What do yall think of this:
There is always a Cron opperating. Say, a 60 day cron.
When you get a new ship, the current cron gets disabled, and a new one is started (these crons would have a few different classes cheap/expensive ships to maintain, reliable/unreliable, large/small)
At the end of the cron, you will be given a "Disrepair" outfit. This outfit would reduce turning, or reduce accell, or fuel efficiency, etc.
When you have any disrepair outfits, a disapear-on-purchase item will appear called "Routine Maintainece" that will remove the disrepair outfit.
There might also be an item called Preventative maintainence that will reset the cron (and cost alot less than repairing your ship from a state of disrepair)
You could also purchase an outfit to stop the crons, but it would grant a rank that cost money every day, to simulate the costs of keeping up on repairs.

This could obviously be made more complex with a little work.
What do yall think?
-Az

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I think that's not too bad an idea.

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It already makes hardly any sense, and you wwant to make it MORE complex? You crazy, insane person (i call many people silly names; just ignore me and don't take it personally ;))...

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The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug."
(Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?)

Cool idea. I was under the impression that that upcoming plug-in Sephil Saga was going to do something like that (only much more complex). But it would certainly add to the game.

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")Fatal Alliance- an upcoming quasi-TC for EVN.(/url)
Secret Project: In intermediate planning stages. (No links available)

Speaking of upcoming plug-ins, do you ever plan to update the webpage for yours? I'm starting to feel guilty about not doing any proof reading for a while, and I need to know how much time I have to do so...

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The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug."
(Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?)

It's been updated quite a few times, but a major update is due sometime soon ;).

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")Fatal Alliance- an upcoming quasi-TC for EVN.(/url)
Secret Project: In intermediate planning stages. (No links available)

Quote

Originally posted by UE_Research & Development:
**It's been updated quite a few times, but a major update is due sometime soon;).

**

Huh. it looks exactly the same to me...so, if I've done like 5 or 10 pages, should I be doing, like, 10 a day to catch up? Or just 5? Or 3? Or even 1?

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The programmer's code of etemology: "There's always another bug."
(Etemology is defined as the study of insects.) (Or was it just bugs in general?)

Its a good idea Azratax, and it could work fairly easily. Give it a try, see if it works out okay withought being too much of a hassle for the player.

(edit)Maybe when you have to repair your ship, it activates a mission boosting the day ahead by 2 or something.(/edit)

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(This message has been edited by Andcarne (edited 09-22-2003).)

Do it, then bug EVula to update the Add-ons page.
Or get me a copy, sounds cool, keep up the good ideas, Azratax.

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T the omnipotent went where no mortal had gone before. Now he comes back to make sure none do again.
"The First Representative for the Vell-os turns back to the doors and they suddenly, without warning, explode outwards causing everybody to flinch. The Vell-os representatives file out unopposed."
-EV:N Preamble

It's an idea I've been toying with as well for inclusion in the TC that keeps running round my head and occasionally dribbling out onto by iBook.

S yes, I think it's a good idea :^) Of course, you'd have to have different outfits assigned, depending on the type of ship. A leviathan should lose less performance than a Viper.

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(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/evn/index.html")Classic4Nova plug-in(/url)

Catastrophic events could also be handled differently; larger ships being less prone to extreme and spectacular failures than smaller ships.

To go with Jonathan's Viper example:

If the engines on a Viper exploded (due to lack of maintenance or some other factor), it would be very likely that the pilot would be consumed in the explosion. However, if the same failure occured with the engines of a Leviathan, the ship might be damaged, but probably not ripped apart; as well the crew would probably not die immediately from the explosion, being so far seperated from the engine area.

You could also go with different Hyperdrives- Stock Drive A has a reliability period of 90 days and has a Fuel Scoop Value of 60, Performance Drive B has a reliability period of 30 days, speed, acceleration and turn rate boosts, and Efficiency Drive C has a reliability period of 160 days and a Fuel Scoop Value of 15...just an example.

