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Well, the modding portion of my campaign is drawing to a close, and here in the next few days, I'll be releasing a handful of missions - or maybe a teaser video.
I seem to be finding my way around the VP viewers, photoshop, and PCS well enough - and as such, I have a couple reskinned destroyers.
GTD Titan
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113880035-4.jpg)
GTD Hecate
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113880041-4.jpg)
All of the Terran warships in the GTVA will have the silver-green color scheme.
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Not a fan of the green.
The Helheim textures just don't work with it being light blue.
Stick with dark blue IMO (unless you retinge the Helheim tiles too)
Teal + Light Blue = UNGH REALLY
Reminds me of that atrocious Zagreus reskin I saw a while back...and that's a bad thing.
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Well I like it, and I says rock on!
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Yeah, I think it looks nice.
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Ultimate Hecate of Awesome, man :yes:
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:yes:
Completely different Terran design style (colour wise). Looks great!, definately captivated
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I figured I should give the Terrans a color motiff, and I figured the ships should match the beams. I didn't pick the classic silver/blue mix because I didn't want to completely rip off Blue Planet, and because...
...I already have a faction with blue ships and beams - the Terrans from the parelell-future.
I'm still in the process of developing a coherent plot - but it will be a Post-Capella, third Shivan incursion campaign - set about ten years, give or take, after the Capella Incursion.
Presently, there are plans to involve time travel quite heavily. The Shivans and their motives are going to be revealed in great detail, to the point of incorporating Shivan characters in the plot. There will be Shivan infiltration. A reunion with Earth (via mad scientist) is on the drawing board, as is a journey to the Shivan home galaxy. ETAK worked, but considering what the GTVA knows of the Shivans, Bosch would not have lived more than a few minutes after the Shivans took him. Four player-flyable factions are planned: GTVA Terrans, GTVA Vasudans, Paralell-Future Terrans, and captured Shivan fighters. The latter two have their own dedicated sets of weaponry. The player will play as squadron leader of the 70th Blue Lions for the first couple missions.
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this one's intriguing! I like it!
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Sounds novel. I will most certainly be keeping tabs on it. And I'm digging those new color schemes too.
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I like to color scheme as such, but it doesn't fit together with the engine glow. Maybe you should change the engine glow to complete white, like the Sol ships from Inferno had. Or pretty much anything except the standard light blue.
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Yay for green ships !
They'll be matching their beam canons ;)
Your story idea also sounds interesting.
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I personaly don't like BP-style textures and any similar styles - prefering textures similar to orginals, but I won't sit in judgement on a few screenshots. Your storyline ideas sounds very original and promising :). I'm looking foreward for new updates :D. Please, use starfield.pof in your missions.
BTW. Isn't it inspirated by game Singularity? :)
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I like your plot idea, especially...
...involve time travel...
...Shivans and their motives are going to be revealed in great detail...
...incorporating Shivan characters in the plot...
...Shivan infiltration...
...a journey to the Shivan home galaxy...
...Four player-flyable factions...
...dedicated sets of weaponry.
Oh GOD ! :eek2: If you include all these ideas in a nice way...
...Then you'll become a living GOD for me :nod:
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...Is there a game called Singularity that's coincidentally similar?
I called it 'Singularity' because of one character's reference to Capella - he calls it the singularity of the war, because of its enormous strategic value to both the Shivans and the GTVA.
Also, I had no idea that starfield.pof even existed. Backgrounds look awesome now. :yes:
More screenshots to come. The Orion is being a fantastic pain in the a** in PCS, with its assortment of texture placements. It's becoming difficult to make it look good. Also in dire need of some texturing love is the SD Kismat, so I'll be getting around to that...eventually.
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Hrm, I just would have prefered Silver/LightGreen/Teal over Silver/LightBlue/Teal, that's all.
But apparently, people like it so hey.
I partially retextured the Kismat for ToD...donno if its any better though (it's really outdated as a model anyway)
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Ah yes...I used the Kismat from ToD (Tides of Darkness) in my mod - though I retextured it, to make it look a little more like the Demon/Ravana. Also present is a texture I tweaked in photoshop myself. Designed for lots of forward firepower.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951271-4.jpg)
The SD Vassago, also textured accordingly to the Demon/Ravana style.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951290-4.jpg)
The Shiamak, also from ToD - following the theme of the Shivan destroyers. It is a supercarrier.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951283-4.jpg)
The Horror, again, from ToD, the Shivans' strike corvette of choice. A bit lacking in firepower...but it's very, very speedy.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951311-4.jpg)
The Annihilator - the Shivans' ultra-long-range RBC platform.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951327-4.jpg)
And the Asura, a new Shivan cruiser, with a wicked point-defense screen.(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113951297-4.jpg)
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lvlshot tags. They are your friends.
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nice! what about using the yama?
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I like new glowy shivan texture, however the Vassago has new HTL model in newest Ancient Shivan War release. Check it out :).
nice! what about using the yama?
Isn't it unreleased?
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Anihilator is RBC? I thought it had torpedos. The last cruiser and the Vassago are definitely better then before :)
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is it? I thought it was featured in inferno R1...
or perhaps that was the iblis... what does the yama look like?
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Nice, first time seeing the Asura, and good updates on the other ships. Would love to see this released so I could incorporate them myself. ;)
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is it? I thought it was featured in inferno R1...
or perhaps that was the iblis... what does the yama look like?
Yama is in INFR1U, and it's look like a bigger Rakshasa - very nice model. In INFR1 you have only Kismat and Iblis.
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The Vassago.
Use the HTL one.
Its in ASW 3.6.12
The version you're using has collision errors due to the ****ty MAX CONVERTER.
The HTL one is converted through Collada and has no such issues.
The original collision errors are my fault (for using the stupid converter in the first place), so I demand you fix it! I won't let my error run around like that! :P
Also, the HTL version doesn't have 2D polies on the forward guns.
Plus, its mapping is much less STRETCH (look at the "head part", ouch), and it has roughly the same shape/weapon config so it won't break any missions you made with it.
Let me assure you that it is in your best interest to change it.
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:jaw: Wow, I think my eyes popped out when I pulled Vassago.pof out of the ASW mod. Beautiful.
With a bit of retexturing in PCS2, to make it fit the rest of the Shivan destroyer fleet - I ended up with this as a result: (http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/113966734-4.jpg)
On an unrelated note, another ship has been added. Screenshot not included, since the engine glows on it look like total sh** (though this will be fixed in a day or two).
It is official. The Solaris is now in the Singularity mod, since a reunification with Earth will happen very early on in the campaign. I chose the Solaris largely because the model looks incredible. Singularity will not be a tie-in to the Blue Planet series.
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The new Vassago looks much better.
Looking forward to more screens.
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Just FYI, the Solaris released with WiH is bugged.
If you have a ship depart via its hangar bay it will Crash FSO because of an improperly named bay path. (not to mention that all its bay paths are largely unusable due to being too short).
I can provide you with the fixed model, or you can ask BP, I guess.
Or just pretend it doesn't have a hangar in mission, that works too.
You have been warned. :P
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The fixed model would be awesome, since the Solaris(es) will be destroyer-carriers. And, not to be picky or anything...but if the paths are too short, would it be too much to ask to make them longer?
If you have a link to download, that works. Or you can just email me - [email protected]
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I have a version with extended and correctly named paths with glowpoints done by Hades.
I'll PM you the link.
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might anyone have pics of the yama?
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might anyone have pics of the yama?
It's somewhere in "New Eyecandy Thread" in Inferno board. I remember screenshot with blue nebulas but I don't remember where. Probably on further pages, with the old Ryujin and Tanen HTL.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/SadisticSid/infernoships/screen0045.jpg)
It actually looks kind of ugly from other angles.
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Still looks pretty wicked though
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It is also unreleased AFAIK. And the Vassago basically trumps it in most respects.
