EV Nova Firefly mod Alpha 1 is complete! by Lindley

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EV Nova Firefly mod Alpha 1 is complete!

POSTED BY: LINDLEY
UPDATED: Sunday, November 28, 2004 06:08
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Saturday, November 13, 2004 9:34 AM

I'm happy to say that at this point, my EVN Firefly TC has reached Alpha 1 stage.
What does that mean? It means I've more or less completed the universe (subject to changes on the advice of the alpha testers, of course). In addition, I've got a few things in place in addition to the universe, but the universe is the big thing.

What is EVN? It's Escape Velocity: Nova, a neat bit of shareware from Ambrosia Software. You can download it here for Mac or Windows:
www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn
Note that you'll need to register ($30) to play this TC. That's not my decision, it's just the way the engine is designed.

My description from EV-Nova.net:

Quote:
After the Earth was used up, we moved out, and terraformed the galaxy. You're Malcolm Reynolds, soldier of the recently defeated Independent Faction. Now, under the heel of the victorious Anglo/Sino Alliance, you must find a way to get by in an uncaring galaxy. A captain's job is simple: Find a crew, find a job. Keep flying.

First, here's what you'll find in this version:
-A completely new universe. All planets have new graphics, although at the moment space stations do not. That's 150+ stellar objects in 200+ systems.
-Two ships, the Luxury Liner (my first modeling attempt), and the Firefly-class transport (modeled by Treybor at Fireflyfans.net).
-A few interface tweaks. This will be adjusted further in the future.
-An introduction sequence, including a video clip from the TV series. (I included all sorts of legal disclaimers in the readme, and Fox's logo in the startup screen. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep them happy, assuming they even care.)

What you will not find in this version is any original missions (although the Nova ones are still accessible), junks, or a large number of other ships flying around the galaxy. This is strictly a testing release, not intended to provide hours of entertainment.

Which brings me to the next subject, which is who exactly will be given access to this version. I do not want to make this a public release, since that opens up too many potential problems. So instead, I'm opening this release to:

-Anyone who contributed anything to the mod to date. Since I've made it extremely easy to contribute something, most people who are interested in this project have probably done so already, and thus will be included.

-Anyone with a demonstrable ability and interest in contributing to this TC in the future. In particular, I'm looking for talented 3D people, since graphics are probably the largest of the hurdles I still have ahead of me. What I primarily need are cityscapes and ship graphics, so if you're good at either of those and interested, consider yourself included. My own 3D abilities are very limited, so maybe I'll be able to do some outfit graphics, but that's about it.

If you fall into one of the above catagories, send me a PM or email at EVNFirefly@gmail.com, and I'll send you the link where you can get the mod. There will be four files, and you'll need to download two of them, as instructed on the page. The person generously providing this webspace would like me to avoid exceeding 1500 GB per month of bandwidth, so please only download the files you need----that should allow 60 downloads to occur before that limit is reached.

I cannot stress enough----this is a TESTING release. If you aren't interested in contributing to the future of this project through feedback, 3D work, or even just story ideas, then you should probably wait for a future version. There isn't much to do in this one except fly around.

A readme is included with the download, but one of the things it says is that you should not leech resources from this TC for your own use without explicit permission. Personally, I can't think of any resources anyone would want to leech except for the Firefly-class transport, and that was modeled by Treybor of Fireflyfans.net, not me. You would have to get his permission to use that, as I did.

I've set up an email account for use with this project: EVNFirefly@gmail.com. Please direct TC-related questions or comments there.

Now, to the people who will be testing this, here's what I'd like you to do:
-Email me at EVNFirefly@gmail.com. Specify what you contributed, or what you would like to contribute to the project. If you're a 3D artist, it would be a good idea to include a sample of your work. Not that I'm picky; I'd just like to see what you're good at. I'll send you the download link. Please keep it private.

-When playing the TC, keep a pen and paper with you. Whenever you see something that seems "off" to you for whatever reason, write it down, along with which system it was in, and send it to me. This can be grammar or spelling-related, or it may just be that you don't like some aspect of the galactic layout, or something doesn't feel right in one of the planet descriptions.

-Similarly, if you ever get a brilliant story or mission string idea while playing, write it down and send it to me! When completed, I'd like this mod to more closely resemble EVO's story structure (lots of little strings) rather than EVN's (a few huge strings). That means getting diverse story ideas.

-As above, any other ideas you get, regarding outfits, ranks, or whatever....I'd love to hear them. Don't be shy. This TC has been a community effort from the start----I'm just the organizer.

-While all planets have landscapes, many planets, especially the urban ones, do not have their final landscapes and have to make do with defaults. If you're a 3D artist and you feel you can render a better landscape for a given planet than what's there, let me know! (Most of my landscapes are from Terragen. There's plenty of room for improvement.)

Well, that's it. I can't think of anything more to say. A varient of this message will be posted at the EV Developer's Corner, EV-Nova.net, Fireflyfans.net, and TrekBBS.com's SF+F forum.

Keep flying!

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Sunday, November 14, 2004 5:29 AM

LINDLEY

All right, what is it? I see people are reading the thread, but not replying. Why? What factor most limits your interest?

Is it that none of you have played EV Nova before? Understandable, since Ambrosia *is* primarily a Mac company, despite Nova and a few others having Windows versions.

Or is it something else?

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Tuesday, November 16, 2004 11:37 AM

GRRARRG

very cool. how big are the files? I don't have internet access at home, and I can't play it at my work computer. But if you pm me the link, I'll try to get it while I'm at a friend's house. I don't have any graphical ability, but I might try to come up with some mission strings.

I know you said to pm you the requests, but I wanted to bump the thread up - I only found it because I looked through the archives for the old thread, then decided to check your profile for any relevant recent posts.

I mock you with my monkey pants

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Tuesday, November 16, 2004 11:43 AM

LINDLEY

In general, everyone should expect to download 25MB worth of files. If download speed is an issue, I made provision for that with the option of only downloading about 18MB.

If speed is *really* an issue, you might be able to get by with 10MB....but instructions on how to do that aren't included, so you'd have to ask me specifically if that's the way you want to go.

I'll PM you the link in a bit.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2004 12:35 PM

LINDLEY

I can't seem to PM you here....send me email at EVNFirefly@gmail.com, and I'll send it to you that way.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2004 5:53 PM

GUNRUNNER

Bump!

BTW I sent you an EMAIL.

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Friday, November 19, 2004 10:29 PM

VELOXI

Will this be available for the Windows version of EV Nova as well? I love EV Nova, and would love to try out this mod when available. Thanks for taking the time to make it!

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Saturday, November 20, 2004 5:43 AM

LINDLEY

Hopefully, yes. However, I've gotten some reports of crashes under Windows for which I have not yet found the cause. I'm trying to fix it, but it would help to know what's wrong....

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Saturday, November 27, 2004 6:15 PM

LINDLEY

Some bugs have been fixed, including (hopefully) most of those only relevant on Windows.

Testers, please re-download.

In other news, thanks to Gunrunner, this project now has a webboard:

http://s4.invisionfree.com/GunRunner

Come on by if you're interested in the project----or hell, just to talk Firefly, if you like.

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Sunday, November 28, 2004 6:08 AM

THEPLAGUE

As a long time EV player, I will look forward to giving this a go if you manage to get it finished. Mad props for making it!

Are these our lives? NNNOOOOOO!!!

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