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

[Phoenix-D]

IIRC the AI will pick whatever engine gives it the most thrust. Period. In other words, if you have a 100kt engine that gives 4 thrust, the AI will pick it over a 1kt engine that gives 3.

Phoenix-D

[Val]

Though the various engine sizes were cool and fun for human players, the AI side of things was way too much trouble!

Reactors and Engines are now totally revised and we are now working on the AI to use the Mod specific technology. It seems to be working pretty well so far (AI has actually beaten me in my most recent test, though being hemmed by nebula did not help my early game) and we are hoping to have some racial AIs soon.

The question I have now is, what's the status on the overall X-Over mod?

[Andrés]

I've been looking a little to the B5 mod you seem to have finished with most of the data and have the AI progressing well.

I've been a little distracted lately and haven't progressed much.
I'll have to compile what I have (that has changed since Last time I uploaded it to my site) and post it again.

[Karel]

hello Crossovers,

What is the releasedate for your excellent MOD (especially the SW-part of the mod).

[ts22]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows when this mod is going to be completed? I've been looking forward to it for awhile so hopefully it's almost done (please!).

[jimbob]

I'm wondering if anyone has made Astromech droids for the Sci-Fi X-over mod yet (you know, R2-D2 and friends). I've made some up, they help the fighter pilot target enemies, can "repair" fighters that are damaged, can be programmed to cook eggs over-easy... basically everything from the SW movies.

Who wants 'em?

[Andrés]

Yeah Astromech Droids are in the plan.
Fighters cannot be partially damaged, and cannot jump warp points. So there'd no point in giving R2s their main function as mechanics and navi-comps.
So I was considering using them as fighter sensors/ecm and shield regenerators.

Maybe I can also make an "Astromech Droid Bay" or something like that for capital ships.

[jimbob]

Okay, that's good.
Always liked R2-D2, and the presence of droids is integral to the feel of SW (versus ST with mega/centralized computers... very communist in my opinion )

The "repair" function. Yeah, it's too bad that repair can't happen, so thus the quotes. I just put in a modest armor value and added an increased supply useage. Thus the appearance that the component "repairs" the fighter.

If you'd like, I could post what I've done to date. I ended up with 6 astromech droids total.

[ 03 May 2002: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Andrés]

Sorry for the long time since I Last posted something here.
I'm currently doing most of this by myself and other projects and games distracted me.

I've upgraded everything to Gold Version 1.69.
Due to the many requests of a gold sw-mod and that most of us have gold Version or are planning to have it soon.
And beacuse I want to use some of the new features in gold.

If there is demand once we have everything working, we may release a pre-gold Version.

Although there are hundreds of things to add the core and most Rebel and Imperial techs are working.

No AI work has been done yet, but I made all AI races use "Standard Space Empires IV tech" so you should be able to play against them while testing.

I have it in my hard drive but I haven't uploaded any files yet.

I want a few opinions on the best way to do it.

I like the format used in the B5 mod: one small file with all text files, and another big file with all bitmaps and sounds.

Do you want me to include all shiptets?

What about sounds?
In gold the number and size of sounds is increased, and they are still not treated like bitmaps, going to the default dir if it isn't included in the mod. (this would be a nice request for next patch)
Options are:
a- don't use any new sound
b- copy all default sounds into the mod as we used. only difference is that the resulting file will be heavier and take longer to download.
c- include only the new sounds, players would have to manually copy the files into the mod. (perhaps we can include a .bat or small program to automate this)
d- put the new sounds in the default sound dir and not in the mod directory. This was done with one sound in the devnull/moster mod. This would make uninstalling the mod more difficult.

Still in my to do list
*Add extra pics for rebel ships
*Add/change pics for some components
*Add fighter bay requirements to most capital ships
*Add bases
*should we implement base-planets as I had suggested in a previous post? If we do, how many facilities, cargo space and pop should they have?
*trade fed/sith empire/vong neutrals
*another ~100 things I cannot recall right now

About the ship sizes. I had made a set of custom vehicle sizes for each race.
And I had heard some conplains telling me to make this ship bigger and that other one smaller.

Well, the main objective of these ship sizes is to show the CONTRAST in ship sizes used by different races (and different sci-fis).
All of these sizes are based on their known or estimated "real" tonnage, scaled according a variable scale to make logical SE4 sizes. (I'd included XLS file showing the scaling in the old downloads)
Altering the size of one hull would disrupt RELATIVE sizes when compared to other races ships.
So I don't want to change any of the ship sizes unless:
a- There is a mistake in their estimated "real" tonnage
b- We change the parameters of the variable scale, what would alter the size of most of the ships.

Note that there is no problem in adding or removing a hull size, as long as ships are added according the scale. I think that many races do need more sizes.

Those who were asking about a trek mod or the trek part of this mod.
You said you'd be able to work on the data files but not on the graphics.
Either you choose to work directly for this mod, or make an independent mod to be merged with this one later, my advice would be to concentrate on that, and just use the available pics.
Pictures can be added later, changing pic nums in the data files isn't hard and it can even be done while single player games are in progress without problems. If there none of the existing pics fits a particular component (or facility ect.) then providing 1 or 2 pics wouldn't be too hard.

[Val]

Another option would be to include the shipsets as a 3rd file we could d/l - so people who already have them can just download what they need.

I liked the station (mini-mini-ringworld) idea and I am actually currently working on them for the B5 Mod. Mostly because I would like to see stations that can do research, intel, etc.. I'll let you know how it goes

Wher you able to easily convert the B5 stuff into Gold?

Sounds - those do take a LOT of space, more than seems right... I for one wouldn't mind downloading the extra sounds, but someone with a 56k connection might.

Vehicle Sizes - I don't see any problems with it, just need to add a few more for variety.

I know there has been a LOT of talk about a trek mod, but which 'age' would you do? Or would you try to include it all as a natural progression?

Can't wait to see it!!!!