[Bushwacker]

I don't know which of you have Deus Ex (DX) or Unreal/Unreal Tournament (UT), but those of us that do know about the UnrealEd program (essentially an Unreal Engine variant of FRED).

What I had in mind was making a series of FS-based levels for DX or UT.  Since DX is predominantly a single-player game, we might pull together a story arc similar to DX's but based in the FS universe.  UT could have Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, or Assault maps based in the FS universe (i.e. "AS-Fenris" might be an Assault map similar to AS-Frigate except you're trying to take over a Fenris Cruiser).

We might be able to enlist the help of the Unreal and Deus Ex modders, and might even make a Total Conversion to Freespace Marine or something.

Insert opinions, thoughts, musings, flames, etc. below.

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"I am become death, the shatterer of worlds."
                       -the Bhagavad Gita

[Bushwacker]

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.  In the Deus Ex variant of UnrealEd, you can import Lightwave objects into things in the game (i.e. weapons, player classes, interactive objects, etc.), so if anyone wants to make a Prometheus Rifle for a single player game, they can.

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"I am become death, the shatterer of worlds."
                       -the Bhagavad Gita

[Fineus]

I think it'd be a great idea, unfortunately I can't use UnrealED to save my life, so I'd only be able to playtest it for you  

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[Martinus]

I think the big problem here is making player models, animating them correctly can be damn frustrating. When you talk about lightwave models do you mean that they can be directly imported with no extra work?

[Bushwacker]

According to the Deus Ex SDK readme, with a little tinkering you can import Lightwave models into viable meshes that the game recognizes (however, I don't have LightWave and can't prove this or not).

Thunder, I found a _massive_ tutorial section at Unrealed.exe, which is where I d/l'ed the whole thing for offline training.  It covers virtually every aspect of UnrealEd 1.0 (this version the Deus Ex SDK uses), but much of the interface is the same in UnrealEd 2.0 (version UT uses).  If you're familiar with 3D programs such as Rhino or maybe Truespace, the switchover should be simple enough. (emphasis on should)

[The Claw]

I came up with this a while back, but decided to focus more on the actual Freespace. I came up with a few ideas for missions, and even got as far as starting construction of the first ones and editting the textures on the NSF troops to NTF.
 Dammit, why do I have so much to do?

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"Supernova, ya supernova, supernova goes pop
supernova, ya think it's over but the supernova don't stop" PM5K
Death:"Arnold Judas Rimmer... your life is over. You will travel with me to the-"
#knees death in the groin#
Rimmer:"Remember matey, it's only the good that die young"
Kudoth, god of pointless educational programs.

[Kazan]

i would love to have

CTF-Colossus
CTF-Sathanas
CTF-Ravana
CTF-Hecate
CTF-Hatshepsut

have the players inside the ships, asymetrical.  Perhaps a few outside spots you could go out and walk around, and Maybe DM versions

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FreeSpace 2: The Babylon Project Effects Nerd and Programmer.
http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon

Did you say you wanted your head used as a soccer ball?

[Bushwacker]

Well, since we have no knowledge of the internal arrangement of the Colossus (or Sathanas, or Ravana, or Hecate (except for the main concourse), OR Hatshepsut (again, except for the concourse), we'd be "winging" it an awful lot.

Of course,   might accept this as true canon material (and we literally add something to the FS universe).

It'll take me a while to figure out how to work the editors, but in the meantime, someone good at making textures needs to get a texture set for the levels whipped up (to give it that true FS feel).  I might be able to improvise with the standard issue textures, but I'd be more comfortable using actual FS source material.  Why?  'Cuz I'm finicky

[Ace]

Also remember that official canon FS material on the interior of Shivan ships is within the hallfight cutsceen.

There is no gravity, and their designs are clearly non-terrestrial. (no access ports, simply a labyrinth of octagonal corridors)

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Ace
Staff member FreeSpace Watch
 http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/

[Darkage]

Sounds cool

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          [email protected]                    hello,great bb
we all die but when we die we die togheter.
its a good day to die now
all your spacecrak belongs to me:)
iqc 102628858

[Starwing]

Under the "supersecret" movies on the Silent Thread CD there is one of a Terran running through a terran looking corridor.

[NeoHunter]

 

Originally posted by Starwing:
Under the "supersecret" movies on the Silent Thread CD there is one of a Terran running through a terran looking corridor.

Funny thing is that it keeps repeatinig itself. Nothing special there. I still prefer the one where the Shivan jumps on a Vasudan Thoth fighter and smashes the cockpit in space, making it cockscrew and slam into the nearby Typhon destroyer.



