I have noticed much technology in the nova universe which is undeveloped. There are no light cannon turrents (or heavy or medium cannons for that matter) and despite the light cannon being designed for the lightning I think it is a great weapon and should have some more variants. I have heard of a plug which makes lightning bays. That is definitally cool. The thunderhead lance is a great weapon. But why isn't there a heavier version for non fighter based ships if that kind of technology is availible? Could there be other technolgies that seem a little bit underused that have great potential. I think it would add some great flavor to the game to expand on allready availible technologies and bring about new pers. and outfits in a nice plug with no new missions it just rearranges built in outfits on ships and pers. after adding some new outfits to the game based on technologies that are allready in existence.

I think the game needs:
Variant T-head Lances
Additional deveopment of the cannon weapon as a blaster alternative
biorelay variants like a light and heavy version or something
More point defense weapons
More fighter bays for ships that make good fighters
More alernate fighter equips for player bays
various addiotional models of common outfits
(Such as additional brands of solar panels, batteries, and jammers)

I see a need for this because oftentimes other models are implied but on the "most popuar" exist within the game. There is potential for better and worse or just differently specialized outfits based on the same technologies or made by other companies or organizations than the ones currently availible are. Can anyone make a plugin like this?

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The mercurywyrm loves
Thunderhead Lances on
Starbridges! Sigma
Upgrades ROCK!

Competing products could be interesting. They'd each have their strong and weak points. When I first came across Nova I wondered if there was an actual Glimmer Radar missle system rather than just the "Glimmer knock-off" but alas...

There your ideas so you can do what you want but personally I feel that med/heavy variants of beam weapons is unrealistic. For the Thunderhead Lance, it's the strongest beam weapon in Federation technology. If they could make a more powerful version I'm quite sure that the original's range wouldn't be so short. As for a heavier versions of the Bio-relays... what do you think the CPLs are?

And what other fighters are you thinking of? The Lightning's a possibility or I suppose perhaps the Fed Gunboat but that's about it. Everything else is pretty heavy in terms of "fighters." It's my understanding that fighters are those ships with a crew of one only - baring the Kestrel of course

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((Ż'ˇ.¸(Ż'ˇ.¸Ť•-KAME-•ť¸.ˇ'´Ż)¸.ˇ'´Ż))
I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.
(url="http://"http://www.0three0.net/l-1551/")L 1551(/url) - The official site of RONIN and The Way and the ten thousand things

You could concievably do it, but it would be short on graphics (you'd have to get the original models, and then modify them. It's too tricky to recreate them (at least for me)). I could do it, but I couldn't really do any graphics...(#$%^ 56k modem...school...etc.) E-mail me if you're interested in my help.

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As far as competing outfits goes, I don't know about Nova, but there are tons of them in SS.

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

As far as haveing heavier and lighter beam weapons go, scaling lasers is not easy. As a matter of fact, it is darn near impossible. You change the laser so much in the process that it might as well be a completely different weapon.

As far as the light cannon, it's a special purpose technology. It is specifically designed for fighters in a very specific situation. IMO it should barely even be on the market at all, except in "pirate" systems.

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The Fed fighers are pretty lame, IMO. The pirate vipers are marginally better, and the (pirate) thunderheads arent bad. We do need Lightning bays (theywill be part of an upcoming expanded outfits and ships plug i will be putting out).
IMO, the THead lance is too powerful as it is. We certainly dont need a more powerful version. Making better or different missiles fired from the same launcher isnt too hard with a little NCB hacking.
I think there should be a wider variety of weapons. A medium and heavy cannon would be nice... and the Fed's need SOMETHING to compete with auroran rail guns (I think a missile or rocket would be most appropriate considering the patterns of the Feds)
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Kame:
**baring the Kestrel of course;)

**

On the contrary, the Kestrel was, indeed, a warship. How do you explain a fighter carrying two fighters within it?

Anyway, my definition has always basically been: a small, fast ship meant for combat that has plenty of weapon space but little cargo space, but that can only carry a limited amount of weapons.

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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?)

Quote

Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
**On the contrary, the Kestrel was, indeed, a warship. How do you explain a fighter carrying two fighters within it?

Anyway, my definition has always basically been: a small, fast ship meant for combat that has plenty of weapon space but little cargo space, but that can only carry a limited amount of weapons.

**

I think Kame meant that ships with a crew of one, baring the Kestrel - which also has a crew of 1 , are fighters.

