Went Bye-bye

Well, I'm new to EV:N, but not new to the whole EV thing. I got into it a long while back after obtaining a copy from a MacAddict CD, and was hooked from then on. After purchasing a new Windows computer, I wanted to see if there were any EV ports for it, and lo and behold, I found this.

But anyways, to the topic at hand...

I've completed a few of the storylines and enjoyed them very much, and wanted to try out making my very own plugin. Well, here's the start to it, tell me what you think.. I know it's not much, but eh, just wanted to put it out there.

Here is the .rez from a while ago, it is no longer updated.

Name: Trista Company Plug-In
Designer: Crashe

Description: This will be a sub-quest where you aid the Trista Freighting Company through some hard times, eventually leading them to prosperity and growth.

So far, these are the things included:

-A new system, linked to Sol, Wolf 359, and Tichel.
-A new modified IDA Frigate, named the Trista Freighter, with an upgrade (Model
-Freighter has shields ripped off of an old Rebel Destroyer.
-More cargo space than a normal IDA, but a bit more costly.
-A little faster as well.
-Two new spobs, Trista Prime and Trista Orbiter.

UPDATE

New things included:

-Another new system, Trista Minor, off of Trista Major.
-A whole slew of new ships. Fighters, Freighters, Carriers....
-More missions expanding the Trista Storyline.
-Some Trista outfits and weapons.

UPDATE 2

The latest (soon to be included) idea for my plug-in:

Throughout the galaxy, you are sure to have noticed the many broken hypergates. Why has nobody fixed them yet? Well, that's all about to change. Through the Trista, Co. storyline, one will be able to fix broken hypergates, and extend current ones to include more destinations.

I got this idea whilst reading another thread that spawned a discussion about why the hypergates were broken. Well, the idea sprung into my head, and from my head to the computer. Once you've reached a certain point in the Trista, Co. storyline, you can purchase the resources, crew, and technology to build or expand a hypergate. This will be quite a lot of work, but it will get done as a side-project on my plug in.

Well, that's it for now, thank's for going over this. Currently it's Windows only, sorry Mac guys (unless you have a converter?)

Here are some preview pics. Of course these are very rough renders/models, and the textures are merely painted on there to give an idea of the final paint job. I'm not efficient with textures, but I'm learning. Questions and comments are welcome, as are suggestions.

This post has been edited by Crashe : 07 September 2006 - 10:47 PM

Hmm. There's not much there yet. One thing I noticed was that your ships' contribute bits need to be 0000000000000001 or you won't be able to use outfits.

Ok thanks. That's exactly what I needed.. some help from a more experienced editor. I'll do that now.

@crashe, on Aug 13 2006, 01:17 PM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

EDIT Confused... I can't make a file attachment... Help please?

Two potential problems:

1. The board software doesn't recognise the .rez extension. Solution: archive it into a .zip file.
2. The plugin is larger than 100k. Solution: Nothing can be done - host it elsewhere.

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Currently it's Windows only, sorry Mac guys (unless you have a converter?)

Conversion on the Mac is much simpler than conversion on the PC.

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1. The board software doesn't recognise the .rez extension. Solution: archive it into a .zip file.

Did that. Got the "too big error" it is in fact, larger than 100kb.. so the 1000kb board limit is not MY limit??

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2. The plugin is larger than 100k. Solution: Nothing can be done - host it elsewhere.

Did that too. Thanks.

@crashe, on Aug 13 2006, 02:54 PM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

Did that. Got the "too big error" it is in fact, larger than 100kb.. so the 1000kb board limit is not MY limit??

1000kb overall, or 100kb per post. That is to say, you can upload twenty 50k files in twenty posts (for a total of 1000kb), but you can't upload a single file that's larger than 100k.

Alright thanks.

Aight, I just downloaded it but im going to have to find another computer. But the readme looked nice. Not to long so a person will actually read it. Very nice Since when did EVNEW use quicktime?

This post has been edited by chronodrago : 13 August 2006 - 10:49 AM

@chronodrago, on Aug 14 2006, 01:47 AM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

Since when did EVNEW use quicktime?

Um, since it was made? It uses it for working with the various image resources (i.e. PICT, Rle8 and RleD).

Does anyone have some comments or suggestions that I could put in the game?

This post has been edited by Crashe : 13 August 2006 - 10:52 PM

Alright, I'm adding in a new outfit, and was wondering if this sounds reasonable.

Cost: 50,000

Reqs: 50 tons cargo space

Gives: 15 tons free mass, 100 extra shield capacity, 100 extra shield recharge, and enough fuel for 2 jumps

Sounds nice, espiceally for that price. Although i would say add maybe 5-10 more tons of free space. Becuase fuel tanks and sheilds dont take much mass altogether.

