Progress log take 2

I am starting this as a replacement for the old thread, which was rather disorganized. this TC will include all new everything. (System map, ships, graphics, even the screen layout.) I say this because there have been many TC' in the past which have reused graphics for one reason or another. It will have over 6 civilizations, (5 of which are alien.) plus numerous minor civilizations. As for the story, here is an overview:

  
When humanity first discovered deep space travel, It led to a massive space race of colonization, and soon almost 40 planets had Human habitation. after a brief period of conflict, a new government was created, called the Earth Unity, to watch and protect the new worlds. No Intelligent life had been found, but they kept searching.   
  
about 20 years after the first big push into space, at the very edge of Unity space, A research ship, called the Dawn Voyager, encountered a ship different than anything ever seen before. It was an alien ship. The first to be seen by any human being since humanity's creation. The Dawn Voyager immediately sent word of it's discovery back to earth, and there was much rejoicing. But then the Alien ship began to attack the Dawn Voyager, which managed to send a single sos, before it was destroyed completely. The Earth Unity acted immediately, sending a large number of attack ships to the place where The Dawn Voyager had been attacked, tracked down the alien ship and destroyed it without mercy.  
  
another 2 years passed in which the Earth Unity started manufacturing warships like mad, before a second sighting occurred. it was closer to the center of Earth unity space this time, a large fleet moving purposely toward Earth. but this time, Humanity was ready. the newly created E.U.G.N ships confronted the Alien ones, and won. Again, Humans the Galaxy over celebrated The Earth Unit's fragile victory.  
  
But after less Than a month, a second Alien Fleet appeared, this one 20 times the size of the first. Again humanity fought, but battle after battle was lost, as the impossibly huge alien force slowly but steadily destroyed the human worlds, taking many prisoner, until only 3 remained.  
  
  
  
and it was, that as the alien force was at the very edge of our own solar system, the ragged remains of The Earth unity's star fleet confronted The invaders at Saturn. The battle of Saturn lasted only 2 hours, and every single Human ship was destroyed. However, the bravery of those who gave their lives that day allowed for a single ship, an Ark, to escape before the settlements of Mars, The Moon, and finally Earth fell to the Alien menace Humanity deemed "Apophis"   
  
The Renegade Sky, the last Hope of human civilization, traveled to the edge of the galaxy, where it's tired and and half starved inhabitants found a paradise world, which they deemed Aether. The survivors, who called themselves the Last Strain of humanity, quickly settled the planet, and after a few years, cautiously moved back into space, where they colonized 17 worlds, and slowly started to build up their space army again for the day they would have to again confront the Apophis. The Last strain also started the A.C.I.A, or Alien Counter Intelligence Agency, whose job was to study Apophian Technology, and look for ways to defeat them. After a few years, when the Last Strain's Technology had improved greatly, the A.C.I.A. also started making forays into Apophis space to rescue Humans captured by the invaders.   
  
on to this day.  
  

you start out as a prisoner of the Apophis, who is rescued by the A.C.I.A and taken back to Aether. Instead of being given a ship, you are given a certain amount of credits to but a ship with, so you get to choose what ship you want to start out with. (there will be 4 or so that you can afford with the credits you are given.) the rest I will leave as a surprise.

Here are a few Sampler Graphics:

EDIT: due to a previous computer crash, I have lost all of my old ship graphics, therefore I am creating new ones, in a slightly different style.

Riven Series Battleship

Corsair Series Fighter

Heron Series Transport ship

Aegis Series Destroyer

Daemon Series Heavy Assault craft.

The Planet Daybreak

Last Strain Space

thats it for now. I may add more later.

This post has been edited by Yoda Almighty : 26 June 2008 - 06:35 PM

Very cool yoda. A++

Having followed the previous topic/log I have decided this looks cool and is most probably made of epic win.

@shlimazel, on Feb 12 2008, 12:49 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Very cool yoda. A++

@egroeg, on Feb 12 2008, 02:25 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Having followed the previous topic/log I have decided this looks cool and is most probably made of epic win.

