Star Blazers Mod
 

I am working on a Star Blazer Mod recreating the story "The Quest for Iscandar". The story will be divided in two parts.
Part one is 90% completed. It will have like a dozen different types of ships as seen on the TV shows. It will be my first mod ever. It is also the first time that I have tried to make a space ship.
I hope to be done by the end of this month with part one.

----Campeador

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Cool! Maybe this'll breathe some life back into the Starfury community! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

There isent much of that areound heer anymore, is there. IVe been waching over this place, and for the last week or so, noone has been posting. i love the idea of a new mod, it sounds awsome, remebber not to give too much away though *Achoo*yea right*Achoo*

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I finish part one of the Mod. The name is "Starblazers -The Quest for Iscandar- Part 1". The full story will consist of two parts.
I decided to take a look at the files and I did not realize that it is 75Mb big. The biggest files are the Images file( 34Mb) and the Music (9 songs, 24MB). I have been testing the game for a week now looking for bugs before I upload it online.
The first part of the game will follow the original story very close. If you are a fan of StarBlazer I hope that you will be pleased. There is alot of story telling between missions. It is a integral part for this mod to work. There will also be plenty of action.
There will be no trade. This will make the game very short, actually you can finish it in one day, even thought it has 6 or 7 missions. I have spent countless hours going all over the map to deliver cargo, on the original game. It is ok but after a while (days)it gets boring.
There will be no cost for items or ships. The failure of the quest will means the destruction of the human race, therefore Planet Earth and the "Earth Defence Force" will gladly provide what ever you need (just like in the army).
The Earth Defence Force (EDF) will consist of 5 ships:
1. Space Battleship Yamato (The name is Argo, class: Yamato) - The player will control the Yamato through most of the campaign.
2. Space Cruiser (class: Mogami)
3. Space Torpedo Destroyer (class:Lightning)
4. Cosmo Zero Superstar: Type 52 (a kick *** fighter)
5. Cosmo Space Fighter Black Tiger Type 1 (another one)
(the two types of fighters can be launched from the Yamato)
The Gamilon forcess will consist of:
Destroyers, cruisers, cariers, Battleships, figters and more. A total of 8 gamilon ships. All wanting to stop you!
I have been working on this for six months now, so I am trying to do something good, even thought is my first time at everything. Including creating the ships. Now I have to learn how to post this mod. I do have like 100Mb of web space as part of my online service but I have never use it...Yet it should be easier to learn than making a Mod!

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

That sounds interesting and original.
I hope you find a fast server to upload your files otherways the download could be frustrating.
Shrapnel forum here has a size limit for uploaded files of 30MB but that might be enough if you divide your mod in several files and use a compression program.
Strategy First forum has no possibility to upload files.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Compressing it into a RAR file in "solid archive" mode will make a huge difference.

If you strip out any files that you didn't edit, that will help too; if a file isn't in your mod, the game looks in the root directories to find it.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

You can use:

rapidshare.de
image2share.com
megaupload.com

than just put link on forum

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

You guys are absolutely right. I was experimenting with RAR and it compresed the file like to 35Mb, that means that I can divide the files in 2. One for the music compress to 28Mb, and the rest of the files compress to 7Mb. Both files I can upload here then.
I will upload them by Friday the latest. I will use my computer from work since it has High speed. At home I only have dial up which will take forever.
Thanks.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

As promess, The Star Blazers Mod is up!
You can find it on the Scenarios and Mods section.
I had some trouble (actually ignorance) trying to post the two files (Data and Music), therefore you will see two posts each with an attachment. At least they are up.
If someone can tell me how to do it right, or more helpfull, If someone can post them more properly I would be grateful!
Thanks, have fun.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Yep.

All that's left is to post your links here for easy access:
Data:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...?Number=382250
Music:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...?Number=382252

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

My congratulations Campeador.

I like your campaign very much. It is something original.
And from my own small experience with creating a new campaign I know that you invested a lot of time and effort.
Thank you very much.

So far I found only 3 small bugs or problems:

First: The fighters have no picture in the spacedock or the ship cargo. They are there and functional but you only have a black square with a blue or green border instead of the true image. In combat you have a real image of the launched fighters.
Second: I don't hear the music you created.
Third: At the end you should at present not give the option to proceed to the next campaign, because there is no second campaign yet and the game will freeze if you select this option.

But once more my congratulation for your excellent work.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Thanks Q!
About the possibles bugs. The game has 6 folders:
1. Components -that's the icons file for the items and the missing fighters!
2. Data - That contains captains names and ship names in addition to the original ones.
3. Images- all the extra graphics.
4. UI - It will put the StarBlazer logo on the main screen as it starts.
5. Xfiles - StarBlaxers ships x files.
6. Music (second download)- Extra music. Note: I did not create the music, I got it looking all over the net.