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With a little texturing love, I think the Yama could go pretty far. Have you considered slapping capital04-01 on it (the cool, silver texture present on the Demon and Ravana)? And, if you want, I can share the texture that has that intricate red glowmap with it.
Also, many thanks for the fixed Solaris, Droid803. :yes:
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Slapping Capital04-01 does not a cooler ship make.
In fact, I find that texture rather ugly and out of place on most Shivan ships, which are better served with a Rakshasa/Moloch/Lilith/Sathanas-like color scheme.
I actually wonder if your retextured shivans look any good at all under neutral lighting. The red lighting goes a long way in making Capital01-04 less...out of place :P
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Well, I took a tech-room video of the four Shivan destroyers, viewable here: http://www.xfire.com/video/46afae/
I suppose it's just personal preference though. Apparently I have a thing for Shivans and silver, especially for the large ships.
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Hrm, the kismat looks surprisingly decent. Probably the suparbumpy normal map hiding the fact it only has like 10 polies.
But the Vassago...looks like a downgrade from its original texture scheme though, seeing as its shape suggests bigrakshasa (and the SSJ Gigas is Jumborakshasa), and the armor plates and shape get blobed over by the suparbumpy normal map.
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Hmmm...I could edit the normal map, make it a little less megabumpy.
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The megabumpy helps a lot on the Kismat though! It's good on that!
But remember, Shivans are explicitly stated to display considerable diversity in terms of ship design as a species. Having too standardized a texture set contradicts canon! :P (jk)
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I'd only make a duplicate texture set with a less bumpy normal map, so that the Kismat keeps the megabumpyness, and the Vassago would look smoother.
Though that is a good point with canon. Almost makes me want to redo the Lucifer's glow maps and lateral beam cannons to be teal-blue, like in FS1 cutscenes. Almost.
At the very least, yes, I believe I'll be varying and changing and making noticably different versions of capital04-01.
On the other hand, all the Shivan warships got a pretty standardized upgrade: shields. I might go ahead and modify capital04-01, and make it look like it has shield generators built all over the surface. I might also modify the glow maps and textures of the other ships, to make it look like they have the shield arrays as well. Sounds like a lot of work though.
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But remember, Shivans are explicitly stated to display considerable diversity in terms of ship design as a species. Having too standardized a texture set contradicts canon! :P (jk)
No. You've completely misunderstood that comment.
Though Shivans demonstrate considerable diversity as a species, all Shivan technology possesses certain distinctive properties.
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y so serious
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y so serious
Because this is a serious matter, damn you!
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Uh...what exactly is the serious matter?
Also, on a (semi)-related note I really like Aldo_14's comment (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=42593.msg872377#msg872377) about the report from Dr Hargrove:
Dear GTVA Command
Having extensively studied the subspace portal in Gamma Draconis, we have established it is not red and is, in fact, a sort of blue-ey-greeny-gray. We have therefore concluded it is not Shivan.
Yours sincerely
Dr. Hargrove BSc MSc MD Phd POS GTVA HLP BLAHBLAH
The Shivans are apparently similar enough that all their tech is red. Except the FS1 Lucy, and then, only in cutscenes.
:lol:
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The Asmodeus would like to have a word with you, he who thinks shivans are red.
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To be fair, the Asmodeus has its share of Red bits.
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To be fair, the Asmodeus has its share of Red bits.
(http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/images/Sfrasmodeus-old.jpg)
Maybe if you're red-green colorblind?
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EDIT: Having realized that I am finally home and can, in fact check these things myself, yes the Asmodeus does have red lining. I am uploading the screenshot now.
DOUBLE EDIT: False alarm. I didn't disable Mediavps :nono:. The stock Asmodeus does, in fact, lack any red colorations save for its engines.
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IMO the mediavps one should have yellow lights instead of red ones >.>
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That would actually look kinda cool. I'm thinking it would make it look just a tad too out of place, given how bright the lights on the MVP's model are as compared to stock, but then again we wouldn't know unless we see it. I wonder if I can approximate something like that by screwing around with the post -processing setting ins WiH. I'll find out tomorrow.
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It's because the Shivans were originally Borg green.
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Shivans were originally going to be borg-green? Oh the irony! Now it's the Terran combat vessels that are borg-green! :lol:
Yes, I've been lazy this weekend. Only thing I got done was the Solaris re-skin (and even at that, I just changed the color).
I figured I should present my list of what needs done, in order to conclude the actual modding portion of the mod. After that will come the FREDing.
Do Debug
Reskin Solaris Fighters
Import missiles (Probably from ASW, and Esarai's missile pack)
Reskin missiles
Create Earth-Native Terran weapons
Create Paralell-Future Terran weapons
Develop list of credits
(Possibly) Reskin Paralell-Future Terran warships
Assemble scattered ship TBM's into the ships.tbl
Debug it all again (Hopefully won't have to though)
You'll also be delighted to know that I have the plot for the first seven missions planned out, which will comprise the demo. Some missions will be multi-part missions, where the player accomplishes and objective, warps out, and the next 'part' loads.
The contents of the demo:
For the first two missions, the player will play as Alpha 1, squadron commander of the 70th Blue Lions. The character will get transferred from the GTD Aquitaine to the GTD Obsidian (which is widely regarded as the most powerful warship fielded by the GTVA, since the Colossus), and the details of a top-secret Shivan infiltration will be revealed. A very cool infiltration/scouting multipart mission ensues. The rest of the campaign will focus on a character that I still need to name, flying with a squadron based off of the GTD Quantum Dawn. After the defecation hits the ventilation for a couple missions, the player responds to a distress call from a 'strategically critical' science vessel. It gets escorted to the Obsidian by the Quantum Dawn - but the Shivans are a step ahead of everyone, so the Obsidian gets ambushed. Then the player gets to go recover the operative from the Shivan infiltration from earlier. They don't recover Alpha 1, but they do recover the data he sent.
Yes, a couple of these missions are small-scale BoE's, since destroyers usually travel with a corvette or a pair of cruisers - but the fleets are pretty conservative in size.
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Hmm, what's the class of the obsidian?
Also, do you plan on using any supercap ships for the shivans? the old amritaya might be interesting, or perhaps the iblis or vinashaak...
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The Shivans will have supercaps.
The Shiamak is going to be a gigantic, juggernaut-sized, combat supercarrier. There will be one of these in the campaign.
Sathanases will be strategic ships, like mobile stations. There will be two or three of these in the whole campaign.
The commander of the Shivan forces will be flying a SSJ Dante.
On the Terran side:
The Obsidian is a Raynor-Class. The GTVA will also find a pair of abandoned Colossus juggernauts, from a paralell timeline.
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spoiler
Sounds awful lot likw SGWP2, tread lightly :lol:
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SGWP2?
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SGWP2?
Second Great War Part 2. A campaign known to be so bad it's horrible or so bad it's good, depending who you ask.
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Just read about SGWP2. :shaking:
Let me put some minds at ease. Singularity will not end up like that. Ever.
There is quite a bit of plot material available for Singularity, so the largest challenge (once I learn how to FRED aptly) will be plot pacing. And no, I will not resort to mere 'cool overload', by throwing ever more grandiose missions and scenarios at the player, because they inevitably turn into pointless BoE's. All capship fights have a purpose in the plot, and it's rare to see either side deploy anything larger than a cruiser, simply as 'reinforcements'.
Concerning Shivan fleets and supercaps:
The Shivans, because of the nature of the wormhole-gate technology they use to subvert normal subspace nodes, means that they can only transport a given mass through a wormhole until it collapses. They are very, very limited in the number and size of the ships they can transport. It took them nearly a year to open a large enough wormhole for a strategically self-supporting fleet - and this is a fleet of one Sathanas juggernaut, one supercarrier, a handful of destroyers, and supporting corvettes/cruisers. In the strategic scope, blowing up a destroyer is a huge loss, and it doesn't happen very often. Those two supercaps are absolutely critical to the Shivan war effort in GTVA space.
