Star Wars Mod - II (Sci-Fi Xover Mod)

[Val]

Whichever idea y'all like would be good.

I was thinking about upping the pop damage, but haven't done anything as of yet. I had also wanted to make it so you would need to use planetary weapons to attack planets, so normal lasers couldn't do anything. Maybe the planetary shields built into all facilities are the best idea, then upping the damage on planetary barrage weapons. Meshes pretty well with the SW shield idea.

[QuarianRex]

Hey there, I noticed that you are a little light on the Trek side of things so I figured that I might as well toss in a couple thoughts.

I saw some very good ideas on trek propulsion a few pages back that seems perfect (posted by SuicideJunkie I think). Only problem was that those designs were based on standard movement (more appropriate for trek I think)not Q-N. Is that a problem? Can you have multiple propulsion types like that in the same mod?

The way you seem to be doing things (with each race having its own tech trees and such) this doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. Then again, what do I know, all I have to play around with is the demo (at least until gold comes out). Though, if you could maintain both types it would go a long way towards giving a unique star trek feel to their races.

I was also wondering if there was a way to have central tech areas where each of the individual races could branch off of instead of having multiple redundant tech areas for each race. For example, instead of having Federation ship construction, Empire ship construction, etc., you could have every race research "ship construction" (modifying the tech area so that it is empty, ie. provides nothing for researching it by itself) and have each ship require the appropriate tech level of ship construction *and* a single level in "Klingon Tech", "Rebel Tech" or whatever.

These race techs could be limited to only one level (or more) that is automatically given to a specific race (starting level 1). This could also be used to tie other techs together, like beam weapons, propulsion, etc.

By now you may be asking yourself "Why in Hell would I want to do that?". Well I'll tell ya. So far as I've seen you've gone to a great deal of effort to balance out the various techs while allowing each race to maintain its own style. This is good and is the entire point of doing a crossover mod. The problem that I see is that with the current setup one of the key aspects of the game has been removed. You can no longer trade/steal/reverse-engineer tech. If all tech areas are racial then they cannot be shared with other races.

I have heard that if you remove the racial number from a racial tech area then it can be learned by anyone who gets their hands on it ( though they can't initially research it). While this option might be a good idea for certain techs I think that it would be a bad idea for the basics. After all, having Ferengi cruising around in star destroyers of their own design is just wrong. Not to mention that you could wind up having ten different ship construction areas in your research areas. That could get annoying.

However, if you have things based off of a single tech tree (as I tried to describe above) you could have the Narn analyze a captured galaxy class ship to give them ideas on how to create bigger ships of their own. Also, I figured that beam weapons could also be a good crossover option. After all, the main difference between lasers, bLasters, and phasers is aplication (phasers slow and accurate, bLasters fast though less accurate, etc.). Granted, I know that the actual tech behind them may differ quite a bit (I haven't read the tech manuals or any such) but that is less important than you might think.

Some of you may wonder whether this applies "story"-wise. I think it does. Take Star Trek for example (mainly because it is one of the few shows that tried to show adaptation or integration of tech). Many times has the crew of the Enterprise (or Voyager, etc.) encountered a new, previously unknown tech (or a more advanced Version of a known one) and, after analysis, have used this knowledge to upgrade their own weapon systems without changing them (they didn't change their phasers to disruptors, just cranked their phasers).

Please consider this option, I think that it would add a lot to the mod. Though I may just be acting out of selfishness, since I am working on a Borg mod (they currently have a -80 on research and some racial techs that are appropriately lowered in cost) and if they have nothing to assimilate then what is the point?

Joking aside, I do think that this is a good idea. I just hope that I said it coherently. It is very early in the morning...

[Andrés]

There's no problem in having multiple prop types. Unless someone "cheats" when selecting racial traits, you'll never see b5 engines in trek hulls.
I admit I'm tempted to abandon q-n movs for the sw ships in order to be able to restrict standard movements more easily.

I like your idea of common tech trees and I admit I had thought about it and discarded it as too complicated (what means that I was too lazy to implement it at that time)
But I’d go for a mixed system, it works nicely for “ship construction”, but I’m not sure about beam weapons, it’d sound strange to research “Energy Stream Weapons” to get phasers, disruptors or turbolasers.

