AvP Mod
 

Okay, so, in order to keep my thoughts and running builds up to date, here is the official thread for my mod - Aliens vs Predator: Evolution.

I hope to include, initially at least, five "playable" empires, with some other neutrals to add spice. These playable empires will, of course, include the United Americas Allied Command, the Xenomorphs and Yautja themselves, the "elephant men" (whose actual name still eludes me) and human cultists.

Each race will have distinctive styles of play. For example, the aliens will reproduce like rabbits, have deadly intel, and evolve into new breeds through the use of research (think organic ships).

This sense of distinction will be furthered by highly race-specific tech, vehicle sizes, intel, components and facilities, and more flavour will be present in the form of events.

Probably doesn't sound like a whole lot of innovation, but this is my first mod. So far, I've mostly been working on the UAAC, and have added the following (some of these you'll recognise, I deleted everything else to start from scratch and avoid clutter):

Tech
Ship Construction
Mass Drivers
Particle Beams
Lasers
ASAT Missile
Nuclear Weapons
Fighters
Orbitals
Mines
Planetary Guns
Ground Troops

Vehicle Sizes
Light Fighter
Fighter
Heavy Fighter
Colony Ship
Civilian Freighter
Corporate Freighter
Military Freighter
Scout
Frigate
Corvette
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battle Cruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought
Light Carrier
Carrier
Heavy Carrier
Light Orbital Defence
Orbital Defence
Heavy Orbital Defence
Light Mine
Mine
Heavy Mine
Light Planetary Defence
Planetary Defence
Heavy Planetary Defence
USCM Squad
USCM Platoon
USCM Company

Components
Railguns
Particle Beams
Lasers
ASAT Missiles
Nukes

Not really a whole lot, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the UAAC tech, components, intel and facilities finished.

Comments/questions/advice/help/criticism?

Re: AvP Mod
 

Sounds good to me. Can't wait to see the finished product. Also can't wait to see the movie coming out later this year!

Re: AvP Mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I ditto that. (Man does that comment ever show my age.)

Re: AvP Mod
 

Cheers, man. Yeah, I'm quite looking forward to AvP, but I can't help but be a little pessimistic. The series went a little downhill since it deviated from the books and comics. Or at least ignored them.

More stuff is completed for the Marines, most of it standard with a few modifications:

Tech
Reactors, FTL Drives, Thrusters, Advanced Field Maneuvers, Dropships, Robotics, Synthetics, Sensors, Active Defence, Scanners, Medical Technology, Vehicle Control, Minerals Extraction, Organics Extraction, Radioactives Extraction, Repair, Colonization, Space Yards, Cargo, Computers, Armor, Applied Research, Applied Intelligence, Resupply, and Terraforming.

Components
Bridge, Life Support, Crew Quarters, Fusion Reactor, FTL Drive, Sublight Thrusters, Combat Thrusters, Tracking Systems, Combat Sensor Arrays, ECM, Long Range Scanners, Decoys, Jamming System, Mine Sweepers, Medical Bay, IR Sensors, Self Destruct, Satellite Bay, Robo Miners, Repair Bay, Colony, Aux. Control, Space Yard, Cargo Bay, Master Computer, Armor, Supply Storage, Fighter Bay, Mine Layer, Ship Synthetic, Science Team, Quarantine, Strike Team, Sentry Guns, Military Intelligence, Veteran Officer, Corporate Crew.

Facilities
Mining Complex, Hydroponics Complex, Refining Complex, Corporate Labs, USCM Command Post, Space Port, Landing Pad, Bank, Synthesis Vats, Dumping Grounds, Warehouse Facilities, Robotic Factories, Corporate Contracting, Basic Training Facility, Officer Training Facility, Hospital, Cable TV Network, Construction Yard, Atmosphere Processor.

It's, uh, yeah. It's proving to be a lot of work. I'm nowhere near done with the humans, and there's still the other races to do yet, each with their own tech trees, intel, facilities, ships and components.

[ June 11, 2004, 03:40: Message edited by: Goatfoam ]

Re: AvP Mod
 

Didn't get an awful lot of stuff done today, and I'm working over the weekend. But I did do some work on the aliens tech and facilities, and here's what I've got so far.

Tech
The Alien Life Cycle
Secreted Resin
Hormonal Discharge
Hive Mind
Applied Evolution
Infiltration
Cystic Spores
Projectile Vomitting
Prey Control

Facilities
Queen Mother
Egg Chambers
Hive Expansion
Pheromone Dispensors
Pheromonial Miasma Cloud
Hive Mind
Drone Horde
Royal Guard Chambers
Cystic Drone Horde
Boneyard
Animal Herd
Bio-Genetic Pools

More to come.

Re: AvP Mod
 

Another update. Been a busy couple of days so I haven't managed to get much done. So if anyone wants to help out, whether it's shipsets (I haven't got an artistic bone in my body), sounds, artwork or general legwork like I've been doing with the body of the mod, or just suggestions, advice or their two cents, that would be great.

