Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Yoseph on February 11, 2020, 01:37:50 pm
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Greetings everyone. Wow, its been such a long time. I was last active on HLP in 2008. I suspect a few of you old-timers like me probably remember the several attempts I made to create a mod for the “Echoes of the Past” universe; an IP of my own creation.
Like many mods, especially those for a unique IP without a fan base, every time I tried it petered out. In hindsight, that was to be expected. It was probably a miracle and a testament to the great modders here, that it got as far as it did back then.
In the last twelve years (God, we’re starting to get old, aren’t we?!!?!) I’ve done a lot of things in life, seen ups and downs, success and failure. But one thing has never gone away – the desire to create EOTP. A few years back, I started to ponder what I could reasonably do on my own that would produce income. What came up with was writing a series of novels set in the universe.
I won’t bore the board here with all those details, but suffice it to say after a disastrous start because I had no idea what I was doing, a high level author took me under his wing and offered mentorship and guidance (and a foreword for my first novel), and I launched again last year under the title “Echoes of War”. This time… it worked. I’ve got nine novels out now, two novella’s, and I’ll be releasing two more novels by May. Several of them have been as high as #5 in Military Science Fiction on Amazon, and one hit #24 in the overall Amazon free store, along with #1 in Science Fiction overall. (That was a wild ride!)
As a result of this success, I’m back to looking at other things I can do in the universe. I came back to HLP, found it doing great, reconnected with Goober5000 and decided that perhaps this time, I could make – with the help of many others – an Echoes of War mod a reality.
Here’s what I need help with:
- Modeling (I have a ton of reference art, but game ready art needs to be created. My stuff is 1 to 50 million polys)
- Textures (For models)
- Weapons/Shield FX (will borrow where I can from released assets)
- Loading new ships/fighters/bombers into FS2
What I’m going to do:
- FREDing
- Story (hey, I am a professional author at this point. 😊)
- Project Management
- Testing
- Custom Music (Have a friend lined up who’s a composer)
To prove I’m not insane, here’s some a link to the series page for the Echoes of War novels on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PP539NJ (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PP539NJ)
Feel free to PM me with any questions, or post here.
The mod (really more like total conversion) will focus on the beginning of the war, about 30 years prior to the events of the novels. The player will experience the opening attack on Canaan, and then draw convoy escort duty (as the player is cast as a reservist during his 2 week per year active duty deployment). The player will end up doing some interesting, covert missions, before ending up on a fleet carrier and in the middle of a large counter-offensive. I think it’ll be fun. 😊
V/r
Yoseph, AKA, Daniel Gibbs (Pen name)
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Holy crap, that looks like an awesome series of books. That's both good and bad. The good news is I have a new sci-fi series to read. :cool: The bad news is...I have another sci-fi series to read! :sigh:
And Yoseph, it's good to see you return to HLP after a years-long absence; I just got back to HLP myself after 16 years away. And I'm glad to hear that you're a published sci-fi author because I have a few questions about writing and publishing my own stories (well, I have a few story ideas at this point). I'll PM you about this in a little while once I get some time free.
In any case, welcome back to HLP! :D :D :D
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Dude, wow. Long freaking time. :)
Hit me up anytime.
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Sound interesting. :nod:
- Modeling (I have a ton of reference art, but game ready art needs to be created. My stuff is 1 to 50 million polys)
However there's something I'd like to note- you should better not rely on other people working for you if you want to see this finished. It's good that you can do modelling yourself, but you should define a scope for how many of the ships of your universe need to be in-game for the story you want to tell. My best guess if you have is that you should choose a polycount/quality standard that allows you to bring out something presentable on your own, that will hopefully get you someone to help (unless you want to comission people from the beginning).
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Sound interesting. :nod:
- Modeling (I have a ton of reference art, but game ready art needs to be created. My stuff is 1 to 50 million polys)
However there's something I'd like to note- you should better not rely on other people working for you if you want to see this finished. It's good that you can do modelling yourself, but you should define a scope for how many of the ships of your universe need to be in-game for the story you want to tell. My best guess if you have is that you should choose a polycount/quality standard that allows you to bring out something presentable on your own, that will hopefully get you someone to help (unless you want to comission people from the beginning).
Nightmare, let me clear up any confusion - the reference art are super high quality/high poly models I commissioned from a friend. I can't model anything to save my life. I'm afraid my talents extend to writing and video editing, but not art. Oh how I wish they did. :)
Hence - looking for modelers. :)
Depending on how many folks I'm able to attract, and if there's cost involved (I'm certainly willing to pay for well done 3DS MAX models, especially if I can use them elsewhere, in either a different game mod, or in my own game down the road.) will determine how limited I go in ship set.
I could tell a cool story with a handful of ships and fighters, or get fairly wild and have 30+ ships/fighters/bombers in game.
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Ah ok, I see. :) If you're willing to pay for models should certainly look for people - there are quite a few modelers on HLP but most are occupied by their own projects and I certainly wouldn't expect people aiding unless you have made decent progress (what is kinda difficult in TCs), in particular not an entire fleet.
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Loading new ships/fighters/bombers into FS2
I assume that's talking about making their tables - i.e. the files that define their stats in-engine? - Or am I mistaken here?