GTVA supercaps:
The pair of Colossus juggernauts were abandoned derelicts for a reason - they were engaged in combat, and the crews were forced to evacuate. Both are extremely heavily damaged - and over the course of two weeks, they cannabalize parts from one to get the (slightly) less-damaged one patched up enough for a trip through subspace.
The faction of Terrans from the distant, parallel future have a juggernaut in their entourage, but again, shock is only shocking when used seldom. It will only make in-mission appearances twice, since the ship is absolutely invaluable.
GTVA Destroyers:
The GTD Obsidian is definitely not the 'norm' among the GTVA destroyers. It is one of only four of the Raynor-Class, and it's the only one that is engaged in offensive operations, instead of being sidelined at critical GTVA worlds like the other three are. The Obsidian only shows up when something extraordinarily important is going on. Again, shock is only shocking when used seldom.
Although the GTVA has built quite a few of Hecates and Hatshepsuts, they are definitely not expendable. Destroyers almost always retreat before they take heavy damage, if possible. Securing a kill against a destroyer is not a casual or easy task, for either side.
Screenshots of more stuff, coming soon.
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BoE's are good, but only if they are nicely FREDded. And how many abandoned Colossi? You know, a Colossus has a crew of over thirty-thousand (according to the wiki) members.
BTW: Don' forget the narrative causality :p
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BoE's are good, but only if they are nicely FREDded. And how many abandoned Colossi? You know, a Colossus has a crew of over thirty-thousand (according to the wiki) members.
could be altered w/o hesitation in a mod, totally if they are from the future. As seen in PI, where the Saturn looked just like the Hades but only had crew of 1200. Also, 30k crew members is full crew, including pilots and a LOT of marines - skeleton crew might as well be several hundred people :)
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You know what's better than a cluster of screenshots? A demo.
In the coming few days, I will be releasing a very short, single-mission demo - largely to get feedback from the community in the way of mod development and FREDing. This way, I'll be able to vastly improve future releases.
The demo mission presented will be the player's retreat to (and subsequent defense of) the GTD Obsidian. The destroyer's subspace navigation control suite was destroyed in a sneak-attack, and the player must defend the Obsidian from bomber attacks while the crew works out a solution. They manage to bypass the navigation systems by calling in an AWACS vessel to relay jump data to them.
The Shivans, however, are not stupid. They quickly sortie an attack force to destroy the AWACS ship - though in failing to do that in time, they deploy a destroyer powerful enough to engage the Raynor before it can jump - specifically, a Lucifer. The Obsidian shunts power from its weaponry to charge its drives faster. The player has to buy enough time for such an escape, by destroying the Lucifer's plasma beam cannons.
There are two possible victory scenarios: once the Obsidian's drives are charged, they will retreat to safety. Or, if the player does very well at defending the Obsidian, and neutralizing the Lucifer's plasma beams, the Obsidian will re-engage its own plasma beams after the drive charges, and do battle with the Lucifer.
The complexity of the mission seemed to lend itself to an alpha-release demo. Plus, I'm hoping to learn a lot about polishing missions, since this one will be so complex.
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If those are really plasma beams then they better have sufficient kinetic effect :P What, classic photons not enough for you? :lol:
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Gotta remember, a photon beam is really a laser (albeit in FS2, they would be really, really big ones). Still, look at modern-day lasers - you see a point of light at the 'impact point' of the laser, and perhaps a faint glow of the barrel. The only way to see the beam itself is to be staring straight down it - which really isn't advisable in FS2. In the movies, to get the cool laser-pointer beam effect, they must introduce a very foggy or dusty environment, that way the particles scatter the light of the laser, and allow the beam to be visible.
Even in clean atmosphere, laser beams are virtually invisible. In the vacuum of space, there would be even less material to scatter the beam.
Besides, discharging several hundred kilograms of plasma, at roughly 50,000 kelvin (for most GTVA beams), at close to the speed of light...it just sounds slightly cooler than 'it shoots light'. And if memory serves correct, beams have a strong kinetic effect against fighters, do they not? This just means that the density of the plasma beam is sort of low - which in my opinion, is good, since it doesn't require more than two or three salvoes worth of plasma for an SGreen to weigh more than a whole Fenris.
Call it an upgrade, if you will. ;)
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I don't think single-mission demos get played a lot. Just throwing that out there.
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And if memory serves correct, beams have a strong kinetic effect against fighters, do they not?
There would also be the intro of FS2, were the Orion is pushed away untill the moment the beam punches completely through.
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Yeah but not actually in the game. I!m just saying that it would look osm if you actually got the lucifer pushing the raynor around ;7 Just a lil bit, but do
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While it would be cool, I imagine it would be very hard to balance. Something that can push another destroyer just a little bit might well shoot a smaller ship hundreds of meters away, unless there is some way to make the kinetic force either proportional or class dependant.
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It is class dependent insofar as it is controlled by $Mass settings.
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So it is possible, but still a lot of work to balance. Especially if you add into it scripted battles.
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I think I'll stick with the low-density, ultra-high-temperature plasma beams; sufficient to whack fighters and bombers around. Otherwise, I'd end up with the problem of cruisers getting shoved around at insane speeds by the juggernaut-grade beams (BFRed, BFGreen, BFVas).
Also, the single-mission-release demo is actually going to be a demo to the seven-mission demo later on, largely because I have limited FRED experience. It's really going to be more of an alpha-release teaser mission.
On another note, how many destroyers could the GTVA build within roughly a decade? What starship-building capabilities did they have in the Capella era? The GTD Hecate (especially the modified version, with extra beams and upgraded armor) caught on very well with the GTVA security council, as did the Hatshepsut - so they've been churning them out as quickly as they can manage.
They also have a handful of 'new' destroyers - the Vasudans get the Apophis (forward plasma beam artillery via single BFVas), and the Pharaoh (enormously, massively, over-armored carrier). The Terrans get the Titan (of course, a carrier ship, but fast, agile, and with great forward firepower), and the Raynor (omnidirectional beamrape platform with massive armor).
Now, using the reference in BP: WiH as a guide - when one character said (referring to a Hecate): "I can't believe the Tevs have two dozen of these." And this is from the Terran-side of the BP-verse, which pretty much suffered the economic apocalypse after Capella. Add in the few Orions left over, and a seldom few Titans and Raynors...and it's quite possible that the Terrans had about 30 destroyers.
Without that catastrophic Terran-side economic meltdown, is it possible that the Terrans could be running 100+ destroyers? I'm a bit concerned that having four Raynors, even under these circumstances, might be too many - they're exceptionally rare and expensive.
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While it would be cool, I imagine it would be very hard to balance. Something that can push another destroyer just a little bit might well shoot a smaller ship hundreds of meters away, unless there is some way to make the kinetic force either proportional or class dependant.
Is how far is your fighter propelled really the first thing you are going to worry about when you get hit by Lucifer!s main gun? :lol: I think you!re pretty much done. As for bigger ships, i!m talking 5m/s tops for destroyer, it doesn!t need to be huge effect, just to make it slow / change course.
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One of my modified LReds does 800 damage per cycle (I believe there are 5.5 cycles per second, or something like that?). It's possible for a very heavily armored bomber, with a full shield quadrant facing the beam (since beams no longer skewer shields), to survive one cycle of the beam, and get knocked out of the way - albeit, with heavy damage. Best attempted in a Seraphim, since they have extraordinarily thick shields and armor after my string of .tbl edits.
Warning: Exposure to LRed may cause severe injury or death.
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I freakin' love the Shiamak. Almost as much as the Gargant.
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Now now Darkmatter dont spoil these young people!
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Perhaps...they need spoiled :drevil:
Also, I just got hired IRL. Singularity is still in development, though I likely won't have days where I can dedicate several hours on end to working on content.
