Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => First Contact War => Topic started by: Strygon on October 02, 2020, 07:19:25 pm
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Foreword
This one is probably not much of a secret anymore after my loose mouth and hands showing off a whole bunch of assets in the HLP Discord, so I decided to might as well make it official.
This project has been in development for almost 4 years, undergoing 3 massive redrafts in the process. Said final draft and official development began with the development of Operation: Cloak and Dagger.
(Fun Fact: remember how the mission files are named DM01, DM02, and so on? That actually stood for "Demo Mission".)
At the time I was still a major newbie to almost everything, so my originally daunting Total Conversion Campaign got downsized to a TC Minicampaign.
Well, for those of you who really liked OCaD, I bear good news. The full mod is now officially in development.
(https://i.imgur.com/mKSsVlv.jpg)
What is this mod about?
Taking place in the same universe, roughly 10 years after the events of OCaD, the First Contact War no longer puts you in the shoes of a silent protagonist mercenary pilot, but rather, you play as a lively United Solarian Defense Federation Naval Pilot Ensign, Ayako Matoke. Transferred into the 58th Stormclouds, your missions will initially involve fighting off your long time foe, the Glisean Confederate Steel Pact.
But another threat lurks in the dark...
What kind of mod is this?
So, remember when I said OCaD didn't have anime head.ANIs due to time constraints?
Yeah, they're in now.
(https://i.imgur.com/8U9XobP.jpg)
If you don't like anime, you miiiiight want to steer clear. The tone will be fairly light hearted (not quite as much as WoD/DE but it's not gritty and serious like FS) and you will find a lot of hand drawn art adorning various bits all over the game. Be sure to check the folders every once in a while for any *cough* goodies :p
Overall takes very heavy inspiration from anime, often the older sci fi shows like Space Battleship Yamato.
In general, expect a balanced focus on story and gameplay but somewhat shifted to gameplay. If you've played OCaD, the flight model will be very similar but with added lateral thrust.
Cloak and Dagger was a 6 mission minimod. How big is this one going to be?
I'm looking at an exact 20 missions, leaving out filler or cutscene missions. The whole mod will be divided into three arcs.
As for the assets, there will be at least 50 completely new, original and fresh ships. The ones in Cloak and Dagger will also be given a fresh new PBR Coat of paint. Weapons will also get their unique models, with several already being in.
Yeah that's nice and all but so far we only have your word. What do you have that you can SHOW us?
Glad you asked! Here are some screenshots of what's been competed so far.
(https://i.imgur.com/02WQKlJ.png)
USDF Aquila - Your fresh new Space Superiority Fighter
(https://i.imgur.com/80b07Ka.png)
USDCv Spearhead - The old mini carrier from 2 years ago now has a fresh HTL
(https://i.imgur.com/PaSo3x0.png)
A USDF Fleet on patrol
(https://i.imgur.com/VbkOzfA.jpg)
(Bad Image, will swap with better one later) USDCv Vega - A monstrous and powerful Battlecarrier. Armed with a dual beam cannon battery and burst missile launchers.
Right, but who's working on all this?
NeonShivan has graciously volunteered for being a tester, but in terms of development I am doing this solo, just like usual.
Lafiel and Nyctaeus are also on the testing team, as is spart_n
Development is proceeding very smoothly but I cannot predict how long it will take to finish the mod. It will certainly be a while though. But don't think I'll just drop this and then say nothing for a year until its released. I intend to actively keep you all updated on the development by way of posting pretty images most of the time.
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This looks great. Love the ships style.
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I want this so badly~
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Why are the Spearhead's launch bays...curvy? They're decidedly not flat...and that makes no sense. Even for anime, that makes no sense. :wtf:
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Even for anime, that makes no sense. :wtf:
No, dude. For anime, it makes perfect sense :P
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Why are the Spearhead's launch bays...curvy? They're decidedly not flat...and that makes no sense. Even for anime, that makes no sense. :wtf:
What? The ski-jumps? Totally normal, bro. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNSO3NqVU2E)
Also, looks fkn sick, Strygon. Can't wait.
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Here's a bit of footage of the new missiles in action. Wanted to give some variety outside of the bland simple HS-14 that you had throughout OCaD.
They come with their own models as well.
https://i.imgur.com/WeRkilw.png - 4-Pack Dogfight Strike Missile (4DSM) and DSM2
https://imgur.com/kBTOMUb - JAVELIN-03 Anti Subsystem Missile (JAV-03)
https://imgur.com/KhyyIQK - Multiple Independent Terminator Missile (MITM-05 Cerberus)
And here's some artwork of the protagonist of the mod.
(https://i.imgur.com/9iMcboM.png)
(that art is a bit old, will eventually draw replacement)
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Any indication on more lore? Regarding the two power blocks maybe?
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nothing says anime more than a schoolgirl uniform and ensign at 23 *wheeze*
cant wait to see it, stryg
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Any indication on more lore? Regarding the two power blocks maybe?
Of course! First, let me lay out the general "geography" of the factions.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/761959839945064478/nodemap.png)
Something to immediately point out, the USDF isn't a singular nation, in fact it's easily comparable to NATO in real life, being a military alliance between several nations. Here, the USDF Member Nations are the "Solar Coreworld Republic", "Kepler Union", "Helios Miner's Community" and "Regulus States". Each nation will have a bit of their own lore in the intel database for your reading pleasure.
The Glisean Confederate Steel Pact on the other hand, was formerly a bloc of nations that grouped up and collectively declared themselves as one independent state back in 2290. Following since was an ever increasing tension between them (thanks to the GCSP's Navy disrespecting borders and the occasional trade convoy "going missing") and the USDF, until finally a war broke out, about a year before this mod takes place. Most of the major design corporations are stationed in USDF Territory so the lower ranks of the GCSP Navy uses repurposed/older ships as their combat vessels, but over time they started developing their own combat vessels as well.
The little blue state you see in the middle is the Kingdom of Deneb. The second alien race ever encountered by humanity resides there, the Denebim. Considerably weaker and less advanced in space combat than humans, but very artistic and graceful in their own right. The Denebim count as a "protected nation" under USDF Rule.
