Escape Velocity fans?

[reversepolarity]

Did anyone used to play the Escape Velocity series of games back in the mid 90's for Apple Mac?
I only ever played the first in the series, but absolutley loved it - and it's one of the best game I ever came across, especially in terms of freedom and longevity.

 

[Lindley]

EV was (is) awesome!

My favorite from a gameplay/story perspective was Escape Velocity: Override. It really made the galaxy feel huge, although in reality there were more systems in the EV: Nova scenario.

The easy extensibility of the games is one of their greatest strengths. I've been working on a total conversion for Nova based on the TV show Firefly for years now; I really need to finish it up and get it released.....

 

[D Man]

^^Agreed on Override, I loved that universe and its story. The whole "Crescent" area had such a cool implied backstory that the game would tease at but never fully flesh out. Council Station was badass, too. I used to have a pilot file with an awesome captured fleet of each race's main flagship; I was slowly conquering the galaxy with my fleet of terror . Those bounty hunters went down in seconds. Once I managed to capture the Dreadnought (the old "abandon the mission after it starts" trick) but it was so hilariously slow that it wasn't worth flying around in.

The original game was really fun too, I remember at the time (I was probably 12 or something) there wasn't anything more epic than being a rebel and cloaking in to get info from the Moon, then later hitting the invisible wall at the edge of a system while trying to beat the red alien cruiser with its crazy fighters.

Nova was pretty cool, but the stories didn't wow me as much. I didn't like the mutually exclusive threads that locked you in before you knew what was happening. Being a Vell-os was fun, but I'd barely gotten used to the new game engine (which I thought was weirdly slow, I always play Nova with caps-lock on) before I picked a seemingly benign "delivery to Earth" mission and was stuck in that thread right away. The story telling also felt a bit off compared to the first two, I can't quite put my finger on why though. I really enjoyed flying around exploring all the crazy empty systems up in the "north," that was a really cool and well-designed map.

P.S. Definitely finish your Firefly TC, Lindley! I think I say that every time EV pops up around the board .

 

[Lindley]

Nova was pretty cool, but the stories didn't wow me as much.

That's it exactly. Still not sure why though.

(which I thought was weirdly slow, I always play Nova with caps-lock on)

Me too!

 

[Rett Mikhal]

Maybe it was the super small and impossible to read text? Or the fact only one of the stories has a happy ending; the Rebels. I just disliked having to consult a FAQ to get into the mission strings. How am I supposed to know to get a beer on Planet X in System Z for Faction Y which isn't even CLOSE to System Z!? You start the Auroran Campaign in Polaris space, and vice versa. It just makes no sense.

But to me the real meat of the game was just flying around. Exploring space, learning about ALL the different planets (my favorite was the abandoned ringworld that predated humanity in Polaris space). Plus I never got tired of docking at Rebel II and hearing all the announcements going on like an airport that worked properly. That and randomly warping into a huge battle (usually involving the Federation) was always a site to see.

I have fond memories of listening to the book on tape of Ringworld for a Sci Fi lit class while playing through the Rebel string. The ID4 Frigate was the coolest looking ship, in my opinion.

 

[reversepolarity]

Great to see there are other fans out there! EV is such an underrated game, like you guys it was just brilliant flying around exploring,trading and deciding wether to be a bounty hunter, rebel or federation member. I used to love playing it between watching DS9 & I always thought it a much superior version of the very famous "Elite".
Lindley it rocks to know people are still developing EV and it's not long since forgotten - some of the plug ins i came across for the original were brilliant - i remember one that gave the galaxy around twice as many destinations which really made things interesting and another funny one which turned all the ships into ye olde world bi-planes!
I notice Nova runs on windows and modern Macs - is that the only one that can be practically played now without resorting to hunting down an old Macintosh Performa?

Anyone else wonder if a MMORPG of it would work (that's what i was hoping the star trek one would be like) it'd be easy on your bandwidth and could extend the game even further.

 

[Lindley]

I notice Nova runs on windows and modern Macs - is that the only one that can be practically played now without resorting to hunting down an old Macintosh Performa?