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Update time!
Firstly, I've redone all the beam weapons. Originally, I had everything (even Shivan) designated as slash-type beams - but with certain dedicated beam-spam warships (Raynor, Lucifer, Kismat, etc,) it quickly turned into a slashy, beamy mess. More like sweeping plasma vomit. The new beam weapons are direct-fire, like many of the FS2 beams. Compared to their originals, the new ones have a very short beam lifetime, usually around a second or so for Terran and Vasudan beams.
Coming up next: that red glow effect that the beam cannons have - it's going to be made more transparent, that way there isn't insane color/brightness washout from it with direct-fire beams.
On the downside, I am resolving a minor issue with the all-new anti-fighter beams (which, thanks to a bit of creative tabling by me, look like pulsed plasma beams). The center of the beam is bright, but the edges around it are solid, opaque black. Not so noticable when firing through empty space - but the same cannot be said when they shoot through, say, a huge, glowing explosion in the background.
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Did you ever try how it would look of you make the opposit of those anti-fighter beams, a black core with colored glow?
I think such a beam would look really scary and threatening.
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On the downside, I am resolving a minor issue with the all-new anti-fighter beams (which, thanks to a bit of creative tabling by me, look like pulsed plasma beams). The center of the beam is bright, but the edges around it are solid, opaque black. Not so noticable when firing through empty space - but the same cannot be said when they shoot through, say, a huge, glowing explosion in the background.
You have an alpha channel on your beam maps. You're not using it, but FSO is. Remove the alpha channel, and all will be well.
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...Okay, how do I go about removing the alpha channel?
Also, I'm glad to report that Singularity is still in development, and an alpha-release mission will be coming out in the next week or two. I finally found the FRED 2 tutorial online, which has really gone a long way in explaining the events editor.
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...an alpha-release mission will be coming out in the next week or two...
(emphasis mine)
You surely mean "demo." Unless you want to incite interest based on a single mission. :P
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Think of it as a prelude to the demo, that way I can get some community feedback and at least slightly polish the seven-mission demo.
Besides, I chose the term 'alpha release' on purpose. There are quite a few changes to gameplay. For one, capital ships are no longer super-slow.
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Capships not slow? Music to my ears!
/me likes his VROOM VROOM capships.
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So are they as fast as fighters?
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So are they as fast as fighters?
And as maneuverable? :ick:
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Now that would be funny. Watch that Hecate dodging the missiles!! :lol:
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Now that would be funny. Watch that Hecate dodging the missiles!! :lol:
Or the Colossus.
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Now that would be funny. Watch that Hecate dodging the missiles!! :lol:
Or the Colossus.
"Stay away from the beam and you won't get hit!"
"Negative, Command! We'll hold them here, just get the Bastion through!"
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No, they're not fast enough to dodge missiles. But you should get your vroom-vroom capship fix.
The new speed scales are as follows:
Supercapitals/Heavy Destroyers: 40-45 m/s
Light Destroyers, Corvettes, Heavy Cruisers: 45-50 m/s
Strike Cruisers and similar ships: 50-55 m/s
Bombers: 65-70 m/s
Assault Fighters: 75-80 m/s
Space Superiority: 85-95 m/s
Interceptors: 100-110 m/s
These are numbers for the GTVA Terrans. Vasudan and Shivan ships are a tiny bit faster.
The Earth-Native Terrans have huge, honkin' destroyers that zoom around at 60 m/s, and a generic, high-tech, multirole fighter that gets up to 105 m/s. They're running antimatter thrusters.
The Paralell-Future Terrans' ships are similarly fast - although they have specialized fighters. Included is a crazy-fast interceptor - 130 m/s base speed.
Also, afterburners have some changes, across all factions/species. They last roughly twice as long, and the recharge rate is slightly less than half that of normal retail FS2. The rate of acceleration (real acceleration in game, not tabled acceleration) is roughly analogous to FS2 retail, but the top speed is much, much higher. Most ships in afterburner can break 300 m/s, but it takes them a little while to get going that fast.
Primary weapon projectile speed has gone up about 20-30%, along with most missiles. The long-range anti-bomber missile for each faction also flies fast enough to hit targets that are afterburning away. Fighters got so fast with extended afterburner burns, they'd actually outrun some slower missiles, just by flying off in a straight line.
Also, on the note of treb-style missiles - they're extremely fun. They fly fast enough that they're usable as a second gun. They don't home in very well on anything except bombers, but they're fast enough you can launch without lock at short range, like a tempest.
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Seems fun!
Although I was hoping to see a Hecate making a matrix-style evasion maneuver. :D
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Well, it's time for some new screenshots. First up is a GTVA Terran fleet, including reskinned Orions.
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/116251282-4.jpg)
And from a different angle, to demonstrate the new, green engine glows.
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/116252909-4.jpg)
Also, two warships... ...from the future. All the future-warships and their fighters were modeled and textured by Esarai.
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/116251253-4.jpg)
Finally, the reskinned Solaris - rather, two of them.
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/116251262-4.jpg)
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Hell yeah, the Amaterasu!
And that Orion just looks.....*search for the most suitable word*.....marvelous.
I love the new GTVA style.
The Solaris looks like a berserk-flagship (it looks fancy).
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It's getting better and better !
And I like the change you made to the ships speed. :yes:
However...
Also, on the note of treb-style missiles - they're extremely fun. They fly fast enough that they're usable as a second gun. They don't home in very well on anything except bombers, but they're fast enough you can launch without lock at short range, like a tempest.
I hope it won't kill balance (even if überweapons are übercool).
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Nice stuff. Can't wait for the demo. :yes:
The new color scheme goes particularly well on the Orion and Titan. Only complaint is that the normal of the Orion's under-nose turret (seen in the second screenshot) looks pretty unadvisable.
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All the (combat) warships look like that too. The Fenris, Leviathan, Hyperion, Aeolus (though it needs work), and the Bellerophon, Diomedes, and Deimos.
Also, the Orion is the version with the extra turrets (plus a few more that I added myself). I'm still resolving issues with the nose turret.
As for the treb-style weapons being mega-tempests - yes, it's pretty satisfying to blow up bombers with them. However, they all take up more cargo space, so they carry fewer rounds - and also, the delay between shots has been upped. The GTVA trebs are the weakest, (and fastest), and can fire once every seven seconds. The Shivan treb is the most powerful, but it is the largest (most fighters cannot carry more than five or six in a single bank), and has the longest fire delay (12 seconds).
The Solaris-class (in Singularity) is basically Earth's answer to nearly getting whacked by the Lucifer, and cut off from the GTVA. They basically built an a entire armada of superdestroyers, with such extreme system redundancy that they could stand up to Shivan plasma beams reliably. Also with a fifteen-kilometer engagement range, and short-range plasma beams to match. They are dedicated Shivan-killers. Since the Shivans started using their piece of jump-node subversion technology, they didn't just land exploration fleets in Vega - some went straight to Sol.
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If it was the up-gunned Orion with even more turrets added than it initially has, it would be TrashMan's model, but it isn't. So what other mod has the original MVP Orion with added turrets?
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I put extra turrets on the Orion for Tides of Darkness, donno if that's the one he used though. :P
I was just a five minute hackjob in PCS2.
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It's Droid's five minute hackjob ToD Orion, as he so elegantly stated.
Make no mistake, that's a really awesome five-minute hackjob. It took me the better part of forty-five minutes to add five more turrets.
Also, Droid, about that large-barrel turret on the underside of the Orion, near the front, in your ToD model...I moved it to where it was facing forward/down, on the nose of the ship - and made duplicates of it, and put them on the sides of the ship. Unfortunately, when they go to shoot, they don't really point or move. It's not a hugely obvious flaw, since those turrets in particular are the beam cannons...but I think I did something wrong, since they don't move.
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Does...the original one move? Cause I recall it being bugged in ToD.
