In the Vell-os string, when it prevents you from buying the outfits, it displays, at the end of each description, it says that you miss the outfit. Since the outfit count doesn't seem to be doubled, how is this done?

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Why are you all looking at me like that?

Quote

Originally posted by Sheer_falacy:
**In the Vell-os string, when it prevents you from buying the outfits, it displays, at the end of each description, it says that you miss the outfit. Since the outfit count doesn't seem to be doubled, how is this done?

**

{b424 ".

You stare at this item, and the others around it, for several long, sad moments, knowing that you may never be able to buy any of them ever again." "."}

apparently b424 once set shows this.

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Ecky- ecky- ecky- ecky- pikang- zoop- boing- goodem- zoo- owli- zhiv'
Now lobbest thou thy keyboard towards thy monitor, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
Rogue Thoughts: reorganizing for a new season near you.

Ah. I though there was some kind of notation (if this outfit is visible but not available, append this desc, or something like that). Thank you for explaining. I had hoped there was a shortcut.

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Why are you all looking at me like that?

Quote

Originally posted by Sheer_falacy:
**Ah. I though there was some kind of notation (if this outfit is visible but not available, append this desc, or something like that). Thank you for explaining. I had hoped there was a shortcut.

**

You can use a few NCB operators and tags in desc (how do you make an umlaut on a PC?) resources that will change the text based on some things. You can change text based on Gender, NCBs, mission specific things, etc... I am at school right now and can't quote from the Nova bible at the moment, but when I get home, I will post the section of the Nova bible that shows what you can do.

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"I've just had an apostrophe!"
"I think you mean an epiphany."
"Lightning has just struck my brain!"
"Well, that must hurt!"

Quote

Originally posted by P-Psycho:
**You can use a few NCB operators and tags in desc (how do you make an umlaut on a PC?)
**

In windows (I am in '98) open Character Map in System Tools.

Choose a font, such as Arial, and find vowel with the Umlaut. Drag that letter to the "Characters to Copy" box. Copy and paste. You can use the key combination too. For example I am on a PC right now so I can still type dësc.

(edit)
Sorry, in character map, just doubleclick you can't drag and drop. :redface:
(/edit)

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Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.
--John Lehman,US secretary of the navy

(This message has been edited by Vast Deathmaster (edited 09-11-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by P-Psycho:
how do you make an umlaut on a PC?

I put this together a while back - I assume it's still true.

ä is Alt-0228
ë is Alt-0235
ď is Alt-0239
ö is Alt-0246
ü is Alt-0252
˙ is Alt-0255

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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): There's no time like the future. | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/")evula.org(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**I put this together a while back - I assume it's still true.

ä is Alt-0228
ë is Alt-0235
ď is Alt-0239
ö is Alt-0246
ü is Alt-0252
˙ is Alt-0255

**

/me glances at list, then says:

I love Macs.

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"Wonderful! I'll be a bounder yet!" --Tom Ballard
I /used/ to be sane, but then I got a 5th email address...

Ah, finally I'm home! Okay, here goes:

Straight from the Nova bible:

If you wish, you can make a dësc resource mutable via control bits - embedding a
special sequence of characters into the dësc resource will instruct Nova to
change the contents of the text on the fly. This sequence is delimited (marked)
by the characters "{" and "}", and follows this format:

{bXXX "string one" "string two"}

Where "XXX" is be replaced by the index of the control bit you wish to test. You
can add in a "!" character before the "bXXX" test in order to negate the result
of the test, but unlike the control bit test strings, you cannot perform
compound tests in a dësc resource - i.e., no testing of multiple bits at a time.

If the bit test (after being negated, if the "!" character is present) evaluates
to true, the first string will be substituted in place of all the characters
between (and including) the "{" and "}" characters. If the bit test evaluates to
false and there is a second string in the expression, that second string will be
substituted. If there is no second string, nothing will be substituted.

For example, consider this dësc resource:

This is a {b001 "great and terrific" "lousy, terrible"} example.

...if bit 001 is set, the output will be "This is a great and terrific example."
If bit 001 is not set, the output will be "This is a lousy, terrible example.".

Also note that if you want to include a quotation mark (") character in either
of the two strings, use standard C syntax to do it:

My name is {b002 "Dave "pipeline" Williams"}

This is also works with the player's gender - for example:

This is a test string and the player is {G "a male character" "a female pilot"}.

...in this case, the G character signifies that the following text is mutable
based on the player's gender; if the player is male, the first string is used,
otherwise the second string is used. Note that the "!" token works here as
usual.

You can also change the text based on whether or not the player is registered:

This is a test string you {P "have paid" "haven't paid"}.

...in this case, the P character signifies that the following text is mutable
based on whether or not the game is registered; if the player has registered,
the first string is used, otherwise the second string is used. Note that the
"!" token works here as usual, and you can also append a number to the P
character to specify a number of days, just as you can with the ncb Pxxx
test operator.

And also:

     Whenever Nova displays a desc resource related to a mission, such as the
initial mission description (desc ID 4000-4255) or one of the special mission
briefings (e.g. CompText and QuickBrief) it performs one other special operation
on the text. It searches through the text and replaces a few special "wildcard"
symbols with pertinent mission information. This is extremely useful in setting
up mission briefings that include random information that wouldn't be known when
the description is written. These special symbols and their expansions are:

<DSY>     The name of the destination system
<DST>     The name of the destination stellar
<RSY>     The name of the return system
<RST>     The name of the return stellar
<CT>      The name of the type of cargo to be carried
<CQ>      The quantity of cargo to be carried
<DL>      The date of the mission deadline, if any
<PAY>     Absolute value of mission pay (does nothing if the mission pay
            isn't monetary)
<REG>     Who Nova is registered to, or "UNREGISTERED"
<PN>      The player's name
<PNN>     The player's nickname. If no nickname was specified, Nova will use
            the player's full name here instead.
<PSN>     The player's ship's name
<PST>     The player's ship type (comes from the resource name of the player's
            ship type's shďp resource)
<PRK>     The ConvName of the highest-weighted active rank resource. If none
            is found, this will be replaced with "captain".
<SRK>     The ShortName of the highest-weighted active rank resource. If none
            is found, this will be replaced with "captain".
<PRKnnn>  Same as <PRK>, but only for ranks affiliated with government ID nnn.
            Note that you can only do this once per description, or bad things
            might happen.
<SRKnnn>  Same as <SRK>, but only for ranks affiliated with government ID nnn.
            Note that you can only do this once per description, or bad things
            might happen.
<RRK>     The full name of the most recently activated rank resource. Note
            that it's best to only use this in a mission briefing where you
            know that you've just given the player a rank, because otherwise
            bad things could happen. (e.g. the most recently activated rank
            pointer isn't cached between game sessions)
<OSN>     The offering ship name (only works when offering a mission from a
            ship)
<SN>      Special ship name (Note: Nova will screw up if you use this in the
            initial mission description, as it doesn't pick the special ship
            names until you actually accept the mission.)

Is that what you wanted to know?

Edit: Let's see if that worked this time...

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"I've just had an apostrophe!"
"I think you mean an epiphany."
"Lightning has just struck my brain!"
"Well, that must hurt!"

(This message has been edited by P-Psycho (edited 09-11-2002).)