First and foremost, it has to be asked: have you ever made any plug-ins before?
Second, you are aware a TC is a ton of work?
If you answered no to either, you may want to step back and consider making some more plugs, perhaps a few large ones, even if you never release them. Might be a little blunt to say, but enthusiastically, and blindly, rushing into a project is the best way to fail.
But, if you know what you're getting into, here's my advice.
*Get to a playable state ASAP. Being able to test your creations right away helps and it's nice to be able to actually pop into the game and see your progress. Seeing things develop will help avoid burnout (the biggest enemy of all TC makers).
*When you make something, try to make it completely. You just created a system? Put the planets in there, write their descriptions, get their graphics (or use placeholders), put in some dudes, or make them if you haven't. If you need new ships for those dudes, make them. And do their weapons and outfits too. This way, you'll have something that's "complete". Odds are you'll have to tweak the stuff you just made several times down the line, but that's unavoidable. And yes, it sounds like a lot for one thing. But really, all of that goes with your one thing, you might as well make it now. You're better off having a bunch of completed systems, complete with ships buzzing around and planets to visit, then you are three-hundred empty, lifeless systems.
*Make your important stuff first. That includes any fluff that directly supports them. This way, if the project just seems too big later on, you can easily cut down on all the extra stuff you haven't added yet without having to trim what you've made.
*For your case, I'd do a region at a time. Specifically, I'd recommend starting with Region 1. It's the "starting" region and looks like where most of the action will be, so do it first. Get it's important bits down and follow that with the semi-important bits. Once that's done, then you can either start fluffing it up or move onto the next region. I'd probably do Region 2 second and Region 5 third. Regions 3 and 4 can easily be combined or merged into other regions if time demands it, since those sound pretty singular in their purpose and rather fluffy. But, get Region 1 up and running, perhaps with the starts of your major strings and a few complete minor strings done.
*Create mission strings as you go. Work on your major strings after you've created the stuff for them, throw in some minor strings from time to time for fun and so they're there.
That's what I have off the top of my head. You have a long road ahead of you, but hopefully you'll see your project through to the end.
I'd recommend tinkering with some EVN plug-ins before starting the "coding" work on the TC. The fact that you have experience is great, but it's only with EVC and EVO. The only reason that's a problem is because EVN's plug-in structure is almost a completely different beast. It is, by far, a lot more complicated than the previous games. The complexity lets you do far more than the previous engines could ever hope to achieve, so while it's harder to learn, the pay off makes up for it. If you haven't, you may want to poke at Teacup, Polycon, Miners, Colosseum, Ashen Galaxy, and Ascheron and see how those TCs handle things. Even if you don't dig through their data files, they'll give you some ideas of what all you can do with TCs.
Don't worry about graphics right now, since you can't make them. Just use placeholders.
And unfortunately, you won't be able to really recreate the feeling of carries vomiting ships into battle. Nova has a hard-coded limit of 63 ships per system (actually 64, but the last spot is reserved for mission ships and defense fleets). If you made 2 carriers with 25 fighters each, you're not going to be able to have much else flying around. This is why you rarely see ships in the trilogy carrying more than 6 fighters, more often 2-4.
@sleipnir, on 22 January 2011 - 07:04 PM, said in Into the Void TC:
Basic gameplay features:
Ship Hangar station: not sure how to "code" it but i imagine it wouldnt be to hard to impliment.
Maybe using derelict space stations scattered around the regions they can be bought and purchased (IE like the spica shipyards found in plug pack)
Itll only offer a fast shuttle type of ship for a low price but basically if you sell off your current ships outfits itll store them in outfits section of station with a rebuy of 0 credits. you cant buy more then you sell to the station to prevent cheating.
the same with starships.
You trade in your ship for a shuttle and your ship will become purchasable quantity of 1 in the shipyards section. meaning you can store different kinds of ships and not have to fly all over the place to equip them. there also be no resale value meaning u couldnt make money off the outfits or ships you sold just to be bought back for 0 credits.
why i did this? well there will be times when certain ship classes will be better suited for certain mission strings. a super heavy warship (hoping that the game can be balanced enough that a battleship can tank a frigate) expected, load up your heavy warship. alot of firepower enemies bring something thats faster.
tired of looking at your ship just park it and grab another one.
I'm given to understand that actually doing this requires a lot of effort. Like, a hell of a lot.
Check this thread, though I'm pretty sure there's a better thread out there, I just can't find it.
