Will anyone make graphics for me?

JUST KIDDING! I figure the title will create a flood of experienced devs to rush in here with the intent of tearing me a new one.

I have been tinkering with the beginnings of a TC though, but I'd only announce it or ask for help when(if) I do all systems, spobs, missions, outfits,weapons, descriptions, and the majority of the graphics first. I have a pretty detailed vision and it would probably just create problems to try and get other people to do things exactly like I have planned.

Anyway, I've run across some questions along the way and would appreciate answers.

1. Is there any way to enlarge the description window for planets or make it scroll? The desc annotated template says that they can scroll, but it might mean just missions descriptions and the like.

2. Can you give some dudes the ability to hyperspace while others can't? Also, can you give the player the ability to hyperspace only if a specific outfit has been purchased? I found a way to do this by giving all ships a fuel capacity below 100, and having an outfit that raises it above that, but this doesn't allow for a very diverse fuel capacity range for different ships. Ideally, I'd like hyperlinks between systems to not even show up without the outfit, and be able to use any fuel capacity I want.

3. At what size does a sprite significantly affect performance on an average machine, let’s say 1 GHz, 128 meg vid card, and 1 gig of ram?

4. Is there a way to not give players the option of dominating planets? I guess I could just give them unbeatable defense fleets, but that lead to some frustration before the player figures it out;)

5. Can the availability of an outfit be controlled by whether or not you possess another one? Example: You can have either jammer A or jammer B, but you can't have both simultaneously.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Whether some important ideas for my plug are viable or not depend on the answers to these questions.

This post has been edited by Sealgaire : 06 September 2005 - 11:10 PM

Sealgaire, on Sep 6 2005, 10:54 PM, said:

JUST KIDDING! I figure the title will create a flood of experienced devs to rush in here with the intent of tearing me a new one.
I have been tinkering with the beginnings of a TC though, but I'd only announce it or ask for help when(if) I do all systems, spobs, missions, outfits,weapons, descriptions, and the majority of the graphics first. I have a pretty detailed vision and it would probably just create problems to try and get other people to do things exactly like I have planned.

Anyway, I've run across some questions along the way and would appreciate answers.

1. Is there any way to enlarge the description window for planets or make it scroll? The desc annotated template says that they can scroll, but it might mean just missions descriptions and the like.

2. Can you give some dudes the ability to hyperspace while others can't? Also, can you give the player the ability to hyperspace only if a specific outfit has been purchased? I found a way to do this by giving all ships a fuel capacity below 100, and having an outfit that raises it above that, but this doesn't allow for a very diverse fuel capacity range for different ships. Ideally, I'd like hyperlinks between systems to not even show up without the outfit, and be able to use any fuel capacity I want.

3. At what size does a sprite significantly affect performance on an average machine, let’s say 1 GHz, 128 meg vid card, and 1 gig of ram?

4. Is there a way to not give players the option of dominating planets? I guess I could just give them unbeatable defense fleets, but that lead to some frustration before the player figures it out;)

5. Can the availability of an outfit be controlled by whether or not you possess another one? Example: You can have either jammer A or jammer B, but you can't have both simultaneously.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Whether some important ideas for my plug are viable or not depend on the answers to these questions.
View Post

1. Nope, seems silly that it doesn't, but thats life.

2. I can't remember if you can stop dudes from hyperspacing or not. Unless you want to mess with systems a ton I think it'd be best to just give the player's ship no energy and give them a battery outfit.

3. I have no idea...

4. I don't know about that one, sorry.

5. I think so, probably by bonking the contribute / require bits over the head enough.

Sealgaire, on Sep 6 2005, 10:54 PM, said:

3. At what size does a sprite significantly affect performance on an average machine, let’s say 1 GHz, 128 meg vid card, and 1 gig of ram?

I have 3 computers. The averages of them are 533mhz, 48meg , 170mb ram
I gotta like use all 3 of them simultaneously to do things as fast as on an "average" machine!
<_<

2. Every ship has its own contribue bit for its own "hyperspace engine". The hyperspace engine is required for all other systems to be visible.