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...and one day, Man will journey farther and faster into Space. - My thoughts

GTD Excellence Webmaster
NeoHunter<                      [b][email protected][/b]                                    >

[Bushwacker]

Okay, I got good news.  In 2 days I went from knowing absolutely nothing about UnrealEd to being able to make a somewhat entertaining (albeit a bit cramped) deathmatch level with working doors and elevators.  It's a start, and I think I've made a lot of progress in the 14 or so hours I spent playing around with it.  The movers (doors as example) tutorial kinda stumped me until I looked at a different mover tutorial which said to copy the door polygons to the brush (which the first tutorial conveniently omitted) but after a few minutes I cracked the barrier and made a sliding pocket door.  Elevators work in almost the exact same way as doors, except they're flat on the floor and usually have a pit they fit in.

Actually Thunder, UnrealEd isn't that hard to figure out when you begin to think like the editor.  It thinks that everything in the level is cut out of a humagongous cube, which cuts down tremendously on the processor load (and explains how Unreal has such incredibly vast levels).  Obviously different from any Quake or Doom editor that "adds" the walls to make a room.  Just follow the tutorials, and hopefully you'll catch on easily enough.

[Nico]

mmh... lurking around in a sathanas... don't you think it's -maybe- a bit big? Imagine you have to buiild an entire city... then imagine you have to make another city over the first one... and as the sathanas is even "higher", lets put 5 or 6 other cities over the 2 first ones... see what I mean? Even with 32 players in the level, it would be a nightmare to find the others, anyway... I think Fenris, Sobek and Cain are much more easy to make and fun to play, no?
Otherwise, how do you plan to make creatur models? making them is "easy", but animating them? Anyway, if someone is willing to animate it, I'm ok to make a shivan model  

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Martinus]

Is it not also evident that you would require a massive strike force of terrans to accomplish anything on a Sathanas.

*in best film trailer voice*
Six men against 62000 Shivans.

That or they'd have to be so well armed they probably wouldn't be able to move. Don't get me wrong I'd love to see something like this but I have to agree with Venom, smaller ships are more realistic.

Another thought, it's obvious what terran pilots look like but you're hardly going to send terrans in flightsuits as a strike team. Some thought should be given as to what appearance armor would have.

[This message has been edited by Maeglamor (edited 04-25-2001).]

[Kazan]

I didn't say the ships had to be the correct scale

oh make the background for all the levels have the ships all in subspace, showing the other ships in the background

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FreeSpace 2: The Babylon Project Effects Nerd and Programmer.
http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon

Did you say you wanted your head used as a soccer ball?

[Nico]

Maeglamor, for the terrans soldiers, it's easy, just look at the hallfight cutscene  
You have nice looking marines there  . Armor? hmm, that would look like space marines vs tyranides (Warhammer 40000). I love that, but that's not Freespace...
freespace... freespace... He! Let's call that ClosedSpace  

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

and My own page

[Bushwacker]

And remember it isn't always the entire ship that is playable.  In the original Dark Forces there was a mission where you had to plant a homing device on a freighter's engine, but you only had 2 or so floors to mess around on, when one likely has about 9 or 10.

A level based in a Sathanas forward arm is a bit more feasible (and logical) don't you think?  Even with the most spartan environment, UT would likely puke from trying to render a 6-kilometer long juggernaut's interior...

[The Claw]

If you want to get this accurate, remember that never did the GTVA try to land forces on the Sathanas, simply because it wasn't feasable. First off, you'd have to disable and disarm it, then get it to a safe place so you aren't overrun by Shivan forces. Then, after you've cut through the hull, which by the way, will take a long long time, you are gonna be outnumbered by technologically and physically superior forces in a strong defensive position. So that would be why then  
 I reckon that the missions in the game actually gave enough scope for a few missions, plus a few user made... like, here's an idea, being an undercover operative on the Iceni when the Shivans attack it.
 If u need a hand, I'll help, although I've said this to all together too many people recently, I think this would be a kick arse mod. And it'll give me the experience I need to create a Fallout mod  

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"Supernova, ya supernova, supernova goes pop
supernova, ya think it's over but the supernova don't stop" PM5K
Death:"Arnold Judas Rimmer... your life is over. You will travel with me to the-"
#knees death in the groin#
Rimmer:"Remember matey, it's only the good that die young"
Kudoth, god of pointless educational programs.

[Ace]

Remember that in the Great War, simply attaching to the Taranis took a great deal of time, the hull wasn't even fully penetrated.

Attacking a Shivan vessel is as stated before, not feasible.

A boarding a Shivan transport alone is madness...

Having the missions dealing with being onboard the Iceni during operations, and making them in a story-base.

(i.e. doing scans and sabotauge while sulking and sneaking, then trying to survive the final battle when the Shivans board, and then helping with the evacuation of the Iceni by stalling Bosch's self-destruct while the ship is being torn apart)

Model the Iceni based off of Volition renders of what FS ships look like, build a handful of complete decks. (i.e. docking and crew quarters, command and control, ETAK device and fusion reactor main core)

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Ace
Staff member FreeSpace Watch
 http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/