Hi. I am starting a new TC plugin called Oblivion. This plugin is based on the movie Titan A.E. It will loosely follow the story of the movie, with many additions and changes to make it fun to play, as well as probably continuing after the point where the movie ends. Currently, there are 2 of us on the dev team, dougy_n and I. If anybody is interested in possibly joining the dev team, send an email to (url="http://"mailto:kevin@sb.org")mailto:kevin@sb.org(/url)kevin@sb.org
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Originally posted by Aranor:
**primarily in the area of graphics**
Hopefully, not too many people will care all that much. I sure as hell won't.
Graphics are not what makes a plug-in. it's the storyline. I've never played Frozen Heart, but from what I hear, its graphics were merely modified EVC graphics (can anyone confirm or deny this?). Did that stop people from praising it as one of the (if not THE) best TCs out there? No.
My point is that if you can't do graphics well, it doesn't matter. Modify stock graphics from any of the 3 games. Or come up with reasons for simple ones (e.g. in my current project, two hostile governments use cubes and spheres because the paint job and such are unnecessary wastes of time. This is even integrated into the mission storyline, and will probably also be integrated into the info dëscs).
Whew. Glad I could get all that off my chest. I even announced my MS
(slightly sarcastic) And don't anyone dare accuse me of stealing Martin's theory...
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The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug."
(Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?) -
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Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
**(Useful Information)**
Building on from what orcaloverbri9 said, I have another suggestion:
Get most of the coding out of the way first, but use the standard Nova graphics as placeholders for your ships to start off with. Once most of it (except graphics) is out of the way and finished, you will have convinced people that it won't become vapourware, and If the plug-ins good enough, Im sure someone will then be willing to do the graphics for it.
If that fails, Pick yourself up a free copy of Strata, and set aside some free time. It doesen't really take that long to learn how to produce decent quality graphics.
Good luck with the plug.
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orcaloverbri9, Important notice: Frozen Heart's graphics were original, all of them. What was more or less a copy of EVC was the ship stats, not ship graphics.
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(url="http://"http://ulrik.no-ip.org")ulrik.no-ip.org(/url)
I hope that a future EV Nova will hold the gövt-switch set expression, working like Wxxxyyy: hereby treat and let behave what belongs to gövt xxx as if it belonged to gövt yyy. This is the small tool we lack to build a believable scenario without unrelaistic amounts of resources and work. -
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Originally posted by TheRedeemer:
**Building on from what orcaloverbri9 said, I have another suggestion:Get most of the coding out of the way first, but use the standard Nova graphics as placeholders for your ships to start off with. Once most of it (except graphics) is out of the way and finished, you will have convinced people that it won't become vapourware, and If the plug-ins good enough, Im sure someone will then be willing to do the graphics for it.
If that fails, Pick yourself up a free copy of Strata, and set aside some free time. It doesen't really take that long to learn how to produce decent quality graphics.
Good luck with the plug.**
Thanks. I do plan to get coding done in bulk at first, as other people have suggested. However, my point was that I have absolutely zero graphics skills, so that while we could use people for most parts of the plugin (hey, do I want to be the only person working on the programming?), graphics was the key area that we were lacking in.
I will remark at this point that 2 more people have joined the team, so this posting did some good
When more information is available about the plugin, I will make it available. Until then, if you have any questions or comments (or want to help out), feel free to visit the (url="http://"http://forums.tildesoft.com")forums(/url).
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Kevin Ballard
(url="http://"mailto:kevin@sb.org")mailto:kevin@sb.org(/url)kevin@sb.org -
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Originally posted by Engla:
**orcaloverbri9, Important notice: Frozen Heart's graphics were original, all of them. What was more or less a copy of EVC was the ship stats, not ship graphics.**
Oh. Whoops.
Like i said, I've never played it...------------------
The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug."
(Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?) -
Because I can't offer assistance, all I'll say is good luck!
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(url="http://"http://zombat.roosteredge.com/")Zombat(/url): tastes like (url="http://"http://www.lightwave3d.com")lightwave(/url) -
I've never seen Titan AE. Was it a good film? I remember wanting to see it when it first came out, but I never got around to watching it.
But If anyone ever wants to make a Treasure Planet TC, I would be delighted to help.