EDIT: I know what's wrong. On the original one, because I was a n00b, I forgot to set the turret arm under "turrets" to turret01-arm. Which explains why it doesn't turn. Make sure the turret arm is set correctly to the correct subobject there in PCS2 and they should work.
Unless they're side-mounted multiparts, where you'll need to add fvecs and uvecs to make them rotate right.
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:eek2: Holy f***, my haphazard copypaste of turrets left all the turret arms listed as 'turret01-arm' - across four other turrets too.
Also, I think this might be why one of my other turrets (also a copy) was being very wonky in testing. Still, it's far too late to test it tonight.
Anyway, what needs to be done for lateral turrets, precisely? What are these Fvecs and Uvecs you speak of? I also have a forward-facing turret, pointed down at a 45 degree angle, on the nose of the Orion.
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Multiparts only work for FSO if they're on the top or bottom by default, so you need to tell them they're rotated by assigning it a fvec and a uvec in PCS2, telling them how they're rotated.
fvec is "forward vector", meaning, well, which direction is "forward".
uvec is the "up vector", meaning which direction is "up", usually defined by the turret's normals, if the arms are pointing perpedicular to the mounting surface (which I presume they are).
However, for both, you have to flip the X coordinate with respect to what PCS2 shows because someone somewhere derped hard and FSO tables and Subobject properties use a different coordinate system to the POF data (ie turret normal, subobject position) coordinate system...
So if your turret normal for your side-mounted turret is 1:0:0, put uvec as -1:0:0. etc.
Man it feels like I'm repeating this for the millionth time...
GODDAMMIT SOMEONE FIX THE COORDINATE SYSTEM.
For your 45-degree angled turret in the front...
fvec should be something like... 0:1:1
and uvec should be something like 0:-1:1
you might want to normalize them, in which case instead of 1 you'd put something like 0.707 (sqrt(2)/2)
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Hmmm...it doesn't seem to work right. The turrets now point at weird angles.
Just out of curiosity, is there any way to import a turret model (non-multipart, such as the glowy BP dish-type beam turrets) into the Orion's .pof? I made them glow green.
On another note, I'd also like to add the green, glowy, beam turrets to the Hecate, since its beams don't presently glow either. Nor do the ones for the Deimos, or Fenris, or Leviathan.
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Yes and yes.
did you remember to flip the x-value
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Yes, I flipped them.
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lemme see the POF? :P
Also, uh, you can import the turrets using PCS2's Import function under "subobjects" if you don't want to go through a modelling proggie.
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http://www.gamefront.com/files/20706191/SD_Orion2.pof <-- The .pof
The turrets that don't work properly are the first one, and the last four.
My apologies if it's a huge newbie mistake that's supposed to be obvious, but these are my first non dorsal/ventral multipart turrets.
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uvecs and fvecs are separated by commas instead of colons. :P
I can probably fix all of them for you, actually that'd probably be faster than explaining some of the other mini-problems one by one XD
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/126554/FS2/SD_Orion2.pof
there we go.
all the side/front turrets should have proper fvecs and uvecs :3
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Well, for some odd reason, the turrets still don't point in the right directions - although the directions are noticably different now.
However, importing turret subobjects from other models is deceptively easy - so those five multipart beam turrets are now Raynor-style, non-multipart, glowing dish turrets.
I am a little disappointed that I took the lazier solution - although in this case, the less technically challenging of the turrets fits better with the rest of the GTVA.
Tomorrow's mission - delete the Hecate's non-glowing dish turrets, and replace them with the glowing ones.
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Hrm, I ran into something weird with PCS2 subobject importing, namely it isn't perfect...if the sources you're importing from aren't (well duh).
x-forms and whatnot aren't reset so even if it looks right in PCS2 it may break in FSO >.> That might be the issue with those multiparts, I don't see what else it could be :( seeing as I have like 50+ sidemounted multiparts set up the same way and they all work.
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This problem still has my curiosity - I'm going to import one of the raynor or titan multipart missile turrets, and try and put it on the side of the Orion.
That way, we can isolate the source of the problem (hopefully). If it's just a buggy multipart turret model, then if I understand you correctly, importing any other (presumably non-bugged) multipart turret should work.
Anyway, onto more grand and spectacular things...
In one mission, I'm going to have a ship explode upon entering subspace, while it is halfway through the subspace window. The 'cause' of the explosion is supposed to be the front end of the ship being shredded and ripped apart by violent distortions in subspace.
Would it be possible to make a custom subspace window effect for this? Is it like the shockwave.eff file, with all the .dds image files to go along with it? Or is it a .ani file (and if so, could someone plz point me to a program that can open, edit, and save .ani's easily?) I imagine replacing the existing one entirely with the new one would not be monumentally difficult - but I will only need to use this 'special' effect a couple times over the entire course of the campaign.
Similarly, would it be possible to change the shockwave used, when the ship explodes? I already plan to use a seperate ship in the ships.tbl file, with an instantaneous explosion, rather than lingering around and exploding a few seconds after the hull integrity reaches zero.
Also, I read somewhere that it was possible to spawn weapon projectiles into a mission, via a SEXP. Is there a tutorial on this somewhere? I'm considering using it to generate a 'spray' of projectile-debris, in front of the subspace window - assuming that drawing that many projectiles on the screen at once won't make peoples' PC's melt down.
The Shivans are going to use a wide-area subspace disruptor, left over from an eons-old war. It's essentially a galaxy-wide endgame device, instantly blowing up any ship that enters subspace. Subspace stabilizers on Shivan ships negate the distortions in immediate proximity to them, allowing them to move about freely. If the battlegroup the player is travelling with did not have access to captured Shivan ships, this would effectively have been the end of the GTVA, and the extermination of everything in the galaxy that's not Shivan.
Yes, I have watched too much Stargate Atlantis
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I think there can only be like, two different subspace effects to my knowledge (I may be wrong though), normal, and knossos.
If Knossoses don't appear in Singularity you can just replace that one, and then just use special warp in FRED (or fake it entirely by simply accelerating the ship into a effect-generated vortex :P )
Subspace vortexes are an animated texture on a static model.
You can replace the model, or just replace the animated texture. EFF/Ani doesn't matter.
You can definitely change the shockwave used when the ship explodes. At most, you'd just need to make a duplicate ship entry defining another type of shockwave effect. (that is, if you can't do so in FRED with special explosion).
As for that last one, weapon-create SEXP. I generates a projectile at (x,y,z) going towards (x1,y1,z1) at its tabled max velocity. pretty simple.
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Really, there are different warp effects for the knossos warp? I never noticed.
There will be knossos-type warps in the campaign, but would anyone else notice if I didn't use the current special warp effect, and instead used the default warp for knossos jumps?
Also, probably more importantly, can I use a .eff for a weapon loadout icon? At present, the most important assets I am missing are primary weapon icons for my custom weaponry. I know there need to be four frames, apparently for four different states of the icon. Probably one for normal, one for selected, one for click/drag, and one for unavailable (as in, unmountable on the fighter)? I also read somewhere that something special needed to be done to the briefing icons during creation - something with the color, if memory serves correct - since apparently Freespace 2 cannot display multi-color briefing icons?
Overall though, it sounds like all of the warp effects will be manageable - and not even excessively difficult or complex! Which means, assuming I don't get lazy, I'll have a video to post in a few days.
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Knossos warps are green compared to blue.
And...I don't think so. The interface requires ANIs for the most part, with a very strict color palette, so no EFFs. You gotta make anis with a very specific color palette, and even then it'll just randomly not work half the time.
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Oh hell...I suppose the total lack of more weapon .ani's in other mods is testament enough to the extreme difficulty of making working ones. I imagine that reusing the Morning Star's .ani probably wasn't the BP team's first choice for the Balor.
...How hard would it be to find a modeler to make some rudimentary models of primary weapons?
