But... that's what I just said... isn't it? :huh: In fact, if that's how you're doing it, why not simply click the tag for 'item can't be sold'? Adding in negative mass just complicates things.

....ah. Of course. The 'item can't be sold' flag. I remembered that flag, completely. Yes.

Because I've had some interest in the Balcrusians lately, I'm going to focus on them for this post.
**
Governments, Part IV
The Balcrusian People's Republic**

Balcrusians are tall humanoids with purple skin, clawed hands, taloned feet, and stalk eyes that vary in color depending on what planet the individual was born on. They have a low population for a major government, so they make up for it by making their ships mostly automated. Over the years they have become even more adept at robotics than the UGF. In combat, they are aggressive and tenacious. Their capital ships are slow, but are heavily defended and armed and can turn surprisingly quickly. Their fighters are fast, agile ... and cannon fodder against Black Knight stealth fighters, the staple fighter of the United Galactic Fighter Corps.

The fascist BPR overthrew the Balcrusian Empire in the same year the UGF was founded, and is now a dangerous enemy on the UGF's eastern Milky Way border. Much to the BPR's chagrin, there is a strong Balcrusian refugee community in the UGF's central sectors, and one of the largest Galactic defense contractors, Magnum Dynamics, Incorporated, is headed by a pair of Balcrusian brothers. The player becomes a Scimitar, the deadly commandoes of the BPR.

For real-world comparison, the BPR is similar to a cross between modern-day China and the old Soviet Union. It has some free-market money (the government does not fully run the economy), but it controls (with varying degrees of success) all media, research, and, especially, weapons.

The Scimitars are closer to the KGB than a true secret police force. They are a commando-trained elite paramilitary that not only polices the BPR, but also spies on the BPR's neighbors. (Deep-cover Scimitars are known to hide among the UGF's Balcrusian refugee community, for instance.)

Balcrusian military vessels resemble weapons like daggers, swords, and boomerangs.

Ships:

• Sunflash: Kandava 4c4 Sunflashes come in two types. Far more common is this type, flown by a high-tech droid brain programmed with the latest tactics and also containing ways to counter them. Singly, they are cannon fodder for Galactic Black Knights, but it's rare to get one alone. The drone Sunflash is specialized for ship- and planet-based operations, as it carries no hyperdrive. Still, it is cheap and easy to build; most Balcrusian worlds have at least one Sunflash plant.
  The manned version is much rarer, but better-equipped than the drone. In addition to all the armament of the drone, the 4c4B carries micromissiles for fighter-to-fighter combat. It is a great threat to freighters and fighters; however, its weaponry is of little use against capital ships, which are liable to plow straight through.
• Moonblaze: Kandava's 7r9 Moonblaze Tactical Bomber is a powerhouse fighter-bomber with impressive armament for a ship its size. Though not particularly durable -- one Balcrusian People's Navy mechanic famously complained that they need repairs after "every damned mission" -- the Moonblaze is the approximate equal of a Scallopshell heavy bomber.
• Nemesis: Balcruz Military Industries' Nemesis -class Corvette is a boomerang-shaped vessel that is fast, well-armed, and poorly defended. Bureaucratic inertia on the part of the War Council and BPN mechanics' resourcefulness is all that keeps these craft commissioned; nevertheless, they can pose a great threat to Galactic warships when deployed in wolfpack formations. Many Balcrusian admirals have mastered using them for hit-and-run strikes to soften up targets for Marauder attack.
• Marauder: The Dragon Claw -class Marauder heavy warship is a two-kilometer dagger-shaped juggernaut that wields a deadly fusion beam as its main weapon. It carries clouds of Sunflashes and Moonblazes and mounts hundreds of weapons, most notably the singularity torpedo. Few other vessels can fight Apache -class command ships one-on-one and win.
  To challenge the new Aegis -class command ship, Balcruz Military Industries developed the Moonsplitter -class Marauder, a terrifying vessel with more than enough destructive capacity to slag inhabited worlds. Though expensive and slow, the Moonsplitter -class is surprisingly maneuverable.
• Balcrusian Transport: The Balcruz Aerospace EP49 Light Transport is a knockoff of the New Netherlands Carrack, with the same modular construction, the same engines, and the same structural framework. Its armament, however, is pathetic, though it's more due to stringent BPR "public safety" laws than any manufacturing defects. Nevertheless, it carries much more cargo relative to its price than does the HEP52 Bulk Freighter.
• Balcrusian Freighter: Balcruz Aerospace designed the HEP52 Bulk Freighter using the blueprints for Kandava's 2z6 Starlight bulk freighter, which the parent company took out of production so it could concentrate on fulfilling a lucrative starfighter contract for the War Council. It has greater range and a much larger hold than the EP49 Light Transport, but again, due to harsh "public safety" regulations, if you ask an HEP52 captain about his armament, he'll likely say "What armament?"

