passengers by jettison them in space, instead of bodies floating as you would see in the game, Ares, you see crates. And even if it's one passenger, you see several crates float out in space.

The Immortal Principle

Despite having to jump a million times and find out a 100 years have passed based on the Yëar resource, you're still alive and hardly anything changes in the galaxy, not even technology.

The Hyperjump Interruption Principle

You're the only player who's initiation hyperjump can never be interrupted unless your ship blows up. Other ships, when you fire upon them, will actually stop their hyperjump just to retaliate. Upon destruction, they will actually stop just to blow up.

The Non-existance System Principle

Regardless where and to what systems they're linked to, you find ships heading in the direction to jump to a system that doesn't even exist.

The Still Alive and Kickin' Principle

With the exception of EVN, you are the oly one that can actually do as much damages as you want before you blow up, you can even jump to another system while your ship is breaking apart.

The Invisible Outfit Items Principle

Even if you buy a hundred turrets, your ship will never show it when you leave the planet or the station, only what is there as standard weapons.

The Escort Speed Principle

Only EVO I believe, no matter how fast you go, regardless of their capabilities, escort of any type of vessel will match your speed, unless they're too far to catch up with you.

The Non-Discount for Overlord Principle

Even if you conquered a planet and they are aware of your powers, you still have to pay for outfit items or buying a ship even though its possible to threaten them to give you free stuff.

The infinite Ammos Principle

You may buy up to a hundred rockets and have only a hundred rockets, but when you have a fighter bay, your fighters are reloaded with munitions which seems to go on infinite that you can't access to. That also applies to the infinite number of outfits and ships on planets and stations.

The Technology Swap Principle

If you sold a UE warship in a planet under the control of the Voinians to buy yourself a Vonian Warship, they never take advantage of what they got from you, not even reverse-engineer the technology of the UE warship. And vice versa.

The Angle Flying Principle

In EV and EVO assuming you have no plugins, its standard to have ships to fly around in the system in top down view and land on spobs that are angled diffently from ships.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus

Quote

Originally posted by Shade:
Explosions make sound, even though there's no air in space.

All the sounds you hear are added by your ship's computer to give you a better sense of what's going on.

Quote

Originally posted by Shade:
Things (ie starships) explode in balls of flames, despite there being no air for combustion to occur.

It's a reaction between the different chemicals on board your ship, including the air you breathe.

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
You ship can have x amount of garbage and x amount of passengers, you wonder if they complain about the horrid stench.

If you have the technology to keep your ship sealed off from the vacuum outside, you have the technology to keep the passenger compartment sealed off from the garbage bin.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Forums / Classifieds / Upcoming Plug-ins / More
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
**The Unusual Mix of Cargo Principle

You ship can have x amount of garbage and x amount of passengers, you wonder if they complain about the horrid stench.

The Overweight Passenger Principle

While it would make sense that regular ferry missions will have few numbers of passengers weighing certain amount of tons. Some missions will have only one passenger weighing 1 ton and not even their luggage is enough to match that.

**

It's not just the passengers and their luggage. People generally don't take well to being packed in crates and stacked wall to wall.

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Beware the substance '(url="http://"http://www.EVula.com/")e(/url)'
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Quote

Originally posted by Blackdog:
It's not just the passengers and their luggage. People generally don't take well to being packed in crates and stacked wall to wall.

(/B)

Hence why whenever you jettison passengers, you see crates.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus

A lot of those are actually modified (okay, maybe not a lot, but one or two) in Nova. Escorts can actually stop a little farther away from the target, and then blast away from a range!
The I'm Not Disableable Principle (in EVC and EVO at least):
Even though we're the exact same ship, he'll die first because he can be disabled!
The I Can Live for Able Principle:
No matter how many years have passed, you'll still be able to pilot a ship that requires fast reflexes, take out people in hand to hand combat, or live without eating prunes!

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The Thunderhead Lance and Ion Cannon: Coming to an outfitter near you!

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**Ever heard of "work-to-rule" campaigns? Let's just say that you're pirate escorts probably aren't too happy about being forced into servitude.
**

To an extent that's true, but even unhappy workers rarely deliberately choose SUICIDAL tactics. I'd expect such crews to actually look for the most cowardly tactics which would still allow them to honestly tell me they were attacking, rather than charge forward madly into the teeth of superior firepower.

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Sea Wasp
/^
;;;
http://www.wizvax.net/seawasp