Hello, I probably seem new around here but have played EV since the original version of the original EV was released. I've made a few plugins, primarily small mods for EV and EVO that either added a small quest line or made content that wasn't available acquirable. These were primarily for personal use and were never released.

I use to play on an old iMac that is now not in use. I've converted to PC and don't currently have access to a Mac.

I'm interested in developing a TC plugin for EVN based on the Mass Effect universe. I'm especially interested in capturing the freedom of choice from the original games and allowing players to choose their own path through the quest line that both has serious consequences and, unlike the Mass Effect series, can drastically effect the course of events for the player. I'd also like to present the player with the option of playing different races, thus not limiting the character to a human role.

I'm looking to get help developing such a plugin as I know such a task would be too great for me to undertake by myself. I'm primarily interested in writing descriptions and mission strings/storyline for the game (as well as coding missions) but will certainly pick up as much work as needs doing. I'm hoping to find others who would be interested in helping to develop the storyline as well as pick up some of the coding needs for the plugin. I would especially be interested in someone who would be willing to develop a system map as this is a particular part of plugin development I have had trouble with in EVN.

I know one graphic designer who would probably be willing to render high quality planet landing images, but would also need to find anyone who was interested in developing ship, outfit, and encounter images if possible.

I don't plan to over exert myself on this project. I (as I'm sure most others) have other priorities that are much higher than a plugin, so I'd like to set realistic goals for myself, primarily working on weekends. Through the week only as time permits.

If anyone would be interested in partaking in this project, please feel free to respond, especially anyone who would be willing to work out overall story details (including deciding on a time period, and whether player actions should be related to the events of the game or totally separate) as well as helping to code the plugin.

This post has been edited by Player0 : 04 February 2010 - 08:56 PM

I've got my own TC to do right now, but I'd be happy to see something like this. Here's my support and interest in the subject. If you're still working on this when my TC is finished, I'll gladly come on and help where needed.

Also, welcome to the boards!

I've actually been considering doing something like this myself. I do currently have a major plugin in the works, but could certainly help out with some coding here and there, including galaxy creation. Making the galaxy itself could be interesting, as Mass Effect has three 'levels' of space (cluster, system, planet) and Nova only has two, but I'm sure something could be worked out. At least all the planet descriptions, names, and relative locations are already sorted out. The tricky part will be ships and story.

Regarding the three levels of space in Mass effect and only two in EVN, why not simply put several systems in one cluster and other systems in another cluster? Just link the clusters by a few systems that are near the edges of the clusters.

QUOTE (darthkev @ Feb 5 2010, 02:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Regarding the three levels of space in Mass effect and only two in EVN, why not simply put several systems in one cluster and other systems in another cluster? Just link the clusters by a few systems that are near the edges of the clusters.

I was thinking this, but instead of linking them via a few systems, leave them unlinked and link them using a wormhole/hypergate (in the case of Mass Effect, a Mass Relay). I believe EVN would support this but should probably be correct if it can't.

I think this makes the most sense since it's actually impossible to travel great distances using just FTL in a reasonable amount of time which is why the Mass Relays are used in the first place.

I'm glad to see that others would be interested in this as well.

I'll likely set up some forums for discussion on the plugin on a friend's web server. If anyone would be interested, I'll post a link once they are up. Even if you can't commit time to helping on the plugin, I'd love to get some discussion going, especially opinions of those who have a bit more coding experience than I do. Might help to straighten out ideas I've had that may not be possible, as well as add ideas I may not have even thought of.

Well, I haven't played Mass Effect yet due to not having the cash to spend on it so I can't come up with ideas. However, I really like the story. Once those forums are up, I'll keep an eye out for any problems you guys have when trying to make something work, and I'll see if I can help find a solution.

This post has been edited by darthkev : 04 February 2010 - 10:53 PM

QUOTE (darthkev @ Feb 4 2010, 10:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I haven't played Mass Effect yet due to not having the cash to spend on it so I can't come up with ideas. However, I really like the story. Once those forums are up, I'll keep an eye out for any problems you guys have when trying to make something work, and I'll see if I can help find a solution.

I appreciate it, got my friend setting me up with MySQL access so I can set up a forum here soon.

It's DEFINITELY worth playing. Prior to this, my favorite games were the Marathon series due to the great story, I enjoy Mass Effect more now (although Marathon remains a very close 2nd). The fleshing out that's been done on the science of the Mass Effect universe makes it both really interesting and actually plausible (if Mass Effect fields and an Element Zero were possible).

I'm not sure if they still are, but BillMeLater (a service through PayPal) was offering up to $30 off your first purchase. I bought Mass Effect and BioShock last year via Steam, only payed $5 for both games. The deal was completely legit, no hidden fees. I payed off my bill as soon as I was able to avoid any interest charges and wound up only spending $5 for both games.

In any event, I will post back when it's up and running. For now, I'd like to get a storyline fleshed out, I feel a lot of the details of the plugin will fall out of a well written storyline. Even if said storyline winds up changing, I think it will provide a good starting point for development.

This post has been edited by Player0 : 04 February 2010 - 11:51 PM

A Mass Effect TC would be quite cool, though a ton of work if you wanted to honestly capture the universe.

QUOTE (Mackilroy @ Feb 4 2010, 11:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A Mass Effect TC would be quite cool, though a ton of work if you wanted to honestly capture the universe.

My thoughts exactly, precisely why I'd like to get some help developing such a TC.