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its not the models. its the goddamn ani.
actually, you could probably ask mjn about both :P
EDIT: nopen ot the models, but you could just grab models of guns and chop the handles off \o/
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:wtf:
...What?
I should probably be more clear. I meant: What if I did what they did in BP: WiH, and used the option to display primary models in the UI, instead of a .ani file? If I understand correctly, then I wouldn't need new .ani files, just models of the primary weapons.
Also, chopping the handles off of guns? Lulz! This would not work for Shivan weapons!
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Your solution to the ANI issue. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=74758.0)
Make a 4 frame image sequence matching the general colors of a retail select ANI. (Just use an retail SSXXXXXX.ani as a judge)
Then run userani.cmd and answer the questions. Please read the readme.txt to understand how the files should be setup.
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Also, chopping the handles off of guns? Lulz! This would not work for Shivan weapons!
yes it would you just need to find evil looking guns and put some red glows on the texture
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Ran the installer as per the readme instructions, and made four dds files for a primary weapon icon .ani. Unfortunately, when I placed the autoani.cmd into my C:\Anims\ShivScythe directory, with the four files 'ShivScythe0000.dds through ShivScythe0003.dds, and when run, it says that the image sequence is improperly named or cannot be found. Python and Irfanview have been installed to the C drive - and while not automatically detected, the setup did run properly after I manually designated the directories.
Can it not handle .dds files, or did I do something wrong?
EDIT: Just tried it with .jpg, .bmp, and .png - same error.
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After a careful reread (and a re-setup), I put the files in the render folder, and the autoani seemed to work - at first. But it did not bring up the ani builder as indicated in the readme. The command prompt popped up for about a half-second, spewed some lines of text, generated the temporary folders, and disappeared.
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...I found the ANIbuilder, while fooling around inside Mixael's ANI tools. While it doesn't start up automatically...it's simple enough to start manually.
It now works flawlessly. It is only a matter of making more icons in photoshop, and isolating which frames correspond to which states (because apparently, my greyed-out frame does not correspond to "Can't put that gun on this fighter").
Expect some screenshots and images in the coming days.
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Alright, here are the first frames of the .ani's presently implemented for four of the Shivan weapons:
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l508/StargateSpankyHam/ShivPulse0000.jpg)
The Plasma Pulse, a light dogfighting weapon, roughly analogous to the GTVA's Subach HL-7. It fires extremely rapidly, and is the only Shivan weapon that is truly energy-efficient, and capable of sustained fire.
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l508/StargateSpankyHam/ShivScythe0000.jpg)
The Plasma Scythe, a heavy, mid-to-long range dogfighting weapon. 'Standard' armament on most Shivan interceptors and space superiority fighters. Far greater damage output than any primary weapon the GTVA has, but the huge energy demands make sustained firing impossible.
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l508/StargateSpankyHam/ShivNova0000.jpg)
The Plasma Nova, preferred weapon of Shivan heavy assault fighters. Projectiles are slow-moving and devestating, and the energy demand per shot is astronomical. Not really a viable dogfighting weapon, except for hunting very slow and large bombers. These allow heavy assault fighters to participate in the same style of shock-assault tactics that Shivan warships can.
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l508/StargateSpankyHam/ShivIRLaser0000.jpg)
The Infrared Laser, a fighter-mounted dogfighting beam weapon. Better as a sniping weapon at long range, since keeping the beam on target at shorter ranges is...troublesome. Very energy hungry, as is the case with almost all Shivan weapons, with equally high damage output to match.
...And so you can see those weapon icons in-game:
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/117531299-4.jpg)
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If you have the skill, you should consider making models for these. You can use them as the select animation if you POF them. Would be just a bit of polish so that you don't have a Lamprey ANI standing in for some Shivan weapon.
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How did you make these?
Spriteart? :P
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I'm more concerned about exactly how powerful the weapons are.
46 / 34 damage? :eek: The Maxim is 8 / 1 (That's Retail by the way) and it blows apart ships with drained shields like they're made of paper.
Though this is because what the loadout screen says isn't necessarily what they actually do.
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maybe he changed the scale to actually represent damage per hit or damage per second.
those were horrendously arbitrary anyway.
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Hmmm, arbitrary values in retail?! This is unacceptable! :mad:
To-do: Go back and make proper, non-arbitrary weapon damage values.
The 34 shield / 46 armor damage was computed off of the numbers for the Subach HL-7's per-shot table damage to indicated damage ratio. All of the Shivan primary weapons are freakishly powerful (except the Plasma Pulse). That 34/46 damage comes at the cost of a whopping 9.5 energy consumed per shot. To put it in perspective, the Mara has 70 max weapon energy. The Basilisk has 115.
While it's theoretically possible to one-shot-kill a GTVA interceptor with the Plasma Nova, the projectiles fly so slowly that it's only truly useful against cruisers, freighters, transports, and the like. Unless attacking an Ursa or Seraphim within 200 meters, it's useless in a dogfight.
I made the actual icons themselves in Photoshop (with the DDS plugin), and got the proper colors by using the color picker on a screenshot of one of the retail icon .ani files. After making four frames, I simply turned them into a .ani file with Mixael's ANI tools.
Models would be awesome. But, I know nothing about modeling...so, is anyone here offering to model the weapons? I was planning to make some very rudimenary .ani files - nothing as intricate as the retail versions though. That would be a trip to photoshop hell.
I'll likely start another thread in the modding section, for perhaps recruiting a modeler.
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Today, I was browsing the user-made ships section, and found something I'd apparently overlooked - a ship that would make a nice addition to the Shivan fleet, once reskinned.
Behold, the Akrotiri reskin!
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/117583031-4.jpg)
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can't say I like it, sorry.
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I must say, that this one doesn't look shivan: the shiamaak would be by far a better choice! Should you wish to expand the fleet while keeping the shiamaak also, then consider the diablo or the iblis... or even the old vinashaak or armritaya!
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If the engine was on the other end of the ships maybe. Shivan ships need to have their tentacles facting forward.
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Yeah...
If the engine was on the other end of the ships maybe. Shivan ships need to have their tentacles facting forward.
^that
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If the engine was on the other end of the ships maybe. Shivan ships need to have their tentacles facting forward.
but only in this particular case, and only because the front is rounded.
Molochs have spikes facing backwards.
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Right... I forgot about the Moloch, the proverbial exception from the rule (among capships anyway).
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Meh, guess I was just bored.
Now that I look at it while I'm fully awake...it's just sort of mediocre.
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I think it looks interesting, but I seem to like everything that's new and different these days. There's quite a lot of grey all over, which takes away from the Shivanness. Maybe it's not a good angle of it.
That claw thing in the back looks pretty Shivan.
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I would like to see how the Vishnan Sacred Keeper looks with this model and new textures.
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thats no sacred keeper.
its an akrotiri.
sacred keeper is a speicific retexture of the akrotiri. this too is a retexture of the akrotiri.
:<
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I know the Sacred Keeper is a retextured Akrotiri. :P
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Overall, this campaign is going be awesome. I wish I could do something like this! :P
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I for one like the reskin :) It reminds me of that shivan tech infused Orion from the campaign-which-name-i-forgot (apologies to author)
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I for one like the reskin :) It reminds me of that shivan tech infused Orion from the campaign-which-name-i-forgot (apologies to author)
Do you mean Tides of Darkness?
