[brandx0]

Getting rather off topic here...

Either way, the shipset is not huge by any means.  As it stands we could have a very playable mod with 13 models (The mass produced ones, we don't need a falcon or vader's tie or slave 1 yet...)

[chief1983]

Of course, that doesn't take into account some other things that would be needed that weren't in movies, but that add a lot of diversity to the game, such as stations and containers and such.  But we wouldn't need many of those to get something started.

[brandx0]

Of course, but at the core of things we could have a pretty cool tech demo release (a la BTRL) with very few ships.

[jr2]

Ah, we need planets... Coruscant, Tatooine, Alderaan...

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/images/screenshots/fic_starwars/Coruscant__guilpan.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coruscant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tatooine.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Alderaan.jpg

[chief1983]

Those are in progress.  Turambar was having fun making those once in a while.

[StarSlayer]

Would love to see some stuff from the Rogue/Wraith series, NJO single handedly destroyed my enjoyment of SW books.  But most of all i would sacrifice Ewoks in your name for a fully armed ISD and MC80.  1.6 Klicks of pure destruction.  No 10 turrets like ye ole XWing/Tie Fighter Games or as Trekies like to do in their fanboy "what if" videos have them fire a turbolaser once every 5 minutes.  I want to see 60 turbos and 60 ion cannons vaping snubbies and melting enemy capital ship's hulls before the gooey globs of transparisteel and durasteel flash freeze in the void.

[Scourge of Ages]

I think you could let the warheads home in on a specific target, but they also had the ability to make them follow the crosshairs, similar to a laser guided bomb. I don't even want to think about the math involved in programming a feature like that, but it might be interesting to see if it's possible.

I have absolutely no idea if it's possible with the SCP, but I know a similar system exists in other games: Battlefield 2 and 2142.

For campaigns, I would love to see the X-Wing series done.. maybe an Isard campaign, and a Zsinj one.. the only large problem I see with those is that a lot of those books' major battles took place over planets.  Now, I'm not very familiar with this game yet, so I don't have a decent idea of what's possible.. but the ground missions in those books were often very important to the story.

Ground missions, cityscapes, and land in general is being worked on to very great effect on the Shadows of Lylat project over at Game Warden.

[TopAce]

Of course, that doesn't take into account some other things that would be needed that weren't in movies, ...

Corellian gunship, escort carrier, all kinds of cargo containers and freighters, the stormtrooper transport, just to mention a few.

[chief1983]

Well for now, we only need a couple of types of some of those to get started, the rest can be added in later. 

[rsaxvc]

Speaking of the dx9, is anyone working on it, and if not, does anyone have some good pictures/schematics of it?

[Acin]

Hello Everybody!
I'm new on this site, however it is with great joy that I read about what you people were already up to here.
It is amazing! On the other hand I'd hate to appear like a smart-ass who comes over with "I'd like to have... " and contributes nothing. But here are my ideas:
1) In no previous Games or MODs have I seen the possibility to do an atmospheric descent or to start into space from a Planets's surface. It is always very conveniently omitted by an "autopilot"- sequence. And we know that the X-Wing can land on a planetary surface, just as the shuttels and transporters and even the big cruisers can go "down" on a planet. I just thought that this would open a whole new scope of possibilities in the mission design as well as contribute to the mod's character.
2) Who can help me learn how to do 3D models?

[brandx0]

1) In no previous Games or MODs have I seen the possibility to do an atmospheric descent or to start into space from a Planets's surface. It is always very conveniently omitted by an "autopilot"- sequence. And we know that the X-Wing can land on a planetary surface, just as the shuttels and transporters and even the big cruisers can go "down" on a planet. I just thought that this would open a whole new scope of possibilities in the mission design as well as contribute to the mod's character.

That's something to bring up with the FSOpen source people.  At the current time I don't believe such a thing is possible using the FSOpen engine

2) Who can help me learn how to do 3D models?

That you'll have to find on your own, grab some tutorials off the Net.  If you need some help here and there I'm always in the Star Wars Conversion IRC channel on EsperNet #scp-swc

And welcome to the community, it's always good to have another person interested in the mod!

[chief1983]

He's right, a cruiser going down on a planet does make for some interesting mission design.

Thanks for dropping by Acin!

[jr2]

I was going to mention that, too... I'd love it...  *gets dreamy look as he contemplates buzzing civilians in an X-Wing*

[brandx0]

There definitely are plans for ground missions, but that's a ways away.