Governments, Part IV.2
The Balcrusian People's Republic -- Addendum

I was tired when I finished my last post, so I'm starting a new one; the complexity of the Balcrusian People's Republic deserves it.

The frequent brutality of the BPR led to a popular uprising in late 968 GSD, composed of a coalition of Balcrusian rebel groups. The alliance didn't really have a chance; the BPR's intelligence apparatus and sheer firepower were much greater, and since the UGF was occupied with its own concerns at the time, it was unable to provide assistance. But the biggest weakness of the rebellion was its own fractious nature: there was no clear leader or chain of command. Scimitar deep-cover agents used these fractures to subtly play the various rebel factions off against each other, enabling the People's Navy to crush the rebellion in mid-969. The Scimitars also took the field in the open; their atrocities were unimaginable, and included using a singularity torpedo to wipe an entire metropolis off the face of a planet. Civilian and rebel casualties from the rebellion exceeded 95 billion; the BPR suffered approximately 38,000 deaths.

The uprising's death did have one positive effect, however. One rebel faction survived the uprising and emerged on top: the Balcrusian People's Front. To this day it has managed to secure and hold a small cluster of systems in the extreme east-southeast of the Milky Way. The UGF remains politically and militarily unable to provide overt aid to the Front, but that hasn't stopped private groups from aiding them; this is virtually the only reason the Front has managed to survive frequent Scimitar and BPN attacks. Delivering such aid is, of course, an extremely dangerous proposition: the Scimitars rarely take prisoners, and then only when they think they can extract information, trade prisoners, or make them into double agents. The BPN is only somewhat more benign. Nevertheless, frequent influxes of cash, supplies, and even warships (New Japan Shipyards frequently delivers modified Shogun -class cruisers to the Front at bargain prices) and battle droids (chiefly made by yet another Republic Group subsidiary, Republic Robotic Design) keep the Front a viable organization.

At the time of this post, two mission strings feature the Balcrusians heavily. The Balcrusian string starts the PC in the BPN as an auxiliary intelligence operative, then gives him/her the option to either join the Scimitars (the only "evil" string as yet*) or the Front. The Galactic string, following the Axe-tail story arc, pits the PC, now a 1-star admiral (a commodore), against the Scimitars to the aid of the Front.

• I personally don't enjoy being evil, or even role-playing evil. When I play D&D, for instance, I almost always play good characters (and most of those are lawful good). I rarely play neutral characters and have never played an evil character. (My favorite D&D3.5 character, by the way, is Faernethue Vrinn (LG female drow Clr3 of Amaunator/Ftr2/Snm 3).) In EVN, I played the Federation string last, and it's my least favorite. (Of course, this is partly due to the fact that the Federation's outfits kinda suck.)

This post has been edited by StarSword : 06 June 2010 - 10:07 AM

Is the current lack of updates caused by a lack of time to post them with or a lack of inspiration for what to put in them? If it's the latter, I have a suggestion. Could you possibly draw up some sketches of what each alien race looks like? I'm sure I speak for most/all of us when I say I have an active imagination, so it's not hard to get an idea of what they look like. However, I'd like to see what you imagine them as.

Been a while.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Jul 1 2010, 04:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is the current lack of updates caused by a lack of time to post them with or a lack of inspiration for what to put in them? If it's the latter, I have a suggestion. Could you possibly draw up some sketches of what each alien race looks like? I'm sure I speak for most/all of us when I say I have an active imagination, so it's not hard to get an idea of what they look like. However, I'd like to see what you imagine them as.

Actually, the lack of updates was due to a massive burst of interference from Real LifeTM. However, since the summer semester is over, I've got time on my hands, so I can get back to work on EVN:UGF.

Sketching the alien races sounds like a good idea. And I'm still looking for people to help with sprite design.

EDIT: I also got stymied by the amount of work I'll have to do to cull the unused SPOBs from the original Nova file that I hacked up to make the base map. I've got the main map finished, though (sans storyline-related changes). There's 1,365 systems altogether.

Speaking of which, does anyone have a way for me to make an image file of the map? (Just a side remark.)

This post has been edited by StarSword : 30 July 2010 - 05:53 PM

QUOTE (StarSword @ Jul 30 2010, 03:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Been a while.

At least you're back now. Good to see you, man.

QUOTE

Sketching the alien races sounds like a good idea.

Yay! I can't wait.

QUOTE

And I'm still looking for people to help with sprite design.

