Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • The Ages Trilogy


      Well, you may have heard the name before, and just dismissed it as an overly-ambitious plug that would die in its infancy. Well, no offense to anybody, but I just LOVE proving people wrong. We've been recognized on the (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net")EV-Nova.net(/url) Upcoming Plug-Ins Directory, and our (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=383&forum;=7&0")Progress Log(/url) is alive and well. BariSaXGuy5 and Divals the Conqueror are our graphics artists: samples of their work can be seen on the EV Image Gallery, and other examples should be forthcoming on this thread shortly.
      This is also our comments/compliments page, where anybody here can throw out ideas, and, if they're good, then we'll use them. Sorry, no complaints allowed. 😄
      Alright, that's all I have to say. I look forward to your posts.

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      “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
      -- Robin Williams

    • What's it about?

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      "Please note that learning drugs are illeagle, and urine testing could take place. Any urine found cheating will be court marshalled."
      (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/mantaray5/EV/index.html")s p h e r e(/url)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Mantaray:
      **What's it about?

      **

      The Ages Trilogy is a set of three consecutive plugins. The one we're working on now, the Age of Exploration, is set about 60 years after the development of the HyperDrive, and about 30 years after the first one powerful enough to allow a vessel to make a jump without the use of a HyperGate.

      Most of the action in the first plugin centers around the Sol System, which is divided into a myriad of different governments: starting with the United Terran-Lunar Confederacy (U.T.L.C.), a socialistic bureaucracy loosely based on the American government in Farenheit 451 , a book by Ray Bradbury, and the New Moralists from Ben Bova's Mooonwar. Basically, a group of very, very hateable individuals who want to conquer the Universe. Stellar Transportation & Colonization, Inc., is a very powerful company that provides most of the civilian ships for Humanity. The United Free Colonies are former Terrans that went into voluntary exile to flee from the U.T.L.C.'s clutches. The Trojan Alliance is a mining and trading outfit in the Asteroid Belt.

      And these aren't even half of the governments. As time goes on, more will be revealed about the different governments and the roles they play.

      My only regret about this plugin is that since I'm helping to develop it, it won't be quite the same when I play it: BariSaXGuy5 and Divals the Conqueror are making sure that you'll get your fill of eye candy, and QT and I are ensuring that the storylines and writing are of top-notch quality.

      Thank you for the question, Mantaray, I enjoyed answering it.

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      “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
      -- Robin Williams

    • Some of that eye candy we promised. This is a 50 tW battery array (5 extra jumps) done by Divals the Conqueror. Available only if you have a large warship or cargo freighter:

      Posted Image

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      It's hard to enlighten someone if their brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

      (This message has been edited by Quantum Transcendence (edited 06-27-2002).)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by spacecowboy:
      **
      Thank you for the question, Mantaray, I enjoyed answering it.

      **

      And I enjoyed reading the answer. Wow, be sure to remember me when you get ready to beta test it.

      ------------------
      "Please note that learning drugs are illeagle, and urine testing could take place. Any urine found cheating will be court marshalled."
      (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/mantaray5/EV/index.html")s p h e r e(/url)

    • No problem, you'll be one of the first to know.

    • Yet more imagery. These are by BariSaxGuy5. For those of you that frequent the EV Image Gallery, many the ships he has posted there will feature in the plug. As you can see examples of the ships there, I figured I'd give you some of his less-seen work. Here is the blaster series for the Age of Exploration. These are the basic civilian weapons, created by the munitions division of the above mentioned corporation, STC. Without further babbling from myself, here are the graphics:

      Posted Image
      Light Blaster

      Posted Image
      Medium Blaster

      Posted Image
      Heavy Blaster

      Posted Image
      Turbo Blaster
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      It's hard to enlighten someone who's brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

      (This message has been edited by Quantum Transcendence (edited 06-27-2002).)

    • Sounds like a sweet plug-in. From what you've posted, it may very well succeed and be released, though one can never tell with team efforts.