Out of all this files "Images" and "XFiles" can remain in the StarBlazers campaign directory. The content of the rest of the files should be placed on the folders of the original game.
For example: Open the Components files I provided, it happens to have only one picture, so dragged to the Components files of the original game folder. When you do that a message on the screen should ask you of you want to replace the original file with this one. Say yes, It is the same as the original except that I added 3 icons on the empty slots of that picture for the fighters!
Do the same with the "UI", "Data", and "Music".
That should solve your first 2 problems.

For your third problem, At the end of the game you have the choice of continue to the next campaign or to do it later. The option is identical to the original game (I think, will have to check). If you chose to continue, and there is no campaign it will crash (which you do not care since the game is over). I can eliminate this option and instead give you the mesage saying that this is the end of the game.
Tha problem with this is that when I make the second campaign you will not be able to continue from the first campaign. Instead I lefted as the original game did.

I hope that this should get you going. You definetly need the music for flavor. It will give you the StarBlazer song as you start the game. Remember that it will ask you to replace one file when you transferet to the original folder, say yes to replace.

Thanks again.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Suicide Junkie, thank you very much for making the links for me.
I repost them on the Mods/Campaign section again. I also added on the post the same istructions about the folder placements.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Hello,
I did not realized that there are alot of people that do not know what Star Blazers is (well the TV show came out over 30 years ago). So instead of dooing a poor explanation, I will give you a link for a very good website that will explain all that is Star Blazers.

http://www.desslok.com/yamato.htm

You have to see the TV show series. It was not a little kids show, great story, it was released 3 years before Star Wars. You can order them from various sites, you can even rent them at Blockbuster (online).

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Don't do that!

Simply move the UI and Components folders inside the starblazers\images folder instead.

---

Been playing.
Quite hard at first, quite easy after the second mission, it seems.

Is the WMG supposed to miss so much?
I managed to hit the first cruiser I met, but haven't hit a thing since.

Story.
Big enemy battleship came up. I was heading it down, waiting for point blank range to fire the cannon. One of its escorts moves to block my shot, and I end up plowing through him. Forward shields are gone. WMG is crushed, 80% damage to the forward cannons. Shield regen down to half. ECM is down. Speed down to 25%. And a battleship plus half its escort attacking from point blank. Whee. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Suicide Junkie,

"Simply move the UI and Components folders inside the starblazers\images folder instead."

If that works, then it will make all easier. I am not an expert in modding Starfury, actually there are alot of things that I still have not figure out. Whatever errors you guys notice, just keep informing me.

I discover a real bug. Something that I had installed during testing, that I forgot to remove before relesing the mod. Somewere in Pluto sector there is an invisible warp point that will get you into Minerva sector. If that happens to you, just get back to Pluto. I will note it, and will have it fix, but I will wait incase someting else shows up. I do not want to have many versions of the Mod floating around.

About the Wave Motion Gun, I have to do a balance in power in the game. The Yamato is very strong as it is. The WMG was used mainly to take down a base or many ships, not just one smaller ship. The chance of the WMG to hit is as good as any of the other weapons. Most of the ships have weapons in sets of three, and if you noticed sometimes one or two of the three misses to hit, and sometimes all the three miss. The Gamilons have the same components of evesion as the Earth forcess, like ECM (Electromagnetic counter measures that decrease the chance for enemies to target the ship), Combat Sensors, Scanner Jammer, etc. All this components will reduce the chance to hit or being hit. It is a random thing about which components the enemy will have.
I did not want to mess with it. If the WMC hits its target 100% then some players will be firing, running away, waithing for it to charge and firing again, too easy.
In the original story they do not use the WMG unless they are in a really thight situation. So do not relay too much on it. You can still beat the game without it (at least the first part) if you want to, but it is really cool to destroy a starbase or ship in a single blast!

Another issue, is not a bug, it has to do with each computer. In the original game the ships can fire up to 4 weapons at once, depending on the firing arcs. In this mod the big ships can fire up to 11 or 12 weapons simultaneusly (not to mention the explosions), and you can see each beam/torpedo/bolt at the same time (it does look great!) but, that can be alot of "candy" for some PC systems that may not have enogh graphic power or ram, and may crash. So save the game as you start each mission just in case.

The beguining of the game can be a little hard (not a real problem for the Starfury veterans). I did not wanted to start the story with the Yamato. I want the player to try the best that the EDF forcess had before the Yamato. They only had fighters, cruisers, and torpedo destroyers, and all of those were slightly smaller than the Gamilon destroyers! Very unlikely to defeat the Gamilons with those. This way the player can really apreciate the power of the Yamato. As the captain of the Gamilon carrier said "it is not a base but a battleship, the biggest I have ever seen".

