So I'd been becoming more and more dissatisfied with the extant version of the Annotated Bible. For one thing, DocMaker is nigh-obsolete, and the apps it creates are rather bloated. Hard to print, too, if you're in the mood to kill some trees. Then I noticed in the manual for PrintToPDF that it can recognize certain styles of text as headings, thus allowing you to divide it up into sections fairly easily. That thing is a marvel, incidentally.

So I've begun work on converting the existing Annotated Bible into a document suitable to be Printed into a PDF. I expect to be done sometime next week. I'm not just converting existing material; I'm adding comments, new information, etc.

Well, if anyone has any comments on this (e.g. PDF sucks, Docbook r00lz; Dude, I've got this vital info that needs to go in the new edition; Dude, I think such-and-such about the Annotated bible needs work; Dude, the Annotated Bible is awesome; Dude, you rock; Dude, my beautiful female cousin wants to date you; etc.), post away.

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg

*The Avail Ship Type field for the misn resource is very unreliable.

*Descs can be no longer than 1024 characters

*Any pers with Id >399 won't appear in the AlwaysPers field

*I thought I heard something about setting the ammo type to -999 doesn't work too well, but i've never tried it.

I'll come back if I think of anything else.

I've also seen quite a few newbies confused with your explanation of hexflags. I tied to explain it to them a little better once: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/001925.html")http://www.AmbrosiaS...TML/001925.html(/url)

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Cuz I'm a 21st Century Digital Boy
I don't know the Monty Python but I've got a lotta toys
My daddy is a Renegade, his name is Hellcat Helian
Wait a second...

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
So I've begun work on converting the existing Annotated Bible into a document suitable to be Printed into a PDF. I expect to be done sometime next week. I'm not just converting existing material; I'm adding comments, new information, etc.

If you need any post-processing work done on the PDF (I'm assuming you don't have Acrobat since you're using PrintToPDF), I'd be quite willing to help; I have Acrobat 4.

Quote

Originally posted by 21st Century Digital Boy:
Descs can be no longer than 1024 characters

Really? I guess I should integrate that limit into my upcoming editor.

Quote

Originally posted by 21st Century Digital Boy:
Any pers with Id >399 won't appear in the AlwaysPers field

I thought that in that case the problem turned out to be that seant hadn't created a new pilot file after adding the përs resources, so the engine thought they were already dead.

Quote

Originally posted by 21st Century Digital Boy:
I thought I heard something about setting the ammo type to -999 doesn't work too well, but i've never tried it.

It works fine for the player, but AI ships won't fire any -999 AmmoType weapon.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
I thought that in that case the problem turned out to be that seant hadn't created a new pilot file after adding the përs resources, so the engine thought they were already dead.

Correct. That reference doesn't need to go in.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Hmm, I'm able to put more than 1024 characters in a dësc. Is that the amount that the game will display?

I've already noted that the only përsonalities available to the game are those which were extant in the Data file or any active plugs when the pilot was created.

Thanks, David: I might take you up on that. I'm not sure about all that Acrobat can do, though. I don't intend to encrypt the PDF or anything like that, but maybe it can optimize it further, like compress the graphics or something.

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg

(This message has been edited by WickedDyno (edited 09-29-2001).)

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
**Hmm, I'm able to put more than 1024 characters in a dësc. Is that the amount that the game will display?
**

Actually, I believe it's the number the desc resource can store; at any rate the game will not display characters above that limit.

Quote

**
... I'm not sure about all that Acrobat can do, though. I don't intend to encrypt the PDF or anything like that, but maybe it can optimize it further, like compress the graphics or something.
**

Acrobat, or rather Acrobat Distiller, can indeed compress graphics a significant amount. However, PDFs SUCK for viewing onscreen, DocMaker is a much better choice for something to be used as a digital document. PDF is probably better for printing, haven't tried to do much printing from DocMaker.

Glad to see you are updating the annotated edition; now I won't have to do it. I assume you are adding all the EVO 1.0.2 features. Might want to mention the modified outfit picture bug, also.

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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

Joe , I've always thought that PDF files were pretty good for viewing onscreen, particularly since they are resolution-independent (except for bitmapped graphics), can have bookmarks, etc. However, if a significant number people would prefer it, I could make a version for screen viewing instead. I'd really rather not use DocMaker, though. Would you object to an HTML version that could be read using your weapon^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrowser of choice?

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg

Dude, you rock. And my beautiful female cousin wants to date you.

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--ares
"I'm going to live my life by the ideals that my hippy forefathers refused to go to war and fight for." -- Homer Simpson
Check out my EV website: (url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url).

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
**Joe , I've always thought that PDF files were pretty good for viewing onscreen, particularly since they are resolution-independent (except for bitmapped graphics), can have bookmarks, etc. However, if a significant number people would prefer it, I could make a version for screen viewing instead. I'd really rather not use DocMaker, though. Would you object to an HTML version that could be read using your weapon^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrowser of choice?

