Multiverse Mod

[rstaats10]

I have finished campaign 2 as well with no problems except for when all the fighters battle it slows down a little. It would probably speed up if I set to low detail, etc. However I like to keep my display setting set to high since I like the look better than when set to low and have my video card set to high quality. I was playing on my desktop Pentium 4 2.8oC GHz 2GB Ram Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS.

Q said:
Just one question concerning the music: where should I place the folder exactly and under which name?
If I place it in the campaign folder under the name "music" I don't hear your specific music, just the Starfury standard one.

Place the contents of the multiverse music folder in the main SF music folder. That is the only way to get the music into the mod.

[Campeador]

Yes, the music content goes into the main SF Music files. Multiverse Music 1, 2, and eventually 3 also goes inside the main music file just keep adding to the main SF music file.

Do not forget to the same with sound. Take the contents and place them inside the main SF sound file.

[rstaats10]

The music content has to go into the main SF Music file, but the sounds would be ok in the mod campaign sound file. It doesn't have to be in the main SF sound file.

[Baron Munchausen]

Campeador said:
Baron, I was scratching my head on that one, but at the second try I was able to recreate the bug. You are the first person to report this occurrence, which normally does not happen.
This is what happens:
1. From the Epsilon system you are told to return to Eternus.
2. Before reaching Eternus an event happens in Octopus.
3. In Octopus you are to help one of the ships from Earth (a Hood BC) that is being attack by an unknown ship.
4. There are actually two events in progress: Help the Hood cruiser and destroy the enemy ship.

...snip...

ps: If this is not exactly what happens then let me know.

Not with me, no. But it's good that you found this other possible mess-up. I had an old event sticking in my game and apparently it was this that caused the error when more events were queued up. I used the 'warpmap' cheatcode to go to the system where the old event wanted me to go (yes, I had been there once already. Dunno how I got two copies, or another copy of a past event). Once I had cleared that event it was possible to enter the system and get the scenario setup to work. But once it was working I have to say that it is basically impossible to fulfill without cheating. On the one hand you have to destroy this strange 'evil Fed' ship, and on the other you have to save Captain Harlock. And it turns out that saving Harlock is the real requirement, while destroying the 'evil Fed' doesn't really matter because it will have wiped out all your allies long before you can get across the system to save them. hmm... But the number of pirates who turn up chasing Harlock is quite spectacular. If you've already damaged your ship going against the 'evil Fed' it's likely to be impossible to also defend Harlock, even if you can reach him in time.

[Baron Munchausen]

Campeador said:
Ah yes the second part of your post. I have played the game in four computers. My laptop (HP Pavilion zv6000 2G ram, AMD Athlon 64, 2000Mz) tends to overheat and freezes from time to time on this game only (well it is the only game I have played in the last 3 years). Other than that nothing, no slow down or anything, just that the fans are at full blast and eventually overheats... annoying. It's ram was 512, I increased to 2G, still behaves the same.
My regular desktop pc, another Athlon xp 2167mz 1G of ram. It runs fine until recently. It started to have very erratic video problems especially during this game until it died. I think that is the motherboard so I just order a replacement one for $35. I hope that this fix it.
My brother’s pc, a Pentium 4 3000Mz, 1G of ram. On his there are some slow downs and the mouse gets erratic... This cannot be the game? Maybe he has conflicting software or maybe he needs drivers since his pc behaves worst than some of the other slower pc's...
On the four pc another Pentium 4 3000Mz 1G of ram it runs fine. All this four pc's are average pc and they were my ruler as how many ships to put on the screen.

I can tolerate some slow downs but so far nothing that have prevented me from enjoying the game. But yes if I would have experience the problems you have I would have put less ships on the screen. I do not know why so many other games far more complex like Homeworld for example runs so fine with no problems... To think that I would have liked to have more ships instead of less...

I could decrease the graphics by speeding up the weapons effects, or having fewer ships, or decreasing something, but that will be unfair for the people that the game runs fine.
At least you know the work around to make it work. You can also play the game at 16 colors instead of 32 colors. Now that I think about it there is the setup were the "Sight distance", "Stellar Detail" and "Background Detail" can be set to medium or low (by the way on the 4 computers I mention before all was set to high).

If more players are having this problem please let me know.

I guess I am suffering from my choice of video hardware. I was never very interested in ATI and nVidia cards because Matrox always wins the image quality comparisons on the review sites. They have decent 3D as far as quality, but the performance of Matrox 3D is always a generation or two behind the contemporary ATI and nVidia stuff. Since most people seem to buy ATI or nVidia these days, their cards are probably picking up much more of the actual graphical rendering work than mine. Between having 'only' a 1.2 Ghz CPU and 'only' a 32MB Matrox video card, I guess there is just too much for my old system to handle. When I get a newer system (soon, I hope) I'll get much closer to the common specs of the 'average' PC... for now. And in another 5 years I'll be way behind the times again.

[Campeador]

Ha, yes the pirates chasing Harlock... It was no challenge at all until I decided to give the pirates stealth armor on the last minute... That single detail transformed a mediocre group into a fearsome one!

