All About rEV: Expanded

TL;DR: I'm working on a major plug-in for EVC-on-Nova.

 

rEV: Expanded

    Hi, all. I've done a lot of modding since my last blog post, and wanted to share a bit about what I've been doing.

   For those who haven't played it, rEV is a fantastic plug-in for EVC-on-Nova. In addition to wonderful updated graphics, it also adds a variety of neat outfits, ship variants, and gameplay features. It is very worth checking out! It was initiated by Kris Quistorff, who created the graphics, and features many innovative gameplay and technical updates from andrews05.

   I am currently building a new plug-in that uses rEV as its basis. rEV: Expanded is intended to update many aspects of EVC, expanding on EVC's strengths (hence the name). rEV: Expanded has four main focus areas:

1. Quality of Life Features
2. The Combat Experience
3. Strategic Balance and Depth
4. Story

   I'll discuss each of those areas below, but first here's a quick video I recently recorded in rEV:E of a large-scale battle I set up to test various weapons and features: 

In addition to elements from rEV like the gorgeous graphics or the Rebel-variant Frigates, this video also shows some new rEV: Expanded content including capital-ship Yamato cannons, a Rebel Cruiser with spinal railguns, and updated flight patterns on Missiles and Torpedoes (which are meant to encourage dodging).

1. Quality of Life

   This category includes any general updates to the way the game runs that are meant to enhance the overall experience of playing. Here are some of the main updates I've made so far on this front in rEV: Expanded:

• All outfits can now be sold anywhere.
• All ships have built-in RCS braking systems.
• Ships can perform hyperspace jumps much more quickly, saving time when traveling.
• The player's ship always has a repair system.
• The player can select their pilot's gender, and the default pilot names are not gender specific.
• The player can select a "character background" for their pilot, a previous career the character had prior to becoming a space captain; different backgrounds have different starting ships, and different in-game bonuses.
• New pilots are placed in a random location within the galaxy, either in Independent space, Rebel space, Confederation space, or at a Pirate base; your starting location determines your starting alignment in the galaxy.
• Yes, this means you can play the game as a Pirate from the beginning! 🏴‍☠️
  
• You will be able to change your alignment through your in-game actions as desired.
• An RPG-like skills and leveling system in which your pilot gains skill points over time with combat experience; the skill points are assigned through a combination of randomness and player choice.
• Flying Skill: Each point of Flying Skill enables you to accelerate and turn faster when flying any ship type.
• Technical Skill: Each point of Technical Skill enables you to fine-tune your ship's computer systems, achieving faster shield recharge and the ability to enter hyperspace from closer to a system's center.
• Combat Skill: Each point of Combat Skill enables you to continually make small adjustments to your shield bubble in order to absorb incoming fire on its strongest points, increasing your effective level of shielding.

The list of new pilot background options.

2. Combat

   My goal here is to encourage fast-paced combat and a diverse range of intricate maneuvers – for example, by trying to reduce reliance on the infamous Monty Python maneuver. Here are some of the main updates I've made so far on this front:

• Carefully adjusting primary weapon ranges to reduce the tendency towards Monty Pythonning.
• Mildly increasing typical DPS for primary weapons.
• Redesigning Missiles and Torpedoes to be too fast to outrun, but limited-enough in their turn rates that they can be dodged instead – this keeps the player engaged in close combat while defending against Missiles and Torpedoes, rather than having to run away and/or fly in big distant circles.
• Implementing carefully balanced Point Defense systems to defend against Missiles and Torpedoes, again with the goal of enabling the player to stay engaged at close range rather than always having to move away defensively.
  
• Implementing Dr5's "negative submunitions" rocket technique to help the AI employ its Heavy Rockets and Javelins from more effective ranges.
• Making weapons with mild knockback common enough to complicate matchups that ordinarily would consist of repetitive jousting.
• Tweaking some of the projectile graphics to make it more clear at a glance what weapons are being fired or might need to be dodged.
• Adding some short-range, high-DPS options akin to the Thunderhead Lance.
• Adding some infrequently-firing, high-damage-burst options akin to the Burst Phase Cannons in EVO: Expanded.
• Putting infrequently-firing or burst-reload weapons on AI ships, to reward the player for carefully timing their attacking maneuvers vs defensive maneuvers.
• IN FUTURE: Once I have more outfits and weapons finished (see below), I'll create a variety of AI ship variants that you'll encounter when flying around the galaxy; they'll be designed to have unique and interesting combat dynamics when you fight them.
  

As a nod to The Expanse, I opted to call the Point-Defense systems "PDCs".

3. Strategy / Balance

   The goal here is to ensure that the player has lots of freedom of choice, numerous strategic decisions to make, plentiful meaningful options to choose from, and a wide variety of overall pathways and strategies to try on repeated playthroughs. Of particular note, one of the deepest strategic games I have ever played is Magic: the Gathering, and I am trying to implement some principles and dynamics from that game in an EV context. Here are some of the main updates I've made so far on this front:

• Carefully adjusting primary weapons' DPS-versus-mass to ensure meaningful tradeoffs between them all.
• Making unlocked Rebellion and Confederation technologies available at more of their worlds.
• Ensuring all fighters can be disabled (and therefore captured).
• Adding stat listings to all outfits and weapons.
• Ensuring almost all ships are viable as player ships.
• Creating "bulk cargo delivery" missions that reward flying a freighter.
• Creating a Pirate economy for players who begin the game as a Pirate.
• Revamping the system of fuel tanks, fuel scoops, and safe stopovers to increase the viability of operating from Pirate bases.
• Creating a system of alternate power generator types that many outfits rely on, each of which has a wide variety of outfits available, and unique strengths and tradeoffs compared to other power bases– akin to the "colors" system in Magic: the Gathering.
• Ensuring varied balance tradeoffs between Missiles vs Torpedoes, and PDCs vs Flares vs Dodging.
• Creating a system of "stock" outfits vs "modified" outfits, akin to finding "regular" vs "magical" items in RPGs.
• Creating a variety of very large weapon systems, e.g. Heavy Neutron Cannons, Yamato Cannons, Spinal Railguns, Laser Multiturrets.
  
• Ensuring all fighters in the game have a corresponding fighter bay.
• Ensuring missions, outfits, and escort availability to make freighters a fully viable player ship option.
• Creating alternate versions of any "must-have" outfits, e.g. Afterburners, to create more strategic choice.
• Creating alternate launchers, with unique firing properties, for each main ammunition type.
• CURRENTLY UNDERWAY: Creating a large number (~360) of outfits and weapons, with meaningful strategic tradeoffs and synergies between them, and randomized availability, to promote innovative strategy-making on the fly whilst playing, akin to cube-drafting in Magic: the Gathering. Currently I'm at 135 outfits, so I have a ways to go, and I'm looking forward to the work ahead! :)
  

Some of the missions you may see available when playing as a Pirate.

4. Story

   To me, this is the biggest area that EVO and EVN expanded upon. I haven't done much story work yet in rEV: Expanded, but I have many ideas noted down, and I'm looking forward to getting to work on this area once I've finished with the Combat and Strategy / Balance work noted above. With that said, some of the new Pirate missions have required a bit of story-writing– here's an example below:

Pirate characters can get up to all sorts of wild shenanigans.

Final Note

   That's all the info I've got for this update. But I did want to add one final thought: as I work on rEV: Expanded, I'm more than happy to get community input and feedback. If you have any thoughts about what you've seen in this post, or ideas for things that would be good for me to add to the plug-in as I continue this work, I'd be happy to hear from you -- feel free to message me on the EVN Discord server, where my handle is "Mag Steelglass".

   Thanks all, and happy modding!