Thank you!

and I forgot to mention something that will hopefully have a major influence on how the game is played, if I can figure out how to implement it. In the game, instead of being able to just purchase a ship when you get the money, first you will have to HIRE YOU CREW! thats right. before you can buy a 3 man ship, you have to go out and hire 3 people from local bars. (the 4 ships you can start out with are all 1 man ships)

However, for the larger ships, the crew will often come with the ship, (i am talking destroyers here) and you just have to choose you second in command, and your officers. (engineering, navigations, gunnery, ETC.)

also, a few of your crew will come as part of the story, or during missions.

If it works, It will be wicked cool.

PROGRESS UPDATE: I finished the system names for Last strain and Earth Unity Space today, and I made a considerable dent in the Apophian systems.

Such a system has been done before (albeit through the outfitters). Have a look at the SFA public alpha for hiring officers through the outfitters, and PlugPack17 (or whatever version it is now) has the officers, and crew (two separate systems).

@lnsu, on Feb 12 2008, 10:01 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Such a system has been done before (albeit through the outfitters). Have a look at the SFA public alpha for hiring officers through the outfitters, and PlugPack17 (or whatever version it is now) has the officers, and crew (two separate systems).

it will be like that for the larger ships, However, for the smaller 2-10 person ships, you meet your ship personnel in bars and other places like that. It is actually a integral part of the storyline, as you get to meet and befriend your crew.

What about for ships with a large number of crew members? like 50+? Won't that get kind of annoying?

for larger ships, the crew will come as part of the purchase, and your crew mates from before would be like officers. Also, Sometimes you will meet crew members as a group. Not all of your crew is going to come as part of the story. really just your first crew members, who will be heavily involved for the rest of the story.

UPDATE: made 2 ships: a Tri-Jet, and the an alien ship of mysterious origin:

Tri-Jet:

alien ship:

Do you have any idea when the release will be.

none. Especially since progress has been extremely persistently of late.. however, don't expect it anytime soon.

@guest_robdemon_-, on Feb 22 2008, 12:52 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Do you have any idea when the release will be.

A very long time. Colosseum is a small TC and will have taken about two years. APOPHIS obviously looks bigger.

I changed Darkstar into Acheron on the first day of October 2007, but it used many donated resources and resources that I had from the much slower-going Darkstar project. It's very close to release, but lacks major mission strings, and is a relatively small TC. I would say that, since in the four months that I worked on Acheron I probably put in a straight six weeks of work (if I had taken no breaks, and had slept; I took a several-week break in December also), that a project the size of APOPHIS (since work has already been done) could be done in a year (minus beta testing), with a several-person team who's members spend a good amount of time (1-2 hours per day) on the project. I know that EVN took much longer, but also had three different versions of graphics, started as an EVO TC, needed a new engine written for it, and was really, really big. If Yoda is the only person who works on the TC, I would say that it might take 4 to 5 years, but who knows? Polycon was made relatively quickly, and was, if I'm not mistaken, mostly the work of one person.

I have this weird thing about using question marks with questions.

This post has been edited by Crusader Alpha : 22 February 2008 - 11:43 PM

yes. However, I currantley have a 3 man team. Myself, Geek, and Cosmic Nuisance.

Geek and I have been having daily chat's about the story, planning it and generally discussing every aspect of the plug. There is no solid evidence of it yet, but so far we have maybe 60% of the storylines planned out, and we are getting more daily.

Cosmic Nuisance is Hopefully Spinning my ships, and doing a couple other small things, but he keeps Vanishing off the face of the earth.

@crusader-alpha, on Feb 22 2008, 08:40 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Polycon was made relatively quickly, and was, if I'm not mistaken, mostly the work of one person.

