Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Clawandfang on February 14, 2008, 11:44:04 am

Title: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Clawandfang on February 14, 2008, 11:44:04 am
Hey people I'm new around here so I'm not too sure what's going on. I did have an interesting idea thought which with my skills I could never make use of, but someone else might.

How about a Mod which allows you to play as Command in Freespace? You could order fleets around the map but then play as normal when you encounter enemy forces, or auto-resolve if you're a lazy git.

I don't know if this idea has any merit, and I have just wasted anyone's time, sorry.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 14, 2008, 11:56:06 am
Presenting 'interesting ideas' is not that popular around here, unless you are going to actually work on it yourself and/or already have something to show that you mean business. Many ideas die off fast because the neede amount of work hasn't been taken into consideration. And I'm a bit sceptic on how well strategic gameplay could be implemented on the game engine. Possibly, if you forget FSO for now and find a strategy game with the features you mentioned, you could mod it to have FS ships and maybe some interface ****, too.

But, before getting too excited about new ideas 'n stuff, do first play FS. At least the FS1 and FS2 main campaigns and some quality user made ones as well. I guarantee, that you won't have time to wonder about any modification possibilities while playing. And

:welcomered:
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: karajorma on February 14, 2008, 12:21:54 pm
I don't mind presenting ideas as long as no one expects that we'll immediately drop everything to work on them. :)


To be honest I'd love to see a fleet command mod in the style of something like Hostile Waters. It might not even be all that hard. All you'd need to do was allow new AI orders to be given while the game is in bullet time pause. :D
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Polpolion on February 14, 2008, 01:06:29 pm
There already is something like this as a WIP, sort of (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,51936.0.html)
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Clawandfang on February 14, 2008, 03:56:45 pm
Alright, thanks guys. I don't intend to look at the idea of a strategic version of Freespace properly, I just wondered what other people thought of the idea. And yes, I have completed Freespace 1+2...
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 14, 2008, 11:53:12 pm
And yes, I have completed Freespace 1+2...
Well then, off you go playing FSO and user made campaigns. Might I recommend Procyon Insurgency, Blue Planet and Derelict for starters?
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Dragon93 on February 15, 2008, 06:31:48 pm
This has already been done. There is a Freespace mod for Homeworld 2.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 16, 2008, 12:27:50 am
This has already been done. There is a Freespace mod for Homeworld 2.
Under construction, that is. Like it has always been. And it's a Homeworld mod for FreeSpace. Clawandfang made a proposition about a game/mod where you play an RTS/space sim with FreeSpace ships.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: karajorma on February 16, 2008, 02:15:54 am
No. He means the Freespace mod for Homeworld (http://www.game-warden.com/fsna/).
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 16, 2008, 04:19:18 am
... oh.There's such a thing as well? Hot damn, I must've missed that somehow.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Dragon93 on February 16, 2008, 08:30:33 am
:). Don't know about the latest version, but last time i played that mod the AI wasn't too good.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Nuke on February 16, 2008, 08:47:56 am
There already is something like this as a WIP, sort of (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,51936.0.html)

progress on that front was going along fine up till i got stuck on  the move command. we have a working minimap, scroll, zoom and rotate, working subspace jump on all ships, an extended stats tracking system, even a cute little status bar for each ship. the move command takes a ship, stores a vector as metadata in the extended stats system to indicate where to go, and a bool to indicate wether or not the move command is active. with that data ans a simple matrix op i can determine the kind or rotational velocity and forward velocity is needed tog et to that point. i can control the desired velocity of the ship, but i cant seem to get them to rotate. its like the ai is overriding my changes to a ships desired rotational velocity, and thus the ships go, but dont turn.

such a shame really, if we could get that to work we wouldnt be far from having an rts game. save for possible fred trickery or more scripting features, the mod is essentially on pause (along with half of my other scripting projects), pending advancements elsewhere or a clever idea that we havent thought of yet (like orientation hacking which would probably bork collision detection and physics).
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Retsof on February 16, 2008, 07:50:56 pm
*Thinking in terms of FRED*  Maybe you could have it place a waypoint where you click or however you select the place and give the ship a "Waypoints once" order or a "Waypoints" order for potroll.  Perhaps having the waypoints show up on screen so you can link them and manage them.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Nuke on February 19, 2008, 06:40:22 am
we tried that route, since were able to create way points in scripting, unfortunately theres no way to change a ship's orders to chase them, and there appears to be a 32 path limit as well.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: WMCoolmon on February 20, 2008, 01:28:15 am
What's the minimum that you need to get moving again?
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Clawandfang on February 20, 2008, 03:16:25 am
Wow, you guys sure know your stuff.
Although this sounds really interesting, it wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
If anyone has played Rome: Total War, then that is the sort of thing I am thinking about for the campaign map, but you would play as a single pilot for the actual mission. Or you could rts it.
I envisioned something like the little animations at the command briefings, except YOU were telling the little icons where to go. It would probably require a whole new program to make though, so I don't expect anyone to think about it too seriously, given the amount of work that would be involved.

And just a quick apology, now having spent time in the forums I've realised that this topic probably should have somewhere else. Sorry.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Getter Robo G on February 20, 2008, 03:07:39 pm
No you were ok, at first I would have said modding section BUT in order to do what you want it would take a MAJOR overhaul of the code, so much in fact it would NOT be FS2 anymore thus far beyond the capability or patience of most people here.

Your best bet would be to track down (as mentioned) RTS mods that include FS2, OR find a new game engine and start a project yourself from scratch that has the elements you want.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: Clawandfang on February 20, 2008, 03:22:21 pm
Your best bet would be to track down (as mentioned) RTS mods that include FS2, OR find a new game engine and start a project yourself from scratch that has the elements you want.

As far as "best bets" go, I've seen better...heh
Just consider it "food for thought", as I certainly don't the time or energy to look into it, and would be surprised if anybody else did.
Title: Re: Freespace Mod Idea
Post by: chief1983 on February 20, 2008, 07:52:16 pm
I don't necessarily want to see it turned into an RTS, but I would love the ability to be in control of a capship, with the ability to give orders to its turrets, as well as other capships, and all fighters through the comms menu using the normal method.  I think this is either done, or mostly done, or in progress, but I haven't tried to find out where or if it was ever released.  One thing I'd love to see with this though, is an Ender's Game mod.  Although Ender's Game probably lends itself better to an RTS mod anyway than a FS mod, but oh well.  It'd still be cool to see.  I'm almost certain that capship orders had been completed, but I don't know where that's at either.