I thought I'd establish this quickly to act as a sort of "Whats New?" on a day to day or week by week basis. Basically check here for the latest on KA2: The General War
NEWS UPDATE 16/10/06 2:10AM
Added ship and station lists today for the first 5 races. I have sourced most of the 3d models i need, and I hope to have some screenshots of the Federation and Klingon vessels tomorrow evening sometime.
News Thread
Moderators: thunderchero, MrVulcan
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
-
SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
-
SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
NEWS UPDATE 19/10/06 09:46PM
I finally got the Klingon Super Ship working today, along with the pIH Class Cargo Frigate finally finding its nieche (as a fast cargo/assault vessel) The Klingon Mobile Base is being a real pig. The containers refuse to let themselves be towed, and remain steadfast in their position, and I cannot perform the correct seperation process using the seperation classlabel, so I think a "double fuse" is in order (the first fusing weapon makes 3 containers into 1 base, the second makes 1 base into 3 containers) if this is possible.
Just adding repair ships for both completed sides now (tried adding repair beams to the construction ships but, no go, refuses to work right) and then a quick copy paste and alter of the Federation AIP for the Klingons (need to remove some of the turret and sensor building lines for the Klingons, as they are obviously a more agressive race, so base building isn't their thing)
Who knows, a few hours of concerted effort and I might even have the Romulans done, they haven't got anything especially challenging, although the CFDIC might prove a little troublesome.
Graphically and coding wise, I have edited the phaser miss lifetime (so when a phaser misses you still see it), and i have radically overhauled the hit chance routines, making battles last longer. Also I have removed the purple electric effect when a ship loses shields (you don't see any visual effect now, except the enemies weapons will hit hull not shield bubble, and i've added the blue shields mod, which adds some nice realism. Also I believe I have hit upon a first for Armada Modding, which is surprising as it is so simplistic, but i added impact sounds to all weapons, so when a disruptor or phaser hits a ship, you hear a shield impact effect, and when a photon or heavy disruptor or other heavy weapon hits the ship, you hear a hull impact sound. I have added a different one per weapon, for a little variation, and again I think it does add alot to the realism of the mod. I may need to tweak the phaser power, as now it doesnt really seem to do quite enough (may have nerfed it too far)
I finally got the Klingon Super Ship working today, along with the pIH Class Cargo Frigate finally finding its nieche (as a fast cargo/assault vessel) The Klingon Mobile Base is being a real pig. The containers refuse to let themselves be towed, and remain steadfast in their position, and I cannot perform the correct seperation process using the seperation classlabel, so I think a "double fuse" is in order (the first fusing weapon makes 3 containers into 1 base, the second makes 1 base into 3 containers) if this is possible.
Just adding repair ships for both completed sides now (tried adding repair beams to the construction ships but, no go, refuses to work right) and then a quick copy paste and alter of the Federation AIP for the Klingons (need to remove some of the turret and sensor building lines for the Klingons, as they are obviously a more agressive race, so base building isn't their thing)
Who knows, a few hours of concerted effort and I might even have the Romulans done, they haven't got anything especially challenging, although the CFDIC might prove a little troublesome.
Graphically and coding wise, I have edited the phaser miss lifetime (so when a phaser misses you still see it), and i have radically overhauled the hit chance routines, making battles last longer. Also I have removed the purple electric effect when a ship loses shields (you don't see any visual effect now, except the enemies weapons will hit hull not shield bubble, and i've added the blue shields mod, which adds some nice realism. Also I believe I have hit upon a first for Armada Modding, which is surprising as it is so simplistic, but i added impact sounds to all weapons, so when a disruptor or phaser hits a ship, you hear a shield impact effect, and when a photon or heavy disruptor or other heavy weapon hits the ship, you hear a hull impact sound. I have added a different one per weapon, for a little variation, and again I think it does add alot to the realism of the mod. I may need to tweak the phaser power, as now it doesnt really seem to do quite enough (may have nerfed it too far)
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
NEWS UPDATE 25/10/06 02:55 AM
Bit of a hoohar over the last week, my grandfather was taken into hospital on Tuesday last week, with a bad clot in his foot, and then on Friday my stepfather died of anaflactic shock (serious alergic reaction) so, yes, all a bit wobbly.
Now, to mod news. I have installed and edited the space transform mod, so the asteroid fields and such look very nice now. I've also finally worked out how to use the map editor and such, so I have debugged the AI, but I am not happy with it personally (now I know how the AI switches between AIP Files) so I am revamping it as we speak.
The 6th Race Issue is almost resolved. I would say, due to the models available to me, to add the ISC as the 6th Race. The Hydrans will feature as map units along with the Sha'Kurians.