As in the original game there is alot of random enemy apearances so every time the scenario will be different, therefore some times it can be easy and others hard. But a good entretainment for at least a couple of hours. The second part will be longer!

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

The trick to the mod folder is to make it look *EXACTLY* like the stock/core/root files.

The path to UI goes Starfury\images\UI, so you place your modded UI in Starfury\campaigns\starblazers\images\UI
The same process applies to just about everything.

--

As to that invisible warppoint, the jump from Minerva to Pluto uses that as its exit point. If you look up the ID number of the minerva exit, you should find the troublemaker.

--

As to the weapon use, I have an idea which may help:
- The reactors and supply look stock. I suggest ripping that out. Instead, give the ship a fixed power generation and maximum capacity.
- The energy capacity can be set to a nice round number such as 1000.
- The generators could provide roughly 200 per second.

Now here's the trick.
- Make the small guns reload in a very short time: 100 milliseconds or so. Set the energy use to a large amount.
- Scale the WMG's energy use to be modestly higher than the reactor's output, but still a significantly lower rate than the small guns.

What should happen, is that the WMG will grab the reactor's output in small chunks.
The small guns will be trying to grab large chunks and since a full chunk won't be available, they will stop reloading entirely.

You will get a big, hearty broadside at first contact with the enemy, and three or four small guns will reload instantly off the charge in your battery.
After that, the battery will slowly charge up to the "big chunk" size, at which point another small gun reloads.
If you fire the WMG, it will use, in "small chunks" all the reactor's input to slowly recharge, and you'll only get three or four small gun shots on battery power.
The battery will keep being drained by the WMG's small chunks, never getting a chance to charge up a whole big chunk. While the WMG is reloading, your small guns will thus not recharge.

I did a quick test, and here are some values that should get you on the right track:
- Reactor generates 500, stores 1000
- Light Shock cannons: Reload rate 75 ms, energy use 1000
- WMG: Reload rate 40000 ms, energy use 20000

The MWG then nibbles out the power as fast as it comes in, while the shock cannons wait until there is a large amount of energy stored up before they take it.
Be sure to adjust the values for game balance.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

The fighter image problem is solved: just put the component folder in the image folder of your campaign as SJ said. However the music is still missing for me. You have some strange entries in the campaign data file for the systems music files.
And for the end it is just a minor imperfection: you could write at the end of the text that the next campaign should only be chosen when it is really here. But most people will have no problem as it is now.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I've tried the mod for a bit and it's fairly enjoyable. Although I find the super maneuverability to be a bit difficult to handle.

Here are a few bugs:
- Firing points are off on some of the bad guy's ships
- Why all the extra maps at startup?
- Mars seems to be really dark, as does Saturn

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

'k' and 'l' can be used to tweak the ambient light in the dark systems.

It seems that most of the stock systems are still in there, but not connected by any warppoints.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I am working on an update for the StarBlazer Mod. There will be no change to the Music part, just the Data (the smalled downoad of the two).

This will solve most of the things that people were comenting about:
1. I will increase the "command points per level" - this means that you get more regeneation points on repair for ship, shields, or whatever the player chooses. (no one mentioned this, but I think that points are too low)
2. I will fix the invisible warp point in Pluto - a bug. (yet, no one has found it as I know, but me).
3. I will add a message to notify the player of the end of the campaign (this will make "Q" happy!)
4. I will fix the firing points, and engine "glow's" on most of the Gamilon ships that are off. ("Captain Kwok" noticed this, thanks)
5.I will have the folders in the right place to make things easier (as Suicide Junkie pointed out).
6. I will eliminate all the unnecesary planet data files from the campaign. (It does not affect the game at all, but lesser unnecesary files will meant a little smaller download).
7. The ambient light and speed is the same as the origial game. The player can adjust that through the keyboard shortcuts, therefore I will not chage them.

All the story of the "Campaign 1" takes place in the solar system. I did not wanted to make all happen in one map so I divided the solar system in sectors. I could not put a sun or star in each one, it would not look right. So most of the light come from the Nebulae. (The system should show only the present solar system planets, and Minerva (which in the story there were suposed to be 11 planets on the "Sol system", one was destroyed by the Gamilons (Minerva), and the story of the other plane is not revealed on this story.)
The speed is as fast (or slow) as the original. I normaly decrease the speed to half while in combat with regular ships. To deal with fighters sometimes I decreased to 1/4 speed. Whatever your preference, all through keyboard (-,+).

Note: when you install patch 1.17, a PDF Manual is included as part of the installation. For those who have lost the manual, all the keyboard short cuts are there.

