A good deal of the discussion about Acheron that has taken place has taken place here at the EVDC, so I am posting this topic here as well as in the EVN board.

Coming to you from Crusader Alpha and a whole bunch of other people, roughly three and a half years after the original Darkstar TC was announced, I present to you Acheron. Acheron is a Total Conversion for Escape Velocity: Nova.

This first installation of Acheron might be as far as I get, depending on how much it is appreciated and how much support I get to expand upon the current universe. At the moment I regret to say that Acheron is void of any major storylines - while I have some descs written, none of the storylines are complete and so are not included in this release.

If anyone would like to enhance the Acheron universe in an official expansion, and bring the player beyond the Trikeratos Alliance, contact me. I am very interested in writing storylines, though from this point on I'd like to limit the amount of straight coding and graphics that I do for the plug. These have taken up most of my time so-far, even with generous graphics donations from the Aftermath team.

Please, feel free (I even hope for it) to make plugs and expansions for Acheron. If I can do anything to help, or if you're interested in being part of an official expansion, let me know.

(For the record, though I have been developing plugs for a number of years, and I have frequented the EVN board and the EVDC, this is actually my first released plug-in.)

Enjoy!

Woah, first?

Dayam! I had no idea Acheron was... well even close to finished. Major props to you and everybody who worked with you on it! I'll check it out ASAP (which may be a while, unfortunately :().

Nice idea, by the way, on open-sourcing it to an extent. Whet their appetites, then make 'em beg to expand the plug. :laugh:

This post has been edited by Archon : 10 June 2008 - 09:57 PM

Congrats!

My congratulations also on this significant milestone.

Missions are a must, going forward. Do you have any plans in that area?

Hooray! TC goodness!

i have found a misspelling in the Erethos landing desc sensor is spelled suspensor. (unless the station is meant to have a suspensor array)

Whohoo! I was waiting for this! Major kudos!

I think that's probably a deliberate decision of doom.

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 11 June 2008 - 10:23 AM

a deliberate decision of doom? :laugh:

This is awesome, Crusader. Really awesome. My graphics look puny in comparison.

Sweetness! I'll take a look this evening when I get home.

OK, I peeked in the files. Wow.

To all with willpower: don't peek. Just load it up, and be prepared for beauty. There are some transport and bounty missions available to fend off boredom when you tire of gaping at the graphics.

Bored and gaping at graphics do not go together with these graphics. I really am very impressed.

I like the multiple-landing-options-per-planet trick a lot, but instead of "Spaceport One - Arges" and so on, why not just "Arges Spaceport" or "Spaceport Arges" or even "Port Agres"?

Thanks very much for the support, everyone

Dr. Trowel: That's probably a good idea. I started with that when the plug just consisted of the one system, and didn't change it. Good suggestion.

of doom: Yep, it was suspensor, stolen from the concept from the Dune universe.

pipeline: If it works out, I'd like to make (or authorize someone else to make) an expansion that includes some major storylines. If I were directly involved in an expansion, I'd like to do a lot more writing than I have done so-far, even if it means I have to give up a portion of my creative scenario control - which is really fine with me; I only have so much creativity. I'd prefer to limit coding and graphics as much as possible on my end, from here on out.

The only thing that I must do is take a break for a while and do some RL stuff, before attempting an official expansion.

ever since i started playing acheron earlier this morning. i decided to at least one storyline. i am currently working on a renegade storyline. and i thought i would run it past you before i go much more then 2 or 3 missions into making it.

Feel free, but there's no real need to run it past me; I'm most likely fine with you releasing it whether or not I like it. I only have to like it if you want it to be an "official" part of Acheron.

ok thanks.
and are any bits being used in the default universe for outfits or something?

This post has been edited by of doom : 12 June 2008 - 08:40 AM

No, there are not.

I have a great deal of notes on storylines and "planned-but-not-implemented" things, but I'd like to see how things go for a little while before digging those up again.

I remembered a question that I had for pipeline: What was the method that ATMOS used to write storylines? I know that there were short stories mentioned at S7evyn. Did that, and whatever other methods you used, seem to work very well?

This post has been edited by Crusader Alpha : 12 June 2008 - 07:49 PM

@of-doom, on Jun 11 2008, 07:10 PM, said in Acheron Total Conversion Released!:

ever since i started playing acheron earlier this morning. i decided to at least one storyline. i am currently working on a renegade storyline. and i thought i would run it past you before i go much more then 2 or 3 missions into making it.

I'll spell and grammar check your work, of doom, before you submit it. Would that be fine with you?

And for you, Crusader Alpha, great job on the ships. They are very, very beautiful. I personally enjoy the Skybridge; you used a whole bunch of effort on it, and it looks really good. Graphics=A+.

Thank you. I wouldn't give them an A+, myself, as they're not my best (and could be quite outclassed), but I'm proud of them

The Skybridge was actually originally for CTC. I had made the gate, thought that it didn't fit it's original role (it didn't; the role it would have played in Darkstar would have been much more mysterious) and tried to donate it to CTC. Unfortunately, Josh couldn't get it to work, because the frames were not laid out right. I was able to fix them some time later, but by then CTC already had a replacement.