I've just moved the EV Classic converiosn into a plugin which can be run concurrently with the main Nova scenario. It links one of the NGC systems to Kontik (via the probe mission if you start in the EVN universe or auotmatically if you start in the EVC universe) and has a few EVC fleets roaming the Nova universe once the connection is created. I plan on bringing the EVC universe a bit more up to date, using more of the Nova engine features. No missions though because I'm too busy.

Now, my questions are:

1. would Ambrosia have a problem with me releasing such a plug for other people to use?
2. assuming they wouldn't, would anyone like to try it out to make sure it works? 1 man beta-testing = bad.

Thanks to ConText and ResStore, it only took a few hours to do this, followed by a bit of tweaking in ResEdit, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has already done this. I used search to check, but didn't see anything, but I never entirely trust search engines :^)

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sorry, what?

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(url="http://"http://www.infini-dmaniac.tk")Infini-d Maniac's Studios (aka curufinwe studios)(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/")Terragen(/url)
Play that funky music white boy!

What do you mena by 'what'? Which part confused you?

A while ago, a conversion was released for EV Nova whereby the original EV game could be played using the Nova engine, replacing the Nova data files. I've put the conversion into a plugin so that you can play both the Nova and Classic stroylines at the same time and use technologies from both universes. It also opens up the possability of cross-over missions if people wanted to write any and gives a better vairety in terms of the ships you can fly.

I'm asking if anyone thinks Ambrosia would have a problem with my releasing such a plug and whether anyone else here would be interested in testing it to make sure I've transferred everything properly. It's only a 2.2 MB .sit

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Just had an idea here - What would be real cool would be a Char resource that would let you choose which "universe" to start in - then you could approach the universe from two totally different angles. In any case, i think you have a really cool plug.
-Az

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Already in there :^) The standard character starts you, as normal, in the EVN universe. There are 3 other characters to chose from which all start you in Levo in the EVC universe. There's the usual shuttle start, a clipper with a bit of money and a corvette with some money and a few kills. I'm working on more updates at the moment. Fixed a few outfits that I noticed were wrong, created a few more and now I'm working on a short mission series.

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Sounds like a really cool thing. Why not include the Override universe as well?
em.

I would happily test this plug....

Sterling

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i too would happily test this plug. i don't think ambrosia would care. after all, they lets people do anything it seams to Nova. short of engine editing i think.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

Awesome... a dimensional gate! I really like this idea! It would be cool if you could include the EVO universe, but I bet there won't be enough resources to go around.

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The bake sale to raise money for the car wash has been canceled due to confusion.

I'm pretty sure there aren't enough resources of one type or another to fit in EVO as well. I'm not entirely sure it would be possible to do EVO instead of EVC even. On the plus side though, there's room for crossover missions between EVC and EVN and I've already written a short one invovling the New Cydonia/Lethe Prime conflict.

Since the plug hasn't been uploaded by Ambrosia yet, you can get the current version from (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/Classic4Nova.sit.hqx")my .Mac account(/url).

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downloading now. looks quite interesting. i've often found myself with for lots more space to fly around in. one more thing, the evc ships, these will have the origanal sprites i'm guessing.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

Yeah, all the graphics and the overwhelming majority of the data is taken straight from the Classic Conversion for Nova which in turn came straight from the original game. Lacking any 3-D modelling skills or time, there's no way I could change the graphics by myself. The most I could possibly manage would be to change the colour of them.

It should play a bit differently to the original though as the weapons have undergone changes, ship variants exist and the systems are generally busier. Lots of lovely combat going on. I'm finding myself falling in love with the Rebel Destroyer again. My first true EV love, sigh.

A word of warning though, be careful if you try to MP Classic ships using Nova ships and railguns. The combination of speed deficit and tough Classic shields could well get you killed. A Corvette on the other hand, loaded with railguns, is the ultimate Python machine. Well, A Rebel Destroyer/Cruiser might technically be better, but the corvette will look cooler doing it since its hull is colour coordinated with the railgun shots.

Anyway, I'd suggest taking a pilot with a decent combat rating and popping over to New Cydonia a few times to see if you can trigger the short mission string.

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cool, thank for the suggestion.

as for the plug-in durability so far, looking good.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

Nuts. Just noticed that the dude resource for the Lethean Blockaders has the wrong id for the ships. Gah. Looks I"ll be uploading yet another new version some time soon. I blame lack of sleep.

Just uploaded a quick patch to (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/C4NPatch.sit.hqx")here(/url). It's less than a kb and will get rolled into the next update. Plan on adding a few more things before I go to bed for the frist time ina couple of days

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i should be going to sleep in a bit too. thx for the patch.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

Maybe I was just unlucky, or maybe there is a glitch once you convert it into Windowsversion.
At least here, there are no ships. Completly empty besides planets and stations.

Anyone else has this problem?

Sterling

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Hmm, odd. I had that happen once, flying through Sol a few times. Completely deserted. Was beginning to creep me out so I just restarted the game and the problem went away.

Is the entire galaxy devoid of ships, Classic systems and Nova systems?
Have you tried a different pilot?
Have you tried restarting Nova?

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A new pilot did it. I was using another one. Now there are ships around...

Sorry for the false alarm.

Sterling

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ya, samething happened to me, and then i just made a new pilot, and all was ok.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

I know why it happened. The ships are set to only become visible when b2999 is set, which happens when you launch the Kontik probe. However this only happens with the new version of the mission included in the plug, so if you've already completed it then the bit wouldn't get set.

The reason I had it set up like that is that originally I was using the standard tech level 1-5 for Classic ships, but these are of course used by Nova as well so ships from both universes would pop up in all the shipyards. To reduce the weirdness of this, I put in the availability test so that they at least wouldn't show up until the two universes got connected.

Later, I realised that there were enough special tech fields on each spob to work around the tech level problem, so the availability test is redundant now and could be removed. I think there are a couple of other things depending on b2999 being set though, so maybe it's best to leave it to make sure that people have it set when they're playing. I could add a quick fix mission that sets the bit if you land on a Classic planet. Invisible, forced mission that auto-aborts and sets the bit if it isn't set. In fact, I'll do that now.

The next update of the plug shoudl allow you to use old pilots again without any problems.

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makes perfect sence now. thanks boyd.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.