EV Nova

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-07-27 11:15pm

ROCKS!

Got the game today from a friend and have been playing it almost nonstop so far! I love it!

At first it seemed so "low tech" with other space games, but doing missions, getting money, and of course Buying STUFF is way more fun then I htought! It's just what I've wanted! I can start out small and slowly buy a ship of my dreams and outfit it up the wazoo!

Plus it seems you can Mod this game up the ying-yang! Already have looked at hundreds of Mods and plug-ins including a 'Full Conversion' SW mod im DYING to try out!!!

So, who else has played?

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2005-07-27 11:22pm

ESCAPE VELOCITY! BY THE LAWS OF PROBABILITY!

You lucky bastard. I haven't seen EV in a long time. God it was such a wicked game, but my memory grows hazy of it. I can't even remember when I played it.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2005-07-27 11:43pm

The Escape Velocity series was at one stage something that many mac users boasted to windows users about. Then ambrosia software got it ported to windows (IIRC their main excuse was that they didn't have anyone who knew enough to write windows software, so they got another company to doo the port) and made the other 2 in the series availble as mods for EVN.

Even the regestration code system is impressive. Each code is linked to the name its being regestired by, and the date the code got generated. The code will only work for 30 days then you need to get it regenerated. There is also code that checks the date whenever you start EVN to detect people winding back the system clock. Add to this people searching the internet for codes that have become public (various wearz sites) and noting those user names so that those codes won't be regenerated (I think they also lock out those codes from working when a patch is released) and you have a system that no-one can write a keygen for (instead they just crack the executable to bypass needing a regestration code).

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-07-27 11:44pm

God, I loved that game. AURORANS FOREVER, YOU FILTHY TERRANS!

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-07-27 11:45pm

bilateralrope wrote:Even the regestration code system is impressive. Each code is linked to the name its being regestired by, and the date the code got generated. The code will only work for 30 days then you need to get it regenerated. There is also code that checks the date whenever you start EVN to detect people winding back the system clock. Add to this people searching the internet for codes that have become public (various wearz sites) and noting those user names so that those codes won't be regenerated (I think they also lock out those codes from working when a patch is released) and you have a system that no-one can write a keygen for (instead they just crack the executable to bypass needing a regestration code).

It's handy. But I've seen it cracked. It came down to a hacked .exe, but it got broken. Still, it's sufficiently rare that no one bothers with hacking.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-07-28 12:23am

Oh ye gods, EV-EVO-EVN are the shit. I've probably played them a total of 10,000 hours over the course of several years.

My most wanked out ship was an Auroran thunderbolt with multi-polaron torpedo launchers. Mmm, purple death,

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-07-28 12:51am

Whats an Auron Thunderbolt? Right now I'm running around in a captured Pirate Valk which I must say is Kicking ASS! I started out relaying lots of cargo, but cargo ships are so slow... Maybe someday I could buy a Levithan and convert it into a Cargo/Battleships ((would be SO cool!))

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-07-28 01:12am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Whats an Auron Thunderbolt? Right now I'm running around in a captured Pirate Valk which I must say is Kicking ASS! I started out relaying lots of cargo, but cargo ships are so slow... Maybe someday I could buy a Levithan and convert it into a Cargo/Battleships ((would be SO cool!))

If you see a Cargo Mission to Earth with a few tons, AVOID IT. It's one of the storylines. If you want to go into it, realize you'll be in a storyline where you can't buy most things for a long, long time. On the plus side, you get some wicked abilities.

Quadlok · Post by **Quadlok** » 2005-07-28 01:25am

Once you go Polaris, you never go back.

A fully tricked out Raven kicks every other ships ass just with its fighter complement.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2005-07-28 01:26am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Whats an Auron Thunderbolt? Right now I'm running around in a captured Pirate Valk which I must say is Kicking ASS! I started out relaying lots of cargo, but cargo ships are so slow... Maybe someday I could buy a Levithan and convert it into a Cargo/Battleships ((would be SO cool!))

I think he means thunderforge. you can only get it through a side branch of the auron storyline, progress the main branch too far and you will lose your chance. Personaly I prefer to stick with a ship that I can get without cheating. I prefer eaither the raven with all the polaris tech (if you haven't seen them go to port kane then head east) or the Kestral when Ive been through the vellos storyline

The levithan is too slow to do anything but travel from system to system with cargo, ignoring enemy fire and hoping that there isn't enough to destory you.

Here are some good EVN sites:
EVN walkthroughs: tells you where to get all the missions for the stoylines (major and minor) and any requirments for them
Pilot File Trade Network: has saved games that people sent them for others to use. I have never actually used one from there, but I did add one that took me weeks to make (mostly consisting of buy cargo, go to planet, sell cargo, go to first planet, repeat)
EVN survival guide: Has stats and comments on all the ships and most outfits, and comments on them.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2005-07-28 01:34am

Quadlok wrote:Once you go Polaris, you never go back.

A fully tricked out Raven kicks every other ships ass just with its fighter complement.

