The Non-Technical EVN Bible:
A Guide to Making Better Plug-ins

Section I: Why this was made, what it is supposed to be, and what it isn’t supposed to be.

EV Plug-in developing has been around since the initial release of Escape Velocity. In the computer industry, that’s a long time. I have been developing plug-ins for four years now, originally for EV: Override and now for EV: Nova. A while ago, the issue of plug-in quality was brought up by Martin Turner, the author of Frozen Heart. This is what he said:

“I was thinking the other day about production values for plug-ins - the same sort of values that make art-house movies visually and intellectually satisfying, without going down the path of bigger and bigger explosions, larger and larger sets, and more and more highly paid stars.

“Looking at the Nova Bible draft (Nova was still in development at the time), it looks like it will now be possible to [do] virtually anything. This means that we are likely to be induated by plug-ins that use every feature, whether or not it is called for in the storyline. I think we need production values if we aren’t going to be Hollywood-ized.”

This was the start of a long discussion on production values and a few related topics on the EV Developer’s web board. We unanimously agreed that while many great plug-ins had been made for EVO, many more had been made that were simply a waste of HD space. Several possible solutions were offered for this. This guide was one of them. That brings me to what this is and isn’t supposed to be.

This guide is a list of production values that many members of the EV Developer’s web board feel would improve plug-in quality and avoid “Hollywood-ization”. It is supposed to be a collection of opinions from experienced developers. This is NOT supposed to be a list of rules, standards, or anything similar. Frank Herbert said that “Rules build up fortifications behind which small minds create satrapies. A perilous state of affairs in the best of times, disastrous during cricies.” And these values are also not unamiously agreed with (especially in the ethics section). So please take these into consideration, but don’t feel that you’re under any pressure to follow them. If you blatantly disagree with one (or as many as you want) of them, the feel free to blatantly ignore it. If you feel these don’t fit you too well, come up with your own production values. All we’re trying to do is help you as a developer, so hopefully a lot of the garbage that EV and EVO was plagued with can be transformed into good plug-ins for Nova. 

Also, don’t let these discourage you at all. They are values to shoot for, but are high values, especially for beginners. I certainly know that my first plug-in wouldn’t come close to meeting some of them. Then again, I had to figure all this out for myself and you have this guide. 

All I or anyone else can ask of you is to try your best.

			-21st Century Digital Boy

II. Suggested Plug-in Production Values

#1) Technicalities

If any of these values should be mandatory, this is it. Simply spell-checking and thoroughly de-bugging your plug will take little relative time and it will vastly improve your final produce. Virus-scanning, although an accidental virus would be one in a million, wouldn’t hurt either. Don’t say that “bugs/spelling errors can be worked out in a later version” - they are extremely annoying and detracting, and they make you (the developer) look bad. It is also important to note that, however unlikely, bugs can damage people’s systems without necessarily surfacing in the game(I’m not talking about viruses here). I would recommend that you have the plug-in tested by as many beta testers as possible before it’s released. Femme Fetal was tested by some 20-odd people, and I have yet to hear about a single bug in it. 

A third thing: make sure you have an adequate read-me file. This should have basic info on the plug, anything the player needs to know, cedits for development, graphics, and beta testing, etc. Also, background information (like preambles), a FAQ, and contact info for the author and other developers would be nice.

#2) Quality over Quantity

This is another big one. Countless EV/O plug-ins consisted of “1 syst, 2 spobs, and LOTS OF OUTFITS” that were little more than tweaked graphics ripped off from other plug-ins. There were also many announcements of a new Total-Conversion (TC) plug-in that would be the best ever because it would have more ships, more systems, or - even worse - more megabytes than any other plug-in. Thankfully, most of those were never released. 

