Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • Well, sign me up. I would enjoy having my own little corner of the galaxy with plots etc. My graphic skills are a bit tied up helping someone else at the moment, so I'll need help from the designers on retainer. I have good writing skills, and the time to make my 100 systems and whatever missions. Contact me.

      col22@earthlink.net

      -Dave

      ------------------
      --
      "Do or do not. There is no try."
      -Yoda

    • Ha! The amount of work this going to take by putting goverments, systems, mission, etc together will be very hard and almost impossible. Well, anyway, I'll go for it anyway. Sign me up

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Obormot:
      **Notice that this plug would not have 1000 discrete systems in it. I believe that such a plug would have to have a great deal of exploration missions for each government, and also many galaxy-changing missions. This requires extensive use of VisBits, and also means that a good number of system slots would have to be alotted for changes (i.e., the system before and the system after).
      **

      True. That reduces the sheer number of sÿsts somewhat. <phew>

      Quote

      Originally posted by Obormot:
      **So, say maybe 700 discrete systems. Say, 7 people working on it. (In reality, it might be more; but say, 7 distinct sections (governments), each with own ships, etc.) That would mean: 100 systems per person/section. Say, maybe 6-8 ships per government, with some reserved for special stuff. It could very well work, if the project is well-organized.
      **

      Sounds good to me. With the enthousiasm I meet on this board, we might well be able to pull this through. It would be the mother of all EVO plugs... 😄

      Although the well-organized part worries me... :rolleyes:

      Quote

      Originally posted by Obormot:
      **
      I nominate Captain Scurvy as Project Coordinator! (If this gets off the ground, I'll join in as soon as I finish with what I'm doing on Era and Project Nebula.)
      **

      Yeah! Scurvy for President! 😉 Now who's going to tell him the good news? :rolleyes:

      -- Cinga

      (This message has been edited by Cinga (edited 06-15-2000).)

    • Cinga: You never answered my question. Will we have to make/get our own graphics?

      I'm not sure if I'll be in this, but let's set up a mailing list or something. Or a webboard. I can get a webboard in about 5 minutes if you people want one for this project.

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)

    • Also, as that one guy mentioned, let us make this plug for EV. EV Plugs are generally easier to make and since this is a TC (it is, right?) we can just use EVOlution to make it into an EVO plug. Then a few people can optimize it for EVO. (i.e add smoke trails and other 1.0.2 features.)

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)

    • What I imagine the Thousand Worlds to be like...

      All-human. Earth was destroyed long ago (still exists in the game, but too hostile for your ship to land), and humanity has colonized the stars.

      There would be a large presence of Independent worlds around ancient Earth, with the ~7 major governments (the 7M) arranged around them in a rough circle. The Indeps would also have a basic stock of civilian ships that would be used all across the galaxy by traders etc. (and Pirates?), so the 7M could concentrate their resources on dedicated ships. The civilian ships would be rather low-tech in comparison with the 7M tech, but to get access to those, you'd have to do missions for the 7M.

      Each of the 7M gövts would have a low-level and a high-level mission set. You can do the low-level missions of all gövts with the same pilot, so you can gain access to all standard 7M technology. To get a gövt's high-level tech (e.g. a capital warship), you'd have to do the high-level mission string of that gövt. As soon as you accept the first of the high-level missions, you won't be able to do another gövt's missions anymore, so you have to decide which gövt's "goodies" you want. (This might be a problem, though, if we don't have enough available mďsns for each gövt... so we might have to make that the 5M? :rolleyes 🙂

      Some of the 7M members will wage war against each other, while others might establish trade connections (including the construction of waystations along the way) that span the galaxy... imagine a high-priced jünk item you have to transport across 50 s˙sts... 😉

      I imagine the 7M members as somewhat stereotypical. There would be the Industrialists (heavy armor, bulky ships, comparatively low-tech but effective, lots of cargo space... see my cannonship. ;)), the Scientists (high-tech, but rather peaceful), the Religious Fanatics (elaborate, crystalline ships with great shields and no armor; beam primaries...), the Mysterious Ones (black ships with glowing edges? Organic tech?), the Pirates (maybe in two flavors, high- and low-tech, depending on location), the Strict and Militaristic ones (Neo-Prussians... ;)), the Diplomats (good relationships with everyone) etc...

