
              GAME EXPANDER PLUG
                                       F O R   E S C A P E   V E L O C I T Y !

                   (v1.0,  probably the first, last and only edition)



				Here is an all new scenario that I have put together for the game Escape Velocity. It does not 
											completely change the game environment, but expands the existing one greatly. The Confeds
										 and Rebels are still there, but they've got company. Two new galactic super-powers have found
										 their way into the game, the Orion Union (confed-friendly) and the Polaris Alliance (confed-haters,
										 thus Rebel-friendly). Some smaller local governments are also added to the EV universe. To offer
										 more playing space, lots of new systems and stellar objects have been added, as well as tons of
										 new ships and outfits. To make trading a little more exciting, lots of new trading-items, organized
										 in a complex web of trade-routes, has also been added. If  you figure them out, you may find a
										 quick way to wealth. Some new missions have also been added, not as many as I would have
										 liked, but that may come as an add-on later. 

				For those interested, I will here describe more exactly what this plugin will do to your game!
										 If you don't care, go to the end of this text (chapter 4) and read that part instead.


                                  1. TABLE OF CONTENTS:

                     1.   Table of Contents (duh...)
                     2.   Some numbers on the new stuff
                     3.   More detailed info on what the plugin does
                     4.   Other information about the game expander



                         2. SOME NUMBERS ON THE NEW STUFF:

	¥ New systems          :   175  (gives the EV universe a more vast feeling)
	¥ New stellar objects  :   149  (lots of new places to explore, some with new graphics)
	¥ New trade items      :   25   (distributed all over the galaxy in trade-routes)
	¥ New governments/types:   12   (see below)
	¥ New missions         :   16   (oh well...)
	¥ New game-events      :   35   (changes the price-levels on some planets)
	¥ New outfits/weapons  :   38   (see below)
	¥ New personalities    :   29   (pirates, aliens and patrol-cruisers.)
	¥ New ships            :   23   (see below)
	¥ New fleets           :			24			(Pirates, orions, polaris, aliens, confeds and rebels)
	¥ New starbase-types   :   8    (a bunch of new types of space-stations with graphics)
	¥ New planet-types     :   3    (some new "Gas Gigant" planet types with graphics)

			          
               3. MORE DETAILED INFO ON WHAT THE PLUGIN DOES:

Governments:
				Aside from adding the two major governments, the Polaris Alliance and Orion Union
										 (see below), the plugin gives the independent systems a more personal touch. Instead of 
											the map just displaying "Independent", it will now tell a little more about the government type
										 of that colony (Democracy, Corporational govt, Anarchy, Military govt etc...). This applies
										 to both the new independent systems, and those in the original EV universe. It will also add
										 some local governments (for example the Enceans and Tiacans who are at war with eachother,
											and the technocratic Proxima-government). It also adds a little more action and power to the
           Aliens, se below for more info about them... Here is just some short info about  the new
										 galactic super-powers:

				The Polaris Alliance is an alliance of 16 systems on the southern galactic fringes, founded
												as a trade and defense alliance to offer better economical conditions for the member-worlds
												and protection from pirates and other outlaws. The leaders of the Confederation did not like
											 this as they thought the Alliance became to powerful, and the Alliance is under constant attack
											 from the Confed Space Navy. In order to survive, the Polaris Alliance threw together the
											 resources of their worlds to design powerful warships and build a strong military force
											 capable to hold back the Confed invasion forces. As their forces grew, and their ship-designs
											 was newer and more powerful than the old Great-War era Confed ones, the leaders of the
											 Confederation realised that a complete invasion wouldn't be possible as they needed the navy
											 against the Rebellion too. They then switched tactics to terrorism; quick raids into Alliance
											 space to disrupt trade and strike border-colonies. -- As they shared a common enemy,
											 the Polaris Alliance started to cooperate with the Rebellion to some extent,
											 but they are not all-out allies.