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Indeed, Tides of Darkness - and specifically, Droid's model with extra turrets. Ironically, the same Orion I'm using now, with another reskin. :cool:
Although the latest stuff includes non-arbitrary damage values for all the weapons - so if you're wondering how the Shivan weapons stack up against GTVA ones, here are the numbers for some of them (a full list would be nightmarishly long):
Subach
Standard Issue Photonic Weapon
Damage: 2.45 Shld, 3.15 Hull, 1.05 Sbst
ROF: 5/sec Energy: 20 Kw
Shivan 'Pulse'
Light Repeating Plasma Projector
Damage: 1.0 Shld, 1.56 Hull, 0.94 Sbst
ROF: 10/sec Energy: 15 Kw
Kayser
Zero-Point Microburst Plasma Cannon
Damage: 9.63 Shld, 8.75 Hull, 3.06 Sbst
ROF: 4/sec Energy: 120 Kw
Shivan 'Scythe'
Zero-Point Microburst Plasma Cannon
Damage: 10.63 Shld, 8.08 Hull, 6.38 Sbst
ROF: 4.5/sec Energy: 210 Kw
Maxim
High-Velocity Kinetic Plasma Rifle
Damage: 1.5 Shld, 11.25 Hull, 7.5 Sbst
ROF: 6.66/sec Energy: 100 Kw
Shivan 'Nova'
Zero-Point Microburst Assault Cannon
Damage: 33.0 Shld, 39.0 Hull, 9.0 Sbst
ROF: 1/sec Energy: 425 Kw
I am also in the process of applying m!m's particle trail script for all ship explosions and weapon hits. With the changes I've made, the surface of a dying warship erupts into vapor before it explodes. Below is a tech demonstration of four Kismats obliterating an Orion.
(http://video.xfire.com/4df115-4.jpg) (http://www.xfire.com/video/4df115/)
And it doesn't hurt FPS too badly.
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too badly XD
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The feature of "Not making ppl'z PC's cry (or burst into flames) whenever a cruiser/corvette/destroyer dies" is still WIP.
I cringe to think how many death particles will be necessary for a satisfying hull-flash-to-vapor on the Vinaashak or the Dante.
Honestly though, this is only a preliminary thing. I can think of a lot of things I can do to improve the system friendliness of the new special effects. First on the drawing board is to use a lower rez .ani for all the explosions.
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In the matter of Orions in Singularity, I think the GTVA don't need to waste a lot of money for upgrading a lot of 50-years old destroyers. Presuming from look of your ships, [which is totaly different than FS2-era ships] GTVA pass into era of totaly new techology of designing starships. Hecate is relative new conctruction, so upgrading Hecates to new standards is good idea, but in my opinion, upgrading Orions is just a wasting of money. It's better to disassemble old ships, and use the materials from Orions to build more Titans and Raynors. What do you think StargateSpankyHam?
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Oh common. The Orion is a cool ship. Let's just assume it's a totally new ship that only has the same outline as the original Orion and be happy with it.
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His campaign, his call. If he wants to apply rule of cool, fine by me. If he can find a better explanation, fine by me. If he wants to get rid of them, fine by me too.
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There's actually a backstory as to why the Orion and Typhon are still in use.
When the Shivans started sporadically showing up with their brand-new, shiny, high-tech (shielded) warships shortly after Capella, the only thing the GTVA had going for them was superior numbers. The Shivans never came in full force, for reasons the GTVA never really understood. All they would do was throw a few cruisers, or a couple corvettes, or occasionally a destroyer at the GTVA, along with some fighter and bomber wings.
Once the GTVA saw how fantastically poorly their warships performed against high-tech Shivan targets, there was a huge push to make GTVA ships better. Both the Terrans and Vasudans began upgrading their Hatshepsut and Hecate destroyers, opting for more beam weapons, higher system redundancy, and stronger hulls. While the upgraded ships did work better, they were still no match for Shivan warships.
The Terrans developed the Titan and Raynor - and although the Raynors proved they could easily absorb fire from Shivan plasma beams, and overpower Shivan destroyers with their own suite of beam weapons, they were also prohibitively expensive. The Vasudans developed the Pharaoh destroyer-carrier, with similar survivability to the Raynor - and almost as expensive.
The Raynor and Pharaoh both use active powered armor and damage control systems, to bolster structural integrity in areas hit by weapons fire - thus allowing them to soak up tremendous amounts of damage and still remain operational. But this feature was the single most expensive implementation on the Raynor and Pharaoh. Building more of the near-invulnerable warships was simply too impractical.
The solution wasn't to beat the Shivans at short-range combat with plasma beams - but instead to out-range them. The Titan and Pharaoh excelled at this, since they could deploy fighters and keep the Shivan warships at range.
The Vasudans built the Apophis destroyer, wielding a single, long-range, anti-juggernaut beam cannon. Although expensive, it was nowhere near as impractical as the Raynor or Pharaoh.
Meanwhile, the Terrans had already decommissioned half of their Orions, and the other half were merely held in reserve. The Vasudans modified their Typhons, removing most of the weapons from them, instead installing VLS-torpedo launchers. Since it required almost no reactor upgrades, and only minimal internal reconfigurations, the Typhon quickly became a reliable, long-range artillery ship.
The success of the Typhon prompted the Terrans to develop similar, low-energy-demand, long-range strike solutions for the obsolete Orions. Terran engineers made a few minor upgrades to the hull and internals, and installed long-range railgun turrets along the top and bottom of the ship.
Make no mistake, once the Orion and the Typhon end up within range of a Shivan destroyer or corvette (or even a couple cruisers), the excrement hits the fan very quickly. In that video, Kismats are powerful, but the reason why four of them can one-shot an orion is because it has only has 165,000 HP. Compared to the Hecate's 285,000, that runs out pretty fast (The Raynor and Apophis have over 700,000).
Then again, once the Shivans show up in full force, they have numerical and technological superiority.
TL:DR - Orions and Typhons got cheap and easy refits, and are long-range strike vessels for outranging Shivan beam weapons.
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It has a sense. Orions from my Shadow Genesis campaign have similar history. Good job with the story.
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Also coming out very, very soon (in screenshot or video form) will be the retextured GTVA stations, matching the Terran warships.
Just...right now, the shine maps are too shiny, and the installations need more silver.
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Those screenshots I promised earlier...
You know it, you love it, it's the GTI Arcadia! (But in green)
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/118072938-4.jpg)
Also, the GTI Acropolis (Previously the Silex, by Stratcomm and Droid803)
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/118072948-4.jpg)
Then, there's the GTI Archon - which I forgot to log where I downloaded it from. Regardless, I didn't make the model. (Original model file is GTVAcommand.pof - any idea who made it?)
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/118072962-4.jpg)
Finally, the GTI Summit (Previously the Whitehall, from Flames of War). It's massive. In fact, the single largest thing in the ships.tbl file of Singularity.
(http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/118072987-4.jpg)
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Wow....I mean marvelous. The Arcadia looks reeeeally good in green.
Terran Command was made by Stratcomm and Droid803 released it as a model dump.
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SSH, I have a smoothfixed version of the Whitehall.
I can PM you it if you want.
Your "GTI Archon" comes from the exact same modeldump as the GTI Acropolis/Silex. :P
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I just can't accept recolored capital03-03 texture on terran ships. I don't like that since first version of Blue Planet, this texture is just... vasudan. It don't look like a vasudan texture, but it is... Texture from 50-years old destroyers. Don't care about it. It's my personal deviation. Otherwise they look very good, especialy the Arcadia and Acropolis.
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It looks vasudan, which is perfect because a lot of post-capella ships are fusions of Terran and Vasudan technology?
And its not 50 years old! Its in a different color! Clearly that demonstrates technological advancements.
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I didn't negate technical reasons for using this texture on terran ships, which is appropriate. Just don't like how it looks on terran ships. StargateSpankyHam's mod - his textures, he will do what he want. Just express my taste.
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Betrayal brings up a good point. Although the Singularity mod is hardly an attempt to please everyone, it may be time for a new capital03-03. Of all the modified textures I am using, it is the one I am least proud of.
At the very least, it's an oppurtunity to crank up photoshop and make another ship texture - which has worked really really well, every time I've tried my hand at it.
I'm going to dig the PC tablet pen out again, and we'll see if I'm any good at making a texture from scratch.
