I remember going through the EVO webboard 3 years ago (with a different username; the e-mail account that it was registered to was relinquished to obscurity a long time ago). One of the many topics I saw discussed was the plugin 'Burning Season'. However, after conducting a (somewhat) comprehensive search through several of the Ambrosia webboards and on the internet, I could not find any trace of this plugin.

I have a certain amount of free time this summer, and I was wondering if any of you were interested in a plug-in with the same basic premise (Igadzra and Voinians ally up to defeat the UE and rest of the Crescent). There is a very small amount of information that I remember from the official Internet sites and discussions about this plugin, and some more saved upon my computer. I have already drafted a rough proposed mission outline (involving possibly 250+ missions). If there is at least some interest out there, I will evaluate whether to continue or not (while still at these beginning stages). I am willing to write out the storyline and rewrite planet descriptions, etc., but if there are to be any custom graphics, they would have to be outsourced (otherwise, if I actually develop the plug-in, the graphics will be stock EVO graphics).

Obviously, the missions would differ greatly from the author's original intent. That is why I say that this new plug-in would be INSPIRED by Burning Season. If some of you show interest, I would be more than willing to start work in earnest. One thing I can say: if I start this plug, it will not become vaporware unless something absolutely catastrophic occurs.

Thank you for considering this proposal, feel free to comment. If you really think it's a bad idea, comment as well. I can see why there could possibly be opposition to such an idea, but if I am to release something to the public, it would be prudent of me to consider their feedback.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you.
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(This message has been edited by UE_Research & Development (edited 06-26-2003).)

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for in responses, but oh well.

Well, sounds to me that it would be a great plugin, perhaps one that webstories could be written about. (Yeah, that's something I would say, isn't it...)

Sorry I can't help out, I'm pretty busy writing stuff this summer, but I wish you the best of luck in getting this going.

Regards,
Solel

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All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
—J. R. R. Tolkien
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro&default;=26")The Search Feature(/url)

I have decided to begin preliminary work. At this point, the basic overall storyline has been written out, and I am working on creating individual missions, as well as new descriptions for most planets, stations, ships, and outfits.

ANY comments, suggestions, or otherwise acknowledgements of existence would be greatly appreciated!

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Oh yeah. I would pay money for a good plug with The Burning Season's premise... it sounded like such an amazing plugin, but it vanished into thin air several years ago. Good luck.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

Quote

Originally posted by UE_Research & Development:
**I have decided to begin preliminary work. At this point, the basic overall storyline has been written out, and I am working on creating individual missions, as well as new descriptions for most planets, stations, ships, and outfits.

ANY comments, suggestions, or otherwise acknowledgements of existence would be greatly appreciated!

**

You asked for any comments. Here ya go. That Voinians and Igadzra team up is a seriously cool idea. As for 250 missions, it sounds huge. It sounds as large as a TC. Or probably F-25. It wouldnt be very realistic- why would two equally hostile of outsiders goverments ally up with each other, especially as the other side is in another part of the galaxy? But it would be logical- Igadzra has most shields & deadly secondary weapons, Voinians have most armor and mots powerful weapons. If UE are to defeat Voinians that finally have good shields and guided secondary weapons- extremely well guided!, you seriously need to raise their level of tech. Make UE contact Miranu asking for their tech, they ally with UE anyway after the Diplomatic Relations mission. Replace UE Fighters with Crescent Fighters that have a variant of Phase that is as powerful on armor as it is on shields. You can have 5 in a bay just like you can now have 5 UE Fighters instead of 3. Replace 2 Rockets with 2 Disperal Rockets that work on armor. Or if you want to keep it more UE-like, grossly improve the Blaze Cannon. Make it as accurate as Phase, and as powerful on shields because the Voinians new good shields. Raising their armor damage wouldnt hurt either, its only 5. Say, UE contacted their other ally Emalgha to get their murderous on armor weapons. Give UE access to SADs, matching SAEs if they are to meet Igazdra. Raise their shields further to match the new Voinian shielding. For the Miranu, patrol with heavier ships than Crescent Fighter and develop heavier than Miranu Gunship. Probably a Crescent Warship with improved amount of weapons, more fighters, more shields and more expandablity. For Adzgari, put Enchanched Azdaras in mass production, meaning that you can see them in a system often and they could assist you in battle beyond just one mission in EVO. For Zidagar, make a new battlecruiser that doesnt get eaten up for lunch by Igazras. Make a new Phased Beam that doesnt drain fuel so fast so it is actually useful. Probably make a turret like in in EVO resources, but never used.

