thanks! but theres another problem you made me aware of. i might be able tocommunicate in english, but ill have one or two problems writing a story in a way so that it really catches the reader...i mean i dont now much about writning styles in english. i only read 4 or 5 english novels...and only one of them was sci fi, the others i had to read for school.

Try the un-enployment lists, you could probily find someone to help you with the problem with any bland (no offence ) writing. Don't worry about your grammer, lots of people are worse awake, I cant spel either . (Thank God for spel check! :laugh: )

r--m, on Mar 20 2005, 02:06 PM, said:

@flasheart: i may really use some of your ideas...
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Be warned, though, that those ideas are remarkably similar to the story for my TC (thus far unannounced). Since I am considerably further along, it is likely that
I will finish first, and your plug would be seen as a copycat. I'm not saying don't use the ideas, just that you would be running a risk.

Also, there is nothing wrong with using a concept that has been done before as long as there is some kind of distinguishing twist to it and as long as the galaxy and factions are well-developed. In fact, on most people's lists of highly anticipated TCs, you will find SFA, set in the Star Trek universe, and Aftermath, which is based on the Nova scenario.

Best of Luck,
PBoat

PBoat101, on Mar 30 2005, 08:41 PM, said:

Be warned, though, that those ideas are remarkably similar to the story for my TC (thus far unannounced). Since I am considerably further along, it is likely that
I will finish first, and your plug would be seen as a copycat. I'm not saying don't use the ideas, just that you would be running a risk.

Also, there is nothing wrong with using a concept that has been done before as long as there is some kind of distinguishing twist to it and as long as the galaxy and factions are well-developed. In fact, on most people's lists of highly anticipated TCs, you will find SFA, set in the Star Trek universe, and Aftermath, which is based on the Nova scenario.

Best of Luck,
PBoat
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Hmm, I had no idea that was already taken! Then again, I should have expected it.

Disregard my previous concept to avoid that infernal scarlet tape.

Lord Flasheart, on Mar 22 2005, 01:58 AM, said:

Godspeed to you, and your plug-in.
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What is 'Godspeed' anyway? 45?

Hudson, on Apr 4 2005, 08:58 AM, said:

What is 'Godspeed' anyway? 45?
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Fifty-five, provided that you are on a transluminal space-lane and the Relativity Gendarme are out for lunch break.

This post has been edited by Lord Flasheart : 04 April 2005 - 04:26 PM

Lord Flasheart, on Apr 4 2005, 04:25 PM, said:

Fifty-five, provided that you are on a transluminal space-lane and the Relativity Gendarme are out for lunch break.
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Fifty five whats?

AU/hr?

Relativity don;t really kick in noticably till you get up to the 10^6 m/s + range, no?

Satori, on Apr 4 2005, 09:36 PM, said:

Fifty five whats?
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How did you know? The what unit is supposed to be a secret!

Satori, on Apr 4 2005, 09:36 PM, said:

Relativity don;t really kick in noticably till you get up to the 10^6 m/s + range, no?
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Yeah. Can you imagine the rocket-lag you'd get?

Looks like it's going to be great vaporware. Good luck anyway.

This post has been edited by Steelix : 12 April 2005 - 07:17 AM

Steelix, on Apr 12 2005, 06:13 AM, said:

Looks like it's going to be great vaporware. Good luck anyway.
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It helps to be sanguine, however unlikely its release is.

PBoat101, on Mar 31 2005, 01:41 AM, said:

Be warned, though, that those ideas are remarkably similar to the story for my TC (thus far unannounced). Since I am considerably further along, it is likely that
I will finish first, and your plug would be seen as a copycat. I'm not saying don't use the ideas, just that you would be running a risk.

Also, there is nothing wrong with using a concept that has been done before as long as there is some kind of distinguishing twist to it and as long as the galaxy and factions are well-developed. In fact, on most people's lists of highly anticipated TCs, you will find SFA, set in the Star Trek universe, and Aftermath, which is based on the Nova scenario.

Best of Luck,
PBoat
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The chances of you both coming up with the same story from even an identical premise are absolutely zero. But even if you both did, and you finished first PBoat, the other plugin might be so much better that yours would be forgotten.

BTW, there is no problem with coming up with new ideas for science-fiction. Ideas are everywhere, on every street. Just take any single, every day idea and turn it on it's head, and you have brand new material for SF. For example, imagine if everything was see-through except glass.
Or on the EVN scale, imagine a black hole appearing which sucks the universe inwards. Every time you complete a mission, the stars get closer to the black hole (you would probably have to make a total of three versions of each system, and have a few of them move at a time). The effect on the player would be utterly claustrophobic. For the first time in an EVN game, there would be a clear certainty of having to complete a whole mission sequence before the universe collapsed.
Or, if that's too similar to some, ahem, other plugins, put a white-hole in the middle which pushes things outwards. Every mission you complete the stars get further from each other, meaning that you need more and more jumps to get to the furthest. Some worlds will completely lose contact with Earth if this goes on. Your intrepid spaceman goes out to the furthest reaches and then gets trapped in a group of worlds which can no longer contact Earth. There is no return, unless he can find the answer...
Or, if spacetravel bores you, how about time travel. Your pilot travels into the future but discovers by a bizarre twist of science that changing the future changes the past. When he returns to his own time, everything has changed, even the way they number the years (otherwise the game won't allow you to do this). In order to return to his own version of time, he has to go back into the future to reset the past, and finally return whence he came -- except the year numbering is even further advanced.
Or how about this. After an utter catastrophe caused by mixing black-holes, white-holes and time travel, all the hyper-jumps are messed up, so that you can only jump to worlds which are at least ten systems distant. It will take the player quite a while to figure out the route from, say, Earth to Sirius, but time is ticking away.
Or how about this one. The player arrives in a different part of the galaxy which is actually being used by a super-race as relays in a ultra computer. As the computer performs operations (based on crons) the jump-routes flip-flop. Only by solving what is really going on is the player able to confront the super-race and free the inhabitants of a human colony from certain death (or, at least, certain confusion).

