How's this for an idea:

There are a number of shipyards around (eg (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")Ewan's Lair(/url)) where people who are lacking the right skills can go to get ships for their plugins.

I was thinking about that last night, and I remembered that a few people were having trouble creating maps for their plugins (mostly because of the time involved). Now I can't do graphics, but I can do maps.

So, what would people think if I started a "map yard" - somewhere you could go to download a pre-existing map to stick your planets, governments, ships, etc into. I'm thinking there would be a few which connected to the existing Nova universe, and a few for the beginings of a TC.

Any thoughts?

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PCs have users, Macs have fanatics.

An interesting idea. I am a bit hesitant to approve of it, prehaps because I fear twenty different plug-ins all with the same systems. Prehaps if every new system or planet added was left un-named, and the user was encouraged to make some modifications him/herself.

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Quote

Originally posted by mrxak:
**An interesting idea. I am a bit hesitant to approve of it, prehaps because I fear twenty different plug-ins all with the same systems. Prehaps if every new system or planet added was left un-named, and the user was encouraged to make some modifications him/herself.
**

Yeah, I agree. However, perhaps a map of the universe that we live in could have all the names in, which would be nice for plug-ins based on the development of the human race and discovery of the universe.

Oh yeah, cool! Its good to know that people have been using my shipyard

ewan

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ewan/")"In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey - the monkey will spank us!!"(/url)

(This message has been edited by Jules (edited 11-13-2002).)

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Prehaps if every new system or planet added was left un-named, and the user was encouraged to make some modifications him/herself

I wasn't planning on coming up with names for the systems, becuase I figured that they'd just get changed anyway.

The next question is, if I do go forward with this, how big should I make the add-on systems?

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However, perhaps a map of the universe that we live in could have all the names in, which would be nice for plug-ins based on the development of the human race and discovery of the universe

That would probably be good idea, although I'm guessing it would be a fair bit of work. I'd need to get some good star maps...

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Its good to know that people have been using my shipyard

I just wish there were more ships for me to steal!

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PCs have users, Macs have fanatics.

I think the more options that you give the better. So if you want to make add-on systems, make large add-ons and smaller add-ons. Perhaps it would be a good idea, too, to make the different maps compatible between each other so that people could 'build' their galaxy from your maps. I don't know how exactly that could be done, but I'm sure you could figure it out! I think its a cool idea.

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I quite like this idea, my inability to create good maps has stopped my plug making in its tracks.

For things like Nova universe expansion, you could make new systems for certain areas, like "Auroran Large Expansion" and "Auroran Small Expansion", and include the small group in the larger. Also, if you made some for several diffferent areas (Polaran, Rebel, Auroran, Vellos, etc) be sure to use different resources for the systems in each group, so if someone wanted to expand Rebel and Vellos space, they could just combine those two groups of syst resources and not even need to worry about getting conflicting resources.

MickyBIs

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I think its a great idea. However, as I have found creating maps to be mind-numbingly boring, I fear you may be doomed to failure. Also, naming systems has been the most difficult part of the process for me- there are only so many objects and posters in my room that I can rape for names. Having a pre-made universe would have been a great use for my Robotech TC, especially since the source material only mentions about 8-9 systems, and you really need a few more to keep a TC interesting.

So good luck, and if I ever finish this project and start a new one, I'll come looking for you.

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~Charlie
"Even the Buddha
despaired of saving
women" ~Takuan

Man, I need to fix my sig...

I forgot to say, if you are serious about creating maps, dig up a copy of NovaBurst by ThorPrime. (url="http://"http://snow.prohosting.com/thorprim/")http://snow.prohosting.com/thorprim/(/url) is his current website. I have had bad luck with the OSX version, I recommend the OS9 version.

If you're interested in real star data, (url="http://"http://darkmatters.lpk-computers.co.uk/dstars.htm")this site(/url) has a downloadable database of all stars known to be within 150 light years of Earth as of 1998. It's in Excel format, but you can use MacLink to convert it to whatever database/spreadsheet program you need it in.

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If you need somewhere to host it...
Check my Sig.

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Quote

Originally posted by UncleTwitchy:
**If you're interested in real star data, this site has a downloadable database of all stars known to be within 150 light years of Earth as of 1998. It's in Excel format, but you can use MacLink to convert it to whatever database/spreadsheet program you need it in.

