Battlestar Galactica 2.0

MajorDiarr · #1 February 10th, 2006, 02:20 AM

The width of the smoke trail is good, although I think it could stand to be slightly, maybe a pixel, wider, as is the random launch angle, it is far more like the show with that. However, I think the smoke trail is far too subtle since I remember it being far more visible at a distance in the show. Increasing the number of particles laid down may help a little, as well as decreasing the random Y placement slightly. Other than it's great.

The Raiders also look a bit better. The guns, I would remove the muzzle flair though, it looks like engine flair. They need blue gun particles too, although I'm sure you're getting to that, in the mean time you could try setting the gun particle to 34 34.

OmegaMagus · #2 February 10th, 2006, 06:18 AM

The only problem with laying down more smoke particles is that the game engine has a preset limit. The more you lay down the more likely you will get gaps or sudden stops in the smoke trail. I made the smoke trail stand out more by making the smoke particles larger as well as taking away their random placement (doesn't look as good, but I don't think you will be concentrating on the smoke trails while the Galactica and a Basestar are fighting it out).

I already made the Raider guns shoot blue particles (first thing I did after I posted the last release). I also made the Raider missiles fire faster and made their smoke trail more visible (both to look like the show and to stand apart from the Viper missiles).

Not too long ago (read: few hours) I stumbled across a wiki site that is all about the Battlestar Galactica universe and I am using their technical data to finish both the Galactica and the Basestar. Here are some details of what I have done so far to finish this thing:
-I have removed two of Galactica's flak turrets and modified the remaining two so they give the apearance of 20 flak turrets shooting two rounds about ever 2 seconds. I also upped their damage to compensate for the diminished amount of fire.
-I added two point defense cannons that (some what) give the appearance of about 392 cannons shooting 200 rounds a second. They do next to no damage.

Some things I am thinking about adding:
-I am playing with the idea of adding anti-fighter missile launcher(s) to the Basestar (since the basestar has no guns and some sort of anti-fighter weapon).
-Both the Galactica and the Basestar have nuclear weapons, Galactica's are very limited while the Basestar's are not. I don't think that this kind of super-weapon would be appropriate for this MOD, but still think the idea of making that kind of a weapon is pretty cool.

Just to show how close I am to finishing 2.0, I have combined the Basestar and Raider ships into the Galactica MOD. So now you can play as either of them in the simulator, pit fleets of both against each other, watch them in the main screen, and fight the Cylon ships in the game!

I attached a picture for your viewing pleasure.

MajorDiarr · #3 February 10th, 2006, 08:19 AM

In the mini-series, the BSG takes a direct hit from what was probably a 1 megaton nuke and the only damage it took was hull breaches in something like ten compartments. But that's still 100 times stronger than the weakest missile in game.

I seem to remember that number for the guns being wrong, I counted them all a while ago but then again it might be right. And I still don't remember the BSG ever firing missiles.

OmegaMagus · #4 February 10th, 2006, 02:57 PM

I don't know about hte number of point defense cannons (all the numbers I've seen seem too big to me) but everywhere I look the numbers are in the hundreds. As for the missiles, the most recent example of Galactica using them is in season 2 episode 12 (The episode where they attack the Resurection ship). I've attached a screenshot and circled the missiles.

MajorDiarr · #5 February 10th, 2006, 09:07 PM

I remember those firing from the main guns.

OmegaMagus · #6 February 10th, 2006, 10:10 PM

After watching the episode in slow motion, I agree the missiles do seem to be fired from the main gun area on both the Galactica and the Pegasus.

The attached screen shows a better view of the battle. Yellow are Battlestar missiles and red are Basestar missiles.

MajorDiarr · #7 February 12th, 2006, 05:21 AM

The flame jets of the Cylons missiles seem to be about three times longer than the orange rounds, just to note it.

Go to 22:49, you can see the shots firing from the main guns, then the camera pans to the Basestar. If you look very carefuly, you can track a shot from the left side of the ship as the camera pans to the right. Some of the shots apear to be made of two glows, then can switch to one. I think I've figured it out, the large guns fire unguided rockets. It explains the balistic paths, it explains the smoke trails, it explains the occasional double glow. The reason they would want unguided rockets and to fire them from guns is simple, the guns give them some near instant acceleration so their flight time is shorter, the rounds actualy gain speed during longer range attack which increases their effective range, cylons can't jam a mindless rocket.

[EDIT] Or the rounds are just smoking hot when fired or are burning some sort of tracer meterial, which may be a better explanation in some ways, as it explains why the big rounds, point defense rounds, and fighter rounds all glow.[/EDIT]

The Cylons use guided missiles because they can, the Colonials probably have nothing that can jam Cylon systems. They use guided missiles because they have to in order to get through the point defense guns and the guns can't be jammed because they're human operated.