Just some thoughts

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ue_rd")Fatal Alliance- an upcoming quasi-TC for EVN.(/url)
Secret Project: In intermediate planning stages. (No links available)

Since I'm fiddling around with a plugin that does exactly this, I think it's a marvelous idea. I'd love to see what you come up with, Azratax.

I began my own effort as an exercise to teach myself about manipulating crons and invisible missions and things just took on a life of their own. Boy, did they ever, LOL.

Here's how I set things up:

The structure is modelled on the cheap carbon fiber cron sequence in Nova's main scenario and works very much like you describe in your post. When each "maintenance" cron expires, it sets a bit which assigns an "engine damage" outfit, begins the next maint. cron and triggers an auto-aborting mission. The mission texts inform the player that damage has occured and that the smoke billowing out of the engine compartment might be a Bad Thing™

Left unchecked, damage crons keep rolling along in 10% increments and by the time one's engine is down to 50% capacity the ship handles like an elephant with a hangover. Buying cheap ships might not be such a great idea after all. If you allow your ship to be disabled by an opponent then all sorts of gremlins might be set free. Engineer as repair system helps in the latter case.

While there are 5 different states of "engine damage", each with an accompanying "Engine repairs" outfit, the graphics are similar for all. The intention was to require a diagnostic procedure of some sort at a shipyard before you could gain access to the repair outfits. Couldn't make the diagnostic idea work cleanly at the time, but I'm sure it can be done.

Regular maintenance, specific repairs or the presence of an top quality Engineer on board resets the damage cron bits.

The entire process has been great fun and very instructive for a relative beginner like myself.

I've set up my engine maintenance stuff to work as part of a larger plug rather and hadn't planned on releasing it as a stand-alone product so if any of these ideas inspire you, use them amd make something fun.

Best of luck,

(edited for spelling)

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epower

(This message has been edited by epower (edited 09-23-2003).)

Like the idea but 60 days seems awfully short. Perhaps I'm just comparing it to the maintenance schedule of a car too much but I'd just like to think that at 1130NC (or whatever) ships could go longer than 2 months. Even the biggest warships can stay at sea for months and they're the ones that require the most work. Course those ones are maintained while at sea by their extensive crews. Aircraft even may be meticulously looked over before each flight but I don't think that routine maintenance is so common. Personally, I'd think about making it closer to 6 months or even a year. But I spose different types of ships can have different maintenance intervals as well. Otherwise, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

(edit) then again... with all those battles one seems to run into in Nova, 60 days may be too long (/edit)

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((Ż'ˇ.¸(Ż'ˇ.¸Ť•-KAME-•ť¸.ˇ'´Ż)¸.ˇ'´Ż))
I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.
(url="http://"http://www.0three0.net/l-1551/")L 1551(/url) - The official site of RONIN and The Way and the ten thousand things

(This message has been edited by Kame (edited 09-23-2003).)

Kame: Yeah. It's all those battles that do it to the ship.... I dont think theres a way to make a cron depend on battle damage though.
-Az

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I'd prefer it to be more often, but cheaper. Otherwise, if it only happens occasionally, I'd get stuck somewhere, not able to move or afford a repair. Could you make it lower the trade in value?

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Quote

Originally posted by check:
**I'd prefer it to be more often, but cheaper. Otherwise, if it only happens occasionally, I'd get stuck somewhere, not able to move or afford a repair. Could you make it lower the trade in value?

**

I believe that lowering the trade in value is only possible through a negative valued oütf, which would cost zip for repairs then. (If - values for cost are even possible)

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T the Omnipotent went where no mortal had gone before. Now he comes back to make sure none do again.
(url="http://"http://forums.tildesoft.com/")Oblivion:(/url) An upcoming TC for EV: Nova
Visit (url="http://"http://www.EVula.com")EVula's Lair(/url) for a wealth of knowledge.