Another alien race, one not displayed here but equally important, are the nomadic Cassydri. Expert shipwrights, peaceful traders, they are the ones who brought shield technology to humanity. Their relevance will also increase over the course of this mod.
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Many thanks to Goober for making a seperate board for First Contact War! Now i got me shiny badge n everything.
Now, development will take a good while but I intend to answer as many questions as I can, occasionally maybe asking for suggestions as well. Art will be posted in a seperate thread.
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Whoah, congrats to the new board! :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:
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We will watch your career with great interest.
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I'm wondering what the deal is with that purple subspace corridor line between Sol and Sirius.
nothing says anime more than a schoolgirl uniform and ensign at 23 *wheeze*
cant wait to see it, stryg
That, too. I'm not the biggest fan of anime, but I am somewhat fond of it. I can't wait to see the final product.
Also, I just noticed something: Looking at the font of the words "First Contact War" on your big poster, it looks like the words "Contact War" are italicized but the word "First" isn't. You can tell if you look closely. Was that intentional?
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Again, congratulations! Glad to see your board active and running. :yes:
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I'm wondering what the deal is with that purple subspace corridor line between Sol and Sirius.
nothing says anime more than a schoolgirl uniform and ensign at 23 *wheeze*
cant wait to see it, stryg
That, too. I'm not the biggest fan of anime, but I am somewhat fond of it. I can't wait to see the final product.
Also, I just noticed something: Looking at the font of the words "First Contact War" on your big poster, it looks like the words "Contact War" are italicized but the word "First" isn't. You can tell if you look closely. Was that intentional?
That node indicates lack of proper stability. Essentially, it's very unreliable and may or may not lead to either death, being trapped in subspace or being catapulted millions of gigaparsecs away from your intended destination. As for the font in the poster, that's just how the font ended up making it look. I used a site that generates it so it'd either be all italicized or none. Probably just a design choice.
In other news, I'll have a bit more viewing material ready tomorrow, a small video that shows off all that is ready so far, including some more art.
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The lore sounds quite good. Curiously some of your fighter designs are evocative of fasa’s Aerotech. Might be just me though...
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As a form of tradition for pretty much the other anime mods before this one, I've decided to concoct a small promotional trailer here to give a clearer image of what's about to come.
Shows off some of the art and gameplay you can expect.
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That looks pretty nice~ :)
2 things though- you should get the Headanims centered on the HUD so that your waifus don't live in the corner of the screen, and you might want to get some better shield effects too.
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This will make a fine addition to my collection.
On a non-meme note, hell yes! Good luck bringing this to fruition.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/762426941381804072/screen0110.png)
Here's an experiment at making a cockpit for the ships. Still needs finetuning and such.
One of the weapons you get in the mod, the TLW-9 Arrow, now also has its own model.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/762410810076561418/unknown.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/550048768855375873/762415518174281768/screen0109.png)
I know, stuff's not as interesting as, say, a capital ship model or a new gameplay element, but sometimes you gotta appreciate the small things too. Luckily these didn't consume too much development time either so it's not like I'm wasting tons of time making these.
This is pretty much it for this week's progress, but I'll make sure to update you plenty on the coming days of what's been made.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/763798332468363285/screen0122.png)
The Denebim's Heavy Missile Fighter, the DKF Shooting Star. Plenty of gun, plenty of missile space, but horrid maneuverability and speed.
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Oops! A minor deviation has occurred! Well, not really, it's more reverting a change back to it's original standard.
The Denebim were... hard, to decide what they actually are. My main guess for a long while was them being essentially space elves (like THAT hasn't totally been done before :P ) mostly due to it being a safe idea.
After some off-forum discussion with many peoples, the original idea before the space elves was brought up and generally majorly favoured over the space elves.
That original idea being...
SPACE RABBITS
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/765002562205908992/Illustration5.png)
So yeah. These are your allies now, the humanoid lagromorphs
Only tangentially related but I do wish to apologise for the slow progress this week as opposed to last week. I'll try to keep the pace a bit faster if possible in the future .
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If anybody ever tell you that, some anatomic features of your female characters are... Uhm... Pretty developed. And I'm not talking about ears...
Please, stay loyal to your beliefs, and keep them developed :].
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New ideas = better (or original standard in this case)
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I'd say those developments are well within the normal range.
Also space bunny girls beats space elves every day of the week. I'm not a furry... Its just a classic.
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anything beats space elves, they're too freaking overdone. where's my space orc and space dwarf and space goblin representation
also cute bunny
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anything beats space elves, they're too freaking overdone. where's my space orc and space dwarf and space goblin representation
but no space ugly bastard please
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Here comes your weekly progress report on FCW!
Unfortunately due to some IRL obstacles, progress has been rather slow. No new shinies can be shown off this week...
BUT! I still got a few models in.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/766992466011357234/unknown.png)
The one in the middle is a new mesh for the Gremlin, since the Gremlin was requested as one of the returning ships. PBR Texturing is soon to follow!
Tomorrow I might also post some art, if the day looks good.
Would anyone be strongly opposed to a 3-4 mission demo mostly showing off the flight mechanics and some ships?
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Keep up the good work! :yes:
In case you're looking for inspiration, I'd recommend taking a look at the futuristic designs from Ace Combat 3. Models based on those designs may eventually fit in First Contact War.
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Looks nice, in particular that ship on the left~
I generally prefer "main work" over "demo" (alone because I rarely play the latter) but if it relates to the main work it can be good.
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That combat trabapoet/dropship/heavy looks very interesting 👍👍
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The gunship is done! I dub it, the Arbalest Assault Gunship
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/768189469756882944/screen0164.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/768189473913045042/screen0165.png)
This thing is slow as hell, but packs 4 huge missile banks and can move freely in any of the 4 directions, still trying to find a way to implement upwards and downwards thrust too.
Will later also mount a special rocket-pod type weapon, firing a salvo of 16 dumbfire high explosive rockets. Mix that with its twin machine guns and you have yourself an excellent ship for the missions that require you to operate against ground enemies on planets a lot.
The ship is also incredibly tough, even beyond bomber level HP. The crucial downside of course, as mentioned before, is its abysmal speed of only 80m/s.
Really puts in the meaning of "Slow but deadly".
However, the GCSP also has their variant of the Arbalest. It even comes with its own coat of paint!
