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Home » Stars! Clones, Extensions, Modding » Stars! Nova - Open Discussion and Help » Nova May 09 update
Nova May 09 update Fri, 22 May 2009 16:07 Go to next message
Daniel is currently offline Daniel

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! Nova developer
Stars! Nova developer

Messages: 179
Registered: April 2006
Location: Nowra, Australia
Ken's Stars-Nova is being worked on by myself and TheJorrus. While he has been improving the turn generation and UI render I have overhauled the component-editor which. The component editor is a stand alone .Net app for entering/modifying all the stars components (weapons/hulls etc). Nova now has the ability to load&store all the data that makes up these components in a compressed xml file.

I have also been looking at running nova under linux&mono and that is looking promising with a few tweaks to what nova expects from the registry.

We have had no luck contacting Ken or the other developers for nova listed on sourceforge, so at the moment the code is being shared around by email. If anyone knows how to contact these people that would be appreciated.

If you would like to help with Nova, you can contact either myself or TheJorrus. Even if you are not a programmer, it would be useful to have someone(s) check over the data entry for the components.

Free the Stars!

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Re: Nova May 09 update Mon, 25 May 2009 16:54 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Skyscaper is currently offline Skyscaper

 
Civilian

Messages: 1
Registered: May 2009
I found the Nova source online last year, but didnt have much time to work on it. I tried to compile but I either neglected to search for in the code or missed something entirely but ran into the encrypted 'import key file' from which I never went anywhere. Alas, now I finished my master's degree and might consider working in an SVN dev. environment if you set something up.

I'm an avid Stars! fan and am definately interested in AI concepts. So programming the enemies would be a preferred topic for me to work on, especially how they design their ships and learn from battles. My biggest frustration with the official release game was that the computer never learned from my ship selections & they always did similar things. My second major issue was the number of ship types (granted I understand that- that alone created an interesting resource mgmt issue). At any rate, I'm off to Alaska for a couple weeks. If you get an SVN repository setup and help out with the encryption issue. I'm game.

Justin

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Re: Nova May 09 update Tue, 26 May 2009 05:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Daniel is currently offline Daniel

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! Nova developer
Stars! Nova developer

Messages: 179
Registered: April 2006
Location: Nowra, Australia
More the merrier I say. The code on sourceforge is not the latest, but we are in the process of merging two development branches at the moment, so it is the best place to start looking at the lay of the land. The key file problem stumped me for a bit too (you need to go to project properties for each sub-program and generate a new key file) and there are a few other issues with setting up for development, but I am happy to walk you through them and get you started. Building a basic AI to support testing is pretty high on our agenda so that would be very welcome. If you send an email to djvale at gmail dot com I will get you up to speed.


Have fun.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Tue, 26 May 2009 19:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Coyote is currently offline Coyote

 
Lt. Commander

Messages: 906
Registered: November 2002
Location: Pacific NW

Red bounce
I'm glad to see that progress marches on!

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 27 May 2009 02:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

FWIW, I emailed Ken directly and it bounced 550 (Invalid recipient) - if stars-nova user email is being forwarded to the same address then that would explain why you couldn't contact Ken there.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 27 May 2009 04:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Daniel is currently offline Daniel

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! Nova developer
Stars! Nova developer

Messages: 179
Registered: April 2006
Location: Nowra, Australia
I have started the abandoned project takeover process for stars-nova on sourceforge. That will take a few weeks but then I will be able to use that project to host our code, discuss progress and post documentation.


Have fun.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 27 May 2009 13:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
TheJorrus is currently offline TheJorrus

 
Petty Officer 1st Class

Messages: 69
Registered: November 2002
Location: South Africa

Yups ... man the original devs were so very close this thing is actually playable (er... sortof Razz - we're filling in the blanks) but i'm very exited this one will get off the ground...

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Re: Nova May 09 update Thu, 28 May 2009 22:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
m.a@stars is currently offline m.a@stars

 
Commander

Messages: 2765
Registered: October 2004
Location: Third star to the left
TheJorrus wrote on Wed, 27 May 2009 19:45

the original devs were so very close this thing is actually playable (er... sortof Razz - we're filling in the blanks)

Interesting! Cool Do you mean the GUI and the turn-generation too?



So many Stars, so few Missiles!

In space no one can hear you scheme! Deal

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Re: Nova May 09 update Fri, 29 May 2009 00:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Daniel is currently offline Daniel

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! Nova developer
Stars! Nova developer

Messages: 179
Registered: April 2006
Location: Nowra, Australia
m.a@stars wrote on Fri, 29 May 2009 12:45

TheJorrus wrote on Wed, 27 May 2009 19:45

the original devs were so very close this thing is actually playable (er... sortof Razz - we're filling in the blanks)

Interesting! Cool Do you mean the GUI and the turn-generation too?


Acording to Ken's notes, Nova is playable, albeit in a very basic sense. It does have a working GUI and turn generation, though it is well short of many Stars! features (racial features, MT, random events, an AI). I have tested Nova as far as building ships and colonising planets, but haven't tried out combat or bombing - though those features have certainly been coded after a rudimentary fassion.

Nova is still well short of being ready for Beta testing. There are still many bugs and pecularities that would make it difficult for all but the most persistent player at this stage. However compared to other Stars! clones I have looked at (such as stellar legacy, GStars, free-stars), I would say it is much closer to being a playable game.