Anyway, its nice to see another TC here.
ps. I am not sure how this will work legally with the FS_Open EULA and its non-commercial use clause, since you are actually the author of the books and making the TC would be intentional cross-media promotion. You might have to see a lawyer about that down the road, even if its probably nothing...
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ps. I am not sure how this will work legally with the FS_Open EULA and its non-commercial use clause, since you are actually the author of the books and making the TC would be intentional cross-media promotion. You might have to see a lawyer about that down the road, even if its probably nothing...
Doesn't matter. You mustn't sell anything using FSO (as the original code is still IP of interplay), besides that you can do anything you want.
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Nightmare, you are not HLP's foremost legal expert - neither am I...
BUT the relevant portion of the FS_Open EULA reads as follows:
All source code herein is the property of Volition, Inc. You may not sell or otherwise commercially exploit the source or things you created based on the source.
(emphasis mine - EDIT: now correct)
I really recommend that you have a conversation with a lawyer ... its probably a nothingburger or done with drawing up a notarized statement.
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Somebody said "ships"?
Somebody said "money"?
In single sentence o___O?! It means business! I like business. Especially when I have large, well-equipped shipyards at my disposal. See recent posts on FSU or Inferno Eyecady thread if you want to take a look... Then toss me a PM.
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Ok, Yoseph, I'll bite: just what does "Semper Atticus" mean? We know that "semper" means "always," but as far as I can tell, "Atticus" means either "of Attica," or "man of Attica," where Attica is the region where the city of Athens is located.
Does "Semper Atticus" mean "Always a man of Attica," "always from Attica," or something else entirely? :confused:
And why do I get the feeling that youre going to tell me, "If you want to find out, read the books?" :p
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Ok, Yoseph, I'll bite: just what does "Semper Atticus" mean? We know that "semper" means "always," but as far as I can tell, "Atticus" means either "of Attica," or "man of Attica," where Attica is the region where the city of Athens is located.
Does "Semper Atticus" mean "Always a man of Attica," "always from Attica," or something else entirely? :confused:
And why do I get the feeling that youre going to tell me, "If you want to find out, read the books?" :p
Well yes, if you read the books it would tell you ;)
But, Semper Atticus translates to "Always at the front" roughly. The meaning is that the Lion of Judah is always leading the fight.
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They get to do space stuff for their annual stab camp?
That's cool👍👍👍
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Ok, Yoseph, I'll bite: just what does "Semper Atticus" mean? We know that "semper" means "always," but as far as I can tell, "Atticus" means either "of Attica," or "man of Attica," where Attica is the region where the city of Athens is located.
Does "Semper Atticus" mean "Always a man of Attica," "always from Attica," or something else entirely? :confused:
And why do I get the feeling that youre going to tell me, "If you want to find out, read the books?" :p
Well yes, if you read the books it would tell you ;)
But, Semper Atticus translates to "Always at the front" roughly. The meaning is that the Lion of Judah is always leading the fight.
Every once in awhile I realize I'm an idiot. :P
Its supposed to be Semper ANTICUS.
Something got lost between me and the illustrator. I just emailed him to fix it so I can update the site, and my email onboarding. :P
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See? SEE? Do you guys see how awesome an editor I am? Even when I’m not trying, I fix grammar and spelling errors! I can even fix them in Latin, a language I can’t even read! :drevil: :nod: :cool: :pimp:
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See? SEE? Do you guys see how awesome an editor I am? Even when I’m not trying, I fix grammar and spelling errors! I can even fix them in Latin, a language I can’t even read! :drevil: :nod: :cool: :pimp:
:yes: :yes: :yes:
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Saw this just now. That’s great.
Welcome back Yoseph.
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See? SEE? Do you guys see how awesome an editor I am? Even when I’m not trying, I fix grammar and spelling errors! I can even fix them in Latin, a language I can’t even read! :drevil: :nod: :cool: :pimp:
:yes: :yes: :yes:
So yeah, I necro'ed a months old thread, but them's the breaks. I haven't had the chance to get ahold of the rest of the Echoes of War series yet, but I did read "Stand Firm," the prequel novella (essentially Book 0) of the Echoes of War series. I enjoyed reading it a great deal and it certainly whetted my appetite to read the rest of the series. (I gotta see if I can find it in pdf form as I am not a fan of Kindle. :ick: )
And I only just noticed in the latest email I got about the EoW series, but it probably happened months ago: Yoseph did indeed have his illustrator update the EoW logo motto to the more correct Semper Anticus (i.e. "Always at the front").
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Welcome back :)
I hope all the old(er) folks come back as most are younger than I am (59 now). Looking forward to retirement in..ohh about 4 years, 5 max) Will have gobs of time to tinker around with FS again. I got some modeling under my belt, even done plenty of texturing here. But making UV maps just beats me up every time! SO one of my goals is to be able to do modeling start to finish when I retire because I got plenty of models to bring into the FS universe! Think of GVF Shu Mark V for one :) I hope most are still around by then...but I'm thinking most will :)
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Yoseph! I do remember you. And I remember your effort to boost up donations to HLP and, at the same time, get some stuff for your mod done. I'm glad to see you back once again.
Anyway, in case you need some support with Latin, here I am. I was the one who used to create new threads here on HLP whose titles were in Latin. :lol:
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/me remembers