												The Orion Union is a federation of 18 systems located within and beyond the Orion
											 Nebula (which graphics I unfortunately couldn't add to the galaxy map due to some strange
											 bug in EV, but its there anyway :)). The Union was founded during the initial stages of the
											 great war as just a few worlds isolated from the rest of the galaxy within their nebula,
											 and so they were forgotten about by the rest of the galaxy. During the war and the time before
											 the Civil War, the Orions stayed within their Nebula and concentrated all their on efforts  building
											 up a powerful empire of prospering worlds and a strong merchant navy to trade between their
											 worlds. As they where isolated and unknown to the rest of the galaxy, they could use all of
											 their resources to this, left alone by pirates and aliens, and as time passed they became both
											 wealthy and technologically advanced. Later, during the Civil War, an expeditionary force
											 from the Rebellion entered the nebula, looking for a possible secret Confed navy outpost.
											 They then bumped into a convoy of Orion Bulk Freighters, and at the sight of these massive
											 ships, the rebel commander mistook them for a hostile fleet of unknown warships, got scared
											 and ordered his fleet to attack. The Orion Union got furious over this unprovoked attack on
											 one of their peaceful trade-convoys and immediately started to build a strong military navy
											 to fight this new enemy. The Confeds of course took advantage of the situation, and sent
											 representatives to the Orions, telling stories about the evil barbarian Rebellion who had
											 attacked them. Today the Orion Union and the Confederation is semi-allies, with free trade
											 between their worlds, and to some extent coordinate their attacks on the Rebellion.

Systems, worlds and trade:
				The Game Expander plugin expands the EV universe with 175 new systems and about
											 150 new planets and stations. This gives the universe a better feeling of vastness, and
											 forces you to be more careful when you accept missions with a time-limit as some deliveries
											 will be impossible to do within the deadline even with a fast ship. The new systems are
											 basically added in 5 different locations: 

													¥ Orion Union Space beyond the western fringes, in and beyond the Orion Nebula
													¥ Polaris Alliance space, beyond the south-east fringes
													¥ a region of independent, mostly poor develloped systems beyond the serpens nebula
													¥ a region of independent, mixed develloped systems beyond the northern fringes
													¥ a  region of sparsely settled systems on the southern fringes beyond the trugati asteroid belt. 

												The Aliens are only a brief part of the original EV game, but to add a bit more challenge,
											 they are more present in force with this plugin. For those who feel really brave, there is even
											 a few Alien-controlled systems at the very fringe of the galaxy (but be forewarned that you will
											 have to help the Aliens if you want to leave if you go there, and you may need to hang around
											 there for a while before you are offered that mission! Be sure to hail all "Alien Motherships"
												in the Maia system to be offered your ticket back out of Alien controlled space).

				Trade was rather simple and non-develloped in Escape Velocity, and to make it a more
											 exciting and important part of the game-play, this plugin adds lots of new items to trade,
											 and more specific trade-routes. That means that some items which are very profitable to trade
											 in has been added, but they can only be bought at one place and sold at another (if you want
											 to make profit). The trick is to find these trade-routes, and I have added a whole bunch of 
												them, some more profitable than others (and to add a little excitement, the most profitable
											 ones usually run through pirate infested space). Some hints to some of these routes can
											 be found if you look at the ISN newsflashes when you drop by a spaceport bar.
											 If you got a big trader ship, or even better a fleet of big freighters, you can make large profit
											 if you find and use these routes. And you do have the ability to get a big freighter, as the
											 standard bulk-freighter is purchasable, and if you are a really serious trader, you can
											 invest in one of those HUGE Orion freighters. -- Some of the new trade-items is concidered
											 illegal black-market stuff (gives large profit), but unfortunately you can't define some stuff
											 as illegal in EV, so you will hardly be caught smuggling these things. I have also added
											 lots of game-events in this plugin, that will affect the price-levels on some planets
											 (for example higher medical-price when there's a mining accident on a mining-colony,
											 and an almost constant low price of food on an agricultural world with a huge production
											 surplus) which will also do the game more interesting and serve as some kind of trade-routes.

Missions:
				To make this scenario really rock, it would really need some new missions involving the
											 new actors in the galaxy. Unfortunately I have temporarily run out of ideas, so this plugin
											 only contains some repeating small missions and a mission-suite for the Polaris Alliance
											 (which will allow you to buy their ships), a few pirate/black market missions and a small alien
											 mission suite (which you need to accept to get out of the alien systems, past the Hyperspace
											 forcefield). It is possible that I will release some more missions as an add-on  plugin later 
												when I get new inspiration, but if anyone feels like creating missions for this scenario,
											 you are welcome... <g>

Starships:
				This plugin adds a lot of new ships to the game; a bunch of civilian/independent ships,
											 pirate and alien associated ships, some new Confed and Rebel warships and ships associated
											 with the Orion Union and Polaris Alliance. 

