Battletech

[smoth]

LESS JIBBA JABBA MORE PROGRESS!

I PITT THE FOO WHO DOESN'T POST ME SOME SHOTS!

[bobthedinosaur]

currently we are redoing a lot of models into higher poly s3o formats so they can have pretty UVs and just not be TA oriented. we are also redoing the game design from scratch so it wont have the ta feal anymore, it will be very similar to classic battletech the board game but with a range of command from small combat units to a larger battle with complex fronts.

if any one would like to help out, we need modelers, texture-artists, but mainly lua scripting.

if all goes well we should have jump jets, damage/armor allocation system, heat and ammo systems. the next release as it is the base setup will be 3025 tech. so no clans, sorry wait for next release 3055 tech, and then the third 3065. this system will also allow players to choose tech eras, so they can play historically balanced, but not limited to only those eras (ie: 3025 tech will be in 3065 as well, but will be cheap as it will be out of date)

there will be some buildings and defenses, but we are trying to stay away from base and factory game design. units will dropped in for reinforcement order and not built in a factory to walk off the assembly line out the doors to a TA style battle.

once we start spitting out texture models ill post some nice captures for you, but for now they are just blank geometries.

[bobthedinosaur]

okay seriously. i cant work, do to school, have life, and model, script and team manage another mod on this scale. it is going no where fast, again.

so either who wants to take over or who wants a bunch of unfinished work to scrap into other mods for free?

[smoth]

it seemed like things were moving fine, you don't have to constantly do things. Just do stuff over time, I thought you had a few guys moving along with stuff?

[bobthedinosaur]

its pretty much me and arch. he just tries to work out some new lua scripts, while i go thru list of units we would love to have but have to model, uv map, texture, pice in upspring, script, fbi balance, bug check... ect

you know the drill. i just dont have the time or the man power

[Pressure Line]

okay seriously. i cant work, do to school, have life, and model, script and team manage another mod on this scale. it is going no where fast, again.

so either who wants to take over or who wants a bunch of unfinished work to scrap into other mods for free?

tempting, very tempting :/

[Regret]

Release what you have please so it isn't wasted.

[Wolf-In-Exile]

I've put my time and effort into initiating basic mod organisation, management, and various other developmental issues. I even took the trouble to set up a moddb page some time ago, but no one else has bothered to administrate it.

But I see little effort in ironing out the management of the mod, or even an organised development process with clearly defined, realistic short and long term goals.

For example, the unit list your proposed has 57 units for 3025 alone, and 233 in total, with many mechs, aerospace and vehicles having overlapping roles.

So I drew up a unit list of 28 units for IS 3025, taking roles and balance into consideration as well as minimising unit bloat and avoiding overlapping roles, yet I have not gotten any comments nor any suggestions aside from GBscientist, so I have no idea what is going on.

I don't know what everyone else is doing, nor what is the status of the mod. I'm not responsible for pushing the mod forward as i'm not mod leader and I do not want to step over the mod leader's say.

If you insist on the unit lists you proposed, either get several more people to work on the textures, or you can count me out, as I haven't the time to do them all either. I'm involved in several other mods including non-Spring ones besides IRL work, and I said before I don't do fulltime mod work.

In any case, if you wish to throw in the towel on this one, the texture work I did is not open source, seeing what people like Emmanuel did even without permission.

[Archangel of Death]

The mod content isn't going to be just thrown out to the pirahnas. If someone wants to take over and get a team together though, then we can talk.

[Argh]

Meh. I feel for you guys. Best advice I can give you is to cut everything that's not done-done out of the game, see if what remains is enough to show here in a WIP build. I don't think you're going to find any serious help if we don't know how bad things are.

[Regret]

The mod content isn't going to be just thrown out to the pirahnas. If someone wants to take over and get a team together though, then we can talk.

Yea, good luck with that.

[bobthedinosaur]

well lynx if it is cool with you other mods may use content (IE: the pretty s3o's you textured up), as long as they do not try to impose the "classic battletech mod" that is still in development. how ever that is not restricting any one from making a battletech mod in any way obviously, we just dont want to have our current mod in development to be covered over/ or burried by an unofficial mod. (if that makes any sense).

[smoth]

I think lynx is onto something. Simplify the list and set a few units to be done. If the list is too huge then your current phase is too large. Work out something like 20-30 units(counting buildings) and then get that done. Toss it out as a preview and have the other units no in the build menus. BAM done.

The main problem is that you will need mostly content in the form of models and a lot of them. The goals are quite lofty but by setting something where you have some highly polarized roles you can first and foremost set a more realistic limitation on what you need to get done and also get a core gameplay element out and ready. I think that is a pretty safe bet.

[smokingwreckage]

If I can chime in without sounding too ignorant, is there really any need initially to go beyond the "exemplar" vehicle, mech, or infantry for any given role? Assault, scout, artillery; there's the core of a game straight up. The *A mods didn't get to 100s of units overnight, it took about ten years for all the ideas, forms, models and roles to get fleshed out and THEN get converted to Spring.

[Pressure Line]

The *A mods got handed damn near everything they needed back in 1997. from memory there were ~150 units in OTA, CC added a few more. the *changes* of the Spring years (the past 4 or so) have amounted to balance tweaks, and some shiny fx.

these guys get to start from squat. theres a big difference. without hundreds of hours of modeling and texturing, you dont have anything to build a game out of, the *A... /rant, this belongs in another thread.



suffice to say TA was never a freelance project, it was a professional design, the biggest hurdle of a mod is the art, the art for a *A mod [the models/textures] was done for you back in the mid-late 90's by some guys who were getting paid to do it.

[bobthedinosaur]

we did reform the list several times to a much smaller list per each phase. it really isnt that we are overwhelmed with work to do, its we are under staffed for the specific parts.

[Guessmyname]

I'll willingly help. I love modelling mechs, and I'm a Mech Commander 2 fan to boot. What needs doing?

[Hoi]

I'll willingly help. I love modelling mechs, and I'm a Mech Commander 2 fan to boot. What needs doing?

i could too, but dont count to much on me im not that good yet

[Pressure Line]

I'll willingly help. I love modelling mechs, and I'm a Mech Commander 2 fan to boot. What needs doing?

MC2 now has 'shared source' artwork. meaning that for *non-commercial* projects you can use the artwork from it. M$ have even released it in a ready-to-use form [*.ase for the models] to this end. MW4 is now under a similar thing [a bit drunk, cant think of the word]

[smokingwreckage]

Wasn't meant to be a rant, and I see what you are saying about understaffed. If I knew anyone who could model, skin, OR animate I'd throw them your way. Anyway, good luck, I keep checking back in on this mod and am sorry I can't help.