first EVN test plug from Empire Trilogy author

While my latest project is my first NOVA plug-in, I am mentioning it here as my previous works have all been written exclusively for EVC. For those interested, I have uploaded a beta version of my new TC, Heart And Sol, which can be found here:

http://www.evula.org...aS_BetaTest.zip

Bear in mind that there are NO major mission strings yet beyond what you will find in the BBS offerings. Also note that this is a raw beta version and will likely have the occasional error that needs cleaning up. Finally the beta contains full access to 'spoiler systems' and ships that will be unavailable at first in the final release.

Anyhow, I hope you all find it of interest. Any problems can be reported to me directly at ethology101 at yahoo dot com.

Regards,

Tim

Very cool backstory!

I don't have time to play right now, but I did open up the files and rummage around just a bit. The first letters of some lines of text in your opening splash screens seem to be cut off. And it's "subjugate," by the way, not "subjigate."

@tim, on Apr 24 2007, 05:43 PM, said in New Beta Plug:

Any problems can be reported to me directly at ethology101 at yahoo dot com.

Does this mean you don't intend to monitor this thread? Why not? All you gotta do is check the "Enable email notification of replies" box.

@dr--trowel, on Apr 25 2007, 12:59 AM, said in New Beta Plug:

Does this mean you don't intend to monitor this thread? Why not? All you gotta do is check the "Enable email notification of replies" box.

Good point, I shall indeed check up on this thread every now and again.

How do you get it to work? I've tried running it alone, and that failed -- I tried running it with AbsoluteMinimum, and that failed -- I tried running it with (modified) EV data files, and that failed as well.

The part in the debuglog that did it in:

loading mission data
propagating mission bit effects
showing splash screen
loading sprites
resource not found, spďn ID 500
resource not found, spďn ID 501
resource not found, spďn ID 502
resource not found, spďn ID 503
resource not found, spďn ID 504
resource not found, spďn ID 800
error loading sprite from cicn, ID 10000

Advice?

Whoa Whoa! It run under EVN, not EV. Not under EV.

Put the plugs inside the plug-in folder, and also put in FastWarp.

Yeah, he did mention it was for Nova.

This post has been edited by Callide : 30 April 2007 - 02:02 AM

I took 'Nova' as "a plugin running under the Nova engine", not "a plugin designed for use with the Nova universe".

So.

One bug I've noticed -- all the ships have horribly slow turning rates. If you increase them 10x, though, they should work as intended.

Yeah, I noticed that also. Except for the Pirate Galleon.

For the people playing testing this plug, if you want a quick way to earn credits for a better ship:

Buy Weapons on Plateau for 750 and sell on Tabletop for 1150. These prices never fluctuate. The return trip is empty, but it's only one jump. I made 40M in less than half an hour using Behemoths as escorts, which have a cargo hold of, like 3000T. grins

This post has been edited by Callide : 07 May 2007 - 12:46 PM

Well i have to say it's nice to see the empire saga being updated to nova , and after i fixed some of the bugs like the frag torps having infinite ammo and the ion laser quads not firing four times faster than than the ion laser cannons, so considering that it's a beta i think it's great! . Keep it up!

Edit: I made this post a bit nicer

This post has been edited by Grenth : 16 May 2007 - 01:11 PM

Bumpity bump.

Just add a 2 to BetaTest, then you should get the latest beta.

Tim's reply

Pokes. Don't forget to check the topic of New Beta
Plug in EV Boards.

I forgot about that thread -- anyhow, in the meantime
I have figured out and fixed the assorted graphics
problems (very different from EV!) and I should have a
new beta up within the next couple of days.

Apologies. I bumped this right before I got that notice.

@kauthor, on May 30 2007, 03:25 PM, said in New Beta Plug:

Just add a 2 to BetaTest, then you should get the latest beta.

The updated beta of HEART AND SOL can be downloaded here...

http://www.evula.org...S_BetaTest3.zip

It contains major fixes to the graphic and ship turn bugs, an extensive cleanup of the resources and even a brand new theme song to replace the default. While there are no mission strings beyond what is in the BBS, many outfits and ships are available for testing which will normally be locked or unavailable. I have also given the Saa'rel Union their own formidable ships and weaponry.

Bear in mind that a large sector of space that will be unaccessible at first is also 'open for business'.

Feel free to contact me directly at ethology101 (at) yahoo (dot) com with any major bugs or problems though I will also check this string every now and again.

Regards,

Tim

Hey guys! I figured I should stop bugging Tim with my mails and instead ask questions here. That theme song I made for HaS won't load in the start-up screen. Does anyone else have this problem?

Btw, if it works, tell me what you think about our song

He answers email faster than these posts.

So, I just DLd the Beta Test 3 files and seem to be having a problem (I did email this to Tim).

When I unstuff the ".bin" files, they end up being generic "document" files and don't have the Nova plug icon. Why aren't the stuffed files ".zip" format?

Below is an image capture of what I am getting.

This post has been edited by Callide : 02 June 2007 - 02:44 PM

The reason the music doesn't work is because it has neither an extension nor a type code (the type code is destroyed on zipping) so QuickTime doesn't know what type of file it is.
For compatibility with both mac and windows, you'll need to name the music file "Nova Music.mp3" (it must be in mp3 format). Now to make it recognise the new name on a mac you have to copy STR# ID 130 ("Default Filenames") from the EV Nova application into one of the plugs and change the second entry from "Nova Music" to "Nova Music.mp3".

Callide, try installing them anyway. It may just be the Finder hasn't refreshed them properly or something. .bin files are the "correct" way to archive Nova plug-ins. Or upgrade your StuffIt, it appears you have an old version.

This post has been edited by Guy : 02 June 2007 - 05:50 PM

Thanks to Guy for that STR tip -- I made the appropriate modifications to the resource file and added the mp3 tag to the Nova Music file, and it all works flawlessly. Some have reported troubles opening the zipped archive so I recompressed the plug file into a traditional SIT archive which should unstuff without any problems.

http://www.evula.org...S_BetaTest3.sit

Hopefully this works.

Regards,

Tim

@tim, on Jun 3 2007, 01:20 AM, said in New Beta Plug:

Thanks to Guy for that STR tip -- I made the appropriate modifications to the resource file and added the mp3 tag to the Nova Music file, and it all works flawlessly. Some have reported troubles opening the zipped archive so I recompressed the plug file into a traditional SIT archive which should unstuff without any problems.

http://www.evula.org...S_BetaTest3.sit

Hopefully this works.
Regards,

Tim

It works

@tim, on Jun 3 2007, 11:20 AM, said in New Beta Plug:

Thanks to Guy for that STR tip -- I made the appropriate modifications to the resource file and added the mp3 tag to the Nova Music file, and it all works flawlessly. Some have reported troubles opening the zipped archive so I recompressed the plug file into a traditional SIT archive which should unstuff without any problems.

http://www.evula.org...S_BetaTest3.sit

Nooo! The .bin.zip method is better - .sit causes much more heartache for windows users. Did anyone other than Callide report a problem?

This post has been edited by Guy : 25 June 2007 - 05:46 PM

It seems you were right, Guy. The lack of icons was a Finder issue. When I DLd the Stuffit compressed files into my H & S folder, I noticed the unstuffed .bin files had the normal Nova icons, for whatever reason. I never had that happen before.

Note: I have a Mac, 10.4.9. and Stuffit Deluxe, v7.0.3, and haven't ever had a problem with it, but probably will DL the latest this week when I get to a faster-than-dial-up connection.