													It also alters the standard-ships in the game slightly, and all in the same manner to fit the
											 model of the new ships. As I thought the ships in EV looked way to fast, I have removed
											 100 speed-units from ALL ships (and torpedos, missiles and rockets) to make the stellar
											 systems appear larger, and to increase in-system travel a little. I personally think the game
											 behaves better now that the ships don't move that extremely fast. And as all the ships are
											 changed, they still behave in the same manner. I have also added slightly more
											 expansion-space to all the ships.

												Below is a short description of the new ships, sorted by their type/alignment:

CIVILIAN/INDEPENDENT SHIPS:
	¥ Atinoda Condor    - A meaner and bigger thing with a design somewhat resembling 
																	      that of the Kestrel. More powerful than the Kestrel in both 
																      	shields and armor, it also holds a squadron of Century Fighters.
																      	Can be bought at tech-level 5 shipyards. Somewhat expensive.

	¥ Atinoda Century   - A fast and maneauverable interceptor fighter that is almost
																      	bird-like in design. Relies more on maneauverability than
																      	raw strength, has no missiles but is armed with two powerful
																      	pulse-cannons that delivers quite a punch.
																	      Can be bought at normal shipyards.

	¥ Firebird Raider   - A delta-winged interceptor manufactured on pirate moons. It is 
															       	a fast and decently shielded fighter that packs two 
																       pulse-cannons, providing it with good non-depletable firepower.
														       		Used by pirates to raid freighter-convoys in swarms or by its
															       	own. A good match for anything less than a Corvette. Can be
															       	bought on any pirate moon or spacestation.

	¥ Bird Of Prey					 - The Bird of Prey is a new type of light Attack Cruiser. It is a
																							high-tech vessel with many new powerful weapon-systems, and it
																							it built to make better use of the cloaking device (if you are
																							lucky enough to get your hands on such a high-tech toy) being
																							equipped with large fuel-tanks and fast-regenerating (but
																							somewhat weak) shields. Can only be bought on the high-tech
                       world that designed and builds them, but that you will have
                       to find for yourself, that's part of the challenge.

REBEL WARSHIPS:
	¥ Thunder Gunboat   - A new Rebel ship, a Rebel Gunboat, which is armed with
																		    	missiles, rockets, javelins and swivel-lasers. A little more
																		    	maneauverable than the Confed Gunboat, but otherwise quite
																		    	equal to it in strength. Can be bought at Palshife. 

	¥ Rebel Carrier     - This huge ship operates 10 Manta fighters and 4 Rebel Gunboats
													        		addition to its quite impressive defensive armament. It also has
													        		decent shielding, armor and maneauverability making it more
													        		powerful than any confederate ship. It is however "slightly"
													        		expensive so they are quite rare. They can be bought at Palshife
													        		if you got the credits and the right contacts...

CONFEDERATE WARSHIPS:
	¥ Confed BaseShip   - This enormous ship is more a movable military navy base than a
																							ship. Operating 8 Patrol-ships and 4 Confed Gunboats, it is a
																							horrifying force to be reckoned with. It is however quite capable
                       to hold its own even without the fighters, as it is armed with
                       lots of missiles and anti-starfighter guns.

	¥ Confed Navy Base  - This isn't really a ship but a space-station, but EV treats it
																							as a ship. It is really large, really powerful, and does only
                       appear in a mission. It cannot be bought or taken over, and is
                       completely stationary. It is armed with tons of missiles,
																							torpedos and anti-starfighter batteries, and has a number of
																							gunboat-squadrons stationed there for defense too. One of the
																							few human-built things that can beat a fully armed Galaxy
																						 Destroyer in a close-combat dogfight with ease.

ALIEN SHIPS:
	¥ C&C Mothership    - A HUGE Alien Command Ship, housing 4 Alien battlecruisers within
                       its massive hangars.  Aside from the cruisers used for offensive
                       action, its armed with a powerful front-mounted slicer beam and
                       a turreted beam-weapon. This ship cannot be bought, but they can
																							be disabled and taken over if you are really good and really lucky.

	¥ Battlecruiser     - A different version of the Alien Cruiser, but this time with no
                       fighters, more shields and a powerful slicer-beam as its
                       primary weapon-system.

	¥ Attack Fighter    - An alien fightercraft with less shielding but a more devastating
                       weapons-system in form of a dual-fire pulse-cannon. Most ships
                       wont last long in a dogfight against this baby.

