After playing EVN for a long time, I have finally decided to try to make a couple plugins. I am using EVNEW as my editor and am just trying to figure out how everything works before I start building everything. I decided to use the Absolute Minimum download to start off with a blank universe and teach myself by building a very small universe of my own. This way I can learn how a planet, system, ship, etc. is built from scratch, giving me a good understanding for when i try to alter things in the existing Nova universe. Note that although i am starting from a blank universe i am importing all picture files, i don't want to make my own graphics until i understand how EVNEW works.

I'm having trouble with a couple things, first off, i cant get a picture to display when landing on a planet. I read the FAQ on this board and it explained:

"3. The other graphic that is used is the 333 x 271 pixel image seen when the player lands on the planet. This can be any image, but make it unique, since this image can help the player identify the planet from the others. These images can be stored in the PICT ID 10000 and above and are stored in the sp�b's CustPicID field."

I have created my Syst and placed a Spob (planet) into it. I was able to import a graphic for the planet itself, and I am able to import graphics to be viewed when visiting the shipyard, bar, etc. screens. But nothing when landing on the planet. I tried to import a 333x271 pixel image, as well as a 612x285 pixel image (this size seems to be used by the original nova files), I set the PictID to 10010, and then I include this PICT ID as the graphic for my landing desc. This seemed to work great for the bar desc, it added the image right above, even scaled the image for me, but I can't get the landing image to display no matter what I do. I was confused by the FAQs mention of the spob's CustPicID field, as I cannot find a value like this when editing my spob (is this field from a different nova editor maybe?).

Any help would be great.

Welcome to the boards, LostViking. Enjoy your stay and be blessed by the Light of Bob.
Congratulations on your proper spelling and grammar and attempt to solve your own problems.
To what FAQs do you refer? The primary documentation is the Nova Bible, found in the Documentation folder. It is also available in HTML and PDF forms from the addons page.
I believe from your description that you are putting the PICT in the desc resource. That is incorrect; use the Spob resource.

Quote

CustPicID Which custom landscape to show
128 and up ID number of PICT to load instead of the
standard landscape display
less than 128 No custom landscape
(Note: for animated hypergates, this field can be optionally
used to set the index of the transition between the
"opening/closing" animation and the "working"
animation. Set to 0 to have the engine use the first
half of the frames for "opening/closing" and the
second half for "working".)

Note that the specific names used to refer to the fields are from the original TMPLs and are often not used exactly by modern editors.

Actually, it's easier to tinker with copies of the data files then try to learn from a blank template. That way you know which changes you make work and can test them straight away and which ones either don't or crash Nova.

This post has been edited by JoshTigerheart : 13 December 2008 - 03:41 PM

Just make sure you make individual plug-in files before you do tinker with the main game; you can screw it up mortally if you aren't careful.

Hence why I said copies.

Yes, I am definately using copies of the original game files to take a look at what is going on. I am trying to build from scratch, but I like to use a copy of the original game files to help me learn when I get stuck.

Nonconventionally Creative,
I was using the Frequently Asked Questions for EV Plug-in Development, I found it in the 'Important Links' post that is stickied on this board. You were right, I was using the DESC to place my PICT, I found a field called Landscape when editing my SPOB and placed the PICT there, and everything worked great.

My next step has been to add ships to my system, I've added a couple ships, as well as their graphics and a couple weapons (plus their graphics). I was successful in being able to use these ships as the starting ship, or adding them to a system as a PERS, but I've noticed the same ships do not appear when they are used in DUDE's or FLET's. Is there any reason why a ship would appear as a PERS, but not as a DUDE or FLET? I pretty sure I've imported all the proper graphics for the ships and their weapons, and I have set the appropriate fields in my SYST to make the DUDE appear (also set the probability of their appearance very high, at 90). I have also set the FLET as the reinforcement fleet in my SYST. I'm not sure if the ship's GOVT would affect them, or if I am maybe missing a graphic file or haven't set a field that is needed. Any ideas on what I may have missed?

This post has been edited by LostViking : 13 December 2008 - 10:05 PM

If there's a bit field expression in the Dude/flet resources that resolves to false, the ships won't appear. If the ship usuage "chance" fields in the dude resource aren't set to anything, they, more than likely, will not appear.

Otherwise, I don't know what the problem could be. If the govt field is set to "-1" in the dude resource, the dude should use the government "independent" or just have a blank identifier.

Does your ship have anything in its AppearOn field? If it does, that restricts when it will appear.

I think I've figured out the DUDE problems. I forget to set the 'Average ships in system' field, it was set to zero. It appears this field will only affect a DUDE, not a PERS. I have yet to test if this will also fix the problems I have had with reinforcement fleets.