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/768167235864100954/unknown.png)
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In other news, I've also been experimenting a bit with Subspace, mostly trying to wrangle together a custom texture to use as a springboard for something better. Right now it just looks... green.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/768189571572695070/screen0161.png)
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You could probably just make a complete new map from scratch for subspace travel, or adapt a different (not subspace-related one) to your need.
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There's a list of jump types on the wiki. Homeworld might still be there from Tap (see my badge) but I'm a big fan of the one from solaris.
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I was definitely playing with the idea of using a nonstandard jump type. Never played Solaris before, what's the jump type there?
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Solaris uses Hyperspace for entry and leave.
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Ah, I see. Hmm. I guess the way I imagined subspace (whatever it's named, the working names at the moment are "Linkspace" "Slipspace" or "Hyperlink") was that it'd look similar to the retail one but a lot less "natural" and more geometric, like composed of hexes and what not.
I'm sure with sufficent experimentation I could figure something out.
On a similar note, I hope I haven't been forgetting to add or explain some part of the lore. I tend to often assume things as common knowledge when they really aren't.
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Ah, I see. Hmm. I guess the way I imagined subspace (whatever it's named, the working names at the moment are "Linkspace" "Slipspace" or "Hyperlink") was that it'd look similar to the retail one but a lot less "natural" and more geometric, like composed of hexes and what not.
I'm sure with sufficent experimentation I could figure something out.
On a similar note, I hope I haven't been forgetting to add or explain some part of the lore. I tend to often assume things as common knowledge when they really aren't.
I have no idea what this campaign is about, but if you need to invent a new name for subspace, I have some ideas.
- Unspace
- Nonspace
- Deepspace
- Phasespace
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Have you considered squarifying the subspace.pof, or extracting the a imation grams and adding angles?
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That was actually pretty much my main plan for if I do go ahead and make changes to subspace beyond just a couple retextures. Though that's not a crucial priority right now, but I'll get around to doing it probably before the end of this year.
In the meantime, I've been trying to work together some custom weapon bitmaps. The results aren't very fitting for what I need right now, since the end result turned out to be rather... Shivan. Of which there are none in this universe.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/768534648292245524/screen0169.png)
Still looks pretty tho.
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Are you using standard nebula bitmaps? I'd strongly recommend high quality skyboxes, like those Nyctaeus created for Series Resurrecta. They're very easy to implement, too. :)
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He's using a starfield skybox actually.
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Pardon, these looked like regular bitmaps to me. :)
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Well starfield is a highly generic skybox (just a better version of the auto-generated stars); with the MVP Nebula bitmaps over them. I don't know whether Strygon intends this as final look for background fx, but it is certainly a way to create a unique look.
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I'm very fond of some of the nebula bitmap setups I got running for backgrounds where I want things to be less "noisy" (ie. There should be more dark space and stars than nebula) but I do want to use sky boxes for some other places. My main "issue" with some of the skyboxes I got my hands on are that theres a bit too much nebula, if that makes sense.
I did manage to get my hands on Space Engine for the purpose of making sky boxes though.
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The advantage about these skyboxes also lies in the fact that it's possible to use placeholders for development purposes, FRED your missions and edit the skybox maps later on, without going back and editing all mission backgrounds (which however has to be done if regular bitmaps are used). There's indeed a lot of flexibility in the process.
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Not much bounty to show this week unfortunately, since most of this week's (rather meagre) amount of work was put into effects, lore writing and sounds, none of which can be easily shown off via screenshots (well, except for the effects.)
I'll try to work extra hard this week to get more stuff to show.
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One continually growing concern I'm starting to face however, is how well or how badly the lore will be received. I'm not exactly a genius world builder and I'm kind of worried that bad lore may cause the campaign to fail.
Err... extreme worries aside, I'm hoping a short 3-4 mission demo should be a good enough introduction to the overall world as a whole. Nothing super special will be there aside from the newest ships and weapons. I'll only have to finish a few ships in the pipeline before being able to fully work on this small demo.
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You're our only hope for more animu now
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I shall readily step up to the task, then.
The animu must continue!
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:yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:
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you cant get worse than order 66 being a "crash your civilian vehicle into the closest shivan" or having your jump drives controlled by a single person, dw about lore. hell, im sure people (cough wink wink) would volunteer to help out on the writing side, if just to refine ideas
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So long as the missions are fun the you'd have to make quite terrible lore to keep people from playing it, and if you care at all about quality you're already well on your way to clearing that bar.
Recruiting a few people to review what you've got before it goes public would indeed be a good way to safeguard further, though.
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I'd offer to help but I don't think I could write for something like this.
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In any case, the asset grind continues.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/770696789430501376/unknown.png)
Meet the USDF Asteria, a heavy fighter packing impressive primary and secondary firepower, and safeguards pilots against direct harm through a shielded cockpit that uses cameras instead of reinforced glass.
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Ergh, I apologize for the doublepost but here's also a snippet of gameplay footage, after getting some new sounds in and swapping older sounds out, such as afterburner sounds and HUD sounds.
This is the mod in its current, most recent state, essentially.
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If you're wondering whether the USDF Asteria is based on Neucom's R-101 Delphinus from Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, it is. ;7
EDIT: Just watched your video. I recognize the first track - The Protocol (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDwvam8-pM) from AC3, but what about the others? They fit with The Protocol but I'm not familiar with them.
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The battle track is known as "Nebulous Shadow" from Ginga Force, an anime shoot-em up that released on Steam not too long ago.
https://youtu.be/lYdBcOU2noE
(A huge amount of soundtracks may or may not have been taken from this, along many other anime schmups for the mod. :p )
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Gameplay vid looks cool, certainly like the direction this is going~
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Nebulous Shadow as combat music already makes this A1 supar!
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What's new this week?
Hmm, nothing much actually. Well, that's a lie, I did make a new Mainhall image for now.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/772571000201412659/screen0206.png)
But most of the additions were on things I cannot reveal yet, or else it'd be a spoiler. It is definitely pretty cool stuff though.
The rest is boring technical stuff, like updated AI tables to make use of sidethrust more often, a few new weapons and effects.