That was just brainstorming where I put any ideas I wanted. If anything there is unbalanced, tell me.

P.S. I assumed Voinians would get good shields because they team up with Igadzra and they have good shields. Was this in the original Burning Season plug?

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I am eager to try to ansver mission questions

Those are all very good ideas, and I will be sure to implement many of them. (I was thinking along the same lines.)

A search of the EVO board will give you the same information, but the basic premise of the Burning Season plug was that the Voinians and the Igazdra implausibly allied up to conquer the rest of the galaxy. The Azdgari relocated to the southern crescent area while the Zidagar became refugees. Eventually the UE, Azdgari, and Zidagar would work together to defeat the enemy. That is the basic premise, and I thought it was a well thought out one when I first heard about it.

New ships are cool and I would like to implement them, but I would have to solict graphics from someone else. Same (to a lesser degree) with landscapes, planets, and outfits/weapons. I will be putting up a makeshift website soon.

(additional information about the original Burning Season, and this plugin)

Burning Season had new ship graphics which were better than the original (in my opinion). As well, Burning Season had an 'alternate history' kind of chronology which disadvantaged the UE (for example, on the official website, about 10 years before the plugin was to start, a UE task force led by an "unnamed mercenary captain" tryed to destroy the Voinian Dreadnought in dry dock but failed). I plan on something similar, with none of the old missions but new ones. However, I await your opinions.

Again, new ships will probably be implemented, but for them to be truely good, I would need someone to help me design graphics. Advice on implementing features and editing resources may be requested by me anytime during the design process, so beware !
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(This message has been edited by UE_Research & Development (edited 06-27-2003).)

Just in case anyone wants to know:

Rough Draft Mission texts for the first 10 missions have been written out. I've been thinking about this for quite a while....

When I come around to it, I'll code the website. Any further progress updates will probably be posted there.

As always, any comments or suggestions are welcome.

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I've got some free time this summer, and I'm pretty willing to help. Problem is, I'm extremely inexperienced at plugmaking, and I just moved up to Jaguar, with no Classic. (I can't spare 200-odd mb for 9.2.2...) I may be able to somehow run stuff on my old Performa/Falcon, but no promises.

I might be able to help with editing, maybe polish/shorten/clarify your mission briefings, but judging from your posts you probably don't need much help in that area. Up to you, my email's in the profile.

Ideas: Really develop a plot for each mission path. (I'm assuming you are making a couple. Branching, perhaps?) I'd say really try to create a character, as in FH and FF. I guess that's probably a lot of work though...

Anyway, I'd be glad to offer my nearly-worthless services if you need anything.

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(url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~double_zero/falcon.html")The Falcon Project(/url)
"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it." --Henry David Thoreau

Information: The overall events happening in the galaxy will be the same. However, you will have the option of working for different sub-factions. For example, after the first section of the plug-in, you will be able to choose between working for UE Special Operations, D'Erlon, or the Adzgari (but not all three at the same time). Eventually, there will be more factions to work for. The same events in the galaxy occur (as evidenced hopefully in the newscasts), but you will have the chance to play the different strings, (and see the same events from different perspectives). Therefore, you will not be able to play through all the missions with one pilot (unless you change missionbits or something) but you can replay the game and play as different factions.

As well, there will be success/failure branching (marked by a CRITICAL MISSION heading, so you can know when to let those Voinians destroy those F-Cs you're escorting in order to go down a different mission branch). I originally envisioned not marking the branching missions, but I realized that either people would fail the mission over and over again (because I made it too hard), or people would never fail the mission and never see the branching.

I believe all these features can be implemented without too much difficulty. I look forwards to your suggestions and comments.

As for plot, yes, I plan on developing a character and plot that are more substantial than the original. Although a war story probably doesn't offer as much potential of depth as FH/FF (which were extremely well-done plugins), there's still room for plot (different for each string).