I've also made a banner, and converted a few TOS Federation Reserve Fleet vessels (Langley Class BBX and Davids Class FF)
Bit of a hoohar over the last week, my grandfather was taken into hospital on Tuesday last week, with a bad clot in his foot, and then on Friday my stepfather died of anaflactic shock (serious alergic reaction) so, yes, all a bit wobbly.
Now, to mod news. I have installed and edited the space transform mod, so the asteroid fields and such look very nice now. I've also finally worked out how to use the map editor and such, so I have debugged the AI, but I am not happy with it personally (now I know how the AI switches between AIP Files) so I am revamping it as we speak.
The 6th Race Issue is almost resolved. I would say, due to the models available to me, to add the ISC as the 6th Race. The Hydrans will feature as map units along with the Sha'Kurians.
I've also made a banner, and converted a few TOS Federation Reserve Fleet vessels (Langley Class BBX and Davids Class FF)
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
-
SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
NEWS UPDATE 04/11/06 1:20PM
Well, alot of progress to report
Romulans are just about done, just need their superweapon added, and i am working on the AI now. After that..the Gorn!!
Once I have each race "in" (although admittedly, the Gorn, Tholians and ISCs superweapons are not complex like the Romulan one so, noooo problem there) i will start on the campaigns.
Well, alot of progress to report
Romulans are just about done, just need their superweapon added, and i am working on the AI now. After that..the Gorn!!
Once I have each race "in" (although admittedly, the Gorn, Tholians and ISCs superweapons are not complex like the Romulan one so, noooo problem there) i will start on the campaigns.
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
NEWS UPDATE 01/12/06 06:29AM (These times do get very interesting dont they?)
Considerable progress since the last update. While not perfect, I managed to fudge the Cardassian voices into Gorn voices, and surprisingly they do work well (the whole "making people believe") and even using the stock Cardassian music, retextures of some Cardassian stations and as mentioned, the resampled voices, the Gorn still feel very much like the Gorn, and not a rip off of the Cardassians. I hope I can achieve the same sort of feeling with the Tholians, and early tests seem to show I might be able to.
While I did say in a different post that I wouldn't really be adding to the Tholians shiplist outside of the one established by KA (and the nessessary non-combat vessels), they do feel a little on the hollow, even compared to the only slightly bulked out Gorn. I may add some sort of "Defender" to the Tholians. Not strictly a torpedo cruiser as it would be armed with heavy disruptors, it would serve a roll more like that of a coastal monitor, staying near bases due to its slow speed, but designed as primarily a mobile defensive emplacement.
The Tholians also have a rather odd style, with the Quartz Class destroyer mounting more guns than the Garnet Class light cruiser, yet the light cruiser being physically bigger than either the destroyer or the Ruby Class cruiser. Its very odd, and leaves the light cruiser feeling like somewhat of a turkey. I don't wish to stray from KA stats for the ships,and if the Quartz has twice the guns of the Garnet, thats how it stays. I have noticed that the Quartz does tend to suffer crew casualties that can impair the ship to a far greater degree than other such vessels, and this is in fitting with the performance of the ship in KA. In this respect the Tholian Quartz Class is much like its Romulan or Klingon counterpart. Packs a punch, but is rather fragile in another area. Think of them as predators, sweeping in to blast a lightly defended station or non-combat vessel to pieces, and then retreating at high speed before the enemy can respond. I suppose really, this is the true nature of the destroyer, and the Federation and Gorn destroyers attempt to turn the destroyer into some sort of fleet picket, guarding the edges and acting as simply a smaller version of a cruiser, which really is not what it is. What I'm trying to say is, at first glance these ships seem over powered, too much bang for buck, so why build any other types? Well the reason is simple. Sure they are cheaper than battlecruisers but pack a punch that can compare in some ways, they will fall alot quicker than said battlecruiser, and while you shouldn't base your fleet on wholy battlecruisers and such (like in the original, its just "build a fleet of sovereigns and instawin) but neither should you destroyers. Ah to hell with it, I'm writing a tactical doctrine for this mod, seems i inadvertantly made it far more tactical than i realised.
Anyway back to news. Tholians are basically in. I need to test to see whether their "can board but cannot be boarded" principle A) Works and B) Is not overpowering, although given the relatively limited number of captures i have seen ingame, and the fact other races possess specialised assault transports and the Tholians do not, i dont think this ability will be overpowering. Another thing is their colonisation. I need to test whether they behave correctly as a colonising power, and also whether i can essentially turn the colonisation ethic on its head and make inhospitible (to humanoids) planets be brilliant for Tholians, and vice versa. If not, the idea that the Federation can capture a Tholian held M Class planet populated by Tholians, or even that Tholians would and could populate a M Class world seems stupid. We'll see. Perhaps the fact that they need very little in the way of crew could be a foil to this, meaning they dont really require the colonisation of planets as other races do. The simpler tasks for them are to get the Tholian Web working, give them a detect cloak research, and to get the Tholian riftgate working.