There's an NCB expression that can play a sound, which might get what you’re looking for.
Ashen Galaxy and ARPIA2 both do it on some of their missions, so try poking at those plug-ins to see how they do it. Keep in mind, the sound will keep playing until it ends, even if you've done three missions since it started, and won't loop. Might be possible to get it to loop with a cron, but I imagine that'd be tricky.
@sleipnir, on 03 February 2011 - 01:20 AM, said in Into the Void TC:
question is there a way to link music to start at certain mission strings?
You may be interested in these two topics:
http://www.ambrosias...showtopic=19912
http://www.ambrosias...showtopic=20342
Well, one way to make defense satellites is the way EVN did it, with spöbs armed with weapons. You could setup maybe three satellites around a planet with some light weapons with a quick reload and give the planet a large gun. Or arm the satellites with large guns and give the planet short-range missiles. That would be the simplest and easiest, IMO.
However, spöb satellites can't be destroyed without a planet-type weapon for the player, and you sound like you want destructible satellites. For this, I refer you to Realm of Prey. The Faction had defense satellites deployed at a few of their outposts and stations, and at least one mission that I remember had several deployed in a Confederate system and tasked the player to destroy them. This was done with a single shïp resource with a fast turn speed, high acceleration, but very little top speed. Just put them in a düde and place that düde in a system, and they'll appear like normal ships in the system and more will also jump in and slowly make their way to the station. They won't be completely immobile, but it works.
A single spob cannot have more than one weapon, no.
@darthkev, on 09 February 2011 - 03:28 AM, said in Into the Void TC:
But you could put multiple spöbs in the same spot with the same graphic, one for each weapon you want the satellite to have. It takes up extra spöb resources, but it does simulate the effect.
Of course, you also need to give the spobs either no-land, no-hail, and no-target flags and give them 1-pixel PICTs or the player may accidentally land on a defense turret.
What I meant by setting their AI to attack spöbs was actually setting in the mission resource for the special ship's behavior to attack enemy spöbs. You can't make a normal ship that will fly around as normal that will also use anti-planet weapons, as far as I know. A planet-type ship can still use normal weapons to shoot normal ships with, though. The planet-type ship will just be immune to their fire. Now, I'm not positive on whether or not AI ships wielding planet-type weapons will use them on planet-type ships or not. I just know they won't use them on spöbs.
General Info Section:
(Editors Note, Im spreading out the layout of the thread "Repost:New TC Storyboard" To prevent a cluttered feeling)
So im laying the drawing board for a new TC completely new. Not a port of a tv/movie show ie startrek babylon 5 (would be nice though just to play)
Originally drawn races ships and overall balance. No super ship fits until way way later and races that are functional yet distinct.
Humanity has just begun its reach upwards into the heavans. Your science vessal is inroute to investigate a wormhole that has opened up in a system next to earth. Your whisked away to an unknown universe smack dab in the middle of a battle between tech race 1 and 2. you can either watch or attempt to join the fray. Its scripted you cant leave just yet.
Your vessal is low tech in comparison and you become targeted by fighters which disable you and leave you adrift.. as you contemplate wtf just happened and are about to press the open pilot button a super race 1 ship despells its invisibility (cloaking device) off your port side and hails you asking if you require assistance. they repair your ship and escort you to a nearby world. upon landing they ask you where you hail from and make general fun of your pathetic human vessal. They then transfer over 50k credits with which to buy a proper ship (recommended) and wish you the best of luck.
(bear in mind this is a very general opening scene)
A large universe. 5 seperate regions interconnected via hypergates/ wormholes (think eve online)
Region 1
main area fully accessable
home of tech race 1,2,3
super race 1,2 have colonys on rim space
pirate factions exist with side quests (leads to region 4) standardized ship classes for them
corporation factions exist with side quests (leads to region 4) standardized ship classes for them
stellar phenomina derelicts of all main races
unexplored worlds rich with select trade goods (ie iron moon with lower metal prices, primordial soup world with lower medical prices)
stargates in interior leading to gates along the rim worlds of region 1
wormhole network located along the rim of region 1 leading to region 4
stargates leading into region 2,3 are guarded by super race 1,2
disfunctional stargates leading to region 4 (activate on mission string no more random wormholes)
Region 4
semi explored
infested with pirates and corporation homeworlds
stellar phenomina derelict ships of all races (ie tech race 1,2,3 sometimes super race 1,2 rarely ancient race 2(mission string))
unexplored worlds rich with junk routes (ie alien artifacts in commodities or alien weaponry)
region 2 home to super race 1 friendly to explore once mission string is complete (cannot access before
(ie player must learn a spell to activate there "rift gate")
region 3 home to super race 2 friendly to explore once mission string is complete (can access before via an unexplored world in region 4 they find a crashed vessal with the access code, beware though they are very hostile if you sneak in, mission string from corporation to setup a remote colony and "build" a secret gate leading back to region 4 leads to a very profitable tech run if you can run it)
region 5
where earth is located (mission string)
ancient race 1,2
very small region
5 races.
