Page 13 of 27
Posted: 06 Feb 2006, 05:18
by SinbadEV
You homepage is dead, see
R1CH's thread about getting a
http://www.ta-spring.com hosted site
Posted: 06 Feb 2006, 12:09
by Optimus Prime
Dragon45 wrote:it needs a way better texture/UVMap; it looks like a giant blob ATM.
big blob? explain yourself...
I know that some textures dont go over in the neigbour textures correctly, but because in the texturepack for the upspring version , there arent the FF textures and i dont know how to import them, i have to use 3do builder where you only can rotate textures 90° and only put one texture on one polygon - so no uv mapping
.
But i really dont think that this unit is bad textured, perhaps not perfect, but i saw it ig in movement and its not worse than the other ships from core. I would say it looks more beautyfull/scary.
i send him a pm...
Posted: 06 Feb 2006, 19:07
by Archangel of Death
Optimus: Settings/Texture Archives/Browse then add. It won't care if you use an archive that has other stuff in it either, so just load up your FF archive.
Assuming of course I interpreted what you meant by
there arent the FF textures and i dont know how to import them
correctly.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 01:09
by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Just to let you know, I invoked the precense of the god of TA:FF, Savant...
You might be seeing him on the board sometime, he might be able to give his final judgement on the latest incarnation of TAFF.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 01:25
by FizWizz
GrOuNd_ZeRo wrote:Just to let you know, I invoked the precense of the god of TA:FF, Savant...
You might be seeing him on the board sometime, he might be able to give his final judgement on the latest incarnation of TAFF.
In the nick of time. I've held my tongue thus far, but I think that this... "Devastator" ship is ridiculous business.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 02:58
by Optimus Prime
i think everyone has its own flavour, so some like one unit which others dont like. But i showed this unit to a lot of ppl and you are the first who think that this unit is ridiculous.
All i can say to you is, that i would never put a unit into the game when i think, that it dont looks good. Perhaps its because i made this unit myself, but i started some games only to enjoy some battles with AI controlled units and see how it fights a whole army of ships. In battle, this unit looks better than all other units for me. Its cool when one unit can fight not only one unit at the same time, but it can fight a lot of targets at once. Most other units can do that too, but this unit is forced to do that by its size and its weapons on the sides which all have different toleranceangels.
If you speak about its role in game as a new superunit, why would that be ridiculous? Look at XTA... a Krog is so much stronger than all other units and no one ever thought that thats ridiculous.
To savant: That would be cool if the maker of OTAFF would have a look at this version of FF. I sure know, that SFF is much different from OTAFF in nearly every aspect (balancing, optic and even sound). What i h
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 03:06
by Optimus Prime
(sorry for doublepost, but something is wrong with the Forum, it only takes some parts of my post and i cant edit it -.-)
To savant: That would be cool if the maker of OTAFF would have a look at this version of FF. I sure know, that SFF is much different from OTAFF in nearly every aspect (balancing, optic and even sound). What i hope is that he will not try to stop this hard work on this mod but he wants to support it. It would be cool, if he wants to join SFF cause that would be an honor for me and i think that would push SFF forward!
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 04:39
by Dejavuproned
Hi, wanted to add my 2 cents, I've followed FF since early days in OTA. I love what you guys have done with the spring port so far, keep it up! I also love the sounds and visuals that you added, and you guys have the ability to go forward in areas where Savant and Longbow were limited due to the OTA engine. Maybe if Savant does come by he can put forth some ideas that he may have had but not been able to implement?
A few suggestions/opinions if you dont mind:
1. Its a bit of a small thing i guess, but the OTA version had starships and larger craft stay hovering rather then land all the time when not moving, fighters would still land I think but i belive that was just to prevent stacking since aircraft had no mass. Is it possible to add this to SFF? I find it looks silly when spaceships are landing in space and even on land why would they bother? Its no big deal, but would be a nice feature in SFF for realism and because landed ships are much slower to respond in battle.
2. I realise adding an AI low priority but is it possible to find an AI scripter to create a working AI for spring ff? I really havent had a chance to test this mod in a real game, just messing around against a non-functioning AI. There never seem to be many multi-games going either so its hard to really get to play. Maybe theres someone out there who could volunteer their time and abilities to make this since I know you guys are busy with the mod itself. Again not a priority but would be much appreciated
(I also suck against human players
)
3. My opinion on the arm ships, though I know some of them are pretty bulky, but isent that the general feeling of all arm units, ships, ect? They have always been more rugged while the core have been more sleek and elegant, even in OTA. I presonally think that if they were made
too
sleek they would lose their main visual difference from core, and then the only real differences would be textures and weapons. Its up to you guys of course, just the way I feel about it.