After that, the challenge of the ISC awaits. It will be interesting to try and build some sort of culture, backstory and depth to this rather underdeveloped race.
Considerable progress since the last update. While not perfect, I managed to fudge the Cardassian voices into Gorn voices, and surprisingly they do work well (the whole "making people believe") and even using the stock Cardassian music, retextures of some Cardassian stations and as mentioned, the resampled voices, the Gorn still feel very much like the Gorn, and not a rip off of the Cardassians. I hope I can achieve the same sort of feeling with the Tholians, and early tests seem to show I might be able to.
While I did say in a different post that I wouldn't really be adding to the Tholians shiplist outside of the one established by KA (and the nessessary non-combat vessels), they do feel a little on the hollow, even compared to the only slightly bulked out Gorn. I may add some sort of "Defender" to the Tholians. Not strictly a torpedo cruiser as it would be armed with heavy disruptors, it would serve a roll more like that of a coastal monitor, staying near bases due to its slow speed, but designed as primarily a mobile defensive emplacement.
The Tholians also have a rather odd style, with the Quartz Class destroyer mounting more guns than the Garnet Class light cruiser, yet the light cruiser being physically bigger than either the destroyer or the Ruby Class cruiser. Its very odd, and leaves the light cruiser feeling like somewhat of a turkey. I don't wish to stray from KA stats for the ships,and if the Quartz has twice the guns of the Garnet, thats how it stays. I have noticed that the Quartz does tend to suffer crew casualties that can impair the ship to a far greater degree than other such vessels, and this is in fitting with the performance of the ship in KA. In this respect the Tholian Quartz Class is much like its Romulan or Klingon counterpart. Packs a punch, but is rather fragile in another area. Think of them as predators, sweeping in to blast a lightly defended station or non-combat vessel to pieces, and then retreating at high speed before the enemy can respond. I suppose really, this is the true nature of the destroyer, and the Federation and Gorn destroyers attempt to turn the destroyer into some sort of fleet picket, guarding the edges and acting as simply a smaller version of a cruiser, which really is not what it is. What I'm trying to say is, at first glance these ships seem over powered, too much bang for buck, so why build any other types? Well the reason is simple. Sure they are cheaper than battlecruisers but pack a punch that can compare in some ways, they will fall alot quicker than said battlecruiser, and while you shouldn't base your fleet on wholy battlecruisers and such (like in the original, its just "build a fleet of sovereigns and instawin) but neither should you destroyers. Ah to hell with it, I'm writing a tactical doctrine for this mod, seems i inadvertantly made it far more tactical than i realised.
Anyway back to news. Tholians are basically in. I need to test to see whether their "can board but cannot be boarded" principle A) Works and B) Is not overpowering, although given the relatively limited number of captures i have seen ingame, and the fact other races possess specialised assault transports and the Tholians do not, i dont think this ability will be overpowering. Another thing is their colonisation. I need to test whether they behave correctly as a colonising power, and also whether i can essentially turn the colonisation ethic on its head and make inhospitible (to humanoids) planets be brilliant for Tholians, and vice versa. If not, the idea that the Federation can capture a Tholian held M Class planet populated by Tholians, or even that Tholians would and could populate a M Class world seems stupid. We'll see. Perhaps the fact that they need very little in the way of crew could be a foil to this, meaning they dont really require the colonisation of planets as other races do. The simpler tasks for them are to get the Tholian Web working, give them a detect cloak research, and to get the Tholian riftgate working.
After that, the challenge of the ISC awaits. It will be interesting to try and build some sort of culture, backstory and depth to this rather underdeveloped race.
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
NEWS UPDATE 04/12/06 02:09AM
Not too much to say here, but, I have reworked the FMPA Cannon so that it works like the unused Borg Shield Removing Torpedo, and I have rebalanced the damage levels of the torpedo weapons (so that Heavy Photons do twice the damage of Photons but at the same reload time, and the light, medium and heavy plasmas do 2x, 4x and 6x the damage of a photon respective.
Also I have redone the Tholian Heavy Disruptor so that it looks the same as the ones in KA, and acts like a Photon. I have seen Terradyhnes screenshots of the Tholians from last year, and clearly he is heavily influenced by KA too, but his Heavy Disruptors seem "clearer" than mine, and as such, higher res. With this in mind, I am experimenting with replacing my sprites with ones made from original 128x128 sized images from KA, resulting in resolutions 4 times bigger than the original. I'll have to see how well this works.