**

Of course since you are the person doing the work, you can make the bible in whatever format you choose

PDF is fine for pictures, but since the bible is primarily a text document to be read, I really would prefer another format. I have never seen a PDF that was really readable, the text is always garbage on screen, though it prints very well. I have suffered through a considerable number of PDFs dowloaded from web sites, received as "online manuals" for peripherals, and have made a few for transmitting copy to print shops, and have yet to see one that was readable on a monitor. And of course a PDF requires a reader application, which is DocMaker's big advantage. If you don't like DocMaker, I believe there are some other applications which also create self-reading documents. I would much rather have a plain text file that a PDF. An HTML document might be useable if it were set up for viewing with all browsers.

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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

we really did not need this posted twice

Sorry, guys.

(This message has been edited by Joe Burnette (edited 09-30-2001).)

Here's one:
Howabout telling how to designate a PICT to a ship. *Sinse I don't know how. Could you tell me?) And try not to let the Pictures in the new Bible overlap the text.

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"The Answer. . . Lies beyond the horizen" - Me, David L. Clark "The Beloved"
(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ev_evo_spacebetweensoftware/")http://www.geocities...btweensoftware/(/url)

The annotated bible was an is a wonderful thing, and one of my major learning tools.

However -- pdating it to the 1.02 version of the game would be wonderful. I'm afraid I asked a number of stupid questions on this board before discovering there was a later edition of the bible.

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"Ame" Arashi

TSB: Yeah, that's one of the annoying things about DocMaker. It provides no box model for graphics, and if the font changes between systems, the layout can be affected.

Could anyone replying to this topic from now on state whether they'd prefer a PDF version, an HTML version, both, or other (and if so, what)?

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
**TSB: Yeah, that's one of the annoying things about DocMaker. It provides no box model for graphics, and if the font changes between systems, the layout can be affected.

Could anyone replying to this topic from now on state whether they'd prefer a PDF version, an HTML version, both, or other (and if so, what)?

**

Hey, Dyne. How's the AwfulRauw these days?

.pdf or HTML, either is fine. Just no java or it will do the same silly stuff DocMaker does (re-format and cut off parts of things).

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"Ame" Arashi

I've got no particular additions i'm desperate for, but I would like to put a vote up for HTML (or, let's face it , ANYTHING other than PDF). I find PDFs slow to draw onscreen, annoying due to their constant resizing, and in no way superior to DocMaker apps or HTML in anything other than printing.

(/rant)

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Mazca

Well, sounds like HTML is a popular option. I had no idea people disliked PDFs so much -- they've always been one of my preferred formats. De gustibus non dispudantum, I guess.

Speaking of PDFs, I've finished the (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/andyg/ev/annotatedevbible.d1.pdf")first draft of the Annotated EV Bible(/url), and made a pdf out of it. I will be making an HTML version soon, and I guarantee that it will work on a wide variety of browsers. I will not be using Word:mac 2001's save as HTML function. shudder (Well, unless I can find a tool that can transform the gibberish that comes out of that into reasonably human-readable markup.)

There aren't that many changes that need to be made for EV Override, so I'll be working on that next. Meanwhile, if you'd like to comment on the above document's content (not its format) I'd appreciate it. There are a few things I need to work out. For example, Monaco font isn't showing up right.

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
**... Meanwhile, if you'd like to comment on the above document's content (not its format) I'd appreciate it...
**

Looks darn good, considering it's in...Oh, sorry no comments on format, right

Looks darn good. I really like the expanded explanations of how to accomplish several tasks, it makes the old bible into a real 'how-to' document, instead of only a "what's in here" file.

I did notice a couple of minor errors that have been with us since the beginning. In the weapons section, there is a note not to use the last weapon ID which is reserved for the Forklift, but it gives the ID number as 163. The ID number is 191, the index number is 63. In the dudes section there is a heading which says "The five different AI types are:" and then proceeds to list six AI types (only four of which plug-in designers can use.)

Very good (and quick) work!

Moderators! A little karma for my man here, if you please!

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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

Joe : Thank you. I've fixed those things. This is very much a first draft, though. I've decided to ask Ambrosia's formal permission to make a derivative work on the EV Bible, because it's really not longer possible to argue that what I've done is "fair use". IANAL, but this no longer preserves the original structure nor the entire original content.

21st Century Digital Boy : I finally got around to reading that post you linked to. I agree, that's a somewhat better explanation than mine. I'll work on improving it.

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"She said, 'Honey, you know I gave up cigarrettes for my new-year's resolution... but I didn't give up SMOKIN'!"
-- The Blues Brothers, "I Don't Know"
Bounty Plus, Final Battle and the Annotated Bibles
idisk: andyg