Plug-in (Escape Velocity) - Classification

Classification

In recent years, it has become common to use several terms to classify plug-ins, though this practice has been criticised as limiting the growth of the plug-in community:

• A total conversion usually completely replaces the game’s scenario. Particularly with EV Nova, this has become the form of plug-in preferred by players and developers, though with the amount of work needed to create one, most projects fail long before producing a playable game.
• A partial conversion usually adds new ships or systems, or modifies existing ones. This was the most common type of plug-in for the original Escape Velocity, but has now been relegated to a lower stature due to the proliferation of complete new scenarios and the universal use of terms which minimise its importance.
• A cheat usually adds an outfit or ship (or both) that is extremely powerful, makes all outfits and ships purchasable, or grants money. Cheats receive little respect from the community, given their lack of originality and ease of creation, but have the merit of introducing people to the workings of the Escape Velocity engine who may thereafter go on to develop more significant works.

With developers realising the amount of work involved in creating a proper ‘total conversion’, derivative terms such as ‘mini-TC’ and ‘quasi-TC’ have also become common, but there are no standards for their meanings.