Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Topic started by: Browncoat Mal on October 01, 2010, 07:12:01 pm
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Hello all!
So while we eagerly await the unimaginably astounding brilliance I have no doubt the dev team will be delivering, I figured I'd scour the Interwebz for other forms of getting my BSG gaming fix- in the form of mods, of course, none of that terrible 'official' stuff. :)
Anyway, had already known about BSG: Fleet Commander for Homeworld 2, and had tried it out a while back. Frankly, was a bit disappointed- just didn't feel like Galactica, though they have done some brilliant work with the look of the game. To me, the 'fleet' aspect of HW2 just didn't mesh with the BSG idea of a single, or very small, group of ships.
Now, to admit a dirty secret of mine- I purchased Nexus: The Jupiter Incident when it came out, being a hardcore Sierra nut since my wee small days of Caesar's 2, Lord of the Realms, and Lords of Magic. The first time I played it, I couldn't help but think, "Damn, this would make a great engine for BSG." Sadly, at the time I looked for mods for it, I either looked right over Nexus: BSG, or it hadn't been fleshed out yet.
Either way, to cut a long story short, here I sit now, with the latest versions of each loaded up on my machine, prepared to waste away precious hours of my life secure in the knowledge that each one brings me closer to Diaspora-bliss. So now I come to you, the forum gods, to help me along. Which should I play? Which can be argued to be 'better'? What set of features does each bring to the table? Sadly, their official mod pages aren't big in the way of listing feature-sets.
More than all that info, though, I just wanted to bring up two other mods more strategy/tactics oriented than flight sim oriented that some people here on the forums might not have known about, in the interest of keeping us all entertained. :) I hope if you haven't heard about one or both of these, you go give them a try- I know I will be.
So say we all.
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I loved Nexus, it had the complexity I crave from whatever you want to call that genre. I haven't seen any BSG mods for it, but I did recently re install Nexus to try 'Stargate: War Begins'. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to doing that yet (and they released another new version yesterday so I will need to download it again :( ). Now I'll have to give Nexus: BSG a try as well.
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There is a bsg mod in development for nexus, I forgot it's name.. try and do a search on moddb they are listed on there. No idea if they released something playable by now or not, though. As far as I could tell the gameplay should be a space based RTS much like the original Nexus game was and the graphics look pretty good for a RTS.
Of course if you actually want to fly raptors or vipers you're in the right place already :)
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Here's a link to the BSG Nexus mod (http://www.moddb.com/mods/nexus-battlestar-galactica).
From the videos it does look very good, my only nitpick being a few inaccuracies with the models (e.g. missing bow guns on the battlestars).
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That latest vid on ModDb look pretty ace.
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:D
Sorry if my long-winded-ness caused that to be lost, but there is indeed a BSG mod for Nexus, and it's on version 4.1 of the Beta. Have had a chance to pay it since my last post, and I do have to say I like where they are going. However, right now I find it to be sadly....
...repetitive. Maybe it's because I'm missing out on something, some part of the interface that is hidden from me, but right now it is very, very repetitive, and doesn't involve any of the really cool tactical bits the BSG universe brought us. Here's hoping they either have something in the pipe to address that or I'm just being an idiot and having figured out how to make my battlestars stand off behind their flak walls...
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Battlestars aren't stand-off ships, they're brawlers. Stay back, and let your Vipers and flak handle the Raiders, then use the manual panel (really, Nexus was meant for this to be used) to close to medium range or so and then start pounding the basestars with your cannons. Firing a nuclear missile after the Raiders are gone will take out a basestar and leave any others seriously damaged, just keep your battlestar away from the target and have your Vipers on Guard so you don't get any friendly-fire incidents.
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Most Nexus mods are crap, since none manage to be complex, which is usually because of the universe behind it.
The BSG mod looks really cool but does not feature much tactical depth either. Still, awesome graphics and a lot better than the Homeworld 2 one.
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The recently released dynamic lighting patch makes a huge difference in realism.
I think it even makes Nexus BSG the most accurate looking Battlestar mod released yet. The fighting scenes come prettly damn close to those of the show imho.
I mean just look at that vid - who the heck cares if there's enough tactical depht anyway - it's sci-fi for gods sake....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjgOtrwGnto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjgOtrwGnto)
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I mean just look at that vid - who the heck cares if there's enough tactical depht anyway - it's sci-fi for gods sake....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjgOtrwGnto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjgOtrwGnto)
Yes, it does look great. As for tactical depth, sorry but I'd say that's pretty important in a RTS. That said, I haven't played the Nexus mod so I'm not in a position to say anything about it's gameplay, really. It does look good.
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Gameplay is pretty demanding actually - there's much you can do wrong - most of the time, if you make one mistake early in a mission you can already tell that you've lost the battle since both the ships maneuverability and speed are limited.
Weapon balancing and AI aren't bad either - cylon rockets have a longer range than your railguns, the railguns however do more damage which makes basestars very vulnerable in close range combat (just like in the show i suppose), and as you can see in the video the basestar doesn't really stand a chance.
However if there's more than one cylon target the basestars split up and try to get out of your weapons range in order to take you down from a distance - if you let them get away you hardly have a chance to catch up with them again in time.
Also when a ship gets destroyed you should be sure to stay out of the blast radius or vital ship systems will be damaged in the resulting shockwave. Once you manage to take out the basestars fighter support you can also use tactical nukes to finish off the capital ships.
Currently the only thing that's missing in my opinion are actual plots for the missions, more variety or probably even a campaign. At the moment the available missions are mostly non-canon and the main goal is to seek and destroy the enemy.
Lack of tactical depht isn't really the problem that the mod has - it's more the strategic component that's completely missing.
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that indeed looks pretty cool. Have to check, if the local game shop has Nexus available.
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If you don't mind Steam, you can always grab it there for $9.
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If you don't mind Steam, you can always grab it there for $9.
Rather not, but thanks for the info.
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Yeah, I know some people dislike Steam, which is why we need it up on GoG.
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Lack of tactical depht isn't really the problem that the mod has - it's more the strategic component that's completely missing.
Shoot everything you have. Kill enemy fighters. Finish with nukes. A bit to boring compared to Nexus with it's Lasers, Shield piercing weapons, Area effect bombs, Plasma Weapons, different fighter types, marine boarding crews, cloaks, sensors, ecm and eccm systems and all the standard weapons :)
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Your ships do carry Raptors for boarding. All basestars need are attachment points.