3. G3/G4(most of us, and better for Nova than P3) P3 (decently efficient) or P4 (very inefficient)?
Nova was completely and totally software rendered, at least when I played it on my 6500. It ran well enough with 128 megs of RAM. The only time RAM really matters is when you're trying not to choke Nova with plugins. Your biggest performance problems come from your system bus.

Somebody link that 2000x2000-pixel spob topic? I think they mentioned the system configuration, and the fact that they were impacted by Snapz Pro and the fact that it was recording.

4. Take one of the cheat planet dominating weapons and give it to the defense fleet.

5. Yes. Look at your licenses and see how they work. That, and somebody made a topic about that in the past few months...

That was me recording Nick's huge multi spob planet on my 1.2 Ghz iBook. It did okish, but it would have been unplayable if I had gotten in a fight or anything.

1. Yes you can change dialogs, but only if you're on a mac (though PC users can still use the plug once you've made it). You'll need to edit the DITL resource for the spaceport dialog (ID 1000) - you can move things around and resize them but don't do anything else. To make the window itself bigger you'll need to find the corresponding DLOG resource (same ID).

2. There's been a couple of topics about stopping ships from hyperspacing - search for them if you like. In addition to giving them less than 100 fuel you can stop the player from hyperspacing by giving him an outfit which increases the jump radius by 11000 or something. I have no idea what The Apple Core is talking about here, but it isn't true.

3. If you're worried, you could consider making both large and small versions of the sprites and letting the user pick which one is best for him/her.

4. Nope, don't think that's possible. You could check the "uninhabited" flag to stop the player from hailing it but that might have unwanted side effects.

5. Yup, you can either use contribute/require bits or use the Oxxx test operator.

This post has been edited by Guy : 07 September 2005 - 12:24 AM

Regarding the hyperspacing, I don't hink I explained what I want to do well enough. The idea is that all the dudes in the universe must use hypergates except a specific faction, which has the ability to hyperspace. If the player joins this faction, he's given a hyperdrive. Is there any way to pull this off?

Quote

1. Yes you can change dialogs, but only if you're on a mac (though PC users can still use the plug once you've made it). You'll need to edit the DITL resource for the spaceport dialog (ID 1000) - you can move things around and resize them but don't do anything else. To make the window itself bigger you'll need to find the corresponding DLOG resource (same ID).

Damn, I should have mentioned I'm on a PC, so I'm restricted to EVNEW. I guess I'm going to have to try and cut down some of my planet descriptions. Or if it's possible, could someone on a Mac do me a huge favor and modify the spaceport files and make the dialogue box as large as possible without it interfering with interface or planet pic? Perhaps you could extend it past that little bar under the description box and make it go all the way to the bottom of the screen? I should be able to convert the files put them in the plug right? I can't think of how to shorten some of the descriptions without putting what I took out into a seperate text file like novas preambles. Maybe I should be writing a novel instead of making a plug. <_<

Quote

Somebody link that 2000x2000-pixel spob topic? I think they mentioned the system configuration, and the fact that they were impacted by Snapz Pro and the fact that it was recording.

Wow, I don't need a sprite anywhere near that big, so it sounds like I should be fine.

Quote

4. Take one of the cheat planet dominating weapons and give it to the defense fleet.

Thats just a way to make the defence fleet unbeatable, right? What I want to do is not even give the player the option of trying to dominate planets. Maybe I can just remove the demand tribute button and hope the player doesn't click there.:D

Quote

5. Yes. Look at your licenses and see how they work. That, and somebody made a topic about that in the past few months...

Awesome, I'll give them a look and try to dig up that topic.

Thanks everyone, I've gotten some great answers.

