The software described below is still in development, and may be subject to change. There is no fixed release date, and no new beta testers are being accepted at the present time.

As the next upcoming version of MissionComputer, my scenario editor for the Escape Velocity games, has now entered the beta testing stage, I thought I'd take a moment to show the development community the new features that are coming their way.

First of all, of course, MissionComputer 2.1 has received the (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-welcome.jpg")obligatory Welcome screen update(/url).

The first thing you'll notice as you run MissionComputer 2.1 is that the (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-docwindow.jpg")document window is reorganised(/url). The number of resource types MissionComputer can handle has increased so much that the old popup menu-based interface was getting a bit too crowded, so I shifted over to a two-column version.

The first new editor is for the (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-char.jpg")chär resource(/url), which is of course for EV Nova only. The second is a bit more interesting; it can (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-tmplbased.jpg")edit any resource from any of the three games(/url) using ResEdit templates. It's not as nice as a genuine MissionComputer editor, or even NovaTools, but it can occasionally save a trip into ResEdit, which is always a good thing, especially when you're using Mac OS X.

The templates for the new TMPL-based editor are delivered through a new MissionComputer plug-in system; (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-plugfolder.jpg")these three plug-ins(/url) will be included, and anyone can make their own plug-ins that deliver other TMPLs for specialised purposes. The only visible sign of the many under-the-hood changes that made the plug-in system possible is the (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/mc-pluglist.jpg")Plug-in List(/url) window (accessed from the Utilities menu), which keeps track of the installed plug-ins and a few of their attributes.

Oh, and there's one more thing.

In addition to just delivering ResEdit templates, MissionComputer's new plug-in architecture can also serve more sophisticated purposes, and the beta testers have also received the first major MissionComputer plug-in. I call it (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/cart-about.jpg")Cartographer(/url).

Cartographer provides graphical editors for the (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/cart-galaxy.jpg")entire galaxy(/url) (including graphical placement of systems, links, and nebulae) and for (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/cart-system.jpg")individual systems(/url) (including graphical placement of planets), and will soon have support for the spöb and nëbu resources. It can also (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/mc/210preview/cart-evomap.jpg")export the entire map(/url) to a PICT or JPEG graphic, and can run in full-screen mode.

MissionComputer 2.1 and Cartographer are now both in their first beta; there is currently no fixed release date, and the two will not necessarily be released together. If you're interested by what you see, though, please remember that the current MissionComputer 2.0 is still available from (url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url), and supports a number of resources from all three Escape Velocity games.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)
Developers: Check out the (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1150")MissionComputer 2.1 Preview(/url)!

...drool...

I've got to have it...my...Precious

erm, uh, sorry momentary overlap in fictional stories

Really excellent David, and finally a weap editor that I can run in OSX. Keep the features comings.

hint-ship rescource

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"Life is no life to him that dares not die,
And death no death to him that dares not live."
-- Sir Henry Newbolt.

Graphical galaxy and system editors, thats one thing long overdue in an editor. Keep up the good work

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I like long walks, especially those taken by people who annoy me.

Quote

Originally posted by ProtoformX:
**hint-ship rescource;) **

It's on the list...

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)
Developers: Check out the (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1150")MissionComputer 2.1 Preview(/url)!

I need it...

Thank you, especially for the map editor. How long I have been wanting something like this.

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Nón est ad astra mollis é terrís via.
There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.
-Seneca

David, if I said I loved you, would that make you uncomfortable?

Keep in mind, regardless of your response, I love you. Damn man, you're awesome.

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Quote

Originally posted by Ernimtir:
**Graphical galaxy and system editors, thats one thing long overdue in an editor. Keep up the good work

**

(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/003743.html")It's already here, dude.(/url)

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(url="http://"http://www.antidisestablishmentarianism.com/")Antidisestablishmentarianism(/url): You know it makes sense.

Quote

Originally posted by Mantaray:
**It's already here, dude.

**

Well, sure, but due to cheap parents I'm still on 8.6 and so that won't run. Plus MC will probably still be free. Either way it's still very nice.

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I like long walks, especially those taken by people who annoy me.

Me want, me want.

BTW, are you going to take any suggestion up to this point? Can people post their suggestions here?

If so, I was wonderng if you will be finally be able to complete all those little things where if I tried to access some features, I get one of those "Although they are here for completeness...etc. etc."

It would be great also if you added some expansion range on some of the resources for example, the cargo types when you edit a mission, so far it only lists standard default instead of including the ones you add to an expansion set.

Finally, it be nice if you brought back the drag'n'drop support feature, I remember you used to have them on the earlier versions.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus
I'm the only guy in the universe that can make horses laugh and cry.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ddstation")DryDock Station(/url), the future site of Coraxus's stuff.

Quote

Originally posted by Mantaray:
It's already here, dude.

What about Pontus' EVODM? That was a work of beauty.

At a certain point, I wonder if all these EV editors become purely academic, since there don't seem to be many developers interested in seeing large projects through to completion. Then again, if you enjoy coding them, more power to you.