Anyway, more stuff for the xenomorphs.

Tech
Alien Stealth, Organic Flight, Organic Propulsion, Sentience, Hybrids, Purebreeds, Alien Hive Structure, Organic Regeneration, Psychic Projection, Survival Instinct, Royal Jelly, Alien Metabolism, Alien Senses.

Ship Sizes
Hived Science Vessel, Hived Mining Vessel, Hived Destroyer, Hived Battleship, Alien Scouts, Alien Sentries, Alien Horde, Alien Incursion.

Components
Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption, Hive Compartments, Alien Drones, Alien Runners, Alien Warriors, Predaliens, Alien Horde, Pheromone Saturation, Light Chitin Layer, Medium Chitin Layer, Heavy Chitin Layer, Photosynthetic Carapace, Excretion Outlet, Dampening Resin, Praetorian, Young Queen, Queen, War Empress.

Re: AvP Mod
 

Also, some notes on how the three main races (UAAC, Xenomorphs, and Yautja) will play. They will all have different styles of weaponry, defenses, movement point generation and power supplies, etc. so hopefully each one will be a completely different experience.

The UAAC will be the predominantly most "generic" play-wise, with a lot of the standard equipment types we see in the unmodded game. They'll be the most "Technologically Active" race, too, with plenty of research to keep them busy (some of which will only become available when they 'encounter' certain races -through use of ruins and events). The UAAC will probably make for the best "all-round" single-player experience, as they strive to update their technology to deal with new alien threats. There are also plans to include the Anglo-Japanese military, the French, the Russians and the Spanish Coalition once the five main races are sorted out - which will be the UAAC's main opponents.

The aliens will play very differently. Their main area of expertise will be Intel, with the ability to infiltrate colonies, impregnate the colonists, and then begin hiving the planet. Their ships will be quite specialised, since they have no technology to speak of, and tactics will consist mainly of boarding actions - the ships will be fairly damage-resistant to achieve these ends. They will also have the unique ability to completely enshroud their planets with pheromones and ultra-dense resins which will effectively render them invisible to most RADAR and conventional scanners. Diplomacy simply won't be an option with them, obviously, although once the Human Cultists are done, this will at least give them some support.

Predators will be the ultimate hunting machines. I'm toying with two ideas right now - either make them completely nomadic, or limit reproduction to such an extent that they'll never have a huge empire. Their ships, while small, will be powerful enough alone to take on several enemy vessels, with awesome weaponry, cloaking devices and even a form of shielding. Of course, their ship crews will be excellently trained too - both by shipboard and planetside facilities (Xenomorph 'farms', Alien Safari Parks, etc) and by the use of Intel missions.

Other general features of the mod will mean that glassing a planet will be very hard without ultra-high technology levels (which the elephant men will no doubt have access to once I start work on them), with a greater emphasis on ground combat. The concept is one of adding individual elements to each troop unit to increase hit points - grunts, sergeants, medics, etc. - and then adding weapons and equipment with various effects afterwards - pulse rifles, motion trackers, armor, etc.

Re: AvP Mod
 

well im really excited about the Aliens aka Xenomorphs. Keep us informed about updates http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

What kind of weapons will the Aliens have ? Only boarding thingies or maybe some sort of organic weapons ?!

Re: AvP Mod
 

Yeah, I think the aliens are going to have a pretty distinct flavour and should be a lot of fun to play for those of us with 'evil' leanings.

As for weaponry... They've got Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption and Alien Runners for their main weapons so far. Projectile acid is the most conventional weapon, doing medium damage over a fairly short range. The Acid Spray is a point defence weapon, again with short range, which will dissolve any missiles or fighters that run into it. The other three weapons are all really for aid in boarding attacks. The Pheromone Discharge increases enemy reload times, Psychic Disruption works like a tractor beam, and the Alien Runners are a precursor to any boarding action - they have a range of 1, and do damage to any security/boarding teams on the enemy ship, which will leave them open.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the boarding actions themselves, which I haven't got too far into looking at as yet. Once the aliens have boarded a ship (assuming it doesn't self-destruct), I really don't want them to have access to the technology - is there any way to force the alien player to strip the ship of components and replace it with hive sections at a space yard before they can use it?

Re: AvP Mod
 

hm as far as i know, there is no way to achieve what you want. There are a few options, such as making a ship "uncontrolled" until the combat ends (so the capturer cannot move or fire until the combat is over). Maybe there is an option which will make will give no new tech if the ship is analyzed (maybe something about the tech tree, to make it impossible to further research the analyzed techs by restricting them to traits?)


anyway another question: im a bit confused by the races. You say Xenomorphs and Aliens. I guess the "Aliens" are the ones from the "Alien" movies, but what are Xenomorphs again ?!

