Author Topic: The Birth ... of the AssFrig.  (Read 6374 times)

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Offline Stormkeeper

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The Birth ... of the AssFrig.
Stormkeeper: So. Tonight, we have the TAP crew. Who are working on the HW 2 TC, The Apocalypse Project, for you people living under the rocks. Hi guys.

HerraTohtori: Rock surrounds me from all sides, never mind me. I'll just sit here and watch...

Pecenipicek: 'lo.

The E:Yo.

Scourge_of_Ages:  Hiya

Dark Knight: Hi

 Ktistai228: Salutations

Lester: Sup

 MatthTheGeek: Poof

 Stormkeeper: So who does what in the TAP?

 MatthTheGeek: I'm the local HW2 modding expert

Lester: I work in that FRED thing everybody's talking about

 Ktistai228: I'm the new guy trying to figure out tables and ship classes

 Dark Knight: I am the story guy, writer. I am also a professional editor and sound editor so I'll be taking on those duties too no doubt.

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Mission tester, and odd jobs

 Pecenipicek: I'm the current leader of the team, head modeller, pof-er, texturer, converter of shinies and so on. Apart from the backgrounds, everything you'll see ingame will have been touched by me in some good or bad or horrifying way.

 The E:I sort of stumble around in the dark, doing some code and support stuff

 Stormkeeper: '"touched by" Pecenipicek.'

 Stormkeeper: ktistai, you said you handle the tables and stuff, right?

 Ktistai228: I am trying to, as I said I am the new guy:)

 Stormkeeper: Mmmhmm. So have you tabled or looked at the table for FS2 ships too?

 Ktistai228: I've looked through the ship tables for FS2 ships, mod ships, all sort of ships due to my involvement with the wiki

 MatthTheGeek: We've gone through several iterations of tabling. we're trying to have some HW spirit, have the whole thing be playable, while not doing a straight FS-like gameplay

 Ktistai228: However, we still need to not go too HW-like

 Pecenipicek: Most often it resulted in having the behavior be "pick 2 out of the 3" from MatthTheGeek's list.

 MatthTheGeek: Well, that's part of the "have the whole thing be playable" part

 Ktistai228: For instance, I can't shoot down right now because of the high speeds involved

 Pecenipicek: Hence the "pick 2 out of  3"

 MatthTheGeek: We're still not very far in the balancing stage, and things will have to change a lot

 Pecenipicek: Capture hw spirit = check, dont do pure fs-style gameplay = check, have it actually comfortably playable = still a fair ways far from that goal.

 MatthTheGeek: That's more or less where we are right now, yeah

 Ktistai228: Indeed, and at the time a big problem is getting ships to behave correctly, as HW ship classes behaviur vary from FS ship classes

  MatthTheGeek: Well, I'm not too unhappy with ship behavior so far, aside from bombers

 Pecenipicek: If anyone has seen our lovely "destroyers fighting around in space while floating around like bathtubs" they'll know what we're talking about. Bombers are another point of contention...

 MatthTheGeek: Well, for bigger ships, lrn2waypoint

 The E:But those are going to need a new approach AI-wise in order to not behave like morons

 Pecenipicek: Basically, instead of doing strafing runs, they just rummage in close, and then sit around while going "neener neener cant hit me"

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Sort of like FS bombers do

 The E:Which is a carryover from FS

 Pecenipicek: Exactly like fs bombers do if they dont feel threatened.

 The E:I know TAP needs a different approach, and several other mods do as well

 Pecenipicek: There's also the lovely fact of "no shields"

 Dark Knight: Hehe.

 Ktistai228: Meaning missile corvettes for example just rip you to pieces

 Pecenipicek: Which makes bumps of any sort a bit... hurtful :p

 Ktistai228: although I do not think they are supposed to

 Pecenipicek: ktistai228, you haven't been on the wrong end of a higgy flakfrig burst then :p

 MatthTheGeek: Armor classes will take care of that

Lester: All that shouldn't be much of a problem anymore since armor classes on player ships are fixed now

 Pecenipicek: Also, my personal preference of the "MOAR DAKKA" principle is going to show a bit more, since our engagements will most likely be a bit smaller in scale than what you'd normally expect out of HW2.

 Pecenipicek: Lester, yeah, not just for player ships. I personally pulled numbers out of thin air to populate the armor.tbl.

 MatthTheGeek: I'll populate it at some point

 Pecenipicek: We had it set up a looong while ago, its just that the numbers were all 1 :p Its one of the goals/milestones in any case.

 MatthTheGeek: Although I'll have to be clever  or have to compromise at some point since HW2 have armor values per weapon and not per ship class

 Dark Knight: There are a few, big set-piece battles but there are many more, smaller engagements (missions) that build up to them.

 Ktistai228: Skirmished if you like

 MatthTheGeek: (#hlp-interview is now known, again, as #tap-dev)

 Stormkeeper: (Uh-huh)

 Ktistai228: Okay, ball back to you stormkeeper

 Stormkeeper: Mmm...

 Pecenipicek: (as a note to the rest of you in the channel, if you have any questions, write them down for the post-interview Q&A)

 Stormkeeper: Pecenipicek, you mentioned that the engagements were smaller in scale, compared to HW2. What about compared to FS2?

 Dark Knight: May I?

 Pecenipicek: Of course.

 Stormkeeper: (Must be quite the explanation)

 Ktistai228: Indeed

 Dark Knight: the majority of missions are set to last around the 10 minute mark. Comparatively about the same as most FS missions. Design philosphy is one of scale. Where in HW one mission might involve numerous smaller engagements leading up to a big one in TAP we've split those missions up. So in one mission you might be intercepting a Vaygr push, in the next mission...  you escort your resource collectors back and in the next strike back protecting the capital ships.
 Just as an example. So the first might be about the same as your average fs bomber mission, the next would be similar in size to any of the escort missions and so on. So individually they are the similar to FS2 missions but thematically the missions are more closely linked by story.  On the other hand some of the battle missions planned are simply huge. Sorry. HUGE..

 Stormkeeper: Like?

 MatthTheGeek: Like HUGE. You're welcome

 The E:Like, this big

 Dark Knight: Hmm... what can i say...

 MatthTheGeek: Many ships with guns firing.