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      "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams; live the life you've imagined!"
      Military Technology: (url="http://"http://www.army-technology.com/")Army(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ffiletop.html")Navy(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.af.mil/news/indexpages/fs_index.shtml")Air Force(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.firstgov.gov/topics/defense.html?ssid=1008272825086275_172")Defense Links(/url)
      Event Horizon: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum26/HTML/005842.html")Event Horizon(/url) | (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/marshalfak")Rauther Power Industries(/url)
      The Empire is Expanding: (url="http://"http://www.EVula.com")EVula.com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net")ev-nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/") _ EV/O/N Survival Guide_ (/url)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by General Rak:
      **it may very well succeed and be released, though one can never tell with team efforts.

      **

      Ah, yet another pessimist of team plugins. Howe'er, my friend, we have an ace in the hole: QT and I know each other IRL, and therefore know each other's phone #s. And a phone call at 2 in the morning is much harder to ignore than an email sent at the same time.

      QT may kill me for posting this, but I'm going to give you a few tips about our plugins:

      1. if you successfully complete a mission string, you will be amply rewarded
      2. if you fail to successfully complete a mission string, then a nasty surprise is in
        store for you
      3. game engine features such as cröns, deadly spöbs, gravity, in-scenario chärs, and so on, will be utilized to their full extent, and often times far beyond. When we come up with an idea, however strange, we figure out a way to make it work, even if it means jerry-rigging half the plug. This means we can do stuff like time travel (not really utilized in this plug, but might be in a future plugin separate from the Trilogy), AI flare riders (for you Hitchhiker's fans you know who you are), standoff attacks, paint outfits, and more.

      Have a nice day.

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      “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
      -- Robin Williams

    • Quote

      Originally posted by spacecowboy:
      ...gravity...

      :eek: That really screws around with the AI, you know.

      ------------------
      "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams; live the life you've imagined!"
      Military Technology: (url="http://"http://www.army-technology.com/")Army(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ffiletop.html")Navy(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.af.mil/news/indexpages/fs_index.shtml")Air Force(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.firstgov.gov/topics/defense.html?ssid=1008272825086275_172")Defense Links(/url)
      Event Horizon: (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum26/HTML/005842.html")Event Horizon(/url) | (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/marshalfak")Rauther Power Industries(/url)
      The Empire is Expanding: (url="http://"http://www.EVula.com")EVula.com(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net")ev-nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/") _ EV/O/N Survival Guide_ (/url)

    • Yeah, but you can use it to make black hole spobs, set the gravity to high and set the flag so when a ship touches it, including yours, it will be destroyed. I also read some where in the Nova bible I think that you can have an animated spob, so might as well make the black hole spin and stuff

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      Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Coraxus:
      **Yeah, but you can use it to make black hole spobs, set the gravity to high and set the flag so when a ship touches it, including yours, it will be destroyed. I also read some where in the Nova bible I think that you can have an animated spob, so might as well make the black hole spin and stuff

      **

      they already spin... sorta.. oh wait. Thats wormholes slap

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      Admiral Zombat
      (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/zombat/intro.html")Dune(/url)
      (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/zombat/tute/tute.html")The Zombula Technique(/url)

    • Quote

      Orginally Posted by General Rak:
      **That really screws around with the AI, you know.
      **

      Not too badly, but it is strange. We'd only use that for blackholes, and the occasional super-massive star.

      Quote

      Originally posted by Coraxus:
      **
      Yeah, but you can use it to make black hole spobs, set the gravity to high and set the flag so when a ship touches it, including yours, it will be destroyed. I also read some where in the Nova bible I think that you can have an animated spob, so might as well make the black hole spin and stuff
      **

      You can have animated spobs, hence the wormhole and hypergate pulsations. Yeap, you can set planets to be deadly, a feature which we may or may not use in the first plug, but will be very important in the third <cryptic grin>™. If we wanted to be highly accurate with a blackhole, the spob wouldn't be animated, it would be pitch black and invisible. However, that might be a little too mean for new players.

      BTW, thought you'd appreciate this: Posted Image
      This is BariSaxGuy5's work. The Agamemnon Battlecruiser. It is essentially, the biggest, baddest ship in the plug. Think about something that can take out a Polaris Nil'kimas Raven. Image has been scaled down to avoid divulging too much.
      ------------------
      It's hard to enlighten someone who's brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

      (This message has been edited by Quantum Transcendence (edited 06-28-2002).)

