Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Topic started by: zack-stefy on February 27, 2014, 02:24:31 am
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Hey guys..I have some Fred questions because i want to make some cool missions :D
1. How do I make a battlestar/ basestar move like in the game's missions? I can't find in the Fred documentation. I want to create a battle where the battlestar moves near the basestar and they start firing at each other ( you know..just like in the TV show)
2. How many ships can i have on the map without a game crash? I want this battle to be really big ( like Battle of Caprica or Battle of Endor from Star Wars)
3. Will you release other ships or 3d assets for Fred? I'd really love to see some new asteroids ( a big asteroid with a hole inside will be perfect for some dog-fights) and new ships like Pegasus/Galactica.
4. Can we import new ship/battlestar models from other mods ( Fleet Commader for Homeworld 2 or the Battlestar Galactica mod for Nexus the Jupiter Incident) and make those battlestars work ingame just like Theseus does?
Thanks! And keep up the great work!!! :D
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Hey guys..I have some Fred questions because i want to make some cool missions :D
1. How do I make a battlestar/ basestar move like in the game's missions? I can't find in the Fred documentation. I want to create a battle where the battlestar moves near the basestar and they start firing at each other ( you know..just like in the TV show)
You need to create a waypoint, or a list of waypoints, and then give the ship an AI order to follow them. You can do that with a sexp via the events editor, or through "initial orders" on the ships editor.
2. How many ships can i have on the map without a game crash? I want this battle to be really big ( like Battle of Caprica or Battle of Endor from Star Wars)
There's no limit, but the more you add the more it will slow down - quite badly in some cases. And those kinds of missions are notoriously not fun for the players - there's very little opportunity for the player to affect the outcome, and so it becomes a little dull.
3. Will you release other ships or 3d assets for Fred? I'd really love to see some new asteroids ( a big asteroid with a hole inside will be perfect for some dog-fights) and new ships like Pegasus/Galactica.
Im not on the team, but I know they are planning future releases which will include new assets. There are also Frespace assets which can be brought in - I believe that there are some asteroids of that sort floating around, but I'd need to have a hunt to find them. Maybe with BP WiH?
4. Can we import new ship/battlestar models from other mods ( Fleet Commader for Homeworld 2 or the Battlestar Galactica mod for Nexus the Jupiter Incident) and make those battlestars work ingame just like Theseus does?
Thanks! And keep up the great work!!! :D
Theoretically, yes. The models could be converted, but it wont be a straightforward process. If you can get those meshes and textures extracted (with the permission of the original creators), you would probably be able to convert it to a pof (turrets may or may not be tricky - I'm not sure how those games deal with turrets), and then generate a table file and get it in game. But it's going to be pretty tricky if you're not experienced with both the FSO engine and the file formats from the original engines.
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Here's some asteroids :)
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86019.0
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2. How many ships can i have on the map without a game crash? I want this battle to be really big ( like Battle of Caprica or Battle of Endor from Star Wars)
It's funny you should mention the Battle of Endor, because that's the term used in the FreeSpace modding community to refer to the problems with big, chaotic missions (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Battle_of_Endor_Syndrome). The situation is much the same in Diaspora: 'small' missions with a few well-placed capships and a clear purpose for the fighters in the battle are generally a lot more fun to play and easy to create as a designer.
3. Will you release other ships or 3d assets for Fred? I'd really love to see some new asteroids ( a big asteroid with a hole inside will be perfect for some dog-fights) and new ships like Pegasus/Galactica.
As far as BSG ships go, there's not all that much beyond what the Diaspora team have created. There's the assets from the old demo release of Beyond the Red Line (http://www.beyondtheredline.net/archive.html), but bear in mind they're quite old now and will need a certain amount of work to integrate into Diaspora. There's a nice big comet model with some tunnels running through it in the latest release of Blue Planet (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=70745.0), though.
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Thank you so much for the replays! :D
But..how do I import those asteroids ( http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=86019.0 ) into Diaspora's Fred?! :confused:
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Diaspora R2 will include some great new assets to play around with. We've already shown off the Valkyrie (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83202.0) for instance. How soon we release R2 is an issue though of course. It depends on how long it takes to get it finished and we really can't make any sensible guesses about that yet.
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zack-stefy usually you have to place additional data into:
WhereeverYouInstalled Diaspora/Diaspora/Data
In Data there are several subfolders, these tell you what data belongs there (ie missions go into the missions folder and so on)
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Although if you want to distribute your work to other people it's best to create your own mod directory so all your files stay well-organised. The wiki has a lot of very useful information on the technical aspects of modding with the FSO engine here (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Portal:Modding); it's worth keeping around as a reference.
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Installing to data is dangerous as it is easy to break the main campaign that way. Installing to Diaspora/My_Mod's_Name/Data is much much safer.
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Excuse me if i sound stupid, but the asteroid pack is not a mod in my eyes, it is more like an asset. Does that mean every asset needs a own mod folder?
This leads me to the next question. What are all those empty folders (tables, maps, etc.) for, when you have to create a new mod folder anyway for everything?
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Given that asteroids need table entries, yes, they are a mod. What you would do in such a case is to package everything you need for your mod into your mod and distribute that.
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If I figure out how to make a battlestar/basestar move i'll be the best FRED'er ever,hehe! :banghead: :cool:
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The simplest building block for capship maneuvers is the humble waypoint. Place one in a mission, tell the capship to move towards it, and presto. More intricate maneuvers can be pulled off via the use of the various ship maneuver sexps (which enable rolls), waypoint paths, and the waypoint manipulation sexps (which allow you to move waypoints as required).
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If I figure out how to make a battlestar/basestar move i'll be the best FRED'er ever,hehe! :banghead: :cool:
There is a walkthrough included in the FREDdocs folder for Diaspora. You can access it via the FRED help menu. I highly recommend doing it.