Since you guys here are those who will be veiwing my plugs, I have a poll for you. Would you prefer having to wait longer to get all of the missions in a plug, or updates every now and then with some missions in them.
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wait longer. i hate having to stop in the middle of a mission string.
(edit)whoops, saw EVula's post after i posted mine, as we posted at the same time... no point in erasing it now though.(/edit)
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(This message has been edited by Planet_Buster (edited 12-28-2001).)
This kind of thing belongs on the Dev board, not here.
Um, consider this an iLock, but it ain't one of my boards... just no one reply to it, okay? 
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I would say that you should create enough missions initially to get some addition to the storyline, continue to add more to the storyline on each update.
On the initial release, fit in completions to 1 or 2 core missions from the original story, add maybe 1 or 2 new core missions that you will finish out in another update. The only thing you want to avoid is to have missions stop abruptly and have no real ending. (Example is the Turin V Terraforming Project. You run a bunch of missions, and in the end, Turin V is still a boring red planet.)
This is a tactic I plan on trying in my plug, so after The Cygnus Alliance comes out in a few months, I will be working on a mission add-on pack to follow up shortly afterwards, and then another shortly after that, and then a finale. (At this time I only will release codenames to my projects: Alpha, Delta, and Omega)
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(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/captainz")Captain Z's Starbase of EV Stuff(/url)
I would recommend spliting it up into several parts, and releasing each seperatly. Not necessairly unfinished parts, but different parts that can stand alone by temselves. For example, Pesimist Guy and I are splitting The Silent Ruins of Earth into three "acts": Act 1 - The Aftermath(The different clusters, after having somewhat stabalized after the first Great War, looking past thier borders and looking to tame the wild universe that still remains in fragments), Act 2 - War Crimes (The Second Great War that results from this), and Act 3 - New Horizons (The forming of the secret organization that I have yet to come up with a name for to ensure that the cycle is broken (i.e., otherwise there would eventually be another Great War devestating the universe again, so on and so forth), and mankind's(and nassanitekind's) reaching out past the Milky Galaxy after the nassanites figure out the intergalactic shift drive.
To put this all in one plug would, besides seriously stretching even Nova's resources, take a long, long time. Instead, if we release each act seperatly, then players don't have to wait years for it and we can still get the whole thing out.
But none of then really leave the player hanging too much.
Act 1 ends pretty much the same wat EV and EVO end
Act 2 ends with the end of the Second Great War
Act 3 ends with the final(we think) end
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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...
(This message has been edited by 21st Century Digital Boy (edited 12-29-2001).)
My vote: Finish the plugin, then release it all at once.
Because:
you can always write a sequel later
you may want to rewrite the earlier missions in the light of the later ones -- you can't really do that if it's been released
having just watched part I of the Lord of the Rings, I am reminded of how irritating part-works are.
Regards
Martin
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M A R T I N • T U R N E R
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I'm doing both. I'm currently working on Galactic Dissent, a small t/c. When I say small, I mean that's it has a fairly small galaxy, only 133 systems, including uninhabited ones. But, it is very complex and complicated, so it's a small galaxy with big plans.
Anyway, I'm also working on small plugins on the side, as I get cool ideas. The feature set for GD is locked down, so I can't add them there, but the ideas are too nice to throw away. As a result, I'm working them into smaller plugins.
I had the idea of 'I want to continue the Rebel/Confed war, but not to an end.'
As a result, I plan to be releasing small 'Mission Packs' every once and a while, each one with a different, independant storyline. That way, a user can grab any one pack, play the storyline, and be done, without having to go through the whole series. They're small, fun, and have new ships, systems, and such, so that the galaxy actually changes as a result of the missions you undertake for the Rebels or Confederates.
Anatole.
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Let me congratulate you on your determination to make a TC with a small galaxy but lots happening.
This sounds like the plugin I want to play.
We've so often had people on this board who say something like: "I am making the biggest TC ever. It has x000 worlds, every ship slot filled, every weapon slot filled, every outfit slot filled. It may have some missions if I have time."
Best of luck. I look forward to seeing it.
Cheers
Martin
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M A R T I N • T U R N E R
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FrozenHeart104.sit.bin")Frozen Heart(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/vftp/show.pl?product=evo&category;=plugins&display;=downloads&file;=FemmeFatale.sea.bin")Femme Fatale(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl?path=evo/plugins&file;=Frozen Heart - the No.hqx")Frozen Heart - the Novel(/url)
Quote
Originally posted by Martin Turner:
**Let me congratulate you on your determination to make a TC with a small galaxy but lots happening.
This sounds like the plugin I want to play.
We've so often had people on this board who say something like: "I am making the biggest TC ever. It has x000 worlds, every ship slot filled, every weapon slot filled, every outfit slot filled. It may have some missions if I have time."
Best of luck. I look forward to seeing it.
Cheers
Martin
**
Well said, my friend. More often than not people go for quantity while forgoing substance and quality. And your phrasing "if I have time" makes me fondly remember the newbie who many, many months, maybe even two years ago said that he was developing a plug-in with over 5,000 ships, weapons and missions. Oh, and multiplayer, if he got time that weekend. It was a classic.
_bomb
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