All of these ideas could be used as a TC or tacked onto the existing Nova scenario.

Of which I am quite aware. No matter what your basic concept is, chances are that someone has though of something similar. I was not trying to prevent r--m from using those ideas (though I'm afraid it's been construed that way). I simply saying that if he does go down that path, he'll have to pull off something very original just as I will have to, maybe more now than I did before. That idea was presented as something completely new and unlike anything ever dreamed up before (which few really are), but it was so similar to my own ideas, that I felt I had to speak up. If I effected the decision that severely, I am sorry; that was not my intention.

When it comes to making TCs, nothing is copyrighted. What counts is who does the better job of working with it. However, the first one out tends to have the advantage. When the second one is released, it not only has to be a good plug in its own right, but it has to outdo the first so as not to be considered unoriginal. Because of this, the longer you take, the higher the bar is raised. Also, the longer you take, the better the finished product is likely (and/or expected) to be. Of course, until some of these works-in-progress are actually released, this is kind of a moot point.

PBoat101, on Apr 13 2005, 11:43 PM, said:

Of which I am quite aware. No matter what your basic concept is, chances are that someone has though of something similar. I was not trying to prevent r--m from using those ideas (though I'm afraid it's been construed that way). I simply saying that if he does go down that path, he'll have to pull off something very original just as I will have to, maybe more now than I did before. That idea was presented as something completely new and unlike anything ever dreamed up before (which few really are), but it was so similar to my own ideas, that I felt I had to speak up. If I effected the decision that severely, I am sorry; that was not my intention.

When it comes to making TCs, nothing is copyrighted. What counts is who does the better job of working with it. However, the first one out tends to have the advantage. When the second one is released, it not only has to be a good plug in its own right, but it has to outdo the first so as not to be considered unoriginal. Because of this, the longer you take, the higher the bar is raised. Also, the longer you take, the better the finished product is likely (and/or expected) to be. Of course, until some of these works-in-progress are actually released, this is kind of a moot point.
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Actually everything you write is copyrighted, but you can't copyright something which hasn't actually been expressed. If someone comes up with a premise which is merely similar to your own, copyright has no meaning.

No two TCs have ever been released which resembled each other. The number of original ideas is infinite, and the chances of you coming up with something which really does seem the same is basically zero unless you are copying something else, or making use of well-worn ideas from elsewhere rather than developing your own.

Actually, come to think of it, no two original (ie, not based on a published book or TV series or film) TCs have ever actually been released for the same version of EVx, so the question isn't really 'who will finish first' but 'who will actually finish'?

Martin Turner, on Apr 14 2005, 12:55 AM, said:

Actually, come to think of it, no two original (ie, not based on a published book or TV series or film) TCs have ever actually been released for the same version of EVx, so the question isn't really 'who will finish first' but 'who will actually finish'?
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How many real TCs, non original included, have ever been released? Frozen Heart, Polycon, ?

Pace (haldora), on Apr 14 2005, 04:32 AM, said:

How many real TCs, non original included, have ever been released? Frozen Heart, Polycon, ?
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Star Wars, Babylon 5...
There were actually quite a few for EVC.

You could consider Pale and NH to be TC, though it's arguable. Then again, Even SW, GI and FH still had some left over elements from EVC, and could tenchincally be argued not to be TC's.

I hate that term "TC" in fact. It's so ambiguous. I can make a TC using "Absolute Minimum" and a few extra kilobytes, when beside that I can make a plug using Nova but several megabytes with three storylines, new ships, new outfits, , new everything.

Pace (haldora), on Apr 15 2005, 12:59 AM, said:

I hate that term "TC" in fact. It's so ambiguous. I can make a TC using "Absolute Minimum" and a few extra kilobytes, when beside that I can make a plug using Nova but several megabytes with three storylines, new ships, new outfits, , new everything.
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I dislike the ambiguity as well, because it makes New Horizons seem like less of an effort that babylon 5, when the opposite is probably true. (For the EVC plugs, anyway)

Satori, on Apr 15 2005, 05:36 AM, said:

You could consider Pale and NH to be TC, though it's arguable. Then again, Even SW, GI and FH still had some left over elements from EVC, and could tenchincally be argued not to be TC's.
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I think you're confusing the notion of Total Conversion with Total Replacement. A Total Conversion surely converts everything to utterly suit its new scenario, with no stuff hanging which doesn't 'fit', and, on closer inspection, is left over from the original game. A Total Replacement would change every parameter -- but this of course would be no guarantee that it was a completely consistent new scenario. You could, for example, create a Total Replacement by wacking in graphics 'borrowed' from other plugins and altering every parameter, and then hastily rewriting the words of the missions (but leaving them as basically the same missions in the same order). This would not be much fun, and, as far as I know, no one has tried it.

But surely the test for Total Conversion must be 'do I feel like I am in a totally coherent universe, which is fundamentally a different universe from the EVx universe'

Pace said:

I hate that term "TC" in fact. It's so ambiguous. I can make a TC using "Absolute Minimum" and a few extra kilobytes, when beside that I can make a plug using Nova but several megabytes with three storylines, new ships, new outfits, , new everything.

I agree - the ubiquity of the term 'total conversion' seems to have convinced everyone that the sort of plug-ins which were the norm for Escape Velocity are somehow less respectable, and pushed many developers towards monumental projects, most of which will never be finished.

This post has been edited by David Arthur : 15 April 2005 - 03:13 PM