Thanks for the info rstaats10, I stand corrected about the sounds file. I still do not get why we have to transfer the music while not the sound nor any other file, from any particular mod. It would have been really nice if no transfer was needed, but who can argue with the game gods?

About the video hardware, I am very aware that I am pushing things on this mods with the amount of ships, but the problems with the graphics seems to be the mostly fighters, and some fighters more than others (especially the ones from Epsilon system). This game by now is old, and I remember running the original game on an 800Mz with a video card holding 32Mb, barely the minimum requirements for the game. But it ran! (Writing this post just now I realized that I did surpass the original game requirements, my bad!)

On my mods one of the problems is my lack of knowledge on the graphic department. I am sure that there are artist out there that can make all my models with half the polygons I used or even less. A feat that would have fix most of the slow downs. By the way that is why most of the systems were battles take place have very little space objects.
I will still try to remember those with slower systems on the next campaigns 'if' possible.

[rstaats10]

I really like playing your mods and you do a really good job making your ships. (Hard to make them in my opinion) I have made about 6 ships. However most I have to use from other mods. One tool I have used is Polygon Cruncher. Works well to reduce polys. You can get a free 1 week trial, which is what I did. It's a plug in to Lightwave (and 3DS max I believe). I got a free 30 day trial to Lightwave then added the Polygon Crucher as an Plug In and away I went. I took some really high Poly ships down over 70% and they are playable in SF.

[Baron Munchausen]

Just an extra thought: when you do any 'optimizing' of ship models, how about adding a few more for some of the empires/races to flesh out the selection? If we had a couple more Fed ships it would then be possible for someone who doesn't have ship modeling skills make a nice Trek campaign using material from your mod.

A decent 'destroyer' class vessel like the Saladin/Hermes single nacelle design, and a 'heavy' class like the Nebula or Galaxy would make the Federation ships complete enough to use in a full campaign of some sort. The Miranda (USS Reliant from Wrath of Khan) would be very cool to have, as well. And maybe the Akira class. Various science vessels could wait for a full-scale dedicated Federation mod. Oh, a Fed-style starbase is also needed.

The Klingons need at least one 'heavy' ship. The K'Vort might be a good choice. And a unique starbase design for them, also. And I see you've got one Romulan model even though they don't appear in this campaign. The original Romulan 'Warbird' would be really, really cool to have and then of course a unique Romulan starbase. Hmm. Seven or eight models. Got any helpers with all of this?

The Millenium Falcon as a Rebel freighter would be very nice. The Imperial Super Star Destroyer is out of bounds, though. It'd take up half a system all by itself!

[Campeador]

There are so many science fiction universes out there that I would have liked to recreate. The problem is time and energy to do so. If it takes me a minimum of one year to do a mod, then to do five universes it would have been five years minimum, and this Star Fury game is not getting any younger.
So, in order to do so I came up with Multiverse (2 – 2.5 years).
If I were to create each universe with many ships classes as suggested, I would not be able to launch Multiverse when I did in Dec 07, but maybe in 09 or longer...
I am aware that other people are working on other mods, like the Star Wars mod, and I do not want to take their thunder. I do want them to make the mod with all the ships and glory that the Star Wars series deserves. (I really want to play a game other than my own!)The same goes for Star Trek and the others. That is why I only used no more than 6 ships max from each universe (and those were divided like 3 for each faction within the universe. Some universes I used even less). Also the ships I selected were the classics that every body knows, nothing new, so there is plenty of room for a full mod on each of the Universes where I just have a glimpse or cameo appearance, except the Star Blazers mod where I went in detail on the previous two mod series.

At least no one is giving me any complain because I put three laser beams instead of two, or I put it on the wrong place or something. I am not an expert on none of the universes out there.

I did some experimenting with some other ships that even thought I may not be using on the game may be together with the rest on the files. It is better to leave them there than try to go through five or six files, remove them and then having some type of error on the game because I forgot to remove something some ware. (Like all the ships from the previous SB Mod are still there.)
Anyway I am doing all this mods just for fun, so you can use any ships I created and try to do your thing. I did use the original Star Fury ships, and even recycled the Gamilon ships from my Star blazers mod to create the Illumidas and Iscandarian fleets. A little skin change can make nice variations. Anyway I am sure that someone other than me and with far more talent can create ships. All you have to do is to ask around.

[rstaats10]

I can respect the time you put into making the mods. I have been working on my SF mod for about 6 months and still working on it. I too mod for fun. I hope to be done with my mod in next month or two (wishfull thinking). I am making a Stargate Mod and have all ships configured for the game, maps done, components, etc. The mod will be 80% or so accurate to the Tv show but I wanted it to have it's own flavor too. That is why I have added some new race ships and what not to the Stargate Universe to spice it up a bit.

I will release the mod when I get done with it. One of many things I have discovered while modding is to keep the texture images resolution down to 256x256 or 512x512 for the most part. It saves memory and reduces file size.

The SF game engine is old and wish I had half the knowledge of my older brother and younger brother who have been programers at their jobs for years.

I will finish my mod though since my 8 year old son likes to play the game too and has given me the motivation to complete it.