I take it you're opposed to using Delphi's help? The entire set of pieces can be found in this post. Alternatively, you can just use the link in Delphi's signature.

QUOTE

Speaking of which, does anyone have a way for me to make an image file of the map? (Just a side remark.)

Is taking a simple screenshot with EVNEW open out of the question? I know MC can export an image of a stellar map, but I don't know if EVNEW can do the same.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Jul 30 2010, 07:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At least you're back now. Good to see you, man.

I take it you're opposed to using Delphi's help? The entire set of pieces can be found in this post. Alternatively, you can just use the link in Delphi's signature.

Is taking a simple screenshot with EVNEW open out of the question? I know MC can export an image of a stellar map, but I don't know if EVNEW can do the same.

In order:

Thanks.

I actually forgot about the thing Delphi's been doing. Trouble is, a lot of the ships in EVN:UGF look a lot more organic (more curves) than the ones that have been posted on the EVN:Delphi thread, so I'm not sure they'll work. Still, what program is he using?

And no, EVNEW can't export as an image (with the exception of image resources, EVNEW is text-only). I started using screenshots of EVN Cartographer combined with Paint, but that'll take forever.

Here, I'll post a link to the map file. Can you do it for me?

UGF Galaxy 1.txt

I can't wait 'til David Arthur gets done porting Mission Computer to Windows.

This post has been edited by StarSword : 31 July 2010 - 10:03 AM

I finished a preamble for the Axe-tail campaign.
**
EDIT:** Uploaded New Version: some errors fixed (a broken sentence, and a chronological foul-up that made it seem like Cdr. Plath filed her encounter report before the encounter happened).

Attached File(s)

• Preamble_04__Axe_tail_Star_Empire.doc (32K)
  Number of downloads: 1

This post has been edited by StarSword : 02 August 2010 - 12:44 AM

QUOTE (StarSword @ Jul 31 2010, 08:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I actually forgot about the thing Delphi's been doing. Trouble is, a lot of the ships in EVN:UGF look a lot more organic (more curves) than the ones that have been posted on the EVN:Delphi thread, so I'm not sure they'll work. Still, what program is he using?

First off, you can make some pretty sleek designs with Delphi's pieces. Check out my gallery, I think you'll agree to a point. I get what you mean, though. Delphi uses Google Sketchup.

QUOTE

And no, EVNEW can't export as an image (with the exception of image resources, EVNEW is text-only). I started using screenshots of EVN Cartographer combined with Paint, but that'll take forever.

Can't your version of Windows take screenshots itself? Use the Print Screen key on your keyboard, to the right of the function keys. Then post that image.

QUOTE

Here, I'll post a link to the map file. Can you do it for me?

How am I supposed to make a map out of a text file? :huh: If you don't mind posting the plug-in itself, I can make an image of the map with that. Otherwise, take a screenshot with Windows' screenshot ability while EVNEW is open. Or while EVN is open with your map open.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Jul 31 2010, 10:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First off, you can make some pretty sleek designs with Delphi's pieces. Check out my gallery, I think you'll agree to a point. I get what you mean, though. Delphi uses Google Sketchup.

Delphi uses Sketchup? I should try that, I've been using anim8or and wings 3d and everything I make looks terrible.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Jul 31 2010, 05:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First off, you can make some pretty sleek designs with Delphi's pieces. Check out my gallery, I think you'll agree to a point. I get what you mean, though. Delphi uses Google Sketchup.

Can't your version of Windows take screenshots itself? Use the Print Screen key on your keyboard, to the right of the function keys. Then post that image.

How am I supposed to make a map out of a text file? :huh: If you don't mind posting the plug-in itself, I can make an image of the map with that. Otherwise, take a screenshot with Windows' screenshot ability while EVNEW is open. Or while EVN is open with your map open.

Yeah, I can take screenshots with the Print Screen key; that's not the issue. EVNEW doesn't do graphics except in the RLED, RLE8 and PICT resources; it's basically text-entry only. That's why I needed EVN Cartographer to build the galaxy map.

However, EVNEW can interpret a properly formatted TXT file instead of a REZ file. I guess I figured Mission Computer could do the same. I'll post the REZ instead.

UGF Galaxy 1.rez

Oh, sure. I'll make the map now, it shouldn't be a... HOLY BEJEEBUS!! I know you said it was big, but... come on, man! This is huge!!

This is about as small as I could make it while still allowing people to read the names of systems. I tip my hat, boat, house, and island to you, StarSword. You have a truly epic universe here.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 1 2010, 08:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, sure. I'll make the map now, it shouldn't be a... HOLY BEJEEBUS!! I know you said it was big, but... come on, man! This is huge!!