One final thing, the more comments I made the more great ideas the players come up with. I do not want to keep making changes to the game even thought there are better ways to do the game than my way. I will remember them, will learn from them and maybe will implement them on the next project, but I do want to move on, and do "Campaign 2". I would like to have the second part done by December.

I will have the update done withing the next 2 days.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

2. I will fix the invisible warp point in Pluto - a bug. (yet, no one has found it as I know, but me).
I mentioned earlier; If you warp from minerva back to pluto, you come out at the invisible warppoint.
Following the ID#s from there should help you track it down.


#8: Shields, sensors, ecm and a few minor components still increase with tech level. Most, including all known weapons, do not. This should probably be fixed in order to maintain balance as the campaign progresses.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Sory SJ, you did mentioned. I did fixed it in my computer a few hours after it was released on that Friday, but by then it was too late, since it was already uploaded on the server. It was an easy fix.
Actually, the components (all the components) not increasing with tech level is intentional. The whole story on StarBlazers takes place on a single year (to Iscandar and back to Earth). By the time "Campaign 1" ends its been only 50 days, 315 days still to go. They do have the latest high tech Earth had to offer, at the time of departure. Therefore I did not want any tech leveling up unless is the dooing of Sandor, the science genius of the Yamato. Still the expeience points are handy for the rate of damage repair on the ship (or personal skill), and that can reflect the crew getting better at their job, as they travel to Iscandar.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I and probably SJ as well agree with you, that it is a good idea to make no technological progress during this campaign. However SJ said that shields, sensors, ecm still do get better during the game.
Because the weapons remain constant this makes a shift in the game balance, which was probably not intentional.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Would it be possible to swap the hitpoints on shields and armor?

I don't know about the physics of the starblazers universe, but from the story in-game, it sounds like you are supposed to be taking damage in these combats.

As it is now, armor is extremely weak, and shields are very strong.
ISTM that the reverse should be true:
Shields : weak, but regenerate over time
Armor : strong, but only repairable at spacedocks.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

SJ can you make a new link for me on the Mod/campaign section as before? I posted the new update called StarBlazers-Campaign1_v1.1.rar (6.3MB). I deleted some of my previous posts that became obsolete.
The update will reflect bug fixes, and a few minor changes as I mentioned before. I did also beefed up a little the base at Pluto since it was a tad too easy (I added more armor to it).

There are shields on StarBlazers universe. In one of the episodes (they actually show it once) you could see a transparent shield bubble covering the bridge and part of the cannon bateries on the Yamato. Since the Earth forcess copy most of the technology from the most advanced Gamilons, it is logic to assume to the Gamilon ships also have shields.
The crew of the Yamato was continuously reparing the Yamato every chance they get. Even while traveling through the sectors (but not during space warp). This reflects nicely on the game since you can fully repair the damage every time you dock. During combat the regeneration is slow enough not to make a real difference unless there is a good amount of time to rest (At Pluto, after taking a pounding they try to hide behind a moon to make repairs, but the Reflex gun hit them there with the help of the satellites. They even went to the other side of planet Pluto to make repairs and they got hit again. They even went on water, there is the Pluto Sea, really!, to make repairs and still the Gamilons keept hitting them). They went under water to escape the Reflex gun and make repairs and they were attack by Gamilon submarines. Pluto was a real pain. (There may not always be spacedocks to make repairs, will see how it works on the second part.)

Thanks one more time for pointing out corrections and ideas. Have fun!

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Oh, I'm not saying that the shields should be eliminated.

Just that you should consider swapping the strength of shields and armor.
That way the shields help by blocking part of the damage as they recharge, but you are sure to take some armor damage in combat. Something with a little more tangibility than numbers on the shield bar. Busted stuff that you have to peel off the ship in spacedock and replace with new plates.
Gritty repair work, you know? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


PS:
Teach a man to fish they say - All you need to do is right-click the attachment link, and copy the address.
Then paste that address into a post over here.
[ url=<destination address>] Acutal Link Text [/url]
Click Me

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

SJ, thanks for showing me how to do the link, that was real easy.
About the armor/shield thing, point taken. Maybe I do someting about it later. By the way I do get alot of damage on my ship, sometimes my ship survive will all the systems in red, if it does not explode first(not every player is a top gun, at least not me). Anyway the first part was supposed to be easy for the Yamato, except maybe the last two missions, but it is going to get alot harder as they go into Gamilon territory.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I look forward to see the next campaign!

The reflex cannon really got me. I was blown to pieces before I realized what was happening. To be killed by one tiny satellite was really unexpected.
Then when I learned how to kill them I thought to be very smart and picked up a reflex cannon from the debris that was floating in space. Just to learn that they could only be used in sats and bases!

Good work!