Also, i knowticed that you have the ship's color as a brownish orange. U do realize that that will put an overlay of that color on that ship. It doesnt always look to good either, if the colors clash. Is that what you were aiming to do?
And I also knowticed that the hyperlinks from Sol, Wolf 359 and Tichel to Trista arent exactly up to date. The Trista has only one hyperlink and yet 2 other systems connect to it. This won't cause any problems in the game, its just cleaner for the game and it doesn't take as long to load. The debuglog will just say assuming implicit reciprical link from Wolf 359 to Trista Prime. There will be probably about 4 of those in the debug log when you run your plugin.

This post has been edited by chronodrago : 14 August 2006 - 10:29 AM

@crashe, on Aug 13 2006, 10:52 PM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

Alright, I'm adding in a new outfit, and was wondering if this sounds reasonable.

Cost: 50,000

Reqs: 50 tons cargo space

Gives: 15 tons free mass, 100 extra shield capacity, 100 extra shield recharge, and enough fuel for 2 jumps

That seems like a lot for so little money. Something like that might cost around 2Mil if it were in Nova.

Yeah, I would make the outfit cost more as well.

The fact that you need 50 tonnes of cargo space means that the pilot would have to be a fair way through a string to buy it, and by the time you have a ship with that amount of space to spare (bearing in mind you need at least some space for missions), you should find 50,000cr to be a mere scratch on your finances.

I think anything from 500,000cr upwards would be fitting.

@pp0u20e8, on Aug 14 2006, 08:59 AM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

I think anything from 500,000cr upwards would be fitting.

I agree, but then it seems like your losing to much space, i mean look at it. Since when did energy shields and fuel weigh 35 tons? I think it would be more fair if there was 20 tons of free space added. Cuase doesnt the mass retool take like 15 tons of cargo and make it 10 tons of free space? You sort of want to keep the ratio consistant.

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Also, i knowticed that you have the ship's color as a brownish orange. U do realize that that will put an overlay of that color on that ship.

Not what I was going for and, as I hadn't made any fleets at that time, didn't notice.

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I think anything from 500,000cr upwards would be fitting.

Yea that does make sense, or I could reduce the cargo required, jack the price a bit, and lower the free mass it gives?

Let me get a more accurate outfit....

Here's the new desc::

The Trista Shipyard Tech Developement Team has discovered a very efficient new technology. Simply titled a "Trista Upgrade", at a price of 110 thousand credits, a pilot can be outfitted with 12 more tons of mass, extra shields and shield recharge, and enough fuel for 2 extra jumps. Be aware, however, as this process is irreversible. Attempts to remove this technology in experiements proved futile, not to mention permanently damaging one's ship beyone repair.

And the specs if you don't feel like reading that::

Cost: 110,000

Reqs: 25 tons cargo space

Gives: 12 tons free mass, 100 extra shield capacity, 100 extra shield recharge, and enough fuel for 2 jumps

This post has been edited by Crashe : 14 August 2006 - 01:25 PM

@chronodrago, on Aug 14 2006, 05:45 PM, said in Crashe's Mini-Plug....:

I agree, but then it seems like your losing to much space, i mean look at it. Since when did energy shields and fuel weigh 35 tons? I think it would be more fair if there was 20 tons of free space added. Cuase doesnt the mass retool take like 15 tons of cargo and make it 10 tons of free space? You sort of want to keep the ratio consistant.

True.

I think then maybe it should give more shields and recharge, rather than taking up less space. I think the space usage is quite good, as it means there is a high price to pay for something that is pretty good value price wise.

Plus, buy a Leviathan, and a few million later, you've got yourself a pretty good ship!

This post has been edited by pp0u20e8 : 14 August 2006 - 01:25 PM

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Plus, buy a Leviathan, and a few million later, you've got yourself a pretty good ship!

But that's the thing.. I don't want to allow the user a overly-dominating ship as obtained through bugs and/or cheat plug-ins. I want it to be an upgrade for, most reasonably, a freighter, that would be going through enemy territory to deliver their goods. Besides a mere 50 (now 25) tons of space is a decent sacrifice for what's given, I would say.

To be fair, if the upgrade cost 500k, it would cost a pretty penny to make a Leviathan into a warship.

I've always felt that a pilot should be able to make any ship into a warship, as long as they spent enough money on it.

Kind of works in the same way that you can make a Fiesta go faster than a Porsche. All you need are the parts.

Anyway, if you want to make it so that can't happen, just set the maximum number allowed.

This post has been edited by pp0u20e8 : 14 August 2006 - 03:20 PM

What is the reasoning behind this outfit? The desc doesn't actually explain it at all. Why does it take cargo space and give free mass?