If i can possibly do so, it will lower tradein value.
And since there will be two sets of outfits (repairs and damage) the value of one set doesnt effect the value of the other.
-Az

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Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**Kame: Yeah. It's all those battles that do it to the ship.... I dont think theres a way to make a cron depend on battle damage though.
-Az

**

this is a very thought-provoking topic. it seems that after traveling halfway (sometimes further) accross the known galaxy and back, hypering in and out of systems almost before you know they are even there in order to avoid that enemy blockade, and taking countless hits to what appears to be something a little less expendable than uniform sheild layering there should be some wear,tear, or damage done to a ship's engine(s) system(s).
all the ideas posted so far have been great. i'm no expert so i can't say if any of them will definitely work or not but they seem like they will. as i said, i'm just learning about alot of this stuff and what i find myself thinking of more and more are potential add-ons or TC features that are . . . here it goes, 'resource interdependent' (whatever that means). Not like its some incredible innovation or anything but like the main idea of this topic alot of depth could be acheived (not to say that it isn't already there) by establishing new relationships btween the, as i see them, extremely well designed and expansive Nova resources.

Ship maintenence required due to routine or circumstantial wear/damage is a great idea
--linking it to the crön and having engines degrade or become dangerous makes alot of sense. is all this going on when we refuel? damage recieved in battle would also affect a ship's engine, external hardware(sensors, weapons,etc.),reactors/batteries.
the disrepair outfit is a good idea. it could possibly have a value as all outfits show quantity owned. if cron can't depend on battle damage battle damage, battle damge could add (variably) to the quantity of disrepair outfits owned. this could get really interesting. anyway, i hope that someone will be interested in this: i am new at the whole plugin game but itching to get my feet wet and hopefully will be soon. thus far most of my time has been devoted to research. i would be eternally greatful if someone out there might let me observe the making of a plug. i'm not just lazy trust me. being extremely application oriented i want to accelerate plugin dev. learning process. if nothing more a detailed progress log or updates via email would be incredible. by the way i hope no one views this as any kind of solicitation. if you do i am sorry. please understand that i really have no motive other than wanting to contribute to the expansion of this wonderful game and the community that surrounds it. i should be able to be reached via email

Azratax2, Jonathan Boyd, epower: if none of you mind could i email you with detailed questions about this type of plug?

thanks again everyone

_FJW

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Quote

Originally posted by Krypt-tokh6:
I believe that lowering the trade in value is only possible through a negative valued oütf, which would cost zip for repairs then. (If - values for cost are even possible)

Actually, there are other ways - use a rank.

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Originally posted by acceleratemvmnt:
Azratax2, Jonathan Boyd, epower: if none of you mind could i email you with detailed questions about this type of plug?

Sure, anytime. Though I'm flying back to uni on Thursday and will be away for the weekend so there'll be some brief disruption to my mail.

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(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/jonathanboyd/evn/index.html")Classic4Nova plug-in(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by acceleratemvmnt:
**
Azratax2, Jonathan Boyd, epower: if none of you mind could i email you with detailed questions about this type of plug?
**

Go right ahead. I think you would rather IM me (AIM: Azratax) than email me, because i check my email once every 2 or 3 days tops, and I swear my spam filter is deleting useful mail. But i can never catch it in the act.

Comments/ideas:
Polaris ships dont have such routine maintanence. They are living and self-repairing, and as such, do not need maintainance like mechanical ships do.
Starbridges, with thier radicaly different design and appalling kludge for power generation (which would appear to result in the failure of life support should the engines stop), as well as thier stunning specs for a ship of thier size (indicative of everything tweaked for maximum proformance in minimum space), would propably tend to need more maintainence than a more proven, less cutting edge design.
Owning an after burner increases nessesary engine maintainence. Dumping raw fuel into the engine is NOT good for it.
I wonder if i could make it show a message explaing how the captain just heard a loud Kathunk noise from the engine area....
-Az

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(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 09-29-2003).)