My guess is that many of the former case comes from some who want’s to make a plug-in, but can’t think of anything else. Martin Turner has an excellent solution to this:

“Start off with a character, and then give him or her some basic motivations - let’s say he’s seen this girl in a bar who looks exactly like a girl he was crazy about ten years before (or make it five if you’re under twenty and can’t imagine what ten would be like). He decides to quit his boring job and go look for her. Now think of a reason why this is in fact much more difficult and dangerous than it might not appear (oh, please, no, not ‘secret agent’ or ‘mafia king-pin’). Give him three challenges that he has to meet to find her (but he doesn’t know it’s three yet). Then write the missions just using the stuff already in [Nova]. Play it through a few times to make sure it really kicks. Then, release it. I reckon you could do this in about two hours. Much more satisfying to make (and to play) than a cheat(we were talking about cheats at the time, which are the same general idea as LOTS OF OUTFITS), will give you a real cred with the top table, and could make you a living legend like the old professor.”

Of course, don’t take that exact scenario, as it isn’t yours. But use that general idea: a short, simple, plot-driven plug. It could be a new fraction or organization in Nova’s universe, or an extension of one of Nova’s existing plots. Many great plugs, like the TOPS Mods(EV) and Beyond the Crescent(EVO) have been extensions of existing plots.

Now, the second issue here: the plugs that try to max out every resource in the game. A plug will, we feel, benefit much more from having 30 unique, original ships that it will from having 300 ships that differ little from Nova’s original ships and from each other. This applies to everything in Nova, not just ships. 

This does, though, bring up a great example of how these values are opinions. Nwegner actually suggested something that goes against this (and it isn’t a particularly bad suggestion):

“...The other thing I think you have to worry about is the size of the galaxy. If you want to be realistic, they would have to be really huge, but you also have to worry about the player traversing them and you filling them with content. You might want to be small (EV small, but even EVO isn’t all that big). I have an alternate solution: filler. Make lots and lots of near-empty systems with pirates, traders, mercenaries, patrol police, etc. and have a few inhabited asteroids and fuel stations. Now, make the missions local (maybe only as far as the next inhabited system or waypoint). So the player is still be jumping as much, but not going far galaxy-wise. This can work around how, say, the humans never really got past the Voinian front, or how there are only a few destroyers around Earth, even though the Voinians could get there in a few jumps(Those were EVO references, for those of you who are confused).

So the point is: everything should mean or do something. Even if 50 identical fuel stations are only there to contribute to the scenario above, it’s still helping the plug-in. 50 identical fuel stations that are just there so you can say you have 50 more stations don’t, and probably detract from the plug more than they help it. 

#3) Relative Realism

Ok, Nova is a sci-fi scenario. It’s good to have new technologies and such beyond anything we’ve dreamed of. But try to keep it relatively psudo-realistic. Too much techno-babble can detract from a plug-in much more than it adds to it. Having technologies that are too ridiculous can just be annoying. Your techno-babble should be an enhancement to the plug-in, not the subject of it.

Also, realism extends to ships, weapons, governments, characters, etc. in a different way. My one criticism of Frozen Heart is that Lars I’m-not-even-attempting-to-spell-it is too perfect. In every situation he’s in (maybe there are a few exceptions, but not many and not significant) he knows exactly what to do and how to do it perfectly. He can see right through everything, and he just happens to have all the best friends and allies. Heck, the Rigillian princess is even in love with him. Frozen Heart is still one of the best plug-ins ever made, but I have to disagree with Martin Turner on this point. Maybe it’s some big symbolic thing that’s flying over my head, but it that case it’s probably flying over many other people’s heads too. The “perfect character syndrome” just annoys the heck out of me. This also goes for the “perfect ship syndrome” (which also detracts vastly from gameplay), the “perfect government syndrome”, etc.

#4) Plot/Universe Development

Everything in your plug-in should mean something, but not necessarily to the main plot. It is my opinion that in a fantasy or sci-fi scenario, the plot is only half of the story. The other half is the world or universe that it takes place it. Regardless of the plot, a universe that is “the big bad aliens that just showed up and started blowing people up who were just there” will detract from the plug. Why are the aliens killing the people? Are all the aliens with each other or is this a fraction of them in power? How did the people end up where they were? How is the moral and attitude of the public toward the alien attacks? What happened in the people’s (and the alien’s) history that might have effects on events in (or not necessarily in) the plug-in? These answers don’t have to be obvious or known at the beginning at the plug, but they should exist. It would be nice for them to come out in the plug, but they don’t have to. As long as you know them while developing the universe, it will seem much more real(and probably be much better).

