Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Developer Blog => Topic started by: karajorma on January 11, 2010, 08:32:32 am
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Once again it's been a while between Dev Blog posts but things have been going on here at Diaspora. While a lot of it has been stuff that isn't graphics related (and therefore not stuff we can take screenshots of) we now do have some stuff we can show you.
Firstly we recently got out the champagne and cracked it over the bows of the Prometheus, Gemenon Traveler and Class 6 Cargo Transport. These three represent the first ships we at team Diaspora can actually called finished. Of course no piece of art is ever truly finished, merely abandoned but these three ship classes have finally reached release quality. They are now in the same form they will be in when R1 is released (assuming we don't decide to tweak them or discover a bug).
To celebrate here's a picture of the interior of the Prometheus.
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0091.jpg)
The bigger news is that work on the Basestar is finally wrapping up too. Long time visitors (or those who have obsessively read all of these blogs and the comments) will remember that some of our ships have been rather crudely mapped in the past when we were using them as placeholders. The basestar was one such ship. We are much happier with the version we have now and for this reason we have some close ups of the Basestar.
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0050.png)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0104.jpg)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0170.jpg)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0176.jpg)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0235.jpg)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0291.jpg)
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0150.jpg)
But the real star here is the Raider racks. Yes, these have been fully modelled and are now usable.
(http://diaspora.hard-light.net/images/screens/devblog/screen0373.jpg)
Of course the engine can't currently handle using all 800+ slots but we can definitely use some of them. :D
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Oh my :eek2:
That looks fantastic guys! Outstanding work so far. Cant wait to see the rest of it in due time :yes2: :nod: :yes:
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You guys are amazing. Could the Diaspora team be arranged to collectively bear my children? :D
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You guys are amazing. Could the Diaspora team be arranged to collectively bear my children? :D
As appealing as that sounds, I'm going to pass on that. Can't speak for the rest of the team, though :D
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omg with the cockpit though the raider racks on the base star are a bit special
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You could be arranged to collectively bear the Diaspora team's children, Dilmah.
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you must not release this until i can afford to change my computer, im sure my present half dead laptop would just die the moment i triedto load this , but other than that , thanks for taking FSopen into a world so pretty
please can you post the download link for our Beta working version in my PM box
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You could be arranged to collectively bear the Diaspora team's children, Dilmah.
This could be weird. :D
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Incredible, as always good work guys :yes:
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I'm looking forward to using cockpits... good, working cockpits with FSO. That, and with all the other good stuff which should be in the works should make this full of awesome sauce! ;)
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Mmm, pretty pictures. I thought you guys were nuts when you said the Basestar wasn't up to snuff months back, but looking at it now, I can see why you wanted to put more time into it. :D
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Awesome... really, really AWESOME! :jaw:
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Top work.
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Awesome shots there. :yes: I love that orangish planet in the background, too. Reminds me of Vulcan. :3
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Absolutely fantastic work guys.
Massively impressive, hard to believe you are doing this on your own time and aren't getting pad hefty lumps of cash for such professional work!
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The Raider Racks look AWESOME! I would love if Diaspora somehow mysteriously supported 1600 ships, though. Ya know, so you can fill those Raider Racks and then some!
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Jeez.
Simply.
Jeez.
This is gonna be a standalone? Also I recently played the (somewhat buggy) Galactica HW2 mod so I know what ships I want to see now. Colonial 1 is a firm favourite.
I don't know if battlestar Aries is canon but that's a another.
Back on topic.
Jeez. . . . :jaw:
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You guys must be really crazy.
Haven´t seen such awesome pics for ages.
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This is gonna be a standalone? Also I recently played the (somewhat buggy) Galactica HW2 mod so I know what ships I want to see now. Colonial 1 is a firm favourite.
I don't know if battlestar Aries is canon but that's a another.
We've done our best to dispel the myth that you'll need to own fs2 to play diaspora but apparently it doesn't die quite as easy as we'd hoped :) Yes, it will be standalone.
I have no idea what battlestar Aries is. It's possible they used a canon battlestar and gave it this name in which case we'll introduce it in some release, probably with a different name. If it isn't, well, our non-canon stuff is pretty awesome so I doubt you'll be disappointed.
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To quote Apollo, "You (guys) are beyond insane!"
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incredible!!!and about theseus landing bays? is there some screenshot?
EDIT: found them.... sorry :drevil:
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It's so pretty...
Can I keep it?
I promise to feed it... actually... what do Basestars eat?
raw Tylium I guess.
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what do Basestars eat?
Battlestars, if the mini series is anything to go by :P
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As the Hybrid put it
OM NOM NOM NOM
end of line
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You guys are amazing. Could the Diaspora team be arranged to collectively bear my children? :D
I am surprised hes the only one making the offer :P
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I got there first!
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It-sucks-like-hell. What are those textures? Toilet paper? No normal maps? Again: it sucks! Show us normal screens with normal maps, these are the worst screenshots you've ever posted.
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It-sucks-like-hell. What are those textures? Toilet paper? No normal maps? Again: it sucks! Show us normal screens with normal maps, these are the worst screenshots you've ever posted.