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

In the last mission when you should destroy all Gamilon ships in the Pluto system I had twice the same problem:
There is a Gamilon battleship and I fired the wave motion gun at it. The game froze completely and I could not even activate the task manager (Ctrl/Alt/Del) to end Starfury. I had to switch the computer off (Windows XP Home). There was no problem when I destroyed the battleship with other weapons. Nor was there any problem when I used the wave motion gun against other ships.
Could someone try to reproduce this?

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

I had the game freeze up on me when the battleship was down to its last 100 hitpoints or so.
I was in windowed mode, and running under win98, so I had no problem end-tasking it.

I then reloaded from the autosave, and it worked fine.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

The reflex cannon and its satellites were dangerous. The Gamilons are really wicked puppies!

The freezing screen of death. Yes, I have experienced the same thing during testing. Except that it happened to me in Minerva (I have never found the Battleship at Pluto it is random, but yes, you will certainly will find it at Minerva). It is random, sometimes I finish the game without incident. I have been chasing a possible cause for the problem. It has happened with the WMG and also with others weapons. It freezes exactly at the moment the ship explodes (and only with the gamilon battleship). The Gamilon battleship has more firing points than any other ship, it has 22 firing points. That is alot of "candy". I do not know if the combination of the graphics of the explosions in addition firing of the weapons of the other ship can cause an overload on the computer system ram or video. Just for testing, one time I reduced the firing points on the Gamilon Battleship from 22 to 19 and the error never happened again. Then again maybe I did not try enough times.
I also noticed that when I play the game start to finish, the game seems to slow down or becomes a little erratic by the time I reach the part of destroying the Pluto base. Ussualy I save the game at that point, quit and reload, and then it seems fine.
Yet it is still a puzzle to me, I have chech the code but I still do not see anything that may cause it. But yes it does happens the moment the ship explodes, on the last killing blast. And sometimes nothing bad happens!
If the problem persist I can always try to either reduce the firing points on the Battleship, or how long the WMG beam last, or the graphics on the explosion itself.
Can you save the game, quit, and then load the game again and then take the Gamilon battleship down to see if it still happen? Also does it happen when the ship is close or far away?

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

It could be the WMG beam time...
If the ship explodes and dissapears before the beam is done, then the beam dosen't know where one of its endpoints has gone.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

My mistake it was the Minerva not the Pluto system!

It seems to be exactely what you have seen too. The ship shows a few hitpoints left, is starting to explode and the game freezes. At that moment I cant't do anything but restart the computer. I went back to the last savegame and tried again. With the wave motion gun it happend again with other weapons I could destroy the battleship without problems.
Well at least I know now that it is not my system which causes the problem and I could finish the campaign after all.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Ok, report on testing on game feezing when Gamilon Battleship is destroyed.

First of all, the comments on my previous post reflected the problems I was having the first time I created the Gamilon Battleship. Back then there was an error on the firing arcs or slots, something, I cant remember now what it was. The point is that I had it corrected back then and then never had a problem since. It was such a long time ago...like 2 months ago, like 2 weeks before I released the game here the first time.
On the second uptate, none of that was afected, just improved the firing arcs on most of the Gamilon ships that were off. Still no changes in anyting that may cause an error.

Now to the report:
StarBlazers Mod 1.1

My system: Athalon XP 2.17 GHz, 1.00 GB of Ram. Video card: Radeon 9800 pro 128Mb Ram.

I recreated the Minerva mission, first I destroyed 2 Gam Destroyers and then waited for the battleship to show up. Around a range of 500 I saved the game. (Every time I missed to hit the Gam BS with the WMC, I reloaded the game) I fired the WMC 9 times, I hit the Gam BS 6 times, not a single problem. I fired the WMG at a range of 160 to 180, and at a closer range of 50 to 90, not a problem either. There were also on the screen 2 destroyers, 2 cruisers, and 4 of my fighters flying around also on the screen. All went well.

I decided to try it on my old computer:

Pentium III XP 700 MHz, 320 Mb of Ram. Video Card: nVidia Riva TNT 2 Pro, 32Mb Ram
(Boy was that a jerky ride...not as smooth as my newer pc)

Same as before except that I just evaded the two destroyers and waited for the Gam BS. I fired the WMG 9 times, I missed 6 times (provably because I had far less experience this time), I hit 3 times, destroying the Gam BS, at diferent ranges, It was slow and jerky as hell, but it did not freeze!

So I tried in two very diferent rigs, and found no problems. That was a combined test of 9 hits without freezing. What can I say now, make sure you have the latest video drivers, directx (9.0c), Media player(10). Maybe the problem is diferent from pc to pc since they all have diferent configurations. Also In my test I had the game loaded fresh in Minerva.

