As you folks know, we have been working on EV Override 1.0.2, which adds a significant number of changes to the game that are of direct interest to plugin developers. We think that it's ready to go, but we'd like to do a semi-public beta test of it first. Thus, the reason I am posting this message here.

I'm assuming that if you are reading the EV Developer's web board, you have an interest in developing plugins for EV/EVO -- we'd like you to try out what we think will be the release version of EV Override 1.0.2, before we release it to the public. We'd also like you to be able to take some of the new plugin capabilities out for a test drive. Perhaps it'll inspire you to add features to your plugin, or to make a new one.

If you find any spelling errors, and grammatical mistakes, any bugs, any features that don't work as you'd expect (please do NOT ask for new features) -- please mail them to:

evbugs@AmbrosiaSW.com

...so we can take care of them before the game is released to the general public. Also please note that you probably shouldn't pass this info along to general EV Override players; they will be better off waiting for the official release from us (which will be happening shortly).

.....

*** This is confidential information, you'll be hurting us rather than helping us if you give it out ***

EVO1.0.2fc2 is now available in the /beta directory of our anonymous ftp site as:

EVO1.0.2fc2.sea.bin

So the complete URL is:

ftp://ftp.AmbrosiaSW....0.2fc2.sea.bin

This file is a MacBinary II encoded self-extracting archive, encrypted with the password:

lilacrain

Please grab this file as soon as possible, and begin testing it. We need you now more than ever, because we'd like to do a final QA pass on EVO 1.0.2, and release it ASAP. People have waited a long time for this release, but we'd also like to ensure that it is the last release we'll need to do for the EV Override engine for some time. The worst-case would be having to follow up this release with a quick bugfix.

With that in mind, please try this version out with as many machines (68K too) as you can, and perhaps with third-party plugins as well.

------------------
Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Here's the official change list from EV Override 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2 (for those of you who'd like to read about it instead of, or before downloading it):

.....

-- Added a field to force up to 4 pers ships to always appear in a system

-- Weapon ammo type -999 will now cause the firing ship to be destroyed

-- Added ship type pilot skill variance

-- Finally fixed the bug that would cause all ships to appear the same

-- Zidagar ships given natural fuel regeneration (not player)

-- ships with solar panels (including player) given natural fuel regeneration

-- shield-related outfits drain fuel

-- UE Cruisers will appear via dudes after appropriate missions done

-- certain weapons (dispy rockets, defence pods) will detonate when count is up

-- brief 'Fine' mission added in relation to space mines

-- a few other changes implemented for b4/5

-- Made beams display a little nicer

-- Added a little randomness to keep computer ships from stacking up

-- Afterburners implemented for numerous ships.

-- shields reduced slightly for all fighters and other highly manoeuvrable ships

-- missing STR# added for Miranu Station (found this one myself : )

-- smoke trails implemented for a few weapons

-- x-offsets implemented for a few ships (UE and Voinian fighters)

-- marine outfit is given out to player during the UE D'Erlon missions

-- blind spots implemented for a few ships (human freighters and cargo transporters)

-- Missions can take away the player's money if desired

-- Added an activate-on-bit-cleared option to oops resources

-- Purchasing outfit items can alter mission bits

-- Outfit items can have secondary effects

-- Fleets can be controlled by mission bits

-- Allowed default inherent AI type in dude resource

-- Added flags to make AI ships more selective about missile selection

-- Beam weapons now stop when they hit something

-- Extended most resource templates by a few bytes for future expansion

-- Added a StartBitSet field to mission resource

-- Made the planet picture in the communication dialog a little nicer

-- Added a flag to optionally show target's armor on status display

-- Added mission bit support to 'dude' resources

-- Added a flag to support flak-type weapons

-- Added projectile weapon strength decay option

-- Adjusted freefall bomb speed

-- Added support for anti-fuel-scoop type outfits that drain fuel

-- Added oufit resource picture conflict workaround

-- Ships can have default outfit items at purchase time

-- Ships can have inherent fuel regeneration ability

-- Fixed a bug that was causing turrets to be somewhat inaccurate

-- Fixed the crooked beams problem

-- Fixed the start-disabled flag in the govt resources so it works again

-- Added the capability for AI ships to use afterburners

-- Added a "Marines" outfit type for plugin developers to use

-- AI ships can perform slightly more complex combat maneuvers

-- Added a fix for the users who couldn't hyperspace

-- Added reverse target-cycling (hold down shift + target key)

