Recruiting for Renegade Legion MOD

[Noble713]

I'm currently working on a Renegade Legion mod. I own virtually every RenLeg supplement (except for Circus Maximus, and maybe another 1 or 2 I can't think of), so I have a vast wealth of information to work from and have tried to convert various components with exacting detail. Unfortunately, there is very little technology in the RL universe and many things are different from the SE4 game mechanics so the tech tree has been pruned back a bunch, which in turns limits your options for ship design.

Today I started to work on TOG and Commonwealth ship sets, but the simple shapes means that the hull plating and textures must be incredibly detailed to make them look like more than plain boxes, and I'm not accustomed to making images that look good at 128 x 128 resolution; I typically render my work in MAX at 640x480.

I'm also working on including a Shannedam County scenario. I have the relevant sourcebook, which has planet, moon, asteroid belt, and order of battle lists for every system in the county. Making the map has been really tedious though (ARGH! I would KILL for a randomized min/rad/org button!)

What kind of help I could use:
-Shipset modellers. Not familiar with the RenLeg universe? Doesn't really matter. I have the rare Leviathan Capital Ship Briefing with has images of every major ship class in the TOG and Commonwealth navies. I have no problems with scanning the ships I have planned and sending them to you. As for the S'Sorra and Kess'Rith, races which I didn't even think of including until I started typing this message, you would pretty much have a free hand in the style as long as it bore some resemblance to other ships in the universe. (generally long and sleek, with small wings or fins)

-Component icon artists. There aren't too many icons that really need to be created, but if I can find someone else willing to do them, that frees me up to focus on coding and whatnot.

-Technology and facility ideas. The tech tree is REALLY small right now. There are less than 10 weapon research areas. The game currently focuses heavily on combat (especially ground combat) and very little on research. I'd also like to see an increase in governmental or civilian areas, like economic buildings or something. Although SE4's economic system is so basic there isn't much that you can do with it.

If you're interested, um...reply!

[Noble713]

Oh yeah, here's a game concept question I've been debating for a while now:

Which would be a better way to handle ground units?

Method A:
-Troop types are "Infantry" "Light Tank" "Medium Tank" "Heavy Tank", all of which are fairly small (less than 50kT)
-Components are individual weapons, such as lasers and missiles, or shields and armor.
-Allows for detailed vehicle design, and ground casualties will be more apparent with smaller units.

Method B:
-Troop types are "Platoon" "Century" "Cohort" "Legion", all of which are fairly large (not sure how large yet, but a large transport shouldn't be able to move more than 1 legion.
-Components are entire infantry and vehicle formations, such as Anti-Tank Platoons, Grav-Mounted Infantry Centuries, Heavy Tank Cohorts, etc.
-Has a more epic and engrossing sense of scale knowing you are dropping 2 Strike and 1 Infantry Legion on a planet rather than 368 Trajan tanks and 13,402 Infantry.

Thoughts?

[Ed Kolis]

What, doesn't 13,000 infantry sound epic enough?

Not to mention in the second system a legion fights at full strength until it is annihilated, and 100 centuries can't be combined into a legion...

How about a compromise - make troops small in size and equippable with components such as weapons and armor - say 2 to 10 kT - but call them legions anyway (a legion is 10,000 men right? 10,000 men x 100 kg / man = 1,000,000 kg = 1 kT, and a legion of infantry might carry equipment equal to its mass, while a legion of tanks might be 90% machines and 10% men.) I know it seems weird to have a legion so small, but really, these are PLANETS we're conquering, right? A legion just won't cut it, it's not like we're invading Pottsylvania

[Suicide Junkie]

-Component icon artists. There aren't too many icons that really need to be created, but if I can find someone else willing to do them, that frees me up to focus on coding and whatnot.

Check out the imagemod (see sig)
Over a thousand images in the component pack alone, so it should be all you need Plenty of gritty-looking tech that was developed with the B5 mod in mind, and sound similar enough to what you want.

[Dawn Falcon]

So um.

I had some of the stuff but I was made an offer for most of it I couldn't refuse, and rest isn't here.

Weapons:

Lasers
EPC
NPC
Gauss Cannon (ground only as I recall)
hardpoint w/various missiles w/different warheads
MDC

hmm...what am I forgetting?

Also

cone laser
safeguard
MDC-G
autoloading hardpoint
TPC
EPC/laser (I think? - it was in a fighter briefing)

The hardest bit I think is dealing with the way which damage was done in RL. Hmm...maybe inner/outer armour (ala shield/armour in the engine)? (i.e. some weapons would have to scour through the entire armour, while say lasers would only hit the inner armour).

But then you have the RL shields, which work differently by blocking SOME shots and letting others pass through unharmed. Sigh.

Anyway, that gives you two particle, one laser, one kinetic and one missile (with lots of different warheads) for space combat, plus the side-specific specials and a type of PD for both sides.

[Suicide Junkie]

But then you have the RL shields, which work differently by blocking SOME shots and letting others pass through unharmed. Sigh.

I suggest the leaky shield system.

What you do is:
1) Drop shield generation amounts as nessesary (eg: 1/10th to 1/40th for standard SE4)
2) Add a "shield generation from damage" ability (the crystalline armor ability), and set it equal to the shield generated.

This means the shields will block half the damage coming in instead of 100% or none. They will also keep protecting your ship until the generator is hit.

By using the "X damage to shields" abilities, you can have various weapons penetrate more or less than others.

Quarter damage to shields = 80% absorbed, 20% penetrates.
Half damage to shields = 67% absorbed, 33% penetrates.
Normal = 50% absorbed
Double damage to shields = 33% absorbed
Quad damage to shields = 20% absorbed
Skips all shields = 0% absorbed.