Super race 1
Techno Wizard empire (no name yet)
explorers/scribes
at war with super race 2 but infrequent encounters.
Binding magic into lower technology.
Lower overall HP
Highest Damage
Large amount of energy/fuel = Mana/magic points
Slow regen to balance
Generally fly frigates-cruisers, not alot of battleships but there powerful.
Non interchangability with tech ships via licenses. ie you buy a magic ship you cant use tech high fuel regenerators to make your ship uber strong.
weapons/Spells could be worked like this:
Low-mid level spells/weapons
lightning cannon/turret = polaron/ion beam using fuel consumption to fire multiple castings
High level spells fuel/armor consumption.
making there uses fire first nuke em tactic, last ditch i hope it kills em cause im getting my arse kicked tactic, or last resort suicide imma die but im taking you with me (grin on face) tactic.
Auto shield/armor repair spells:
Outfits that drain fuel when damage is inflicted and turn off when fully repaired.
Summoning spells:
demons/elementals as launchable fighters or
missile systems ie a banshee rocket would be a ammo graphic of a fiery banshee chasing after an enemy ship animation. (think homing missile with a kick)
Summon red dragon would be a flying dragon sprite that fires off fireballs and a plasma siphon like ability. varies dragon summons. Non interchangability. Ie if you learn summon Black dragon (equip a fighterbay called black dragon and buy black dragon fighters) you cant summon a lesser powerful red dragon (equip its bay and fighters) so as to simulate your increase in skill and power.
perhaps various licenses could be used to break away from these restrictions indicating your mastery over magic.
Technology race 1:
region 1
Religious zealots Now A cold detached conglomeration of corporations Religious zealots seemed to played out in a sci fi setting
Largest empire dislike all
at war with tech race 2 and newcomers Super race 1. Slave revolt from tech race 3. they dont mess with super race 2.
Lower damage overall
High hp's mostly armor
beam weaponry predominantly
SAE like guided munitions though on select classes of ships
Low damage fast fire short range beam cannons
high damage slow firing long range beam cannons
Energy based SAE like guided munitions
Beams weapons hit often hard to avoid
can be avoided with skilled piloting
Generally fly cruiser-battleship class vessals. 1 or 2 frigate class vessals. 1 navalized fighter class vessal (close range beam fighter)
not alot of variants
slowest ships in game
brute force tactics
Tech race 2:
region 1
Democratic Underdogs
Smaller empire. losing the war with tech race 1 due to attrition. better tech ship ie quality and strength
Medium damage
high hp's mostly shield
Missile weaponry all guided
easier to avoid with good piloting
Generally fly frigates- battlecruisers some battleships but there fleet sizes tend to be smaller then tech race 1. 3 navalized missile fighters (close range rocket boats, mid range missile boats, high yield torp boats)
mid amount of variants
slower ship speed
mixed tactics
tech race 3:
region 1
recently revolted former slaves of tech race 1
good damage/ high rate of fire
low hp's mix shield/armor
mixture of close range autocannons and longer range artillery cannons (ie hail guns improved range, rail guns) and missiles (not as good quality as tech race 2)
good close range tracking, bad distance tracking
generally fly frigates - cruisers very few battleships.
4 fighters mixture of close range autocannon/rocket mid range rail/missile or autocannon/rail rocket/missile
fastest ships ingame overall aside from super race 2
guerrilla tactics
Super race 2
region 1,3
Isolasionists/very aggressive when encountered.