The coming week I will focus primarily on lore and stuff. Expect art of aliens, guns, girls, planets, etc.
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So much for getting any work done on any of the stuff I promised to work on. Blame that on my laptop I took with me having the processing power of a trash can. Couldn't even open a word document without getting overloaded.
Now that I am back on my workstation, I can resume work at full capacity as usual. I apologize sincerely for the slowness.
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Now that I am back on my workstation, I can resume work at full capacity as usual. I apologize sincerely for the slowness.
You still make more progress on your mod than most entire team right now. :lol:
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In the process of work, I've also created a logo for the USDF. Finally something to replace that old ADF logo in your pilot screen.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/774730954580951040/unknown.png)
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Keep up the good work, you're working at a truly steady pace. :nod:
On Discord, I asked whether the logo was a texture or a permanent inscription on the hull - it turns out it's the former. This vastly increases its moddability and allows you to create unique nameplates or even entire new branches of the USDF employing this ship (like Special Forces, who knows). I'm impressed. :yes:
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I didn't even think of that. This does open up some very fascinating possibilities. Since this ship class is supposed to be essentially the pride of each fleet, it oughta make each individual one even more memorable.
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Like original Nike?
Niiiiiice.
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Now, that I have at least something to show off for this week, I shall present to you another capship.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/774817614923956294/screen0207.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/774817494682304522/screen0211.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/774818186276503562/screen0208.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/774818199265869874/screen0210.png)
The USDF Battleship Tokyo II. Second largest ship class the USDF ever put into service. It sports immense firepower with 10 main guns, 12 broadside cannons and 28 Secondary turrets, plus multiple missile batteries and the massive forward beam cannon.
The pride of every fleet, this kind of ship can dominate any battlefield it arrives at.
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How long did it take you to make that ship?
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Spent the entire day working on it, from model to table.
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Pretty cool :yes:
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Spent the entire day working on it, from model to table.
This is an extraordinary example of dedication to a project. Once again, I'm impressed. :yes:
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What modelling program do you use? I'm always keen to see what people work with, especially when it comes to UV mapping.
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I use Blender 2.8 to make my models nowadays. The new interface makes it a lot easier to use. UV Editing has also become easier (though I was never exactly someone who puts a lot of effort into their UVs ever since I started using Substance Painter to texture my ships)
Back then I used to use Wings3D which was a lot less powerful and often exported ships with smoothing problems (which is why you see OCaD's ships have all these weird shines)
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I'm on 2.90.1 at the moment but might retrograde to 2.8. I kind of skipped a generation of interface, aka not used blender proper since 2006...
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2.90 is pretty similar to 2.8 in terms of interface (since I both have a steam version and a non-steam version on different versions.... dont ask me why). Its pretty okay to stay on 2.90
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Those big guns now got sounds too!
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Looks and sounds allright but maybe record the entire firing cycle and not just a cut-off clip next time~ ;)
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/775876218297384971/unknown-150.png)
How about a little lore to spice the world up? Pictured above is Carthage-2, one of the biggest industrial strongholds in Solarian space, famed for the massive shipyards and abundant resources to be mined and refined there.
Located in Vega, it is of course also a key planet of major strategic importance in the Sol-Gliese War. As such, the lower orbital zone is formidably well defended by sensor posts within the ring along with massive sentry networks.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/775871498371727441/screen0250.png)
On it's fairly temperate surface, around 2.4 billion people reside in the cities all over the planet. While industry and manufacturing are the largest economic sector here, there has been a decent increase in tourism recently as well, from people in other systems coming to observe the rings or watch new ships get constructed in their harbours.
Colonization began way back in 2189, being one of the first successful colony projects, as a joint effort within the USDF (back then still being known as the Greater Earth Union).
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Awesome~
Where did you get the Skybox and the planet from? Did you make them yourself?
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Made it in Space Engine
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This week has primarily seen focus on the visual department. I'm sure you're all familiar with the usual subspace warp animation, or the shield impact image. This shall further the progress towards making this a complete standalone as well as giving the whole universe a more distinct tone that is familiar yet also different from FS2.
So I went ahead and changed both.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/776907235229302804/screen0274.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/776907172198088704/screen0285.png)
I've also been playing around with skyboxes and such.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/776907327898255360/screen0249.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/776907400652390410/screen0256.png)
EDIT: Forgot to mention, the interface is getting more work on now too.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/776957489631068180/screen0293.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/776957501324132362/screen0294.png)
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Nice! Given the direction of the model styles, the shield and warp effects fit right in.
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Ever wondered what the hangar of the carriers may look like? No? Doesn't matter, you'll see it anyway.
I rendered a nice background image of a carrier hangar, perhaps for the use of VN Backgrounds, or just eyecandy.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/777881625928269864/hangar_render.png)
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You're doing a great job! Are you planning to add animations and mobile parts to these hangars?
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It is a possibility. Blender's animation tools I'm already quite familiar with, so depending on how time goes, I might animate it at some point.
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I rendered a couple more interior images.
This one is from the crew quarters deck of your main carrier.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/777955320232149042/crew_render.png)
And this is your quarters.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/777957897144631316/room_render.png)
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Nice work. As always. :D
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Am I missing something? Are you going to show the interiors of ships during the game?
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Am I missing something? Are you going to show the interiors of ships during the game?
Yep, during VN Segments or just as mainhalls.
Now it's time for the Gliseans to receive some assets. Presenting the GCSF Corsair and the newly freshened up GCSF Gremlin
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/778620713002074142/screen0311.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/778660024960155699/screen0317.png)
And the Tokyo II has its main frontal beam cannon up.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/778665263549644860/screen0319.png)
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/778620713002074142/screen0311.png)
This one right here, that's my jam..
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Impressive and steady progress on everything you're doing. It doesn't even look like a solo effort. :yes:
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Thank you! I'm really happy as well with how fast the mod is progressing, especially assets wise. In fact, I've managed to accrue just about enough assets to begin working on the demo as well. Expect it to be released some time in two to three weeks, if things go well.
(The plot featured in the demo will be a wholly different one from the main campaign. Here you will be part of a small patrol group checking the border systems near Barnard's Star for any potential enemies. Chronologically it takes place right before the main campaign.)
