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Originally posted by Una:
**First off, I suppose the term "alternate scenario" would be more accurate for what I'm creating. I fully expect to recycle some landing picts and planet animations. If the Nova crew created something that doesn't need to be changed, I won't change it.
Second, it's a little late to wait for much of anything since it has been in development (on and off, due to university studies) since May or June of 2000. Needless to say, I have a good understanding of the EV:O, and the two games are (obviously) going to be more alike than different.
Third, if the the standard for TC's become "as good or better than Nova" (objectively), I don't think we'll ever see any created for this engine. Let's be realistic: Nova is being created by about half a dozen professionals. Any plug-in will be created by amateurs, very often only one person with a lot of time on their hands.
On an objective basis, Nova will probably always be superior to any total conversions. Each TC will have a certain "niche" audience, likely a group of people who play the games for the same reason that the author does. In the case of my TC, much like the original Star Trek series, much of what goes on in the game will have intentional parallels to human history or current events. I doubt Nova does this to the same degree, and if it does, it likely has parallels to different current events (unless it alludes to anti-Japanese sentiment in WW2, the alliance system preceeding WW1, the war in Korea, Bernie Sanders from Vermont, the European Union, expansionism, etc.)
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I'm sorry if you feel I've stepped on your toes. Your post gave me the impression that you were looking for advice on the ship, and on TCs in general.
On another note, I am personally confident that there will be several plugins which will be objectively as good as or better than Nova - Nova will set the standard, which is actually a very hard thing to do. Remember that the Nova people have been working up from EVO to a new standard - a huge leap judging by everything we've seen and heard so far. They've probably had to remake and redesign everything dozens of times. Anybody improving on it will be standing on the shoulders of giants.
Think about the way EV broke the mold for space-adventure-strategy games. It was a colossal achievement. The plug in developers who came up with, for example, Eye of Orion and Angels of Vengeance probably could not have achieved what Matt Burch achieved. But, building on what he had done, they were able to improve it and take it to the next stage.
This is what I look forward to a year from now when (hopefully) Nova's been out long enough for us to be looking for new challenges.
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M A R T I N T U R N E R
