EDIT 5-16-08:
Man, it's getting harder and harder to find this thread.
Well, just to say I'm not dead. For anyone who even remotely cares, I'm just now entering the phase of the project that is most likely going to kill it. Yep, I've finished the first draft of the story, which includes all command briefings and mission descriptions. IMHO it's shaping up really nicely.
All thats left to do is go through it and make edits, remove plotholes and stupid things. The total mission count looks like it will be about 24, and if I feel like it once I finish those missions, I can add some filler missions to beef it up.
I've also finished drawing concept art for all of the ships, as well. It should be around 35 or so, and some ships will have some different variants, so that will bring the total up to about 40. With my trusty sketchup, I believe this is fairly do-able. The hard part is going to be figuring out how to texture these. I think I've gotten heirarchy figured out, but if anyone knows of any
really simple walkthroughs on the crudest forms of texturing, that'd be appreciated.
And, well... Assuming I can figure out how to do all of this stuff, I'm hoping to finish modeling/texturing by late next summer. Depending on when I finish that, the balancing should be done mid-summer to fall, and depending on when
that's done, I should be done FREDing the following summer (2010). I'm not going to say excpect a release late 2010, but that's my best estamite, assuming all goes well.
EDIT 2-03-08: I've gotten the models to sorta work. I can even get the textures to show up in PCS and stuff, it's just that in FRED the model doesn't show up at all. I can't remember if I tried -jpgtga or anything like that at all, but I will. Anyway the issue with the killed meshes and stuff is fine, it's just that some of the faces don't show up, even when I know their correct. I'll look into that more later, and hopefully my texturer knows how to make the texture issues work.
I'm probably gonna be finishing up with the story next week, assuming TAP doesn't flood me with stuff to do. Once I'm done with that, I might want one or two people to look it over and try and find plotholes and stuff. So I'm opening another position for "storyline proofreader".
----POSITIONS CURRENTLY OPEN----
Story "proofreaders"
-You're not going to be proofreading as much as looking over things
and making sure they make sense and are logical.
-# of positions: 1 to 2.
-Moderately required. Previous story writing preferred, but by all means not necessary.
Sketchup converters
-Can convert sketchup models into cobs with as little borking as possible
upon my request.
-# of positions: 0 to 1.
-Not very required. Only apply if your bored and have nothing better to do.
EDIT 1-25-08: Blurgh.... It's been a while since an update. Well, I've gotten a fair amount more of story written out. I've even dabbled in some texture creation, although it's really crappy (Hopefully my texturer hasn't jumped ship
). I even have a few sound effects now, too; unfortunately they all sound like popcorn popping.
I'm going to be opening a new position and closing another. I will no longer be looking for a modeler (not that anyone volunteers, anyway), but anyone who can take sketchup models and export to pof or cob without killing the model is now needed. I don't mean POFing it, just get it ready to POF and stuff. For some reason, I can't get sketchup or truespace to like me when exporting. Goes crazy with meshes and stuff.
--------------------------------------------
*orig post
I am currently working on a half-total conversionish for Freespace. If you know what the Blank Mod is (kudos to you if you have! It had like five downloads!), that style of gameplay will be incorporated into it, except in a universe that I am making up. I don't know what it will be called yet though.
Basically, the gameplay will feature capital ships and stronger anti fighter defenses more. Fighters will be a little bigger than in normal Freespace, but much quicker and more maneuverable. Instead of being able to take down this game's equivalent of destroyers with a handful of bombers, you are going to need at least two wings of bomber-gunships (gunships will be discussed later) support, a few fire-support frigates, and multiple escort fighter wings. Almost all weapons now are ballistic, except for some small beam weapons.
I've gotten as much done as I can without the ships. I currently have some concept art (if you can call it that) for about eight ships right now. None too detailed. I have the weapons.tbl and armor.tbl written up currently. I don't think I'll be changing too much else unless I change my mind. Ship classifications are pretty much as it is in RL:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Maneuver craft (I call them this because they rely on maneuvering to survive, plus the term strike craft is over-used and could be potentially confusing):
Fighter type:
Fighters
Bombers
Corvette types (essentially mega fighters):
Fighters
Bombers
Frigates (some):
Escort
Strike
Patrol (these will be generally AAA, but patrol will be slower, but have longer sensor range)
Capital Ships:
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battleship
Fire support ships:
Frigates (the rest):
Missile/bombard
Beam support
Destroyers
Missile/bombard
Beam support.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now the story:
(If you've read that story of mine in the art section, that helps)
Humanity in this universe has developed a bit slower than in Freespace. The year will be unknown, but some time after the year 3200. The peoples of Earth have been unified under the United Earth Federation for several hundred years. The race spans several systems. Through the use of terraforming, most Earth's (the system of Earth, I'm calling, not sol) Jovian planets and moons have been colonized, as well as several stations have been built. Several other systems have been colonized to a great extent, but none to the extent of Earth. It is predicted that in sixty years, at least one other system will have a population larger than Earth. The gap between the intelligent and the average person has grown greatly, in effect causing the average people to be taken advantage of in the commercial market. The term "lowest common denominator" now encompasses nearly everyone. Almost all forms of decency or modesty has been destroyed. Children are exposed to things that today's adults are not normally. Violence is tremendous. Almost all art is gone, along with most music as we know it. The remnants of the middle class are dissatisfied with their lifestyles, and have begun to revolt...
You play the role of a squadron commander of the 329th strike squadron aboard the UEF Mammoth, a strike carrier. The 329th is a veteran unit dating back to the turmoil just after the assimilation of the last colonies after the Union wars. Currently, the UEF Mammoth is stationed at Phobos, Mars, along with it's escort destroyers, the Tham and Roswell. It's current task is quite easy, to protect the inner travel lanes from pirate attacks. Pirates don't normally come this far into the Earth system, but they have been previously known to quite easily. With the disturbing news from the fringe colonies about a revolution, they don't expect to be stationed there much longer.
Okay now since this is a relatively new mod, I am going to need some help
I will be hiring:
Modelers/texture-ers (PLEASE don't make me go to moddb)
- I need people who can get a model ready to table.
- Skill level: competent. I am not too concerned about looks for this mod.email me if you're interested.
Release date: later
other stuff: yes
some more stuff: I'll think about it.
Man. I keep on thinking I'm forgetting something.