Or just with its main gun. I am usually too afraid of my fighters being killed to actually launch them, and I don't like firing the secondary weapons because I have to pay for ammo, even when I have bought a full load of multi-torps and I have plenty of money.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-07-28 01:44am

Yeah, sorry, meant Thunderforge. That ship kicks insane amounts of ass without looking like an obese whale *cough RAVEN cough*

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-07-28 01:44am

Spoliers people Spoliers!!!

Well, ok, so it's not Spoilers since I can't get to much of what your talking about... I did however just meet up with an Irish guy at a Pub who got in an interesting bar fight

I love this game!

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-07-28 01:45am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Spoliers people Spoliers!!!

Well, ok, so it's not Spoilers since I can't get to much of what your talking about... I did however just meet up with an Irish guy at a Pub who got in an interesting bar fight

I love this game!

Wait till the wedding.

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2005-07-28 02:00am

Ever since I bought the game, it has never left my hard drive. I love it.

My prefered ship was a 1170 IDA Frigate. I could trick that thing out with max turrents, max railguns, max armour, max point defense turrents and a whole bund of other extras and still have about 60-70 tons of room for other accessories. What ever I fired at died before I had a chance to see it.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-07-28 02:03am

I'm actually looking to buy a 'Manticore' those things look Wicked kewl plus move WAAAY Faster then a Levi!!!
*checks money*
127,000... I think I have a ways to go...

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-07-28 02:05am

Manticore's are great. Load them up with ion cannons, and you have a sweetass pirate ship.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2005-07-28 02:07am

Arr! ph34r my Polaris fleet of DOOOM!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2005-07-28 02:16am

Crossroads, are you running the Mac or Windows version? If you're running the windows version, I could send you a small mod (Ship Variants) I already converted to the windows version. It allows you to buy any variant of a ship. It's not strictly considered cheating, since you are limited to ships you can already buy.

If you're running the Mac version, you can already download it yourself without problem.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-07-28 04:09am

Mac Zealot here

ANd yes, I Have discovered the Mods HUNDREDS of them here
**http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/addons.html
BUT! I'm one of those people who like to play a game through a few times before 'cheating' I will say a lot of these sound reeaaally promising.

The friend who showed me EV Nova is actually working on a fairlly massive plugin he says, but is too shy to show it off.

Oh yea... Arrrr, Pirate ship looking more and more nifty with each one I meet... I wonder, is it totally ieagle just to own one though? Would be a pain...

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2005-07-28 04:42am

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Mac Zealot here

ANd yes, I Have discovered the Mods HUNDREDS of them here
**http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/addons.html
BUT! I'm one of those people who like to play a game through a few times before 'cheating' I will say a lot of these sound reeaaally promising.

When you scan a ship you see a class under the ships name (for starbridges its class A to class E) the variants have different stats and weapon loads. The only way to get the best class for most ships is to eaither board and capture it (which makes that govt angry) or if you have the ship variants you could buy them (but the better veersions cost more and are rarer. And the vaiants won't show if you can't buy the basic version). As such most don't consider ship variants a cheat, but thats up to you

Oh yea... Arrrr, Pirate ship looking more and more nifty with each one I meet... I wonder, is it totally ieagle just to own one though? Would be a pain...

The ships themselvs are always legal, but the outfits sometimes arn't. Most illegal outfits are identified as such (pirate fighter bays are the only exception I can think of, but if you have them you don't need to worry about having illegal outfits). If an item (say an ion cannon) has both a legal and ilegal variant the name will tell the difference, and I don't think any ship comes with the illegal variant of an outfit. If you have an outfit you don't want go to Sirrusa in the Archenar system since you can sell any removable outfit there

If an illegal cargo/outfit is detected on your ship all ships of that govt will go hostile, but it won't affect your legal status unless you kill one.

Also the only license you should buy is the exotic one as it also is every other license. Some of the forged versions act like illegal outfits, some work, I don't know which one is which as I always buy the legit one (get 100k, go to earth, keep taking off and landing till you see it in the outfitter).

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-07-28 08:25am

Hah, I pimped this game out two years ago.

And when I had a Pirate Manticore ...

My Pirate Valkyrie IV ...

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-07-28 08:36am

Damn you Crossroads Inc for rehooking me on this game!

And damn phongn for getting me addicted in the first place!

Now how will I beat this addiction this time?

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-07-28 11:17am

Yes. Get a Manticore. Barring the storyline end ships, they are the best. And if you're willing to strip the illegals out, you have room for the cool shit earned in the storylines.

Dangermouse · Post by **Dangermouse** » 2005-07-28 11:30am

EV Nova is a very fun game to play. Bilateralrope mentioned this as well, but EV Nova.net is a great support site with very helpful forums if you get stuck. There are several major storylines for you to play or you can be an independent player. I think that I like the freedom in the game a lot.

You can also get plugins to the first two EV games as well as a third party plug-in called Polycon. After you try Nova, take a shot at EV:Override and Polycon. I have enjoyed both. EV:Override, while it doesn't have the graphics of EV Nova, has better missions I think. There is more of a sense of urgency and suspense to the storyline.