:wtf: OK. If you don't like them,
- post better ones and/or
- ignore this thread.
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Sarcasm much? :P
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Yeah, not sure that was sarcasm.
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I picked up on it to be honest.
But no tags. . . .
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If it wasn´t sarcasm, this guy has to be banned!
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If it wasn't sarcasm, this guy has to be banned!
People should be allowed to express their thoughts here, I guess..
In the meantime, we can just ignore the ridiculous post and focus more on the eyecandy :cool:
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I'd like more please. An external of the ship we're viewing from would be a bonus.
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There's three screens of it. ;)
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Not of the craft with the apparent two seater cockpit.
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Not of the craft with the apparent two seater cockpit.
You mean the Raptor? The cockpit shots are from the Raptor. The only other two seater we have is the VIIE and she's a tandem configuration and isn't in any of those shots.
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No sarcasm. Thats true. Look.
(http://www.diaspora-game.com/images/screens/devblog/screen0373.jpg)
I am surprised that I can't see pixels, but this is normal. However, it is DAMN visible that this place has been simply botched up. And the textures... I think I've done some similar things. And they looked better, because they had normal maps. They looked like armor plates, not like painted wood. Baseship's shape makes everything look bad from the start, cos it is very wavy. It needs special treatment and I can only see raw cheap textures on average model. And... is this baseship violet? Oo
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Show me a game ready screenshot of your model or it didn't happen. :p
Also, yep, I don't think i've seen the Raptor yet. I saw that overly sexy ultra detailed mega shuttle. . . But can't remember a Raptor.
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*newman facepalms
Kobrar44 - oh wise one - please teach me how to be a better artist. Show me your work that is so much better then my own.
If you can't, I have a little piece of advice for you - before you call months of somebody's hard work "toilet paper" on a subject you know nothing about.. shut the frak up. Now please stay out of this thread since you obviously have nothing but trolling to offer.
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Seconded.
Kobrar, go shoot yourself mate.
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Also, yep, I don't think i've seen the Raptor yet. I saw that overly sexy ultra detailed mega shuttle. . . But can't remember a Raptor.
Ummmm. I posted three pictures with the 3rd person view of the combat Raptor in this thread. :D
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To be clear on something, I don't think my work is perfect. There is always room for improvement. Kobrar44 does make one, and only one valid point - the insides of the racks do look a bit low res. When I was building it I was making it as similar to Zoic as possible - and believe it or not this is pretty much the way they did it. This is partially the reason they retconned the thing - the original didn't work with closeups too well. Now in a game you have limitations and making every area of a an over 2km long ship look crisp can be tough - but I think I've done well here and apart from the insides of the racks I'm pretty happy with how the entire ship looks like. The low rez-ness of the racks is something we've discussed and there is a possibility that the interiors of the racks will get their separate map to solve this issue. As for the normal maps, kobrar suggests that the racks themselves would look better with them and you'd get some "paneling" going on. If he had any experience with texturing he might know that low rez normal maps aren't something that looks good, and that glow maps + normal maps don't mix too well in fs2. Secondly he appears to hate the entire ship because there's no normal maps, ignoring completely the fact that this ship is almost entirely smooth surfaced and there are very few areas that would benefit from having normal maps. Even so I did make normal maps covering those areas, but the game has a shader bug that makes the engine shade things wrong if you're using uvw mirroring. The basestar, due to it's symmetrical nature, uses uvw mirroring on some surfaces and until that shader bug is fixed the normal maps, which don't do anything really critical for this ship, will stay out. In the mean time however we wanted to show off some screens, my deepest apologies to kobrar for not consulting him first before releasing them, rest assured we will never release anything again that doesn't meet with his expert approval first.
Seriously though, every piece of work can be discussed in a civilized manner. But when you literally work your ass off on something for months and then someone of this level of experience (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=61527.msg1215048#msg1215048) calls it "toilet paper" then I'm sorry but I'm not going to go easy on that.
He does have one chance to make himself not lool like a complete idiot - build and texture a better basestar. Simple as that.
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I tend to agree.
I've never had any problem with people criticizing Diaspora and saying what should be improved. Constructive crits help make the game better for everyone. Nothing Kobrar posted in his initial post was constructive in any way. And anyone who is going to come onto the Diaspora board and insult months of work from someone no doubt 100 times more qualified than him is going to have a serious problem with me.
So Kobrar, you have one month to deliver screenshots of a working, normal mapped version of the retconned basestar from seasons 3 and 4 or you will be spending the month after that banned from HLP.
Let's see you put your supposed talent to the test.
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Yeah. That does put things into respective. I for one do not approve of the attitude.
Kobra
I'm out. . . <dragons den>
And H :) apologies I missed the Raptor as I was blinded by the BEAUTY of the Basestar.
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Kobrar44, if you want to back out I'll take your apology and personal assurance that from now on you will stay out of the Diaspora boards to Kara and see if I can talk him out of banning you. If not, I will be anticipating february 15th with great interest. Your choice.