This post has been edited by Sealgaire : 07 September 2005 - 01:23 AM

Sealgaire, on Sep 7 2005, 12:15 AM, said:

Thats just a way to make the defence fleet unbeatable, right? What I want to do is not even give the player the option of trying to dominate planets. Maybe I can just remove the demand tribute button and hope the player doesn't click there.:D View Post

Removing that button could be done by editing the appropriate DITL. I've attached a really quick version (done by memory, untested in-game)- convert it and see if it works (and also see if you can copy the DITL into another file).

For the hyperspace, make all ships have less than 100 fuel, but give them all invisible fuel pod outfits. The AI ignores the amount of fuel a ship has, except for jumping, and the player can have their jumping stopped by the aforementioned "jump distance +20000" outfit.

Edwards

Attached File(s)

• No_Tribute.bin.zip (316bytes)
  Number of downloads: 18

1. Yes, but it requires you make new dialogue boxes (or at least hack the old ones up a bit.

2. You could by making two versions of a ship. One for the dudes to use (with no battery, hence no jumping) and one for other dudes and the player to use. Even then I dont know if it would work.

3. My 1GHz G4, with 32Mb Graphics and 1Gb of RAM has no problem handling most of what I throw at it NOVA wise. Only when they start to take up much of the screen in a battle does it slow down.

4. Again by editing the dialogue boxes and removing the dominate button.

5. Dont know, but I's doubt it.

For #5, what I did in SFA was basically use the "Remove Outfit" tag for the other outfit in the "OnPurchase" field.

So lets say in your two examples you have Jammer 1 (345) and Jammer 2 (346).

In Jammer 1's OnPurchase field, put D346.

On Jammer 2's OnPurchase field, put D345.

Now, when you purchase Jammer 1, you will lose Jammer2 and vice versa.

Thanks Edwards, that worked perfectly. But since EVNEW doesn't recongnize the kind of resource it is, I can't combine it with any of my files, but no biggie. Is there any way to modify these DITL files on a PC? I still need to make the spaceport dialogue boxes bigger.

That operator was also exactly what I was looking for UncleTwitchy. I wonder how I passed it in the bible.

I have all the hyperspace problems worked out but one now. That is the player being able to see the hyperlinks before he is able to hyperspace. I think the only way around this would be creating 2 different universes, one with hyperlinks, and one without, then switching them when the player gets a hyperdrive. I'm not even going to try and attempt this. Besides being alot of work and using alot of resources and mission bits, it would make it so that the AI ships couldn't jump until the player has the ability to.

So all the problems are smoothed out except the spaceport dialogue box one.

Yes. Put the resize plugin in your folder alongside your files, and warnings everywhere that this plugin must be there for it to work right.

Hey, I asked about this mystery rescource just a few months ago and all I got was blank stares. What is a DITL and what does it do? How much can I change?

Sounds rather awesome.

Sealgaire, on Sep 7 2005, 03:12 PM, said:

I have all the hyperspace problems worked out but one now. That is the player being able to see the hyperlinks before he is able to hyperspace. I think the only way around this would be creating 2 different universes, one with hyperlinks, and one without, then switching them when the player gets a hyperdrive. I'm not even going to try and attempt this. Besides being alot of work and using alot of resources and mission bits, it would make it so that the AI ships couldn't jump until the player has the ability to.
View Post

Actually, it would only take one mission bit and not that much editing. Also, look into the "ai ships of this govt prefer wormholes/hypergates" flag in the govt rescource. AI can jump out plenty well from a system with no hyperlinks. They totally dont check for that.

Oh, back to the duplicate universe. Just use a save as text option to pop every syst into a spreadsheet program. Duplicate the entire set all at once (you will need to use something spreadsheet and automaticy to renumber them). For the lower number set (presumably the original), add a single bit to the Visibility field. Lets say b0. Then, for the other set, change all of the hyperlink fields to -1 (this should take about 10 seconds if you know what you are doing, and I completely dont), and in the visibility field put !bxxx. bxxx starts out cleared, when you set it, the universe will pop into one with hyperlinks. I think Nova even handles transporting the player to the new version of the now invisible system automatically.