There can also be things in the plug that are irrelevant to the main plot, but contribute to the universe. Things like side-storylines, people(who aren’t just the names of the Beta team), and similar things are great ways to do this. My favorite way to develop the universe is to have little things creep into descriptions and mission texts. An example from my upcoming plug-in with Pesimist Guy, The Silent Ruins of Earth:

“This bar isn't much different that most of the others in this sector: the whole place reeks of the desperation and hopelessness that seems to have swallowed everything here. Over in the corner, there are a few Union officers arguing. They walk over and sit at the table next to you. As you slowly finish your drink, you can't help but overhear some shreds of their conversation. "...it was pitiful... ...destroyed. Every single one... ...probably 150 taken... ...escaped... ...no patrols... ...police still trying..." One of them looks at you. His face had been worn by the stress and hopelessness of his job, and he appears to be much older than he could be. You then realize how much you must stand out here. Everyone here is like that. Except for the pirates and slavers, with that unmistakable sparkle in their eyes one only gets when he knows that there's little the people here can do to stop him. The only people who look decent and yet young and vigilant are travelers like you, who are becoming increasingly rare in these parts.”

Starting with “You realize how much you must stand out...”, it isn’t directly relevant to the mission. But it gives a great feel for the situation of the Pleiades Union. These texts are a great opportunity to enhance your plug-in, so don’t waste it. Simple instructions can get boring, especially after Nova’s excellent storyline and writing. Give the characters emotions and personalities. Describe things that the player doesn’t necessairly see in the graphics of your plug-in. Also, don’t be afraid to have the player take actions and emotions in the descs that everybody might not take. In story development, the player’s character has to have a personality and emotions too. Otherwise, how do you determine what the other characters think of him/her?

Developing the universe, however, doesn’t mean neglect the plot. A good general value (which was one of the production values for Nova) is that the plot should be good enough to stand alone as a novel. I could write another whole guide on how to do this, but I’ll just touch on a few key points here. And I’ll start it out with another quote from Martin Turner(this was actually one of his production values for Frozen Heart):

“The game should be an adventure into the imagination. After five hours of playing, the player shouldn’t come away with sore eyes, a twitchy finger, and the feeling that he’s wasted part of his life. Rather, he should come away with the feeling that his eyes have been opened to a wider world than he had dreamed of.”

Some other basic things: the plot should be of a substantial length. It doesn’t have to be super-long - over-ambition has killed many projects (more on this later). But a plug can suffer greatly from being too short. It might not be a bad plug, but it will never be a great one.

As I touched on before, characters should have personalities and backgrounds, as they do in real life. However, it would probably be impractical to make those up for every shiping company employee that ever talks to the player. But keep in mind that they should have, at least in your mind, personalities and backgrounds even if you don’t know them. They shouldn’t just be a faceless name. And for the few times the player sees them, just improvise a personality.

Also, it could have some underlying message or statement. This isn’t too important, as probably half the people who play your plug won’t get it. But the other half would see it as a great attribute to your plug. Still, a plug can be great without one.

Another similar, optional plot-enhancment would be some romance sneaking into the storyline. A guy on the dev board who wishes to remain anonymous said “I’ve been playing for 8 Nova years, and I can’t imagine how cranky my pilot would be.” But, please, keep it reasonable. Try to make it something that wouldn’t offend anyone. I’m not trying to be a goody-two-shoes here, but if you make it too explicit than it rubs off on the reputation of the whole plug-in developer’s community. There are many of us who aren’t like that, and wouldn’t appreciate it too much.