-- AI ships are no longer confused by rear attacks

-- Fixed a bug that would prevent some fleet types from appearing

-- Improved beam visibility slightly

-- Added ability to specify turret blind spots

-- Added the AvailShipType field and some related flags to the mission resource

-- Fixed the flickering communications message bug

-- Cycling targets once again allows a "no target" selection

-- Added an x-offset capability for unguided projectiles and beam weapons

-- Moved the armor indicator label into a pict resource

-- Made combat AI difficulty proportional to combat rating

-- Weapons can have smoke trails

-- Added a RefuseBitSet field to the mission resources

-- Unlicensed copies of the game no longer crash on startup

------------------
Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

One bug I already know about (so don't bother telling me ) is that if you have some fuel-draining outfit items and you initiate a hyperspace jump with low fuel, you can end up with less than the required amount of fuel by the time your ship finishes jumping. I've remedied this by simply disallowing fuel draining to occur while hyperspacing.

mcb

------------------
Matt Burch
(url="http://"mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com")mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com(/url)mburch@ambrosiasw.com

Can people change the smoke trail?

------------------
The Great Expansion - An upcoming total conversion of EVO

http://thegreatexpansion.8m.com

Quote

Originally posted by Phillip:
**Can people change the smoke trail?
**

Yes. You can have up to 8 different smoke trail sprite sets. (say that three times fast!)

mcb

------------------
Matt Burch
(url="http://"mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com")mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com(/url)mburch@ambrosiasw.com

Just a question, since I haven't been able to play it yet, and it'll be a while. Has the Russian text in the holovid been corrected? I told Peter Cartwright about it. It's really such a glaring, game-defeating bug. If you don't know, for lack of knowledge of Russian, could someone post an image on the boards?

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God. Root. What is difference?
-Pitr

AIM: obormot345

Hmmm, my max speed seems actually lower than the standard ship. In my UE Destroyer it said my max speed was 82. I know it wasn't just the display because Igazras were able to easily catch me and go faster than me. My new Zidara doesn't seem to be its full speed either. Am I just stupid and it's always been like this, is it bug, or is this some new challenge?

------------------
-Shade

"Americans want their cheese dead."
-NY Times Magazine

"Some people call magazines mags, some call 'em zines, so I just call them gazs."

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion, America's finest news source(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by ShadeOfBlue:
I know it wasn't just the display because Igazras were able to easily catch me and go faster than me.

DUH! The AI is now capable of using afterburners. Jeesh. :rolleyes:

------------------
OpenGL Avara!

AIM: EVAndrewM

"I haven't seen myself lately, AndrewM."
— GreenYO, #ev

Hey people post your bug comments here as well as emailing them in, so we can see what everyone is doing.

I was playing around with the new cicns and found that you couldn't change the smoke sets from anything other than the first set. While I could exchange the first set with the second set, and thus if I wanted make a new smoke animation, you can't have the multiple smokes as supposedly is possible.

Chamrin

(This message has been edited by Chamrin (edited 05-25-2000).)

Actually, Shade, Syntax took out the boost to speed that the player gets. Also, the AI does not have a boost to sheilds. (Ie, some stuff might die a little faster than it used to)

-Skunks

------------------
Enginners can actually hear machines talk to them. The rattle in the car's engine teases softly, "I'll bet you can't find me." The computer hums an approving tune when the enginner writes an expecially briliant peice of computer code. The toaster says "Not yet, not yet, not yet." untill the toast pops out. An enginner who is surrounded by machines is never lonly and never judged by apperance. These are friends.

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
**Hey people post your bug comments here as well as emailing them in, so we can see what everyone is doing.

I was playing around with the new cicns and found that you couldn't change the smoke sets from anything other than the first set. While I could exchange the first set with the second set, and thus if I wanted make a new smoke animation, you can't have the multiple smokes as supposedly is possible.

Chamrin

(This message has been edited by Chamrin (edited 05-25-2000).)**

Argh! That would have been the coolest part of the contrail feature... you could have energy sparks or a flamethrower animation as a contrail instead of the smoke trail. Is this bug going to be corrected before the release?

-- Cinga

------------------

Regarding fuel draining items - I've been thinking it might be best if they can't drain fuel below one jump, so as to avoid annoying players more than it will anyway

Obormot: Which Russian language bug? If you mean the non-agreement of drugii and iazyk erm, they do.