4. Any chance of the extra units found at this site being implemented in SFF?
http://taff.tadesigners.com/units.php
Thats all for now, gonna go try to get a game going now
First impressions
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 08:42
by Savant
Greetings all :)
So, when I heard some people were taking over TA:FF, I was a little concerned. It took me 2 years to balance it and get it 'just right', and when I left it I felt there was nothing more I could do to improve it (I kept butting up against TA's engine limits).
But a quick look through theis forum and the screenshots therein really impressed me. More than 3 weapons? I would have killed for more than 3 weapons in TA! The warspite looks excellent, and it's good to see you've got a head for ship design, and aren't just putting guns on them all over the place simply because you can.
The Mauler cannon looks the most impressive of all - actual particle effects! The beam of light that comes out of that sucker is music to my eyes. So yes, by all means continue! Thanks to TA:Spring, you're able to take it places I never could, and I look forward to playing it in the near future :)
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 13:19
by Optimus Prime
first to Dejavuproned: thanks for your feedback!
1. Its a bit of a small thing i guess, but the OTA version had starships and larger craft stay hovering rather then land all the time when not moving, fighters would still land I think but i belive that was just to prevent stacking since aircraft had no mass. Is it possible to add this to SFF? I find it looks silly when spaceships are landing in space and even on land why would they bother? Its no big deal, but would be a nice feature in SFF for realism and because landed ships are much slower to respond in battle.
Sorry, but there is nothing i can do because its the spring engine. There dont exists any units which can hover all the time.
BUT! this depends on the maps. There is atm one FF map you can find on the FF homepage, where the space is simulated with water and the units wont land on the water, so there you have your hovering units. But you need the landing option else the units wont regenerate and would need a lot more performance.
2. I realise adding an AI low priority but is it possible to find an AI scripter to create a working AI for spring ff? I really havent had a chance to test this mod in a real game, just messing around against a non-functioning AI. There never seem to be many multi-games going either so its hard to really get to play. Maybe theres someone out there who could volunteer their time and abilities to make this since I know you guys are busy with the mod itself. Again not a priority but would be much appreciated (I also suck against human players )
I think if the mod will be played more, there will be found an AI creator who will make an AI for FF. But sadly i have no time to do also an AI for this mod. If someone wants to create one and who needs my help, just PM me.
3. My opinion on the arm ships, though I know some of them are pretty bulky, but isent that the general feeling of all arm units, ships, ect? They have always been more rugged while the core have been more sleek and elegant, even in OTA. I presonally think that if they were made too
sleek they would lose their main visual difference from core, and then the only real differences would be textures and weapons. Its up to you guys of course, just the way I feel about it.
I think the existing units shall look like they are, because people who played OTAFF feel a bit home when they see the same units in Spring. Perhaps if the mod is so much improved, that nearly all important things are done, i can try to make them look better, but we will see what comes for the future of this mod.
Code: Select all
4. Any chance of the extra units found at this site being implemented in SFF? http://taff.tadesigners.com/units.php
I saw them all, but most of them dont look good for me. The ods are made for a view from the top, the phenom looks like a B2 bomber and the drone frigate is still implemented in SFF. The raidon and kirov i dont know how they will look in spring, but i remember that in OTAFF the Kirov fired 2 huge rockets which looked odd for their firepower (the rockes were as long as a small cruiser and that would be hard to balance in a realistic way).
But never the less, i just started to create new units for FF. After Friday i have holidays and that means, that i can begin to create new ships all the day :D.
to savant: WOW thats a word! Such a compliment from the master of FF to the creators of SFF is more than i had expected. Perhaps something to the history of this mod:
I was and am a really great OTA fan and i played about thousands of games (yes thousands) with or against my brothers in a home lan. One day we found FF and downloaded it. It impressed us really and we played it a long time. The problem with this mod was, that the engine of OTA sucked for FF. ODSs (and nearly all ships) for example liked to fly in a big mass all together and so if you shoot them with a weapon with big are damage you can kill 100 at the same time (the problem here was, that it was to hard to say the units not to fly in a mass). Than there were some crashing bugs with the piledriver we had and that sucked too.
So we went over to OTA AA and i changed it a bit for myself by changing the balance and putting some new units into it. So i made my first experiences with mod creating for TA.
