PlugPack V18 - Beta 2

Well, the first beta was an amazing success even though there were only three testers.

These testers were able to help fixing & testing a lot stuff and I'm very very thankful
Unfortunately all testers are sort of busy right now ... school, college & work.

So what I'm asking for?

To finish working on this major release I need a few interested people who test EVERY aspect of the V18 package.
Beta 2 includes all new features and fixes which will be also included in the final release.

(Maybe there will be still some additions while this beta is running.)

What has changed?

Oh boy ... a lot. It will be the biggest release so far.

Beta 1 started with only one new plug-in and some little tweaks. Now there are 3 new plugs and massive changes on balance ...

1. PaintStation
2. ShieldBubbles
3. TechnicalData

1. This seems to be one of the most interesting features for a lot of people. AAC granted me to use his work and include it to this package. Of course I did it my way, so don't expect a simple copy but don't expect something thrilling as well - It's all about paint so what did you expect XD

2. As far as I know 3DShieldBubbles has a quiet good donwload rate and it's a nice little piece of work but after searching the add-ons page I was able to find something amazing. It was simply called "Shields" and adds different bubbles for each faction. It's just great ... and I was was able to get the permission to use it too. You will love it - I promise.

3. Well, that's something you haven't heard of before. This plug-in is the most usefull tool you can imagine. It extends all outfit descriptions with information about damage, armor, shield recharge, ionization, jamming, etc. etc. It's sort of an ingame guide for all available outfits of the game (and the PP too) so you never buy things again without knowing what exactly they do.

WarlordMike stated:" It's something that...I tell you, it's like a dream come true, being able to compare, stats wise, how much better one outfit is to another. "

What else has been done so far?

- The most noticeable change (and that makes it the greatest release ever) are the fully re-worked outfits. You may know I re-balanced some things from time to time but this time EVERYTHING has been reworked. A new and even more Nova-like balance will make this package enjoyable than ever.

- Also all the annoying bugs has been fixed (as far as I know): Not shown pictures (actually they are 16 bit and without remaining layer information now), crashes by buying some outfits, Observationsdeck map, Officers, etc.

- Especially the ReturnToS7evyn plug has been improved. After finishing a storyline it now chekcs for a specific bit and will automaticly give permissions to use the Stargate system.

- But it wouldn't be a PP-like update if there weren't any other additions on outfits etc. So this has been added: 25 outfits (actually 17 paints), 1 new ship (the Polaris Collector plug-in has been integrated after getting the permission to use this very nice piece of artwork), 45 new/reworked pictures, 3 new sounds, 6 new/reworked icons, 3 new weapon animations, 4 new weapons and of course a few spelling mistakes have been corrected.

As you can see you can expect a lot this time. Hopefully you're interested in helping testing Beta 2

This post has been edited by Terek E`Ban : 15 November 2007 - 12:29 PM

Ooh, boy, I wish I had the time to beta test. It looks excellent.

Congrats, Terek -- It looks like you've been busy!

I hope at some you've added a bunch of nasty player-hating perses that use your new outfits. (Sorry I dropped the ball on that a few years back. :()

Just one other suggestion: Your English has improved greatly, but you really should look up "overworked" in a good English-German dictionary. I think you'll see that neither that nor "worked over" is precisely what you meant. The word you want is "reworked," I expect.

All those poor, overworked officers of yours....

@dr--trowel, on Nov 1 2007, 03:38 AM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Congrats, Terek -- It looks like you've been busy!

I hope at some you've added a bunch of nasty player-hating perses that use your new outfits. (Sorry I dropped the ball on that a few years back. :()

Just one other suggestion: Your English has improved greatly, but you really should look up "overworked" in a good English-German dictionary. I think you'll see that neither that nor "worked over" is precisely what you meant. The word you want is "reworked," I expect.

All those poor, overworked officers of yours....

