Orion Skies

  TL;DR: Major features are improving the Tech Generator 's workflow in significant ways.      This will be a relatively short post, as life is crazy busy these days and I'd like to maximize what little free time I have for working on the Tech Generator , rather than writing about it. (I'm a teacher, and it's the start of the school year -- exciting, but a lot of work!)    Since last month's blog post, the work I've done on the Tech Generator has been focused on two main areas: Randomness, and Manual Adjustments. Randomness Control    The random number generator functions in Google Sheets work well for producing random numbers, but they re-generate their numbers constantly. Any time you re-open a spreadsheet, or make any change to any value anywhere in the sheet, all of the random number fields reroll and come up with new numbers.    This was causing problems for the Generator's usefulness, as it was difficult to keep a certain outfit y...

TL;DR: Exciting progress is happening on the "expanded outfits" plug-ins! The upcoming "modifiers" feature will open up a lot of great options. "Expanded Outfits" Plug-Ins    Now that the Tech Generator is producing output that can be directly imported into ResForge or EVNEW, the process of using it to create plug-ins feels very different than the "traditional" plug-in development approach. It is a repeating process of defining what the Generator should produce, having it generate a plug-in based on those definitions, testing that plug-in, and then going back to revise the definitions for the next generation of the plug-in.    In the time since last month's blog post, I've been working on three outfit expansion plug-ins– one each for EVC, EVO, and EVN. These plug-ins are currently on their 26th generation, with each generation incorporating new updates and improvements.    These plug-ins have the same goals as the outfit changes I made ...

TL;DR : I'm stress-testing the Tech Generator by making a generated weapons plug-in pack for use with EVC, rEV, EVO, EVOE, EVN, and/or BNV. Also, the auto-import features are working!   Auto-Import Is Working!   The Tech Generator is now successfully producing output that can be loaded directly into a plug-in via ResForge or EVNEW! This makes it vastly more efficient to use than before!    This is a highly complex feature, which means that a great deal of testing is required to prove that it's working perfectly – so it'll be a while before I'll give it the official stamp of approval and "release" the Tech Generator v. 1.1... However, in the meantime, feel free to try this feature in the current Tech Generator, v. 1.0+ ! ResForge is a great new plug-in editor, and its spreadsheet import/export capability is extremely powerful. Generated Weapons Plug-Ins    The whole point of the Tech Generator is to facilitate the process of creating large numbers of we...

TL;DR : The Tech Generator has reached version 1.0 and is ready for public use! By default it generates weaps and outfs for EVN, EVO, EVC, and Ares, but can be configured to create entirely new types for Total Conversion plug-ins.    The Tech Generator is finally ready for general use (if anyone out there currently has a use for it)! This is a big milestone, as with Orion Skies I'm hoping to (eventually) have a very large number of weapons and outfits, and a procedural generator like this should considerably facilitate the process of creating them all.    Based on detailed user specifications, the Tech Generator procedurally creates the stats for weapons and outfits in bulk. It doesn't create output specifically for ResForge or EVNEW 's spreadsheet-import functions yet; that is my next goal and will be the core feature of version 1.1.    Here is a link to the Tech Generator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iRvFzGBanZFGzsS57eQLN7AbkGLyw-0-8EKmv...

TL;DR :  Orion Skies's design is as complete as it can be without actually getting my hands on the CFO engine. Now I'll work on  the procedural generators and 3D graphics systems, to lay the foundation for building Orion Skies.     Life has continued to be quite busy this month. You may recall that my wife and I bought a home in April, and getting it all set up is taking up a lot of our time. We also have a puppy who needs a lot of attention, and meanwhile work has been particularly heavy. On top of that we've gone through a mix of home emergencies and family emergencies, so it's been an exhausting whirlwind.    However, I've continued to think about Orion Skies's design during my commutes, and have actually made tremendous progress on that front. Work should ease off soon, at which point I'll resume regular progress on the foundational projects that will build into Orion Skies itself. I'll explain all of this below.   Full Design  ...

TL;DR : Many pieces of the design have fallen into place – in particular, an overall design framework and an outline of Orion Skies's world, both of which leave lots of design room for the details.     Life continues to be extra busy lately! You may recall that my wife and I bought a home recently, and getting it all set up is taking a lot of time. Additionally, work has really ramped up, and in the midst of all this we decided to adopt a puppy? (He is adorable but also is a handful!)    I haven't had a lot of time to sit down at a computer and work on Orion Skies, so instead my work has been happening mostly during my commutes, during which I often think about Orion Skies and come up with new ideas etc...   Massive Breakthrough    Building on last month's worldbuilding breakthrough with creating a complete history of OS's setting , as well as game-design breakthroughs based on my work on the Tech Generator, I've finally gotten a "complete" fra...

TL;DR :  A big lore dump. Also, I sing (sorry) an Orion Skies version of Billy Joel's song " We Didn't Start the Fire ".     Life has been extra busy for me lately: my wife and I bought a home, which is tremendously exciting, but it's also time-consuming to move, make repairs, get services set up, repaint some rooms, unpack everything and decide where it all should go, buy additional furniture, etc etc...    What that means is, I haven't had many open blocks of time to finish up the Tech Generator this month– however, I still have a rather long commute to and from work each day, and I usually spend it thinking about Orion Skies! This month, I've been thinking about worldbuilding & lore, and have actually made some great headway on that front. :)    To celebrate this progress, 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...