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Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Topic started by: karajorma on September 12, 2012, 09:37:39 am

Title: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 12, 2012, 09:37:39 am
You've had a week so far. Who's started making stuff? Tell us about it. Post some pictures if you have them.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: skunimatrix on September 12, 2012, 09:54:34 am
I have, but interestingly enough I've run into an interesting problem.  If I start with a blank template and create a new mission and try to load it into diaspora the screen goes black and the program crashes. 

If I start with a mission someone else has made, let's say the coop template available here, and then delete everything or make changes, save it loads into diaspora just fine.  I'm mostly relearning FRED at this point.  I've not messed with FRED in well over a decade.  I mean the first mission I created was a coop mission that is a tounge and cheek "If this were BSGO Scorpia server" that if you weren't a player during the closed/open beta days it wouldn't make sense. 

I'll be working on some more missions.  So far I've just been doing experiments.  I maybe able to get a Colonel Tigh voice over ;) 

One question I do have is how do I set and tell the AI that it is a capital ship and not a fighter?  (I can't remember if this was a setting in Fred or XvT/XwA ed back in the day)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: MatthTheGeek on September 12, 2012, 09:57:53 am
If you're getting crashes, use the power of the log, luke (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=56279.msg1180359#msg1180359).

I've been working on my more FS-ish HUD, should see a release soon.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: crizza on September 12, 2012, 10:02:10 am
Since playing this, I have the strange plan of learning how to model and well, build the nightmare for all modders out there...
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: sedobren on September 12, 2012, 10:04:54 am
I've just made the map that is explained into the Fred tutorial for Dispora.
Now i'm trying to make a map with a refugee fleet against "casual" encounters
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: skunimatrix on September 12, 2012, 10:06:19 am
Since playing this, I have the strange plan of learning how to model and well, build the nightmare for all modders out there...

I need to go dig up an old external harddrive.  At onetime I had every BSG lightwave and Max model I could find circa 2006/2007 converted for use with Blender3d.  But I think Blender has made a lot of changes since I last messed with the program.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 12, 2012, 10:07:51 am
Cool, but as I warned in the game documentation, make sure you have permission to distribute anything you make. This community has had problems with that sort of thing in the past, the worst of which was the disappearance of an entire Space : Above and Beyond mod when the models turned out to belong to someone else who hadn't given permission for their use.


I have, but interestingly enough I've run into an interesting problem.  If I start with a blank template and create a new mission and try to load it into diaspora the screen goes black and the program crashes.

There is a bug in the unpatched version of the game that causes crashes. This is fixed in patch 1.0.1 or 1.0.2. You can find the fix for any missions you made here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81987.msg1635634#msg1635634)

Quote
One question I do have is how do I set and tell the AI that it is a capital ship and not a fighter?  (I can't remember if this was a setting in Fred or XvT/XwA ed back in the day)

AI ships know what class they are automatically. Changing AI levels doesn't change that.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Dirt McStain on September 12, 2012, 11:01:28 am
I maybe able to get a Colonel Tigh voice over ;)

Come again?
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Hlicat on September 12, 2012, 02:33:26 pm
I had a little mess about in the editor.

Pitting the Sobek against two basestars at first, with an additional 4 attacking after 2 minutes from all sides.

There were, I think 8 wings of Vipers (With a couple of waves launched from the Sobek if destroyed) plus two wings of raptors against 8 wings of cylon raiders + the two first basestars, with several waves set.

I fled to watch from a distance, as it was pretty easy to die. I found that most of my viper wings were wiped out, but the Sobek performed amazingly well. It was mostly an exercise to see how many basestars the Sobek could fight against.

It nearly destroyed 4 of the 6 basestars before suddenly, not sure what it was, but they found a blindspot or something. All the basestars launched missiles, hammering the Sobek into submission. It lasted a very long time before that happened though.

I'd like to add, I loved the campaign missions. Not to mention, it feels awesome to watch and fly around the Battlestar in combat, it just looks amazing.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: MetalDestroyer on September 12, 2012, 02:38:24 pm
Something you could expect to see or not in the next few days/weeks or months. It's still work in progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A22hHPWEvg
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Sushi on September 12, 2012, 03:06:04 pm
I fled to watch from a distance, as it was pretty easy to die. I found that most of my viper wings were wiped out, but the Sobek performed amazingly well. It was mostly an exercise to see how many basestars the Sobek could fight against.

It nearly destroyed 4 of the 6 basestars before suddenly, not sure what it was, but they found a blindspot or something. All the basestars launched missiles, hammering the Sobek into submission. It lasted a very long time before that happened though.

That sounds about right.

When the Sobek has its defenses at 100%, it's extremely hard to get torpedoes through that wall. Once you take out some of the flak and CIWS, though, more of the torps get through, which in turn take out more defenses, letting more torps through...

