When making a plugin, have you ever wished you could define which systems appear on the map at the start of the game? How about starting on a planet other than the default one? Have some dominated planets? Start in a different ship, have different weapons and outfits, higher rating, maybe have more cash. Or maybe you've always wanted to make an alien epic set in the Earth year 1066.

Now you can, and more.

With PFE, you can edit nearly every attribute of an EVO pilot file, from the name of the ship, to which mission bits have been set.

Things you can edit: lastStellar, shipClass, fuel, month, day, year, exploration, itemCount, legalStatus, weapCount, cash, missionBit, stelDominated, escortClass, fighterClass, rating, shipName, strictPlayFlag, stelShipCount, personActive, personGrudge, stelAnnoyance.
(url="http://"http://phair.rit.edu/~seant/EV/PFEv2b.sit.hqx")http://phair.rit.edu.../PFEv2b.sit.hqx(/url)

All that having been said, I'm looking for testers. As I didn't get any feedback on version 1, I decided that either everything worked fine, or no one cared. Though I've tested each feature, the editor is still in a beta stage; I need people to take it for a test run and report any problems they run into. If you run into a problem, email seant@phair.csh.rit.edu or post a message for seant on EV developers web board.

-STH

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

Final call. If I don't hear anything (and I mean anything. I'm underwhelmed with responces) by this Suday, I will assume no one is interested in this and will dispose of it accordingly (i.e. take my toys and go home. :frown: ).

-STH

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

Hey, it's a good idea...it's just that I don't think I'll ever need anything like that, since I don't plan on making any TC's anytime soon (the only plugs for which you'll need to change starting pilot characteristics). I only make additions to the plot.

------------------
Visit my EVO web site at (url="http://"http://www.evoverride.com")http://www.evoverride.com(/url)!
" Edible, adj. Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm."--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

I'm interested, and am downloading it even as we speak.

Regards

Martin

------------------
M A R T I N • T U R N E R

The only thing that sucks is that the player will have to use a pre-existing pilot file instead of creating his own. Some people arn't intelligent enough for that.

------------------
OctoberFost: Spoiling your fun, one post at a time.
AIM-OctoberFost (b)
(url="http://"http://www.drippingchipmunk.com")DrippingChipmunk.com(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.downwithbush.net")DOWNWITHBUSH.NET(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by OctoberFost:
**The only thing that sucks is that the player will have to use a pre-existing pilot file instead of creating his own. Some people arn't intelligent enough for that.
**

This brings up an important point: I guess I need to make a small utility that is shipped with any potential altered pilot files. Call it something like "Play (plugin name)" and put it in the EVO folder. The way it'd work is it would reproduce the questions EVO asks when you make a new pilot: Players name, ship name, strict play (or not if the developer has it set to strict play. Maybe have an editable resource in it that allows the plugin distributor to specify what can be changed and what can't through flags or something. 0=no change allowed, so don't offer the option. 1=Change allowed, so display a text dialog.). It makes these trivial changes to the pilot file, but also makes a "previous pilot" (or whatever it's called) alias. Once it's done all of these housekeeping chores, it then launches EVO. Since EVO automatically loads the previous pilot file pointed to by the alias, all the player should have to do is enter the ship.

-STH

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

What would be totally cool would be utility where the plug-creator could set the pilot file altered during play.

What I mean is, with Frozen Heart you had to go off at one point and read some text. The text then tells you what to do next. What I would have liked to have would be a utility that DocMaker launches at the end of the text story that alters the pilot file and then takes you back into EVO. This would mean that, effectively, you could add an entire RPG or POV section onto an EVO plugin.

Are you willing to have a look at this?

Regards

Martin

------------------
M A R T I N • T U R N E R

Quote

Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**What I would have liked to have would be a utility that DocMaker launches at the end of the text story that alters the pilot file and then takes you back into EVO. This would mean that, effectively, you could add an entire RPG or POV section onto an EVO plugin.