      Of course, that would only work out well if one could choose several enemies/allies for a gövt... (hint, hint) Are you listening, Ambrosia? 😛

      Whaddya think?

      -- Cinga

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by OctoberFost:
      **Cinga: You never answered my question. Will we have to make/get our own graphics?
      **

      I assume that participants with the skill and will to do graphics will supply them for the ones that don't have 'em. Also, it's not necessary that a single person do a whole gövt with all its ramifications by himself. Feel free to collaborate. 😉

      Quote

      Originally posted by OctoberFost:
      **I'm not sure if I'll be in this, but let's set up a mailing list or something. Or a webboard. I can get a webboard in about 5 minutes if you people want one for this project.
      **

      Yeah, I guess that would be nice. 🙂

      -- Cinga

      ------------------

    • This project in my personal thoughts would be hard to complete and take a really long time. Many things will be maxed out with 7 people working on it and how will we know who is working on what. We won't know what systems and goverments other people make until we put every peice together and when we do that, we may find out we srewed up some how. It's gonna be hard to pull of but i admire or willingness to try.

      ------------------

    • Quote

      Originally posted by OctoberFost:
      **Also, as that one guy mentioned, let us make this plug for EV. EV Plugs are generally easier to make
      **

      Why should they?

      Quote

      Originally posted by OctoberFost:
      **and since this is a TC (it is, right?) we can just use EVOlution to make it into an EVO plug. Then a few people can optimize it for EVO. (i.e add smoke trails and other 1.0.2 features.)
      **

      AFAIK, EVO also has higher limits for the number of shďps, gövts, s˙sts etc. With an EV plug, you'd run out of shďps after the first 3 gövts. :frown:

      -- Cinga

      PS: Are you on ICQ? My # is 42730581.

      (This message has been edited by Cinga (edited 06-15-2000).)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Joseph Strife:
      **This project in my personal thoughts would be hard to complete and take a really long time. Many things will be maxed out with 7 people working on it and how will we know who is working on what. We won't know what systems and goverments other people make until we put every peice together and when we do that, we may find out we srewed up some how. It's gonna be hard to pull of but i admire or willingness to try.
      **

      We'd have to plan the gövts and all their properties (including ships, weapons etc.) in advance, and every participant would be assigned a specific set of resource IDs for his gövt, so they wouldn't overlap. There would also be commonplace items like afterburners, fuel tanks etc. available to all races.

      Feasible, IMHO. Lot of work, but feasible.

      -- Cinga

      ------------------

    • Lets see, you have 7 regions, 7 goverment, and you have to have ships. First you have to have regular civilen ships that can be normally bought, then you must have specific ships for goverments. That goes for everything else. regular weapons, special weapons. And what I'm saying if everyone had to work on an indepenedent region, no ships would leave that region becase they wouldn't know any other planetes in the other region.

      ------------------

    • Let's use my webboard for it. Just for now. I'm sure someone will find something better in a while. You'll find it at my website. Click on the link that says Message Board.

      P.S. You can find my website in my sig.

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Cinga:
      **AFAIK, EVO also has higher limits for the number of shďps, gövts, s˙sts etc. With an EV plug, you'd run out of shďps after the first 3 gövts.:frown:

      **

      All I can say is you don't know very far at all. EV and EVO have the exact same numbers of most resources; the really significant difference is that EVO provides for twice as many missions as EV. For the sort of project you are talking about, that is a strong argument in favor of an EVO plug, though it could be done for EV and more missions added to the EVO port.

