Well, I've been sitting here at work, and I've been brainstorming about what I'd really like for EV4. But I put a limit on it- all this has to be within the scope of the EV to EVO update- nothing drastic requiring major engine changes. So, on that note, let me mention Multiplayer EV and true 3D EV. There. May that be the only time those topics are mentioned in this thread. Also as a preliminary, I realize this is more a Nova-board like topic, but I don't think anybody there would understand any of these feature requests. "D00d, j00 know what wud be kewl? If EV was a MMRPG, with a ship that shoots poop..." Yeah, I think this is a little beyond that. Now, onto the good stuff: Things I Want in EV:SS
1. Ability to do multiples of things in mission set strings, using a syntax like this: 100Gxxx, which would be equivalent to doing 100 Gxxx's. This would work on any NCB operator. It would also work for the Oxxx test function, something like this: 100Oxxx, which would return true if you have 100 of xxx. Calling it without a multiple would work normally. It would be nice to have a few more options here, so that we could test greater than and less than in addition to equal.
2. Conditional operators in set strings! Being able to do if(Bxxx) then (NCB String), or some similar syntax.
3. Better nesting support in the NCB evaluator. We should be able to nest operations as deep as we want without hassle, including the above conditional and the current random operator. R(R(b0,b1),if(b1)then(R(b3,b4)else b5) should work without a hitch.
4. Ability to nest commands in Desc resources. {B1 "{b2 "1", "2"}"} should work, for as many layers as I want. Nice, but not mandatory, would be the ability to use any NCB bit test inside a desc.
5. Set strings in the syst resource. OnExplore, which is evaluated the first time you enter the system, and OnEnter which is evaluated every time. We could simplify this and keep using nebulas as we've been doing, eliminating the need for OnExplore, but OnEnter is really needed.
6. Set strings for planets. OnLand and OnLeave. OnLeave would definately be highter priority than on land (since missions can do that).
7. BUILT IN COUNTERS! Accessable through NCB's. These would be built into the engine and accessed by number like NCB's. There would be Inc(xxx) and Dec(xxx), which would increment or decrement counter xxx, which starts at 0. In the set string, a function to test the value of the counter, probably using syntax similar to the Oxxx I mentioned before. Better yet, three operators, one for equal, greater, and less than. Of course, you could do this: 3*Inc(xxx), and nest it in expressions.
8. Ability for missions to test the player's rating with a particular government, not just "This system's government". Better yet, make an NCB test like the above counter tests that test government rating, where xxx is the ID of the government.
9. Removing the dependance of the spobs in a system on the government of the system. I think the only thing the syst's gov should do is define what color to draw on the map.
10. BETTER SUPPORT FOR VISBITS! Nova should be able to randomly select visbitting planets/systems. Now, I know the problem involved here, and I have a solution: Planet classes. Add a field to the spob that lets you assign a class to that spob- similar to the Outfit's class field. Now, any planet with the same class value should be logically equivalent to the original spob. Last, leave control and risk management in the hands of the coders. An example: Nova randomly chooses Earth as a good destination. Before you complete the mission, Earth changes to EarthB. HOWEVER, Earth and EarthB both have 6 as their planet class, so now EarthB is logically equivalent (as far as a destination is concerned) to Earth, and landing on EarthB completes the mission. Only 1 field! Come on!
11. In save files, link the player's absolute position as where to restart the player. This is a very obscure glitch that resulted in the planets not being able to orbit- Nova wouldn't correctly remember where the pilot was last.
12. Add a flag to the outfit resource, "Evaluate OnSell when used as Ammo". That would fix alot of problems. I'm going to have to continue in another post, I'm on a telnet connection using Lynx, and it only gives me 12 lines to type in.
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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)
Sides, what would Jonathan Boyd and I spend our time doing if counters were built in?