 Ktistai228: BoE style?

 Pecenipicek: MOAR DAKKA, in short.

 MatthTheGeek: NEVUR ENUF

 Dark Knight: Battle of the line.

 Stormkeeper: ... Okay, I kinda get the idea. Won't it lag?

 * +pecenipicek sits in his happy place with happyfun images in his head.

 MatthTheGeek: I don't expect our ships to be unoptimized

 The E:Stormkeeper: Not as much as, say, WiH did in places

 MatthTheGeek: So I don't see why it would lag

Lester: The only possible performance hog would be the trails.

 Pecenipicek: Yeah. they've proven in the past of being a truly performance raping feature.

 Dark Knight: Trust us. Well trust me. I'm cool.

 Pecenipicek: Heheh

 Stormkeeper: I wouldn't know about that. =P

 The E:Also, given that we expect the engine to get quite a bit faster by the time it comes to release, I wouldn't worry too much about it

 Dark Knight: Well you can check out all the other projects i've worked on through the years... wait don't. They all failed.

 MatthTheGeek: And if you're unhappy, upgrade your goddamn hardware

 Stormkeeper: XD

 Dark Knight: The way the missions are designed too should reduce lag.

 Stormkeeper: Mmkay.

 Dark Knight: Or eliminate it rather

 MatthTheGeek: Nuke the lag from orbit

 Pecenipicek: The one thing i'm pushing for is perfection. And this TC will not be released until we've attained that. In some way, shape or form.

 MatthTheGeek: Only way to be sure

 Stormkeeper: What did you guys mean when you said "pure FS gameplay"?

 Dark Knight: You played FS2? Like that

 MatthTheGeek: Well, mainly ship handling, combat mechanics, etc

 Dark Knight: ;)

Lester: You don't have secondaries in TAP

 MatthTheGeek: We don't want to do FS2 gameplay with HW ships. That's not what this mod is about. For gameplay reasons, it also can't be a straight HW2 figure-by-figure conversion

 Scourge_of_Ages:  See, in FS, you're ALPHA 1, savior of humanity, killer of Shivans. Your wing gets knocked out, you keep trucking.

 Pecenipicek: We tried that. It didnt work out :p

 Scourge_of_Ages:  In HW2, you send a single interceptor out on it's own, you don't get it back

 MatthTheGeek: of course, but it gave us a base to work from

 Pecenipicek: And you're the one to thank for that actually.

 Scourge_of_Ages:  You'll need to learn to work with your AI wing, and depend on them

 Pecenipicek: you were the figurative boot up my ass to get me back to working on TAP.

 MatthTheGeek: heh, thanks. After what's now 7 years of HW2 modding, couldn't let that die off

 Stormkeeper: Work with your AI wing. So will you have more control with them, or will the AI be improved?

 Dark Knight: 7 years? I started working on HW mods back on the VWBB!

Lester: We already have custom AI which works quite well

 Pecenipicek: "Custom" rather. AI profiles are a godsend.

Dark Knight: Also, the plot is more character driven. Your wingmen actually matter.

The E:Oh Mobius is going to hate that

Lester: Well, most of them at least :p

Stormkeeper:  Is duct tape involved? Or its functional Hiigaran equivalent?

MatthTheGeek: The_E: my thoughts exactly

 Pecenipicek: Stormkeeper, you want Mackie from Derelict in TAP? :p

 Stormkeeper: I believe that his legacy should never die out!

 MatthTheGeek: Not sure about duct tape, but I'm sure we'll find some too thick cables somewhere, if you want your memes

 Pecenipicek: Well, the world revolves thanks to ducttape and improvisation :p

 Stormkeeper: Oh yeah

 Dark Knight: I'll take a vote on whether to include ducttape in the mission dialogue.

 Stormkeeper: \o/

 Stormkeeper: Alright, I have achieved my objective. This interview is now over. =P

 MatthTheGeek: Maybe we'll try to find something more imaginative

 Pecenipicek: Heh

 Dark Knight: ... cool i can go back to being ill.

 Stormkeeper: So, anyway. Last time we spoke, you mentioned that the campaign will be pre-HW2. Is that still true?

 Pecenipicek: that was 3 years ago, no?

 Dark Knight: The wingmen... wingwomen... are sufficiently different to Mackie.

 Stormkeeper: Aye

 Pecenipicek: I'll let DarkKnight take the stand over there, again :p It was a big mistake in general back then to not have him with me when we had the interview back then.

 Stormkeeper: That was when I was first starting out though. I only had MSN in my arsenal.

 MatthTheGeek: people still used msn back then ? must have been _ages_ ago

 Dark Knight: The campaign starts a few days prior to the events of Homeworld 2 and runs parallel to the events of the game ending in the same place.

 Pecenipicek: well, it was the first interview when they got resurrected by you.

 Stormkeeper: (Actually, I didn't resurrect the board, Goober did, and I just ... did the first interview. =X)

 Stormkeeper: You won't be following the Pride of Hiigara?

 Pecenipicek: (whatever, you get my point) :p

 MatthTheGeek: Nope, you won't. No random core salvaging stuff for you

 Stormkeeper: :(

 Dark Knight: During HW2 your saw snippets of the battle going on around the HOMEWORLD.

 Stormkeeper: Yeah, I remember that.

 MatthTheGeek: Just good ol' kicking vaygr asses

 Dark Knight: In our story you are one of the guys fighting that battle. Holding the line and fighting a rear-guard against the Vaygr to buy the Pride enough time to complete its mission

 Stormkeeper: Mmhmm.

 MatthTheGeek: The Vaygr, leaded by Makaan, are sieging Hiigaran territories in order to force them to surrender the core

 Dark Knight: I am not sure how much to actually give away at this point...

 MatthTheGeek: Someone has to hold them back

 Pecenipicek: Give a bit out. Nothing too major :p MatthTheGeek, let DarkKnight give out the snippets for now :)

 MatthTheGeek: Yeah. Was just refreshing everyone's memories about HW2 canon

 Pecenipicek: Resident HW2 specialist.

Stormkeeper:  Mm, I see that.

 Pecenipicek: God, how long were we arguing enlarging everything bigger than corvettes to their current sizes?