The reason was because, if you read the background about Polycon, Anubis said he tried to make it for the Escape Velocity Classic platform, but there were limitations to the engine and he put it aside. When EV Nova came out, the limitations were gone, and he still had his data, so Anubis just had to fix a few things and he was done. I think most of the work was done while he still had EV Classic.

Other than that, back to the main point, your Alien Ship and Tri-Jet are awesome, Yoda. Keep that good stuff up.

How 'bout going ARPIA style? Meet your crew members, and keep them for the rest of the TC. Make an outfit that can't be sold and call them 'Crew Members' and give them some marine properties, like 'add 30 to your crew', or 'increase your capturing rate by 10%'.

Also, it would be a good idea to continually use your original crew members as people continually assisting you in your missions.

@king_of_manticores, on Feb 23 2008, 03:31 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

The reason was because, if you read the background about Polycon, Anubis said he tried to make it for the Escape Velocity Classic platform, but there were limitations to the engine and he put it aside. When EV Nova came out, the limitations were gone, and he still had his data, so Anubis just had to fix a few things and he was done. I think most of the work was done while he still had EV Classic.

Other than that, back to the main point, your Alien Ship and Tri-Jet are awesome, Yoda. Keep that good stuff up.

How 'bout going ARPIA style? Meet your crew members, and keep them for the rest of the TC. Make an outfit that can't be sold and call them 'Crew Members' and give them some marine properties, like 'add 30 to your crew', or 'increase your capturing rate by 10%'.

Also, it would be a good idea to continually use your original crew members as people continually assisting you in your missions.

thats is exactly what i am doing. your crew members play an important part throughout the TC.

except at first you don't but them. you meet them through the course of the story.

I am not going to be making much progress for the next 2 weeks, as I have play practice from when school ends till 8:00 at night.

@yamfries, on Feb 23 2008, 02:21 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

thats is exactly what i am doing. your crew members play an important part throughout the TC.

except at first you don't bu y them. you meet them through the course of the story.

Sorry. Just had to fix that.

For the crew to help you in your journeys, you have to make them an outfit. Basically, call it 'Crew Members' and give it any marine-type properties. And no, I did not mean you had to buy them. They can be an outfit you can acquire, but never sell.

In MC (that is what you have by the screenshot about the Last Strain space, right?), what you do is make this outfit and click the checkbox that says "Cannot be sold". That way, they are an outfit that will never be available for purchase or sell, and they can help you capture ships. For the mission you meet them in, you put in the NCB box OnComplete (I believe) the ID of this outfit and the operator for it. This makes it so that you get them.

If you don't want them to be an outfit, simply don't make an outfit for them. They will just be part of your descriptions.

I have a question. When you say meet your crew members, do you mean individually or as a whole? I mean as when you go to the bar or wherever you want to meet them, do you see one crew member or a whole group of them looking for work?

@king_of_manticores, on Feb 26 2008, 09:43 PM, said in ~ A P O P H I S ~:

Sorry. Just had to fix that.

For the crew to help you in your journeys, you have to make them an outfit. Basically, call it 'Crew Members' and give it any marine-type properties. And no, I did not mean you had to buy them. They can be an outfit you can acquire, but never sell.

In MC (that is what you have by the screenshot about the Last Strain space, right?), what you do is make this outfit and click the checkbox that says "Cannot be sold". That way, they are an outfit that will never be available for purchase or sell, and they can help you capture ships. For the mission you meet them in, you put in the NCB box OnComplete (I believe) the ID of this outfit and the operator for it. This makes it so that you get them.

If you don't want them to be an outfit, simply don't make an outfit for them. They will just be part of your descriptions.

I have a question. When you say meet your crew members, do you mean individually or as a whole? I mean as when you go to the bar or wherever you want to meet them, do you see one crew member or a whole group of them looking for work?

exactly.

as for your question, Both. at the beginning, you will mostly meet them individually, but as you start getting into the larger ship, you will start meeting groups of people that need a job.

I made a picture for the Governor Class Cruiser's Today.

What do you think? It is the first one I have made in awhile.