mod idea?

[aqw]

i got an idea fore a mod but i do not know if it is possible cos I have no experience in any of the required areas. I need help and or advice.

basic idea
it is completely 3D such as space and spaceships but unlike other games i picture it so the player can customise as much as pos.

the structure includes units then squads of units. Where each can be made to do specific tasks by the player. if the player makes a custom squad then the game regulates the build time and the cost.

the biggest problem i see is that i do not know anything! So if some one if interested in making it then i can only provide ideas.

Ples tell me if I am mad or if not hellp!

[REVENGE]

basic idea
it is completely 3D such as space and spaceships but unlike other games i picture it so the player can customise as much as pos.

Spring cannot have truly 3D space. That said, Final Frontier.

the structure includes units then squads of units. Where each can be made to do specific tasks by the player. if the player makes a custom squad then the game regulates the build time and the cost.

lua people, is this possible? [I'm guessing YES through some complicated autoscriptedmagicry]

the biggest problem i see is that i do not know anything! So if some one if interested in making it then i can only provide ideas.

Ples tell me if I am mad or if not hellp!

Welcome to the forums.

[Saktoth]

Aqw, a mod is a huge amount of work. Even using OTA units and just editing the fbi and tdf files, which anyone can do, it takes a lot of effort to understand what everything does, to put it into application, test it, balance it, etc.

What you are asking for would require .bos/.cob scripting, 3d modelling (and texturing) and by the sounds of it, a bucketload of lua. This would require a team (As we dont even have any single individual who can do all those things) dedicated to the project.

Most of the content developers in this community are already dedicated to a project. Some of them are dedicated to several projects. You can bet that each one of them also has another 2-3 projects rocketing around their heads that they'd 'like to make when they get the time'.

The community has plenty of ideas. It doesnt have enough people making the ideas happen. If you want your ideas to happen, i suggest you open up a mod in a .zip program, open up the .tdf and .fbi files in units and weapons using notepad, and start poking its guts.

For a space mod, check out this excellent, well polished, entirely-orig-content mod:
http://spring.unknown-files.net/file/20 ... uggle_0.4/

[REVENGE]

I beg to differ on that last one Sak, ES is NOT well polished.

[Saktoth]

Compared to most mods out there, it certainly is. Its 100% origional content AFAIK, with fully (if poorly) textured s3o models.

The economy wasnt ideal, it needs some target categories so torpedo ships dont shoot at fighters and it used way too many special damages, but the mod had a lot of potential. The core concepts are also strong, if poorly executed. Mostly it just needs some balance work.

[LordMuffe]

Well you are right to say that ES is not well polished YET, but it is vers. 0.4, there is still much on the to do list and the last release was 9 Month ago.

I changed a lot since then, and added several new ships and one new shipclass until now, which also changed the balancing and gameplay from the current open version.

The balancing part is hard for me becaouse of 2 things:

1: Lack of constant players which give me more hints than "this suck... "
I just have 2 to 3 ppl i can play every now and than...

2: Im lazy as hell when it comes to scripting and editing... i mostly created the mod to see my models kill each other... and in my eyes it works.

It will take much time until a polished version... but the balancing wont change without input from mor players.

@Saktoth: thanks for the nice words :)

[Saktoth]

Yay you're still around <3. Reading the old ES thread i thought you'd gone off to supcom.

I spent all of today balancing ES for my own amusement, because i think its a great mod with a lot of potential and we need more finished, orig content mods. So if you want help in that aspect im verymuch up for it.

Ill PM you, feel free to message me on TASclient ([LCC]Saktoth).

[aqw]

The reason I had the 3D idea was to make a simple unit editor easier where the player can only import fixed parts such as an engine or a weapon then fix then on to a framework already provided so all unit scripting is already done for the player. So the space ship idea was to be able to limit things to just simple parts without complaints.

The squads idea was to providing a more simple unit AI as I can guess making an unit AI that can will work with any type of unit complicated or impossible. So it was to make this more simple and more easier for the player to work with large amounts of units altogether.

