I've done the ships, outfs, and weaps, but I think I should have waited and done the "hard" parts first, like the Misns, spobs, and landing descs. (Still no descs for my outfs either).
SoItBegins finished my map, but now hes disappeared. It definately helped a lot and I'm sure he'll show up again before my TC is done.
I definately have to save graphics for last, since I want to show the work so I can get some good artists.
Basically, what order would you recommend I do them in?
Well, speaking from my own personal view, missions are - not easy as in trivial, but ... well-defined, which I often call easy. Given a storyline, it isn't that hard to write a storyline for it. Systs and Spobs can realistically be plotted algorithmically, with a little hand tweaking where the plot demands. So I say start on the descs for spobs and write lots of data for plot-significant events (Actually putting this into descs comes after the missions are threaded). Really, though, both of those require a well-defined universe history, so if you haven't one, write it.
I have a well defined plot for two of the major governments, but since they're all so interlaced (and share some of the same crons) It boils down to a "Okay, what would they do when 'this' happens?"
I was thinking it would be easier to do the missions after the spobs, systs, and descs... so you know the destinations. I know what you mean, I'm pretty much doing the spobs completely randomly. I'll tweak it later... shrug
BTW, thanks for compiling EVNEW. If it wasn't for that software, I wouldn't be working on the TC
This post has been edited by -REDCHIGH- : 25 August 2009 - 05:17 PM
Either A) Whatever you currently have ideas for or B) One section of the universe at a time. It's better to have a part of your galaxy partly done, including ships, outfits, spobs, etc. for that area, then to have, say, 100 ships with nothing to put on them or nowhere to fly them. Doing all of a specific resource at once just ensures you'll be having to rebalance, or even completely redo, the whole lots down the road. Well, more so than building various resources together.
Alternatively, you could also do C) Build from the plot-up. Start off making only what you need for your storylines. The planets, ships, weapons, everything that'd be required to play through those. Then go back and add everything else, like filler.
Personally, I suggest doing A when inspiration hits you and it will further your project, such as a cool weapon idea as opposed to some complicated method to allow a player to "summon-monsters-Final-Fantasy-style-that-may-or-may-not-work-and-if-it-does-will-probably-be-really-buggy-and-granted-it-would-be-a-minor-feature-in-the-end-anyhow". In other words, practical ideas. Once you're out of your practical As, then do B or C, whichever method you prefer. Finally, finish it up with your impractical As. But, keep in mind, things you add later can force you to go back and make many changes to older stuff. For example, when I added the Needle Rocket to Colosseum, it came rather late so I had to go back and add it to A.I. ships and then rebalance them around both them and the player having that weapon.
Colosseum was a mixture of A and C, for trivia. (Arguably B too, but only because the whole TC was one section of its universe).
This post has been edited by JoshTigerheart : 25 August 2009 - 06:51 PM
QUOTE (-REDCHIGH- @ Aug 25 2009, 03:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
BTW, thanks for compiling EVNEW. If it wasn't for that software, I wouldn't be working on the TC
Sorry if it's not clear. I am the first person who has managed to compile EVNEW since its author disappeared off the face of the net. I have taken responsibility for fixing the things that are still wrong with it, so please inform me if you find any more bugs. (the rle8 misencoding is the only one I know right now). No feature requests, though: it is a very foreign codebase to me.
I actually like to expand system by system. Make a system, make the necessary planets, any governments if necessary, any new ships or tech if necessary, write all descs, get the whole system completely up and running, play in it for a while, and then move on to a new system. I do this simply because if I ever decide to abandon the project or I'll only be a few days of work away from having a cohesive, if not complete, product.
Note- in my case a system is actually several syst resources, but I would use the same method if I were doing a TC where I was using one syst resource as a single star system.
QUOTE (Nonconventionally Creative @ Aug 25 2009, 10:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Well, speaking from my own personal view, missions are - not easy as in trivial, but ... well-defined, which I often call easy. Given a storyline, it isn't that hard to write a storyline for it.
If your story fits well into the existing Nova engine framework, yes. Several times I've found myself writing stories which spend too much time on a single planet rather than moving around a lot. While it's possible to get it all set up in the Nova engine (usually), it's far from trivial.
Nevermind trying to choreograph "cutscene" battles that the player isn't supposed to take part in too much.
Let's just say I've compiled a list of things which should be in the Nova engine but aren't.
This post has been edited by Lindley : 08 September 2009 - 08:24 AM
