A plug-in for the excellent Macintosh shareware game Escape Velocity aka EV, by Ambrosia Software.
Background
A few weeks back I released a plug-in, called Assault Frigate, which added one new ship to the EV universe. I created the first plug as a little excercise to learn about plug-in making, and I've kept aadding on to it until now I feel it is ready to be released. The new plug-in, Kingfisher Industries, includes and makes obsolete the older Assault Frigate plug-in, as well as adding a heckuva lot more goodies to play with. The plug-in centers on the mega-corporation Kingfisher Industries, and its attempts to survive and prosper during the dangerous times of civil war. The player can join the company and run missions, earning priveledges to purchase high-tech ships and weapons.
What does this plug-in add to EV?
2 systems - Near Palshife, above Rebel space. Only one is immediately accessable.
2 stellar objects - Only one is immediately accessable. You need to earn access to the other.
A new government - Kingfisher Industries, a major corporation specializing in tactical technology.
5 new ships - Assault Frigate, Raven armed scout, Lightstorm Interceptor, Warhorse freighter, and Broadsword carrier.
2 new weapons - The lightstorm cannon and turret!
A bunch of missions - Beat up on Confeds! Deliver secret prototypes! Smash some pirates!
Original graphics! - Rendered with Strata StudioPro Blitz 1.75+
New to 1.1!
A new ship/weapon - The Hunter-Killer unmanned attack drone!
Some new missions - Escort capital ships!
Revised old missions - Cause I did them a little too quickly last time! ;-)
Important: I certainly don't expect you to start a new pilot file when you install this plug-in, but there are a few quick steps you will need to take to ensure that the missions (and thus everything else) work properly. When you run missions, you set or clear mission bits. These bits are permanently stored in your pilot file. This plug-in uses 6 separate mission bits (200-205), so it won't conflict with EV's built in missions, but it may conflict with other plug-in missions. If you have never used a plug-in, don't worry about any of this. But, if you have used other plug-ins, you will need to clear those mission bits. I have written 3 separate bit-clearing missions that should be available at all mission computers. They are titled "Bit-Clearer 1", "Bit-Clearer 2", and "Bit-Clearer 3". Simply accept all 3 missions when you start playing, immediately land again, and the bits will be cleared and everything will work fine. You only need to do these missions once each. However, They stay available just in case you somehow screw up the progression and want to start over or you get on the bad side of the company and can't buy ships/run missions. Just clear the bits and try again.
I started playing and I can't find any new cool things. What's going on?
90% of the good stuff is only available after you start working for Kingfisher Industries and are allowed onto corporate headquarters. You will need to run a few missions for them, missions that are only available when you have gotten fairly advanced (dangerous combat rating). I reccommend that you use this plug-in with an experienced pilot at first, just don't forget to clear the mission bits!
What's going to be in future versions?
1. First and formost, more missions. There is a definate plotline for you to follow, but it is not fully developed. New versions will contain additional missions to run that will advance the storyline.
2. A couple of more ships and outfits.
3. If Matt Burch ever implements a way of including përs resources into düdes or flëts, there will be some really cool possiblilties, such as other people with their own entire fleets like yours. I will try to include AI captains into the missions to make them more dramatic.
Thanks for reading all of this, now go try it out! I've had a lot of fun playing with it over the last few weeks as I developed it, and I hope that you find it as enjoyable as I have, both in writing and testing. I have found it to be bug-free and stable, but you never know. If there are any problems, please let me know. Drop me a line with any comments you might have.