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I said I've made similar textures... not model. Textures seem to me like simple color with some noise. And that is within my power. And I said that model is at advanced level[right, not average], I agree, but... It is not 'damn PRO' and normal map HAS to make up for it. At short distance, cos for larger distance it looks better. Look at lights texture-does it look right? Simple rectangle painted on smooth wall-is it level of quality you're going to release? The thing that sucks or, more likely-is not present-is normal map. I am not saying I'm better. I'm disappointed, cos so far you've been showing us awesome things and these 'awesome shots' look really cheap. Why? I think I've already told you. I'm sure I expressed myself too... emphatic and I apologize. It really looks for me like toilet paper but I guess I should have used more polite words.
And one more thing. I am not sure if raider racks were simple holes in baseships wall and if anyone could post screen from tvseries, I would be grateful, cos that thing looks bad for me as well. And I am not saying I could teach you. I am saying I realy don't like your screenshots. Is my statement clear?
I can accept your challenge, but I wouldn't expect anything above 'ugly'. That means, except textures, my work would be far worse. I guess textures would be 'just' worse. Maybe I've made myself look like an idiot, but new model is always a new experience :D
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I can accept your challenge, but I wouldn't expect anything above 'ugly'. That means, except textures, my work would be far worse. I guess textures would be 'just' worse. Maybe I've made myself look like an idiot, but new model is always a new experience :D
Mr. Toilet Paper rides again! This is getting tiresome. As much as I love taking professional advice from such an obvious expert, let me explain a few things really quickly. The basestar textures are very far from being simple, the whole ship was modeled and textured using a lot of references of the zoic version and I dare say it's actually quite close to the original, as far as a game model can make it anyway. Since you admit yourself that you cannot do better, I'd say you've failed the challenge Kara gave you. Read Kara's last post again and check your shiny new custom title if you need clues on what's going to happen next.
Also, if you want someone to take your apologies seriously you might not want to call their work toilet paper again while you're doing it.
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/me attempts to express an opinion not too dissimilar to Kobrar44's, but in a tactful, constructive manner:
If the SCP guys could get detail texturing support into the engine (possibly in time for a re-release, if it's the sort of thing that would delay the initial release), then you could have a nice balance of whole-model UV and local tiled plating...
Basically, it'd use a second texture, probably using the same UV coords as were passed to the vertex shader, but significantly upping the tiling in the fragment shader. It would modulate /overlay the diffuse and specular color, and would alter the normals (possibly a weighted average); it might also add to emission if it had its own emission map. Thus the close-up bits of the huge basestar could still look detailed, even though the main UV only gives maybe a 10x10 texel region for 'em...
I believe this idea was posted/mentioned elsewhere on the forums, and a link to the Infinity engine's implementation was posted, but I can't seem to find it, so here (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=26)'s the article itself.
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Looking at the first close-up picture I was like: :)
Then I saw the second one and went: :jaw:
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Few of my thoughts regarding Kobrar's quite rude remarks about the Base star:
-Comparison of an in-game screenshot using in-game detail model and in-game practical textures and a state-of-the-art production renders from Zoic using hell of a lot more detailed models and sure as hell more detailed source textures is hardly relevant. Relevant would be how good it looks in-game at a typical gameplay distances, and I would casually wager a guess that you would normally want to stay a hell of a lot further from this ship in your fighter...
-The JPG image has a lot of compression artefacts in it. I wouldn't call it the ultimate depiction of how the model and textures look in-game. Also, no movement.
-The diffuse texture looks fine. Baremetal surfaces like that of a Basestar tend to look fairly uniformly gray to distance. You have to go really, really close to see the small detail in a baremetal surface, and no graphics card in existence supports such a resolution quite frankly. A more sophisticated material system would potentially allow marking parts of the model as material X and it would then automatically use the surface detail in tiled mode combined with the UVmapped textures of the model, but so far we have no such thing.
-The lighting effects like glares and reflections are achieved with specular lighting and environmental mapping, and we have no way of knowing if the thing is shine mapped yet, or if shine maps are active. Also, it seems like there is no skybox or other background elements apart from retail stars in the mission in question (in other screenies there seems to be a background starfield), so the lack of environmental reflections is not surprising even if they were active, which we also can't know.
-Kobrar's statement about normal maps making everything magically better is patently false and I believe good indication of his general understanding of FreeSpace modding or 3D modding in general. Yes, normal maps when correctly utilized make a model look better. No, it's not good practice to add imaginary normal mapped detail to parts of ships that don't have them in the reference. Sure, you can get a nice model with nice textures that way but it won't much look like the original.
The deck and Raptor cockpit look magnificent. And the other screenies of the Base star taken from further distance truly show the amount of detail in it. I don't even want to know how many polygons those curved surfaces require to be that smooth...
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Henry you jus meed me plik ahiom.n.
To och txt.
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Thanks for summing some things up for me, Herra. After this many months of work on it, when a noob who obviously has no idea what he's talking about claims that he's not very good but can replicate that work easily because it sucks, I kinda get worked up an lose my patience. You're right on the money for the most part there. I'm going to answer your questions as best I can in a private message.