This is about as small as I could make it while still allowing people to read the names of systems. I tip my hat, boat, house, and island to you, StarSword. You have a truly epic universe here.

truly epic is an understatement! I just wish I could see borders and which systems were inhabited. Oh well guess I have to wait for it to come out.

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 1 2010, 03:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, sure. I'll make the map now, it shouldn't be a... HOLY BEJEEBUS!! I know you said it was big, but... come on, man! This is huge!!

(Insert 4870x5350 crazy huge image here)

This is about as small as I could make it while still allowing people to read the names of systems. I tip my hat, boat, house, and island to you, StarSword. You have a truly epic universe here.

Thanks, dk. One question, though: what's the significance of the colors?

I'm sure you know what the pink is for, but in case you don't it shows where nebulae are. Systems with empty gray/white circles don't have a gövt assigned to them yet and are empty of spöbs. Systems with blue filled-in circles also don't have a gövt assigned to them, but have one or more spöbs in them. Systems with green filled-in circles have assigned gövts but have nothing to do with whether or not there are spöbs present within the system.

Not shown on your map, but is also a function of MC's stellar map editor, is gövt colors. Your systems with gövts assigned to them are green and filled in because those gövts are not in the same plug-in file. If they were, the circles would be empty instead of filled in and would also match the gövt's color.

First on the "alien races" agenda (mainly because I'm feeling lazy at the moment and not up to art): I think I'll talk a little about the UGF.

This is not just humans, or even human-dominated. Don't expect to meet that many human NPCs. In fact, though humans are the most numerous species in the UGF, they're only about 12% of the UGF's population. Inside the United Galactic Armed Services (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Fighter Corps), the numbers are somewhat better, close to 23%; this is mainly because several dozen member races are pacifists or otherwise not receptive to Galactic recruiters.

Excluding the old EVN map, nonhuman races are quite widespread; I'll touch on some of the major ones.

To the south of Auroran space are the Orions (which look like Star Trek Orions, near-humans with black hair and green skin, but act quite differently). Telepaths and empaths all, they are sensualists and believe in living life to the fullest.

East of the Orions are the Anz'kalarads, who I covered in another post, and in the timeline. Because of their history of enslaving neighboring species, they are still disliked by their neighbors, despite having abolished slavery over a thousand years ago at the end of the United Powers War.

The Corunian Planetary Alliance, a four-system government on the northeastern end of the Milky Way, is composed of six different races, five of which evolved on the same planet (how that happened, even they're not sure). The first five, the Corunians, Voras, Rokons, Drakens, and Elferrans, evolved on the CPA capital world Corune, and, because each occupied an entirely different ecological niche, never competed cross-species for resources. The sixth, the Sorns, arose on Sorna in the Ulora System.

Then there's the Paz/kanrans, the Genteeka, the Ta'cural'th, the Zincols, four subraces of Vantorai, the Norkards, the Mwezi, the Kilberaa, the Taskobiliks, Sathuans, Darthkevinets, Ballixes, Lorstahns, and the list goes on and on ad nauseam. :hector_bird:

On another note, can I get some feedback on the Axe-tail preamble I posted a little ways back?

This post has been edited by StarSword : 02 August 2010 - 12:47 AM

Probably won't do anything today; I'm recovering from having two wisdom teeth extracted.

Sorry to go substantially backwards in this thread, but Blender finally updated to the 2.5 beta. It looks spectacular from the little I've had a chance to play with it. Volumetrics, including smoke, just got a huge uplift, as did bump mapping. They also made the UI much easier to use. So, if you're sick of anim8or and wings, but want a little more power than Sketchup, I'd highly recommend it. Blender has a lot more flexibility with texturing than Sketchup does.

Aw, that sucks, StarSword. I hope your jaw feels better soon. Well, I just saw your edit so let's see about some of that feedback.

The writing was alright, I guess. Don't take that personally, I've never been a good judge of writing skill. The one thing that stood out, though, was how much it really looked like an official document from the files of some government agency. I almost felt like I shouldn't be reading it without proper security clearance.

The story itself, though, has really sparked my interest in the Axe-tail Star Empire. A code of honor, brutal efficiency in combat, and they have cloaking devices?! In the words of Misha*, "I like working for you!" I am curious as to how your time stamp format works. At 1638:32.32 subspace ruptures and the UGN fleet confirms it's the Axe-tail fleet. However, right after that at 1638:06.06 the Axe-tails exit hyperspace. I would normally assume 1638:06.06 should come before 1638:32.32, assuming the numbers count up. Does your system work differently? Is this actually a standard military time system?

• For those who don't know, I'm speaking of Misha Milanich from the video game Mercenaries 2.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 03 August 2010 - 01:22 PM