I was thinking about the topic about paper planning, which is interesting if you are starting from scratch.

My situation is a bit different as I am trying to do things with a relatively large plugin which I wrote several years ago, and which I ported to EVN last year (but didn't release). I've now ported the second part of it.

Unfortunately, back in the day I used all kinds of work arounds in both plugins to compensate for the fairly rudimentary EV and EVO mission bits. EVN Mission Viewer (see other posts) has helped a tonne, but I'm left with other questions like: which worlds have got custom graphics? which worlds does the player visit most often? Which worlds have to be different for the two plugins? Which ships get used the most in missions, which get used the least?

I've been playing around with ConText and ResStore as a way of finding out what I did - including discovering resources which I created but which never got used or became available.

Obviously harnassing the power of global searches, data sorts and stuff like that makes it easier.

My question is: what have other people been using ConText and ResStore for? Any tips?

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M A R T I N • T U R N E R
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(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)

I've been using ConText recently in the data files to search whether a feature is used or not in the default Nova scenario, to tell where a feature is used (for an example), or that it is unused, in my annoted templates. Also, to determine which Contrib/Req bits are in use (with heavy help from AppleWorks). Other than that, not yet for plug deving (so no ResStore, obviously).

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The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

ConText is wonderful for data-checking when used in conjunction with Excel's "List" features.

I also found it useful when I needed to quickly create about 100 identical pers-es and then introduce simple patterns of variation among them. That project bogged down when I started trying to use the spreadsheet to customize the ship type and weapon load for each pers, though -- I spent too much time looking up weap codes and default ship armaments. Here's what I should have done at that point:

1. Run ResStore and switch to a different plug-editing program.
2. Paste all the Nova and plug weaps and ships into my pers plug for easy reference.
3. Customize the pers-es.
4. Run ConText again and use Excel to do data-checking and to apply more patterned changes (e.g. govts).
5. Delete the weaps and ships.

It seems so obvious now. At the time, I was too smitten with my newfound discovry of ConText's power to see when using it wasn't efficient.

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(url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~drtrowel/")Dr. Trowel's E.S.W.P.(/url) -- Cold Fusion graphics for EVN Override, EVN:O bug fixes, 'n more.
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I do 90% of my work on the Sephil Saga outfits using Context/Restore right now- it's a great method for balancing related outfits (costs, powers, availabilities, etc), especially as I tend to use a lot of formulas. I also do most of my Syst-work there.

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