 MatthTheGeek: Don't think we argued that much

 Stormkeeper: What was wrong with the scaling?

 MatthTheGeek: Well, ships equal or above frig class were scaled up.

 Stormkeeper: Uh huh.

 MatthTheGeek: Problem is, when you're capturing ships with salvette, the scale difference is just massive

 Pecenipicek: (salvette = salvage corvette for those who are going "whud"?)

 MatthTheGeek: Salvette.

 Stormkeeper: (My favorite ship in HW1)

 Stormkeeper: So wait . As I recall in HW1, at least, the salvette wasn't really dwarfed by the larger ships like the Heavy Cruiser. Just how different was the size?

 MatthTheGeek: It looked like they could actually move them, in HW1

 Ktistai228: Indeed

 MatthTheGeek: With the other scaling, it'd be like 5 Ursas trying to tow a Hecate

 Ktistai228: Especially 4-5 of them

 Stormkeeper: -squint- That's ... Wow.

 MatthTheGeek: Well, maybe not. Let's say 5 Poseidons. What's the size of Poseidons compared to Ursas ?

 MatthTheGeek: (Ursa might actually be larger)

 Stormkeeper: I think the Ursa is slightly larger, length wise

 MatthTheGeek: Heh

 Stormkeeper: Cause the Poseidon has the two arms

 Pecenipicek: In reality, this does not concern us however. only the JToH team

 MatthTheGeek: Yup

 Pecenipicek: Heheh.

 MatthTheGeek: TAP won't have that problem anyway. Capture ships are frigate class

  Stormkeeper: Moving away from moping singles.

 Pecenipicek: In any case, DarkKnight , got any snippets you might want to throw out to the masses?

 Dark Knight: I'm typing I'm typing!

 Pecenipicek: xD

 MatthTheGeek: Type faster ! What are we paying you for? ...oh wait.

 Dark Knight: But yes. During the second mission of HW2 Makaan (leader of the Vaygr) uses his Hyperspace Core to jump a fleet into Hiigaras orbit bypassing the main lines of battle in the surrounding systems. The main Vaygr fleet is still on its way coming along multiple Hyperspace paths...
YOU are a pilot in Kiith Soban. Part of a battlegroup tasked with protecting the area around the Tanis system from the Vaygr Advance. When Tanis falls and the Homeworld comes under blockade you and your comrades must do all in your power to slow the Vaygr Armada (under the command of the Taiidan Duke, Admiral Lindos) long enough for the pride to do her work.

 Stormkeeper: ... Kiith Soban, I remember that Captain. Badass black paintjob.

 Dark Knight: You will fight in amidist the megalithic monoliths of Tanis. We revist locations from Cataclysm and HW1, in a game of cat and mouse with the Taiidan Warlord... worlds fall... people die...

 Stormkeeper: Will we have black paintjobs?

 Dark Knight: Currently it is the plan.

 Stormkeeper: I focus on the importan- YAY SIGN ME UP FOR FIRST DOWNLOAD THANKS

* @Stormkeeper pre-pre-pre orders

 MatthTheGeek: We're waiting for table-based texture replace, no ?

 Dark Knight: Captain Soban (his first name is Merlan actually, fun fact) is a member of Kiith Soban. One of the Kiith-clans of old Kharak. An all mercenary Kiith that you have joined as a pilot.

Stormkeeper: Really... Merlan Soban. Suddenly not so awesomee.

 MatthTheGeek: Kiith Soban's history as a mercenary kiith is canon btw

 Stormkeeper: Yeah, I remember

 MatthTheGeek: People from any kiith can join em if they prove themselves worthy enough

 Dark Knight: Merlan is semi canon.It's from an older version of HW2's script

 Pecenipicek: Dust wars or some other?

Lester: That still doesn't do anything to decrease the coolness of their paintjobs, though :p

 Pecenipicek: Ho yes.

 Stormkeeper: So true.

 MatthTheGeek: Dust war is what HW2 should have been

 Stormkeeper: Back on track.

 Dark Knight: No, newer than Dust Wars I think. The one that was very close to HW2 but had Makaan as a sentient computer I think

 Stormkeeper: ... What? Wait, what? Makaan? A sentient computer?

 Dark Knight: Yes. We're not using that

 MatthTheGeek: Old scripts. not canon. Don't freak out mate

 Stormkeeper: ... Hard not to.

Lester: Funnily enough, hed still have the same character depth if he was a sentient computer

 Stormkeeper: ... lol. Mmm. Back on the topic of TAP.

 MatthTheGeek: Good point

 Stormkeeper: Weapons wise, what's the size of the arsenal? I know we have no secondaries. So what happens to bombs, they're now primaries?

 MatthTheGeek: Player weapons you mean ?

  Stormkeeper: Yes.

 MatthTheGeek: We won't have the diversity of FS2 that's for sure

 Pecenipicek: Bombs were always primaries.

 MatthTheGeek: But we won't have just one gun either

 Pecenipicek: Because that'd just be cruel and unusual.

 MatthTheGeek: Attack bombers use plasma bombs, which are definitely primaries

 Stormkeeper: Mmhmm.

 Stormkeeper: I guess that would deplete your energy reserves in 2-3 shots?

 MatthTheGeek: The variety of the arsenal is still under consideration tbh. Bombers have fair energy. You can't mount plasma bomb launchers on interceptors, of course

 Stormkeeper: As I recall, the interceptors used a mass driver, and only mass drivers. So will that be ammunition based, or energy?

Lester: Both, actually

 Pecenipicek: We still have to figure out proper ways to do reloadings and stuff.

Lester: Energy functions as some sort of heat build-up

 MatthTheGeek: That's the current idea, yeah. Won't necessarily be that way in final

 Dark Knight: You need a lot of juice to run them/keep them cool.

 MatthTheGeek: Still under development

 Dark Knight: No FS-style spam fire for you!

 Stormkeeper: Fine by me~

 MatthTheGeek: There's a reason fighters fired in short 5-bullet bursts in HW and we'd like to keep that spirit

 Stormkeeper: Mmm. So accuracy counts for a lot more.

 Pecenipicek: Ho yes.

 MatthTheGeek: Especially given the speed and distances involved

 Dark Knight: ... I really need to buy a new stick.