ROFL

Ok, that's sort of funny and embarrassing too XD
Thanks for the advice ^^

This post has been edited by Terek E`Ban : 01 November 2007 - 03:16 AM

Shields is indeed awesome
However the scaling and masking is rather poor, though easily fixed. Try the one from my site (link in sig).

This post has been edited by Guy : 20 October 2009 - 04:31 AM

@guy, on Nov 1 2007, 10:40 AM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Shields is indeed awesome
However the scaling and masking is rather poor, though easily fixed. Try this fixed one.

Thanks

So, and who wants to help testing Beta 2 now?

Sorry, busted link there. Try again.

@guy, on Nov 1 2007, 10:37 PM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Sorry, busted link there. Try again.

NP, I was able to download it from the first link as well. But thanks for fixing it
Also many thanks for the Rled version of 'Shields'. That saves me some time since I don't need to convert it myself.

Hm. Over 100 views but no one is interested in testing

This post has been edited by Terek E`Ban : 03 November 2007 - 06:57 AM

Well I could test but from my experiences with testing anathema and nebula I don't seem to have been that effective.

This post has been edited by egroeg5 : 03 November 2007 - 07:36 AM

Well, Terek, seeing how I'm already on the bandwagon for this, would it be okay to post any notes, bugs, system errors of doom we might encounter? (Don't worry, I haven't seen any of the latter two yet :p)

@egroeg, on Nov 3 2007, 02:36 PM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Well I could test but from my experiences with testing anathema and nebula I don't seem to have been that effective.

Well a tester is a tester - At least if you have the time to test intensively.
If so then PM me and I send you all you'll need.

@warlord-mike, on Nov 3 2007, 07:25 PM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Well, Terek, seeing how I'm already on the bandwagon for this, would it be okay to post any notes, bugs, system errors of doom we might encounter? (Don't worry, I haven't seen any of the latter two yet :p)

I thought you would mail me such things already XD

@terek-e-ban, on Nov 4 2007, 02:24 AM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

I thought you would mail me such things already XD

Ah. So I take it even for just notes you want e-mail. Alrighty!

push

Again, I really would love to test, but I don't have the time. I'm surprised there's so little feedback, though.

Yeah, ditto. Working on something else at the moment. For which I'll probably be wanting testers for sooner or later and will find no one available :rolleyes:

This post has been edited by Guy : 15 November 2007 - 05:31 PM

I can test. I've recently had too much time on my hands anyways (a main reason I'm on the boards more often now).

Any idea what happened to AAC, Terek?

Three quick points:

1. Um, I still don't have enough time to test, either. :rolleyes:
2. To all and sundry: if you are interested in spending some time playing in the stock Nova universe, and perhaps re-running a storyline or two, give PlugPack a try. It adds all sorts of new goodies, spaced all over so that exploring becomes fun again!
3. Terek, you posted this in the Dev Corner. You want players , though, not necessarily developers. Perhaps post this in the EVN board to see if you can people less obsessed with their own projects?

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 18 November 2007 - 09:04 PM

I could do some testing Terek, although I won't be very fast.

@lobf, on Nov 19 2007, 03:03 AM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Any idea what happened to AAC, Terek?

Not really. I wrote him a mail via the forum and he answered in a PM. There were no small talk ^^

@dr--trowel, on Nov 19 2007, 03:58 AM, said in Beta Testers needed (again^^):

Three quick points:

1. Um, I still don't have enough time to test, either. :rolleyes:

2. To all and sundry: if you are interested in spending some time playing in the stock Nova universe, and perhaps re-running a storyline or two, give PlugPack a try. It adds all sorts of new goodies, spaced all over so that exploring becomes fun again!

3. Terek, you posted this in the Dev Corner. You want players , though, not necessarily developers. Perhaps post this in the EVN board to see if you can people less obsessed with their own projects?

4. 

5. You're so right and V18 will be awesome so wait for this particular release ^^

6. A well, last time I searched there for testers nearly nobody was interested so I thought to try it in the dev corner this time.