[Val]

The tech tree that is setup in the ever evolving B5Mod is actually setup so the initial trait to start researching any racial tech (other than Ancients) is Racial only, but then that is a requirement for the other techs within that race (weapon, special facilities, bioengineering, etc.), this way another race can capture a ship, reverse engineer, and then start building them. The only exception to this are the Ancients. Right now their technology is restricted to their specific Ancient race - though I made add another racial trait called "B5 Ancient" and have some of their generic stuff (for all Ancient Races) in there. Even with that being said, both the Vorlons and Shadows have a special Tech called "Vorlon/Shadow Based", which will allow races to build things like a Shadow Omega or White Star. Once all the weapons I am currently working on are done, I plan to go back and add some more "Shadow/Vorlon" specific weapons for the other races (right now any race can get them, but I would like the current ones limited to EA, Minbari and IA).

I had originally thought about making the tech tree in such a way that all races theoritically had the ability to research along any given tech path. But, that kind of took away from the feel of the B5 universe - so now it is done as described in the first paragraph.

[Andrés]

I just rendered this pic:
http://se4kdy.cyberwars.com/temp/intro.jpg

It's still work in progress, I want to add another capital ship behind the Omega (I'm not sure wich, choice will also depend on the models I can find). I will add small explosions, more beams and some torps everywhere, not only that lonely X-wing but lots of fighters from different races.

[Richard]

quote:

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Originally posted by Andrés Lescano:
I just rendered this pic:
http://se4kdy.cyberwars.com/temp/intro.jpg

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This looks cool!

Sorry for the interruption, first time checkingn this thread and I see the above .

[Suicide Junkie]

I realize its tough to fit lots of ships on the screen at once, but it looks like all three of those ships are about to ram each other
The galaxy is quite flexible for attack orientation, and the B5 Omega could be shooting at something farther away...

I don't know how easy it would be to also change the nametags on the Enterprise-D and the Agamemnon. The history of those ships dosen't really work for a crossover.

[Andrés]

Well I wanted close ups of very big ships so the only way to make them fit was to put them very close.

BTW details of the Agamemnon's cannons would work great for components.

Changing the names would be easy. There are just text in texture maps all I need to do is find a matching font and type another name. Any suggestions?
And BTW you cannot read Enterprise, the tag number is hard to see and you can only recognize it if you're already know it.
But wait why should I change the names?
Many crossover stories (fan-made of course) include those ships
So that ISD could be the "Devastator" (Lord Vader's ship in ANH) and that X-Wing be piloted by Luke Skywalker and Artoo-Deetoo.

The ships ramming each other:
The Agamemnon rams the Devastator, and is destroyed taking most of its shields.
The Enterprise would have been able to avoid the explosion with more ease, but Picard waited until the Last second to order the evasive maneuvers so it's impacted by a few debris that bounce harmlessly from its shields.
As the star destroyer's shields are down, the Enterprise beams a small team to the Devastator's bridge.
Vader slices Worf in 2 with his lightsaber while the stormtroopers finish off the rest of the invaders.
The Enterprise has problems targeting the many small and fast TIEs that swarm around it.
The good old method doesn't work:
"Ensign, prepare to fire phasers on the nearest fighter on my mark."
Pircard stands, straightens his uniform and orders "Fire!"
On the other hand there are more than 60 trigger happy gunners shooting at the Enterprise, computer programmed evasive maneuvers are no match for them.
They are too distracted by the easy target that they fail to see the X-Wing approaching from the bottom until it's too late.
Luke fires two torpedoes directly into the star destroyer main reactor.
Vader had escaped in a shuttle but the nor crippled Enterprise is able to take down his shields and beam him on board before he can jump into hyperspace.
The dark lord of the sith makes his way out of the brig by making a hole in the wall with his lightsaber and starts slaying anyone he finds.
Vader forces Geordi to freeze Riker in carbonite.
Troy: "I love you."
Riker: "I know."
Luke lands in the shuttlebay and hurries to help.
Lightsaber duel, Vader cuts Luke's hand off.
Vader: "Luke I am your father. Join me together we will rule this galaxy as father and son."
Luke: "Nooooo!", and he jumps into the warp shaft.
Then the Falcon comes and helps Luke can get away.

Ok that was too much and I was getting nowhere.

[ 01 March 2002: Message edited by: Andrés Lescano ]

[Val]

Neat pic Maybe add a few Tie fighters and Starfuries/T-Bolts.

What did you use to render? Do you have any other ships - esp B5 stuff I could use for weapon samples?

[Andrés]

Here's latest update:
http://se4kdy.cyberwars.com/temp/intro2.jpg

Val you asked that a millon times and I always answered I use 3ds Max.
Moved the ships around, and added more. It's getting a little overcrowded, but that was the intention.
I couldn't find a good StarFury model. Maybe Rambie knows, I'll have to ask.