Once you get through the initial defensive threshold, things spiral out of control for the Sobek very quickly. :)

Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Ace on September 12, 2012, 03:15:41 pm
I want a TOS Raider and Basestar mod. Make it for me :p
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Hlicat on September 12, 2012, 03:17:49 pm
I fled to watch from a distance, as it was pretty easy to die. I found that most of my viper wings were wiped out, but the Sobek performed amazingly well. It was mostly an exercise to see how many basestars the Sobek could fight against.

It nearly destroyed 4 of the 6 basestars before suddenly, not sure what it was, but they found a blindspot or something. All the basestars launched missiles, hammering the Sobek into submission. It lasted a very long time before that happened though.

That sounds about right.

When the Sobek has its defenses at 100%, it's extremely hard to get torpedoes through that wall. Once you take out some of the flak and CIWS, though, more of the torps get through, which in turn take out more defenses, letting more torps through...

Once you get through the initial defensive threshold, things spiral out of control for the Sobek very quickly. :)

That would explain it then, I guess once the Sobek's viper wings were out of action, the raiders pitched in too.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: crizza on September 12, 2012, 03:19:00 pm
Something you could expect to see or not in the next few days/weeks or months. It's still work in progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A22hHPWEvg
Woah, wait, I can actually use a XBox360 Controller for playing this o.O
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: MetalDestroyer on September 12, 2012, 03:22:25 pm
Something you could expect to see or not in the next few days/weeks or months. It's still work in progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A22hHPWEvg
Woah, wait, I can actually use a XBox360 Controller for playing this o.O

Sadly not all axis where detected. But you could fix it by installing third party software like Xpadder, ppJoy or JoyToKey.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Hammer65 on September 12, 2012, 11:26:42 pm
Just getting started.  I did the walk through mission which was excellent!!  I'm really impressed with the level of effort put into the game and the supporting documentation to get started with FRED.  I did some FRED only missions a decade or so ago and had forgotten how fun it could be.   Looking forward to R2!!
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Dukayn on September 13, 2012, 08:21:35 am
Yep getting started myself too.  The tutorial mission was pretty cool to make.  Very clear instructions and the mission that you make out of it is kinda fun too.

Trying a few different things for my own missions.  I like the idea of having a standard CAP go horribly wrong when one of the civilian ships in the fleet gets taken over by a Cylon on board and tries to ram another ship, but I have been having trouble with making the Events pan out properly.  It was pretty amusing watching a Prometheus freighter doing loops on the spot trying to do a facing change, however.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 13, 2012, 08:45:36 am
Yep getting started myself too.  The tutorial mission was pretty cool to make.  Very clear instructions and the mission that you make out of it is kinda fun too.


I'm glad you liked it. Writing that tutorial gave me quite a few problems because I could never make it to the standards I usually work to.
 It's a good tutorial mission, but part of me always kept making me want to make it to the standards of the other official Diaspora missions. Of course, I couldn't. It's meant to be a tutorial and therefore has to be easy to follow.

That's the main reason it's tucked away in the FREDdocs folder rather than in the main missions folder. I wanted anyone who decided to play "The 9th Official Diaspora Mission" to know that it wasn't meant to be of the same quality as the others. :)

When I was writing the guide I did a comparison for one of the beta testers comparing that mission, it's equivalent in FS2 and one of Diaspora's real missions.

Quote
Something sufficiently good for a Diaspora release has no place in a beginner tutorial. It would be horrifically hard for a beginning FREDder to attempt it.
 In Volition's day, there wasn't much difference between the FRED Tutorial mission and something in the release. Now, they're night and day. Sometimes I think we make it look a little too easy. :D

Mainly for my own amusement, I decided to compare both FRED training missions with something from the actual release. I deliberately didn't choose Axem's mission, cause I know he suffers from the same affliction I have, which causes him to also make overly complicated missions. :D

FS2 Training MissionDiaspora Training MissionDiaspora Mission 2
#Sexp_variables1125
#Command Briefing Stages020
#Briefing Stages545
#Debriefing Stages58 (And I suggested more in the ToDo list)8
#Objects453974
#Wings61015
#Events2640157
#Goals25 (with one of each type and an invalid one)5
#Waypoints537
#Messages10 (it claims 177 in the file!)8 (I'll admit I skimped there a little).65
#Reinforcements10 (I'd love to have them, but tube launches are very hard to do)0
#Background bitmaps40 (But I did use a skybox)3

Like I said, I mostly did that for my own amusement cause I wanted to see if my mission had less substance than the FS2 one but it's pretty clear it at least equals it.



As you can see, there's quite a difference there. :)

Quote
Trying a few different things for my own missions.  I like the idea of having a standard CAP go horribly wrong when one of the civilian ships in the fleet gets taken over by a Cylon on board and tries to ram another ship, but I have been having trouble with making the Events pan out properly.  It was pretty amusing watching a Prometheus freighter doing loops on the spot trying to do a facing change, however.