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I wish I had the patience to get back into 3d modeling, but I never bother :(
But having done some before, I understand just how amazing your work is :)
also, I want a custom title!
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Then do something awesome. Or something stupid.
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Awesome is preferable to stupid.
...As you might have guessed, the majority of titles seem to be in relation to rather rash acts. Again, finding a way to make yourself useful would be a good start...
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While I can see the point about the inside of the racks looking a bit bare, I think the fact that the racks work makes up for it and then some. Not to mention just how smooth and deadly the whole basestar looks. Excellent work! :nod:
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Someone said Deck?.. Anyway, remarkable screen shots and keep up the good work!!.
P.S: Besides those slots texture which I understand is still a WORK IN PROGRESS. The later 3 words in caps obviously go to that guy lecturing Newman on how to work his awesome Base Star for this game.
I'm around and Cheers!
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I tend to agree.
I've never had any problem with people criticizing Diaspora and saying what should be improved. Constructive crits help make the game better for everyone. Nothing Kobrar posted in his initial post was constructive in any way. And anyone who is going to come onto the Diaspora board and insult months of work from someone no doubt 100 times more qualified than him is going to have a serious problem with me.
So Kobrar, you have one month to deliver screenshots of a working, normal mapped version of the retconned basestar from seasons 3 and 4 or you will be spending the month after that banned from HLP.
Let's see you put your supposed talent to the test.
I expect nothing but another bull****-comments from Kobrar. So he soon will have the chance to think about what he wrote here.
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I'm far faster-I've already done it. I understand my mistakes and I sugest you stop this offtopic, because since HT post it is pointless[I mean, HT said everything there was to say]. I have already made fool of myself and now is your turn. And you are somehow making good use of it.
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I'm far faster-I've already done it. I understand my mistakes and I sugest you stop this offtopic, because since HT post it is pointless[I mean, HT said everything there was to say]. I have already made fool of myself and now is your turn. And you are somehow making good use of it.
How about you shut up or post something constructive for a change.
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@Newman: Don't get upset, your stuff are awesome.
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I see quite a few raiders there... so how many raiders can be "docked" with the basestar at once?
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All right, I think the whole kobrar thing has been handled. Let's let him be.
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I want to see scar :P
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your basestar suks!!!! hahaha!!! i am the devil!!! ,,, :wtf: seryously:congratulations for this amazing work... thanks to people like you we can fly in the marvelous bsg universe... hope to attack one of this monster very soon
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Awesome raptor cockipit!And great Baseship to!Will you be doing the colony as well?
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Colony (http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Colony)
I want to see scar :P
Download Beyond The Red Line
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Surprising enough we do know what the Cylon colony is :P
To answer your question, the colony will be needed for the final campaign that will follow the show. So in short, yes we'll probably have the colony at some point, but not any time soon.
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Surprising enough we do know what the Cylon colony is :P
To answer your question, the colony will be needed for the final campaign that will follow the show. So in short, yes we'll probably have the colony at some point, but not any time soon.
WAT
Awesome. Very awesome.
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I know next to nothing about how Freespace actually works, but is it even possible to have something of that size in the game? It's something like a fifty kilometers along the wide axis. Or is this one of those "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" things?
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Surprising enough we do know what the Cylon colony is :P
To answer your question, the colony will be needed for the final campaign that will follow the show. So in short, yes we'll probably have the colony at some point, but not any time soon.
Course the Monastery is much sexier ;)
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I know next to nothing about how Freespace actually works, but is it even possible to have something of that size in the game? It's something like a fifty kilometers along the wide axis. Or is this one of those "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" things?
It's possible. It's just not clear that one could make it look good. But objects of such size have been done.
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Well, I'd imagine there could just be a variation of the same trick they used on the show. One model for the whole of the Colony, and a much smaller but more detailed model for the immediate area of the docking port Galactica jumped in front of.
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That's not quite possible to pull off exactly like that, but detail boxing and LODding - even, maybe, multiple models? - could be used.
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I think the colony is almost as big as the deathstar.A little smaller but damn close!
"Thats no moon its a space station!" :lol:
I wonder what the framerate would be on something that large in fs2 engine?I think they could solve that problem by having the model fairly low detailed and just make it look hi detailed by using bump maps and good textures.
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They say you can measure a society by the way they treat their animals. I think similarly, a game modding community can be measured by how they treat noobs.
So, by this measure, I have a lot of respect for Diaspora Devs and the community here. Unlike other modding communities. I am glad that at least a chance was given to the guy instead of the instant ban boot. Having said this, I'd ban him without second thought if he continuous to criticise without basis and without some sort of valid suggestions for improvement.
I'll take this opportunity to express my own thoughts, and let it be noted that I do not post here often, and the only reason I'd criticize the Dev's works is ONLY to help them make it better or at least consider something from a different perspective. Considering I have supported Kara and his team for over 2 years now through BSGpilots, and that I've actually produced some Battlestar Galactica 3D work myself (granted not much), that my criticism gets taken the good way.