Re: AvP Mod
 

"Xenomorphs" and the Aliens from the movies are the same thing. "Xenomorph" is just the term that the Colonial Marines have given them, since there are hundreds of different alien life-forms out there.

As for tech... yeah, all the techs are specific to the races in the form of traits already - but the aliens will still be able to control captured ships after combat - unless the ships are fitted with self-destruct mechanisms. I suppose the aliens could make use of many smaller vessels with boarding parties to exchange ship deaths with the enemy, which would make them a "swarmy" player... that could be fun, so long as the constant loss of ships in combat wasn't too much of a disadvantage.

I don't suppose there is a way to completely remove components from a ship after capture (other than making them simply "destroyed"), is there?

Re: AvP Mod
 

im modding quite a lot, too. The only things i know off are the following:


- Successful boarding attack will result in the destruction of ALL components with boarding defense abilty, a unsuccessful boarding attack will result in the destruction of ALL components with the boarding attack ability.

- Destroyed components can only be repaired if the required tech knowledge is available.

Maybe you can make up something with the help of those 2 "hints" ?

Re: AvP Mod
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sure. Give 1 boarding defense ability to every component that you want to be destroyed upon boarding. As long as the tech needed for them is unavailable to the Aliens, they won't be able to repair such components and will need to retrofit the ship. You won't be able to use the "Only Security Stations" damage type very well, but it might be ok. Also, this does increase the boarding defense of ships, so you might want to increase the boarding attack values of all boarding party components by an appropriate amount to compensate.

Re: AvP Mod
 

I suppose I could add the Destroy Planet Size ability to security components, and set it to 0, then change the damage to type of the security-destroying weapons to Only Planet Destroyer, since there likely won't be any weapons that can destroy a planet in this mod. Would that work?

Re: AvP Mod
 

It would, but it might confuse the AI into thinking those are actually stellar manipulation ships. You will have to test it.

Re: AvP Mod
 

Once SE5 is done i really would like to see SE4 Version 2 just as a reward to the loyal fans who still play it or with older systems ?

Unlikley but always hopeful

Re: AvP Mod
 

Okay, been through with a fine-toothed comb and set it up. I'll have to wait until I play around with the AI files to test it, but that shouldn't be too far off.

Here's an update:

Aliens: Added Alien Scouts and Alien Hunters to the components file.

Predators

Tech
Yautja Ship Construction, Tachyon Weapons, Kinetic Weapons, Heavy Plasma Weapons, Orbital Bombardment Weapons, Flux Engines, Warp Drives, Predator Vision Modes, Storage, Guidance Systems, Plasma Reactors, Shielding, Active Camouflage, Electronic Stealth, Yautja Armor, Mining, Farming, Energy ConVersion, Academics, Hunting, Society, Preservation.

Vehicle Sizes
Colony Ship, Transport Ship, Predator Shuttle, Scout Vessel, Light Hunter, Medium Hunter, Heavy Hunter, Light Warship, Medium Warship, Heavy Warship, Mothership.

Facilities
Crystallis Quarry, Eta Farming Grounds, Energy Converters, Learning Center, Clan Hall, Market, Crystallis Containment, Yautja Gardens, Plasma Core, Military Garrison, Construction Facility

Components
Bridge, Life Support, Crew Quarters, Tachyon Beams, Kinetic Converters, Plasma Missiles, Null Bombs, Inertial Flux Engines, Warp Drives, Scanning Matrix, Alien Scanner, Storage Bay, Plasma Reactor, Attack Computer, Ablative Shields, Camouflage Field, Thermal Mask, Infra-Red Mask, Yautja Armor.

Re: AvP Mod
 

With all the basic components, ships and facilities coded (not tested, at all, just drafted) for the three main races, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks hunting down pictures to go with them, so I might be a little quiet.

If anyone feels like helping me in this, you can reach me via goatfoam@ntlworld, or just by posting in this thread. Obviously, full credit will be given.

Also, the missus is (supposedly) working on the website, which should be up within a week or two, so I'll keep this space posted on that too.

Re: AvP Mod
 

Is that email address a .com?

Re: AvP Mod
 

Er... yes. Whoops! Sorry, that'll be the insomnia.

goatfoam@ntlworld.com

There we go. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: AvP Mod
 

I'm actually having real trouble finding Predator ship resources on the Internet, for component pictures, I mean. I was thinking of using the Xiati shipset for them, but component-wise? Nada. If anyone finds anything I'd appreciate a heads-up.

Re: AvP Mod
 

Finally, I've finished gathering pictures for ship components. Phew. Okay, so some of the pictures are repeated in similar components, but I'll sort that out once I've got the game to a playable state.

Over the next few days/weeks, I'll grab some facility pictures, touch up the components and tech files, balance power/cost, and then start work on the AI so any volunteers can begin testing. The website isn't done yet, as the missus is incredibly lazy. But soon, I hope.