ORION UNION SHIPS:
	¥ Orion Shuttle     - The Orion Shuttle is a large shuttlecraft designed to transport
																							people, troops and smaller shipments of cargo. It is rather
                       speedy, has lots of expansion-space and is well armed.

	¥ Light Freighter   - The Orion Light Freighter is a craft designed for the purpose to 
                       transport cargo. It has a crew-section, an engine-section and 
                       three huge cargo-bays in between. It is quite slow, and it
                       totally helpless in its stock form as it has no weapons. However
                       it is fairly well shielded, and has lots of room for weapons and
                       outfits for being a freighter.

	¥ Heavy Freighter   - The Orion Heavy Freighter is the standard lage trading ship in
                       the Orion Union that is used on the fringes and in systems with
                       possible enemy forces as it is heavily armed with turbo-lasers.
                       It can carry lots of cargo, has good expansion-space and a lot
                       of fuel-tanks for long trade-runs.

	¥ Bulk Freighter    - The Orion Bulk Freighter is really only a huge metal skeleton with
                       an engine and crew-section attached. It can however carry huge
                       amounts of cargo. It has rather nice shielding to protect its
                       thin weak hull, but it is very slow and have almost no defensive 
                       weapons, making it a sitting duck if exposed to a large-scale
                       attack. These ships handle most of the trade between the Orion
                       Union worlds, where they can rely on others to defend them.

	¥ Cobra Fighter     - The Orion Union Cobra Fighter is a cheap very fast and manauvarable
                       light fighter. It is usually only operated from capital ships or
                       colonies due to its bad hyperspace capabilities (2 jumps), but it
                       be fitted with extra fuel-tanks. It is not very well shielded, but 
                       its maneuvarability and cheap price makes up for that (be sure to
                       install an escape pod and an auto-ejector).

	¥ Cobra Interceptor - The Cobra Interceptor is a faster, more shielded and better armed
                       attackship than the Cobra Fighter. It is in fact one of the fastest
                       ships designed today, which makes it excellent as an in-system 
                       interceptor. It still has as bad hyperspace capability as the
                       Cobra Fighter though.

	¥ Orion Gunship     - The Orion Assault Gunship is a heavily armed semi-capital scale
                       ship that can take on most other ships due to its heavy armament.
                       It has lots of heavy weapons, tons of missiles and has better
                       shields than a Corvette. It fills the gap between the Cobra
                       fighters and the Galaxy Destroyer.

	¥ Galaxy Destroyer  - The Orion Galaxy Destroyer is probabably the largest warship ever
                       built. Its massive appearance (3 km in length), which is larger
                       than some starbases, is enough to get most enemies to flee or
                       surrender without a fight. But the Destroyer is also a very 
                       battleworthy warship, armed with a massive amount of heavy weapons
                       and anti-starfighter guns along with its standard complement of 14
                       Cobra Fighters. Appearing almost unbeatable, its only weakness is
                       its lack of long-range weapons aside from the fighters.


POLARIS ALLIANCE SHIPS:
	¥ Barracuda Fighter - The Polaris Alliance Barracuda Heavy Fighter is the principle
                       fighter craft in the Alliance Navy.  It comes standard with heavy
                       weaponry and decent shielding, making it one of the best
                       starfighters around.

	¥ Puma Destroyer    - This is a new vessel that has recently left prototype-state and is
                       being phased into the Polaris Alliance Navy. It contains the latest
                       from Polaris R&D, among other things a new type of engine that
                       makes it very fast and manauverable for a ship of its size.

	¥ Dragon Frigate    - The Polaris Alliance Dragon Frigate is the mid-range attack vessel
                       of the Alliance Navy.  The Dragon Frigate is speedier and has
                       heavier armament than the Confed Frigate. It also carries an 
                       experimental powerful beam weapon as its main capital scale
                       weapon instead of rockets, giving it tremendous firepower.

	¥ Heavy Cruiser     - The Polaris Alliance Dominator class Heavy Cruiser is the
                       crown-jewel and flagship of the Polaris Navy. It comes heavily
                       armed and carries 5 Barracuda fighters. It also has lots of room
                       for expansion and outfits.  The Cruiser is slightly faster than
                       the Rebel cruisers, and is comparable in shields and armor to
                       the Confederate ones.

