I'm a graphics guy at heart, so I don't have too many requests:

-An interface that can support true, variable transparency. Not everything in life is square (or opaque!). Just support PNG24 and I'll be really happy.

-The ability to add to/subtract to the interface when you buy certain outfits, go on missions, etc.

-Customizable interface contents by ship. For example, a heavy freighter might want to have a complete cargo manifest shown in the interface, where a fighter is more concerned about shields and weapons systems.

-Building on an idea earlier, an outfitter's where you can see your ship and view the weapons additions before you buy them. Window shopping has always been a fun part of EV, and it would be even cooler if you could see the stuff as it would be on your ship Gage calls a friend over and says: "Look! Look! One day I'll be able to afford those Polaron Scythes, and then pirates will fear me!" Just think of it as "pimp my ride", EV style.

The one thing I wouldn't like is planetary excursions. I think it would ruin EV. EV has always been a space faring game. It's about your ship. Besides, do you have any idea how many models, textures, and how much lighting is required just to do something as simple as a town square with outfitter's booths? You can keep the text-based interface for that, thank you very much.

This post has been edited by Gage_Stryker : 06 February 2006 - 10:16 PM

Gage's suggestions++++

A transparency-supporting, variable interface system sounds awesome.

Everybody hates change, until the change occurs. Then everyone loves it and they pretend like they've always been for it. EV4 in 3d and multiplayer would be awesome and I dare say any of your would complain when it came out.

Dr. Trowel, on Feb 2 2006, 11:39 PM, said:

And more resource slots for all sorts of things! Just 16 asteroid types? I need more! More! :laugh:
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Speaking of roids...

What about control over how they blow up? Or maybe whether they can hurt the player?(This should be mandatory!) It would also be fun if you could put "live" weapons (like mines) in asteroids instead of cargo things, so that when the player cracks it open, they get a nasty surprise...

Outfits in asteroids would be nice too (like, say, more armor instead of the cargo Metal...)
Maybe even ships... (Alien creature hives, anyone?)

I absolutely agree about the "just 16 asteroid types" thing, by the way...

Edit: And selective asteroid scoops (Ever get Water when you wanted Metal?)
And why not fuel from asteroids? (In a simple way, no assembly required)

This post has been edited by ScratSkinner : 07 February 2006 - 01:52 PM

That reminds me, asteroids that exist off screen for the purposes of interfering with weapons would be nice. As it stands, if a missile makes it off screen, it's got a clear shot at whatever it's targeting (jamming, radiation, and point defense notwithstanding).

Rameretz, on Feb 6 2006, 07:39 PM, said:

I'd also like a choice of species at the beginning of the game, so that you start in a different area of the map and have a different starting ship. And perhaps a built-in tutorial sort of thing for newcomers. Obviously it would not work as a plug-in unless you are registered, so perhaps an option on the main menu for the tutorial, which would give you a one-system galaxy with steps towards becoming a pro. Also an actual pause menu, like what most games have.
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That is all possible in Nova. Plus we also have a built-in tutorial in stock Nova as well.

On Gage's wish, I can see it now. Plugs that add outfits that do nothing more than modify ship apperance such as putting running lights here, lightning streaks there...

A couple other comments here and on other threads have just given me an idea. I think it would be cool to have battles. Basically, in whatever circumstance, be it by certain chances coming together, or intentionally triggered by something, a couple govornments could have a large-scale battle, complete with command ships, support ships, fighers and such, all flying around. It would be kind of like space battles you'll see in the flight simulator Star Wars games. The large ships will set up in formations, or strategical maneuvers, and slowly move around or sit and face off, while they launch fighters that go off and do their part. This could be made more realistic when the bigger ships have different types of fighters they can launch, and so they'll use their heavier fighters as bombers, and lighter ships as interceptors and the like.

(It would also be funny to see somebody's ship like Matt Burch's end up in the middle, get hit, get angry and destroy everybody in the area.)

Oh yes. Fighter bay exit points. "Center of ship" just doesn't work for me. And like I said before, multiple points for different types of exit points, like fighter bay exit point #1, 2 and 3. (Like for the Fed carrier, it has three different bay locations.) Same goes for other weapons.

That made me think of another good one. Customizable/unlimited numbers of fields for...whatever. What only 3 beam exit points? Click a little + button in the editor 3 times to add 3 weapon-exit-point type entries to the shän data. Want 50 different types of weapon points? Click + 50 times and enter different exit point ID's for them all...or multi-select those fields as if in a spreadsheet and give a fill down (incremental) command. Types like "missile" or "beam" would only be used in setup wizards for user-friendliness, and should be definable to make later setup of, say, wëaps similarly friendly but specific to your scenario.

Similarly, weapons could have freeform attributes, such as adding the accelerates, guided, and turreted properties all to a single weapon. Turrets could have arc-of-fire range fields, with ability to have multiple entries of course...

Similarly, shäns could also have customizable multiple animation events, that could either be set up in user-friendly standard ways (ie. banking, unfolds to fire, etc.) or via custom event IDs that would be scripted elsewhere... (eg. if enemy fire comes within a 300 pixel radius, play this "shields up" animation...)

This post has been edited by Weepul 884 : 07 February 2006 - 09:58 PM

JoshTigerheart, on Feb 7 2006, 12:54 PM, said:

That is all possible in Nova. Plus we also have a built-in tutorial in stock Nova as well.

