Ship Variants 1.0.6r3

REQUIRES NOVA VERSION 1.0.6

New in this version:

•Updated fighter speeds and acceleration rates to comply with Nova 1.0.6.

•Fixed Lightning weapon limitations which were missed somewhere along the way.

•Re-wrote a few erroneous or badly-worded descriptions.

•Updated Polaran freighter government IDs to comply with Nova 1.0.6

Installation:

Install as you would any other plugin. Just drop it into the Plug-ins folder and restart Nova. Full functionality requires that you download "Fighter Variants" (see below).

What it does:

This plug-in allows you to buy every variant of every ship in Nova, instead of having to capture them. I've tried to keep the game balanced, so more advanced variants are expensive and less common than the regular versions. All the variants have descriptions which explain their modifications. Of course, you have to have access to the regular ship class in order to be able to buy its variants.
All the variant fighter bays are now available, too, with the same restrictions as above. You must install the plug-in "Fighter Variants" in order for these bays to function properly. You can find Fighter Variants at the Nova addons page. It is compatible with all versions of Ship Variants, and you do not need a new copy if you already have it. I have not included it because it is a large download, and some people don't care about fighter variants.
Lastly, this plugin fixes the Sigma missions, so you don't need any Sigma fixing plugins (in fact, they might cause this plugin not to work). You can now use any large freighter to get bulk deliveries, and any Starliner to get tourist missions.

Known Issues:

•This plugin is not compatible with any plugin which changes ships, their descriptions, the fighter bay variants or the Sigma missions. It introduces bits b9249-9251, and thus is not compatible with any plugins that use those bits. Simply put, this all means that Ship Variants is pretty compatible. Keep in mind, however, that I do not go out of my way to make it compatible with anything but a standard install of Nova.

•As hard as I've tried, there are probably still a few bugs in the plugin. While it doesn't seem like it does a lot, I had to research and change numbers for 150-200 ship variants, as well as write descriptions for them all. This took many, many hours, and it is difficult to test something which affects every part of the game. Subsequent updates have left more opportunity for error. I will fix anything that people tell me about.

Thanks:

...go to my 36 beta testers, many of whom found bugs.

Thanks to Harry for his help with updates (versions 1.0.3 and 1.0.4).

Thanks to Agee for help with every version, and especially for helping me sort out the Polaris variants.

Finally, thanks to Tycho Maudd for his help with the Polaris, as well.

Contact Me:

Please send comments, suggestions, praise or bug reports to:
dbrauer@hfx.andara.com

Legal Information:

©2002-03 Daniel Brauer

The modifications and additions to Ambrosia Software/ATMOS' data contained in this plugin are protected by international copyright laws. If you wish to use this data in part or in whole, ask me via email first. I'll probably let you use it, so long as you mention my name somewhere in your documentation. This work is not to be distributed in any medium without its readme. It may not be sold or exchanged for profit in any form (including magazine cover disks or shareware compilations) without explicit consent from Daniel Brauer.