Orion Skies Design

This page includes writeups and discussions of various aspects of Orion Skies's design. Note: anything here is potentially subject to change if I come up with a better version!

* * *

The World of Orion Skies

A rundown of some of the major themes, technologies, factions, history, and present dynamics of Orion Skies's setting, along with a video gallery of what that setting looks & feels like.

* * *

Spacecraft of Orion Skies

There are several major categories of spacecraft in Orion Skies's universe, described in this blog post.

* * *

Major Design Breakthrough!

This blog post describes some of the known territories of the Orion Nebula, and some of the key concepts from Magic: the Gathering that are guiding Orion Skies's design.

* * *

History & Lore... in Song Form!

 
I created an Orion Skies version of the history-laden rock song "We Didn't Start the Fire", describing the history behind OS's setting. Then I went ahead and recorded a karaoke-style version of this song, linked from this blog post – though I will warn you in advance that my singing is *bad*. The post also describes what parts of Orion Skies's world each of the lyrics refers to.

* * *

Depth, Ship Loadouts, and Tech Generators

Aside from the EV series, I'm also a long-time player of Magic: the Gathering. In Magic, people can create "cubes", which in some ways are similar to EV's Total Conversion plug-ins. I've built a few cubes, and will be making use of some of their design concepts in Orion Skies. This blog post describes concepts related to maximizing replayability.

* * *

MtG "Cube" Design in an EVx Context

Aside from the EV series, I'm also a long-time player of Magic: the Gathering. In Magic, people can create "cubes", which in some ways are similar to EV's Total Conversion plug-ins. I've built a few cubes, and will be making use of some of their design concepts in Orion Skies. This blog post describes a group of concepts I call "MSCTT".

* * *

2021 Review, and a Look Forward

When Cosmic Frontier releases, I will begin construction on a series of 3 interconnected plug-ins, culminating in Orion Skies itself. This blog post describes these plug-ins and how everything will all fit together.

* * *

Tactics, Systems, & Galaxy Generators

 Orion Skies will feature complex tactics, influenced by the classic Ambrosia game Ares. This blog post goes into what that means, part of how it will work, and how the Galaxy Generator fits into that equation.

* * *

Orion Nebula "Fly-Through" Video in 3D

A NASA video exploring a high-resolution 3D model of the Orion Nebula.

* * *

Ship: RX-2 "Pikipiki" Rocketcycle

This rocketcycle will be the player's starting ship. Don't forget to wear your space suit!

* * *

Story: "Bees"

Our intrepid space captain helps a group of terraformers as they introduce bees to a developing world.

* * *

Gameplay Focus: Exploration

Exploring the uncharted regions of the deep nebula will be a central focus of Orion Skies, and will be carefully developed to be a rich and rewarding experience. This document outlines what that will be like and how it will work.

* * *

The Orion Nebula -- Overview

 The Wikipedia article on the Orion Nebula gives a pretty good starting point for learning about it.

* * *

Ship: BX-9 "Bajaji" Microshuttle

A "microshuttle", with limited capabilities but very low cost. Plus, the fun of flying a spacecraft with open sides!

* * *

Story: "Confrontation"

Our courageous space captain takes a stand against a group of bullies.

* * *

Design Concepts: The Monty Python Maneuver

The most famous maneuver in the Escape Velocity series, and thoughts on how to manage it in a TC.

* * *

The Orion Nebula -- Extreme High-Res Image

This massive 18000x18000 image from Hubble can take a bit of time to load on some computers, but it's worth the wait! There are so many gorgeous details to explore by zooming in and scrolling around, such as still-forming solar systems that haven't coalesced into planets yet (pictured here).

* * *

Ship: UN-6 "Star Rover" Bush Shuttle

A rugged old bush shuttle used by UNIRA centuries ago to explore remote areas. Still in widespread use.

* * *

Story: "Drills!"

Our upstanding space captain helps an engineer test a specialized sampling drill for use in the deep nebula.

* * *

Design Concepts: The Strengths of EV: Override

An essay about what made EV Override stand out in comparison to EV Nova or EV Classic. It also talks about how I tried to further expand on those strengths in EVO: Expanded. I'm using similar concepts in Orion Skies.

* * *

The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex -- Overview

The Orion Nebula is located within this vast structure of multiple nebulae, which runs throughout the Orion Constellation. This Wikipedia article gives a good introductory overview.

* * *

Story: "Delivery to Kivuli"

Our adventurous space captain meets an eccentric spy and gets involved in a top-secret snack delivery mission.

* * *

Key Technology: Mass Drivers

Lunar space-launch mass driver.

The galaxy's most versatile and ubiquitous electromagnetic cannon, which is used both as a weapon and as a utility system.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All About rEV: Expanded

Image
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: Quality of Life Features The Combat Experience Strategic Balance and Depth Story    I'll discuss each of those areas below, but first here's a quick video I recently recorded in rEV:E of a
Read more

2022 Review, and a Look Forward

Image
TL;DR: Lots of accomplishments this year, with many more planned for the future. :) Progress in 2022    This year, a number of major milestones were hit, and a lot of technical progress was accomplished "behind the scenes" to enable Orion Skies to live up to my vision of its ideal form. Full Design    In 2022 I was able to finish a complete design of Orion Skies’s world & history , and an outline of the major story elements that will unfold in-game.    I also finished the technical/gameplay design, and even created a specific plan to release Orion Skies in parts (first a small-but-meaningful initial release, and then adding expansions to fill it out). Tech Generator    The Tech Generator implements user-guided procedural techniques to produce data for weapons and outfits for an EV scenario, while ensuring they all fit specific balance targets.    This year, the Tech Generator reached Version 1.0, giving the user control over all of the data fields that go into the outf
Read more

The World of Orion Skies

Image
TL;DR: An explanation of Orion Skies's world, and an animated "world vision gallery".    In last month's blog post, I had been working on "visual worldbuilding" – similar to creating a "vision board", I'd been collecting artwork online that gives a strong impression of Orion Skies's universe. The goal was to create an animated image gallery that dynamically shows what the world of Orion Skies looks like & feels like. I find this sort of thing incredibly helpful to visualize the world and, as I build the plug-in, bring that world to life in-game.    I have now completed that world vision gallery! For this month's blog post, I wanted to share a video recording I made of the gallery, and to describe some key elements of what it shows. WORLD VISION GALLERY Here's a link to the world vision gallery video . Please note that most of the artwork in this gallery is not mine– though some of it is photos I took while I was living in Tanza
Read more