NebuchadnezzaR, on Mar 14 2005, 07:11 PM, said:

Very interesting.

Edwards also mentioned that the 'start the game destroyed' flag does nothing. Is this verified?
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No, it works for me, but I will agree what he said about "Appear randomly, cloaked" actually being "Jump in after short delay, then cloak".

NebuchadnezzaR, on Mar 14 2005, 07:11 PM, said:

Also, what happens with dead stellars using this time-passing method once they reach the day they should regenerate? Anyone test this either? If not, I'll have answers for all of these once I finish a short round of testing.
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Yep, this works fine.

Another odd thing I noticed is that you can create a pilot with no name. Since it can't create a file with no name it acts like a temporary pilot which will be lost as soon you die, quit, or load a different pilot.

Guy, on Mar 15 2005, 04:37 AM, said:

No, it works for me,

Maybe a bug with the windows version or something? Ill have to test this. What versions do you two have?

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but I will agree what he said about "Appear randomly, cloaked" actually being "Jump in after short delay, then cloak".

thats no fun.

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Another odd thing I noticed is that you can create a pilot with no name. Since it can't create a file with no name it acts like a temporary pilot which will be lost as soon you die, quit, or load a different pilot.
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Congratulations. You just won the random thought of the day ™ award.

NebuchadnezzaR said:

Maybe a bug with the windows version or something? Ill have to test this. What versions do you two have?

I sure hope it's not a bug with the Windows version, as I'm running EVN 1.0.8 on MacOS X 10.3.8 . In fact, it may not be a bug at all:

It's working fine now, but only when another planet exists in the plug, even if it, too, is "start game dead". I won't edit the Rotating Systems post until I figure out what's wrong, though (as there were most certainly more than just one spob in that. Perhaps there must be an even number of spobs? Just a random idea).

Guy, on Mar 14 2005, 11:37 PM, said:

Another odd thing I noticed is that you can create a pilot with no name. Since it can't create a file with no name it acts like a temporary pilot which will be lost as soon you die, quit, or load a different pilot.
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Very useful feature. Makes a great one-shot debugger.

This post has been edited by Edwards : 15 March 2005 - 12:38 AM

NebuchadnezzaR, on Mar 15 2005, 05:16 AM, said:

Maybe a bug with the windows version or something? Ill have to test this. What versions do you two have?
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Same: 1.0.8 on 10.3.8

NebuchadnezzaR, on Mar 15 2005, 05:16 AM, said:

Congratulations. You just won the random thought of the day ™ award.
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Ooh, thankyou. I'll hang it on my wall.

Guy, on Mar 15 2005, 05:47 AM, said:

Same: 1.0.8 on 10.3.8

Well, then one of you is lying. o.0

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Ooh, thankyou. I'll hang it on my wall.
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Glad to be... of service?

Race against the AI. This version of the race includes a single opponent who you must beat to the finish. His ship is fast but he's not perfect and might crash*. Again, this plug requires Absolute Minimum.
Race2.zip (12.63K)
Number of downloads: 64

• Crashes may be more frequent on slower machines. Also on slower machines, if he reaches the finish before you, it may be possible that he detroys your spob by accident thus declaring you as the winner. I couldn't think of a safeguard that will guarantee this doesn't happen without putting the spobs too far apart.

general11, on Mar 10 2005, 01:13 PM, said:

The only bad thing is that we have the 1,000 mission limit :mad:.. View Post

What about adding multiple data files? Couldn't you have more than 1,000 missions if you did that? :huh:

Trichedronus, on Jul 4 2005, 12:00 PM, said:

What about adding multiple data files? Couldn't you have more than 1,000 missions if you did that? :huh:View Post

No, the 1000-mission limit is an engine limit, not a file limit. No matter how many files you put them in, the engine will ignore any mission that does not have an RID between 128 and 1127 (inclusive).

Updates on the "starts destroyed" flag error: It was almost certainly due to a bad default number that NovaTools gave me. I may have traced down an actual bug, but I lost the plug it was in, and haven't been able to reconstruct it.