**

There's also (url="http://"http://www.solstation.com/")http://www.solstation.com/(/url) which is pretty neat (a Java applet with a 3D map of real stars).

Actually, I was thinking about having maps as one of the things in my Scrapyard idea, as maps are just another fragment of plug-ins. I actually have a map myself that came from my own vaporware plug-in project; it's a pretty nice map, and maybe other people would have a use for it (what it is is a spiral galaxy with three arms...now a real spiral galaxy has more than three, but this has three).

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Mike Lee (Firebird)
Visit Cymltaneous Solutions: (url="http://"http://cs.paching.com/")http://cs.paching.com/(/url)
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I'm glad that people seem to think this is a good idea. Thanks for the link UncleTwitchy, I was looking for something exactly like that.

I'll get started on the maps today. I'll build one based on our galaxy (I'm still not 100% sure of how I'll map 3 dimentional coordinates to 2 dimentions, but I'm sure I'll work something out), and for starters just a couple based on the Nova universe.

I'll let everyone know how I go.

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PCs have users, Macs have fanatics.

Well, I've finished the first map. I convereted the universe from EV Classic just to test some things, but I figured I'd make it available. So it's done. I'll do one for EV:O soon too.

There are a couple of issues with the maps:

1. No Planets. If you die/quit and there isn't a planet to revert back to, Nova dies when you try to load that pilot file. So for all the TC maps I do I'm going to have to include a planet in the first system. By default I'll just call this Earth. Really only an issue with TC maps.

2. Starting Position. Since a starting pilot in Nova can appear in 4 different systems, I'm going to include a Char to ensure a new pilot appears in the first system (the one with the planet - kill 2 birds with 1 stone)

3. Existing Systems. Again, this is only an issue with TC maps. Any TC map will need to be padded out with blank, unconnected systems so that Nova's default systems won't show up, causing all sorts of fun. I could just get around this by replacing the Data Files in total, but I'm not doing that just for a map.

4. Captain Hector. Since the problem with Captain Hector in 1.0.2 seems to be cause if you have unconnected systems, this is a problem with all the TC maps. However, since he only appears once (until he either kills you or you escape), it's not that much of a drama. Unless you're playing strict play of course...

Anyway. So now all I need to do is make a webpage and get it hosted somewhere. But I'll worry about that next weekend. If anyone wants a copy of the EV Classic map before the Map Yards (really needs a better name) goes live, please email me.

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PCs have users, Macs have fanatics.

Well, I've got a website now (if you can call it that). My HTML is a bit rusty, and I was very tired last night, so it is quite poo. I've got the day off tomorrow, so it will improve. I'll post the first map tonight when I get home from work (around 12:30-1am ASW time).

In case you don't want to look at my signiture, the address is (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/newkongindustries")http://www.geocities...wkongindustries(/url)

Oh, and I came up with a name. The Galatic Libraries.

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/newkongindustries/")New Kong Industries (/url)

(This message has been edited by simon (edited 11-18-2002).)

The first map is up by the way.

I wonder how many posts I can get in a row...

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/newkongindustries/")New Kong Industries (/url)

Two. HAH!

Yea, the map yards idea is a pretty cool idea... why not go all out and make nebulae?

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"And that, my liege, is how we now know the earth to be banana shaped."

Quote

Originally posted by Mantaray:
**Two. HAH!;)

Yea, the map yards idea is a pretty cool idea... why not go all out and make nebulae?

**

Well, nebulae might fit better under the Planet Yard idea...after all, they're graphics, not resources like maps.

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Mike Lee (Firebird)
Visit Cymltaneous Solutions: (url="http://"http://cs.paching.com/")http://cs.paching.com/(/url)
(hosted by (url="http://"http://www.evula.org")evula.org(/url))

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after all, they're graphics, not resources like maps

Yeah, and graphics are really my strong point. If someone else wants to draw some, I'd be happy to include them though...

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Two. HAH!

Actually, it was four. HAH!

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/newkongindustries/")New Kong Industries (/url)

Too bad about Systematic... That would have done exactly what you are trying to do. But it is a good resource for seeing how other people set up their universes. Are you planning on putting up a preview for each system you put up?

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(being remade better than ever!)

Yeah, I'll post a screenshot of each map. It's just a question when I get time to do so...

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/newkongindustries/")New Kong Industries (/url)