This little extension expands the Escape Velocity universe. Drag it into your “EV Plug-Ins” folder and start the game. It is fully compatible
with Escape Velocity version 1.0.2. Do not use it with older versions of Escape Velocity!
Warning!
This plug-in requires a lot of memory! If you have any problems, use the Finder info dialog to increase the memory settings of Escape Velocity!
What does it?
Mainly, it adds some new ships:
• Confederate Dreadnaught:
I created this ship because I think that the capital Confederate ships already in the game (Frigate and Cruiser) have to many weaknesses. Both Frigate and Cruiser are in comparison to the Rebel Destroyer and Cruiser to slow, and the better shields are not very useful if you’re running some of the more difficult missions. (I’ve tried the Rebel Pursuit missions with both of those ships in EV 1.0.1, and often I was killed - even the upgrades didn’t save me then.)
You can sometimes stumble on the Dreadnaught during game play.
However, since the Dreadnaught is integrated like any other Confederate ship, it’s not very communicative:
Here comes the technical report of the Confederate Dreadnaught:
As you can see, this ship uses the Gunboat Bay predefined (but until now unused) in Escape Velocity, so it can launch a pair of Gunboats. It’s shield, turn rate, armor and speed values are better than those of the Confederate Frigate, but it lacks some of the long range stuff like heavy rockets or guided missiles. Therefore it’s of good use in short distance fights.
Like Confederate Frigate and Cruiser the Dreadnaught is available only after the completion of the Confederate Alien mission (of course you can capture one – good luck!).
• Rebel Flounder
The Flounder fighter is the natural outcome of the development of the Manta light fighter. With better shielding, armor and weaponry this fighter is nearly as manoeuvrable as the Manta light fighter. It can also be launched from fighter bays, but it’s greater weight limits the number of launchable ships. The maximum amount available is two Flounder fighters/ship.
Saying went that Confederate navy captains would prefer fighting against Tasmanian devils to fighting against a bunch of Flounder fighters…
You can buy a Flounder fighter after the completion of the Rebel Alien mission, or capture one after a space fight - which is useful, if you’re flying a captured Rebel Dreadnaught, so that you can fill up your Flounder bay.
• Rebel Dreadnaught
If the Confederates have their dreadnaught, the Rebels should have one, too. Theirs has weaker shields and armor, but it levels the weaknesses out by greater speed and better acceleration. While the Confederate navy laughs about the Rebel Carrier, a souped-up bulk freighter, one more of their Frigates vanishs and is never to be seen again. With the Rebel Dreadnaught the Civil War is on the brink of the Rebel’s victory…
Here comes the technical report of the Confederate Dreadnaught:
Like the Flounder fighter the Rebel Dreadnaught becomes available after the completion of the Rebel Alien mission, or if you can capture one.
• A few surprises…
– What is going to happen if you board this drifting Alien ship?
(No, you should not be able to capture it!)
- What’s the matter with this guy?
- A few new missions…
What resources uses this Plug-In?
The good news at the beginning: This Plug-In does not overload any resource in any of the original Escape Velocity files!
The bad news: I cannot take care of other Plug-Ins (no time). So if they’re using the same resource id’s as my Plug-In, conflicts can occur! If you want to use this Plug-In with others, it’s possible that you must use ResEdit to change some of the resource-id’s. (Perhaps I will take care of the resource id’s after the completion of this Plug-In. See also “Future plans” below.)
Note: In EV 1.0.2 the additional përs-resources won’t show up, if you don’t start with a new pilot!
What programs have I used to create
this Plug-In?
For creating this Plug-In I used only shareware and freeware.
The rendering was done using a PowerPC version of the POVray raytracer (a really hard way - but the resulting pictures are very good). If you are interested in the sources you can take a look at them - they’re included in this package!
The final work with the graphics was done using Grafikkonverter by Thorsten Lemke, in my opinion the ultimate shareware program for converting graphic files into other formats. Generating PICS-sequences? No problem! Converting Targa-files (from POVray)? Very easy!
The sprites are created with Matt Burch’s Pics2Sprites program.
Having the sprites, I used Grafikkonverter again to create the masks. This is not the fastest way, so using PhotoShop maybe better. But I did not own PhotoShop, so I must use what I have…
The extension itself was created using ResEdit with the EV-Templates coming with the EV-Bible.
For the few missions I used Schmelta-V by Jeremy Condit, the EV mission editor! This is the only part where the use of ResEdit is to difficult.
This documentation was written with Tex-Edit Plus by Tom Bender, a nice little shareware product which allows to create SimpleText files with included pictures in a look-and-feel way.
Version history
• Version 1.0 - 07/01/96
- Initial release.
• Version 1.1 - 07/03/96
- Changed name to “Great Civil War”.
- Added a few Hail Quotes for some of the përsons.
- Updated this ReadMe document.
- Changed some mission texts.
- Changed some resource-id’s.
- Added Confederate Gunboat to the outfitting dialog
(I apologize for forgetting this!).
- Fusion beam taken from drifting Alien ship now uses fuel
and is used as a secondary weapon.
• Version 1.2 - 07/11/96
- Interceptors on Carry Confed/Rebel Orders missions are
following the player now.
- Added new Rebel ship, the Rebel Flounder, along with
a Flounder bay and a purchasable Flounder to fill the bay.
- Added Rebel Dreadnaught along with new fleets and new persons.
- Changed some of the flët resources.
- Disabled alien ship does no longer appear in the core worlds.
Future plans
New ships:
• A ship available for all in the price range 5,000,000 cr-7,000,000 cr.
New weapons:
• Plasma ejector
• Cheap beam weapon
• Rapier catapult
And, naturally, some missions using those ships…
Many thanks to…
• Matt Burch and the people at Ambrosia software for making my hole life a torment by releasing this wonderful piece of software named Escape Velocity. ;-)
• Dietmar Kellner, he tested this Plug-In, gave advice, and convinced me, that the quality is good enough to release it.
• Sonja and Boris Wroblewski (grrmmmmpfff - nasty little monsters) for beta-testing. :-)
Distribution
This Plug-In is freeware! It’s distribution is allowed under the following conditions:
The contents of the “Great-Civil-War” folder must all be available, no part of it can be left out. The complete folder contains the following files:
• ReadMe First!!!
• Great Civil War
• Confed Dreadnaught.pov
• Rebel Flounder.pov
• Rebel Dreadnaught.pov
• Fly CD
• Fly RD
• EV Ship Planner.pdf
How to reach me
I would like to hear your opinion, so you can reach me under