There was this one TC for EVO... totally forgot the name, but it was set in scale model of our Solar System, where traveling between the planets took days, and it was easy to get lost... But you were never stranded, since all ships had a energy regen, while the energy would be used to power weapons as well. Also, any ship no matter the size had essentially no speed limit (999) for ever ship) as an attempt to improve the physics. You could always get that fast if you accelerated long enough, but it was very hard to slow down. The story was very engaging and the plugin overall was terrifically fun. I miss that TC. If you wanted to make a plug even remotely like it, I would love to help.

Just to diverge a little to Mass Effect in general, I would like to say that it is my #1 favorite singleplayer game. Tied with EVN, of course.

However, the thing that really draws me into the game the most (the gameplay itself is fantastic too, even if the story isn't completely amazing) are the characters, so it would require some pretty intense storywriting to get the same draw from textboxes as from fully voiced over 3d characters.

In terms of the actual TC, I would suggest that starting with everything but the story would be a good idea. Get all the ships, planets, etc into the game first. It's kind of backwards to the way you would want to do it if you were making an original TC, but because the universe already exists, I think it would be a good idea to start with that so that even if it doesn't ever get a story, people can still see all the hard work put into it.

This post has been edited by Jalisurr : 05 February 2010 - 12:39 AM

I'm not sure how this would work. Mass Effect had all the action planet-side. So, a TC of it would likely either be Mass Effect only in name and setting or be like ARPIA2's shadow hunter storyline, where instead of playing out all the big fights, you only get to read about them.

QUOTE (JoshTigerheart @ Feb 5 2010, 01:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not sure how this would work. Mass Effect had all the action planet-side. So, a TC of it would likely either be Mass Effect only in name and setting or be like ARPIA2's shadow hunter storyline, where instead of playing out all the big fights, you only get to read about them.

My thought for a TC would be to provide opportunity for space battles based on the information given in the codex of the games. In the codex, the roles or different ships are explained, as well as how weapons and other technologies apply in space combat.

I think it's not only possible to interpret space combat for Mass Effect, but also capture other elements of the game that would give a TC the feel of Mass Effect even if the game play is totally different.

As to Jalisurr on starting with the content rather than the story, that's definitely a possibility. I think that will primarily depend on who is interested in participating. My last read of the EVN bible was quite a few years ago, I'm willing to learn and pick up any part of development that's needed, but I also know I can't do it by myself and could certainly use the expertise of others who have developed other plugins.

I think selection of a time period might also prove relevant to the content of the plugin, but since a great deal of it will have to be originally created, that might not prove a large problem at all.

(edit)In case anyone is interested, the Mass Effect wiki provides a lot of detailed information about space combat straight from the game - be warned, the links may include spoilers, those unfamiliar with the Mass Effect 1 and 2 story lines who want to experience them for themselves may wish to avoid the links:
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Codex/Ships_and_Vehicles

As well as detailed descriptions of each of the warship classifications:
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Ships(/edit)

This post has been edited by Player0 : 05 February 2010 - 02:58 PM

Thanks to a friend providing some web space for me, I am now hosting a forum for the development of this plugin. There is a post there regarding the recruiting of a development team. If you are interested in helping out in any capacity, please feel free to PM me either there or here:

http://dark09.com/player/forums/

Mass Effect would seem to be one of the better sci-fi universes to build a plug-in around. There are already so many systems and planets with descriptions, plus some of them even have purty pikturz to go along. The more important 'inhabited' planets are not really seen in either game, but it wouldn't take that much imagination to make them up.

The gameplay would also be a pretty good match. Yeah, if you wanted to retell the ME1 or ME2 storylines and have the player being Shepard flying the Normandy around the galaxy doing what he/she did in the actual games, the game would quickly become boring. Fly from place to place and land on a planet while a lot of text describes whatever mission Shepard is on.

But that would probably be the wrong way to approach the project. There are a lot of military men, freelancers, pirates, traders, and even Spectres. Heck, one of the characters in ME2 even mentions a 'Corsair program' where independent captains did work for the Alliance without being officially affiliated- sounds exactly like the player from EVO working with the Voinians or the UE to me! That provides ample room for a TC set in the Mass Effect universe , as opposed to a Mass Effect TC where you play as Shepard (but IN SPACE!).

And there are quite a few sweet ship designs, plus room to make up more. And, as was mentioned, a lot of the space combat stuff is elaborated in the game's built in encyclopedia.

This post has been edited by UE_Research & Development: 13 February 2010 - 07:00 PM

I know this is a gravedig (should I smite myself?), but I have been fooling around with 3dsmax and the Mass Effect Files and came up with this:

normandysr2v10001.jpg (75.05K)
Number of downloads: 43

I've also got a Turian Frigate, Geth Dropship and Destiny Ascension in various stages of completion. Would you guys like to see a simple plug just adding these ships to the normal Novaverse?

Of course, these could be used if this TC decides to un-vapourware itself.

I can't help, as I have my own TC, but I'd love to play this! EVN: Mass Effect. Pretty cool idea! Plus, I thought it was only gravedigging if the topic was over four months old. Oh, wait...
EDIT: No smiting.

Adapted movie quote: "There's going to be smiting? This was not in the brochure!" That's from City Slickers, dont remember who said it.

This post has been edited by Spartan Jai : 20 September 2010 - 05:55 PM

In case anyone is interested, here is a Turian Frigate and a Human Dreadnaught:
turianfrigatev1.jpeg (57.84K)
Number of downloads: 30

HumanDreadnaughtV1.jpeg (48.85K)
Number of downloads: 30

Damn dude, those ships are sleek. Very impressive.

I don't think he made those, Sp3cies. They're probably screenshots from the game itself.