 Pecenipicek: We really should've frapsed those few multi matches we had back a while ago, yes, Lester, MatthTheGeek?

 MatthTheGeek: Nothing much to fraps. Firing for half an hour, can't hit ****

Lester: Well, they were interesting

 Scourge_of_Ages:  I can vouch for that

 Pecenipicek: Laughing asses off.

 Stormkeeper: lol

Lester: Especially for me, as I was flying a scout.

 Pecenipicek: Crashing the game when warping out at mission end. Fun times :p

 MatthTheGeek:Ogawd scouts. Peashooter cannons

 Pecenipicek: Lester, that made you very hard to actually find and smack tho.

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Especially against Vaygr interceptors, which are only slightly wider than the bullets you're shooting

 Lester: Scouts don't work as they do in FS

 Stormkeeper: How?

Lester: They're flat-out useless in TAP :p

 Stormkeeper: Because the "scouts" in FS2 are invariably you. I never used them in HW2, tbh.

 Dark Knight: One mission where you have to disable a ship. Other than that no.

 MatthTheGeek: in HW2, scouts are VERY fast and have VERY ****ty armament

Lester: You can still destroy stuff in a Pegasus, but you sure as hell can't in a Scout

 MatthTheGeek: Like I said, peashooter. It's actually the file name of the scout weapon in the HW2 files

 Dark Knight: Never used them myself.

 Pecenipicek: i used them against MatthTheGeek occasionaly when we were having HW2 multi fun. very nice for annoying people.

 MatthTheGeek: Very hard to hit a scout though. They have EMP in HW2 though

 Pecenipicek: Vaygr one even more so.

 MatthTheGeek: Haven't implemented that yet in TAP

 Pecenipicek: Well, that's easy enough to punt into tap. :p

 Dark Knight: We do have a few missions where you fly a Scout in TAP tho. Enjoy!

 Stormkeeper: Do ships have one or two weapon banks?

Lester: Currently, two

 MatthTheGeek: Dunno why we still have two tbh

 Pecenipicek: Most of them at least, Lester. I'm not sure if i gave all the vaygr the double banks as well.

 MatthTheGeek: Since both banks carry the same weapon and you can't link 'em.

 Pecenipicek: MatthTheGeek, you can't link them for now. :p

Lester: It's not the same weapon the last time I checked

 Pecenipicek: Once we figure out proper payloads... yeah, it isn't.

 MatthTheGeek: Bombers do have a small autogun for self-defence though

 Lester: You had the spray one and the burst-fire straightforward one

 Pecenipicek: Its still in testing a lot, basically. (once more dev talk hijack, woo :D)

 Stormkeeper: It's okay. I'm the expert at filtering out the spa- Uh. I mean, the chatter.

 Pecenipicek: Heh

 MatthTheGeek: In term of capital weapons however, we'll try to stay as true to HW2 capital-vs-capital balancing as possible. There is no reason to change it from HW2, although capital-vs-fighter will be adapted.

 Pecenipicek: With an addition of some PD weapons to some ships that sorely lack any. (glares at the hiigaran carrier)

Stormkeeper:  Torpedoes, Ion Beams, mass drivers, pulsar lances... Which reminds me. As I recall. The Torpedo Frigate; it could fire two different types of torpedos, the one for strike craft and the one for caps. Is this still the case?

 MatthTheGeek: Isn't ingame yet

 Pecenipicek: And won't be until way later on. But it is likely it might fire two different payloads.

 MatthTheGeek: It's not in the list of ships we need for the missions we're currently working on

 Pecenipicek: However, considering the sheer amount of dedicated fighter-killer type ships on both sides arsenal, throwing in another one might be a smidge of overkill.

 Stormkeeper: Hmmm. But the torpedo frig is kinda common in the Hiigaran fleet, isn't it. Wouldn't it be weird not appearing at all? That's like saying you've played the whole of FS and FS2 and never seen a Fenris.

 MatthTheGeek: Never said it won't appear at all

 Pecenipicek: Yeah.

 Dark Knight: To clarify

 MatthTheGeek: It's just not in the meshes we're currently working on

 MatthTheGeek: And yeah, torpedo frig is quite common, it's actually the first frigate class you can build in multiplayer

 Dark Knight: Yes. It is the standard Ship of the Line, however the section we are working on involves you being a part of a small, well armed reconnaissance task force... make of that what you will.

 MatthTheGeek: Although IIRC flak frig happens first in SP

 Stormkeeper: ... That thing is crap, iirc.

 Dark Knight: And once you can build Ion Frigs who bothers?

 MatthTheGeek: Flak frig ? Real corvette killer

 Stormkeeper: I never had good memories of Flak frigs.

 MatthTheGeek: Oh flak frig ?

 Stormkeeper: Somehow my interceptors always seemed to fare better.

 MatthTheGeek: Flak frigates are currently a genocide weapon in TAP. Frigates in general were crap in HW2.
IIRC you need 16 ion frigates to replicate the 2 ion turrets of a BC, in HW2 that is. Frigs might get buffed in TAP or we might just count on mission design.

Lester: Mission design *should* be of satisfactory quality :p

 MatthTheGeek: It better be

 Stormkeeper: XD

 Dark Knight: ... Crap thats me too.

 MatthTheGeek: Knowing pece, TAP won't be released until we have top-notch mishes anyway

 Stormkeeper: Yeah. He said that all those years ago too.

 Pecenipicek: Shush.

 MatthTheGeek: Well, he wants top-notch everything. That includes ships that will have to be completely remade at some point. We're currently using directly-converted ships from HW2.

Pecenipicek: Unlike the original team who started it (USS Alexander, elorran, Thorn and others, afaik), we actually made something we can show.

 Dark Knight: So we're still on for 2065 release yeah?

 Stormkeeper: You'll have to include HW 3,4,5 and 6 too, for a 2065 release. ... a question just drifted out of my head, hang on lemme catch it... Oh right!

 Pecenipicek: And get our kids to continue our work as well :p

 Stormkeeper: What about point defence weapons?

 Dark Knight: They shoot down stuff

 MatthTheGeek: Missiles are not destroyable, if that's what you mean

 Pecenipicek: Mostly annoy fighters a lot. Some ships will get them some wont.

