Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 07:21:42 pm

Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 07:21:42 pm
Did this in just under an hour, but basically I made a Shivan Flux Beam that actually looks convincing.  Since I don't have a web page (yet--I'm in the process of setting up one on Tripod (I'M SORRY!!!:D;)), I can't post screenshots just yet.  Hopefully I'll have a few up by tomorrow.

EDIT:  Okay, I'm impatient.:)  Anyways, here's the few screenshots I have, plus a few more that I think are nice. You'll of course have to enter the addresses manually...:rolleyes:

First, the SD Demon get's a _huge_ beam on that heavy turret near the hangars.  Revised description states that it is used as both an anti-capship beam and as an orbit-to-surface bombardment device:

http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/demon_beam_00.jpg
http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/demon_beam_01.jpg

The infamous Lucifer gets it's own fluxers.  These are identical to the Demon flux except that they are physically smaller:

http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/lucifer_flux.jpg

And the Rakshasa gets special rapid-recharge beams.  They are simply weaker SReds with lower damage, quicker fire delay, and a red beamglow:

http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/rakshasa_redbeams_00.jpg
http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/rakshasa_redbeams_01.jpg
http://quantium40.tripod.com/screenshots/rakshasa_redbeams_02.jpg

And I'll busily be making a site for that big empty directory right about now...

EDIT:  Got it fixed...I think...
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: WS-Thunder on February 14, 2002, 07:41:39 pm
Tripod
Tripod
Tripod
Tripod
Tripod
Tripod


Ummmmm... :p
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 07:44:12 pm
I'm working on it!!!  :mad:

EDIT:  If you didn't see in the first post, I got it fixed.  Forgot that tripod does that screwy stuff with linking images, etc..
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: WS-Thunder on February 14, 2002, 07:52:02 pm
Hehe, np. Couldn't help but tease ya :D
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 07:54:10 pm
*sigh* My first experience with Tripod, and already I think it sux.

Anyways, whaddaya think of the pics?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: WS-Thunder on February 14, 2002, 07:59:18 pm
Looks awfully... perdy :D
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: LtNarol on February 14, 2002, 08:03:19 pm
well, my opinion is this:

nice beams, but tripod sucks, so does angelfire, and geocities while being the best of the three is still terrible.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 08:14:02 pm
Okay okay okay, enough about the servers sucking massive amounts of something bad!!  It's to be expected since they are very well free (and not worth starting a war over).  I'm happy to at least have a place for me to put my stuff onto, and not having to pay for it is even better.

Since the Demon isn't quite as fullblown a killer as a Lucifer, should I lower the damage it's beam causes?  At current a glancing blow incinerates a Deimos :)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: WMCoolmon on February 14, 2002, 08:32:59 pm
http://portland.co.uk :)
BTW, I'm having trouble with the last 3...is the capitalization right? The other two look good. :)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: CP5670 on February 14, 2002, 09:34:36 pm
The Demon beam looks cool.:) You might want to make it red in accordance with the other Shivan things, but nice work otherwise.

I can't get the others to load.:(

Tripod is IMHO is worst hosting service on the whole internet; I was once trying to upload a website there, but I happened to start with the images first. In less than a minute after I has started putting up images, they had disabled my account. (only a couple of images and no html's were uploaded) Well, I sent them a formal but flaming email and that was the end of it; I would strongly recommend staying away from Tripod for anyone who is looking for hosting.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 11:03:58 pm
Well, I'm sure Portland is a good host, but unfortunately I live on the wrong side of the pond...

Well, scratch that.  I just signed up as quantium40.port5.com and will proceed to fill the miniscule 15MB of web space with all due haste.

BTW, try the Rakshasa pics again.  Turns out I misspelled "redbeams" :p
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: LtNarol on February 14, 2002, 11:07:10 pm
nooo, flux cannons are supposed to be orange.  for the demon, cut back severely, and dont set that cannon as the standard weapon for that turret, you can change what a turret carries in fred, so make it compatible but not standard.

For the most part such a beam sould only be used for fancy cinematic effects in missions.:)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 14, 2002, 11:19:42 pm
Well, I originally made it for a minicampaign where the Shivans we all know and love aren't the intragalactic blight we all thought we knew and loved...and their ship configurations were...somewhat...slightly...different...

Anyways, I toned the Demon's beam to something down closer to (but still more potent than) a BFRed's.  Lucy's beams can still atomize anything they touch.  I might redesign the Demon's beams to look more like the Rakshasa's new ones, unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them actually on.  I'll grab a screenshot later, but right now, I'm getting tired, and will proceed to resume experimenting sometime next week ;)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 15, 2002, 04:56:38 pm
Personally I like my LuciferBeams better. Check them out in the weapons.tbl on my site.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 17, 2002, 10:53:00 pm
:bump:

Aha! Here's a screenshot from Doomsday showing off the new LuciferBeams.

Edit: lousy file compression...