On Gage's wish, I can see it now. Plugs that add outfits that do nothing more than modify ship apperance such as putting running lights here, lightning streaks there...
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Really? I haven't actually played it, only watched someone else, and as far as I knew you could only choose gender.

Rameretz, on Feb 7 2006, 05:58 PM, said:

Really? I haven't actually played it, only watched someone else, and as far as I knew you could only choose gender.
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You can define multiple char resources, meaning you can have one that starts as polaris, another that starts as vellos, another Auroran, etc.
In fact, there is a plugin that does exactly that, and another that lets you start with pretty much any ship in the game.

I have yet to see any implementation, however, of starting the player off in a specific mission string or otherwise offering any kind of explanation why you'd be starting off in a Dart or Abomination or whatever.

^ Is this something like what you are looking for?
(attachment=1412:attachment)

Neon Soldier, on Feb 8 2006, 06:07 PM, said:

I have yet to see any implementation, however, of starting the player off in a specific mission string or otherwise offering any kind of explanation why you'd be starting off in a Dart or Abomination or whatever.
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Doesn't counter the fact that this is a scenario feature.
All the pieces are there, each char resource has 4 pictures, a desc, and an OnStart NCB field that gets evaluated at the beginning of the game.
Lack of explanation is a content issue.

Lurking Device /OFF/

A step closer to pseudo-realism in ship design:

1. Separate the idea of ship propellent from ship energy. A nuclear power plant to provide electricity for engines and lasers is not the same as hydrogen propellent to make the ship go... Also separate engines from the ship body and give them their own characteristics/efficiency, etc.

2. Ship schematics with drag-n-drop ship design for outfits (drop your outfit on an available space). This is much nicer than a simple text list of components.

3. Outfit-specific damage! My ship shouldn't work 100% right up until the whole thing goes kablooey. If I take a laser hit, knock out my shield generator, or my missile bay, or that extra fuel tank... Make repairs a real issue.

4. XML-based datafiles.

5. Keep the 2D graphics, but adopt a modern graphics engine like OpenGL. With that you get many fancy effects for free and you greatly simplify SPIN resources and the like (encouraging plug-in development).

6. While we're at it, give me real gravity with working planetary orbits and gravity assists and burning up in the atmosphere with a bad re-entry. Separate ship mass from ship displacement and make my pseudo-newtonian movement better pseudo-newtonian movement with realistic engine profiles. Give me something NASA could use to plan their Lunar Surveyor missions! Waah!

Lurking Device /ON/

I've added some more stuff to my wishlist if you wanna check them out, though I think some have been mentioned already, but I'll keep adding more and more on that particular post when I can think of some more.

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 10 February 2006 - 12:54 PM

...be normal and add them at the end of the thread, you weirdo.

Qaanol, on Feb 4 2006, 11:27 AM, said:

Realtime 3D is bad. Very very bad. Stay away from it. For just one example of something that can't be done with 3D, but can with sprites, try my Wacky Asteroids plugin. (If that .zip doesn't work try this sitx version.)
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I am running an iMac G3. With OS 9.2. That is not compatible with .sitx files.

Can you please use .sit instead of .sitx?

UncleTwitchy, on Feb 6 2006, 06:07 AM, said:

Knockback for planetary explosions.

Hello! Yeah! This Is NOVA is it not? There should be a massive shockwave for planetary explosions.

UncleTwitchy, on Feb 6 2006, 06:07 AM, said:

Engine sounds.
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AMEN!!!

3. How about instead of using PICTs we use PNG, so we can get true transparency, and imbedded alpha channels.

4. Shields that reflect the side that they get hit, instead of the whole entire shield sprite showing up.

EDIT: Maybe I missed something, but didn't Matt say they were not going to do another EV?

I just remembered another thing...

5. Instead of just one landing port, a planet could have multiple landing ports, a simple way to do it: 5A) When you land on a planet, it would then ask you which city/spaceport you would like to land on. Support for unlimited spaceports.
   or...
   5B) When you "land" on a planet, you would fly your ship to the spaceport you want to land at. This would be achieved throught in-planet flying, similar to in-system flying, but slightly more graphically challenging, but NOT impossible.

This post has been edited by Highway of Life : 10 February 2006 - 04:38 PM

The CrimpMaster, on Feb 2 2006, 11:28 PM, said:

Ah. Thought of a few more.

Missiles that sort of "roll" out of the sides of the ship before the thrusters kick in, causing them to speed forward (like in Mars Rising). This could be a new exit type, a modified accuracy field, a new flag, or a new guidance type. Might require a new frame flag (i.e., "stay on frame 1 until thrusters kick in", so that the thruster glow doesn't show before the they are fired. There is a "stay on frame 1 until X happens" flag in the weäp resource, but I'm too lazy to look up exactly what it does.)

A larger variety of exit points. (Gives a grater variety to where weapons can come out. Eye candy, mostly.)

Other max weapon slots, besides turrets and guns. Max fighter bays, max reactors (only big ships get big reactors), and max point-defence systems come to mind (unless if you count point-defence systems as turrets).
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Today during my studyhall i did this, using submunitions and proxytimers, and the "stay do frame 1 until proxysafe expires" i did it to the radar missle