 MatthTheGeek: Bomb intercepting is also a prominent feature of FS2 we're not gonna have here

 Stormkeeper: How large a role will they have in combat, then?

 MatthTheGeek: Yeah, we will put some more cover weapons than HW2 ships have, but you won't see point defenses on an ion frigate any time soon

 Pecenipicek: These won't be weapons that will shoot down fighters outright.

 Stormkeeper: That would be the Flak frigs role.

 MatthTheGeek: With shield-less combat, we can't afford to have too much powerful anti-fighter defences. We need a reason for fighters to exist at all

 Pecenipicek: The flak frigs current status as "Vaygr Genocide Machines" is more or less a fluke of my lack of experience with balancing anything :p

 MatthTheGeek: Especially since fighter logistics are less practical than in the FS universe, no jumpdrives and all. Flak WILL be nerfed BIG time

 Dark Knight: No jump drive is FUN for mission design let me tell you. :(

 Stormkeeper: o_O

 MatthTheGeek: Indeed.

Lester: I'm quite looking forward to it, actually

 Dark Knight: TBH it was a lot of fun solving that problem.

 MatthTheGeek: Gotta be creative in mission design

 Dark Knight: Means you have to think about the escalation rather than just "add fighters here".

 Pecenipicek: Well, with Vaygr and their Hyperspace Gates, you have a sorta freedom there.

 Dark Knight: Makes for a nice objective too.

 MatthTheGeek: Oh yeah, I tend to forget about those. They're so impractical in HW2 multi. We don't even have them yet in TAP, right ?

 Pecenipicek: Not on the "needed assets" list, so that'd qualify as a "no."

 Stormkeeper: So a carrier will be a part of the task force then.

 MatthTheGeek: Definitely. just like you're nearly always based on a destroyer in any FS campaign

 Stormkeeper: Does this mean you won't be able to call in reinforcements?

 MatthTheGeek: That's up to mission design

 Dark Knight: Some missions for example start an hour into the missions flight time, so you're already hundred and thousands of km away from the carrier... some time you lift from the deck... Also  strike craft may not be available for reinforcements... but bigger ships have jump drives.

 MatthTheGeek: In HW2, fighters often operate dozens of km away from the carrier ship, and with no jump drives, they have to fly in and back on their own. Btw, 1 hour of flight at 325 m/s is more than 1k km. Just sayin'

 Pecenipicek: 325 m/s = 1170 km/h :p

 Stormkeeper: That's true. If you'd put it to a percentage, how many percent done would you say you are?

 Pecenipicek: Hrrng... tough one.

 MatthTheGeek: The three big objectives are balancing, FREDing and remodelling of the ships.
 
Pecenipicek: Tough one. i think i can safely say that we are maybe 10% complete at the time being.

 Stormkeeper: Awwright. Progress.

 Pecenipicek: What i really would like, is to have someone model the Vaygr fleet.

 Stormkeeper: So you've mostly been working on the Hiigaran fleet, then.

 Pecenipicek: Since i personally prefer the higgy stuff. yeah. So far, the flak frig, the ion cannon frig and the carrier are in a sorta-finished state modelling-wise. And I'm going to get back on working on those as soon as i finish my non-TAP based "assignments"

Stormkeeper:  There won't be Progenitors appearing, right? Since you're not haring off after the Cores and Sajuuk

 Dark Knight: ... no comment.

Stormkeeper:  Hmmm.

 Dark Knight: I will say they I've already stated it ends around the Battle of Hiigara and there was at least one rather large progenitor ship in that battle.

 Stormkeeper: True, that. Will you use HW2 music and FX?

 MatthTheGeek: Not HW2 music. we already have some tracks of our own

 Lester: FX will probably be remade

 Pecenipicek: Not probably. they WILL be remade.

 MatthTheGeek: HW2 FX are low-res

 Pecenipicek: Everything that is in-engine at the moment is either HW2 FX or semi-placeholders.

 MatthTheGeek: And the best-looking HW2 fx (explosions, mainly) are not adapted to the way FSO treats FX

 Stormkeeper: Mmmm. All in all, still a lot of work.

 MatthTheGeek: Tell us about it

 Pecenipicek: Oooh yes.

 Stormkeeper: Well, I wish you guys the best of luck.

Lester: Oh gawd

 Stormkeeper: That wraps up the closed portion.

  Pecenipicek: Thank you very muchly.

Lester: Scourge of Ages took screenies from my mission

 Stormkeeper: FAQ is open and I demand the requisite tribute of screenshots

 Stormkeeper: ...am I doing this right?

 Pecenipicek: no.

Lester: i dont think so :p

 Pecenipicek: -m is right.

 Stormkeeper: TALK, AUDIENCE, TALK

 * +pecenipicek pokes allmote , dsockwell , HerraTohtori , Zacam

 Pecenipicek: Closed talky section is done. if any have questions, ask now.

Zacam: Ahh. Good. *clears throat*

 HerraTohtori: What type of skyboxes do you guys use? Or backgrounds in general

 Dark Knight: Pretty ones. next

 MatthTheGeek: Heh

Stormkeeper:  lol

 HerraTohtori: oooo

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, define type? Skybox vs skysphere or?

 HerraTohtori: They're all the same. Basically are you using models or some sort of procedurally generated backgrounds

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, models.

 HerraTohtori: Ok, spheres or cubes

 Pecenipicek: Currently sphere maps, but i'm planning to move on to cubes for maximum awesome.

Zacam: So, aside from the closure on the HW Modding front, what was the major compelling reason to choose FSO?

 Pecenipicek: Zacam, I had experience?

 MatthTheGeek: Zacam: To be fair, when TAP started, I think HW2 modding was still fairly active :p

 MatthTheGeek: After all, that was aaaaaaages ago, right ?

 Dark Knight: Yes. It was. I have grown up and got a degree since this started.

 Pecenipicek: TAP started back around the end of 2001, beginning of 2002, going off from our archived threads.

Zacam: Right, I know the BP->HW portion at least, but I never really got that into HW to begin with. I blame the other people who tried to "sell" me on it being less than stellar examples.

 Pecenipicek: I got recruited into TAP as a modeller back in 2006, when grug was leading the team. when he disappeared around the end of 2007, i took over.

