There was this hype about PoG coming out. Great gameplay, graphics, missions, areas, plugins and more. Trinity came out and some other small plugs, but nothing to push the limits of this game. I know with others ASW games that even after three or four years there are still great plugs being created. What slid for PoG? Why have no new and great plugs been created. I have been told just wait...they are comin but it has been months and I have played the guts out of this game. I know I should just make one but I have little technical skill and I lack coldstone. This topic comes from what I was told. There will be some big plugs comin soon. So....

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Originally posted by Bobster:
There was this hype about PoG coming out. Great gameplay, graphics, missions, areas, plugins and more. Trinity came out and some other small plugs, but nothing to push the limits of this game. I know with others ASW games that even after three or four years there are still great plugs being created. What slid for PoG? Why have no new and great plugs been created. I have been told just wait...they are comin but it has been months and I have played the guts out of this game. I know I should just make one but I have little technical skill and I lack coldstone. This topic comes from what I was told. There will be some big plugs comin soon. So....

Mr. Bobster,

It's frustrating, I know. But there really are valid reasons why no major plug-ins have come out yet, and I'll list them again(since they haven't changed since the last few topics that asked this question were done).

1. Plug-ins have to be written with Coldstone Game Engine(CGE). You can not just use resedit or the like. Since CGE is a commercial product, this means that those people who want to make a plug-in have to not only purchase POG(since you can not test plug-ins without a registered version of POG), but you also must purchase CGE. This is an investment that will discourage a large number of potential plug-in writers.

2. CGE has some bugs in it, and we are waiting for a patch to be released. The patch is currently in beta, so hopefully it will be released soon. For some CGE works alright without the patch, so they may still be developing. For myself and others we are not that lucky, and development has ceased altogether until the patch is released. This is a large part of the delay.

3. EV: Nova. Yes POG is a great game and had a lot of hype too it. But the EV trilogy is one of Ambrosia's "core" games and has an incredibly huge following. The release of it bottled up Ambrosia's servers for quite a while, heh. Anyhow there are quite a few POG players that also enjoy the EV series, and yes, Nova has taken a lot of people's development time as well. Especially combine Nova's release with the fact that for some of us CGE is unusable until the patch is released, and you can now begin to understand why development has slowed to a trickle.

Now the above does not mean that no one is developing any plug-ins. I am sure there are people that are still developing plug-ins for POG. And I know there are several that have ideas but for one reason or another those ideas are needing to wait a while.

I realize no answer will suffice until plug-ins start rolling in, but this, in my opinon, is pretty much the answer as I see it.

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Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Hobbes: Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?

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Originally posted by Bobster:
** <snip>
**

What I'm aiming for is a game that tests the CS engine limits right out of StuffIt.

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"... For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause..." - Willaim Shakespeare, Hamlet

(quote)Originally posted by Celchu:
**What I'm aiming for is a game that tests the CS engine limits right out of StuffIt.:)

Actually, has anyone apart from me thought out a semi-workable theory for creating a game like chess or chequers with Coldstone? That count as pushing the limits?

Anyway, back on topic. I think that what Stark has posted is more or less the reason. Coldstone itself is a reasonable investment for someone to create plugins that will be free for public use, and adding PoG on top of it for testing purposes.... considering that plugins for PoG, I believe, have to be released for free...

You are looking at a $79 USD investment, to release free products.... I think most people would want to try to get 'something back' for their investment, and would be likely to develop a more 'paying' propostion.... but then, of course, a PoG plugin is probably a good practise arena for many developers....

Ach. Ignore me. Listen to Stark. It's late, and I'm rambling.

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"
Unless it involves pipeline of course. Bloody nuisance.
**

(quote)Originally posted by Tarnćlion Andiyarus:
**Ach. Ignore me. Listen to Stark. It's late, and I'm rambling.:)

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Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Hobbes: Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?
**

Yup, EV Nova has to be the worst thing that has ever happened to PoG developers. I'll be getting back to my plugins-in-progress as soon as I finish these 12 missions.

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The greatest of harm can result from the best of intentions — Wizard's Second Rule, Stone of Tears.
— Cafall

i was quite impressed with the quality of PoG overall, and the potential of the coldstone development environment. like many users months after the release of the game, i too am dissapointed with the lack of extensions. The potential for whimsical and creative extensibility was one of the core reasons i decided to register PoG (over something like Cythera for example, for which i was one of the beta testers). This turned out to be an expensive gamble based on my faith in ambrosia sw (im a poor university student for one, and paying in candian pesos for another).

i think ambrosia dropped the ball on this. there should be released a free "Coldstone Lite" version, such that hobbyists can make small / limited plugins that can be used to extend PoG without threatening potential revenues from larger-scale or commercial Coldstone developers. While i havnt used Coldstone (though notably have created Escape Veloocity plugins in the past), i imagine that certain bits of program code would need to be enabled within the coldstone development environment to create an expansive world or self-executing program. remove such functionality from a "lite" version of coldstone and you would foster a hobbyist cult a la Escape Velocity without diverting sales from the full coldstone development environment.

i think PoG is pretty solid (i particularily like the graphical style), but its just too hermetic a world to unleash the rabid and loyal ambrosia fan locked within me. release a free "coldstone lite" such that many dozens of imaginative side-quests, items, characters and areas can be created and i think the popularity of this game - and in turn the full coldstone development environment - could take off.

long time ambrosia gamer,

ryan fritsch
synapse@uvic.ca

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Originally posted by ryan:
there should be released a free "Coldstone Lite" version

Mr. Ryan,

I agree. I posted this idea on the Coldstone board (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum48/HTML/001205.html#")here(/url).

Not sure if this will go anywhere, but I liked the idea and it is worth a try.

Thanks!

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Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Hobbes: Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?

This too has been in my head.....wow someone's brain just put it in words for me....I too would some support in this thing since I'm not as busy this summer...

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I was truly dissapointed with the lack of plugins I found on the site, because, there are many good ones, but not as many as I thought there'd be. Plus, I can't make my own for lack of a Mac. Sigh* Well, I guess I'll just have to wait. But I agree with Stark and Ryan. From what I've heard, there was a lot of hype about Coldstone and PoG, and while I think PoG totally rocks, Coldstone just didn't cut it. And so, in the immortal words of myself: Oh crap.

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Originally posted by phantompenguin:
*I was truly dissapointed with the lack of plugins I found on the site, because, there are many good ones, but not as many as I thought there'd be. Plus, I can't make my own for lack of a Mac. Sigh Well, I guess I'll just have to wait. But I agree with Stark and Ryan. From what I've heard, there was a lot of hype about Coldstone and PoG, and while I think PoG totally rocks, Coldstone just didn't cut it. And so, in the immortal words of myself: Oh crap.

**

Don't worry; I guarantee that there will be a public beta of at least one PoG plug-in before 2999!

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The greatest of harm can result from the best of intentions — Wizard's Second Rule, Stone of Tears.
— Cafall

Glad to hear it, now, if you would just hold still..... (pokes at Cafall with cattle prod)

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Sore butts don't help the development process, bub.

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The greatest of harm can result from the best of intentions — Wizard's Second Rule, Stone of Tears.
— Cafall