Weapons and Outfits:
				The Game Expander plugin also adds a wide variety of new outfits and weapons. It would
											 take to much space to describe them all here, so you will have to find them in the game.
											 They can be found on various places throughout the galaxy, and some items can only be found
											 in one or a few worlds outfitters. Here is a short list of the different outfits:

× Orion Union outfits
								¥ Spearhead missiles w. Spearhead racks
								¥ Energy Proximity Mines w. Mine drop-tubes
								¥ Cobra Fighters (for use with the Galaxy Destroyer)
								¥ Turbo Lasers
								¥ Cobra Blaster Cannon (no buy, mounted on the Cobra Fighter only)
× Polaris Alliance outfits
								¥ Nuclear missiles w. Nuclear missile racks
								¥ Repulsor Beam emitters
								¥ Plasma Accelerators
								¥ Barracuda Fighters (for use on with the Polaris Heavy Cruiser)
								¥ Codename: Black Lightning (large, POWERFUL prototype weapon)
								¥ Plasma Cannons
								¥ Plasma Turrets
× Pirate/Black market outfits
								¥ Faked ID-papers for the Rebellion, Polaris Alliance and Orion Union
								¥ Raider Fighters w. Raider launch Racks
								¥ Pirate Pulse Cannons (no buy, mounted on the Firebird Raider only)
								¥ Proton Disruptors (eg Confed military weapon, Black Market sale only)
× Civilian/Independent outfits
								¥ 20 TW Beam Lasers
								¥ Hyperspace Engines
								¥ Jumppoint Generators
								¥ Century Fighters (for use with the Atinoda Condor)
								¥ Pulse Cannons (no buy, mounted on the Century Fighter only)
								¥ Flux Disruptors (no buy, mounted on the Bird of Prey only)
								¥ Pulse Phasors (no buy, mounted on the Bird of Prey only)
								¥ Plasma Torpedo Bays (no buy, mounted on the Bird of Prey only)
× Alien outfits
								¥ Slicer Beams (no buy, mounted on the Alien C&C ship and battlecruiser only)
								¥ Alien Pulse Cannons (no buy, mounted on the Alien Attack Fighter only)
								¥ Alien Battlecruiser (for use with the Alien C&C ship)
								¥ Seeker Drones (nothing new, but you can now buy them for the Alien C&C ship)
× Confed/Rebel outfits
								¥ Rebel Gunboats (for use with the Rebel Carrier)
								¥ Confed Gunboats (for use with the Confed Baseship)

				Aside from these new weapons and outfits, some changes to a few existing ones have
											 been made too:

													¥ The amount of Shield capacitors and fuel-tanks you can buy have been rised to 300 and 100  
													¥ The shield-capacitors are now adding 10 shield-units (shipyard info units) per capacitor
													¥ The shield boosters effectiveness has been doubled.
													¥ The amount of Mantas and Patrolships you can buy is now 10, to work with the Carrier and BaseShip.
													¥ The name/description of the LaserCannon has been slightly altered (as comparison to the Beam Laser).


               4. OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE GAME EXPANDER:

				Some ship-graphics and designs come from a plugin named "My Ship Collection" that
											 I released earlier some months ago. If you are using this plugin, you can throw it out, as 
												the Game Expander pretty much replaces and enhances everything the ship-collection does.

				You should start with a new pilot-file when you play this plugin, as some things won't
												work the way they are supposed to otherwise. The plugin is also best experienced if you
												start from scratch.

				As this plugin adds a whole lot of cool (IMHO) stuff and changes some of the existing,
											 it is not very likely that it will work together with other plugins (with the exeption of pure
											 mission-related plugs), so you better remove any such from your plugins folder before you
											 install the Game Expander. If you like the game expander and want to keep it, but have some
											 other smaller plugin that you also love, you can open the Game Expander with ResEdit to
											 check which resources that still are unused, and then alter the other plugin to use those
											 resources. Requires some work, but it's possible. <g>

				This plugin is completely for free. I take no responsibility for things this plugin does to
											 your computer. If it causes a crash or blows your computer to pieces, not my fault!
											 Use it at your own risk. However, due to the nature of this plug, it is highly unlikely that
											 anything nasty would happen. I claim no rights for this plugin and you may distribute it 
												freely, but please include this readme file if you do. I don't want any credit for this plug.
											 I made it mostly for my own enjoyment and to make EV a better experience. If you use it
											 and like it, that is enough credit for me. If you dont like it, simply throw it away.

												mkb - 1997