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Archived Boards => The Archive => Syrk => Topic started by: Lucika on October 06, 2010, 10:07:30 am

Title: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on October 06, 2010, 10:07:30 am
Syrk: The Unification Wars

After humanity's stellar rise to the void of space and their unprecedented attempt at worldwide peace, people were sure that a time of growth and strength would come. However, as human nature is, this was impossible. The fragile peace shattered and a civil war began, with four factions fighting for total dominance over the colonized Sol and humanity as a whole. While everyone is sure that the conflict will be a turning point in human history, they don't even suspect that their nemesis quietly awaits them at the other side of a yet unknown jump node, waiting for them to enter the dragon's lair...

Yes, this is the mod that is going to show how did it all began: the Unification Wars. The story that happened before the Great War: no shields, no advanced systems, no fancy Valkyres. Only pure fight for your survival.

You're going to meet four different factions in game. Here're their quick descriptions:

STA (Solar Terran Alliance)
When humanity colonized Sol, they’ve allied under the name of Solar Terran Alliance and everything seemed to be all right. But it wasn’t. All the tension and hatred against the political system has escalated when radical, capitalist men offered that they’ll buy the whole Pluto for a considerable sum. Since this would have been a violation of the STA’s Mercury Convention, they’ve declined the offer. And by that decision, all hell has broken loose…

TC (Terran Confederacy)
The Terran Confederacy consists of those people who originally tried to buy Pluto, and - since they’re leaders of giant corporations – their followers and consumers. They demanded personal fleets and colonization companies. This would be equivalent of a Paramilitary Corporation and STA won’t tolerate this at all.

HE (Human Empire)
They’re the dissidents and rebels, fragments and splinter groups without a home and a place to run to. They’re the „nomads” of Sol, with hijacked capships and stolen fighters. Anarchists with a dream of separating Sol from planet to planet…

USS (United Space States)
No connection with America, though, these are those people who were former opposition of the STA’s government and their followers. Their policy is simply no more than to overthrow the STA and to pour a lot of money into scientific research, especially the volatile and untested system-to-system jumps. Itis rumoured though – and, to be honest, it appears to be true – that this faction has the most advanced technology with such things that humanity has never seen before…

Shivans
I have nothing to say...
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on October 06, 2010, 10:20:30 am
Liking what I see. How is the flight model gonna differ from something like TVWP?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on October 06, 2010, 10:25:42 am
I was never planning to put the two campaigns in the same continuity (especially since TVWP was not released when we've started working so we were bound to have differing core elements). In this campaign, you will have slower than usual ships and weapons that deal much less damage than what we're used to - but obviously not to a point that is breaks gameplay enjoyment.
We will have targeting and with the exception of some ships, afterburners as well.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: -Norbert- on October 06, 2010, 11:44:12 am
What about weapons?
Ballistic vs. Energy based primaries.
Aspect lock vs. heat seeker secondaries.

Any lateral thrusters and/or gliding (I love those :D )?

From the "cog in the machine" comment I take it the player is a faceless Alpha-1 type. But what about the comrades? Will they also be faceless or will they be characters?
How big a role will capitol ships play? Will it be mostly like FS1, with fighters and bombers dominating the battlefield for the most part or will the caps be very dangerous to get close (like BP WiH for example)?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on October 06, 2010, 01:12:50 pm
How about "United Solar States". Sounds better. Even though I know it's similar to the STA
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on October 06, 2010, 01:44:29 pm
How about "United Solar States". Sounds better. Even though I know it's similar to the STA
That could be arranged.
What about weapons?
Ballistic vs. Energy based primaries.

We were not planning ballistics, remember, we are in the 2200s. However, with the new tech background, these former decisions might change.

Aspect lock vs. heat seeker secondaries.

Mostly dumbfires and heatseekers. Aspect lock is no good since it was only introduced after the alliance between T and V.

Any lateral thrusters and/or gliding (I love those :D )?

Are afterburners any good? :P No worries though, I have a few groundbreaking gameplay ideas that are completely new to the community.

From the "cog in the machine" comment I take it the player is a faceless Alpha-1 type. But what about the comrades? Will they also be faceless or will they be characters?

Faceless Alpha 1, Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 are set characters.

How big a role will capitol ships play? Will it be mostly like FS1, with fighters and bombers dominating the battlefield for the most part or will the caps be very dangerous to get close (like BP WiH for example)?

Capships are a rarity here. As for cruisers, we will have a lot (semi-dangerous to get near to, so no one-man killing), but as for capships... not much. Don't ask me about the Shivans though. They don't play by the rules.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: BengalTiger on November 01, 2010, 08:18:33 am
Will each faction use the same ship classes?
Will ships vary between fleets from different planets within a single faction?

I'm asking, because I don't really like the "each faction either buys or steals just about everything from the others" philosophy used in this other mod I'm playing right now (even though there are a few similar or even redundant designs flying around in the mod).
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 01, 2010, 08:21:58 am
Will each faction use the same ship classes?
Will ships vary between fleets from different planets within a single faction?