(http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/fsport/images/doomsday.jpg)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Nico on February 18, 2002, 06:32:51 am
mmh, they should look a bit more massive, but otherwise: I like :)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: JC Denton on February 18, 2002, 04:25:02 pm
Hmm...I think I prefer mine more not because I'm prejudiced or anything, but rather that they look more like the ones both from FS1 and the opening cutscene from FS2 (to me, anyways:)).  If I decide to alter their appearance any, I'd probably make them a tad larger.

GalacticEmperor, IMHO, yours could use these 3 things done to them:


And there's my 2 cents worth:wink:

Unfortunately, my system has suddenly decided to frag itself most unglamorously (explaining why there are no new screenshots), and at current I have a corrupted DOS boot record, something screwy lurking in the partition tables, and about a half-gig of unrecoverable data flooding my HDD (and most of it is, or rather, was the VP files from FS2!!:().  If anyone's got any suggestions on whichever flavor of WinXP I should take (either Home or Pro), I'm open to them!
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Black Wolf on February 19, 2002, 07:35:46 am
What's wrong with the SSLs already in FRED2?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 19, 2002, 10:11:07 am
Please tell me you're kidding...
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 19, 2002, 09:34:21 pm
New LuciferBeams! Check them out.

(http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/fsport/images/lucybeam.jpg)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Alikchi on February 19, 2002, 09:44:09 pm
That's what I'm talking about! Very nice :)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Grey Wolf on February 19, 2002, 09:49:27 pm
Now just add the reduce ambient sun,use a view without the main interface, and you get a work of art there Galactic Emperor!
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 19, 2002, 09:51:47 pm
This is actually a screenshot from Act III, Mission 3- "A Failure to Communicate." The white light is from the Beta Aquilae Installation blowing up. :D Maybe one of the render gods can do something with it.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Black Wolf on February 20, 2002, 07:03:35 am
Quote
Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
Please tell me you're kidding...


What are you talking about? The SSLs were not beams, they were super lasers. Hence, making them beams in FS2 is inappropriate.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Grey Wolf on February 20, 2002, 11:33:11 am
Quote
Originally posted by Black Wolf


What are you talking about? The SSLs were not beams, they were super lasers. Hence, making them beams in FS2 is inappropriate.
Yes, but they were supposed to be beams.
Title: W00t :)
Post by: Mad Bomber on February 20, 2002, 04:24:11 pm
I remember playing that mission. The only thing I could think of to say as I nailed a Dragon head on with a PXV while flying at top speed was "YEEEEHAA!!" :D
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Grey Wolf on February 20, 2002, 08:42:02 pm
Quote
Originally posted by GalacticEmperor
New LuciferBeams! Check them out.

(http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/fsport/images/lucybeam.jpg)
Hee hee. Didn't realize you already released all those missions. Now I'm going to add the reduce_ambient thing to all of them!
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 20, 2002, 10:34:09 pm
What reduce_ambient thing? What are you talking about?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Sesquipedalian on February 21, 2002, 02:32:57 am
http://uk.geocities.com/gunnery_control/index_2.htm under the Misc Mods section.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Tar-Palantir on February 22, 2002, 05:09:29 am
The beam looks great! Does it have the same damage and re-fire rate as the FS1 original?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Sesquipedalian on February 23, 2002, 05:54:33 am
It is possible to use any texture you want for a beam.  You might try using the texture file for the Shivan Super Laser as the primary texture in your Lucy beams to make them even better! :)
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 24, 2002, 10:39:25 am
Yes, the damage, range, and refire is the same as the SSLs, which is the whole reason why I made them. LReds have too short a range, SReds are too weak, and BFReds are too strong.
How do I texure the beam with the SSL texture?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Sesquipedalian on February 24, 2002, 06:22:03 pm
The Shivan Super Laser's entry in the weapons.tbl ought to identify the texture bitmap used for its trail.  Simply enter that name into the Section texture where you now have the straight orange.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Razor on February 25, 2002, 02:52:37 am
But, how did you make the beams? Did you just copy the TBL entries for FS2 beam cannons or....?
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Anaz on February 25, 2002, 06:03:07 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Razor
But, how did you make the beams? Did you just copy the TBL entries for FS2 beam cannons or....?




copy, paste, modify.


I'm probably too late on this but...

WELCOME TO THE HLPBB

I've allways wanted to do that...
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Galemp on February 25, 2002, 07:02:48 pm
I really wish someone would write a program that will let you easily add and modify weapons without messing about in the code and possibly screwing up the parser. Right now you just pick the weapon your weapon is most like and, well,
Quote
copy, paste, modify.
Title: Shivan Flux Cannons
Post by: Sesquipedalian on February 26, 2002, 01:04:12 am
I like copy, paste, modify.  It gives you more control than any but the best-written programs would.  And really, the effort required to write a program is far beyond justification when compared to the short amount of time needed to hack a table file.