Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: quadinhonic_II on June 18, 2002, 02:30:46 pm
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I have ran into a problem when making my campaign. You know how diffrent systems have diffrent nebulas? What about the systems that are not shown in the game? Like Vasuda Prime, Deneb, Beta Aqualie, Delta Serpentis etc. I think there should be some sort of a reference for nebulas so all mission designers have the same nebula for the same system. Ex. Lets say one designer has an all yellow nebula for Vasuda Prime and another has an all blue and red nebula for Vasuda Prime. When playing both missions it wouldn't look or feel right. I think it would be good to have a reference. So lets say that Vasuda Prime is all green. Then both\all mission designers would have an all green nebula for Vasuda Prime.
For the reference there could be a downloadable mission or just a list of the locations of the nebulas.
ex. neb09
p67
b56
h94
scale x y
3 3
divisions x y
4 3
Now for the systems like Cappela and Gamma Droconis all you have to do is extract the mission that takes place in Gamma Droconis in the main campaign from the root.dir, take out everything except the backround, then build your mission.
Good idea?
Bad idea?
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Good idea - now lets see how many will agree! :D
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C'mon people. I really want to know what you think
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There's only one way to get this universally accepted: Source Code. We modify the code so that as well as selectable suns, nebulas and so on you can also store preset nebulas and provide with it the standard FS system nebulas... This of course relies on the FRED2 code being in the source code...
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The problem is that various groups already have references for nebulas that are different between the groups. For example, we have a standard layout for systems in BWO, but we also have our own custom nebulas. I'm not about to pretend I can make people accept our backgrounds as gospel and I don't think I'd accept others'.
Besides, nebula-making is cool. I enjoy it.
And there are certainly things that can be used like the random background generator by Kazan and other people's premade BGs to save yourself some time and effort. :)
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Maybe we could hold a vote to see what people like for a nebula for the diffrent systems. For those campaigns that have new systems, they are free to make it whatever design they want.
If we made a reference, for other campaigns that have diffrent nebulas, all they would have to do is change the nebula.
Now i'm not a comp programmer or any computer genuis sorta of person ( and i'm new here ) so i dont know what Source Code is or what it can do etc.
I think a universal nebula reference would make playing diffrent campaigns a little easier to understand. If you have two different nebulas in two different camps for lets say, Vasuda Prime again, you ask yourself the question "Whos right?" If everyones VPrime is the same your like "Oh yeah, its Vasuda Prime"
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Originally posted by quadinhonic_II
If we made a reference, for other campaigns that have diffrent nebulas, all they would have to do is change the nebula.
Yeah, but if they're designed in different patterns they may look silly with simple substitutions.
I think a universal nebula reference would make playing diffrent campaigns a little easier to understand. If you have two different nebulas in two different camps for lets say, Vasuda Prime again, you ask yourself the question "Whos right?" If everyones VPrime is the same your like "Oh yeah, its Vasuda Prime" [/B]
:wtf:
Sorry, but I think you'd have to be pretty dumb not to realise what system you were in. Usually briefings include the whole "we have travelled to the Vasuda system, blah blah" spiel. Besides, you'd have to publicise which nebular BG is which heavily to get people to recognise them on sight. :p
If there's any nebular background 'legislation' so to speak, it should be permissive - people should be free to do or ignore it.
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Originally posted by Kellan
Sorry, but I think you'd have to be pretty dumb not to realise what system you were in.
If there's any nebular background 'legislation' so to speak, it should be permissive - people should be free to do or ignore it.
Its the LOOK of the nebulas is what might through people off.
"people should be free to do or ignore it"
I agree.
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I'll need the limts on the stars.tbl off then because I've got different nebulas for at least three different campaigns.
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I just use the color schemes (and when possible, the bitmap combinations) that were used in the FS1 and FS2 campaigns and extrapolate the rest for my missions. It might be nice to have some kind of standard system but we would need to factor in custom nebulas as well.
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People could post screenshots of nebulas for a system(s) they want and then we could vote on them, I guess. Something like that I think would be good.
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Nah, a better way would be to list the nebulas and their specs used in a mission as well as posting a blank mission up with just the background installed - people could then experiement and get a better feel for it.
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Yeah I guess thats better way. Now have we anyone with a nebula\mission that they would like to submit?
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If you are going to get any standarnization widely accepted by the Freespace community, it will have to come from big V themselves. Ultimatly they are the only ones who can attach any legitimacy to any standards, and would basically be beyond dispute since they are the ones who wrote the story :D
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Not even Volition used identical backgrounds for missions set in the same systems.
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Doesn`t mean we shouldn`t though :)
I`m not too keen on the idea of standardising. As far as I`m concerned unless the system appeared in FS1 or FS2 you`ve got a free hand to make the nebula any way you want it. Still if it save people the trouble of coming up with interesting backdrops themeselves I`m not entirely against it :D
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This actually seems like a good idea. If it ever goes through, I'll use it in SHaS.
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Making the nebulas for a mission is fun, mission designers should be allowed to be creative (other than with Sexp's).
Its not like anyone is hugely bothered about standardized nebulas is it? You'd get bored looking at the same background.
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Agreed, making interesting backgrounds is half the fun of mission creation. Derelict, for example, had some wonderful backgrounds, even if the tiny suns in the nebulas caused lens flare sometimes. It would get kinda boring looking at the same backgrounds in every mission in every campaign.
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I guess its a 50-50 yes and no. Well it was just a thought. If anyone can pull the nebula reference off I think it would be great. But since its 50-50 I dont know. Personally I hate doing neb backrounds. I dont like sitting around for an hour or so placing nebs in my mission, over and over, mission after mission. But thats just me.