Override will still run fine on PowerPC Macs. Also, there are ports of both Override and Classic to the Nova engine for Windows users and Intel Macs.

 

[reversepolarity]

Override will still run fine on PowerPC Macs. Also, there are ports of both Override and Classic to the Nova engine for Windows users and Intel Macs.

How well do the ports work - I'm guessing they're not going to be identical in either look or play to the original versions?

 

[Lindley]

I'm not sure, I haven't tried them. I imagine they're as similar as the Nova engine will let them be.

 

[Nociod]

Ah, I loved EV as a kid. Loved EV Nova as well, and I still play it from time to time.

 

[reversepolarity]

Does anyone know of any modern equivilents?

 

[Rett Mikhal]

Yeah... but it's a sad tale.

The game is still playable, but it's really just 1/10th of a game.

 

[Lindley]

I know X2: The Threat is somewhat in the same vein, although personally a got a bit bored by that one.

 

[David cgc]

Incidentally, does anyone know how plug-ins and TCs are supposed to work on the UB version of Nova? I couldn't find anything about it when it came out, and quickly lost interest. Honestly, probably isn't worth the trouble. With the PowerPC version, I'd just duplicate the game, and since it looked in its own folder for plug ins and pilot files, everything worked fine. I still have four copies of EV Nova PPC in my games folder; One each for the main campaigns of the three games (plus whatever non-TC plug-ins went with each. The scale-ships version of EV Classic was awesome), and another for that temporarily-released preview version of Starfleet Adventures.

Never mind, I'll stick with the PPC one. It ran fine in Rosetta.

 

[Lindley]

Incidentally, does anyone know how plug-ins and TCs are supposed to work on the UB version of Nova?

Plug-ins work the usual way, except now the Plug-Ins folder (and Pilots folder) are in (user)/Library/Application Support/EV Nova.

TCs work a little differently. If you hold shift while launching Nova, a dialog box comes up where you can select a folder other than the above. So long as the selected folder contains a Nova Files folder, it will be used instead of the default nova data (stored within the .app package). Also, the chosen folder will have a Pilots folder created within it.

 

[David cgc]

^ That does seem clunkier than my way. Thanks, though. I'll have to give it a shot.

 

[Lindley]

There are advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Holdfast]

Yeah... but it's a sad tale.

The game is still playable, but it's really just 1/10th of a game.

I quite enjoyed Freelancer. The combat is quite fun (if a little too simple) and the ships and planets are nice, and it all looks pretty.

The single-player storyline is quite good, in a cliched way. The problem is that it ends fairly abruptly, and then there's nothing to do because, as you say, many of the advanced features were never implemented. If it had the dynamic economy/territory features it should have had, it would have been brilliant.

 

[D Man]

Override will still run fine on PowerPC Macs. Also, there are ports of both Override and Classic to the Nova engine for Windows users and Intel Macs.

How well do the ports work - I'm guessing they're not going to be identical in either look or play to the original versions?

I'm not sure, I haven't tried them. I imagine they're as similar as the Nova engine will let them be.

Yep, that's about how well they play. It felt to me like Nova monkeyed around with what was weak/medium/strong in terms of the shield and armor numbers, which carries over into the ports of the first 2 games. Capital ships in Nova just don't feel as tough as they did in original/Override, so it's weird playing the ports and flying around in a Kestrel or Igazra or whatever and getting blowed up real quick...or at least, quicker than it used to be. It's great not needing a plug-in to cut down on those ludicrously long jump times though, it used to take like 30 seconds () to go from one system to the next!

 

[Rett Mikhal]

The Kestrel in Nova seemed woefully underpowered. Kestrel vs the Raven, Raven wins. Heck, Kestrel vs the Pirate Valk V, the Valkyrie wins.

I always will hold a fondness for the Federation Carrier. Yeah, it's ugly. Yeah, it's got a 90 degree blind spot. Yeah, it can't move fast. Yeah, its armor and shield leave something to be desired...

...but it can hold eight heavy turrets... with space for a couple of Hellhound and EMP missile launchers, and Raven Rocket Pods. Lock target, hit autopilot, hold down special weapon and primary weapon, and don't ever, ever let go.