[Acin]

First of all thank you all for that heartily welcome.
I'll bring that topic mentioned above in the FSOpen Source. I'm sure there are some dear geeks that would hammer it out. But let my just loose some sentences on that.
Basically the only problem in this is equation is the gravity. One would have to add old Mr. Newton into the whole game and make mass an additional property of all objects, so that their behaviour could be changed according to F=G*((m₁*m₂)/r^2) with G=6.67*10^-11m³kg^-1s^-2. Now if you mess with the Gravitational constant G and "CHANGE" you would suddenly have an entirely different range of options. OK I know its weird but it's nothing else but 9th grad physics. The consequences of this were enormous. Uncarefull navigation might suck you into a black hole or into a Neutron star (remember Han Solo mentioning that in Episode 4), if you are in a less than geostationary Orbit your plane would start "falling down" (and possibly burn in the atmosphere) if without any other thrusters (  SAR missions?? "Anti-Grav generators are down!! Pull us out!! Mayday!), and it gives room for Gravitational Weapons as mines that might crush a fleet . Not to mention is the ability to hoover above a surface (and actually LAND a craft) with anti-gravity reactors on line. I wonder what happends if you manage to shoot down these or damage them in a skirmish ???

I guess such addition might not only make Anakin Skywalker's Rescue of the Chancellor Palpatine in Episode 3 playable, but would also be a welcome innovation to other MODs such a WingCommanderSaga. Last but not least, the introduction of mass into the physics of flight would also result in a different dogfight behaviour. A fighter that is fully loaded has a much greater turn radius and is of course less agile - Velocity and Mass make up the Inertia. Therefore the less missiles and armour you have the more agile you become. That would be definitely a big plus for the TIEs and A-Wings, a big drag for gunships and, say, B-wings and a whole lot of difference if you are with your X-wing on the way to your target or returning back and hit a swarm of TIEs :-)

OK, I have dreamt enough. Don't bash me for that! Thanks!

[brandx0]

No bashing involved.  For us, gravity isn't much of a problem, considering most combat near planets is handled on repulsorlifts or somesuch, which being a technology with no scientific analog but functions as an anti-gravity device probably won't be affected by any kind of gravity.

As for the weight, as nothing of this effect is really seen ever in star wars it probably won't be a feature implimented (for our mod at least) but I'm sure there are other mods which could definitely use these features, and I know at least the gravity one has been discussed.

Thanks a lot for the input though!

[Scourge of Ages]

There is already a system in place to simulate inertia in FSO. When making a sharp turn at high speed, you don't change course perfectly like in the old X-Wing game, you "drift" a little in the direction you were previously travelling. You can really see this when you crash into another fighter: you and him will bounce off each other before the engines start moving you forward again.
And of course larger ships like bombers and transports will have slower acceleration and worse turning radius than an interceptor or light fighter.
This is probably enough for our purposes, because implementing true gravity physics might require re-writing the entire game engine.

As to the space-to-ground and ground-to-space transitions, I am reminded of a game called "Breed." It's not a very good game, but it had really cool vehicles. Especially the air/space fighters. There were a few missions where you start in space and need to fly to the surface or vice versa. All you need to do is fly close enough to the planet (or sky) to a certain point, the screen would white out, and BAM you'd be in the atmosphere (or space).

[chief1983]

There's also the RealFlight modification in the Modding (or scripting, I forget) section.  It tries to expand on inertia and make it a much more realistic feel.  I'm tempted to see if it could make the game feel more Star Wars-ish, or if the main FSO code already does it good enough.

[Acin]

On a different note...
Who is responsible for the mission design? Is there already a concept in place on how a mission briefing is supposed to look like? Because besides a stunning graphic design, the players need a mission briefing. And if we do a campaign -even a short one-, we ought to come up with a storyline. Are there any plans to branch a story depending on the mission's outcome? Or do you rather prefere to have number of missions that you have to fly consecutively and all over again?
Are any standard replies for wingmen (and hopefully women) in plan ("Confirm. Break and attack! ", "Attacking [Corvette/TIE.../StarDestroyer]," , "Roger, Red one. Falling back into Formation.") ?
Sorry that I ask so many questions, but I had a feeling that this mod has now evolved to a mere modeling workshop.

Cheers, Acin