 MatthTheGeek: Pecenipicek: wait what.  HW2 is 2003

 Pecenipicek: I am talking about TAP, MatthTheGeek .

 MatthTheGeek: How can a TC about HW2 start before its release

 Dark Knight: It started as a cat tc

 Pecenipicek: TAP was originally HW1, HWC.

 MatthTheGeek: Orite

 Stormkeeper: Yeah

 MatthTheGeek: Didn't know that

Zacam: Again, apologies if asked, but what have been some of (both) personal and technical challenges to overcome or adapt to in this project?

 MatthTheGeek: Stop apologizing Zacam

 Pecenipicek: Zacam, oooh... there's a lot. Most often, free personal time has been the total and utter showstopper to my involvement with TAP. As for the technical challenges... well, i dont know. I cannot actually classify anything much as a technical challenge.
Before we started developing via SVN, it was a sorta mess to push a unified working base to everyone involved.

Zacam: (I'm only apologizing because I haven't been reading through on this channel for the last while, so I don't want to inadvertently re-ask something that's already been covered and give Stormkeeper more work to do)

 MatthTheGeek: I guess it was probably hard to produce anything solid without HW2 material before I arrived

Zacam: So, SVN has worked out as a very useful tool for your dev process then.

 MatthTheGeek: Isn't it for all dev processes. SVN is a godsend in all fields

 Pecenipicek: That as well. what was in before MatthTheGeek arrived was a hodge-podge of horribad conversions and truly crap models.

Zacam: I just like underlining that fact whenever I can. :D

 Dark Knight: Personal challenge. There is a 70 page story document including mission plans, scripts, character histories, timiles, general facts, another 10 pages of tech descriptions for the ships... trying writing all of that and not going a little bonkers.

Lester: ^that thing absolutely blew me away when i first joined

 Pecenipicek: No offense to ex members, but nobody did **** between 2001 and 2007, apart from DK.

 HerraTohtori: What's your typical process of converting a model...  I mean, do you use original geometry with new UVmap

 MatthTheGeek: I export meshes to obj and textures to dds

 HerraTohtori: Or do you use those models with original mapping and bazillion textures?

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Ah yes, screens. (sorry, had to go away for a few seconds, back now for a few more)

 MatthTheGeek: Pece takes over. And converted models won't be used in final.

Zacam: So, it's obviously going to be a fair departure from the regular FSO scene, and it will obviously have a lot to cater to current HW fans and nostalgic members as well, what do you feel will be the big draw for your project for those not necessarily accustomed to HW or it's settings?

 MatthTheGeek: And HW2 ships don't have bazillion textures

 HerraTohtori: Oh

 MatthTheGeek: Only HW1/HWC

 HerraTohtori: My mistake then

 MatthTheGeek: HW2 is fairly well mapped, UV-mapping and all

 HerraTohtori: That is good to know

 Dark Knight: Big draws... fun gameplay, a differant expieiriance to FS2 (change of pace) and a kick ass story.

 Pecenipicek: Get model and textures from MatthTheGeek, import all objects, textures and ****, convert it all to single UV map, proper subobjecting for FSO use and suchlike, proceed to testing in game and so on.

 HerraTohtori: Righto. Do any of the ships require re-modeling, or are HW2 ships of sufficient quality? I never played any HW games

 MatthTheGeek: (17:21:45) MatthTheGeek: and converted models won't be used in final

 Pecenipicek: Biggest technical hurdles there have been getting Cinema4D dae exporter bugs sorted out and such.

 The E:They hold up well

 MatthTheGeek: We want everything remade but yes, everything you see in current eyecandy in converted

 HerraTohtori: ok, I just wanted clarification on that part

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, they hold up very well, but they arent what we are going to use. i do not want to use anything that Relic initially made, at least in terms of visual and sound assets.

 HerraTohtori: so basically your final aim is to have all models re-done?

Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, oh yes.

HerraTohtori: How many models are we talking about? Just to get a scope of things. I get the impression HW has a lot of designs

 MatthTheGeek: Hum. Lemmie count

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, at the moment, 14 ships total, not counting assorted neccesary things, like missile models, or background pieces.

 MatthTheGeek: Probably around 50 total in HW2

 Dark Knight: ... background pieces. Space is not empty.

 Pecenipicek: Tanis, asteroid bases and such like. In short, yes, space is not empty.

 HerraTohtori: are you aiming to recreate backgrounds too?

 Pecenipicek: Yes.

 HerraTohtori: Wow

 MatthTheGeek: Well, we'll be in locations known from HW1/HWC/HW2. Similar backgrounds to those seen in game will have to be made

 Pecenipicek: Here's a link to the thread with some videos we have made. Also, screenshot thread.

 MatthTheGeek: randomly, the normal maps are from the "HW2 2.0" mod project.

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, in short, yes we have a massive amount of work cut out for us. and boy, do we want to deliver.

 Dark Knight: We will for example revisit to Aiowa system from Cat on the revisiting locations note.

 The E:One thing TAP is going to use is a new wrinkle in the Shaders for glossyness mapping, which will make the game look a bit more varied

 Pecenipicek: And the infamous env mapping extension.

Zacam: Without spoilerizing anything, do you have any "shout outs" or contemporary references and how structured are you to HW Canonicity?

 MatthTheGeek: Not sure what you mean with "shout outs or contemporary references". As for HW canonicity, HW1 is canon, HWC is semi-canon (I don't think you'll see any reference to the Beast anywhere) and HW2 is canon, or mostly is.

Zacam: Was there going to be seen if Anisotropic Reflection was going to make it in as well?

 The E:That too

 Pecenipicek: "Diffusely convolved enviroment mapping" it was called, if memory serves?

 The E:Yea

 HerraTohtori: glossyness mapping... I need to pay more attention to latest FSO developments.

 Pecenipicek: Since our backgrounds will be a fair bit more colorful than standard FSO backgrounds in any case.

 HerraTohtori: I have waited for glossyness mapping for a looong time. A long time.

 The E:HerraTohtori: It's still a bit experimental, and won't hit FSU for some time

 Pecenipicek: HerraTohtori, it was included by my request. The_E implemented it.