If you are bored enough, and have the time, just do the same test I did and let me know.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Nice mod you have going here. i found some stuff on the internet, i was looking for bsg stuff though, i thing it is the right ships
i cant get the url thing to work so
http://www.shipschematics.net/yamato/

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Thanks Lancefighter,
Yes I am aware of that site. While doing reserch on the ships, I did purchase a book called "Star Blazers - Technical Manual". Good book, it has identical drawings as the site you mentioned, in addition of weapon descriptions, story, etc. so they provably copy it from that book (printed on 1998), but at least the site saved me the trouble of having to scan each picture of the ships I wanted, since it was easier to just print from the drawings from that site.
I am also grateful for many online sites were I could download some pic's, music, as well as the creator of "SFSlotModder"(that program made things easier), and the few tutorials right here on this forum about how to use some of the different drawing programs, which by the way I almost quit after messing with it for two weeks.
The story about my ships, I have never made a space ship until I started this game. I hapen to have a "CAD" program, I also have acess to 3dMax, in addition to a few other 3D free programs, the problem was that even thought I do have them, I have never used them before, and I was not willing to spend 6+ months learning "3DMax" which is very complex and intimidating. The only program I know how to use is the one I learned in college called "Solidworks".
The problem was that it does not transfer files into the X format. So I created it in "Solidworks" into an "IGS" format, from there I transfered into "3dMax" into "3ds" format, from there I transfered into "anim8or", and from there into "LithUnwrap". I spent 3 weeks creating my first ship the "Yamato". It came out very good in "Solidworks", but by the time I was done with the transfering, the ship was transparent, and with holes (missing sides). Not good. At that point I quit the project for a week. Fooling around with 3dMax I discovered that it has a feature to patch the holes, but at the same time it distorted any round part. I quit for another week totally frustrated.
To make the story short, I made 3 or 4 versions of the "Yamato", it went from very realistic to the one you see on the game, ok for the game, but not the beauty I originaly created. I had to make them using angles, no round parts for them to work. (None of the ships have a single round part). Well except for the cannons, they came out ok since the distortion is hard to notice and they are small, and I needed the cannons. Anyway the ships are not exact or perfect, far from it, at very least I wanted to capture a good resemblance, I simplyfied them alot also to make the files smaller. It is funny, 3 weeks on the first ship, and the last 3 ships in one day.
I do not even want to talk about skin painting, another nightmare.
By the way as you start the game, the starting ship you can see it on a 3d window rotating, my ships do not work on that window for some reason, that is why I had to start the game with one of the ships of the original game. If I were to use any of my ships as the origimal ship the game will crash. I am actually amazed that I was able to make the game by bypassing the problems and moving on, instead of finding a solution, that at the time I could not solve.
Good luck hunting for the bsg stuff.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Heads up!
The second part of the "StarBlazers Mod" (which will conclude the "The Quest for Iscandar" story) is going well. I just finish creating the last ship and I am starting to code them into the game. There are going to be over 12 new designs (there were 13 original designs on the first part). So that's a total of over 24 ships when all combined! Between the new ones there are going to be 5 new Gamilon fighters, in addition to new Carriers, Destroyers, Battleships, Cruisers, and a few other surprises.
Now that the ships are done, things should start speeding up. The story is already 50% done, and I hope to finish it between the next 2 weeks, and maybe another 2 weeks for testing and bug hunting, totaling one month (That is assuming that all goes well). This second part is going to be a little bit longer than part one (but not by much), but still fast and to the point as the first one.
As the story goes the solar system is free of Gamilons for the moment (part one), thanks to the "Star Force" and their ship the "Yamato". At the start of the second part of the game, the Star Force is leaving their solar system for the first time, and going into the unknown, through the dreaded Gamilon sector in rout to "Iscandar". "Leader Desslok" have assigned a more competent general to deal with "the little matter called the Star Force"; his name is "General Lysis". How good is he? That will be for you to judge...

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

Good news. I look forward to play the second part.
Thank you again for your work Campeador.

Re: Star Blazers Mod
 

After being pasted by the Gamilon in one of SE:IV pbw games - I'm looking to return the favour in this new campaign! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

