Just the other day I was working on an EVN plugin when my thoughts came to the subject of auxiliary dudes in Escape Velocity: Nova.

Now, as some plug makers for Nova may attest (see (url="http://"http://www.Ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/003237.html")here(/url), (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/003340.html")here(/url), and (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/003202.html")here(/url)), Nova acts a bit odd when putting dudes (or at least higher-numbered ones) in the auxdudes section. This is most unfortunate, especially when one wishes to create an epic space battle between two fleets.

Then I remembered the Federation/Rebel link. As many Nova players know, there is a part in the Bureau string where you are asked to waive one of your "fundamental rights" as a Federation citizen. If you reject this, you join the Rebellion; by rejecting one mission, you accept another.

Looking around in the Nova data files, I discovered that there was an Sxxx in the OnReject field. Switching from ResEdit to the EVN Bible, I discovered that Sxxx made the player automatically start the mission of ID xxx.

So, my solution is this:

Make your mission in which you would usually have a mission dude and an auxiliary dude (ex. a battle), into two missions:
Mission 1: The regular mission, with the principal dude (ex. the fleet you must destroy). On accepting this mission, use the Sxxx command to make the player automaticcally start...
Mission 2: The "auxiliary" dude goes here (ex. the friendly fleet). By making this mission "invisible" (you strill have to add some intro text, though) and unable to be refused, you could give the illusion that the two missions were really one.

Other advantages include being able to "name" the auxiliary fleet (so you could fly with Rebel Strike Force Alpha against the Fifth Bureau fleet, for example) and/or you could actually have the "friendly" fleet escort you, enabling you to actually "control" your fleet (this might be a good option for plugins where the player acheives a rank such as admiral or whatever.)

That is all for now. Thank you for your time.

God bless,

UE Patriot

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Just to add to this, if you 'force-start' a mission, by using the Sxxx operator, you don't need to create an intro text for it, as it will never be shown, but you do need to leave a space in the intro text range (4000-4999) for it, or subsequent missions which you do want to display intro texts will be out of sequence.

Also, you can actually 'force-start' any number of missions, which allows you to create any number of fleets, name them, and you can even attach ncb changes to the 'OnShipDone' fields of those missions to create interesting variations in your universe. I worked with this a little, but in a scenario as large as Nova, I only really skimmed the surface of what the engine could do...

Cookie @ ATMOS

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Quote

Originally posted by Frandall:
Just to add to this, if you 'force-start' a mission, by using the Sxxx operator, you don't need to create an intro text for it, as it will never be shown...

Is there any condition under which the intro text will be shown when using the Sxxx operator?

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Quote

Originally posted by P-Psycho:
**Is there any condition under which the intro text will be shown when using the Sxxx operator?

**

I doubt it - the intro text is designed to give you rough details of a mission before you accept it, so a force-started mission should not apply.

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(url="http://"http://www.mazca.com/")Mazca(/url) , Moderator, EV Developer's Corner
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Quote

Originally posted by Mazca:
I doubt it - the intro text is designed to give you rough details of a mission before you accept it, so a force-started mission should not apply.

This is indeed correct, you cannot use the Sxxx operator to give you extra room to write more pages of info for the player to read when they start a mission, although you can use it to create a mission with an extra comp text...

Cookie @ ATMOS

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Yes, yes! Epic battles!!!!

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Quote

Originally posted by Frandall:
**Just to add to this, if you 'force-start' a mission, by using the Sxxx operator, you don't need to create an intro text for it, as it will never be shown, but you do need to leave a space in the intro text range (4000-4999) for it, or subsequent missions which you do want to display intro texts will be out of sequence.
**

Thanks for the tip Frandall. Wish that had been noted in the Bible.

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Quote

Originally posted by getcrack4me:
**Yes, yes! Epic battles!!!!

**

Wish there were more of those, don't you?

Hey, it makes for some cool particle effects!

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Kudos, UE Patriot. Great idea, wish I'd thought of it. And epic space battles are one thing that we could all use a lot more of

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