[delta_v] New Completed EVN Bits Bible Out & Bits Discussion

[Wandering Walrus]

I've just completed the first run through in documenting all the bits in
EVN. You guys can downland it from http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~markchai/.
There are bound to be mistakes in this, I don't doubt it, so gimme a yelll
when you find one.

Below is the blurb and notes on some interesting bits.


cheers

MC 



EVN Bits Bible 1.0.0
--------------------

Have you ever wondered what all those control bits really meant? At last
with Version 1.0 of the EVN Bits Bible, all will be revealed! All 529 bits
used in the EV-Nova default scenario have been covered and their secrets
unlocked in over 120 more details annotations. A perfect tool for any
plug-in developer and curious minds. Visit
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~markchai/ for the latest version. Currently
the file has 657 text entries and each bit has been classified by story
string. By The Wanderingwalrus.



Some Interesting bits & Development Ideas
-----------------------------------------

There are over 120 notes in this version of Bible. Many of them have their
own little story. Nevertheless, there are bits that seem to have special
significance or have interesting possibilities for plug-ins . Some are
discussed below.



01. Death Before Auroran Dis-Honour (b200 & b217)

    b200 signifies the pilot having been initiated into the Heraan
Household, whereas b217 seems to signify a disgraced warrior failing in the
battle field. Both would be important for any Auroran Plugs.



02. Damn Drop Bears Strikes Again!! (b42 & b43)

    b42 hails the start of drop bear mating season and b43, the coming of a
more virilant strain of Drop Bears that takes away 5% of your hard earned
cash rather than 2%! I'd be surprised if no one starts a "Kill Drop Bears"
plug-in for revenge. Possibilities for funny events during drop bear season
are numerous.
    
    

03. "The Force is strong in this one..." (b44)

    One of the more interesting bits. Seem to be set whenever you go through
mental "training" in various strings. The current effect really is that you
are immune from drop bears. Could conceptually be used as a flag for the
pilot having a strong enough connection with the Universe to attract
(perhaps unwanted) attention, leading to further tales and adventures.



04. Long Live The Bureau! (b88 & b3009, b3004 & b3005)

    The Bureau's quest of Global Dominance is complete with these four bits.
The first pair refers to the overtaking of Polarian skies by the Federation,
while the last two is the Moash household prevailing over the Auroran
warriors.



05. Game over man, game over! (b333, b9500 & b9995)

    They signify that the player has finished one of the major strings in
the story. This also enables a host of new planets and disables quite a few
dudes (e.g. Rebels fleets)



06. Mission Delay (b8338)

    Another one of the interesting numbers. It will trigger off a cron which
will last around 20 odd days. During this time, b8338 is set. At the end of
the cron, however, b8338 is unset. Thus if you have in a set of missions:

AvailOn: !b8338
OnAccept: b8338

Then you can stagger the possible availabilities of missions a little. This
can stop the player getting ALL the possible parallel missions at the same
time, which could just be confusing + dry out all the missions from a very
early stage. Very useful tool indeed to creating side missions (all the Klav
missions, e.g Rock stars transport, uses this technique)



07. Pirates Ahoy! (b8888)

    Triggered when buying more powerful ships, b8888 means the players are
big enough to handle bigger and badder pirates, and so it does! Many new
pirate ship types are enabled by this bit, so beware. Could be a good bit to
test when assessing the "strength" of the player



08. Open Hyper Sesame! (b33 & b149)

    The bits signifies access to hypergates. b33 is getting the code through
Sigma Shipyards and b149 through the rebels. I was really surprised by a
seeming lack of Sigma Shipyards missions, something which will undoubted be
corrected in the future. Many missions based around these hypergates will
undoubtedly pop up from all corners.



09. Cron System Changes (b6000 - b6030)

    The war between the Feds and Aurorans is on a knives' edge, and the
borders of the two are ever changing. I think the crons uses the bits in
these areas to affect the changing borders of the two governments. Systems
are "replaced" using visibits at random intervals to simulate a dynamic
universe.



10. Cron News Change (b8889 - b8911)

    Similar to the system change, random news changes also occurs to add a
bit of flavour to the world.