    • Maybe you should put the graphics on a page and link to the page - those Angelfire pix are really annoying...

      Divals

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      Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? What about potatoes?
      (url="http://"mailto:micahg@microserve.net")mailto:micahg@microserve.net(/url)micahg@microserve.net

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Quantum Transcendence:
      **
      However, that might be a little too mean for new players
      **

      But then they won't be so new after the first couple of times they die, will they?

      Just let it suffice that nothing is absolute; even less is as it seems; and, if you're not extraordinarily careful, you will die. Period. No if's, and's, or but's.

      Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the Raiders, based in the Asteroid Belt. They're kinda like the Free Traders, because they build their own ships (from Xenia Shipyards), but they're a whole lot meaner. And they have their arch-enemies, the mercenary group called the Hell's Angels, also based in the Asteroid Belt. Their ships are even bigger and badder, but there's not as many of them. I promise you (because I'm the one writing it) that the Hell's Angels string will be one of the most interesting in the plugs (plural, they persist throughout the Trilogy).

      Oh well. Have a good weekend, folks. tlk2ul8r

      ------------------
      “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
      -- Robin Williams

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Divals the Conqueror:
      **Maybe you should put the graphics on a page and link to the page - those Angelfire pix are really annoying...

      Divals

      **

      How so? They're loading fine over here. The post is convenient to people on the boards. You put a link up and no one's going to go there. Anyway, here are two other pictures. The first is the Ultra Impulse Turret, weapon for the above Agamemnon. Just got the sprites on that from BariSax, and I can say that it definitely looks the part of a Raven-killer (or Raider-killer in our plug). The second is our Solar Panel design, by Divals the Conqueror. The solar panel is the most common generator in the game. It's not too powerful, but is light and cheap. It will power a single Light Blaster ad infinitum (yes, our weapons will use energy. Not much, but they will). Anyway, here they are:

      Posted Image

      Posted Image

      ------------------
      It's hard to enlighten someone who's brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

      (This message has been edited by Quantum Transcendence (edited 06-28-2002).)

    • Well yeah, but going into the properties, copying the URL, then going there and coming back before the image will even load is time consuming. All i'm getting on this end is a pic that says 'image hosted by angelfire (url="http://"http://www.angelfire.com")www.angelfire.com'.(/url)

      Divals

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      Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? What about potatoes?
      (url="http://"mailto:micahg@microserve.net")mailto:micahg@microserve.net(/url)micahg@microserve.net

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Divals the Conqueror:
      **Well yeah, but going into the properties, copying the URL, then going there and coming back before the image will even load is time consuming. All i'm getting on this end is a pic that says 'image hosted by angelfire www.angelfire.com'.

      Divals

      **

      Well, all's loading properly on my computer. I'll go ahead and set up a page with the pictures later today, I want to get the Agamemnon finished and test it first.

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      It's hard to enlighten someone who's brain doesn't have an "on" switch.

    • (edit)finally gave up on the image. Don't worry, you'll get to see the ship eventually (/edit)
      ------------------
      “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”
      -- Robin Williams

      (This message has been edited by spacecowboy (edited 06-28-2002).)

      (This message has been edited by spacecowboy (edited 06-28-2002).)

      (This message has been edited by spacecowboy (edited 07-02-2002).)

      (This message has been edited by spacecowboy (edited 07-06-2002).)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Quantum Transcendence:
      **
      You can have animated spobs, hence the wormhole and hypergate pulsations. Yeap, you can set planets to be deadly, a feature which we may or may not use in the first plug, but will be very important in the third <cryptic grin>™. If we wanted to be highly accurate with a blackhole, the spob wouldn't be animated, it would be pitch black and invisible. However, that might be a little too mean for new players.
      **

      Actually, the actual black hole will be invisible (hence the name), but their locations can be deduced by the way they affect surrounding space. So you can have a black hole pulling material off a star in an acretion (or however you spell it) disk.

      Matrix

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      "Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."