#5) Creativity & Innovation

I’ve been focusing on the development of the story for most of this guide because that’s mostly what we have control over. However, what little control we have over gameplay shouldn’t be ignored. We can manipulate this mainly through ships, weapons, and missions. If you can come up with some good innovations, it can do a lot for your plug. Try to come up with something that will challenge the player in a way he hasn’t been challenged before. A great example of this can be found in Calvius & Beyond (EV). To the best of my knowledge, it was the first plug to have stations that participated in battle. After they did it, it seemed blatantly obvious: make an immobile ship with a station’s sprite. But no one else had thought to try it. They just assumed that station’s couldn’t have weapons or shields instead of trying to find a way around it. Now, the idea of fighting stations has been incorporated into Nova’s engine.

This does NOT mean that you should use every feature in Nova’s engine for the sake of using it. Use anything you need to make your plug-in better, but only if you’re using the feature to do something, not doing something to use the feature. Try to figure out what you want to do, and then try to figure out a way to do it. You won’t always be able to do it, but if you’re clever enough you should be able to come pretty close with Nova’s Engine. I don’t know what happened to it, but for awhile there was even a plug-in in development for EVO that took place in WW II. They somehow were going to turn the background into water instead of a star field (you couldn’t change the background color in EVO), and the ships were going to be Navy ships, the planets ports, etc. It was “The WW II Plug-in”. And that was with EVO’s engine; Nova’s is infinitely more flexible.

Another note: sometimes when you try to stretch Nova’s engine, it can do strange and unpredictable things. Once, I got a ship who’s sprite was a combination of all the planet graphics (they would flash back and forth as the ship turned). It would show up relatively frequently in any new systems, it was invincible, it couldn't move at all, and it must have had half a million Neutron Cannons and just as many UE Fighters. But sometimes, these strange things can give you exactly the effect you want. Just make sure that every computer reacts the same way.

#6) Ethics/Legalities

There have been several instances where people had been “inspired” by seomthing else that was made - star wars, star trek, babylon, etc. This can range from creating a race with a similar honor-based culture as the Klingons, to doing a Star Wars TC. Commander Arashi gave an excellent summary on the legalities of this:

“As a fanfiction author, I checked out the copyright issue with a lawyer friend. Essentially, any and all useage of a copyright property (and copyright is an automatic right granted to the creator of an original work), is illegal. The only real "fair use" exemption is for works of parody. There is also a small right to quote (although not at length) as part of a review in a professional publication.

“The water gets deeper with trademark properties, which are legally registered. If it could be shown that Paramount, for instance, had permitted wide use of their trademark Star Trek properties it might then become arguable that Star Trek has entered public domain. From then on, any producer or merchandizer could sell Star Trek material. Paramount protects their trademark from entering public domain by showing they have a willingness to go to court over gregarious infringement.

“Because of the basic sanctity of copyrights, if you were to get your hands on my unpublished novel "Shirato" (from whence comes my board name), and create and distribute a plug-in from it, I would have the legal right to ask you to cease and desist or be sued. (Practically speaking, I'd be tickled pink and would do nothing of the sort.)

“The experience of the fanfiction community is informative. Paramount has chosen to essentially ignore the fanfiction community. ("Ignore" in the legal sense, that is). Fox and the X-files, however, have caused fan sites to be taken down. Rowlings and the Harry Potter property have been even more protective, sending lawyers after sites hosting "Slash" fiction using those characters. Anne Rice, as an individual author, also refuses to allow the Internet distribution of fan works set in her universe.

“Practically speaking? Trademark properties are a gamble. It is likely you will never recieve any complaints about a Star Wars TC for Nova, but if they do notice, be prepared to withdraw quickly or you and the sites that host your plug will be in deep trouble. Lesser-known properties have two advantages; the first, and primary, is that Star Trek et al have been done to death. The second is that science fiction authors, book people, are as a rule friendly and accesible. If I were to create a TC based on Sheffield's "Heritage Universe", or Niven's "Known Space," I would have no qualms about sending them an email informing them of my intentions.”