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Warcraft Quote Of The Moment (and I decide what a moment is):
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Thanks for all that advice. I will drop the variant beams. I just wish I could come up with some interesting polaris variants. Possibly syncronizers for the mantas which change the manta into a special variant that is better at one thing but worse in another. When I said more fighter bays I meant bays that support some of the varian fighters you find on some pers ships. Fighter bays for fighters with alternate outfits and such.(Sigma Coustomed Fighters are a no no however). I also think there should be that Glimmer system rather than the glimmer knock offs, part of what inspired me. Does anyone know of a way to make plugs in Mac OS 10? I made some plugs for myself in override but I had an older computer back then and used a plug creating app and not Rez Edit. I tried to create a plug for nova with Nova Tools but it wouldn't work. Dose anyone know of an easyier way?

Does anyone know of a good way to make ship graphics? I have Bryce but don't think it is cut out for that. I don't have much access to money so it would have to be something cheap or free. It would also have to work in OS X or if it has to be Classic. Otherwize I am limited to editing the premade graphics in Photoshop.

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The mercurywyrm loves
Thunderhead Lances on
Starbridges! Sigma
Upgrades ROCK!

Quote

Originally posted by mercurywyrm:
Does anyone know of a way to make plugs in Mac OS 10? I made some plugs for myself in override but I had an older computer back then and used a plug creating app and not Rez Edit. I tried to create a plug for nova with Nova Tools but it wouldn't work. Dose anyone know of an easyier way?

Does anyone know of a good way to make ship graphics? I have Bryce but don't think it is cut out for that. I don't have much access to money so it would have to be something cheap or free. It would also have to work in OS X or if it has to be Classic. Otherwize I am limited to editing the premade graphics in Photoshop.

(/B)

When I make my plugins in Resedit, I run Classic in OSX. My computer is fast enough that I can do some Classic graphics programs without having to restart into classic. As for graphics programs, I generally use Strata3D for my sprite making, and Bryce for scenes such as shipyard pics. I do do some of my own graphics work, but the trouble with my software is that the backrounds to most outfits have B&W; drawings of the rest of the ship the weapon is attached to, so I cannot very well edit that or duplicate it. (I don’t have photoshop)
I highly recomend that you learn to use Nova Tools with Resedit also.

I recomend getting Strata3D for any sprite making that you are going to do, unless you are willing to to through hours and hours of pain trying to work it out in bryce. Bryce is good at making ship designs, so you might want to design the ship in Bryce, export it piece by piece as a DXF, and import it into Strata and texture it, then render it. Strata is not nearly as fancy as Bryce, but it does feature a handy movie progression bar that allows you to edit individual sections at different stages, or the whole thing together. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, you’ll figure it out quickly enough once you actually see the program (I’m assuming you haven’t)

I hope this helps.

~Dimpfinator

Quote

Originally posted by Kame:
**Everything else is pretty heavy in terms of "fighters." It's my understanding that fighters are those ships with a crew of one only - baring the Kestrel of course;)
**

Lightnings have a crew of 2. Presumably pilot and a gunner/targeting/etc person. Personally, I think the crews of the Starbridge and Valk are rather low, considering the weapon loadout they can have and the complexity of opperation that naturally accompanies such a setup. I think the Starbridge should have a crew of 3-4, and the Valk 5-6 (and both of them should be a bit slower, or real fighters should be faster. I should not be able to outrun fed vipers in a ship 5 times thier mass and decked out in railguns and heavy missile launchers without an afterburner at the very least. You can easilly do this with no Afterburner in a ModSB.
-Az

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Nevermind that fighters would also be 100th the size of a capital ship like the IDA frigate (or less), like games such as Freespace 2. Of course, this would make fighters very hard to hit, esp for the computer, and too easy to die in (1 hit, 1 kill) kind of thing for capital ships, making it prohibitive to fly fighters (or buy them for bays without making them super inexpenisive--er...even less expensive than they are now.)Ah, well...so Nova isn't perfect...I stand by my energy draining gun idea though. One thing that I'm not sure about though is if the computer can ever run out of fuel.

~Dimpfinator

What kind of Kestrel are we talking about here? I assumed you meant the EVC Kestrel. Am I wrong?

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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?)

Quote

Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
**What kind of Kestrel are we talking about here? I assumed you meant the EVC Kestrel. Am I wrong?