      For the record, here are the 'game constants' for EV:

      MaxShipsInSystem 36
      MaxStellarObjects 1500
      MaxSystems 1000
      MaxShipClasses 64
      MaxStellarClasses 64
      JumpDistance 1000 pixels
      MaxWeaponTypes 64
      MaxOutfitItemTypes 128
      MaxBeamsOnScreen 8
      MaxDudeTypes 128
      MaxGovts 128
      MaxExplosionsOnScreen 16
      MaxMissions 256
      NumMissionBits 256
      MaxCargoTypes 64
      MaxPersonTypes 512
      MaxShotsOnScreen 64
      MaxAsteroids 10
      MaxNebulae 4
      MaxSimultaneousMissions 8
      MaxDisasters 128
      MaxFleets 128

      And the list for EVO

      MaxShipsInSystem 36
      MaxStellarObjects 1500
      MaxSystems 1000
      MaxShipClasses 64
      MaxStellarClasses 64
      JumpDistance 1000 pixels
      MaxWeaponTypes 64
      MaxOutfitItemTypes 128
      MaxBeamsOnScreen 8
      MaxDudeTypes 128
      MaxGovts 128
      MaxExplosionsOnScreen 16
      MaxMissions 512
      NumMissionBits 512
      MaxCargoTypes 64
      MaxPersonTypes 512
      MaxShotsOnScreen 128
      MaxAsteroids 10
      MaxNebulae 4
      MaxSimultaneousMissions 8
      MaxDisasters 128
      MaxFleets 128
      MaxMovies 128

      Looks as though this project is gathering momentum. Best of luck to all of you, hope you can succeed with this.

      ------------------
      Joe Burnette

      "I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
      among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

    • You asked, and I answered.

      I figured since I had a little time, I'd whip something up. Check it out:
      (url="http://"http://www.oxy-soft.com/worlds/")http://www.oxy-soft.com/worlds/(/url)

      Please SIGN UP. Once you do that I can get rolling on the rest of the site.

      I'll have a webboard up either later today or tommorow, it depends.

      CS

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Hornet:
      **This idea could be pretty cool... if it worked out. I doubt it will. Anyway, Tarkin, don't use EV-Edit. It is as buggy as hell. It turned my version of EV into a plugin for itself!!!
      **

      I beg to differ. The newest version I know of (3.2.1) is actually pretty effective and about 20 times faster than resedit. Part of it tho is that i use it on version 1.0.0 (No i still havent updated).

    • Well Im a bit of a novice at this but Im willing do do what ever i can to help.
      I saw CS's web site,looks good.I think we should keep writing on this board for awile before swiching entirely to a diffrent site because it will get more people interested.

      I hope this hole thing gets off the ground. I like the 7 goverments idea.It's like the new game alpha centuri with each government being sterotipcle, one heavaly industrius well another is peacefull and another are extreamly militant.
      Sound good so far.

      please exscuse all spelling errors, I blame my second grade teacher for her "inventive spelling" programe.

      ------------------
      The reason we know there is Intelligent life in space is that they haven't contacted us.

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Cinga:
      **I imagine the 7M members as somewhat stereotypical. ... Industrialists (heavy armor, bulky ships, comparatively low-tech but effective, lots of cargo space... the Scientists (high-tech, but rather peaceful), the Religious Fanatics (elaborate, crystalline ships with great shields and no armor; beam primaries...), the Mysterious Ones (black ships with glowing edges? Organic tech?), the Pirates (maybe in two flavors, high- and low-tech, depending on location), the Strict and Militaristic ones... the Diplomats (good relationships with everyone) etc...

      Whaddya think?
      **

      Sound like good starting ideas. But here's my problem: we need people to have ideas for governments and plotlines that they're going to enjoy working with for some time. Stereotypes aren't going to suffice for that. If we want people to put in a lot of their effort into a government, we'll have to get them working on their own ideas. Otherwise they wont have the enthusiasm.