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Impressive and steady progress on everything you're doing. It doesn't even look like a solo effort. :yes:
Pretty much~ :)
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I am very sorry but this weekend there wasn't much to show off. Exam time is nearing so I can't quite dedicate as much time to this project as I could before, for at least the next few weeks. I will still try to work on it as much as possible though, but life does take precedence.
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HOWEVER that doesn't mean I won't show off the odd cool thing here and there every once in a while.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/781247918736146442/unknown.png)
Here's a railgun, barrel length at a whopping 180 meters, initially supposed to be mounted on army mechs before the size rendered this idea inefficient (for now). The navy does however like to employ this one. Where? You'll see.
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Is this for some kind of ship-build-around-weapon design?
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Pretty much. Such a ship would most likely only have this railgun as its main weapon but that would then also be an incredibly powerful weapon in its own right.
Though another concept involves mounting this weapon onto an "Arsenal Ship", a one of a kind heavy cruiser posessing an exorbitant amount of heavy weaponry.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/782284503841374288/screen0338.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/782284522233790494/screen0339.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/782284628643545088/screen0337.png)
The Glisean Carrier has been remastered! It looks much fancier now than the original model. I've also gone ahead and renamed it as the "GCSV Tempest" instead of the old name of "Supremacy"
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That looks pretty nice~
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/782400277634088960/screen0342.png)
Have some eyecandy.
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I'm also happy to report that the 3-mission Demo now has its first mission completed. I'm a bit unsure about the novelty of these missions at the moment but it should primarily be a hands-on experience with the new ships for a bit.
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https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Portal:First_Contact_War
I finally got around to writing this wiki portal. Lore entries will slowly be added. Right now I wrote up a page on the Solarians.
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Nice work! I spent some five days doing a similar thing for SerRes. A Wiki portal is the perfect place where to group together all info that would require several playthroughs to be obtained. :yes:
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Added a page for the Denebim as well.
Also I'd like to sincerely thank (and apologize to) TopAce for pretty much fixing up all my weird writing quirks and typos I somehow always end up making after each page I create because I somehow can't proofread my writing properly. :nervous:
Sorry for heaping my mod writing on top of your usual workload of keeping the wiki nice and proper. I really oughta run my pages through some proofreading software first. :P
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So who are the enemies the player is fighting?
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Initially, you'll be fighting the Gliseans, but certain elements may be lurking in the background, waiting for their time to strike.
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So will this be appearing on the Knossos launcher or will we have to run this though WX launcher. I really want to check this out but will i have to complete Cloak and Dagger beforehand.
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There'll be a Knossos release, and no, OCaD is not mandatory to play it.
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You could technically manually download mod files from Nebula and adapt them to wxLauncher yourself; to be fair you would just need to prepare a simple mod.ini file.
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No showable progress this week. Have mostly been taking a break from modding outside of writing wiki articles. Sorry for the inactivity on that front.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/785615157694038026/screen0362.png)
So to kick this week off, here's a preview of the new HUD you'll be staring at while playing this mod.
The older one had some antialiasing brush problems and resolutions got a bit messy. I still faced a good chunk of trouble on this one (THANKS GIMP) but I'm glad the result looks cleaner now.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/786644002027733072/unknown.png)
Oh hey look! A new ship!
A high speed interceptor dubbed as the "Rynex". Packs a massive punch with its two railguns and is also built for incredibly high velocities.
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Can the angle of those guns be adjusted? Because right now it looks like it would be impossible to hit anything with both barrels unless it's at point-blank range.
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You probably haven't played the first mod yet, because then you'd know I affixed Autoaim to every gun (though now in a much smaller FoV), making this problem null.
That, and these two railguns have homing projectiles, so that doesn't matter either.
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You probably haven't played the first mod yet, because then you'd know I affixed Autoaim to every gun (though now in a much smaller FoV), making this problem null.
That, and these two railguns have homing projectiles, so that doesn't matter either.
Ah that is cool.
And I haven't played any Freespace for a while because my PC is on its last legs so I am waiting until I get a new one for Christmas.
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What's this!? 8 days without a single update? Preposterous!
Yeah, sorry. I intended to work hard on the demo this week to finalize its release that was slated for today but hoo, a good week's worth of IRL stress did not want me to do any of that.
I wish I had good things to show off but instead I mostly just carry bad news this time around.
The Head.ANI situation isn't looking good. Logistically it will work just fine but I feel having every character in a sort of head-on position as opposed to having a variety of angles for the pilots is bound to seriously tank the art direction of the mod. For the time being, there will be strictly static images for pilots. Easy to produce but, well, not animated.
Other than that, I've tried to compose music for the mod as well, but with not much luck so far. The tracks will be mostly existing music from various games and animes either way, but I was hoping to fill in some gaps with some of my own work. None of that work is good enough yet, so I'll just keep trying.
I'm sincerely sorry for this slow week.
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Now, in order to catch up on the lost time, I've worked extra hard this week on the demo, specifically the missions but also on the character art some more.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/791096332584353792/screen0425.png)
You'll be familiar with her soon enough. The demo's almost completed. It just needs some final touches and some test runs and then it'll be good to go.
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Now after the demo's been released, efforts are back to focusing on assets mostly.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/791707663087304714/unknown.png)
The two other Remora variants (Remora-B and Remora-M next to the Remora-F)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/791712163685335060/unknown.png)
Cargo Containers
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/791715044537663488/unknown.png)
A gas tank
And as for completed assets, I present you the Sagittarius-class Science Cruiser.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/792142515998162986/screen0432.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/792142543126003732/screen0435.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/792142556237660180/screen0436.png)
Like any self respecting science ship, it comes with rotating solar panels and huge satellite dishes.
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All development work has (temporarily) hit a dead stop until further notice. Will most likely not be able to resume development until late February at best.
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Seems my initial assumption was excessively pessimistic after all. Development is finally picking up again, though at a reduced pace for now.
I've been working on a few things in the meantime, such as a few minor sound changes, a new weapon and some tinkering with the VN Script.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800029485025329213/screen0453.png)
A proper main menu that doesn't just rip off Exile's.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/757531384213536788/800044715428282368/unknown.png)
Custom pre-load image.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800092797964386344/2021-01-16_21-01-05_Trim.mp4
New zappy sounds when on low hull.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800525011437879346/2021-01-18_01-40-09.mp4
New gun
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/799414227487424512/Star_Map_basic.png)
Redone map screen.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/719967575622287451/799690300435202118/screen0446.png)
And following in WoD's spirit, ship maps for letting you interact with people in various areas of the ship.