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Originally posted by Luck:
**Akima: You can't call a planet "Bob."
Cale: So now you're the boss. You're the King of Bob.
Akima: Can't we just call it "Earth"?
Cale: No one said you have to live on Bob.
Akima: I'm never calling it Bob.Classic.
**
Yes, that was quite a good scene
The movie was a very good movie. I recommend watching it.
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Kevin Ballard
(url="http://"mailto:kevin@sb.org")mailto:kevin@sb.org(/url)kevin@sb.org -
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Originally posted by Aranor:
**(hey, do I want to be the only person working on the programming?
**Yes. Yes, you do. Because a) that way you know it will get done and
that way you know it will get done the way you want it to get done.------------------
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It is better to feed the goat than it is today. -
Interesting Idea.
Even if you couldn't give a rat's ear about the TC, the forums there have more features then the ASW ones do. Of course, ASW has about a million times more members, but Oh, well.
Check the sig
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T the Omnipotent went where no mortal had gone before. Now he comes back to make sure none do again.
(url="http://"http://forums.tildesoft.com/")Oblivion:(/url) An upcoming TC for EV: Nova
Visit (url="http://"http://www.EVula.com")EVula's Lair(/url) for a wealth of knowledge. -
Mildly curious: why are you calling it Oblivion instead of Titan A.E.?
Or EV: After Earth. Or something like that.
Anyway, good luck. I liked the movie. A little ripped off, but it was a good ripoff with good acting.
Graphics from Nova should be fine. Humans use Auroran/Federation. Drej use Vell-Os. Wakeangels can be wraiths. I recommend not changing the graphics until you've actually finished everything else. Then, you can bother with them if you feel like it, or not. (Maybe change the ship color via governments, if anything)
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Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
Graphics are not what makes a plug-in. it's the storyline. I've never played Frozen Heart, but from what I hear, its graphics were merely modified EVC graphics (can anyone confirm or deny this?). Did that stop people from praising it as one of the (if not THE) best TCs out there? No.No, they were all originals, including all the landing picts, all the planet picts, and all the outfit picts. However, most of the standard EV ships made it into the game with new graphics, names and descs but largely the same capabilities, and the initial layout of the systems was based around EVs, although the release version was substantially modified.
The reason for this is because I actually started work on Frozen Heart the plugin as a private development project to help me sort out my novels I obviously couldn't have EV named ships popping up, but someone else doing the work in terms of a balanced universe was helpful. As things went on, and FH became a game rather than just an environment, most the systems migrated or changed names, and new ships were introduced for the FH storyline - particularly the Tachyonic Fighter, the Hunter Killer, the Rim Prospecter, the Gun Platform, and a number of stellar hazards.
I was intending to release FH for EV, but EVO came out just as I was finishing beta, and it seemed foolish to release under the old engine. Unfortunately, the EVO scenario didn't fit my conception at all. Chances are that I would never have written FH the game if Ambrosia had started with EVO or Nova because neither of them really mesh with my conception in the way that EV did. That was the point at which I decided to remake absolutely everything, down to the strings governing combat ratings. But by that time I knew I had a story which was exciting and gameplay that was good.
However, you are right - storyline is more important than graphics. Although, to really get the community on your side, you need to introduce some incredibly frustrating missions and a fair few twists on the game engine. For the record, FH introduced stellar hazards, planets with more than one port (and this really confused people in the beginning), ships that you could land on and do missions on, outfits that could actually damage you, disease, gravity, branching - joining plotlines, QuickTime movies (not a big success), and incidental music.
As well as the other typicals, it included original intro music (and rather more exciting than most), and inhabited planet scenes all the landing pics in EV and almost all in EVO were of uninhabited planets.
However, don't believe that any of this will make you popular I was the most unpopular guy on the board for at least six months and the constant target of all the spammers.
One other thing I didn't utter a word about FH on the boards until it was released. Sometimes silence is, well, golden.
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M A R T I N T U R N E R
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url) -
Quote
Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**FH introduced stellar hazards, planets with more than one port (and this really confused people in the beginning), ships that you could land on and do missions on, outfits that could actually damage you, disease, gravity, branching - joining plotlines, QuickTime movies (not a big success), and incidental music.
**Yes. BOW BOW to your mightiness. I've always considered multiple ports shear genius.
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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne