This will enable the 2 macros in this file to run. enable macros in Libre Office (Tools > Options >Security > Macro Security > LOW). install Libre Office ( a free alternative to Microsoft Office). So, if you want to try your hand (and mind) in thinking a better equilibrium for a not so simple Endless Sky, you might find useful this tool. The writing is also really good, considering the depth of the plot, the fact that free/open-source games almost never have good writing, and the fact that the game is evidently still a work in progress.After playing some 50+ hours Endless Sky, this little completely free gem of a game, I felt the need to tweak some ships, to make them more ponderous or formidable or under-powered.Įasily done, individually, with all the guides available, but I wanted to be able to modify the rest of the ships/systems/weapons according to my concept of how they should behave, without parsing a zillion lines of txt in ships.txt, weapons.txt and so on in the game's data folder.Įnter Tweak-a-Ship, 2 macro's embedded in the file that extract the information from ship.txt and put it in a table, for easy editing, and then puts it back in txt format The entirety of Endless Sky (including the game engine) was implemented from scratch in C++, which simply isn't something you see a lot of today. Apart from the interview linked above, I can't really find anything out about the lead developer, Michael Zahniser, which is a shame because he's clearly a very talented game developer. Meanwhile, Endless Sky is a pretty impressive technological accomplishment. Apparently the plugins rely pretty heavily on resource forks, which should also say something. Meanwhile, the publisher, Ambrosia seems to be fizzling out.ĮVN's game engine was ancient even when it was released - it was probably one of the last commercial MacOS applications to be released with support for the old 68k macs (which had been obsolete for something like 8 years at that point). I'm under the impression that EVN burned out Matt Burch - he's emphatically stated a few times that he's done with EV and game development. I imagine it's more a result of hard times and limited resources than anything but it's still makes me side-eye it a little. That combined with the thirty bucks they're asking makes it a weird, sort of refusing-to-acknowledge-that-time-has-passed product. The game's core assets and engine are still built for a tiny earlier-era screen, with wee fuckin' text and tiny sprites the default experience. Also also, you should see that movie.)īut fortunately, the final installment, Escape Velocity Nova was ported to Windows, and still runs on a modern Mac.įor all the love I bear for the EV franchise and to Ambrosia for making it, I'm excited about Endless Sky in large part because even that modernized release was woefully under-modernized when I tried it out a year or so back. (Also, you should listen to that soundtrack. I've played it to a couple different things so far and my favorite has been the Disasterpiece soundtrack from It Follows. So for best experience, DIY yourself some mood music. One notable thing about Endless Sky: it doesn't (yet?) have a soundtrack, just sound effects. It's a fairly specific take on the whole trade-and-combat space exploration upgrade ladder genre-you could compare it to both Elite and the Star Control games and get pieces of it but it strikes its own balance different from both-and one that I really really dug when my wife introduced me to EV:Nova back in the day on her bondi blue iMac. I poured a couple of days into Endless Sky (and then Fallout 4 came out and, well) and it was a really nice dip back into the old Escape Velocity vibe in a modern engine.
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