I am in the middle of completing a plug-in for EVN, and I would like to be able to make it so that certain missions and government news appear right after particular missions are completed and right before moving onto the next mission after a set amount of time. The problem is though that I am new to plug-in development, and I am not familiar with how to accomplish this, could someone help answer my question?

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

No problem.
My understanding is that you want this effect:
1. Mision A is done
2. New missions ( become available, news shows
3. X days pass
4. News stops, another mission becomes available.

EX:
Misn A: OnSuccess B100
Cron: EnableOn: B100 & !b101, Holdoff's 0, duration=x, onEnd: b101 (govt news strings set as described in the bible - I have never used crons for this, ubt it doesnt look nastyl).
Misn B: Availability b100
Misn Availability b101
-Az

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Well, I'm not an expert at crons, but I think I have a fairly general idea as to what they do.

To make a cron start right after a mission has been completed, the crön must have the "Enable On" field set to the mission bit set when you finish the mission. Set the "Random" field to 100% to make this enable 100% of the time after each mission.

Set Pre Holdoff to keep the crön from activating for a while after the mission has been complete.
Set the Post Holdoff to keep your news from activating until X days after the mission has been complete.
Set both to make your news appear after a few days, but wait even longer for the next mission to appear.

Set the "On Start" field to make random missions not available until after the crön is finished, or to make them not available at all until another crön deactivates or reactivates these bits.

Set the "On End" to make missions and outfits and great things happen at the end of the crön.

Assuming you're using RESEdit, the news strings are on the far right. Simply enter the government RES ID or Idx number and the ID of the string to get the news to activate. While techincally, you can use any string ID, certain ones are reserved. I'm not sure which, but try to use something in the 15000's.

edit:
wow. I was beat by 15 minutes... That's what I get for talking and answering at the same time...

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

(This message has been edited by Zzap212 (edited 02-08-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by Azratax2:
**No problem.
My understanding is that you want this effect:
1. Mision A is done
2. New missions ( become available, news shows
3. X days pass
4. News stops, another mission becomes available.

**

Not quite, what I was going for is something like this:
1. Mission A completed
2. A few days pass
3. Cron activates news story and also makes the next mission appear after a set amount of time.
4. Mission B appears at appropriate location.

But hey, the information all you guys provided was still a great help. I apologize for not being clear in my question and causing this slight misunderstanding, but thanks again everyone.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

To put it simply... I have problems.

I'm attempting to finish a plug-in I've been working on for some time now, and I'm finally to the point where I can start testing it in EVN. Now I've hit another snag with the crons.

This is what I'm trying to do:

1. Mission A completed
2. Cron activates news story
3. Above mentioned cron lasts 7 days
4. Above mentioned cron also prevents Mission B from becoming available
5. Above mentioned cron ends
6. Mission B becomes available to complete

The problem is that when I'm halfway through mission A, my screen refreshes, I go land on the planet needed to complete the mission, and the moment I go the station bar where the next mission becomes available, it just pops up and continues the story without the 7 day delay.

Would someone out there be able to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong?

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

(This message has been edited by MavHunterExtreme (edited 03-06-2004).)

(This message has been edited by MavHunterExtreme (edited 03-06-2004).)

(This message has been edited by MavHunterExtreme (edited 03-06-2004).)

How does the crön prevents mission B from starting? You say the crön lasts 7 days, in which field did you put 7?

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Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
**How does the crön prevents mission B from starting? You say the crön lasts 7 days, in which field did you put 7?

**

That's what I'm trying to figure out

Under duration in EVNEW 1.0.3

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

(This message has been edited by MavHunterExtreme (edited 03-06-2004).)

So mission A sets a bit, let's say b1. Cron 1 activates on 1, shows the news, and has a duration of 7 days. Its onEnd field unsets b1 and sets b2, which is required for mission B (it could also just require b1 & !b2 and only set b2). This is Az's scheme, just without the intermediate mission that's available immediately after completion of A. I haven't actually done much with crons, but this seems like it should work.

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Quote

Originally posted by Croikle:
**So mission A sets a bit, let's say b1. Cron 1 activates on 1, shows the news, and has a duration of 7 days. Its onEnd field unsets b1 and sets b2, which is required for mission B (it could also just require b1 & !b2 and only set b2). This is Az's scheme, just without the intermediate mission that's available immediately after completion of A. I haven't actually done much with crons, but this seems like it should work.

**

Is anyone familiar with achieving the kind of effect quoted above, as well as how to make it work in EVNEW?

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Quote

Originally posted by MavHunterExtreme
1. Mission A completed
2. Cron activates news story
3. Above mentioned cron lasts 7 days
4. Above mentioned cron also prevents Mission B from becoming available
5. Above mentioned cron ends
6. Mission B becomes available to complete

Mďsn A sets bxxx.
Crön A is activated by bxxx.
Crön A activates news string and has a duration of either:
a: cron lasts 7 days and the news remains up for 7 days
b: cron last 1 day and the news remains up for 1 day and the PostHoldoff is set to 6.
At the end of the crön (whether PostHoldoff or Duration), byyy is set.
Mďsn B is activated by byyy.

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Quote

Originally posted by Zzap212:
**Mďsn A sets bxxx.
Crön A is activated by bxxx.
Crön A activates news string and has a duration of either:
a: cron lasts 7 days and the news remains up for 7 days
b: cron last 1 day and the news remains up for 1 day and the PostHoldoff is set to 6.
At the end of the crön (whether PostHoldoff or Duration), byyy is set.
Mďsn B is activated by byyy.