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And here's a new ship class. The Intervention-class Cruiser.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800779029665415188/screen0476.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800780687346106378/screen0479.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800779779179544587/screen0478.png)
With this I'm now about 1/3 through with making all the ships needed for the campaign. Grand total estimate lies at around 110 ships, with 35 ships already finished.
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35 is, impressive still 👍
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With a new frigate and dreadnought done, make that 37 now.
40 if you also count a bunch of cargo containers I finished tonight.
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That's an impressive rate of development, I'm impressed. :yes:
Any news on the lore front? I'd like to learn even more on FCW ahead of the next release. :)
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I've been holding off on posting lore stuff until I got actual releases out in case people wanted to strictly read that stuff in gameplay, but I'm more than happy to provide some. Is there anything specific you want to read about?
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Gah! I forgot I actually have a job to do, namely keeping this page updated with whatever work I've managed to crank out over the last couple of weeks...
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/804076794688176128/unknown.png)
Let's introduce this thing here, the Glisean Brute. A repurposed civlian shuttle strapped to the maximum with guns, ammunition and engine power to make this a lightning bruiser of a vessel, but the lack of Mil-Spec armoring makes this one rather susceptible to kinetic weaponry.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/803732742990594078/unknown.png)
A fancy new skybox!
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801787262840340510/screen0513.png)
Finalized Bluespace Warp effects and sound redesign.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/803356916415594496/2021-01-25_21-12-38.mp4
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801581084579069973/screen0510.png)
Added screen effects for when you've suffered a certain amount of hull damage, mostly the "canopy" cracking the more damage you take. Don't worry though, hull repair by Support ship or just carrier landings will get rid of these effects.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801189128565817364/unknown.png)
A whole bunch of cargo stuffs.
And now, a truly monstrous creation...
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801112791440162826/unknown.png)
The USDF Helios
The only Dreadnought-type vessel in the USDF Navy, the Helios is the largest vessel ever constructed, dwarfing even the massive battleships.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801154709464416256/screen0486.png)
It even features a fighterbay tucked away near the front.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/801164905285550110/screen0505.png)
And now back to something much smaller.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/800797118351933440/unknown.png)
The Castle-class Frigate has been in service for over 40 years and with continuous upgrades, it still performs its roles perfectly.
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Wait carrier landings are a thing mid-mission!?
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Yup! I've worked up a functional concept for carrier landings that include even things like changing your ship and weapons loadout mid-mission.
This system should be available to the player during long combat missions.
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Dilmah-G might be interested in that for his battle of Neptune mission.
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im going to assume that's not a giant bayonet on the Helios, so what is it
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Red rocket
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Probably a bunch of comms stuff and sensor equipment so it can act as a strategic coordinator for its fleet and such.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/805583292874489898/screen0517.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/805583294477500462/screen0518.png)
Took me long enough. Here's a station.
This class is used in both civilian and military situations, and is incredibly spacious. It even features frigate docks, multiple shuttle hangars and a system-wise sensor beacon.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/805782542791868416/screen0536.png)
Ooo debris.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/805782404714463232/screen0534.png)
Ooo new cruiser!
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Hey hey people! Bet you weren't expecting another progress report so soon?
Once again got another batch of stuff to show off. Less in the ships department but a lot of visual stuff's been added.
First off, new briefing icons!
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/806252359369621544/unknown.png)
I took the lazy route and did it how FS2 did it by just using topdown/sideview shots of the ships, downscaling them to the correct resolution and cranking them through ANIBuilder. They look a *lot* better than my old icons I made some time ago.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/806255530695852032/unknown.png)
I also finally got around to making unique models for each primary.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/806255768696258590/unknown.png)
In order from left to right: USW-11 Spear, E-350 Gatling, USW-26 Proton Lance, E-325 Crossbow
These models will all be visible in the loadout room to finally get rid of that awful placeholder HL-7.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/806136494401650698/unknown.png)
The loading bar has been replaced with this funny lil thing.
And finally the window name and icon have been made.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/806128862672584714/unknown.png)
Almost feels like a full on game now.
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loving those gun models, they look p cool.
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What modelling program do you use buddy?
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Blender, it's free and pretty easy to use nowadays.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/808790002364186694/unknown.png)
Welcome to Cyberspace.
One incredibly old submodule I planned for the earliest iteration of this mod was a segment that involves hacking a piece of software or a machine through intrusion via "Cyberspace", a virtual representation of a computer's data systems, including also its associated security systems. Strongly inspired by System Shock's Cyberspace segments, you will be soaring through data flows and system partitions, destroying Hunter-Killer Security Programs and Anti-Virus Software while collecting valuable pieces of data, hacking software and various other upgrades. The goal of each Hacking Level is to unlock a specific part of the software, such as breaking the lock pin of a weapon or cracking the code of a locked storage container.
In First Contact War, these levels would be optional challenges that the player can do to unlock special weapons or even ships.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/808792067697278976/unknown.png)
Gameplay wise, your "being" in Cyberspace has fully responsive, undamped 6 Degrees of Freedom, quite similar to Descent. In fact, since you will be flying through tight corridors and cramped rooms full of enemies, instead of open space, the whole style will be similar to Descent.
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Here's a preview of the first level of Cyberspace.
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Wow, that looks fun. 👍
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This is awesome.
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One more step towards making this thing a proper standalone has been accomplished.
Taking a break from Cyberspace, I've had to wrangle with tables and a few other files around to finally remove FCW's dependency on the MediaVPs. This should make it a lot less of a pain to launch it and maintain it now.
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HAHAHA I FINALLY MANAGED TO MAKE FCW STANDALONE
Uh, I mean. I successfully managed to make it now fully standalone on Knossos, after several hours of painstaking searching for why some parts of the interface flat out refuse to work.
I'm celebrating this one. Making the jump to standalone was always full of hurdles and annoyances but it's finally done.