-reg

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"Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again."
-Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs

Quote

Originally posted by Regulus:
**What about Pontus' EVODM? That was a work of beauty.

At a certain point, I wonder if all these EV editors become purely academic, since there don't seem to be many developers interested in seeing large projects through to completion. Then again, if you enjoy coding them, more power to you.

-reg

**

Pontus' Developer Map really was great. I liked it much more than EVONE's galaxy editor, which is nonetheless a very handy tool.

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Pez's Profile Refresh no. 15
Storm Bolt: 75 mana.Thunder Clap: 90 mana. Avatar: 125 mana. (url="http://"http://www.battle.net/war3/basics/herokillers.shtml")Owning their three heroes(/url) with your micro skills: priceless.
Some things just can't be finished with spells, for everything else, there's the (url="http://"http://www.battle.net/war3/human/units/mountainking.shtml")Mountain King(/url).

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
BTW, are you going to take any suggestion up to this point? Can people post their suggestions here?

Sure.

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
If so, I was wonderng if you will be finally be able to complete all those little things where if I tried to access some features, I get one of those "Although they are here for completeness...etc. etc."

I'm not sure which exact features you mean, but MissionComptuer fully supports most of the features that have tags like that, it's just a warning that the same isn't always true of Escape Velocity itself.

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
It would be great also if you added some expansion range on some of the resources for example, the cargo types when you edit a mission, so far it only lists standard default instead of including the ones you add to an expansion set.

If there's a modified version of the cargo types STR# resource in the current file, that will be used instead of the one from the data files. I'll see if I can extend the same support to STR-based expansions, though.

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
Finally, it be nice if you brought back the drag'n'drop support feature, I remember you used to have them on the earlier versions.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the drag'n'drop support feature".

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)
Developers: Check out the (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1150")MissionComputer 2.1 Preview(/url)!

By drag'n'drop I mean that I can just take my plug-in and drag it over the MC application and it will open it up, or, take the EV apps, or the data files and do the same thing, including the other series as well.

Whatever happened to that ability?

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus
I'm the only guy in the universe that can make horses laugh and cry.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ddstation")DryDock Station(/url), the future site of Coraxus's stuff.

Quote

Originally posted by Coraxus:
**By drag'n'drop I mean that I can just take my plug-in and drag it over the MC application and it will open it up, or, take the EV apps, or the data files and do the same thing, including the other series as well.

Whatever happened to that ability?**

Nothing whatsoever - I do it all the time. If it's not working for you, I'm not sure what's happening. If you're not using Mac OS X, try re-building your Desktop files. If you are, all I can think of at the moment is to delete and re-install MissionComputer.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)
Developers: Check out the (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1150")MissionComputer 2.1 Preview(/url)!

How about that idea I had for being able to filter missions? Any luck with that one?

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Quote

Originally posted by pesimist_guy:
**Pontus' Developer Map really was great. I liked it much more than EVONE's galaxy editor, which is nonetheless a very handy tool.

**

All you have to do is explain why and in what way and it will be improved.

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com")Arios SoftWare(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/prgrams/evone/")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

All right, then, we want it to automatically configure a galaxy using an input text file of syst and spob names that conforms to exactly what we want.

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Quote

Originally posted by SNM:
**All right, then, we want it to automatically configure a galaxy using an input text file of syst and spob names that conforms to exactly what we want.:p

**

See, it appears you are being purposefully un-helpful. If you are serious about improving the tools available, write up what you want, with details. All feature requests will be carefully considered and many will be implemented. You can post such requests at forums.ariossoftware.com or (url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/upcoming/evone/request/")http://www.ariossoft.../evone/request/(/url) Or, post here or at ev-nova.net if you want the request to be more widely considered. It is your choice, myself, DA, and the others are trying to develop tools that everyone wants, so tell us!

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(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com")Arios SoftWare(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.ariossoftware.com/prgrams/evone/")EVONE 1.0.0 - the plugin editor for EV/EVO/EVN(/url)

Haven't you ever seen a sticking-out-tongue smiley? (:p)
It was a joke. Not intended seriously at all. Sorry for any confusion.

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Okay, here is some list of improvements I like to see put in Mission Computer, unless you have already fixed them.

1. In the përs resource, I would like to see the quotes both hail and response have a pop-up list of any available STRs to be selected instead of guessing what number to put to correspond with the STR's ID. Or you can bring up a dialog which allows users to select which plug-in to use whatever STR they want, much like the same way of choosing spöbs or s˙sts in the mîsn resource.

2. In the mďsc resource, the user was able to bring up a pop-up list of combat rating settings, I like to see that also used for legal records as well.

3. When clicking the 'edit' button for making descriptions in the mďsc resources, it brings up a list of dësc resources available for users to select which to use. I would like to see a 'new' button feature in that window list to make it easier to assign a new ID resource number on the spot.

I think that's pretty much I can think up for now. Like I said, some of these may have been brought to your attention.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus
I'm the only guy in the universe that can make horses laugh and cry.
(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/ddstation")DryDock Station(/url), the future site of Coraxus's stuff.