As some of you may be aware, I've recently been working on a mission editor for EV Override. Now that I've completed the alpha 2 build, and the editor is reaching the beta stage, I've decided to release some more information. On the temporary (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")pre-release page(/url), you can find the progress log and six new screenshots.

This editor will be available as both a Classic application and Carbonised for Mac OS X. It includes full EV Override 1.0.2 support, and, while the initial relase supports EV Override only, I plan to write a version that supports the original Escape Velocity as well. It is unlikely that I will write an EV Nova version, however, given the work R&R; Software have already put into their NovaTools.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

(This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 11-06-2001).)

It all looks very promising, and I think your editor will be a great contribution.

A couple little issues though -- I looked at your mission description editor, and although it's probably not that important, it might be useful to have a listing of all existing descriptions, to know if there are any conflicts. Also, some fields that ask for IDs don't have anything to reference from (meaning I'd have to look up which dude or system is what ID in ResEdit). I felt that could be useful, as long as it didn't take away from performance like Schmelta-V did (I felt that that ran quite slowly).

But I think this thing will be great.

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Mike Lee (Firebird)

That sounds pretty good, David. Do you have beta testers lined up, and if not, what kind of liquid refreshment can I buy you to convince you to let me test 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

Quote

Originally posted by Firebird:
A couple little issues though -- I looked at your mission description editor, and although it's probably not that important, it might be useful to have a listing of all existing descriptions, to know if there are any conflicts. Also, some fields that ask for IDs don't have anything to reference from (meaning I'd have to look up which dude or system is what ID in ResEdit). I felt that could be useful, as long as it didn't take away from performance like Schmelta-V did (I felt that that ran quite slowly).

I'm exploring the possibilities of including lists of resource IDs from the standard scenario. The problem I'm up against is implementing it in such a way as to be neither slow nor limit the use of the editor for different types of plugin projects.

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
Do you have beta testers lined up...

Not yet, I'm still deciding how I'll handle testing and release.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Firebird:
Also, some fields that ask for IDs don't have anything to reference from (meaning I'd have to look up which dude or system is what ID in ResEdit). I felt that could be useful, as long as it didn't take away from performance like Schmelta-V did (I felt that that ran quite slowly).

Just a note: I think I figured out today how I can do this, but have it only happen when the user wants it to, which means it shouldn't slow the application down at all.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

I've updated the pre-release page (linked below) with new screenshots of the help system and resource selector.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

Wow, it all looks great. I'm thinking that if I'll be able to use a tool like this, I might make another attempt at making a plug-in again...

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Mike Lee (Firebird)

I noticed that the "help" file was just the EVO Bible section on missions. Would you like to use the Annotated Bible for that?

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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:
I noticed that the "help" file was just the EVO Bible section on missions. Would you like to use the Annotated Bible for that?

I'm still considering what the actual content of the help system will be. I do plan for it to contain more than just excerpts from the Override Bible (the editor has a few unusual aspects that I think will need to be explained), but I would certainly appreciate the use of the annotated version.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

I've updated the (url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")prerelease page(/url) with preliminary screenshots of this utility running on Mac OS X, and the announcement that the Classic version will soon be ready for testing, with the Carbon version to follow.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://inpar.dhs.org/mc.html")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

Time is an illusion, downtime doubly so. I've re-posted the web site and all its attendant screenshots on a new server which is not likely to crash, and the prerelease page can now be accessed at (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/(/url).

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

Today's progress log entry...

Quote

Originally posted by me:
**November 6, 2001

• Implemented the creation of new empty plugins.

• Implemented graphical selection for the AvailStel, TravelStel, and ReturnStel fields.

• Designed logo graphic.

• I've completed the Alpha 4 build, which will quite likely become Beta 1 with little or no modification.

**

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

For a couple of reasons, I'd like to conduct a survey of anyone who's interested in MissionComputer. Specifically, I'd like to know what type of hardware and what Mac OS version you would be running it on.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**For a couple of reasons, I'd like to conduct a survey of anyone who's interested in MissionComputer. Specifically, I'd like to know what type of hardware and what Mac OS version you would be running it on.
**

I'm very interested in it; I'll probably be using it a lot once it's released and I get on with working on CrazyChipmunk's plugin . . .

Processor/Speed: G3/333MHz

Model: iMac Rev B

RAM: 288 MB

OS: Mac OS X 10.1.1

By the way, I'm just curious, why did you use Carbon and not Cocoa if you there were going to be an OS 9 or less version and an OS X version?

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YakKa Foob MoG. GRuG
PubbuWuP ZiNk WattooM
GaZoRK. CHuMBLE SpuZz.

266Mhz G3 with 768 MB RAM (ph34r me!!) and OS 9.1.

He used Carbon so that the two versions could share most of their code.

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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

its on EVO board too, but i'll recap here: G3 366, 192 ram, OS 9.2.1

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=Spread the Chaos=

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
266Mhz G3 with 768 MB RAM (ph34r me!!) and OS 9.1.

ph33r you?!? ph33r my dual 533 G4 with 1.25 GB RAM!

(Actually David, I'm not all that interested until it also works for EV, since I don't write EVO plugs. I just had to respond to Dyno's "ph34r," sorry)

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

Quote

Originally posted by Lord Gwydion:
By the way, I'm just curious, why did you use Carbon and not Cocoa if you there were going to be an OS 9 or less version and an OS X version?

As WickedDyno said, since I used Carbon, the Classic and X versions can be built from almost exactly the same codebase. If I had chosen to use Cocoa, I would have had to written each feature from the ground up twice (once for Classic and once for Cocoa), not to mention waiting until I learned enough Cocoa to write this. Plus, Carbon applications can be developed from Mac OS 9, and I started development a good bit before I got Mac OS X.

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
(Actually David, I'm not all that interested until it also works for EV, since I don't write EVO plugs. I just had to respond to Dyno's "ph34r," sorry)

Support for the original Escape Velocity shouldn't be too much work (after all, all I have to do is delete features), and I plan to start work around when I release the EV Override version, which will be entering beta soon. I decided to do the EV Override version first because it's easier to write the whole thing and then take functionality out than to write the whole thing then add features, and because Escape Velocity already has a passable mission editor in the form of Schmelta-V.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

(This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 11-16-2001).)

David, one question. What would happen if I were to open a plug with EV missions in it in your editor? Would the additional fields be filled in with zeros as ResEdit would?

------------------
"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:
David, one question. What would happen if I were to open a plug with EV missions in it in your editor? Would the additional fields be filled in with zeros as ResEdit would?

I believe so, but I'll have to check to make sure. So far I've only been testing it with EV Override data.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)