 HerraTohtori: Awesome. I shall discuss that later in other channels

 Pecenipicek: Stormkeeper, i'll provide you with all the screenshots sometime later next week :D

 MatthTheGeek: Are there questions we missed somewhere ?

 Stormkeeper: Kk.

 Pecenipicek: MatthTheGeek, dunno, if anyone wants, ask away?

 Dark Knight: Anyone want to ask any more plot or mission related questions?

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Well, I got to run, guys. This was fun, take care!

Stormkeeper:  If there are no more questions ....?

 Dark Knight: Go on! Somebody!

 Pecenipicek: yeah, if there are no more questions, lets conclude this.

 Stormkeeper: Alrighty. That brings us to the end of the interview. Thanks for stopping by, guys!
« Last Edit: November 30, 2012, 03:05:17 pm by Zacam »
Ancient-Shivan War|Interview Board

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Offline Stormkeeper

  • Interviewer Extraordinaire
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Pecenipicek: hello

The E:Yo

Stormkeeper: Sorry I'm late.

Pecenipicek: You're ten minutes early actually, going by the pm you gave last night :)

 Stormkeeper: Yes, I know but I just stepped into the house and I'm still in my working uniform.

Pecenipicek: Take your time to get your stuff together,

Ktistai228: We are still here :D

The E:Time enough to grab some snacks then

Stormkeeper:  This is why we need more interviewers. :(

Ktistai228: Also, I can only stay 40 minutes, after that I have to jump

Stormkeeper:  =O

* MatthTheGeek engages jump inhibitor

MatthTheGeek: YOU SHALL NOT

Pecenipicek: xD

* @Stormkeeper deploys Interdictor cruisers.

Stormkeeper:  Extra inhibition.

 MatthTheGeek: wrong universe, mate

 Ktistai228: Yup

 Stormkeeper: It's okay!

 Ktistai228: sorry dudes :)

 Stormkeeper: Crossovers are okay!

 MatthTheGeek: no u

Pecenipicek: battlecruisers with jump inhibitors, ahoy :p

 * ktistai228 uses walking! It's super effective!

 Stormkeeper: We nee-

 MatthTheGeek: heh

 * @Stormkeeper shoots ktistai228's feet.

Pecenipicek: I should've prepared some screenies, shouldn't I have? :p

 Stormkeeper: Yes, you should.

 Dark Knight: yes

 Stormkeeper: Well, I gotta take a quick shower so you can rustle up some in the mean time.

 MatthTheGeek: It's not too late for that

Pecenipicek: Yeah. Dunno what though.

Dark Knight: a screenshot of the internal forum. Just to show them the thread titles. A ship but from behind so all you can see is the engine glow. Annoying stuff like that

Pecenipicek: The naked Karan S'Jet ought to raise a few eyebrows :p

Ktistai228: Yup

 Dark Knight: I think it's still our best selling point.

 The E:Oh wait. How about an image with some bull**** stegano'ed into it?

 Pecenipicek: You want us to pull ST:R stuff? :p

Lester: Woosh

Pecenipicek: Just in time both of you :p

Lester: Good.

Scourge_of_Ages:  Ah

Lester: This made me skip a few precious cevapi

Pecenipicek: Go grab em and punt them in front of you on the plate? :p

 MatthTheGeek: You should have brought em with you and given em to me

Pecenipicek: On the screenshots front, could somebody else pull some from in game stuff?

MatthTheGeek: Oh I always can

Dark Knight: I'm on the wrong computer so dibs not me :(

Pecenipicek: Kk

Lester: Matth would be the best candidate

Ktistai228: I can, my computer does its work

Pecenipicek: Update to latest SVN.

Scourge_of_Ages:  What sort of stuff?

Pecenipicek: R248 is the most recent.

The E:I'll take a few pics as well

Ktistai228: Updated

Pecenipicek: Whatever you folks think would be good to punt forward to Stormkeeper.

Scourge_of_Ages:  brb

Pecenipicek: Also, I need to murder pyro_mx for not showing up :p

Ktistai228: R7596 pece?

Lester: Pyro_mx didn't even post in the thread

Pecenipicek: Neg. you got the engine builds in a 7z in the main folder of the repo.

The E: Should update those

Pecenipicek: And god help you if you're not running this as standalone. And derp, yeah, 7596.

Ktistai228: Either I'm blind, or all of them are r7596

Pecenipicek: Antipodes. I'm retarded. The pain is sorta making my brain go "bleurghhh"

Dark Knight: I know the feeling and share your pain. This is so going to go well

Lester: Same here.

Pecenipicek: Heh.

 Dark Knight: ;)

Stormkeeper:  I am back. So. Have my snacks ready.

Pecenipicek: wb

 The E:I'm committing new builds fresh off of rev 7761

Pecenipicek: The_E, roger.

Ktistai228: Right now? okay, waiting for commit

Stormkeeper:  We ready?

Pecenipicek: I'mma gonna get another coffee first, let the buggers get the stuff together, so we can punt over some screenies to you :p

 * @Stormkeeper scrolls up.

 Stormkeeper: This is gonna go in as pre-interview conversation. Watch as the TAP group commits a new build just for the interview!

Pecenipicek: heh. just the usual dev chaos :p

Dark Knight: Commitment to providing the latest up to date coolness? Or lack of proper prep YOU DECIDE!

 MatthTheGeek: How's this.


Pecenipicek: Coffee ready.

MatthTheGeek: I tweaked post_processing.tbl on my side for this one, since all entries are false right now

Stormkeeper:  ... Hmmm. We ... are lucky that this is not a live Skype interview, or I'd be expressing my inner fanboy.

 Pecenipicek: Squee?

Stormkeeper:  That would be the tip of the iceberg.

The E:New builds are in

* Pecenipicek shakes his head in disbelief :p

Stormkeeper:  You know once I modded the Mothership, but I reversed the fire points and so the  ion cannons were firing through the mothership. D:

MatthTheGeek: Modded in HW2 ?

Stormkeeper:  Yeah. But at least I got the bomber's turret working, as well as the interceptor's missile launcher.

Dark Knight: If you're not listening to The Ladder while you're looking at those pics you're not doing it right. That or Turanic Raiders (extended)

Pecenipicek: Lovely lack of "check hull" and the fact that the bloody thing is still not working when the turret manages to rotate its fire points to the inside of the hull.