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Gz on achieving standalone.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/811367098055393360/unknown.png)
Introducing a couple more ships. The B-450 Transport Shuttle, the Remora-H Strike Bomber Variant and the USDF Trebuchet-class Frigate.
And an asteroid I modelled mostly by accident.
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I sincerely apologise for the nearly month long lack of content here. Things have hit a slow speed for a bit.
Naturally a downside of this being a solo project is that whenever I don't work on it, virtually nothing gets done.
That being said, I've begun the final stage of completely overhauling the HUD, since now it's mostly the windows like wingman gauges, escort window etc. that still remain.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/819626561107132439/screen0645.png)
Redid the Radar and otherwise adjusted the looks on everything else.
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a bit of a more personal question, HUD is gonna be scaled for 1366x768?
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I'm not sure, honestly. I have no real way of checking how it will work on that resolution, if at all (manually setting resolution down in Windows doesn't work, FS still thinks i'm 1920x1080 and gives me that resolution instead.)
And if it doesn't, I'm unfortunately not exactly sure how to even approach scaling everything.
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I'm not sure, honestly. I have no real way of checking how it will work on that resolution, if at all (manually setting resolution down in Windows doesn't work, FS still thinks i'm 1920x1080 and gives me that resolution instead.)
In the "Custom Flags" list, add "-res 1366x768" to bypass the regular resolution setting.
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Tried that. Didn't work.
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Tried that. Didn't work.
Debug log? The only way that shouldn't work is if it failed to parse.
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I... could have sworn this didn't work before but it does now.
I don't even want to try to understand why. Point is, it works, and the HUD works too.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/820446696579530772/screen0646.png)
So don't worry spart, the HUD will also work on smaller screens it seems.
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blessed
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/821715631807397888/screen0652.png)
I've gone ahead and remastered the old Shard model in order to properly fit in with the story and how I want to use it in there. It's also a good demonstrator of the armor system I've decided to implement as well. More on that later though.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/821324953193938965/screen0650.png)
The Denebim Driyesu-class Destroyer is now finished. It's one of the few native designs of the Denebim that features a proper focus on weaponry and firepower (the Artisan that canonically designed this vessel is a huge fan of warfare).
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/821441144709578762/unknown.png)
I've also started making variants of the Solarian fighters for the various navies that aren't the USDF. This color scheme here belongs to the CSR (Coreworld Solar Republic) Navy.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/821441125981880370/unknown.png)
However it's not just straight reskins. This Remora for example, is known as the Remora-E, a modification of the F Type that focuses on Electronic Warfare.
As for the Armor System I mentioned, it's essentially a derivative of the one introduced in Wings of Dawn (I liked the idea a lot and wanted to see where I could go further with this).
Armors available are: Durasteel, Civilian Standard, Reflective, Anti-Neutronium and Ultracrystal.
Damage Types are: Energy, Kinetic, Plasma, Armor Piercing, High-Explosive and Psychic.
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Moderately large setback sustained. The art so far is not good enough to be included, so I'll have to start that from scratch.
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Another quick situational update. Turns out the planned number of mission will actually extend to 30 missions, because the story I had in mind would just not fit well in a 20 mission format, so I will decide to split this up into a two-act job.
The good news is, this "Act 1" already has several missions completed. I can't predict how long it will take to finish the rest, but I'm sure I can complete it at least some day.
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Due to the headache inducing trickyness of maintaining mods on Knossos, I've pulled all my mods down from it for the time being. If someone wants to download and play, just ask me and I'll give a link for the download of the files.
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The release plan has changed again. Rather than going for either one giant release or a 2-Part release, I've decided that, with how the mission plans have lined up, I could actually go ahead and release the campaign in four "Blocks", each of around 10 missions. Block 1 (more glamorous/appealing name for the blocks pending) is in this case asset complete, only requiring mission and art to be finished.
The art is currently the least worked on part of the campaign, since most (well, all) existing drawings had to be tossed out due to quality shortage. As far as missions go, I've got 6/10 missions as good as finished.
Now have some fancy screenies I took throughout testing.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/858375783310557184/screen0824.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/859473132216647720/screen0834.png)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/859556196831068251/screen0787.png)
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Now have some fancy screenies I took throughout testing.
Those look pretty nice~ :)
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Work will now proceed at full speed ahead. I'll try to get as much work done as physically possible before the end of July for an Act 1 release. Even if it means having to dedicate entire days and nights to meet that deadline.
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That’s great news strygon but don’t go so far as to risk exhaustion.
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Gonna have to announce yet another setback as I have to go back and redo all the weapons and then tweak balance and so on. Art is also progressing absurdly slowly because I can't seem to get much to look good right now. Overall, it's just nowhere even remotely close to the quality I'd want this thing to have, so I'll probably need to take the rest of this year just to shore up all the low quality bits.
I am deeply sorry if I'd gotten anyone's hopes up, and I recommend to not expect too much from this mod. It's going to be released but it won't be anything revolutionary or even new.
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Though, before I go off and work on that (while also dealing with moving to another country) I'm also uploading a build to Knossos that contains the Demo, a remaster of OCaD and two simulator missions to get another taster of the gameplay.
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/908218312968765480/screen0044.png)
Giving proof that this mod is in fact, still alive. I'm about a couple gameplay missions away from being finished with the flight portions of Act 1. Main chunk of work left to do then is VN art and segments.
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Update for 2022 and onwards:
I will be drastically cutting back on public updates, and the planned open beta is cancelled. Development has slowed down dramatically, and I cannot guarantee any release of any kind until well beyond February 2022.
I will also no longer be posting art updates.
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Sad to hear that. Take care of yourself!
We'll be waiting when it's ready!
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Development is now proceeding at full speed. Release should be imminent.
All missions have been finished and tested, all that's left now is the VN scenes.
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Alright, back to work after release, seems most of the major bugs have been ironed out hopefully.
Unfortunately Episode 1 didn't quite release with all the stuff I wanted. The missions, ships and weapons are fine, but what I'm seriously unhappy with is the VN aspect.
To put it short, writing is a PITA and I didn't want to hold off release just to add more words to a text file when everything else is complete, so my first step Post-EP1 is to continue working full steam on the VN Sequences and actually add the words I wanted. That said, that might take a while due to the aforementioned issue of writing being annoying and painful.
