Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Andrew_Cluetain on July 13, 2011, 08:03:06 pm
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I'm wondering if there is a mod that uses .tbm's to make shivans fully playable. By that I mean more than just adding "player allowed" to the entries. I want load out icons and screens for all the FS/FS2 shivan fighters and bombers. I know the SB Nephilm (4 secondaries) and SB Seraphin (3 primaries and 4 secondaries) will need some more tuning too get to work right; I think I have "Adjusted" Models around here some where but they might not work with the Media.vp's. If this doesn't exist, I'll finish off what I have done my self.
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Actually, the FS2 Open code has been updated to allow 3-primary and 4-secondary bank fighters to work for players. You can fire one primary bank at a time, or link all three banks at a considerable drop in rate of fire(worse than linking the usual two banks). No modifications to the POFs are needed, anymore.
If you're just trying to add them to an existing Terran/Vasudan-oriented campaign(rather than a Shivan-centric campaign, as there are a couple of those floating around; 'Tides of Darkness' being the only name I remember, ATM), then you will probably want to make duplicate entries, rather than edit/replace the original entries(I like to call mine 'SF Dragon#player' in the .tbm, for example; the '#player' part doesn't display, so it's indistinguishable in-game from the standard 'SF Dragon'), or otherwise override the special MediaVP "#Shivan" missile substitutions on the original Shivan fighters, as that will cause errors if the "#Shivan" missiles aren't flagged as player weapons. Duplicating the ship entries is less work, IMO.
If you choose the 3D ship models option in the FSOpen Launcher, the ship selection screen will have its own 'icons' generated from the actual ship model, and you won't need the ship interface art for the loadout screen(I think most mods nowadays don't bother with either, so they might be hard to come by). I just borrowed other retail primaries' icons/animations for the Shivan Light/Heavy/Mega Lasers.
Also, another tip; if you keep the ships' $Species as Shivan, and don't change it to Terran(to keep the red thruster glows), you won't be able to call in a support ship(though you can use ones called in by Terran or Vasudan wingmen), unless you also give the Shivans a support ship in the .tbm(you can just duplicate an entry to make a 'GTS Hygeia#shivan' for a quick/easy fix that won't be too visibly obvious; there's also a Shivan-reskinned GVS Nephthys support ship on FSMods, which is also used in Tides of Darkness).
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You don't need icons since 3D Ship / Selection Models in the Launcher will show everything for you. There's two mods that I can immediately think of, Shivans! and Tides of Darkness that feature campaigns featuring Shivans as the host faction - you fly their ships, use their weapons, and fly for them in the missions.
Edit: ****ing dammit ninja'd. Either way I'm not sure how long ago it was made, was it during 3.6.9 or 3.6.10?
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I should run the Shivan ships and weapons through my templates to make ship and weapon select anims/icons....
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Tides of Darkness was for 3.6.10. Full campaign with flyable Shivan ships.
It...should still work? I don't know anymore. It doesn't have interface though. I think I told people to use 3D ship selection? I may have included a few of the interface stuff, cause there was a pack made by someone (blackhole, maybe?) that I included, which was where the mainhall was from, etc. That IIRC had all the interface animations for the retail shivan ships. That was also where I got the Shivan Head ANIs from...I...might be able to find the original for you, but all of it should be in ToD. The original was here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=43546.0)
There's also Shivans! by Flaming Sword which is closer to what you're trying to achieve I think (but it doesn't have a campaign with it, its just a mod with a bunch of test missions IIRC). I've never actually downloaded or looked at it, but it might have what you're looking for as well?
TL;DR: What you want is probably here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=43546.0
If that doesn't work all of it should be blended into Tides of Darkness.
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Tides of Darkness was for 3.6.10. Full campaign with flyable Shivan ships.
Speaking of which when is part two coming out?
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Eep.
What I had planned for part two definitely doesn't hold up to modern standards anymore (story-wise, and mission-wise) thus I can't really bring myself to make it, and I can't think of how to make it better. Plus it'd take a lot of work to make sure everything runs on the latest mediavps again, a task which I despise. Thus it probably isn't happening, at least until some other projects get done.
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Eep.
What I had planned for part two definitely doesn't hold up to modern standards anymore (story-wise, and mission-wise) thus I can't really bring myself to make it, and I can't think of how to make it better. Plus it'd take a lot of work to make sure everything runs on the latest mediavps again, a task which I despise. Thus it probably isn't happening, at least until some other projects get done.
:( Dang........
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Eep.
What I had planned for part two definitely doesn't hold up to modern standards anymore (story-wise, and mission-wise) thus I can't really bring myself to make it, and I can't think of how to make it better. Plus it'd take a lot of work to make sure everything runs on the latest mediavps again, a task which I despise. Thus it probably isn't happening, at least until some other projects get done.
Damn. I was actually looking forward to it.
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Well, in my upcoming mod, Singularity, all the Shivan fighters will be flyable, thanks to assets from ToD and bloodfleet's 'shivanmod'. Custom primary and secondary weapons, including a few I designed myself - and unlike retail Shivan primaries, they exceed GTVA weaponry in firepower, at the cost of energy efficiency.
The 2-2 primary layout on most shivan fighters made it difficult to distinguish between an assault fighter and an interceptor, in terms of primary firepower. The solution was to make all the weapons very energy-hungry, that way, the difference between an assault fighter and an interceptor isn't how many primary hardpoints they have, but instead, how many shots they can fire before running out of juice.
While there aren't any polished missions for it yet, all the ships and all the code for flyable Shivan fighters is there. It's all compatible with the current version of mediaVPS.