I don't need much help RIGHT NOW (as it is in such an early state). However, I in all likelyhood WILL need help probably a few months from now. People competent at 3-D graphics, beta testers, proofreaders/people to edit the storyline/characters/missions, etc.

Again, thank you for your patience, and I sincerely hope I will not disappoint you.

Internet site (updated weekly, not much content right now) has been put up.
(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd(/url)

Comments and suggestions, as always, are welcome

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Wellllll, I wouldn't mind beta testing this plug. AIM me when it is in beta stage.

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<off topic>

Hey Kauthor! Nice to see you back!

</off topic>

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Cooldude

(This message has been edited by Cooldude (edited 06-28-2003).)

:raise eyebrows. I have always been here on this boards, and EVN Boards.

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It always makes me wonder why people start offering to beta-test plugs that haven't even got started yet, kauthor.

UE R&D; - If you run into any problems with production on this plug I'm happy to help. I'm a bit too busy to actually help with making it, but I'm happy to play an advisory role as I have in several other plugs in the past. I know pretty much everything about the EVO engine and plug making from making plugs myself, so drop me a line (mazca@mazca.com) to ask if you have questions.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

(This message has been edited by Mazca (edited 06-29-2003).)

Thanks to all those who have generously offered their help, time, and assistance. I will remember you when I run into problems.

I have written the text for 20 missions so far. If you would be as kind to read through this rough draft of a mission introduction text (the mission is in the middle of a string of related missions) :

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'The UE officers are relieved to see you again, and are this time surrounded by a host of Miranu government officials. One of them comes up to talk with you. “The Crescent’s in chaos. And if that weren’t enough, the Voinians have launched a renewed offensive against our forces on the western border. Anyways, about your task. I need you to transport several important Zidagar officials to Earth.”

Another officer approaches. “Soon, the UE and the Miranu will be the only free nations. Free as in a respect of human (and sentient) rights, and conviction in justice and liberty, not hatred and tyranny. And the Miranu can’t fight. The Zachit are brave, but they are few. ” His eyes betray utter hopelessness. “We need your services again, (player name) ”'
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I'm not sure how well it'll fit (everything will be edited to fit properly later), but I wanted to see if this type of writing was what some of you were looking for. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated in making this project better.

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(This message has been edited by UE_Research & Development (edited 06-30-2003).)

That's a pretty decent mission text. I see no problems with it.

One hint I must impress upon anyone who's making an expansion to EVO or EV (rather than a TC) is to make your language match that of the original scenario's author. Neither Matt Burch (EVC's author) or Peter Cartwright (EVO's scenario author) used much in the way of flowery language, so remember to make the dialogue brief and succinct and get to the point quickly.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

I could give a (small) helping hand, I run Greenleaf software, and if you want aney small plug done, I would be happy to oblige.
Please contact me if you need aney small plug

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fistfullofprince, perhaps you would like to take a hint and stop whoring your 'company' in every remotely related topic. It's starting to annoy me.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=9&SUBMIT;=Go&urgaylol;=yes")EV Developer's Corner(/url)
Go get your knife.

Lay low on him Mazca, he's not very old, and using a second language, if I were him at that age, I'd be thrilled if I even had a website. Let alone doing plugs.
He'll evolve, cut a little slack. I know you gave a warning, and sure that warning should be followed, but still....

Work is progressing quite nicely. More mission texts have been written out. I plan on heavy use of VisBits eventually, and of course the discussions carried out about the UE, and the EVO universe in general.

If anyone is any good at 3-D graphics, willing to make maybe 15 or so ship models (at least) for free, and is interested in this project overall, please contact me. If you want, I can provide concept art, or if you'd rather, you can just design the ships yourself.

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Quote

Originally posted by UE_Research & Development:
**and of course the discussions carried out about the UE, and the EVO universe in general.

and is interested in this project overall, please contact me.

**

You said earlier you would implement many of my ideas. Do you know which of my ideas you make yet? I cant make 3D graphics, but I could spellcheck or betatest it once testing of F-25 is over. If school doesnt take too much time, that is ;).

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I am eager to try to ansver mission questions