[Hollewanderer]

We all know that plain, normal un-modded FS do not fare well with ground attack missions [ultimate proof of this is fact that they do not exist in game]. But, as they are rather cool, I got a little, interesting idea.

What if somebody could model a... small moon, with ground base on its surface, and subsystems acting as buildings, and turrets acting as... turrets, of course? [maybe some unholy combination to get stationary tank with gun tracking player] It will be similiar to fancy asteroid base with additions making it far more similiar to 'normal' moon with 'normal' ground base. It will also have tons of HP, as moon isn't something you can easily destroy.

With few docking bays, you could even make tiny planetary invasion, with capship flying near surface and smiting enemy with beam cannons, and all that cool stuff.

Objectives could be fairly easy to make.

If somebody already made it, or tried and failed miserably, tell me about this.

If AI is too stupid for this kind of work, it can be always made as multiplayer mission, where defenders need to, for example, stop attackers from destroying heavy beam cannons, and if they fail, destroy enemy capship that jumped in and stop landing crafts from capturing base.

So, what do you think about this idea? I plan to use it in my campaning, Red Tide, and I want some opinions.

BTW, what happened to Planetary Assault mod? Is it dead? [Campaning Watch had not been updated for about 2 years, after all]

[Hippo]

sounds like it could be a good idea, but it would probably be a huge polycount because you would have to do the back of the moon if it was for a supprise assult...

[Black Wolf]

Venom already did an atnosphere and ground, but the Ground had to be massive, and there for the polys and pixels were also massive - it looked... not so great in game. there was no sense of motion against the surface. What he needed to do was make it much smaller, possiby even split up into two or 4 models. That would allow for a much higher polygon /pixel desity.

[Labcoatguy]

small moon

Is anyone else thinking "That's no moon...that's a space station"?

[Hippo]

Originally posted by Labcoatguy


Is anyone else thinking "That's no moon...that's a space station"?

Ah, but we have thought it...

[TopAce]

Yeah, but the Death Star had no mountains, hills, and seas. How are we supposed to be able to do a HUGE model of an entire planet, that would require new textures, and precisity. Precisity to for example if the player collides the water, may not his ship pull back with standard FS physics. How do you want to make limited athmosphere? Something like editing the nebula effects?

I have doubts about the success of this idea.

[Hippo]

thats wh a moon works... low grav, no water, no atmospehre...

[Star Dragon]

Problem was even a small scale death star or large Dominon moon base (I have bth) do work in game, looks nice, scale is massive, however is not solid, will not collide, just fly right through. I think its a scale thing, If I make tehe size smaller the engine can handle it. I've posted screns a long time ago so if you saw them you know what I am talking about (as for the ground mod you CAN see the ground moving but only if there was enough detail (like jutting hills, dips, trenchs, ect) if Venom collaborated for the test of Combat Federation then that was teh screenshot I recieved (running the zent female armor into the ground for a battle tech simulation). Of course gravity was teh main problem and as far as I know that project has halted since last november. I'm not saying it's impossible. But it sure is damn hard.  I would suggesset taking these things in stages. Approach the planet to get into system and high orbit. Go to red alert mission, simulating entering the atmosphere (ie bab5 success in near earth model) use new lanet textures for low orbit combat, then after lower waypoint reach anohter stage (can you have multiple red alerts?) then enter atmosphere/ground stage macross mod atmosphere but add ground models. Bingo now you got all three needed stages/ Space/upper atmosphere/lower atmosphere & ground(water)...

Now if someone ut there know how to impliment this let me know cause I have a few robotech missions I need to fred (though I already have the voices for it) like Operation Star Saver (you save Minmay from Khyron).

[Nico]

Originally posted by Black Wolf
Venom already did an atnosphere and ground, but the Ground had to be massive, and there for the polys and pixels were also massive - it looked... not so great in game. there was no sense of motion against the surface. What he needed to do was make it much smaller, possiby even split up into two or 4 models. That would allow for a much higher polygon /pixel desity.

it was made out of four 800 polys subobjects. there's a limit not to trespass, you know... FS2 can't have very detailled grounds, coz it's not a flightsim, and doesn't have the polyreduction flightsims have to reduce polycount ( at a certain distance from the player, the mesh is polyreduced and smaller maps are used, much like lods, but on the same ground object ).
Of course you could use giant tiles, but that would look fugly ( nice seems between each tile -the pb exists on my model too anyway, between each subobject ).

[Thor]

Well, maybe a Moon is to big.  How about a planetoid sized thing.  Something around the size of the Collosus or a bit bigger, but planet shaped with an installation built into it?  Place it ina nebula/asteroid field and it could work.

Actually, if any one wants to build it, I actually have a use for just such a thing.  Maybe two different versions, one a millitary type installation (Heavily Armed, radar dishes and the like) and a mining outpost (a Shaft opening, a hangar, minimal weapons.)  Yeah, if any onewould be open to modeling that, I'd be eternally grateful.  For use in ITHOV, but Availible for public release as well (no need to hide it away.)  Any takers,PM me, please!

[Black Wolf]

I've posted a possible way to make some form of atmospheric combat possible here . Go check it out, see what you think.