Besides the legal issues of this, it might be better off to come up with your own ideas anyway. As Commander Arashi said, the Star Wars/Star Trek/X-Files/Babylon/etc have all been done to death. And at the time of writing this, there are already plug-ins in development for both Star Trek and Star Wars.

Also, if you download graphics from the internet to use in your plug-in, make sure you have the authors consent. They probably won’t sue you, but you would still be in the wrong. Even if they give consent on the page you downloaded it from, it doesn’t hurt to e-mail them. And please, give them credit for the graphics. 

Lastly, some people have been known to take graphics out of dead projects. The bottom line is that it is stealing. However, in most cases the authors of the work would rather have you use thier graphics than to have them go to waste. Try hard to contact the author, though. E-mail, AIM/ICQ, the Ambrosia Web Boards, and anything else you can think of. Just don’t start doing things that border on stalking them ;). If you can’t get ahold of them at all, then they’ve probably stopped doing things with EVN all togather, and no longer care about what happens to thier graphics. In this case, you can use the work, but make SURE that you can’t contact them, and that the plug is abandoned, and make sure to give them credit.

From a legal standpoint, however, you will have no right to use thier work in the above scenario unless it has entered the “public domain”. And it’s a gamble anyway - most people wouldn’t mind, but some will.

#7) Difficulty Level

This is also important. If your plug-in is ridiculously hard, people will get frustrated and give up. This was supposedly the second main downfall of Galaxy’s Edge (EVO) (the first being that it was too large to run on many computers, including mine). On the other extreme, if it’s too easy, they player will breeze right through it and get bored with it.

The dilemma this brings up is that the skill level of the developer might be significantly above or below average - both cases have been known to happen. The simple solution: have a variety of people beta test it. The lesser experienced people should be pretty well challenged - if they aren’t, veteran players will be very bored with it. A good general value is that it should be a little harder than Nova. But this is more of a personal preference thing. Just avoid going too extreme in either direction.

#8) Balance

This is actually two different values with the same name. So I’m lumping them together instead of having Balance #1 and Balance #2.

First, the balance between the plot, the gameplay, and the graphics. Not all of these categories are applicable to all plug-ins, but when they are none should be neglected. I haven't mentioned graphics yet because in the past people have done a pretty good job on graphics. I’m not going to tell people to do something differently that they’re already doing a good job of. 

An example of a lack of balance can be found in Mugabi and Destiny (EV). That plug-in has some of the most stunning graphics I’ve ever seen on a pre-Nova engine. It also had some great innovations. The plot wasn’t the best in the world, but I guess it was ok. But the gameplay was sadly lacking. The ship given to the player was pretty much invincible, and the alien ships took forever to kill, although they didn’t really challenge the player much. I eventually got fed up with this and quit halfway through it. It basically had awesome graphics, awesome creativity, a decent plot, and terrible gameplay. I personally would have enjoyed a plug with decent graphics, creativity, plot, and gameplay better. 

The other balance is the balance of the ships and weapons in the galaxy (primarily of those in common use and/or available to the player). If any of these are too powerful, you can fall into the same kind of trap that Mugabi and Destiny fell into.

This doesn’t mean that extremely powerful ships/weapons can’t exist. They should just be used sparingly, and carefully. Used that way, they can be great challenges and enhancements. And not necessarily just as a big ship for the player to defeat. The Rigillian Hunter-Killer, from Frozen Heart, actually escorts the player on one of the harder missions. And the mission is still pretty hard. 

BTW, none of these ‘super-ships’ that I know of were ever available to the player. The closest anything came to this was actually in EVO’s scenario. If you bought an Adzara, got the experimental shield generator for it, and a layer of doposect armor, you were pretty much invincible. But even then, you had no cargo space, and to get enough mass for a cargo pod you’d have to ditch all your weapons.

#9) Avoiding Over-Ambition

Often, large plug-ins are the best ones. Players seem to love a large universe or storyline to explore. But making plug-ins is a lot of work, especially if you do a good job of it. The truth is that probably less than 5% of large projects started ever make it to a final product, because the developers burn out. So please, don’t jump into a large project until you know what you’re doing.