* Pecenipicek glares at the Vaygr assfrig.

Stormkeeper:  lol. "Assfrig" A new curse is born.

Pecenipicek: Assault frigate :p

Ktistai228: Okay, why do all my screenshots end up black?!?!!

 Pecenipicek: Oh, right, right, don't explain the joke :p

 Stormkeeper: SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND BIATCHES

 MatthTheGeek: ktistai228: You can't use windows' screenshots for that

 Pecenipicek: ktistai228, I have no bleeding clue.

 Dark Knight: I think AssFrig is going into the mission script.

 MatthTheGeek: Press print screen, look in your screenshot folder

 Pecenipicek: MatthTheGeek, I'm using windows screenshots for that :p

 Dark Knight: AssFrigg

 Stormkeeper: Assfrig

 MatthTheGeek: Wait what

 Pecenipicek: It punts them in the screenshot folda. derp.

 MatthTheGeek: It's not supposed to work

 Pecenipicek: Nevermind.

 MatthTheGeek: Right

 Pecenipicek: As I said, brain = mush

 Ktistai228: Matth: pressing prtsc, and going into FreeSpace2/screenshot and they are black

 MatthTheGeek: Poke The_E; can't do anything for ya

 The E:Straange

 Pecenipicek: What did I say a second ago about running tap as a mod folder?

 Ktistai228: Wait, what?

 Pecenipicek: DO NOT DO EEET!

 The E:Pecenipicek: Not that that would change anything, you know

 MatthTheGeek: ktistai228: Only TAP, or any FSO mod ?

Lester: I'm running it as a mod and I have no difficulties

 Pecenipicek: The_E, it did make one iffy little bug a bit harder to track.

Pecenipicek: Stormkeeper, enjoying the banter? :p

 The E:Pecenipicek: It won't fix kt's screenshot issue

 Pecenipicek: That's true.

 Ktistai228: Only checked tap this far

 MatthTheGeek: #hlp-interview is now known as #tap-dev

 Stormkeeper: So true.

 Pecenipicek: Doesn't matter actually :p

* Stormkeeper changes topic to 'Welcome to the new TAP Dev Channel'

 Pecenipicek: Achievement Get: Channel hijacked by the TAP dev team.

 MatthTheGeek: \o/

 Stormkeeper: XD

 Stormkeeper: ARE WE READDYYYYYYYYY

 Dark Knight: I was born ready

Lester: I was so going to say that

 Pecenipicek: My body is ready.

 Dark Knight: Well I was born horny. became ready mid puberty

 MatthTheGeek: Your mom is ready

Lester: My ready is body

 * Pecenipicek smacks MatthTheGeek

 Scourge_of_Ages:  Ready

 * Pecenipicek cracks whip

 Pecenipicek: You better all be ready :p

 Ktistai228: And still black. Well, we'll have to do without my screens

 * @Stormkeeper strafes all the assembled people.

 Pecenipicek: ktistai228, we'll debug it later today then.

 Ktistai228: Understood

 Stormkeeper: I don't put the interview right away, anyway. You can send them to me and I'll insert them in appropriate places.

 Pecenipicek: Yeah.

 MatthTheGeek: Gigiddy

 Stormkeeper: So.

 Dark Knight: Too easy

 Pecenipicek: Yeah. less total and utter chaos and mayhem around.

 MatthTheGeek: Inorite

 Stormkeeper: Let's start the interview...

 Scourge_of_Ages:  I have a few screens

 Stormkeeper: You can

 The E:
 

 Stormkeeper: Shoot them up later.

-----------------------

It was too long, so I had to split it from the main.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2012, 03:14:18 pm by Zacam »
Ancient-Shivan War|Interview Board

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Offline Stormkeeper

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Aaaand, the TAP screenshots.

Sorry this took so long to get up. Lots of stuff happened. Expect the Wings of Dawn Interview in the next week or so.
Ancient-Shivan War|Interview Board

Member of the Scooby Doo Fanclub. And we're not talking a cartoon dog here people!!

 

Offline MatthTheGeek

  • Captain Obvious
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  • Frenchie McFrenchface
Re: The Birth ... of the AssFrig.
inb4 NSFW litteral AssFrig pics
People are stupid, therefore anything popular is at best suspicious.

Mod management tools     -     Wiki stuff!     -     Help us help you

666maslo666: Releasing a finished product is not a good thing! It is a modern fad.

SpardaSon21: it seems like you exist in a permanent state of half-joking misanthropy

Axem: when you put it like that, i sound like an insane person

bigchunk1: it's not retarded it's american!
bigchunk1: ...

batwota: steele's maneuvering for the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: you mispelled grâce
Awaesaar: grace
batwota: oh right :P
Darius: ah!
Darius: yes, i like that
MatthTheGeek: the way you just spelled it it means fat
Awaesaar: +accent I forgot how to keyboard
MatthTheGeek: or grease
Darius: the killing fat!
Axem: jabba does the coup de gras
MatthTheGeek: XD
Axem: bring me solo and a cookie

 

Offline Stormkeeper

  • Interviewer Extraordinaire
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Re: The Birth ... of the AssFrig.
... some part of me is curious to see such abominations.
Ancient-Shivan War|Interview Board

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Offline pecenipicek

  • Roast Chicken
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    • Minecraft
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    • Steam
    • Twitter
    • PeceniPicek's own deviantart page
Re: The Birth ... of the AssFrig.
... some part of me is curious to see such abominations.
do not tempt me!
Skype: vrganjko
Ho, ho, ho, to the bottle I go
to heal my heart and drown my woe!
Rain may fall and wind may blow,
and many miles be still to go,
but under a tall tree I will lie!

The Apocalypse Project needs YOU! - recruiting info thread.

 

Offline bigchunk1

  • bigchunk1 = Awesome²
  • 29
  • ...and by awesome I mean Jerk!
Re: The Birth ... of the AssFrig.
The Hiigaran destroyer still is one of my favorite space warships ever.
BP Multi
The Antagonist
Zacam: Uh. No, using an effect is okay. But you are literally using the TECHROOM ani as the weapon effect.