Neuman, first of all, I'm impressed with how you handled yourself there. I know exactly what it means to put literally hundreds of hours of work into something, release it to the public, and then await comments and criticism. I have produced BSG work (notably Fan Videos and some 3D work) and some of it has received exceptional ratings and others not so great ones. One of my YouTube videos has a 3.5 star rating (which I take as it not being good work) while another has I believe the highest 5-star-rating-to-Views ratio of any BSG fan video on YouTube, with over 130 5 star ratings and over 12,000 views and rising. Of course, it doesnt please me greatly when people rate my work badly, but almost always there is a good reason for it because a work is either 5 star or 1 star. I believe in entertainment you either amaze or you fail miserably, there is no in-between.
Anyways, regarding the Basestar.
1. I believe the modeling is absolutely exceptional. Truly there is no one here or anywhere that doubts you are one of the best BSG fan modelers out there. Your base star looks amazing, including your Raider Racks.
2. That noob knows nothing about texturing or modeling or any 3D work, as his posts have proven, and probably 99% of the people here have absolutely no clue what a Specular Map is. Having said that, although your modeling is exceptional, and your texturing looks really amazing at a distance, I must agree that it does not hold up to close shots. Specifically, the "lighting" or white and red boxes on the ship, and indeed the Raider Rack textures do not hold up to close scrutiny. Now, there is probably a good reason why things are the way they are that only the people who actually know what they are doing (the Devs) are aware of. You have indicated many reasons yourself. If there is a way to improve the textures so they hold up to close scrutiny, then great. If not, no problem! It still the best darn base star that has ever graced the gaming world, and the very fact that it has Raider Racks that work is enough as others have said.
3. I have never liked BSG's base star. I have always thought it lacked detail and was textured poorly. Yes, even Zoic's basestar. When a basestar was present in the same scene as a Battlestar or any other ship, it has always looked out of place to me. It always looked a bit fake due to the low level of detail on the texturing and modeling. I'm not sure if a new Basestar was developped for the Plan movie, but those actually looked a lot better to me than the base stars in Season 1-4 of BSG. So, really, even when comparing your base star to Zoic's, well...Zoic's isnt' that great IMO in the first place. Again, just personal opinion. I just think the Basestars remain in the shadow of the incredible models of the Battlestars. Maybe it's just the fact that a Basestar is such an organic model with little detail to begin with, I mean in it's design, which btw, I think it's beautiful.
4. You cannot possibly compare a game-model, which has to be low-poly by nature to maintain frame rates, to pre-rendered 3D work which in theory has no limit on how detailed it has to be. You could have a 50 million poly Basestar with a 20K x 20K texture on it, and it would take maybe 2 years to render a 30 second animation, but it'd certainly look better than a 100,000 poly in-game model on a low res texture. You just cant compare the two.
Having said all this, you have done an absolutely fantastic job on the Basestar, and I look forward to blowing up all your hard work to little bits one day :)
I hope to one day be able to model and texture as well as you.
Keep up the great work.
And since we are on the topic of Basestars...you definitely should check out the render by BSG VFX artist Mojo utilizing the Season 3 Basestar modeled by Pierre Drolet. You can see the missile launch tubes on the edge of the basestar.
(http://darthmojo.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/baseship_wallpaper.jpg)
Adalla
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I'd say a fair few of us know what a spec map are.
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lvlshot that beast for great justice
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Awesome raptor cockipit!And great Baseship to!Will you be doing the colony as well?
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Colony (http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/The_Colony)
I want to see scar :P
Download Beyond The Red Line
That is not scar... thats just a raider with invincible when damage to 65% tag on.
And getting it to turn around and jump was almost as easy as getting Nova killed.
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Except that it _is_ Scar. Did you think Birth of a Legend was about you?
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Except that it _is_ Scar. Did you think Birth of a Legend was about you?
Yeah, as the pilot in game.
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That was Scar, actually.
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Except that it _is_ Scar. Did you think Birth of a Legend was about you?
Yeah, as the pilot in game.
The idea was that you would think it was about you at the start of the mission but by the time you realised that the mission put you up against Scar you'd realise it actually referred to him at least as much.
The idea was you were the pilot responsible for giving Scar the scars he had in the episode. Until he met you he was a pristine Raider same as any other. So there is a certain amount of legend surrounding your pilot too. :D
Setting up the mission that way gave us the opportunity of allowing the player to take on and defeat Scar without having to alter canon or have the player play as Starbuck/Kat. The crew of the Pegasus didn't realise that they were dealing with Scar of course. They assumed that they were dealing with some new advanced Raider model. It's only after Scar has picked off a few of Galactica's pilots that they realise they are dealing with a standard Raider that has simply gotten better.
Unfortunately engine limitations prevented us from making Scar as tricky a bastard as he was in the show when that mission was written for BtRL. These limitations appear to have now been fixed now thanks to Sushi and when you meet Scar in Diaspora (not in R1 but eventually) you will definitely know he's not a standard raider. :D
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:nervous:
I really thought he was bad enough in BtRL, though after a few playthroughs I found I could almost kill him before he escaped...