Meaning leave if they show up and dont travel to there systems.
rarely encountered
At war with super race 1 but infrequent encounters
short range beams/long range drones
High Hp's shields/armor
generally fly drone cruisers. some battlecarriers vary few ship variants
large selection of drone variants (fighters but they call em drones)
faster ships. there 1 recon frigate is fastest ship in game
ancient race 1
ancient aliens in slumber
unknown stats
region 5
ancient race 2
extinct
but there technology still exists (some outfits some ships)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revised ship classes:
So 4 main military classes:
Capital Ships: Outfits: Planet based with High Weapon space requirements to prevent smaller class ships from outfiting them. The only ships capable of taking on another capital ship. Highest mass ingame. Carrier can launch more Interceptors/Bombers (carrier is only ship capable of launching bombers).
Battleships: Outfits: High armor/and or repair rates (RR): Big weapon space requirements High damage.
Fourth highest mass in game. Can launch some Interceptors. 2 Subclasses: Sniper Long range/low HP High damage/Slow ROF :: Tanker Short range/high HP High damage/high ROF. 2 PD
Cruisers: Outfits: Medium HP/and or RR: Medium weapon space reqs, Medium damage. Third highest mass in game. Also has 2 sub classes: Look above for details. No PD Tanker class will probably have Jump Drive Inhibitor
Frigates: Outfits: Low HP/ and or RR: Small weapon space reqs, Low damage. Fifth highest mass in game. 2 Subclasses: look above for details. Smallest player purchasable class. No PD Tanker class will probably have Spacial Destabilizers
Interceptors: Bay launch only: Non player flyable: Lowest damage. Second highest mass in game. 2 subclasses: Fighter Interceptor: Low damage/High ROF:High RR/Low HP 1 PD weapon to "intercept" incoming munitions.
Tackler Interceptor: No Damage/No ROF:Better HP then Fighter/High RR 1 PD weapon to Intercept Incoming munitions. 1 Spacial Webifier (Ionization Beam) 1 Jump Drive Inhibitor (Grappling Beam/Tractor Beam)
Special Interceptor: Carrier Based only: Capital Weapons to engage Enemy Capitals.
Oh im also reduing the escort tabs into:
Capital 5
Sniper 4
Tankers 3
Tackle 2
All ships 1
This post has been edited by Sleipnir : 12 February 2011 - 07:39 PM
Progress Log Section:
Regions:5 systems laid spobs needed
Region:1 Systems laid Spobs down
Nakama ships:
Carrier: Finished
Dreadnaught: Finished
BS: sniper/tanker Finished
Cruiser: sniper/tanker finished
Frigate: sniper/tanker finished
Interceptors: Tackle/Gunboat/Bomber Finished
Ummari Ships:
Carrier: Finished
Dreadnaught: Finished
BS: sniper/tanker Finished
Frigate: In Progress
Testings:
Outfits:
ThunderPlow Cruise Missile:(BS LR)
FleshFist Light Missile: Complete (Frigate)
Gremlin Rocket: Complete (Frigate)
ASRAM Splitter Missile/ASRAM Submunition: Complete (Missile System)
100mm Auto Turret: Complete (frigate CR)
200mm Auto Turret: Complete (cruiser CR)
400mm Auto Turret: Complete (Battleship CR)
800mm Auto Turret: Complete (Dreadnaught CR)
1600mm Artillery Turret: Removed due to Overpoweredness (Dreadnaught LR)
800mm Artillery Turret: Complete (Battleship LR)
400mm Artillery Turret: Complete (Cruiser LR)
200mm Artillery Turret: Complete (Frigate LR)
Jump Inhibitor: Complete (Stable Build)
Spacial Webifier: Complete (stable build)
Capital Beam Turret: Complete (capital weapon)
Wraith Seeker drones: Complete (BS/Gunboat LR guided missile)
PD Beam Turret: Complete (PD weapon)
Heavy Beam Turret: Complete (BS LR weapon)
Heavy Laser Cannon: Complete (BS CR Weapon)
Heavy Pulse Laser Turret: Complete (BS CR Weapon)
Medium Pulse Laser Turret: Complete (Cruiser CR)
Medium Laser Cannon: Complete (Cruiser CR)
Medium Beam Turret: Complete (Cruiser LR)
Light Pulse Laser Turret: Complete (Frigate CR)
Light Beam Turret: Complete (Frigate LR)
Light Laser Cannon: Complete (Frigate CR)
Interceptor Bays: Tackle/Gunboat/Bomber: Complete
Micro Jump Drive: In progress
This post has been edited by Sleipnir : 28 February 2011 - 11:08 PM
As I said in the other thread, it does sound interesting and I would like to see/hear more. 