In need of advice and possible other things in the future

So I was wonderin, what is a good amount of cargo that isn't to high. The new gov't that you work for is creating a new space station in their system. Your job in a few missions is to bring in some supplies. But I want this string to be playable on a fairly large set of ships. So asking the player to bring in 120 tons of equipment wont do very well for a lot of ships would you say 30 tons would be a good max? Or maybe 20?

Also what mission bits are used in the default Nova scenario? This will be my biggest plug to date and Possibly released to the public if I finish it. Help IS welcome! Ship and weapon art would also be apriceated byt I havent figgured all the ships and new weapons the company will develop.

'Nother also, Is it possible for a planet/station to get named after the player?

Thanks for any and all help in advance!

~WonderBoy~

(Edit): I'm probably letting the general public know of this way to early.

This post has been edited by WonderBoy : 07 June 2006 - 03:22 PM

Why not break up the cargo deliveries into several smaller missions scattered throughout the campaign string? That seems more plausible to me than one large run.

Also, check the "Guides" section off of the main EVN page. There is a ton of helpful resources in there for plug-in making that have proved invaluable to me in my own plug-in endeavors. Check out Nova Reference Plus and the EVN Bits Bible.

Ugh.. I know there is a list of used mission bits somewhere... I can't find it. Wait, I have it on my HD, it's called Bit Usage Analysis. It or something like it is probably somewhere on the addons page, under utilities or guides. My connection is being wierd though, so I can't check correctly.

Thanks guys. I will do that. I will also say something I shuld have said on the first post: I am running a windows machine I do have a Mac but is is considerably slower and thus will only be used for things that there is no equivelent for windows.

@wazoo-of-the-spacechicken-mallet, on Jun 7 2006, 04:28 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Also, check the "Guides" section off of the main EVN page. There is a ton of helpful resources in there for plug-in making that have proved invaluable to me in my own plug-in endeavors. Check out Nova Reference Plus and the EVN Bits Bible.

Where would this stuff be found? and I decided on a few ways of getting the cargo to the destination....Escort missions.

(Edit): Whoops diden't mean to double post. Sorry.

This post has been edited by WonderBoy : 07 June 2006 - 03:55 PM

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 01:55 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Where would this stuff be found? and I decided on a few ways of getting the cargo to the destination....Escort missions.

Just go to the plugins page and view only the ultilities and sort em by name. Then any that we list or something u think of can be easily found...usually.
In my opinion, i would make the player carry like maybe 10 tons of cargo on the first few missions, then increase the cargo mass maybe by like 5-10 tons, then after that make the player escort supply trains. So its sort of like a trust thing, the gov't is seeing how much they can trust this guy by giving him more increasingly important missions.

@chronodrago, on Jun 7 2006, 05:39 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Just go to the plugins page and view only the ultilities and sort em by name. Then any that we list or something u think of can be easily found...usually.

I did but I cant find "guides" on the main Nova page. I also sorted and every thing. I will look again, however.

@chronodrago, on Jun 7 2006, 05:39 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

In my opinion, i would make the player carry like maybe 10 tons of cargo on the first few missions, then increase the cargo mass maybe by like 5-10 tons, then after that make the player escort supply trains. So its sort of like a trust thing, the gov't is seeing how much they can trust this guy by giving him more increasingly important missions.

I did do something of the sort(almost exactaly what you said).

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 02:45 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

I did but I cant find "guides" on the main Nova page. I also sorted and every thing. I will look again, however.

Its not on the Nova main page, on the main page, click the button labled add-on files, and then that will lead u to a new broswer showing 4 columns at the top of the page, in this order, newest plugins - newest guides - newest utilities - newest cheats. Under each column, it says view more. Click that and u should be able to find what ure loking for.

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 02:45 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

I did do something of the sort(almost exactaly what you said).

Lol, amazing how we think so alike. :laugh:

@chronodrago, on Jun 7 2006, 06:02 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Its not on the Nova main page, on the main page, click the button labled add-on files, and then that will lead u to a new broswer showing 4 columns at the top of the page, in this order, newest plugins - newest guides - newest utilities - newest cheats. Under each column, it says view more. Click that and u should be able to find what ure loking for.

Found it!

@chronodrago, on Jun 7 2006, 06:02 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Lol, amazing how we think so alike. :laugh:

Amazing nothing. I have picked up my cell-phone to call my friend and as soon as I fliped it open it was ringing. The call was from him. But yeah we would make a good plug development team 'cause we would know what we want with out having to describe it in great detail.

But back to topic, sorta. This topic will soon die, I have run out of questions for the moment.

Wait, scratch that. At what point(approxamate number of pixels) does the players ship enter the system? Before it slows down from its jump that is.

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 03:13 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Found it!

Good!

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 03:13 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Amazing nothing. I have picked up my cell-phone to call my friend and as soon as I fliped it open it was ringing. The call was from him. But yeah we would make a good plug development team 'cause we would know what we want with out having to describe it in great detail.