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I dunno who scar is :)
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How many raiders could be docked with the basestar at once?
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uhhh that basestar render is looking good, where can I find more of those shots?
EDIT: never mind, googlelizing it...
also:
wanna crash it with my loki :drevil:
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The idea was that you would think it was about you at the start of the mission but by the time you realised that the mission put you up against Scar you'd realise it actually referred to him at least as much.
The idea was you were the pilot responsible for giving Scar the scars he had in the episode. Until he met you he was a pristine Raider same as any other. So there is a certain amount of legend surrounding your pilot too. :D
Setting up the mission that way gave us the opportunity of allowing the player to take on and defeat Scar without having to alter canon or have the player play as Starbuck/Kat. The crew of the Pegasus didn't realise that they were dealing with Scar of course. They assumed that they were dealing with some new advanced Raider model. It's only after Scar has picked off a few of Galactica's pilots that they realise they are dealing with a standard Raider that has simply gotten better.
Unfortunately engine limitations prevented us from making Scar as tricky a bastard as he was in the show when that mission was written for BtRL. These limitations appear to have now been fixed now thanks to Sushi and when you meet Scar in Diaspora (not in R1 but eventually) you will definitely know he's not a standard raider. :D
Ahh.. thanks kara, it makes a lot more sense now.
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If you want to improve your basestar's launching bays look the vidéo here : http://www.zoicstudios.com/#/creations/television/31-battlestar-galactica/
Zoic studio is the official of BSG.
On the vid we can see the basestar and the raiders =)
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Except that Zoic was only the official VFX house for S01 and S02. They switched to an in-house team after that.
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Zoic studio is the official of BSG.
Was being the operative word. That massive drop off in CGI quality in season III and IV? Yeah that's the was. :P
Edit - ack ninja'd you tricky git!
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Yeah, I gotta say, that in-house team did not live up to Zoic. Their models may have been better, but...
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Surprisingly, I have no lack of basestar references :) Believe me I have loads, rendered from the official one. There is a big difference between doing a ship for a video and for game usage. If you're doing it for video, well first of all you can build it detailed and have loads of high rez maps etc. Secondly you get to choose what will be seen and what won't be seen. In game work however you're quite limited in model detail and texture count/rez, and on top of that you don't have the luxury of choosing the angles and distances something will be seen from - on a ship like that you can't stop the player from getting to like half a meter away from the ship then wondering why it doesn't look like the zoic version. First of all zoic's racks weren't that impressive but they had the luxury of showing them from the angles and distances of their choosing, at specific preset lighting conditions. In improving the rack interior maps i'll actully need to take a slight detour from canon.
Secondly, I don't want to seem ungrateful, but please do not offer us any zoic version basestar references. Trust me, we've seen them all and could quite probably show you loads you haven't seen yet.
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Yeah, I gotta say, that in-house team did not live up to Zoic. Their models may have been better, but...
Heresy!
The original models are much more pleasing to the eye then the new ones. The original Baseship was a massive organic space leviathan, in house manged to make it look industrial and smaller in one go. The VII? sure the F/A-18 Rhino bits were kind of cool but they made the thing tubby with a nose like Gonzo the Great. Not to mention magically putting a gun on top of Pegasus' flight pod that exists only for one scene. Quite frankly the Battle of the Rez and Ragnar despite being relatively smaller battles asset wise trump the hell out of the in house big battles in III and IV.
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Okay no problèm it was just a suggestion =)
This model is really great for a game we don't need more :yes:
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How many raiders could be docked with the basestar at once?
Well theoretically in game you could dock 398 of them but that would A: leave no ships except you against a Basestar and 398 Raiders and B: Make your FPS got to darn near 0 (if your system didn't melt) when you looked at it.
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How many raiders could be docked with the basestar at once?
Well theoretically in game you could dock 398 of them but that would A: leave no ships except you against a Basestar and 398 Raiders and B: Make your FPS got to darn near 0 (if your system didn't melt) when you looked at it.
Lol alone with a basestar and all the raiders :lol:
Game crash no fun...
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Yeah, I gotta say, that in-house team did not live up to Zoic. Their models may have been better, but...
Heresy!
The original models are much more pleasing to the eye then the new ones. The original Baseship was a massive organic space leviathan, in house manged to make it look industrial and smaller in one go. The VII? sure the F/A-18 Rhino bits were kind of cool but they made the thing tubby with a nose like Gonzo the Great. Not to mention magically putting a gun on top of Pegasus' flight pod that exists only for one scene. Quite frankly the Battle of the Rez and Ragnar despite being relatively smaller battles asset wise trump the hell out of the in house big battles in III and IV.
I completely concur. Resurrection Ship's probably my favorite SF battle of all time. The things they do with light and fire are just poetic.
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I agree, zoic is way better like 99% of the time. Even though the retconned basestar has much more detail and can be shown from much closer angles (that's why it was retconned in the first place), I find the zoic variant's general design to be much scarier. Zoic's lines were smooth and it made the ship like a giant predator in space. Like something that might be related to the great white shark :) The added detail breaks the smooth lines and kills the feeling for me. Secondly Zoic knew where to put windows and how many to put them - this helped to really feel the enormous size of the ship, a feeling that was somewhat dampened with the retconned version.