If you have any problems you can't beat easily, be sure to ask. You've done the walkthrough so there's no "Read the manual n00b" left to shout at you about. :D In general you should find this is a pretty supportive community, we want to get new people FREDding and modding.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: David cgc on September 13, 2012, 08:57:39 am
It was pretty amusing watching a Prometheus freighter doing loops on the spot trying to do a facing change, however.

I've noticed that happening a couple of times in the campaign. Usually I'm too busy flying to catch them in the act, but once or twice I've seen the Theseus wiggle and tumble end-over-end like a quarter to find its new direction rather than gracefully turn to face the baseship in mission 2.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Aether on September 13, 2012, 12:44:12 pm
I'm just getting started! :)

For someone who isn't exactly "technologically literate" the whole thing is a bit of a head scratcher though  :lol:

Still, I want to build a campaign, and seeing as I have a plot in my head I want to get it done.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Navarras on September 13, 2012, 12:54:17 pm
I and several of my friends have recently downloaded this mod and we are all wondering the same thing. Is it possible to convert the singleplayer campaign to be multiplayer coop?
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Aether on September 13, 2012, 12:59:26 pm
In the Download pack there is a link to a website with a FRED tutorial. There should be something mentioned there ;)

If I remember correctly it's in Diaspora > Data > Freddocs > Index


Hope this helps with your Single player to Multiplayer Co-op issue!
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Navarras on September 13, 2012, 01:03:40 pm
Wow, that was quick. Thanks - we'll have a go :)

Edit: just noticed that the 'Multiplayer Walkthrough' header is not actually a link, and that is the part we need help with :s
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 13, 2012, 07:02:56 pm
Yeah, there was a tutorial on multiplayer planned but I never had the time to write it. The differences between MP and SP are quite small though to be honest.

I'm currently looking at whether it's possible to convert mission 2 into a Multiplayer coop mission.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: An4ximandros on September 13, 2012, 09:22:37 pm
Well if anyone is interested... I'm making a plan concept for my own Battlestar model and a 2 mission campaign for it... :nervous: oh man, I hope I actually stick to this long enough to finish it
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 13, 2012, 09:38:37 pm
Sounds cool. Post pics when you have them. :)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Dukayn on September 15, 2012, 10:06:44 pm
Is there any way to get the Cylon animation from the Raider to play in a mission?  I have a mission where the player is an unknown Cylon and part way through they get activated.  I'd like if possible to play that animation for a couple seconds before all the Colonial ships turn Hostile.  If not that, then a red wash over the player's camera would work but I can't find anything in FRED which could do it.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: CooperHawkes on September 15, 2012, 10:11:37 pm
dont know if the cylon hud stuff can be activated like that, but a quick fade to red and back may do the trick? change --> cutscenes --> fade out & fade in
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Dukayn on September 15, 2012, 10:23:40 pm
Yeah fade in/out should do the trick, thanks.  Didn't even think of that.  I wouldn't think the Cylon thing would be possible, but it's worth asking about :D
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 16, 2012, 12:08:36 am
Depends on how good at modding you are, you could table a version of the MK VII with the required cylon features and then swap to it for a few seconds. :)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Dukayn on September 16, 2012, 12:30:06 am
Depends on how good at modding you are, you could table a version of the MK VII with the required cylon features and then swap to it for a few seconds. :)
Or in this case the Assault Raptor, yeah... hmm.  Sounds good, I just don't know how to go about that level of modding.  I've only just started FREDing since Diaspora was released.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: weaponsfree on September 29, 2012, 01:03:01 pm
First post so thanks to Diaspora Development for the amazing and free game. Love it.

I started some mission editing, with a particular interest in making some coop missions, but I am not sure how to export them into MP and / or how to set playable slots for my buddies. Sorry if it's written somewhere already, but having trouble finding this info.
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on September 29, 2012, 01:41:11 pm
The Mission Specs Editor allows you to choose the type of the mission.

In the Ships Editor tick player ship for the other wingmen to add more players. 
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Cerebus on October 01, 2012, 12:12:17 am
I'm fumbling through, I'll probably string a campaign together as training, I'm doing most of mine as co op from the get go, and once that's done, well this seems like it might be a new hobby...

I'm getting a condenser mic and have a couple people that want to VA that I think will be pretty good at it, so I should be able to put out voice acted missions soon. 
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: torc on October 01, 2012, 12:22:24 am
if you need an hand processing voices, i'm ready to help. :)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: karajorma on October 01, 2012, 01:14:32 am
That's an offer you should seriously take Cerebus, torc did all the sound processing for Diaspora. :)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: torc on October 08, 2012, 03:52:19 am
i am available to help anyone who wants suggestions regarding SFX and processing voices. :)
Title: Re: So..Who's Modding/FREDding for Diaspora?
Post by: Cerebus on October 08, 2012, 09:03:30 am
i am available to help anyone who wants suggestions regarding SFX and processing voices. :)

I will take you up on that once I get an appropriate mic