SWTA Gnome Edition 0.60

[Gnomre]

Clever naming scheme eh?

Now, you may be wondering why this is here. "But Gnome," you say, "zwzsg has already ported SWTA to Spring!" I've just kind of picked up where he stopped.

The most significant difference between this version and his is that I took out the Imperial Authority units. Nothing personal against the TAD guys who made it (except for the AT-ST. SWTA's is better ), they just upset the balance of SWTA too much to be included. Plus they don't follow exactly the same style of appearance or buildpics, so it's really more of an annoyance to have them both in at once at this point.

However, that's not all I've done. I've also gone through and merged some of the relevant data from the taenheter.ccx file, such as sounds, into this version which helps make it stand alone. You still need to download zwzsg's SWTA & IA sound pack if you haven't already, though. The point is that you do not need the taenheter.ccx file to play SWTA at all. At this point, version 0.60 is only 11 MB; the size will likely only go down as I cut out more of the sounds and other things that SWTA doesn't use.

The main goal in cutting out taenheter is to cut out unused textures so more SWTA units can be added later (I have a semi-working Jedi and semi-working AT-AT in my install, for example, but they are not in this ). It will also help bring SWTA closer to being completely stand alone and unreliant on any OTA data.

I also added buildpics for a couple units that were missing them in Spring. Nothing major there.

Now to copy paste a bit from the FU page:

Installation:
1) Download and unzip this file to your Spring folder.
2) Download the SWTA Sound Pack for Spring to your Spring folder.
3) Rename taenheter.ccx to taenheter.old. If you want to switch back to XTA or any mod dependent on it, rename it back. If you only want to use SWTA and nothing else, feel free to delete that file.
4) Start up Spring and enjoy!

Known Bugs/Crash Warnings
-Imperial Speeder Bikes (Barracks, Vehicle Plant) will crash the game if you attempt to build them
-Imperial Hailfire tank (Vehicle Plant) will crash the game if you attempt to build it
-Imperial Troop Carrier will crash the game if you attempt to build it
-The game reports about incosistent move data when you build a walker plant; this is related to the tech level 3 builder and doesn't seem to effect the game much yet
-Some units crash the game if you take first person control of them. It's pretty much hit or miss. AT-STs seem to crash more often than not if you first-person them, but they work fine if used normally.

Annnnnnd of course, the link you've all been waiting for, hopefully!

http://www.fileuniverse.com/?page=showitem&ID=993

I'll keep this thread updated as I fix any bugs, if I can given the current engine limitations. I'm mainly looking at the Speeder Bikes and Hellfire tank right now.

[FLOZi]

which taenheter files did you include?

Ideally those files would be in a seperate file to XTA data to avoid mod conflicts and OTA mod porting more easily, but if i have to do it the hard way...

[Min3mat]

considering Empire at War is out soon this really sucks in comparison. no offence. if you don't believe me:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sta ... 584-2.html

[AF]

I must disagree, I think that if SWTA was remade using much more detailed models and textures along with highly detailed maps with settigns at max and some script improovements then it would rival or outdo that engine. Whatsmore this is free and that'll probs cost soemthing like 39.99 when it comes out.

Is there an swta version or other mod with the stuff from episode 3 and the spacecraft?.

[zwzsg]

Empire of War will suck (offense). Just like every other RTS, it will have enough cute graphic to get good promotionnal material, but the actual gameplay and interface will be worse than TA (a eight year old game).

And how can you know a game that you haven't played will be good? Just be reading by advertinfo?

[TotalAnnihilator]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!! I found out that if you rename it to .hpi instead of .gp3 it'll use the textures!!!!!! But, it takes 3 mins (estimate) to load up the game. it might be a bit laggy in the start but it will stop. HOORAY FOR THINKING THAT GP3 WONT WORK!!!!!!!!
EDIT: Screenies!


http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen4.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen5.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~nmilkosky/screen6.jpg

[AF]

errorsome are your links.

you must include http:// or your browser will not udnerstand.

[TotalAnnihilator]

I was just editng that.

[AF]

they're still errorsome, you must include http:// as I said else they wont work.

Empire at war is a chance to exploit the starwars brand for money, most rts games are centred around exploiting a brand or an idea to get money. Spring thus will cotninue to gofrom strength to strength wiping out all advantages they ahve at our rate fo development. Then with sufficient advertising, the rts genre will see that making new engines on a commercial basis would be uneconomical due to competition from spring, and they will also find the SY's and their current license inconsolable save when the SY's wish to make money. That is the day the community shall tremble.

[TotalAnnihilator]

There not errorsome, for me at least.