Are you willing to have a look at this?
**

YES! I started messing with the pilot file because I was interested in introducing more simulation-like aspects to EV via utilities that could record changes in the universe through examining the pilot file, and then making custom plugins in responce to those changes. I have an interest in evolving systems....

What you've described sounds do-able. I had at one point suggested the ability for Nova to launch external apps vs quicktime movies, but didn't hear anything back on that. Anyway, I've never used DocMaker. Does it have a macro language of some sort that would allow it to launch an different application? If not, it's still possible to do what you've suggested, I think.

You'd still have to exit EV to read the file, but I'm fairly confident that I can get something that runs in the background and watches when the player is not "in" EV (i.e. they've switched to the Finder. EVO is not AppleScriptable, otherwise a whole world of things might be possible). Once the player has moved to the Finder, this background app looks at the pilot file. If a certain bit is set, it automatically opens up a document (maybe one that was invisible up until that point), and makes whatever changes you specify to the pilot file. When you close the file, the background app automatically returns you to EVO. Hmmm. I'm unsure whether you'd need to reload the pilot file or not, but I can experiment. Of course, this means the background app must be running. The only way I can think of doing this is by launching it first, and then it launches EVO. Problems would definitely crop up if someone launched EVO first. Maybe upon installation it could change EVO from a application to something else. When EVO is clicked on, it would launch this other program, which would change the kind of EVO back to an application and launch it? I'm thinking aloud. That would work, but would hose EVO.... Let me think about it.

Is this what I've described what you meant? I like the idea. I wouldn't be able to really work on it until after Xmas (I'm involved in other projects), but I do like the concept. Can you send me a detailed description of what you're interested in?

How's the PFE working/not working for you?

-STH

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

AppleScript seems PERFECT for that type of thing :). I am downloading your file. If I find some bugs, I will post a message here.

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

The only serious problem with this idea of allowing applescripting in plugs or opening outside programs through plugs, is that it opens a huge door for viruses and things like that. The way its set now, the worst thing a bad plug can do to your computer is crash it. If it opens an application or has applescript which can run applications, even hidden ones, then it would be a lot harder to trust plugs, and EV's nature of having tons of people make small little plugs with lots of hype would make it hard to find the virus's if there were any.

Also an idea I was thinking about while reading this, was having startup pilot files, which you could build by playing the game and setting the right bits, or if someone made an editor, you could set all the right bits. So When you start a new pilot, you could essentially select a race you wanted to be. And having multiple plot lines from the very beginning. You could paste the contents of a pilot file into your plug in a pilt resource or something and a screen in Nova would say, Please select your starting conditions. Of course you'll probably need a few pics, descriptions, and strings to describe each race/starting condition.

/me suggests the idea to syntax

Chamrin

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
The only serious problem with this idea of allowing applescripting in plugs or opening outside programs through plugs, is that it opens a huge door for viruses and things like that.

Yes. I realized this early on ( http://www.AmbrosiaS...TML/000988.html ) when I started playing around with the general idea. I'm not sure how such a cool feature could be made more safe. :frown:

Quote

Originally posted by Chamrin:
Also an idea I was thinking about while reading this, was having startup pilot files, which you could build by playing the game and setting the right bits, or if someone made an editor, you could set all the right bits.

Great idea. Why don't I make an pilot file editor. Oh, wait.... I did ( (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/001140.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS...TML/001140.html(/url) )

If a resource could exist in Nova for defining start conditions for a pilot file, that would rock! It would open up a whole new area for plug makers. Editing a pilot file isn't something you can do via a ResEdit template, however. You'd have to do exactly what you describe: define the pilot file and then paste it in. You wouldn't even need a new resource; in EV they are MpďL and in EVO they are OpďL. I'm betting on NöpL for Nova.

-STH

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

(This message has been edited by seant (edited 12-05-2000).)