[FlareBaffled]

  I have in fact kidnapped hte entire Relic team, and have them in a box in my shed... it's cruel but necessary!

I am pretty pleased with the way the Taiidan Scout has turned out....it just seemed to have gone right from the start! Happens likr ythat sometimes. It also helps that I used to play Taiidan rather than Kushan in HW anyway...so I know the shapes and have a feel for how I think they should be.

I have been modelling for a good few years, so while I am new to FS2, I am not knew to modding. All I needed to do was to learn a few specifics and get to grips with the conversion process to turn ships into game objects. The Max plugin works well for me  (once you get to grips with it's little foibles! ) and I know Max well.

Once I finish off the rest of the Taiidan light craft and drones etc. I need to turn out 1 capship per side .. and a Support Frigate would be a logical choice, along with aresource collector. I want to get a basic dogfight package together first, so I can release something for playtesting and fun ( and to maybe inspire someone to make me some missions )

Player flyable Corvettes are a distinct possibility... They are not so huge as to be reallya capship, and look to be single pilot with a proper cockpit ... so that helps. The only reason I didn't plan them originally was down to lack of mission ideas. If there is enough reason to do them, all I have to do is add a cockpit! That's np big chore! Flyable Frigates would be a similar proposition.... though obviousely, the cockpit would need to be a 'bridge' ... and the player would be limited to controlling the direct fire weapons. I can see how that would be fun iin MP!

[Wanderer]

I really doubt people would have the patience to pilot any frigates.. That is capship were always in formations in the HW, not only much point-and-shoot stuff.

[Vengence]

If you get me the Trikor, instant fan!

[FlareBaffled]

Trikor ... thats 'the Taiidan Heavy Interceptor as I recall .... or, as I prefer to call it... the ship I am currently modelling

[Vengence]

Cool, just be sure to center the fighter correctly. The fighter's center of gravity was shifted in between the massive gun and body and if you get this in.... time to roll the gun! I'm going to love that tactic!

[G0atmaster]

Well, I enjoyed playing Kushan more.  It's canon, and I always thought cloaked fighters and drone frigates were more useful than DF frigates and Defense Fighters. 

I just got an awesome idea for some HW campaigns.  First, have the original campaign, with the mothership going home.  Then, have a post-homecoming campaign for both the Higarans and the Taiidani.  Then do Homeworld 2, and various adventures post-hyperspace network thing discovery.

I wish there were a balanced way to do the other side of things during the canon timeline, but it's so unbalanced it's rediculous.  The Taiidani controlled the majority of the galaxy when the Higarans returned home, but then the Higarans basically crushed througn the empire.  So basically the only way to win as the Taiidani would totally and completely throw off the storyline.  Also same with the Vagyr.  The Vagyr basically owned everything until the end of the game.

[FlareBaffled]

The campaign element is something I am still working on ... The more ideas I get here the better right now!

As far as ships go, I am focusing purely on the original HW ships. There are also the Cataclysm ones to consider later on ...but I want to focus on building a solid and well balanced set of ships for the core ships. Then I need to do a lot of work on the missions and campaign! Then....well...we will see

For Homeworld 2, though, there is already a project to do that one. Check out the Apocalypse Project in the mods section.

[Unknown Target]

Impressive, although IIRC some concept art showed the Taiidani Scout as being a two-seater
As to the campaign, I was thinking the best way to have it would be to have constantly changing orders through a long mission (would be nice to have the coders enable mid-mission saves, dunno if that's possible). Like you begin the mission flying out of the hanger, then wait, then a few minutes later you are ordered to guard a resource ship against some bad guys. Then after that you're told to refuel, then you're launched with a strike force.
That would more simulate the actual, say, skirmish matches of Homeworld, although you could always just make it more storyline-structured like a traditional campaign

[Dysko]

Or maybe you could use a lot of red alert missions, followed by other red alert missions, followed by other... Ok, I'll stop there

[Grawr]

I guess flying capital ships is sort a of a niche thing, then... although, you haven't lived until you've come out debris cloud, all turrets blazing- and possibly shouting "damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!" to yourself. As long as corvettes- multiguns and minelayers especially- are flyable, though, I'll be in Hiigaran heaven. Another mission idea...
Flying through the Garden of Kadesh during an EMP storm, part of a small wing of EMP-shielded stealth fighters tasked with eliminating a patrol group of scattered Swarmer Fuel Ships. The player will have to avoid Swarmer patrols, and then tail them as they return to refuel, and then destroy the Fuel Ship with the fighters still docked. Besides the risk of being detected, the player could also be actively stalked by a few multibeam corvettes, with a potential ambush at the last fuel ship.

[FlareBaffled]

I quite like the idea of the linked orders in a mission idea. I want to try and build the missions so they represent something that would / could happen in a game of HW1. I want to braodly sync it with the overall campaign to an extent, with the initial training missions, followed by the Mothership returning after it's test to find the bad guys etc. The first serious mission would be, of course, the defending of the cryo trays while they are secured aboard, followed by the jump off to search for 'home'. Of course, not all the missions fit or would be fun for a single player campaign, but I want to include as many fun elements as possible. There are plenty of options here, and I want to make sure I bring as many diverse elements in as I can. This will be a challenge for a FRED dunce like me... but life is for learning!

It's good to stimulate discussion here ( it's what a forum is all about ) to get a feel for what people would like and what ideas can go into the mix once the ship departs from Kharak in search of Hiigara. There is such a wealth of potential material it's a big challenge. The big mission 'waypoints' will be worked in where possible, to give overall direction.... but there would obviousely be a lot of patrol and scouting missions in between along with potential trouble and conflict along the way. Loads to think about! I will keep all the mission ideas people post here in mind for when I start the serious planning. There are some good ones in this thread already!

In fact..the more I think about it..the more of a monster it becomes! I started out just wanting to make a few higher polygon higher detail ships with a vague idea of 'a few missions to shoot at some ships' ... and now it's turning into a full-on project!

[G0atmaster]

May I suggest basing your Salvage corvettes on the Omega Transports in some way, to make docking ports and stuff easier?   IDK much about modeling and all that, but it just occurred to me that there may be a way for that to make it easier on you.

Quick question:  Do fighters have shields in this?

[FlareBaffled]

No shields for fighters. I don't think the ships in HW1 had shields, and it makes little difference to the game balance, since the weapons used are all based around the same sort of approach. I will balance ship strength by armour values. The only shielded ships will be the ones with defence shields!

The other thing I need to work on is having ships start doclked

[G0atmaster]

that'll make gameplay VERY interesting.  Shielded areas ships can be within, rather than shielded ships.  Sounds awesome!  Except, make sure missiles have a peirce shield flag on, because DF Frigates couldn't stop missiles.

[FlareBaffled]

I found that the B5 mod with no shields made for some very intense dogfighting... and I liked it I will be using the pierce shields thing ( another extra that the SCP has added making things more how I need them! )

[FlareBaffled]

Well ... after an overly stressful work-induced break from modding... we have finally got the Trikor mesh finished, mapped and into the sprayshop!

[Vengence]

Awesome ! I love those fighters. Please please remember the reason this fighter was even allowed into the Taiidani navy: It can do... interesting things with its unusual center of gravity.

[FlareBaffled]

Check.... model centre somewhere midway between gun and fuselage. As an aside... can I make a submodel have a 'weight' or does the game engine just spread the weight thoughout the ship around the MOI?

[Wanderer]

Errr... You probably mean 'center of gravity' and not 'moment of inertia'.. Well you can define those for the model.. getting proper values for MOIs is whole another story.

[Unknown Target]

Sweetness, the Taiidan interceptor was my favorite design from that game.