When they figured out that the zoic variant can't hold up to scrutiny when coming too close they should have improved the rez and detail on that one without changing the design and adding crap that spoils the whole feeling of the ship.
Still, inhouse made valkyrie so that's one point for them :)
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The retconned Basestars appeared to be half the size of the Zoic ones, and I agree with Newman that they seemd far less ominous. Their over-sized windows seemed more in keeping with a cruise ship's than a warship's.
As for the argument, I suspect that our Polish firend was misunderstood, perhaps because English is not his first language and he struggled to make himself clear. I think he was trying to say that the texture in the Raider slots has the appearance if tissue paper, not that the quality of the model was poor. Contrary to what others said, I don't think the forum gave him much of a chance to clarify or rewrite his comments before decending upon him with wrath and certainly doesn't deserve the self-congratulatory "aren't we tolerant" praise - nothing was tolerated or even given a chance to be clarified or withdrawn for even a second.
Personally, all of this modelling is beyond me and I'm hugely impressed at what has been achieved. I have no idea of what the texturing explaination mean, never having made a computer model, but I do understand that the Basestar is even harder than usual to texture. One question arises: why worry too much about the slots? You're never going to be that close to them without travelling at high speed, so you'll struggle to even acknowledge the existsence of the slots, nevermind assess their detail. I suspect that once the brightness of their texturing has been toned down, so they seem to be dark grey and in shadow rather than internally lit, they'll look completely suitable.
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Let's not go back into what kobrar did or did not mean as that discussion is, thank the gods, over - let's not rekindle it.
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I have some clips I found of BSG that I figured would let you all see the difference between zoics and in houses.Sure Zoic did awesome ones in S1 and 2 but in house did some great ones to.Just fyi in house did Razor not Zoic.In house also did the plan.The only thing I liked about the plan was the amazing effects.
Heres my favorite moment in razor.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgH83IqL8T8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgH83IqL8T8)
So heres the list.There all on hulu which can be slow at times just a little warning.
These are all Zoics.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/52708/battlestar-galactica-best-space-battle-starbuck-saves-apollo#s-p9-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/52708/battlestar-galactica-best-space-battle-starbuck-saves-apollo#s-p9-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/59122/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-olympic-carrier#s-p6-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/59122/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-olympic-carrier#s-p6-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/63279/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-cylon-kill-scar#s-p2-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/63279/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-cylon-kill-scar#s-p2-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/59132/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-resurrection-ship#s-p5-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/59132/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-resurrection-ship#s-p5-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/59121/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-cloud-nine#s-p6-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/59121/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-cloud-nine#s-p6-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/61176/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-surprise-moment-new-caprica-takeover#s-p4-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/61176/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-surprise-moment-new-caprica-takeover#s-p4-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2134/battlestar-galactica-lock-n-load#s-p21-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2134/battlestar-galactica-lock-n-load#s-p21-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/59123/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-pegasus#s-p6-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/59123/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-pegasus#s-p6-sr-i0)
The following are all in house.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2133/battlestar-galactica-ambush#s-p16-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2133/battlestar-galactica-ambush#s-p16-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2120/battlestar-galactica-running-out-of-time#s-p16-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2120/battlestar-galactica-running-out-of-time#s-p16-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2128/battlestar-galactica-photo-finish#s-p21-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2128/battlestar-galactica-photo-finish#s-p21-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2131/battlestar-galactica-an-act-of-war#s-p22-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2131/battlestar-galactica-an-act-of-war#s-p22-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2174/battlestar-galactica-phantom-dogfight#s-p17-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/2174/battlestar-galactica-phantom-dogfight#s-p17-sr-i0)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/63028/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-surprise-moment-starbucks-return#s-p3-sr-i0 (http://www.hulu.com/watch/63028/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-surprise-moment-starbucks-return#s-p3-sr-i0)
Forgot the Hub!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/59128/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-cylon-hub (http://www.hulu.com/watch/59128/battlestar-galactica-battlestar-best-explosion-the-cylon-hub)
I thought karas death scene was amazing,same goes for the Valkyrie and the nova.I also thought the colony battle was great which I dont have a clip of.I liked the hub explosion to.
Also im not trying to rekindle the debate.Just letting you see for yourselves.I actually hope this settles it.
The return of Starbuck scene actually made me come up with idea I want to suggest.Whenever you have the next trailer for Diaspora please have it set to All Along The Watchtower!Hope you use the Jimmy Hendrix version.Thats the best.
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I thought the nova and colony battle were particularly subpar vis a vis Zoic, myself. And Razor was distinguished by its weak explosions.
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The return of Starbuck scene actually made me come up with idea I want to suggest.Whenever you have the next trailer for Diaspora please have it set to All Along The Watchtower!Hope you use the Jimmy Hendrix version.Thats the best.