"Star Blazers Mod: The Quest for Iscandar, Campaign 2" is up for download!
As I mentioned before it is twice as long as the first one, still is relatively short (4 to 6 hours?). If you like story telling, you are in for a treat, since you get to find out how the story ends.
I made a few changes on the mechanics on how the game play as compared to the first campaign. There were a few ideas and sugestions that I let pass before because I did not had the desire to go back and change things after it was done, but in this second campaign I did implement some.
Armor is more important than shields now. The shields are 1/2 as powerful per tonage, and the armor is double.
Items will not get experience, this is a very heavy combat mod and the "Yamato" was getting too powerful. Anyway I spent almost a month playing with it to see how things turned out, and I am pleased.
You do not need to play the first campaign to play the second part! If you lost your previous saved game, do not worry. Even thought the game continues in the same sector as part one ended, I gave the player the option to pick up the "Yamato" from the hangar at "Minerva". The only thing is that you will not have the experience. Anyway I am sure that the player will have to use the port to adjust the armor/shield relation and to pick up more fighters. I replayed the game at least a dozen times picking a new "Yamato" again and the previous experience is not necesary to beat the game. I also did it with all the stock items that came with the ship, and adding a few items to fill up the tonage.
In some sectors this game has more "celestial objects" than the previous one so the game will tend to slow down a bit, specialy with alot of asteroids, but it was not too bad. Remember that the game will pause for a second or two when the bad guys show up, so do not freak out. Another persistem problem is when a battleship blows up, the game may freeze. So, save the game before you face one of those. Reload if it happens. It is still a random thing, I still think that it is a video card/ram thing.
Have fun.

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Clarification -- does this replace the first campaign or supplement it? In other words, is there another file to download than 403431-StarBlazers-Campaign2.rar or is this the whole thing and you have removed the previous version?

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Clarification:
The "Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar" story was divided in two parts, Campaign 1 and Campaign 2.

The first part: StarBlazers-Campaign1_v1.1 (6.3MB) (updated 9/29/05)
and the music file: StarBlazers-Music1.rar (24MB)

The second part: StarBlazers-Campaign2.rar (16MB)
The "Campaign 2" file looks much bigger than the previous one, and it is, since there are a lot of new pics (used for story telling) and one music file. It also uses the same ships from the first part in addition of the new ships.

So, to answer the question, they are not combined, and it does not replace the first campaign. The second campaign is the continuation and conclusion of the story. If this is the first time you try the Mod then download the 2 campaigns and the music, that will be 3 files to download combined.
If you already have the "Campaign 1" and the music from before, then just download the "Campaign 2".

I hope that this explanation helps.

note: I went back and edited the post on the campaign download page to make it more clear also.

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Ok, I've played both campaigns now. I agree that firing the Wave Motion Gun at a Gamilon Battleship causes the game to lockup. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif It would be a good idea to reduce the firing points permanently if this is indeed the cause of the problem.

Over all, it was a reasonably interesting game. But it the Galactic News events are full of mispellings and clumsy English that makes me expect to see 'All your base are belong to us!" at any moment. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif I take it that you are not a native English speaker? Or are you just copying the narration text from somewhere else? It really needs a bit of editing. Even mportant words like Carrier are mispelled. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

It looks contagious...

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Thanks for the comments. Please, DO continue to bring problems up! My beta tester (my little brother) played the game only once, and obviously forgot to correct me. He was the only person I know who wanted to play this game.
Like on the first campaign, I will wait until more players try the game so that most off the bugs and mistakes come to the surface before issuing an update on the second campaign.

I did a spell check only on the "DisplayText" page, but totally forgot to do it on the "Job" text page. "Carier" was on the "Job" text, as well as a few other words (by the way if the Gamilons like to call their carriers "carier" instead of carriers, who am I to argue?)... I will start making a list of corrections, happy?

About my clumsy way of putting words together, you were right English is not my native language, and I also confess that I am also equally clumsy in another 3 languages as well. (And so are the Gamilons, and English is not the native language of the crew of the "Star Force" either). In short, I did everything by myself, and this is the best I can do, without asking some one else to help me, that is.

About the crash, it is still a mystery to me. Thinking a little bit just now, I come to the realization that it is not the firing points, a ship that is about to be destroyed usually is not firing. A lot of ships destroyed (all other but the battleship) by the WMG are long destroyed and still the WMG beam is blasting away, and no crash.
The problematic ship here is the "Conqueror" battleship. It has 22 weapons, more than any other ship (the "Yamato" has 20), the problem is when it dies, if the game creates a graphic explosion for every weapon, and maybe also every engine, and then that may be the cause for the crash. I do not know if this happens with the newer battleship, the "Audacious", 19 weapons. I could reduce the amount of weapons to see if this helps. It does not always happens...maybe I should add more weapons instead, like 50 to see if it crash every time, if it does then I will be close to the problem.

I really do not have any documentation on the limits of components/weapons/size or hardly anything on this game. In part that is a good thing because first I dream freely and then I try to adjust things as I face reality. Maybe 22 weapons is too much.



Desslok talking to General Crypt:
"I know Lysis is rash, even dangerous. But he is the only one of my generals who DOES something... unlike those who sit in judgment on him."