[Min3mat]

um shutup ppl have you seen the movies???
"And how can you know a game that you haven't played will be good? Just be reading by advertinfo?"
yes this info is by ppl being paid to REVIEW games... its gonna be like Rome: TW in space/ground with multiplayer support, star destroyers and fucking sexy graphics thanks to the scalable level of detail, ie further u zoom the computer stops using as much CPU power to make textures etc. also in one of the videos the guy pilots a TIE fighter into a Blockade Runner's hanger bay gets out AND START KILLING REBELS AS A STORMTROOPER. This game is gonna be teh sex.
*sets a booby trap to kill anyone posting further criticism of this sexy sweet game*
:p [dare]try getting past that[dare]
and crosskeys too :p
get out of that one
wow that smiley rocks...i think i have used it on average 3/4 times per post recently! :D

[AF]

You dare to challenge th might of bannanas and cookies with your booby traps! Cookies are the ultimate booby trap and bannanas are just spiffy.

*Throws a cookie at min3mats boobytrap and shields eyes*

Oh.. *puts bannana in booby traps place*

[Gnomre]

Yay for buying into hype.

You can't know if the game will be good or not until you actually play it. Of course the promotional videos look good, that's what they are FOR, and 90% of the time they are full of crap anyway. Until we actually get to play the game, we can't know.

Like someone above said, all we really have to do is remodel some of the units, touch up a couple scripts (particularly walk scripts for infantry), basic things like that... then you have a free, rather expansive SW game.

FLOZi: Basically, the sounds, the cursors .bmps in the anims folder, the entire "features" directory, all of the non-unit .3do files (I did keep unitname_dead files though, don't want to run into any feature errors for now), and the entire GUIs folder. I'm planning on going through the sounds, 3DOs, and features to purge out the ones SWTA absolutely doesn't use. Then I'll continue going through the textures and deleting unused ones (how I'm going to determine that I haven't decided, though. I don't want to look through every face on every model...). Poke me on MSN and I can let you poke around the current contents from taenheter.ccx I have in this.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

I see SWTA also have the same problems with the building facilities, I made my buildings in TAWD float a little so they don't look all weird, I am going to add a bib which is a bit higher so it can interact better with the terrain, the bib will contain cute little details like concrete and all sorts of fun stuff.

As for SWTA's models, i'd replace some with the IA models since Maestro's units have exceptional detail, he is by far my favorite modeler out there, and in most cases, my favorite unit designer.

I mean no offense to SWTA's team, their mod is great (I wish I could have their advertising lol).

But the best models should be used for a 3D engine :)

[Warlord Zsinj]

Great work Gnome!

I think you should include the minispring files in your next update. Unlike TA, where the scale isn't known, minispring with SWTA makes units the right size.

Otherwise, in holidays (Starting after my last exam 2pm tomorrow, oh crap...), I'll be happy to remodel SWTA infantry and stuff, as well as getting that Hoth mission working.

I think SWTA would be the perfect demonstration offering of Spring, if we can get everything fixed up and the Hoth mission working, as it is completely free of OTA files, and is a complete stand-alone. Not only that, but it is probably, I dare venture, TA's most popular Total Conversion, as well as the most completed and balanced.

[Buggi]

Ah yes, but you can't openly advertise the SWTA conversion either as SW is owned by George Vader.

We're open source rebel scum to him. @@;;

-Buggi

[Slamoid]

Wow Grom, nice work! Downloading...

considering Empire at War blah blah blah

You, sir, are a smacktard. You like EaW? Go to THEIR forum and tell them how good it is. Till then, shove it.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Hey now, there's more quality mods out there that look great in Spring :D

Don't forget TA:WD, TA:CW, AATA and not to forget, TA:FF!

Because SWTA has most publicity doesn't necesarilly mean it's the best

[Gnomre]

Flame wars aside, I don't think I should include Minispring by default quite yet. The engine is updated too much right now, and for all we know the next version may indeed make minispring default globally. It also just tacks on unnecessary file size to it at this point.

I'm currently working on the sounds. I've cut out about 2 MB of OTA sounds that SWTA doesn't use so far, and I'm still sifting through them. Next I'll do 3DO files and features, and after that I'll hopefully try textures... I have a feeling those will be a pain in the neck, though, since I don't know of any easy ways to mass check files for the usage of a particular texture. I wouldn't be surprised if the next release is 3-4 megs smaller than this one, honestly.

And GZ, I do agree that several of the IA models are quite nice (though I still say the SWTA AT-ST is better). Some of them just need retextured because they don't really fit in visually with the other SWTA units (mainly, some of them are too bright or too dark). I'm not the one to make the final decision there, though, so we'll just have to see.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Buggi, I'm fairly certain that George Lucas can't do anything about SWTA on Spring, based on the fact that it is entirely free.

What's more, there is a certain "degree of seperation" between Spring and SWTA. Spring technically has nothing to do with SWTA, and SWTA technically has nothing to do with Spring. If Lucas grumpies come along at Spring, Spring can simply say "we have nothing to do with SWTA, they are a 3rd (or is it 4th now?) party mod."
If grumpies come at SWTA "We make this for our own enjoyment, and make no profit.", etc. Besides, SWTA has been running for almost 5 years without any interference with legal issues.