Have fun.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Sun, 31 May 2009 15:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
sirgwain is currently offline sirgwain

 
Senior Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 86
Registered: March 2004
Location: Tucson
I emailed Ken at 4 different email addresses and all of them bounced. My last hope of contacting him is through Linked In, but I'm guessing that contact point is through one of the emails I had. This is the last progress report on Nova I heard from him:

Quote:


Nova is looking good (if I dare say so myself). It now has fully functional minefields (basic mines only though) plus a load of other odds and ends (for example, missile accuracy has now been implemented).

I've been working on it today and completely re-wrote how I handle cargo. Originally I followed the Stars! model where cargo capacity was part of the hull design. But that was just generating so much cargo-specific code I decided to "re-factor it". Now, when you design a ship hull, you just assign a module as a "cargo pod" and drag and drop pods in when you design a ship just like any other component. Doing that got rid of loads of code (that's always satisfying).

There is one major bug outstanding in that minefields are always visible. I need to modify the display so that you can only see them if they are in range of a scanner or a ship is actually in one.

The only other major "nut to crack" is how to do a binary release with the limited features of VS Express. It can really only handle one application at a time and I have 4. Time to do a bit of reading. I could do it with a full VS but I only have VS 2005 and I'm using Express 2008. The two, of course, are not compatible. I've also moved to .Net version 3.

I still have a long bug list but they are all mainly to do with what happens when someone does something wrong. If you "stick to the rules" it pretty much works. The battle replay dialog needs work but, hey, it's just a hobby. By the way, the last release (no minefields) and web page are now in SourceForge: http://stars-nova.sourceforge.net



I'm not sure if that will help your efforts, but it's there in case it does.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 10 June 2009 12:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
sirgwain is currently offline sirgwain

 
Senior Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 86
Registered: March 2004
Location: Tucson
Hi Guys,

I have some sad news. I got ahold of an old coworker of Ken's and found out Ken passed away last year. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I know he was having some medical problems and apparently passed away shortly after taking early retirement. He was a good guy and I'll miss him.

-Craig

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 10 June 2009 16:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Daniel is currently offline Daniel

 
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Stars! Nova developer
Stars! Nova developer

Messages: 179
Registered: April 2006
Location: Nowra, Australia
sirgwain wrote on Thu, 11 June 2009 02:07

Hi Guys,

I have some sad news. I got ahold of an old coworker of Ken's and found out Ken passed away last year. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I know he was having some medical problems and apparently passed away shortly after taking early retirement. He was a good guy and I'll miss him.

-Craig



Thank you for passing on the news. I never knew Ken, but he left the Stars! community a substantial legacy in the Nova project. His passing is a sore loss to us all.



Have fun.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 24 June 2009 13:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
TheJorrus is currently offline TheJorrus

 
Petty Officer 1st Class

Messages: 69
Registered: November 2002
Location: South Africa

Yikes thats really sad...
Makes one think a little more about life and what we do with it...
I was really looking forward to showing him something he started, running.

Thanks for the feedback...

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Re: Nova May 09 update Thu, 25 June 2009 20:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Coyote is currently offline Coyote

 
Lt. Commander

Messages: 906
Registered: November 2002
Location: Pacific NW

I think we owe it to him to make sure the game is completed, eh?

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 16 September 2009 15:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slimdrag00n is currently offline slimdrag00n

 
Lieutenant
Helped track down one or more Stars bugs

Messages: 630
Registered: January 2009
Location: new york -5

I saw nova on wiki for the first time today.. It looked awesome. I cant wait to one day play it. wOOt 1


......
Ranked games: 8-1
Recently won the game Knife Fight.
Looking for a practice duel.
.......

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Re: Nova May 09 update Sat, 06 February 2010 17:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slimdrag00n is currently offline slimdrag00n

 
Lieutenant
Helped track down one or more Stars bugs

Messages: 630
Registered: January 2009
Location: new york -5

Anyone still working on Nova? Could you say this game is 75% done?


......
Ranked games: 8-1
Recently won the game Knife Fight.
Looking for a practice duel.
.......

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Re: Nova May 09 update Tue, 09 February 2010 15:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
paul_ik is currently offline paul_ik

 
Master Chief Petty Officer

Messages: 98
Registered: November 2009
Location: Belarus GMT+2

You can see the project activity on Nova developers site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/stars-nova/. It's hard to estimate the progress as current issues are not directly related to enhancing current version, but rather cleaning the code and design. Though some progress is being made in file formats for Nova.

[Updated on: Tue, 09 February 2010 15:59]

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Re: Nova May 09 update Tue, 09 February 2010 20:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
slimdrag00n is currently offline slimdrag00n

 
Lieutenant
Helped track down one or more Stars bugs

Messages: 630
Registered: January 2009
Location: new york -5

Thanks for that link. I wish it was further along. If only I could code. I will never understand why developers stopped working on such a great game.


......
Ranked games: 8-1
Recently won the game Knife Fight.
Looking for a practice duel.
.......

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Re: Nova May 09 update Tue, 09 February 2010 21:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Coyote is currently offline Coyote

 
Lt. Commander

Messages: 906
Registered: November 2002
Location: Pacific NW

slimdrag00n wrote on Tue, 09 February 2010 17:15

Thanks for that link. I wish it was further along. If only I could code. I will never understand why developers stopped working on such a great game.


I don't think they understood how good it actually is/was.

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Re: Nova May 09 update Wed, 10 February 2010 01:42 Go to previous message
gible

 
Commander

Messages: 1343
Registered: November 2002
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

slimdrag00n wrote on Wed, 10 February 2010 14:15

Thanks for that link. I wish it was further along. If only I could code. I will never understand why developers stopped working on such a great game.

I think we can rather excuse the original Nova developer for stopping working on it. Others have taken up the reins, I've no idea how far or fast they're getting but they are still active - they updated Nova's wiki page with new links just last month.

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