Not too much to say here, but, I have reworked the FMPA Cannon so that it works like the unused Borg Shield Removing Torpedo, and I have rebalanced the damage levels of the torpedo weapons (so that Heavy Photons do twice the damage of Photons but at the same reload time, and the light, medium and heavy plasmas do 2x, 4x and 6x the damage of a photon respective.
Also I have redone the Tholian Heavy Disruptor so that it looks the same as the ones in KA, and acts like a Photon. I have seen Terradyhnes screenshots of the Tholians from last year, and clearly he is heavily influenced by KA too, but his Heavy Disruptors seem "clearer" than mine, and as such, higher res. With this in mind, I am experimenting with replacing my sprites with ones made from original 128x128 sized images from KA, resulting in resolutions 4 times bigger than the original. I'll have to see how well this works.
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
Well good news, the new weapon textures work, and make the game feel even more like KA. I've also made a new texture for the Light Disruptors (mounted on the B'rel)
The Tholians work very well. I have tried to tweak the Web Cannon somewhat, as it is really only supposed to effect a single ship. Its a bit of a WIP, but it works well enough. Also more importantly, Tholian vessels are powerful, but they are not godlike, they can be beaten. I've discovered this whilst playing them. Another thing is that while they seem to be incapable of being boarded, they can try and board an enemy vessel but once the enemy vessels crew reaches 0, the Tholians cant seem to take it over. To me, this seems very realistic, as a Gorn Anaconda Class for example, would not have the required Life Support system for Tholian physiology, the Tholians would be unable to use any of the controls onboard, and essentially it would be useless. So i am very pleased with the way this works.
I've also seriously increased the levels of planetary population. Sadly i cant make the Tholians capable of colonising Y, X or Z Class Planets, not without the other races being able to. However I have increased the "Sparse" "Light" "Medium" and "Heavy" populations to the following
Sparse = 62,500
Light = 125,000
Medium = 250,000
Heavy = 500,000
I've increased the colony pods capacity to roughly ten times their current level, but it still takes a (realistically) long time to colonise a planet.
The Tholians work very well. I have tried to tweak the Web Cannon somewhat, as it is really only supposed to effect a single ship. Its a bit of a WIP, but it works well enough. Also more importantly, Tholian vessels are powerful, but they are not godlike, they can be beaten. I've discovered this whilst playing them. Another thing is that while they seem to be incapable of being boarded, they can try and board an enemy vessel but once the enemy vessels crew reaches 0, the Tholians cant seem to take it over. To me, this seems very realistic, as a Gorn Anaconda Class for example, would not have the required Life Support system for Tholian physiology, the Tholians would be unable to use any of the controls onboard, and essentially it would be useless. So i am very pleased with the way this works.
I've also seriously increased the levels of planetary population. Sadly i cant make the Tholians capable of colonising Y, X or Z Class Planets, not without the other races being able to. However I have increased the "Sparse" "Light" "Medium" and "Heavy" populations to the following
Sparse = 62,500
Light = 125,000
Medium = 250,000
Heavy = 500,000
I've increased the colony pods capacity to roughly ten times their current level, but it still takes a (realistically) long time to colonise a planet.
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SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
-
SquireJames
- Cadet 4th Year
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:00 am
- Location: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
- Contact:
I have one, demonstrating the new higher res weapons textures. I can't seem to get a good shot of the Tholian Web in action though.
What I have done in the past few hours is refurbish the Species 8472 files to sound Tholian (and recorded some of my own), and I have fixed some Achronistic sound files (for example. some of the Gorn files refered to Cardassia and the Union, and one of the Federation sound files refered to Quantum Torpedoes. I have (quite skillfullly i think) remove these references with little damage to the sound file, and recorded one or two of my own. I also fixed the Gorn super weapon sound files so that they use modified Romulan Phoenix Class voiceovers (again with "We die for Romulus" replaced with "We die for" and then seemlessly with myself adding "King Glormaskt") I will be doing this for the next few hours, just tidying up bits here and there before I got to America over christmas. I am also adding the ships required for the Tutorials, and I hope to get the Tutorial missions finished, if I don't hit any massive problems.
What I have done in the past few hours is refurbish the Species 8472 files to sound Tholian (and recorded some of my own), and I have fixed some Achronistic sound files (for example. some of the Gorn files refered to Cardassia and the Union, and one of the Federation sound files refered to Quantum Torpedoes. I have (quite skillfullly i think) remove these references with little damage to the sound file, and recorded one or two of my own. I also fixed the Gorn super weapon sound files so that they use modified Romulan Phoenix Class voiceovers (again with "We die for Romulus" replaced with "We die for" and then seemlessly with myself adding "King Glormaskt") I will be doing this for the next few hours, just tidying up bits here and there before I got to America over christmas. I am also adding the ships required for the Tutorials, and I hope to get the Tutorial missions finished, if I don't hit any massive problems.