Balance Mod to become Stock SEV Petition

[Shadowstar]

I have used WinCVS in my work on the ChaosUT2 mod, so I know how useful it can be. I hadn't actually considered using it with SE5 modding but it's a good idea.

SJ has a point too, however as my mod (Starscape) tends to be episodic, I often will make major changes to it between episodes. During SE4, I would incorporate new changes in the Imagemod into Starscape during the inter-episode interims, and remember as several patches for SE4 were released throughout Starscape's two most recent episodes (S6 and S7). Originally, Starscape used some data from various SE4 mods as a starting point. This worked well for the most part but also muddled the modding environment. As a newbie, I let it slide as part of the "learning experience".

This time around, I would very much like to dev Starscape from scratch, but as I don't like the Stock files, I feel I don't have much choice but to base it off Balance mod.

However, this is all very tentative as I have not actually begun development of Starscape:SE5 and do not intend to until SE5 is patched a bit further and I see what kinds of things come out of the community in the coming month(s). This will also give me some time to experiment with sandbox mods and get more accustomed to the way SE5 works before committing myself to what I know will be a large project.

So, that said, I am interested in this issue but I suppose I don't quite lean one way or the other on it yet.

[Suicide Junkie]

This time around, I would very much like to dev Starscape from scratch, but as I don't like the Stock files, I feel I don't have much choice but to base it off Balance mod.

Isn't that contradictory? How do you make it from scratch while basing it off something else, stock or otherwise?

[Shadowstar]

Suicide Junkie said:

Isn't that contradictory? How do you make it from scratch while basing it off something else, stock or otherwise?

I don't know about you but I don't consider Stock to be a mod. The point I was making is that I was planning to do it from scratch but given the state of Stock, I wouldn't do that unless Balance replaced Stock.

[Phoenix-D]

"From scratch" implies, well, from scratch. Like I'm doing with my mod- there are *no* elements of stock in it, except for the planets and some systems.

[Suicide Junkie]

For example, when I wrote CBmod, I did it mostly from scratch... IE, I started with a set of blank files and a couple pages of hand written notes and typed stuff in.
The mostly part is because I started with settings, intel, systemtypes and sectortypes, and merely edited them heavily.

The most difficult part of doing a mod from scratch is that you have quite a bit of work before you can do much more than load the main screen and check for typos.
The benefits of having a blank slate are quite significant if you've planned out your universe physics and balance beforehand.

[Shadowstar]

Hmm, I guess my definition of mod is different. I suppose it would be more accurate to say I had planned to develop Starscape as a mod of the stock game, rather than a total conversion. There's no need to reinvent the wheel with Starscape. I'd build it on stock, but since I'd rather have a balanced basis for my mod, it looks like I'll be using balance instead.

[StarShadow]

Well, to get technical, what SJ is describing could be called a TC (Total Conversion), rather than a mod.