After years we discovered Spring and at the beginning we disliked the balancing, but when we say, that there are more and more mods growing one time i saw FF0.013a and tested it.
"Hell why did they left this nice mod in such a beginning stage?!? i asked myself and when i saw the date of the last change i decided to do my own work on this mod (big thx to the developers before me - you made this possible!).
I wanted to do all the features I missed in OTAFF and which Spring made possible. When Fang entered the "team?" he was a real help because i had at this time no real experiences by changing models and so i could spend more time for other important things. Sadly now he has no more time for modding and so i try to do it alone again (ok fans help me often by giving me cool ideas).
The goal of this mod is to bring OTAFF in a new and hopefully better dimension with tons of cool action for your ears, eyes and brain. You shall be forced to use a lot of different shipclasses but also be free by deciding which ones. The other perhaps most important aspect is the balancing and i think, that the balancing at the moment isnt really bad.
The main problem of this mod is that most ppl dont give it a try. More than 90% of the people who tested it more than one game and not on a sucking metal map really like it and are impressed. But because there are so few ppl who try it, the number of players dont grow as fast as it would be needed. I think one reason is the difference to other mods even in the way you have to play it. All is new for them and so they dont know what to do for a win. So they lose a lot of games and get depressed and switch back to xta or aa where all is known. Sad but there is nothing to do on my side.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 17:30
by IMSabbel
The current svc codebase had an tag added to keep units in the air...
the problem currently on this maps that fake space with water is that some units just dont stay put... they wander around quite far to find some place to land...
and if they do, they no only are landed and dont fire, but also they are somewhere were you dont expect them and cannot find them in a hurry.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 17:45
by Optimus Prime
IMSabbel wrote:The current svc codebase had an tag added to keep units in the air...
the problem currently on this maps that fake space with water is that some units just dont stay put... they wander around quite far to find some place to land...
and if they do, they no only are landed and dont fire, but also they are somewhere were you dont expect them and cannot find them in a hurry.
what exactly does the tag? Can you define the time they shall stay in air before landing, or will they stay in air for all time? If the last will happen, that will slow the game drastical (pathfinding probs) and units wont regenerate anymore (they only regenerate when landed on ground atm).
To solve your problem, there is an order called patrole.. it works does all you want
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 21:16
by IMSabbel
IIRC, if set the bottom will cause the things NEVER to set foot on land, or even try (there was the comment on not using it for transports, as they wouldnt be able to pick up units).
So it would be more something for capital ships.
And: i know patrol. But sometimes, i want to send units off the factory to a target. and as land space is scarce, this target will most likely be in space. And then i expect the units at that point, and not landed 3 screens away.
And there is NO reason why a air unit that thats unmoving in the air should cause any more performace than a tank sitting idle on a plain... if there is no moveorder, then there is no pathfinding.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 21:39
by Optimus Prime
oh its unmoving? Ok than you are right! Didnt know that... thats a cool information. I will think about this!
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 21:39
by Min3mat
err, opty if u want i think you can make ur 'planes' repair auto in the air. in a old XTA vsn planes could
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 21:45
by Optimus Prime
yes i know that, but till now it was a feature that you have to land your unit for repair. So you have to take a decision if you want to land it and make it more vulnerable or if you want to let it fly in space but without repair. This is not just a decision about staying in air or not but it takes a feature from the game.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 21:48
by Min3mat
u mean a
feature from teh mod
suppose but i think that you should just make it repair slowly in space. u know engineers getting bored and fixing things etc.
landing for repairs is silly IMO. But w/e it is your mod and a good one at that
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 22:06
by Optimus Prime
Min3mat wrote:u mean a
feature from teh mod
suppose but i think that you should just make it repair slowly in space. u know engineers getting bored and fixing things etc.
landing for repairs is silly IMO. But w/e it is your mod and a good one at that
no silly not. Imagine that you need the energy from your weapons and your engine for your nanobots for their recontruction. So you have to stop engine and weaponry (the weapons will stop anyway when repairing) for your repair. That is like it was and is, but like i said i will have a look on that and if it looks good by staying all the time in air, i will change that.
But i think the next version will not be out before a week so i have enough time to test that.
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 22:23
by SinbadEV
if you make the fighters into seaplanes they will be able to "park" or "idle" anywhere... right?
Posted: 08 Feb 2006, 22:27
by Optimus Prime
SinbadEV wrote:if you make the fighters into seaplanes they will be able to "park" or "idle" anywhere... right?
eh... yes i think so. What now? Land or not land? What do you want? I can not do anything at the same -.-