[blackhole]

Been ages since i've updated this, but ghhryd and I have restarted work on my shivan campaign. This brought to my attention a few missing features of the shivan datafiles, so here is another update:

Shivan Datafiles v0.7

Changes from version 0.65

• FINALLY fixed those blasted weapon load screens! Rejoice! All load screens now look absolutly prestine and pretty.
  
• Bundled Red Nebulas by Pez
• Bundled Red Warp by Thunder
• Bundled Red Planets by Thunder
• I also managed to break the credits, becuase they no longer show up. I've had no success in trying to fix this, i even reverted to the normal FS2 credits and they failed to show up! :( if you can find the problem, it would be much appreciated.

I found Dark's port of the 2 shivan ships from FS1 but i can't seem to add them in without sacrificing other ships.  :| Until i can find 2 ships (or just one) that expendable i won't be including them. There are still no shivan secondaries, as no one has made any.

The main hall, unfortunatly, still has the horrifically bad exit animation. I will look into removing/replacing that in future versions.

To-Do-List

• Add shivan secondaries (finished)
• re-do main hall (Finished)
• Fix those damn credits (Cancelled)
• re-do selected ship icons
• create shivan persona and extend number of (made-up) shivan speech samples
• shivify the warpmap.ani file (Finished)

Any more suggestions, feel free to post.

[Dark Hunter]

Why not have the exit animation be Capella exploding?

As for the ships: why do you want to bring back the Shaitan? That bomber had no value whatsoever.
I'd vote for inserting the Vindhyachal. You could replace Orion2 (the Bastion nameplate) with it, unless of course the Bastion is in the campaign.


Looking forward to a campaign from a Shivan perspective. I think only Into the Depths of Hell has thus far had pilotable Shivan ships with actual Shivan weapons.  (Chapter 3, if you're wondering)

[Taristin]

You've seriously reached the ship limit? Isnt it 130? Or is it dynamic yet?

What is your intention with this? Is it supposed to be a sort of extra campaign based on the original FS2 canon? Or are you throwing in ships that you think are cool?

[blackhole]

No, i haven't reached the ship limit! I haven't added a single ship in there - problem is, when i do, FS2 crashes.

Remember, this is for retail FS2, not FS2_open.

Using the capella animation... mmm, will look into that...

Some people were vouching that they wanted that ship. I don't care, i'll (attempt to) insert any ship that someone gives me all the files for.

These datafiles are the basis for a shivan campaign i am building. I decided to seperate the actual data from the campaign itself so anyone who is making a shivan campaign can use them.

The campaign itself follows a lone shivan in a very mysterious nebula, and ends up doing a lot of rather unorthadox things. It will answer some questions, and raise others. Its doubtful much of the original campaign will be included. While the storyline of the campaign does take place during the FS2 campaign and at one point is influenced by a certain event during the FS2 campaign, it is largely a standalone.

Besides, i'm not as good as the folks over at Hidden Terror are at writing storylines 

Also... Scratch "shivify the warpmap" off the to-do-list!

[Scooby_Doo]

Actually hitting the limit isn't hard to do..  it seems I can't use my models with all of the fs2 models  (40+ some i think)

[blackhole]

IS there a usable animation of capella going kablooie, or must i go make my own?

EDIT: More progress! I've made the Unknown Bomb and the Unknown MegaBomb (shivan bombs) player-choosable. I used the belias and the helios icons/anis, respectively.

[Kieve]

*downloaded*

...*browses VP file*

...:-D Shiny...
I feel a little spoiled by FS2_Open now, but these are nice. I 'specially like the red warp effect - gorgeous!
An idea though - that FS1 vid of the troopers boarding the shivan vessel - couldn't one of those shots have been used for the Shivan "main hall"? The usage of  shivan ships is really cool, but I can't help thinking a main hall should be... well... a hall. Or interior of some kind. :-\

Or perhaps just a "window" overlay that makes it appear as though you're looking out onto the fleet from the inside of something?

[blackhole]

Actually i did indeed look into using that as a mainhall... But there is a serious problem. Resolution, being the prime concern. I doubt there are many of us around here using 640x480, and my new main hall only works for 1024x768 anyway. I'm glad you like my red warpmap ^_^ i will be using it for the replacement exit animation in the main hall.

Window idea is interesting. If i had modelling skills worth ****, i'd try it, but i don't :\

[Cobra]

Uh, why aren't there any missions here?

[blackhole]

Because its not the campaign. Its a set of shivan datafiles that my campaign just so happens to be using. They are ment as generic shivan datafiles for use in any shivan campaign.

EDIT: Added a few to-do-list items.

[Kieve]

Window idea is interesting. If i had modelling skills worth ****, i'd try it, but i don't :\

You wouldn't need modelling skills to do that... just pop open Photoshop and layer some kind of window view over the current hall image - nothing terribly fancy or tough, although it might take a little trickiness to "shivify" it. Put some nebulae, stars, etc out there for good measure...? Just thoughts. Lemme try something and get back to you...

[blackhole]

Ok, how about this, i'm not exactly that good at photoshopping either. Hell, i'm not an artist, all i can do is manipulate images, not create them. Besides, putting all those nebulas and stuf in there would require a full rework and i'd rather redesign the entire thing. Preferrably using some kinda in-game render.

[Kieve]

Just a quick, crappy example (and since it's blocking other ships and therefor, "rooms" it obviously wouldn't work as is), but that's kinda what I meant.

[edit:] I see... well, come to that an in-game render rework wouldn't be so horrible would it? Use the red nebulae (and mebbe planets), perhaps cue some fighter wings to jump in and out so you catch that beautiful red warpglow... ^.^

I don't mean to offend, it's cool as it is now. I'm just tossing out some ideas for... "atmosphere."

[blackhole]

I don't suppose you could slice out the middle of that image and let me use the border?

[Kieve]

*chuckles* Sorry, I didn't bother to save a PSD of it or I'd gladly send it to you. However, I'm kinda a sucker for shivan anything...
If you can get me a decent 1024x768 screen/render of that fleet (nebula, ships warping, etc), I'd be willing to rework the main hall for you - mask file, ANIs, exit anim, and .tbl all.

You mentioned it was built around FS2 retail, so I suppose everything would need to be in .PCX format?

[blackhole]

Ok, i'll send over a picture soon. Keep in mind that the main hall i was hoping for would be a window with buttons for campaign, tech room, exit, etc. at the bottom. You can do what you want with it though.

Course, i'm snowed in over at a friends house right now so i have no idea when i'll be able to fire it over... might be tomarrow (SNOWBALL FIGHT )

[blackhole]

WAAAAAGGGGHHHH *smashing sounds*

 

could someone explain to me why, after quickly installing just the fs2_open 3.6.7 exe (and its launcher, no media vps or anything) THIS happened? Its happening in both fs2_open and retail. WHY THE BOXES?!

And while we're at it, why do all the interface images in my fs2_open have a nice blue border on the bottom and right side?

[Dark Hunter]

3.6.7?


No, you should be using this build.

Trust me, everything is much better.

[blackhole]

What i'm more concerned about is that the problem exists in my FS2_retail as well, which is very very worrisome because it didn't exist before!

And... no beans, its still boxes. Well, to be more precise, the nebulas are not having any transparency being applied. wtf? 

although, as a side note, theres no more blue borders 

[Turey]

most recent SCP build is 3.6.9 RC 7.9x.

There shouldn't be any problem with your retail install. You installed which files? Where? Have you tried making a new pilot?