I know this is stupid, but...

I have a couple of friends who have said that they want to create a multiplayer plugin. Would this be possible without having to create a whole new game that just looks and feels like EV Nova? Or would someone be able to just create a plugin and make EV Nova multiplayer?

Thanks, and sorry if I'm not supposed to post in this topic. I figured that all of you developers would probably know. Thank you

Hi, webmaker.

This is a fairly common misconception. Plug-ins can't change the game engine, only add new scenario elements. There's no way a plug-in - or anything else besides Matt putting in huge amounts of work that he doesn't want to do - could make the game multiplayer.

I think it would be awesome if a group went through and made a re-make (not a total one, but a major tweaking) of the Nova engine to support a multi-player battle option, with some setup for configuring any possible add-ons (or none at all), and then donate it to ASW, either for a cut of the profits, or even as a gift. Chances are this would never happen, but it would be nice if it were to happen.

Fnoigy, on Apr 1 2005, 01:04 AM, said:

I think it would be awesome if a group went through and made a re-make (not a total one, but a major tweaking) of the Nova engine to support a multi-player battle option, with some setup for configuring any possible add-ons (or none at all), and then donate it to ASW, either for a cut of the profits, or even as a gift. Chances are this would never happen, but it would be nice if it were to happen.
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Below is a part of something I put together about this. (I had a lot of time on my hands.)

webmaker, on Apr 5 2005, 10:39 AM, said:

...

I'm not saying take the entire EV Nova game and make it multiplayer, but make a SEPARATE program, which would read your save game files, extract the information on your ship, weapons, and escorts from them, and then recompile it in another save file, containing only the ship/escort/weapon information.

The game would then, allow two people, on the same computer, to open their save files that had been 'interpreted' (for lack of a better word), and then let them loose in a 'condensed' EV Nova galaxy.

This galaxy, when I say condensed, I mean made smaller, and streamlined. Many of the elements in the EV Nova galaxy, while great for an RPG sort of thing, (or RTS, if you want) would only hamper a multiplayer game. This galaxy would have NO storylines, only short missions, and a very fast trading system. This trading system would be used to earn money to buy repairs, maps, extra weapons, (all of which would not affect your ORIGINAL saved game from the real EV Nova), or in the case of a capture the flag mode of play, to buy flags, perhaps.

Also, the 2x/1x speed system would have to be determined which would be used before starting the game.

The condensed galaxy, would probably only feature 1-3 systems for each race, depending on the size of the race/empire/etc. This galaxy would be designed for fast confrontation between players, as well as AI.

All the ship classes, AI, ships, enemies, weapons, etc. would be from EV Nova, and probably all prices should be brought down, to speed up game play.

Also, the view from the splitscreen would have to be changed, as well, probably 'zoomed-out', and the side bar made smaller, as you only have half a screen for each person.

Also, if such a game were made, I would request that it be made for both the Mac, and Windows, (as a Windows person I would definitely hope that it would at least come out for windows.)

Anyways, thank you for reading through this (rather lengthy) idea of mine. If anyone is able to do something along these lines, or has further ideas, either post here or email me at webmaker2110@gmail.com.

Thank you

If this helps, great, if this was a waste of time, sorry... (lol)

I seem to remember something about a program written to take your pilot file and put it in a system so you could do battle with a friend. I don't think the reviews were all that positive, though.

Actually, I think you're more likely to get my version of EV4 than that extensive of a Nova engine mod... unless somebody goes in and breaks apart the game's code at the assembly level.

EDIT: Use the Ares engine. Manticores won't look quite so good, but it will be (sort of) multiplayer EV. BTW, been done with Override.

This post has been edited by The Apple Cřre : 05 April 2005 - 12:21 PM

As I'm sure a moderator will be along soon enough, this seems like a good enough place.
At the top of the EVN web board there is a pinned topic about EV3D/multiplayer. It might be useful to add links to that topic to the top of the EVDC. That would help prevent topics such as this which have the primary use of every couple days informing a new wave of people that EV multiplayer will not be coming any time soon if at all.

Unfortunately multiplayer Nova will never happen. No one but Matt can touch the source code of the engine. And I believe Matt said he didn't like multiplayer(I think he said he tried it, but it got monotonous).

On a side note, there are a couple independent parties developing a multiplayer game similar to EV.

I started putting together EVN Ares some time ago, but quicky gave up when I found that some of Nova's sprites weren't divisible by the right number and thus couldn't turn properly in Ares...

The Apple Cřre, on Apr 5 2005, 12:22 PM, said:

I seem to remember something about a program written to take your pilot file and put it in a system so you could do battle with a friend. I don't think the reviews were all that positive, though.

Actually, I think you're more likely to get my version of EV4 than that extensive of a Nova engine mod... unless somebody goes in and breaks apart the game's code at the assembly level.

EDIT: Use the Ares engine. Manticores won't look quite so good, but it will be (sort of) multiplayer EV. BTW, been done with Override.
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Requiem, on Apr 6 2005, 02:16 AM, said:

Unfortunately multiplayer Nova will never happen. No one but Matt can touch the source code of the engine. And I believe Matt said he didn't like multiplayer(I think he said he tried it, but it got monotonous).

On a side note, there are a couple independent parties developing a multiplayer game similar to EV.
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Ragashingo, on Apr 6 2005, 01:21 PM, said:

I started putting together EVN Ares some time ago, but quicky gave up when I found that some of Nova's sprites weren't divisible by the right number and thus couldn't turn properly in Ares...
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Could someone post links to any of these projects?

Alright, thanks for the prompt response, and also, sorry if I posted in the wrong area. I couldn't find anything that seemed to match this topic.

Well, the ability to 'play' against a friend might be this:

Quote

Populate your EVO game with real world players! PersMaker 1.0 allows EVO plugin developers to automatically generate plugins containing p‘rs resources based on pre-existing EVO pilot files. Simply drop a pilot file--or a bunch of pilot files--onto the application icon and PersMaker will make a plugin. PersMaker takes ship upgrades and dominated spobs and player aggression into account when generating the plugin, resulting in AI p‘rs ships that are similar to their human players.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-...rsMaker.sit.hqx

I had suggested something like this would allow for making a shared universe (http://www.ambrosias...TML/004663.html). The problem with the idea is updating the player's universe from the server. Since the engine only loads data at startup and only writes to the pilot file during the game (never reads from it), it's impossible to update the player/universe while the player is actually playing. For that reason, I stopped work on idea. Now, I could be convinced to finish work on this idea if I thought my proof-of-principle could convince Ambrosia/Matt to alter the game engine to allow for in-game updates.

-STH

But will it come with a set of steak knives, omglol?

My project is a one-person project and has no use for a website. Right now, I have one ship (a camera that pops out when you die all they way in a multiplayer battle), and something that barely resembles a game engine. It won't compile, and even if it did, it wouldn't do anything. When I build a halfway decent engine, I'll throw an EV4 bible at the dev community and see what comes out.

Then there was that DemonPants Software thing, about 2D MMO EV4 in Java, which will likely set every computer in my house at their throat. Don't have a link, though.

Ares:Nova isn't likely to happen in the near future. Part of it is the near-death state of the game, and part (IDK, haven't tried) is that Ares doesn't take kindly to Nova sprites.

I think there is already an applet that will read your pilot file and let you trade shots with your friend in a system.