@david-arthur, on Feb 6 2008, 11:25 AM, said in Add-ons page:
I’ve never understood why ‘TC’ was considered a meaningful category, or been sure when it came into use — it certainly wasn’t around back when I was on escape-velocity.com. ‘With storylines’ has some merit, though.
My guess is that they're considered as such because the Nova universe feels much less open-ended than those of EV and EVO. Consequently, there's the perceived need to create one's own universe, rather than simply exploring the Novaverse further. The prestige that accompanies the completion and release of a full-fledged TC, I imagine, plays into it as well.
My general feeling is that, given the incredible amount of work that must necessarily go into completing a full-fledged TC, we'd be better off as a community if more people put their efforts into creating scenarios set in and expanding the existing universe (Pale and Clavius from EV, for instance, and ARPIA II and Anathema are good examples). These would fit well into the "With storylines" category, and would generally be more likely to reach completion than a TC.
TCs have their place, by all means, but... oops, better stop before I get too far off topic.