I'm asking, because I don't really like the "each faction either buys or steals just about everything from the others" philosophy used in this other mod I'm playing right now (even though there are a few similar or even redundant designs flying around in the mod).

TVWP'd?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on November 01, 2010, 11:27:45 am
Will each faction use the same ship classes?
Will ships vary between fleets from different planets within a single faction?

I'm asking, because I don't really like the "each faction either buys or steals just about everything from the others" philosophy used in this other mod I'm playing right now (even though there are a few similar or even redundant designs flying around in the mod).

Most of the ships will be different. The pirate group only has a few original ships though, but I think that this is understandable. :p
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: -Norbert- on November 01, 2010, 12:48:54 pm
You could give them the Uglies. Those certainly fit in well with pirates I think, though that they use part of "modern" fighters might be a problem...
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: BengalTiger on November 02, 2010, 11:22:33 am
I don't think any of the ships the Uglies are made of exist during Syrk... but there are many models and model dumps to choose from, easily enough to make several new factions or even species with simple retextures and other minor edits.

And yes, it was TVWP.  :p
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on November 02, 2010, 02:14:31 pm
I don't think any of the ships the Uglies are made of exist during Syrk...

Don't forget that we will have Federal ships and all that juice. Who knows what we end up with. ;)
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Mobius on November 03, 2010, 12:04:55 pm
Are you using the Federal ships' original names?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 03, 2010, 12:08:12 pm
And will you guys be picking up the new pair?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on November 03, 2010, 12:33:18 pm
Are you using the Federal ships' original names?
Nope, obviously.
And will you guys be picking up the new pair?
Not sure yet. Possible. ;)
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 03, 2010, 12:37:12 pm
They're a little funky. If Droid or anybody gets fixed up versions they can probably get passed on to you.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Droid803 on November 03, 2010, 05:28:31 pm
You mean the Banshee/Iz'rail and the HellRaiser/Vajradahaghghhwhatever?
I don't think I can fix up those more than they already are (short of re-uving to lower texture count I guess, but I donno how to do that). There's nothing that can be done about the wonky radius required for sliding parts unless there's a change in the way the engine handles subobject animation.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/126554/FS2/HellRaiser-radhak.pof
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/126554/FS2/banshee-radhak.pof

Totally a hackjob fix but there's really no way around it that I can see.
(you'll need to set warpout radii in the ships.tbl or it'll look terrrrible)
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 03, 2010, 05:29:06 pm
Or if the animations are disabled.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Droid803 on November 03, 2010, 05:30:22 pm
But the animations are cool.
We can't sacrifice those!
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: BengalTiger on November 06, 2010, 07:12:14 pm
Don't forget that we will have Federal ships and all that juice. Who knows what we end up with. ;)

Is this dude going to be used?
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FD_Vexor

Or is this info classified?
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 06, 2010, 07:15:38 pm
Don't forget that we will have Federal ships and all that juice. Who knows what we end up with. ;)

Is this dude going to be used?
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FD_Vexor

Or is this info classified?

Please, please, no. There's a reason that thing got cut!
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Lucika on November 06, 2010, 07:27:06 pm
The very first and only destroyer-sized vessel featured in the campaign is the very first Orion ever built.

Except for the Shivans
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Droid803 on November 06, 2010, 09:46:28 pm
Don't forget that we will have Federal ships and all that juice. Who knows what we end up with. ;)

Is this dude going to be used?
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FD_Vexor

Or is this info classified?

Please, please, no. There's a reason that thing got cut!

The horrible lighting errors?
I've fixed those. :3

So aside from the fact that it's a performance hog, it's perfectly usable (unless there's something else I should know about!). And even in performance wise it doesn't lag me more than the Solaris (which is considerably more detailed...but whatever)

Still...I wouldn't put more than one in a mission, ever.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: MatthTheGeek on November 07, 2010, 03:03:07 am
If you want to compare it with something, compare it with the Karuna. The Solaris is a way less laggy ship, being optimized.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Droid803 on November 07, 2010, 01:27:59 pm
The Solaris drops me to 20 FPS (from 120), just like the Vexor. (with just a single one on screen \o/)
The Solaris is optimized, but its also like twice as detailed, if it wasn't optimized FSO probably wouldn't even load it :P In fact, I recall stories of how it had to be broken into chunks to get FSO to load it even after being optimized.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: General Battuta on November 07, 2010, 01:29:58 pm
The code had to be upgraded a bit, in fact.
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: MatthTheGeek on November 07, 2010, 05:06:51 pm
Whatever, it's still way less laggy than the Karuna when onscreen. I can actually look at the Solaris without melting my graphic card (thank god for LODs).
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: Droid803 on November 07, 2010, 06:41:11 pm
oh right yeah LODs do help...if you're not on max settings which has them on LOD0 all the time anyway XD
Title: Re: The story (as much as is revealable)
Post by: MatthTheGeek on November 08, 2010, 12:56:13 am
Hehe... Max settings, in WiH, with an Intelgrated ? I just DON'T want a negative fps man :p