My advice is to start out with a small project, like the one Martin Turner described, to get a feel for programming. Then move on to a mid-sized project that requires a little work with every resource. This could possibly be a good-sized plot extension, or perhaps an extension of the galaxy with new missions to go with the new systems/governments/corperations/whatever. After that, you should have an adequate feel for the amount of work entailed with programming to decide if you can handle a large project. Most players would rather have a decent small or mid-sized plug-in than another great TC or large expansion dead gone vaporware(abandoned halfway through development).

Section III: Developer Resources

As I said before, these are very high values. For a beginner, or even an experienced developer, some may be difficult to fully attain. This could possibly leave many of you frustrated, and lead to discouraging people from developing plug-ins. That would never do. First, keep in mind that Frozen Heart went against the thinking at the time of how to make a great plug-in. I can’t stress enough that these are just opinions.

Either way, there are a few places where you can go for help. There are two great online resources I know of. The first is the EVO Developer’s Web Board on Ambrosia’s site. This is where this guide originated, and where you can probably still find many of the contributors. There are people there who have been developing plug-ins forever, as well as some of the people who made Nova. It’s a rare occurrence that someone posts a question there that no one can answer, and I’ve seen some pretty bizarre and dumbfounding questions. Here’s the URL: 

http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=EV+Developer|APO|s+corner&number=9&DaysPrune=20&LastLogin=

Spider Web Software, another great shareware game company, also has a guide to making shareware games. It’s not really about making plug-ins, but it’s very well done and some of it is relevant to plug-in development:

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/shareware.html

There are also a few more suggestions I am going to make up-front. Ellmist on development teams:

“...This is why I’m in favor of development teams. _One_ of my graphics would detract from the plot of the entire game. But I like to think of myself as better than most with [writing]. If I teamed up [with] someone as good with graphics as I am with missions, then a mission-only plug would definitely surpass others done by single developers.”

Another advantage of teams is they lighten the workload on you. Think of it this way: if you just team up with one person, you’ve just cut your workload in half. With a large TC, this can be very, very good. A word of caution on teams, though: they have been the death of many plugs. Especially large teams. The larger the team is, the harder it is to manage. Also, if someone drops out of the team, then you have to worry about replacing them with someone who has a similar enough style so it won’t be glaringly obvious. So my advice - make sure you’re team is small enough to manage well, and make sure that all the members are dedicated. I’m currently only working with Pesimist Guy on The Silent Ruins of Earth. I wouldn’t have a problem with taking a third person into the team if they were both good and dedicated, but probably no more than that. 

Also, know your strengths and weaknesses. As Ellmist said above, teams can compensate for weaknesses. Other than that, you can also work around your weaknesses. In Ellmist’s case, by making a plug that is just missions.

Section IV: Who Made This

The discussions this was compiled from:

http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/001811.html
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/003248.html

Compiled by 21st Century Digital Boy

Special Thanks to:

Martin Turner for starting this, seeing the original discussion through to it’s end, and probably contributing more than anyone else.

Antihero & Nighthawk for fighting the movements for plug-in censorship, standards, and banning that sprang up from the origional discussion.

All contributors:

Martin Turner	Antihero	Nwa728
Glenn	Nighthawk	Frandall
NNNormal	Astro	pesimist guy
Platypus	David Arthur	Nwegner
Ellmist	UE Patriot	Captin Tripps
Phoenix	Joseph Burnette	Harbinger
21st Century Digital Boy	Slav	Improvdude
Wyvern	Htjyang	Shade
Joolzman5	Una	What Is The Matrix?
Space Cowboy	Commander Arashi

If you have any questions, comments, additions, suggestions, criticisms, or anything else you can think of, send them to me at rockaddict2000@yahoo.com. I can also ushally be found on the EV Dev Board as 21st Century Digital Boy.
Port to rtf by Zacha Pedro.