Edwards

Such a dissapointing gravedig.

There are certainly work arounds to the mission limit, though. There are ways to have well more than 1000 different missions for the player to do. They mostly involve changing the text of a mission for them to do again in widely seperated intervals, and even if they have the same objective, they will seem different enough. Most engine hack mission sets can also often be pared down to only 2 or three.

Would it be possible to make to unable-to-cloak mission ship jump into the s˙st's corner, WAY out of the way, so that you could not see it on the radar, cloaked or not.

You could put them at, say, the 16th spob, which could be invisible and WAY in the corner of the system. How's that?

Would hired escorts collect pay while you're flying?

Would hired escorts collect pay while you're flying?

/edit: oops, misread your question. Yes, hired escorts collect pay while your flying (possibly triggering the defection dialogue), planets grant their tribute, and crons fire while the player is still in space. Everything works perfectly (except the tiny little radar ghost, but theres still chance for a workaround). My pet TC will implement this, and I would relish the opportunity to consult for any other authors interested in adding this. I would even be willing to add it myself to their project, though it is rather simple. Im more looking for good ideas for what to do once you have it working. Mostly, im using it to add progressive reinforcements to long term battles, and lessen the effectiveness of the run-away-to-recharge tactics while capturing planets. Planetary domination should be done with huge end all fleets, not a ship that can win 1 on 1 with an AI 250 times over, thats just bad gameplay. If we add advantages to pilots that stick it out and fight as fast as they can, it removes some level of the enuii of the 'been there, done that' stage of the game.

One problem with that, which i havent tested, is the behavior if you put -16 in for ship creation on a mission that starts while the player is flying around. Someone earlier in this thread said that the newly added ships just jump in after a small delay, exactly the same behavior as before. Ill need to test this. If it works, i already have spob -16 set off in the corner of every system in my plug for its own purposes, so this would be excellent. Could someone test it? Computer troubles and lack of internet on some of my copious home computers are making this difficult.

heh... if -1 through -16 work as expected for missions that start while the player is flying (ie cause a ship to pop into existence as it enters the system directly on top of a spob) you could create a mission that would perfectly emulate demanding tribute (or mission set, if you dont want the ships to come out in waves). This is worth looking into myself... these ideas had always been on the edge of my mind, thanks for reminding me of them.

This post has been edited by NebuchadnezzaR : 07 July 2005 - 10:14 AM

Yes, making it appear on top of a spöb that is way out in the middle of nowhere, or at least not on the radar screen, seems like it should work... I am clueless about how to make this actually work, just the concept, so if I say something is a good idea, wait to test it or a "professional" opinion before trusting me

If it works, you could even use it for story-based missions. Imagine a mission where the player is sent to bomb a major city on a planet, and after accomplishing this, is chased out (Qxxx) of the atmosphere and back into space by the defense fleet, who, after a few moments, pop out on top of the planet and engage you.

Make the invisible spöb a space station, of course, so that it is not a large spot on the screen. Just stating the obvious.... I am good at that.

I really want to see this happen! I am not a particularly good maker of plugs, so I can't :p. It seems like, for someone who knew what they were doing it would not bbe too hard. I want to download this thing!

Neb: I can't wait to see what your "pet TC" looks like. I know it'll be awesome though.

FedKiller: when the spöb is at the corner of the system it'll never show up on radar because the player wraps around to the other side well before getting near the actual edge of the map.

Oh. Seems like this will work fine, then...

FedKiller, on Jul 29 2005, 07:47 AM, said:

Oh. Seems like this will work fine, then...View Post

Except that mission ships that appear on top of a spob don't seem to appear at all if the mission starts while you are flying around...

Hmm... Maybe if you set the distant spob to be a wormhole, set the ship's govt to prefer wormholes, and then had it jump in normally?

Edwards

This post has been edited by Edwards : 29 July 2005 - 03:10 PM