      Secondly, it's deceptively easy to fix on a government "stereotype" and to list its ten most remarkable characteristics, but that doesn't make a govt and its attendant ResEdit resources. We might get further more quickly if you, and everyone who wants to work on this project, worked out in your mind a single government you would like to create or help create. Find the apects of the government that intruige you the most. Think of as many relevant specific characteristics as you can: how many and what kind of ships (be specific), what weapons, what planets, what systems, what cities, what characters a player might encounter. Keep in mind that these ideas will have to be flexible and open to input from others unless you're willing to do ALL the work for this government yourself.

      You can start from any one of these characteristics. For instance, perhaps you like the idea of a supership (like the Tachytonic Fighter). Work out in your mind what kind of ship, then how the player would get the ship, then what kind of mission the character might be given the ship in order to achieve, then what kind of government would desire the player to do a mission like that, and so on. If you start with specifics, not generalities, there will instantly be material for you to write (for mission briefings) or plug into ResEdit that will directly result in a plug-in.

      Since someone has to start by giving an example, I'll describe for you a government I propose for this project. The starting idea for this govt was a specific outfit that I want to make: a key that would allow a player to pilot a ship which otherwise would be immobile. The result:

      -A cyber-punk style govt, a la Neuromancer and the Matrix.
      -Every citizen has the equivalent of a ethernet jack hardwired to their nervous system. (so far very traditional)
      -It would have few planets because most of the population would be centered in a single city, burrowed into an asteroid. Pop approx: 100M
      -Other planets would be nessesary for mining the metals + gasses and growing the food to support the central world.
      -A freighter ship is nessesary to transport these raw materials and a combat ship to protect them.
      -These ships would plug directly into the nervous system of their pilots. Therefore only pilots who have been hardwired (with my special outfit) can pilot them.
      -One of the primary mission strings for this government would allow the player to get this neural plug.
      -And so on... I wont describe it all here, but in sum, this government would require 2 ships, 3 weapons, a total of 14 outfits, about eight systs (plus visbit changes), 12 or so spobs, I'd hazard a guess at 30 disasters, and at least 40 missions and the same number of bits

      Remember, you don't have to be wild about my ideas for them to be part of the project. The point of this is to combine a bunch of inputs to create a plug-in. Anyone who has ideas AND is willing to do work to put them into tangible form should be encouraged. The discussion of the big picture is important too, but since no one is going to be controlling the big picture, only guiding it, we probably should see what components we have to work with first.

      my 2 cents,

      Bubbles

    • Of course, a few races have to be at war. I have an idea that I was toying with for one of MY plug-ins, but I think it could be useful here. Make socalist race, and a capitolistic race. We can make a TRUE Cold War Satire ;). Both sides would be good, both sides would be evil.

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)

    • Also, one more thing. This time about the graphics. The target graphics, to be exact. We need to agree on a standard target graphic type. I sugest me make them like the ones from EVula's 3D Target Graphics. The shipyard pic on a green background. Why? Because they are easy to make and look similar (except for the ship on them!)

      Also, I'll work a little on my Cold War Satire idea tonight. Maybe look for a few ships off the online shipyards. I'll be sure they are unused.

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)

    • Here are 3 graphics I got. 1 is a fighter, the other 2 are weapons.
      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost/fighter.gif")http://www.geocities...ost/fighter.gif(/url) A fighter
      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost/weap_1.gif")http://www.geocities...fost/weap_1.gif(/url) The cannon that this fighter uses
      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost/weap_2.gif")http://www.geocities...fost/weap_2.gif(/url) A beam weapon

      The last 2 I did myself. I know they are ripped off from EV and EVO, but you gotta start somewere!

      ------------------
      "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have survived without them in Red Storm Rising." -Dan Quayle

      AIM-OctoberFost

      Yahoo Messenger-OctoberFost

      (url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost")http://www.geocities.com/octoberfost(/url)