**

How about the EVN Kestrel (378)? Havnt you ever finished a storyline or seen Matt Burch flying around in the game?
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Dimpfinator:
...fighters would also be 100th the size of a capital ship like the IDA frigate this would make fighters very hard to hit
~Dimpfinator

yeah,itsfrustrating to thinkout the expression of perfectcontinuity in the EVN universe. not that EVN isn't perfect or continuousinitsown right. its too bad, that wholereality thing.it warsi hear people die pretty easy too. like in one shot. but the games are fun.

interesting about the b/w drawings.you are saying that this isyour method for producing outfit graphics,right? i would really like to seewhat the effectlookslike.

did you get my email???

(i don't use these very often)

(really)

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Dosn't anyone know of a good OS X plugin maker where I don't have to start into classic. My computer is only 350 Mghz. I was also wondering about the engine and tilt graphics for ships. It is so much. Are there any programs that offer an easier way to get Bryce or something to make those? Aren't there any good Mac OS X freeware 3D apps? Classic 3D apps? Inspire 3D tutorials might work too. My dad got me that program and I can't figure it out.

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The mercurywyrm loves
Thunderhead Lances on
Starbridges! Sigma
Upgrades ROCK!

Quote

Originally posted by acceleratemvmnt:
**yeah,itsfrustrating to thinkout the expression of perfectcontinuity in the EVN universe. not that EVN isn't perfect or continuousinitsown right. its too bad, that wholereality thing.it warsi hear people die pretty easy too. like in one shot. but the games are fun.

interesting about the b/w drawings.you are saying that this isyour method for producing outfit graphics,right? i would really like to seewhat the effectlookslike.

did you get my email???

(i don't use these very often)

(really)
**

I did get your e-mail, and I replied to it too. You should have gotten it...whatever.

The b&w; drawings I was talking about are part of the picture in the outfitters, rendered behind the main graphic, which is color. Try looking at the IR Missile picture. there are 2 other b&w; missiles in the backround. Something like that would be extremely hard to reproduce. ATMOS probably used Photoshop (which I don't have) to create this effect.

Oh, mercurywyrm, I have started toying with the plugin, and I have created a few outfits and weapons & such...It shows promise. Anyways, about the graphics programs, I believe that there are some (old) free versions of Strata 3D floating around. Mechanisto is also an option, although a rather lousy one (it is classic freeware though).
All my graphics programs are in classic, but considering that this plugin won't be too heavy on graphics, you shouldn't really need one. Especially with a 350 mhz computer. (actually, I used to do graphics work on my 133mhz computer with Strata 3D. The downside was that I would have to start the rendering when I went to bed, and it would finish sometime during the night. It generally took about 4.5 hours to render a 80x80 sprite with 108 frames without any special lighting effects or reflective surfaces.) All this to say: get someone else to do any graphics. It would simply take too long to do them with a 350 mhz computer, and not having any real experience with graphic making before. The plug would become vaporware in about a week.

~Dimpfinator

If you don't have photoshop I have a reccomendation. I got the Adobe Web Developer's package at student prices for my mac. The price is a ton better and so I have the newest versions of Photoshop, Illistrator, GoLive, and Acrobat. Photoshop and Illistrator I allready know how to use but GoLive and Acrobat I get lost in. My dad taught me most of what little I know about graphics and is the reason I have Inspire and Bryce. However I can't make good looking ships in bryce the way I want to and I can't figure out colors, textures, or rendering in Inspire. Does anyone know of any good tutorials. The programming of my plug in I am sure I can figure out because I allready know quite a bit of C++ and have made an Overide plugin or two. But the Graphics in Nova seem beyond me. I know I have the skills I just don't know any way to learn the progams to make ship graphics with. And I seem to have plenty o' time on my hands given how much I have been playing EV Nova lately.

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The mercurywyrm loves
Thunderhead Lances on
Starbridges! Sigma
Upgrades ROCK!

I can do sprites for this sort of thing, but we have to take into consideration school & SATs. I've begun talking over e-mail with acceleratemvnmt about it, but it would be cool to have more than 2 people working on it. I have some missile sprites and such already done (from the summer when I was messing around in my spare time) that we can use also.

By the way, with Novatools by wOOtware, you don't need to know any real programming, so your C++ skills are a bonus, but a kind of useless one.
Anyways, I CAN do sprites, but not outfitter pics. It'd be simple for you to do that though.

~Dimpfinator

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