Can this be put into a more standard mod structure?

[Zpock]

I have some ideas for a mod similar in some respects to this. Very little time to do it at the moment tough (massive amounts of university courses and stuff)



and need to learn LUA.

Specifically, how to:

1. custom economy + unit creation
2. customising units with LUA ingame
3. interface to integrate above with

(4. possibly general system for unit abilities and especially buffs/debuffs, that dosn't depend on shoddy cob hacks)

I'm hoping for the tower defense mod to learn from, and others.

[Saktoth]

The reason I had the 3D idea was to make a simple unit editor easier where the player can only import fixed parts such as an engine or a weapon then fix then on to a framework already provided so all unit scripting is already done for the player. So the space ship idea was to be able to limit things to just simple parts without complaints.

The squads idea was to providing a more simple unit AI as I can guess making an unit AI that can will work with any type of unit complicated or impossible. So it was to make this more simple and more easier for the player to work with large amounts of units altogether.

Can this be put into a more standard mod structure?

Easier for the player, harder for the modder. It sounds really complex, and while it might be able to be done with lua it souds like a massive undertaking. Keep an eye on Tower Defense, CA and Final Frontier (Which is apparently going to have multiple morph options) as that is the closest thing in that direction that is being developed.

[Zpock]

Forget 3D, it's not practical for the player. I have no idea why you think it would make it easier for him? And it would probably require massive modification of the spring source code itself.

Unit ai is not something that can be easily changed and I don't really see why you would need to, squad system is mostly frustrating to a player since it obviously takes away individual control.

Both those things sounds like you want Homeworld in spring?

Some modded unit behaviour would be necessary tough for different reasons, to implement a custom economy. For example gatherers that bring back their harvest and stuff like that.

[aqw]

Both those things sounds like you want Homeworld in spring?

Homeworld was not so good at 3D (i did not like it anyway) cos it was only a 2D plain with objets moved above or below. =(

so i thought why not move the units from thir perspective so the player points in a diretion then idicats a distence. thus the squads cos this will take too much time fore indivigual units.

but then agen Saktoth's mod is spacy anuth. but unlik it i do not care what it looks like but way the player intarats with them and to be able to use v big armys with out problems. so all in all i do not exspekt the units to look good or have high resolution graphiks.

lots of games are ruwind cos thay slow down or are to dificult to use with large armis. like TA:K i love this game but when the unit count is abuth sothig like 200 then individual units take 10mins to walk around an objet. this was mosty fine with care but the AI could not cope =(

[Saktoth]

Homeworld was not so good at 3D (i did not like it anyway) cos it was only a 2D plain with objets moved above or below.

This is the definition of 3d.

This could be done fairly easily in spring, have a button which changes the cruisalt of your ship, perhaps on 3 different levels. This would probably just confuse people though.

so i thought why not move the units from thir perspective so the player points in a diretion then idicats a distence. thus the squads cos this will take too much time fore indivigual units.

Homeworlds interface was utterly revolutionary and made navigating in a 3d space with almost no gui easy while being utterly breathtaking at the same time.

I think you would be hard pressed coming up with a system that matches it. What do you propose? You rotate your camera with the mouse and then click the direction you want the unit to go? How do you define distance if its in the direction you are looking?

Either way, spring couldnt even do this. You cant issue 3d movement orders.

but then agen Saktoth's mod is spacy anuth

Lord Muffe's. And then there is FF, another space mod.

[Kovin]

I agree with Zpock, personally I hate squads especially in Homeworld 2.
If you want to look how upgrade system looks, play War Evolution, where you gain experience and new levels, which customizes your mech. Keep in mind there are only *4* units in WE and creating custom look models is not that easy.

I think ES units look great, I would love to have such units in Final Frontier.

Morphing system in FF is planed to come with its own morphing toolbar and it will support multiple morph options, true. Aegis reports its nearly finished, bugfixing can take a while but I hope we will see results soon.