Second major thing that needs change is the art. To put it even shorter: It sucks.
Okay it maybe doesn't suck, but I look at it now and think "Jesus H. Christ, I could've done a significantly better job on those sprites, huh?"
Basically, I don't like the weird facing, lack of emotion and inconsistent shading/line thickness of the different sprites, so my second big step will be to redo all the existing VN art (the Head.ANIs are fine and will remain as-is).
Once this is done, I will be able to move on to Episode 2. That part should be easier to make compared to Episode 1 given I only need to add roughly 10-or-so ships and not 70, and I've already got a base to work off of.
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Thanks for the update, looking forward to continued updates and progress!
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Good morning (or extremely very late evening, it's currently 5 in the morning at the time of posting),
Today I bring you a gift
A gift of elf
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/617399814048710658/961123901906243634/space_snelf.png)
And also the first step in VN art refreshing. Basically all the sprites will be forward facing now rather than side-facing. The quality of the art (****ty pose aside, don't mind that) I think is also significantly better than before.
For self-reference, the main lineart will now use 14px lines with 10 or 12px lines for internal details. Previous sprites were a little all over the place with line thickness.
Expect me to post more of these in the future. If there's any interest I might also go into more detail about how I draw these things and prep them for VN usage.
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That looks much better
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Hello there!
I've not got that much to show to you this time around, but I do have some words on what you should be expecting for EP2.
First of all, more complex missions.
EP1 had very simplistic mission design, almost to a degree I found unacceptable, but it was sort of necessary to ease the player into the overall world, the new flight model and much faster pace in general.
EP2 hereby assumes the player is now used to the new flight model, so now there's no excuse to not go all out with complexity.
I'll tinker around with what's feasible, but if all goes as planned, expect some proper bossfights in several missions, along with the properly set up crafting system. And just much more meat per mission in general.
With the new animation system, I'm also playing around with the possibility of mecha missions.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/519220662640836631/966405253249511454/unknown.png)
It's very crude right now, but I'm experimenting with how far I can go with this new thing.
Anyway, now for an art update. Every time I finish a character I roll a die to see who's up next. After the elf it was Captain Shiranui.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/966213720600625152/unknown.png)
Truth be told, her sprite initially was the one I hated the most in terms of quality. I'm so much happier with how it looks now.
Though disclaimer, don't worry I won't do an art update every single episode. This is pretty much the quality I'm fine with settling on.
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It's time for another art update.
First up was Izumi Phobos. Actually one of my favorite designs, but the last sprite was just awful.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/966499459515183144/unknown.png)
Now I'd argue she looks pretty cute. I also took the opportunity to unbutton her jacket here in order to make her look more casual, as she'd be exactly the type to wear it like that.
Next one on the list then was Melanie Eternity, the Lead Engineer on the Cyclone's hangar deck. Her sprite looked visually alright but suffered from massive problems relating to line thickness, to the point where the downscaling caused most of the linework to either be barely visible or completely invisible. Also the shading sucked.
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/966941679783407636/unknown.png)
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(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/771390881424080936/997691282010947594/screen0375.png)
Amongst one of my (dumber) ideas I had for EP2 would be one really really big ground battle. Well, everything's finally laid out now, all I need to do for it is to actually make the pieces do stuff.
Making the terrain not look awful was a nightmare and a half, but the rest was actually quite fun.
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Development has hit a complete standstill as I am trying to sort out a series of increasingly concerning real life problems and financial issues. Would love to continue working on this but it would be rather difficult to do so if I'm out on the streets.
If you have further queries, please send a PM to this account.
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Forgot to post an update on this, but the situation has largely resolved itself and development is continuing as normal, though Episode 1 has been taken offline for maintenance and rework for the time being.
Additionally, I would like to ask something of everyone who is seeking to play this mod:
Please do not use Text to Speech to replace the generic message noises. I've seen it in several instances now where it seriously messes with mission and event timing, as TTS is significantly slower than actual human speech. It WILL cause trouble later down the line in certain missions and I cannot offer any support for if things end up breaking as a result of it.
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I just finished the first mission and noticed that I can't use thrusters in glide mode. Is this a design choice or something to be fixed later? It seems like your mod is available on Knossos even though I saw a post saying your've taken it off there. Did you put it back or did someone else? I don't see a download link in the OP. Lastly, what is the +18 patch? Is it blood or nudity?
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It's not a bug strictly speaking but if enough people ask about it I'll allow thruster use. I did reupload it very recently back onto Knossos but neglected to mention this in the development log.
As for the 18+ Patch, the idea was nudity, right now it just contains nothing, because that's a surprising amount of work to be done. It will contain more in the future though.
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I personally would love to get thruster access in glide mode.
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Development is going private for the time being. I will not be posting updates anymore for the forseeable future. Thank you for your understanding.
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If it eases the burden I understand and support your decision. We've all got only limited time :)
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Additional note:
Consider this a request rather than a demand (I have no way of enforcing it anyhow, nor do I have any intention of doing so) but I would appreciate it if the current release of the mod would not:
-Have playthroughs recorded
-Be streamed
As it currently is, with the state of development, Episode 1 is both severely out of date and completely averse to the experience I was intending to display. Additionally, with numerous assets being in dire need of overhauls, it would be worth not to consider Episode 1 as the first of four official releases anymore, but rather a very, very crude and early pre-Alpha.
Therefore I kindly request that it is only discussed as such and that anyone refrain from seriously playing through it as a full release.
Thank you for your consideration.
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Development Update:
Development has completely ceased until further notice. Thank you for following the development of First Contact War.
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I'm sorry to hear that. I sincerely hope you'll be able to resume progress on the project. :yes:
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Seconded. Take whatever time you need though. :yes:
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That is very unfortunate, but from what I've heard it is more than reasonable to put it on halt. A hobby should be fun after all, no matter how deep you feel devoted to things.
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Further Addendum: It has come to my attention that, for reasons I am unfortunately not certain of, a majority of the mod's currently released missions are unplayable as a result of several game breaking bugs.
First Contact War has henceforth been taken off Knossos until eventual fixes can be made. When this will be done is uncertain. I apologize for the inconvenience.