In the meantime, an example of a glowmap I drew in photoshop, from scratch, then applied to a darkened version of capital04-01:
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l508/StargateSpankyHam/ShivanStation.jpg)
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I've been doing some meticulous tabling of point-defense weaponry, as of late. A picture is worth a thousand words, and at 30 frames per second, every 33 seconds of video is worth a thousand pictures.
So, here's a technical demonstration video of the new weapons in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv_603ruWEU
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TBH I'm not sure what that video is suppose to be showcasing. 2 minutes of AA beams, Flak and fast firing pulses from the same boring camera angle?
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Y U USE SOMETHING SECRET STEERS US (AKA NUCLEAR MISSION JAM) FOR SO LITTLE ACTION!? D:
My heart cries.
However, them pulse beams do look pretty cool.
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I thought it was cool... you guys r h8ters.
The pulse lasers look like the ones from PI while the burst flak looks similar to the shotgun flak from BP.
Perhaps you can play with the textures in the weapons.tbl to make the pulse beams stand out a bit more from standard AAA beams. There are many to choose from in the mediavps.
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Eh, the camera angle could really use work.
Too far out IMO, couldn't see blobs well (at 360p cause too lazy to fullscreen lol)
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I have returned, and Singularity is in development once again!
It's been a long, long four months. Far too long to be away from FS2 modding.
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Welcome back!
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Gaaah, college is kicking my butt. :ick:
On the plus side, I FINALLY figured out how FVecs and UVecs work - and that an FVec of -1,0,0 makes the turret point forward. Derp. Why did I not figure this out sooner?
The Raynor is up to 48 turrets after my latest additions, and almost all of the new ones are multiparts. I may end up going with GTSD Raynor, instead of GTD Raynor. It's not a normal destroyer anymore.
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Super destroyer just doesn't strike me as something fit for being an official designation. Why not invent a new class, between destroyer and juggernaught?
If you change the transport's designationt to xxTr, that'd free up xxT for Titans. Or maybe Battleship?
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The Raynor is an anti-fleet warship, designed exclusively to defeat multiple enemy destroyers simultaneously. It is not unique in that role, but it does it much differently than most other anti-fleet warships do. Carriers tend to remain at very long range and send bombers to destroy things. A couple destroyers have very heavy missile armament, and can stay at long range and bombard targets from relative safety. These are all quite slow, and it becomes a battle of attrition between bombs, bombers, and the point-defenses trying to counter them.
A Raynor is not going to be impeded by flak, AA beams, or PD-blobturrets. And with beam cannons as a primary armament, it does far more damage than other omnidirectional firepower warships.
The only ship which paralells the Raynor in size, firepower, and tactics is the Lucifer. Even at that, Raynors outperform Lucifers in terms of damage output.
Is superdestroyer not an official designation? I had always thought that the Lucifer was officially referred to as a Superdestroyer, because it was so much better than a normal destroyer. I even changed it to 'SSD Lucifer' in the ships.tbl file, although if it's not official, I'll most certainly change it back.
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Its not official but feel free to use it. Its pseudo-official, kind of like an unofficial title for the Lucifer (and presumably anything similar). It's not just a regular destroyer, its a SUPER destroyer. etc etc.
Other designations are far less official and something like "Titan" is just plain outlandish.
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Sure it is, but I think it's still better than taking the first steps on the super-mega-tera-ect path.
Besides, we are talking about a campaign with timetravel here, which gives a lot of artistic freedom for naming schemes (among others) in my opinion.
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Well, the player's character is going to be native to the same timeline as the events in FS1 and FS2, so the GTVA ships (at least from that timeline) need to follow similar naming conventions.
Although that is an excellent point about naming conventions from alternate timelines; there is no reason they must maintain parity. Those abandoned Cataclysm-Juggernauts from a paralell timeline are definitely not going to be called juggernauts.
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Naw, mega, Tera, etc. are numerical designators.
The only logical continuations from super are Ultra and Uber.
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Okay fine... I'll put it this way then: "I do not like prefixes in class names"
Better now? :P
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:bump: :hammer: Bump this along...
...
Whats new?
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Er...sorry about that! I haven't fallen off of the face of the planet again. I promise :P
New features already implemented:
Capship Railguns are now pretty
Point-Defense guns are now pretty
Beam color dependent impact explosions (ex: green terran beams make green plasma spray)
Anti-Capital blob turrets no longer useless
EMP missiles and Lamprey now do anti-capital shield damage
Global Vasudan warship reskin (Zods look awesome :cool:)
Infyrno replaced with Infyrno III - think BP slammer-style
Pirhana is no longer useless
Flashburn - new Shivan area-effect missile
New Anti-Juggernaut railguns
New Shivan primary weapon icons (ani's)
Global Shivan secondary weapon redesign
Swarm Bombs - excellent point-defense penetration, swarm deployment, long reload, small size
Streak Bombs - high-yield, large size, short reload, fire & forget heat-seeking guidance, ridiculously easy to shoot down.
Fighters now have fire control (gun convergence and very faint auto-aim)
Terran and Vasudan post-capella-era fighters (including the Draco and Aurora)
Terran, Vasudan, and Shivan 'Strategic Bombers' (5x the size of normal bombers, thousands of shield/armor HP, defense turrets, player-controlled anti-capital beams, huge bomb capacity)
Terran Strategic AWACS ship
Updated techroom descriptions of ships and weapons
Global increase on all ship speeds and effective weapon distances (100+ m/s destroyers)
Within the day, the Aurora and Ptah will be able to launch SSM strikes.
Screenshots will be on the way as soon as beam effects are finalized.
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Sounds cool. Though fast capships seems to go against the FreeSpace feel, where they're supposed to feel huge, slow, and clunky, being these giant almost immobile fortresses in space (IMO).
Nimble capships, while cool (I will admit, I do like fast capships), kinda makes it lose that feeling a bit.
But good call on the swarm torpedoes.
EVERYONE LOVES SWARM TORPEDOES.
Especially having to intercept them!
AMIRITE? or AM I FREAKIN' RIGHT?
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It wasn't that bad, man.
e: granted i did have to cheat
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How right you are, Droid...but in reality, the streak bombs are so much more sinister than they seem at first glance...
Technically those swarm bombs are corkscrew bombs - so they maneuver much more aggressively than a true 'swarm' weapon. Regular warship PD has a very tough time handling them - especially if multiple bombers are launching warheads.
They're also a total b**** to intercept from a fighter, unless you happen to have some Rockeyes and a Maxim.
The Shivans really don't have a weapon analogous to the Maxim, in terms of projectile velocity and rate of fire. And the Shivan analog of the Rockeye has such a slow rate of fire that renders it virtually useless for mass interception of bombs. They have a much tougher time screening against bombs.
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I sure don't want to fly as a Shivan then.
Sounds like their intercept pilots have their work cut out for them.
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I am making a mod where the Shivans have a Maxim like weapon and other weapons good for intercepting bombs. But Shivan interceptors are still hard to fly because they are rather fragile. I will play this campaign when I have time maybe to get ideas, and I can give a review of it.
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Considering it hasn't been released yet, I'd imagine it would be quite hard for you to do :P
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I...still need to debug Singularity. It generates something like 431 errors on startup, and although it is playable, I don't believe I want to begin alpha releases until it's debugged.
I'm pretty sure that 99% of those errors are the result of putting ships in from other mods - and not bringing the other mods' weapons over with the ships. I have just recently 'fixed' all the GTVA fighters and bombers, so they no longer try to use weapons and such that don't exist in the mod. The other factions' weapon sets will not be quite as diverse as the GTVA's or the shivans'.
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Uwaaa~...
You should really clean up your modpack and fix all those errors.
Use a debug build. It'll tell you what's wrong.
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Soon Droid...soon. In order to 'properly' fix those errors, I need to make more weapons. The ships that are causing those errors are not GTVA or Shivan, and require their own weapon sets.
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I will play it when it comes out