[swashmebuckle]

Fate of the Galaxy NewsGrid:
March '13 Edition


Contents:
I. Status Update
II. Model Conversion and Updates
III. Other Progress
IV. Positions Open
V. Closing Remarks
VI. Back Issues and Links


I. Status Update

Yep, it's been over three years since our last newsgrid, can you believe it? The good news is that with the interval between issues expanding exponentially, the game will probably be released before the next one comes out! That or we'll all be dead of old age. Actually, the good news is that these last three years have been very productive. Let's see what we've got!

-Rob Dietrich (swashmebuckle)


II. Model Conversion and Updates

We've had a whole slew of new models made, and most of them are already in-game.  Our most active modeler has been bobbtmann who has produced an excellent set of cruisers from the light Carrack-class (which was modeled earlier but has since received a new coat of paint) to the versatile Strike-class first seen in TIE Fighter to the lumbering Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser that many of you will remember from the Timothy Zahn novels. Not satisfied with this, bobbtman has also built up our nonaligned fleet with the Marauder Corvette, the Braha'tok Gunship, the Corellian Star Shuttle, and the Cloakshape Fighter. His most spectacular new model though (at least until he finishes Home One) is the highly detailed XQ-2 platform, which is quite a lot of fun to fly around in if I do say so myself.



Brand-X was quite productive in 2010-11, delivering the B-wing, TIE Bomber, and the lovingly detailed Millennium Falcon. His A-wing and awesome reimagined Z-95 Headhunter are now in-game, and the rebuilt Lambda shuttle that he textured (modeled by HLP superstar Axem) is ready to go in as well.



We've also had a number of excellent models given to us by various community members. The DX-9 Stormtrooper Transport by Newman will surely play a critical role in capture missions (that was like half of X-wing IIRC). Greyleader performed some sort of modeler ninja move on us by dropping a very nice Action VI transport into our pocket before disappearing along with all of his posts. Most recently, Warfull appeared here at HLP with his own one-man Star Wars mod, from which he generously donated several models for our use including the rugged BFF-1 Bulk Freighter that we've all enjoyed blowing up in the old games. Take that, Imperial grain shipment!


III. Other Progress

It's not all pretty ships of course, and our behind-the-scenes work on the game engine and other assets has been humming along. For my part I have created the "datapad" interface skin for the menus, the HUD, a set of planets for our backgrounds, a bunch of sound effects, and the scripts for our campaigns. My main job though was finalizing the soundtrack, and I'm happy to report that the finished files went in just last week. I'll now be concentrating on organizing our voice acting effort, which you can join in on here.

Our renaissance modder is zookeeper. Since 2010, he has worked on basically every facet of the game from modeling our asteroids to producing sound effects. Most importantly, he has converted nearly all of our models to the POF format that the game uses (this includes creating LODs and debris models) and implemented the bulk of the coding and scripting features that we need to achieve the proper Star Wars feel. Some of his accomplishments include creating a convincing hyperspace warpout effect, getting our S-foils opening and closing at the push of a button, making a variety of astromech droids appear on our fighters without having to table multiple unique ships, scripting the turrets on our capital ships to fire like they do in the movies, and enabling the player to control whether the turrets of the Millennium Falcon are fired by the crew or are locked forward for the player to use.

TopAce is our primary FREDer and has been hard at work designing the missions that will actually make this a game rather than a collection of assets. In addition to his work on our Rebel and Imperial mini campaigns, he has created a group of one-off missions to make our first release a hefty one and show new players what FRED is capable of:



Chief1983 continues to lead the project in fearless fashion, often supporting the other team members with new builds. He also serves as leader of the Freespace Source Code Project, the group in charge of the game engine that FotG uses. The SCP has made very exciting progress over the past three years which will certainly benefit our game. Some of the many additions to the codebase include performance boosts, a new way of handling how pilot data is saved that will allow FotG to implement many of the features you heard about earlier, and new lighting code in the pipeline that will make the game much prettier and allow us to have actual real shadows™. Recently, a concerted bug-hunting effort was made that should help ensure that FotG is as stable as possible on release.


IV. Positions Open

Fate of the Galaxy is marching along, but we are still looking for more help!  The following positions need to be filled.  If you are interested in joining the team, please do not hesitate to drop by on IRC, at #scp-swc on EsperNet.  You can also send a PM to Chief1983 if you would prefer. Remember, the faster these positions are filled, the sooner the game will be released!

Model Converter
Webmaster
Effects Artist
FREDer
Come by IRC and see if you can lend a hand somewhere

See the Forum Post for further details.

Please also note that we are not currently accepting applications from "Idea guys".


V. Closing Remarks

This says it all.

Sincerely
-The Fate of the Galaxy Devs


VI. Back Issues and Links

Fate of the Galaxy NewsGrid:
January 10 Edition
2008 Wrapup Edition
October 08 Edition
August 08 Edition
July 08 Edition
June 08 Edition

Links:
Fate of the Galaxy Homepage
Fate of the Galaxy Forum
Fate of the Galaxy Moddb Page

[mandobardanjusik]

Nice to hear some news, cant wait to see my Tug ingame, hoping to get some of my other stuff in sooner or later as well.....

[niffiwan]

Thanks for the update - it's looking good

(ps. I think your ModDB link should be this: http://www.moddb.com/games/fate-of-the-galaxy, rather than the current link)

[swashmebuckle]

Link fixed, thanks niffiwan. Looks like we have upgraded from mod to game sometime in the last 3 years.

[user42012]

but we are still looking for more help! 

If you want to use this proton torpedo I made it's converted, but you will need to adjust the tables.
 
It was about 60 seconds work so its nothing spectacular.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zlku34m4v5467tl/proton.rar

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Incredible, just as I'm reading this the radio starts playing Star Wars theme music. I must say it added a whole new dimension to reading the Newsgrid

Glad to read that there's been good progress over the past years, keep it up guys!

Here's wondering why you're listed as "Windows game" on ModDB though, is there no cross-platform option on the site?

[chief1983]

Not sure, might be from that recategorization they did recently switching from mod to game.  We'll be on all supported platforms though.

[jacek]

Hi guys!
Nice to see that u still workin on it

Greyleader performed some sort of modeler ninja move on us by dropping a very nice Action VI transport into our pocket before disappearing along with all of his posts

Just a question: Greyleader is that about me? 

Hope to see release of this mod soon! 

[swashmebuckle]

Hey jacek! Greyleader was actually a different person who appeared quite briefly, made some interesting posts, and then deleted them and disappeared. Unfortunately, the one model he did deliver to us was an Action VI (he didn't know we already had one in progress and only posted about it when it was already done IIRC).

His version has a full set of textures so we'll probably end up using it, but you are of course still on the team and in the credits, and we would definitely still appreciate your help! If you feel like lending a hand but don't have any new ships of your own, we have a number of models awaiting conversion (zookeeper has been concentrating on coding lately). Anyway, glad to see you're still around!

[jacek]

before disappearing along with all of his posts

Wow! He must be purty quick cause i havent see him here...

If u have any fighters(or any other ships without turrets) which need conversion i could take a look

[coffeesoft]

wuau !! , amazing job guys, many thanks !!