Well, one of the things I am looking for in Diaspora's Trailers is new music from MaX and Flipside. Using "All along the Watchtower" for the first (and probably least epic) release would be overkill IMHO.
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None of our releases will be "least epic". We don't do "least". No "least". :P
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For my part, I'm hoping Diaspora steers away from the Watchtower/God's plan/Starbuck-is-a-magic-angel aspects of the series. Sure, season 3 wasn't as strong as previous efforts, but it didn't really jump the shark IMO until All Along the Watchtower. Here is this group desperately struggling to survive where things look like they've finally reached a breaking point and oh, the only important character to die off so far just came back to life, and is that a cover of an extremely popular cover of a Bob Dylan song? Totally took me out of it, and I don't think they ever really recovered.
On the other hand, maybe if you do a cover of the cover of the cover of the tune it will turn out brilliant, like with even numbered Star Trek sequels.
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This is a stupid question thats been asked a lot but im dying to know about it.Does anyone have an ETA for the release date of R1?Will it be up this year?This month?Next month?I wouldnt mind if a demo of it was released with just one mission.The campaign could be released later.
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...this question has been answered SO MANY TIMES.
The answer is 'when it's done.'
That will be 'when the things that need to get done before release are done.'
Nobody can give a more precise date yet. You'll know when someone can.
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Damn.No one can seem to ever give a definite answer.
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That's because NO ONE KNOWS. The developers don't know. It's not some kind of secret from you, it just doesn't exist yet. It's impossible to predict how long it will take to get everything done.
I don't get what makes this so hard to figure out.
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Hotdog: Here's a hint: With Volunteer projects like this, it is basically impossible to look at a given asset and say "this will take x amount of time".
If you can't understand that, please try to organize your own mod team. See how many deadlines (whether they will be internal only or announced) you miss.
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I for one can attest to missing my own deadlines!
:nervous:
...Of course, I have things which are much more important to do, but there you go...
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It's the way of the world.
RL > HLPL
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It sounds like it will take a miracle for it to be released this year. :sigh:
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Okay, let's just ban this idiot.
He apparently does not understand that no one knows when it will be released.
Ban him. Seriously. He takes that, twists it around, and takes it to mean that 'it won't be released this year.'
Either he's a troll or a genuine dumbass.
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It sounds like noone is able to give you a concrete, reliable answer. Learn to live with it. At the very least, stop asking questions that you know cannot be answered to your satisfaction.
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Jeez I was just being sarcastic.
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Okay, let's just ban this idiot.
He apparently does not understand that no one knows when it will be released.
Ban him. Seriously. He takes that, twists it around, and takes it to mean that 'it won't be released this year.'
Either he's a troll or a genuine dumbass.
:wtf:
No, the kid's a noob. Everyone's been there, and it often takes a while to recognize that things just won't get up and done. I can attest to doing this personally, but I learned that lesson somewhere else...
Hotdog, don't put yourself to be in a position where you get a title like "you most make estimate." People have other things to do than make a non-profit production. When there's good news to tell, believe me, the Devs will be the first to tell. Do yourself a favor and don't ask this question again (or continue the conversation, for that matter).
Don't take offense, just take the advice.
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Yeah, I'm happy to say not everybody's been there.
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To be honest, i still pop back there now and then anyhooo......
I believe we've all had a good ghard look at this blog :)
Same time next month people?
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Yeah, I'm happy to say not everybody's been there.
Learning to read helps. Hotdog has been told repeatedly to read the FAQ (http://) before asking a question that is covered in it. Now he does it again - guess some people never learn.
HotDog, if you're wondering why such a strong reaction, consider the fact that we've been through this sort of discussion a lot of times. This is why we put up the FAQ and all the info available on the Diaspora boards. It still doesn't prevent select individuals from pestering us with "eta please" questions every now and then. And frankly we are extremely tired of having to explain again and again and again the nature of volunteer work and how this affects deadlines.
The only way anyone can have an impact on the deadline is to demonstrate some skill Diaspora needs, join the team, and help us get it out sooner. If you can't, then the least you can do is have patience and let us do our thing.
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Sorry for the stupid question before.The only reason I asked was because I searched the forum and could not find even a guess as to a release date.Im done asking dumb questions like that now.
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Don't bull**** us you searched and couldn't find an answer, just makes you look stupider.
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To be fair I'd trust a Blood Hound with congenital Anosmia to lead me to something before I'd opt for the search function for HLP. On the other hand if the Frequently Asked Questions thread was alive it'd bite you.
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Oh, come off it. He's apologized, let the issue drop.
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Awesome Job so far!The basestar is way more detailed than they showed in pics of BTRL.I hope we can see more updates soon!
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hot damn...i'm gone for a couple months then BOOM! yet another update. glad to see it isn't dead.
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Frakkin' good stuff!! ;)
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I like the interior of the Prometheus, and the Raider Racks, and the Basestar, and... Everything!! lol
Will you make the Demetrius?
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Eventually. It's not exactly top of our list though. :)
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OK, Thanks :)
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Gorgeous work guys, honestly, it's looking frakkin' beautiful.
Thanks for the update!