**

Just to let everyone know, I've found a way to make this work. I've had to give the crons their own mission bits all to themselves, which apparently has the desired effect.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Quote

Orignally posted by MavHunterExtreme:
I've had to give the crons their own mission bits all to themselves

That's how you get them to work!!! bxxx is a mission bit of your choice!

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Quote

Originally posted by Zzap212:
**That's how you get them to work!!! bxxx is a mission bit of your choice!

**

Thanks for your help everyone.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Okay, now I've got a new problem.

What I'm trying to do now is to make a system with a new space station to show up after a two week cron so that the player can proceed with my storyline.

I've tried applying the advice noted above, but when I get to this particular point though, the station doesn't how up in the alloted time.

I'm using EVNEW 1.0.3 and Windows XP. Does someone have an idea as to why this may be occuring.

If you need more information, please LMK.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Okay:

Mission A sets the mission bit that activates the "2-Week to Station Cron"

"2-Week" cron is activated by bXXX. Cron has a duration of 1 day and a postholdoff of 13 days
"2-Week" cron sets bYYY at completion.

This sets up the time-dependant part of it. Now we must make the station exist. You need 2 system resources. The first one, visible everywhere, has any planets, stations or attributes that are preexistant. For example, if you want MacExtreme's Station to appear over MacExtreme's Planet after 2 weeks, the first system must have MacExtreme's Planet.
The second system is exactly the same as the first one, except for your changes. It has it's visibility field set to bYYY (the bit set at the end of the cron).

How this works in Nova:

After you complete Mission A, the cron is activated and waits for 2 weeks before setting bYYY. System XXX is replaced by System YYY at the setting of bYYY, and System YYY has Station YYY in it.

Need clarification?

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Quote

Originally posted by Zzap212:
**Okay:

Mission A sets the mission bit that activates the "2-Week to Station Cron"

"2-Week" cron is activated by bXXX. Cron has a duration of 1 day and a postholdoff of 13 days
"2-Week" cron sets bYYY at completion.

This sets up the time-dependant part of it. Now we must make the station exist. You need 2 system resources. The first one, visible everywhere, has any planets, stations or attributes that are preexistant. For example, if you want MacExtreme's Station to appear over MacExtreme's Planet after 2 weeks, the first system must have MacExtreme's Planet.
The second system is exactly the same as the first one, except for your changes. It has it's visibility field set to bYYY (the bit set at the end of the cron).

How this works in Nova:

After you complete Mission A, the cron is activated and waits for 2 weeks before setting bYYY. System XXX is replaced by System YYY at the setting of bYYY, and System YYY has Station YYY in it.

Need clarification?

**

Previously I had tried just putting in a duration of 2 weeks, but I'll try a duration of one day and then a post-holdoff of 13 days and see if that cures the problem.

Here's another thing though, for a while I was so frustrated with the crons that I made a copy of my plugin with no crons, but it still doesn't work. I've checked all the mission bits, and everything appears to be in the proper order. One thing I've noticed is that after each time that you have to answer yes to a mission to continue the story, the whole screen refreshes, which is very unusual. I'm at my wits end!!!

Any ideas what the problem may be?

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Pay attention to the fact you should be using mission bits documented as unused (a list can be downloaded from the Nova addons page). Now listen to me. Let's have two systems, using two different IDs but having the same location on the map, same links to other systems, and the other systems linking to the original one linking to both; one has !bYYY in his visbit field, it is the first system, which will be replaced. The second one has bYYY. The first system states it contains the planet spöb, the second one states it contains the planet spöb and the station spöb. The planet spöb, now, must tell it can be in the first system and the second system, while the station spöb tells it is in the second system.

Do you want me to repeat?

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Edit: one day, I will know where the question mark is.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 03-11-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
**Pay attention to the fact you should be using mission bits documented as unused (a list can be downloaded from the Nova addons page). Now listen to me. Let's have two systems, using two different IDs but having the same location on the map, same links to other systems, and the other systems linking to the original one linking to both; one has !bYYY in his visbit field, it is the first system, which will be replaced. The second one has bYYY. The first system states it contains the planet spöb, the second one states it contains the planet spöb and the station spöb. The planet spöb, now, must tell it can be in the first system and the second system, while the station spöb tells it is in the second system.

Do you want me to repeat.

**

No, repetition will not be necessary. However, I've already figured that part out with the systems, its that the last half of the missions don't show up when they're supposed to. It could just be that perhaps I have used a mission bit that's being used by the game, but I was under the impression that the game only used mission bits 0-917.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.

Quote

I was under the impression that the game only used mission bits 0-917.

I think you're confusing mission bits (ncb's) with the mission resources. Nova uses quite a bit more than 918 ncb's. I think there is a somewhat dated list on the add-ons page. Be sure to double/triple check if you're doing an add-on plug for Nova.

Edit: More than 918 may not be correct, but they are certainly not in that order.

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(This message has been edited by slouch (edited 03-10-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by slouch:
**I think you're confusing mission bits (ncb's) with the mission resources. Nova uses quite a bit more than 918 ncb's. I think there is a somewhat dated list on the add-ons page. Be sure to double/triple check if you're doing an add-on plug for Nova.

Edit: More than 918 may not be correct, but they are certainly not in that order.

**

Yes, thank you. I did mean the mission resources, not the mission bits. Also, I will double-check and make sure that the mission bits I used aren't already being used in the game.

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We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. So we shall be content with these necessary things.