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

IMHO the language should not be the main focus of critics. As long as I understand what you want to say I am very tolerant to imperfections and English is not my native language either. The alternative would be a campaign in Spanisch, French, German or whatever language the author speaks as native language. Not very reasonable IMO.
I was not able to play the second campaign much and I would like to wait with my critic till I finished it. But for me Campeador has earned a big "thank you" for the lot of work he did!

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Now I finished the second campaign and I found it quite challenging! Some very impressing combats you put up here Campeador. And the minefield is something new and original.
Thank you very much for your excellent work.
Some comments and suggestions:
- In the minefield I found it very difficult to localize all control satellites.
- On the other hand spacedocks/supply sites outside Minerva make it quite easy for you to repair and resupply. IMO no spacedocks should be available until you reach Iscandar.
- During the last battle before Gamilon I had big problems destroying the Audacious battleship Telema. The game froze 3x in a row although I did not use the wave motion gun. Just the last hit when only about 40 hit points were left caused the game to crash. Only when I used fighters to make the final kill I could continue the game. I had no problems to destroy other battleships however.
- After visiting Iscandor, I felt a little bit lost. There was no more job in the list and in the description of the last job there was no further instruction where to go, so I even thought the campaign was finished. Of course in the strategy room you are told to return to earth, but some instruction in the job list would be clearer.
- The combats on the return trip are too easy, which makes this part of the campaign a little bit boring. One or two surprises would be great. Or otherwise make a shortcut available to earth.

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Thanks Q!
Sooner rather than later I will issue an update. That will be tomorrow (02/06/06).
On the update I fixed the spelling mistakes, decreased the amount of weapons on the battleship "Conqueror", from 22 to 19, to see if that helps.

The update will include a few of the issues that "Q" raised:
About the "control Mines", the instructions were to "Find and destroy the "Control Mines" until free." That means that you did not have to destroy all of them, just the ones on your path to get out. (Well, all of them but one).
Yet I added a little line on the text to stress that out.

The spacedocks, no change. There are no upgrades on the items; therefore the spacedocks are only really useful for repairs, and to get more fighters. If you want a real challenge just ignore them and let me know if you can reach Iscandar! I would have really liked for the game to give me the option to fix or re-supply only once at the spacedock, but Starfury does not give me the option.

Some players find it difficult while others find it easy, therefore I did not want to make the game too difficult. If the player want a challenge, play on the most difficult setting, or do not use the WMC, or do not use the spacedocks, or fighters, or go and destroy the "Strange Gas", etc.

Another challenge: On "Campaign 2", the "Earth sector", I left on the spacedock most of the Gamilon and Terran ships in case that you want a joy ride, or you can use any of those ships to redo "Campaign 2". Big ships on "Earth", fighters on "Mercury".

On Iscandar, you said it. on the strategy room they told you to return to Earth, actually more specific: "Captain Name", we will head back through the same rout as we came from, so to the planet "Iris I" on the "Rainbow" sector." So an instruction on the job page was not necessary.
I totally agree about the return home. It is boring; I originally had a short cut to Earth, but took it off. So in the update I restored, and added instructions for the player to use it.
I wanted to be very close to the original story, I did not wanted to create "one or two surprises" because the original story did provide a few surprises. I do have a bunch of things that I could add but they would have been too distracting for this story. For example, I was planning to use the "Octopus" sector with all those warp points to land on different time periods/time zones, like the Negative Zone (?) on "Star Trek" and fight the evil "Yamato", or have an encounter with the "Comet Empire" (Another Star Blazers story), and many other things, but that would require new ships, maps etc. Time consuming. It is easier to do it in another campaign.

Game crash, I have no solution for the moment. A new weird thing, I tried today to fly the "Battleship Audacious", I attack an Earth torpedo destroyer, and as the destroyer blew up the game froze...only two medium beams from the Audacius were firing at the destroyer...my expression was like "what the ...." I still do not know. Maybe I am dooing something wrong someware, or maybe this game was not meant to have so many weapons on a ship...but they look so darn good, especially when you see 8 enemy missiles coming simultaneously towards you from a single ship!

Re: Star Blazers Mod - Campaign 2
 

Great story and great job Campeador. I had'nt played star fury for a few months and found the new mod. It is original and challenging.

I too noticed the freezups at times when the ships exploded. I worked around this by saving the game more frequently.

There was a slight problem with one of the shield layouts as well. It appears that the bitmap file for ShieldLayout_G_Carrier_Revenge was mispelled in one of the image files and the game would crash when this turned out to be a spelling error. The shield graphic had one "r" missing in Carrier. This was easily corrected by renaming the file, not a biggie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, I just wish I had the right tools for making ships, because I am familiar with the files and I have modified a few of the other mods already and it is great fun.

GREAT JOB!!!