Anyway, it really isnt that much work, and so long as you are using less than 5** systems and less than.... all 10000 of the bits, it shouldnt be a problem.

(for an added bonus, you could replace bxxx with Oxxx and the coresponding negatives, thereby the links are visible only when the player owns said outfit. I cannot gurantee, however, that the behavior will be consistent the day after you purchase it and the day after you sell it. Nova seems to lag a day in updating some types of syst changes.)

NebuchadnezzaR, on Sep 7 2005, 01:57 PM, said:

Hey, I asked about this mystery rescource just a few months ago and all I got was blank stares. What is a DITL and what does it do? How much can I change?View Post

A DITL (which appears to stand for "Dialog ITem List") controls nearly every aspect of a dialog box's layout, with the notable exception of its size (which is controlled by the DLOG resource). By editing them, you can change most of the windows in Nova until they're completely unrecognisable (although some elements, such as the shipyard's list, may not resize easily).

Be warned, however, that ResEdit's DITL editor, when run under Classic, is very unstable.

Edwards

I can't really resist a shameless plug.

My plugin:

EV:N Battle Arena

It uses outfits to start battles, and when one battle is "purchased", it prevents the others from being purchased. Instead of using Contribute/Require bits, however, it simply uses a single NCB, evaluated in the On Purchase field.

With the NCB you can set it up so that when the outfit is purchased it sets bXYZ, and the Availability has !bXYZ. Once purchased, it prevents you from buying anything else that has the same Availability. Manipulating various settings in the Outfit resource lets you determine if you want the other outfits to still appear.

The advantages of this, over using the Oxxx operator, is that you can have many different outfits that are excluded by the single NCB, instead of having multiple Oxxx expressions in a single On Purchase field.

So, while slightly more intensive, perhaps, for only a couple outfits here and there, you might find it easier this way if you have more than two or three outfits that you want excluded at one time.

As far as the text size issue goes, it was on the list of things to look into for 1.0.9 to get more text on the screen at once in the Windows version. It shouldn't be too much longer before 1.0.9 sees the light of day, either...

Thanks a bunch, NebuchadnezzaR. I had been using the prefers hypergates flag for every government but the faction that can jump (I used the does not use hypergates flag for them) but I never thought to check if AI ships needed a hyperlink. I guess I forgot that they're not really going anywhere when they hyperspace.

Looks like I can make the hyperspacing work exactly like I want it to.

As for the the DITL files, thanks for the info Edwards. But is there no windows program that can edit these? If not, I guess I'll just wait for 1.09, and if that doesn't give me enough space, I'll have to use a friend's mac, or perhaps some kind soul who can edit the DITL files can help me out .

This post has been edited by Sealgaire : 08 September 2005 - 12:10 AM

Sealgaire, on Sep 8 2005, 03:13 AM, said:

As for the the DITL files, thanks for the info Edwards. But is there no windows program that can edit these? If not, I guess I'll just wait for 1.09, and if that doesn't give me enough space, I'll have to use a friend's mac, or perhaps some kind soul who can edit the DITL files can help me out .
View Post

I'm pretty sure that was just a font issue which will only give you another line or so of space when it's fixed. But no, there's currently no way to edit these on a PC - they're standard mac resources rather than Nova specific ones.

Speaking of instability, I've found Nova Tool's oütf editor to be pretty unstable while none of the others seem to cause any problems. Anyone else find that?

Yes, I've had the oütf editor crash on me numerous times. I've gotten to the point where I will only edit oütf resources in Mission Computer.

This post has been edited by UncleTwitchy : 08 September 2005 - 05:19 AM

Yes, the oütf editor seems to be the least stable, followed distantly by the shďp editor. (Completely unsupported theory)It might have something to do with the number of references to the contents of other resources they use.
oütf: 4 STR# references, one PICT.
shďp: 2 PICTs.
All other references (I think) are to resource names, not contents.

Edwards