[rubixcube]

Are the old ships like a Deimos or Hecate going to be upgraded in WIH

[blowfish]

I don't believe so, though I'm not on the team so I don't know for sure.  Based on the "Darkest Hour" preview video, it looks like the armament is basically the same, at least for the Deimos.

[rubixcube]

really, thats odd

[General Battuta]

Well, the only real upgrades you could make to those ships would be the addition of the new post-Capella Sathanas-killer beams. And I don't think the powergrids on those older-model ships would support that.

Think of the Deimos and Hecate in WiH as akin to what the Leviathan and Orion were like in FS2: old, but in many ways still useful. There might be as many Deimoses around now as there were Fenrises then. So in that sense, it's an upgrade. The Hecate, meanwhile, has a ton of fighter space, which means it's still a great carrier and command ship.

[colecampbell666]

And there are many Hecates left as opposed to super-expensive Titans.

[Dilmah G]

It's speculative at the moment.

[Dragon]

Is anybody upgrading Steve'o's ships textures?
They are missing shine and normal maps ,without them UEF is going to be inferior to GTVA not only in millitary strenght. 

[General Battuta]

I can verify that the Karuna, at least, is both shiny and normal (this from a quick glance at the shiplab.)

[Dragon]

Update the pics at your website then ,they are out of date if your current textures look comparable to ones in Mediavps.
Your ships have shinemaps indeed ,but I don't see a thing that suggests normal maps (on UV mapped areas ,tile textures have normals of course).
I hope Darius received my proposition about making normal maps for WiH.

[General Battuta]

Uh, you should probably PM Darius. He's the man with the plan. I just test and FRED and do voice acting stuff.

Keep in mind that Darius has exams and stuff in the next few weeks. But I'm guessing that if you can do normals, then that would be really awesome.

[Dragon]

That's exactly what I done - I PMd him and now I'm waiting for answer.
I'm already doing some experiments with normal maping Steve'o's fighters (and Hyperion too ,it's a bit harder than making fighters) ,so I can wait.

This is the first version of updated Lancer ,with shine and normal maps.
I hope you like it ,I nearly compleated normal maps for other fighters (it ,as well as other fighters ,have glowpoints ,I will be also adding some more to Hyperion).
And you can tell Darius that I wish him good luck with his exams.  

[General Battuta]

Wow, that's pretty nice! I really like it. I can't speak for Darius, though. (I hope it won't murder performance on large missions...Steve-O's ships are already pretty burdensome...) I'm not an artist, but to my fannish eye, those normal maps look awesome.

I assume you mean the Hyperion/Karuna, not the Hyperion cruiser from the StratComm pack (which is used by the GTVA in WiH)? If so, that's excellent.

[Dragon]

Yes ,I mean Karuna (Stratcomm's Hyperion is entirely tile textured).

And just because of curiosity ,how many turrets UEF transport is going to have? (original model had 68 of them ,which IMHO is little to much for ship of this size ,at least in FS universe)

[Darius]

Thanks Dragon. I didn't notice you had PMed me because the settings had been reset and so my messages were appearing at the bottom instead of the top like I normally have it. 

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Thanks Dragon. I didn't notice you had PMed me because the settings had been reset and so my messages were appearing at the bottom instead of the top like I normally have it. 

You didn't read the news, did you?

[Darius]

Of course I read the news.

I didn't know the default setting for PMs is to put the newest message at the bottom, and it's been a few years since I first personalised my settings.

[William Wolfen]

Just want to say that I'm ecstatic after reading through some of this.  I played AoA for the first time about a week ago, and was sad to see the end of the campaign, and wished there was more.  Now that I know its in the works, I'm going to have a hard time waiting for it!

[Goober5000]

Of course I read the news.

I didn't know the default setting for PMs is to put the newest message at the bottom, and it's been a few years since I first personalised my settings.

Good point.  I added some further detail in the news.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

[General Battuta]

Just want to say that I'm ecstatic after reading through some of this.  I played AoA for the first time about a week ago, and was sad to see the end of the campaign, and wished there was more.  Now that I know its in the works, I'm going to have a hard time waiting for it!

Thanks, Wolfen! Would you mind posting some of your thoughts here in the BP forum?

I'm not actually the guy who made BP (Darius gets all the credit), so I am free to collect motivation for him to keep working on WiH.

[William Wolfen]

To be perfectly honest, I could really go for just a continuation form where AoA left off...  The story was quite good, and I think even at the end of AoA, it still had a lot of potential.  However, I would equally as much enjoy a more Big Picture campaign of the war between the UEF and the GTVA, as long as the story of the war is as well told as the story of AoA.

Also, I can offer my services as a tester if that would help out any...