Peter

------------------
Ja sam ovde samo zbog piva

Quote

Originally posted by mburch:
**One bug I already know about (so don't bother telling me:p ) is that if you have some fuel-draining outfit items and you initiate a hyperspace jump with low fuel, you can end up with less than the required amount of fuel by the time your ship finishes jumping. I've remedied this by simply disallowing fuel draining to occur while hyperspacing.

mcb
**

Good job! Thats a LOT of updating to do. Adds a lot for plug in developers to do.

Dragon
Blah fuel draining outfits. And people can't stand the phase beam already!

Quote

Originally posted by Skunko7:
**Actually, Shade, Syntax took out the boost to speed that the player gets.
-Skunks
**

Yeah, but why would I be slower than the stock version? Also, my turrets don't fire at certain positions (this is on a Zidara). The spots are only a few degrees each, but there's enough of them to be quite annoying. Also, sometimes part of the target image gets "stuck" there (I've noticed it on renegade ships after I board them, but it might happen on others, too).

------------------
-Shade

"Americans want their cheese dead."
-NY Times Magazine

"Some people call magazines mags, some call 'em zines, so I just call them gazs."

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion, America's finest news source(/url)

Woah, the player's speed is screwed up. I got into my shuttle, and it turned like a Vionian Frigate, and its max speed was even slower. The player DOES have a slower ship. Its not just the other ships using after burners. I mean, my shuttle was almost out run by a UE Cruiser that certainly wasn't using AB.

------------------
--
"Do or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

(This message has been edited by Dave Lesovoy (edited 05-25-2000).)

Quote

Originally posted by Dave Lesovoy:
Woah, the player's speed is screwed up. I got into my shuttle, and it turned like a Vionian Frigate, and its max speed was even slower. The player DOES have a slower ship. Its not just the other ships using after burners. I mean, my shuttle was almost out run by a UE Cruiser that certainly wasn't using AB.

It works fine for me

------------------
OpenGL Avara!

AIM: EVAndrewM

"I haven't seen myself lately, AndrewM."
— GreenYO, #ev

Quote

Originally posted by Dave Lesovoy:
**Woah, the player's speed is screwed up. I got into my shuttle, and it turned like a Vionian Frigate, and its max speed was even slower. The player DOES have a slower ship. Its not just the other ships using after burners. I mean, my shuttle was almost out run by a UE Cruiser that certainly wasn't using AB.
**

Exactly. Maybe it's something just on our type of machine. Mine's a 266mhz beige G3 with 128mb of ram (speaking of which, I'll try giving EV:O more memory). What's your computer?

------------------
-Shade

"Americans want their cheese dead."
-NY Times Magazine

"Some people call magazines mags, some call 'em zines, so I just call them gazs."

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion, America's finest news source(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by ShadeOfBlue:
**Exactly. Maybe it's something just on our type of machine. Mine's a 266mhz beige G3 with 128mb of ram (speaking of which, I'll try giving EV:O more memory). What's your computer?
**

I have a PM 8500 with a 233mhz G3 daughter card. 64 megs of ram, etc. G4 is in the mail though. Maybe it doesn't like low-end G3 processors?

------------------
--
"Do or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

Well, shĄt, this is just great; now my phased beamer doesn't work at all. Not only does it not show up (it does make sound, though) it does no damage, even when righy by/over the other ship. And this is supposed to be final candidate?

Hmmm, I increased the memory. Nothing.

------------------
-Shade

"Americans want their cheese dead."
-NY Times Magazine

"Some people call magazines mags, some call 'em zines, so I just call them gazs."

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion, America's finest news source(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Peter Cartwright:
**Obormot: Which Russian language bug? If you mean the non-agreement of drugii and iazyk erm, they do.

Peter

**

You're stubborn. Are you sure it's drugii and iazyk? Because those do not agree. Slav confirmed my contention. You got any other Russian speaking people? Anyway, could someone email the holovid image (stuffed, please) to achmizs@stuy.edu. Thanks.

Now, I've got a serious problem. I can't expand the downloaded file. Stuffit expands the .bin file w/o asking for password, which it shouldn't do. Then the .sea file doesn't open because it say "password protected". No prompt, just the error. Yes, it's Expander version 5.5, the latest.

I mean, I can't even get to the damn alleged bugs! sigh

------------------
God. Root. What is difference?
-Pitr

AIM: obormot345