Maybe, i like making ships and weaps and outfits and the like, anything that uses major pyrotechnic effects. But yeah, we do understand what were thinking pretty well for a just talking on a web board. :laugh:

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 03:13 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

At what point(approxamate number of pixels) does the players ship enter the system? Before it slows down from its jump that is.

I think its in the nova bible, let me check(i might overlok it, so check anyways)...well this is what i have realized in game. When u dont have any outfits on, and u have a jump route. When u jump it takes u to the first system on ure route, and if u dont hit the jump button again within about a second, your too close to the system. So assuming that, u really just need to find out how the boundry between the planets space and the open space from which u can jump. Take muhari for instance( i think thats the name, its where most of the polaris missions are taking place) the space station to the west of the 2 other planets/station. U can take off from there into hyperspace, i guess that station is outside the planet boundry area. So just find the distance between those 2 stations and then add the amount of pixels u travel@ 1 second and then that shoudl be ure answer. Thats probably easier said than done, but i think thats how u can find how far in. If anyone else knows a better way, follow that one. :laugh:

As for amount of cargo, it depends on which ships you want to be able to fly the mission. If you want any ship to be able, only make it 1 ton of cargo. Medium ships, 5-10. Light freighters (such as starbridges) 10-15. Cargo ships, 30-40.

You say a Starbridge is a light freighter? I always considered it more of a medium ship. What is a medium ship by your definition? Valk?

I forgot about the medium ship category. Put it this way:

Vipers and the like: 1 ton
(Mod) Starbridge, Valks, etc - 5 tons
Destroyers, Carriers, etc (captial ships) - 20 tons
Heavy freighters (terrapins, enterprise, cambrian, levithian, etc) - 50 tons.

Hmm... it is completely impossible to make the jump distance not from the center of the system but from each spob, correct?

Uh... and it's 1000 pixels from the center of the system to the jump point unless you have an outfit that modifies that.

i always wondered what the 1000 meant, well theres ure answer and mine wonderboy, and yes it is possible to jump form a spob, there are a few in polaran space. later guys for 3 weeks!

No, no, no. I want the distance that you enter the system at the first frame. Before you slow down or even begin to slow to normal ship speed. Would it be something like 1500 pixels from the system center?

(Edit): Oops. Wrong code.

This post has been edited by WonderBoy : 07 June 2006 - 08:20 PM

I'm not sure where you jump in, however, 1000 pixels is the jump out point. I imagine that either you jump in at 1000 pixels and have a small time window in which you can begin another jump or you come in a few pixels beyond 1000.

Edit: Check the system limits thread, the question is answered there.

This post has been edited by Crusader Alpha : 07 June 2006 - 11:20 PM

For cargo, the standard used in Nova (and also in ARPIA2 :p) is 10 to 20 tons. This does mean that fighters are usually excluded from these storylines, but more often than not, a fighter isn't enough to complete a storyline.

Of course, if you have many different cargo missions, you can make them specific to the amount of cargo space available. Then you can have bulk missions, with somewhere around 80 tons (or more), you can have some around 40, and some around 20.

Usually, if it's just one ton, it isn't worth transporting for a cargo mission. But a courier job, that's another story

This post has been edited by Pace : 08 June 2006 - 12:17 AM

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 01:00 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

Also what mission bits are used in the default Nova scenario?

Used bits in Nova 1.0.9:
0-90, 96, 123-149, 152-170, 175, 178-237, 250, 275-327, 330-335, 340-341, 347-377, 415,
417, 422-446, 450, 467, 500, 502-503, 509-513, 515-519, 600-613, 650-653, 666-667, 677, 681,
749-753, 800-819, 838, 850-852, 995,

1000, 1100, 1300-1309, 1500-1502, 3000-3007, 3009, 3015, 3025, 3050, 3721, 3789,
4000, 4322, 4444, 5757-5765, 5770, 5999-6034, 6100-6106, 6137, 6200-6206, 6300-6302,
6666, 6723-6724, 7777-7788, 7878-7880, 8338-8340, 8444, 8888-8911, 9011-9015, 9111,
9200-9208, 9215-9216, 9333-9334, 9500-9501, 9666, 9812, 9995, 9998-9999

Also, on the add-ons page (probably in the Utilities or Guides sections), there is a file called the "Nova Bits Bible", which lists the purpose of most of the bits used in Nova as of 1.0.6.

@wonderboy, on Jun 7 2006, 01:00 PM, said in I'm Working on a new side string:

'Nother also, Is it possible for a planet/station to get named after the player?

Nope. Sorry.

Edwards

The hyperjump barrier (how far away you need to be before you can jump) is measured from the center of the system. That is why you can jump straight off of merrol without moving.

Edit: its also useful to have only 1 ton of cargo if its a "Fails if scanned" mission.

This post has been edited by LiAnNaSu : 08 June 2006 - 03:43 PM