Battleship Mod

[Rodglas]

Very nice work. Your propulsion system sounds alot like the impeller systems used in Honor Harrington series and the ships look like what the RMN Fearless does in my mind, and in it's description from the book. And, with that thought in mind, I think a special ability of TSR ships should be to create the famous impenetrable(nearly) sidewall from the books. On the other hand, the ships are different so I don't confuse the ships there and the ships here. The Elven-looking ships do indeed look like something the Elves out of LOTR would create, or maybe the Scrin from C&C3....

There is no lack of inspiration from Honor Harrington in the TSR side that is for sure. I'm limited in some sense to what the game engine will allow, Impeller wedges and sidewalls would be sweet but I'n not sure how to get them to work in game. I've been dirstracted the last day or so trying to get a working laser head, and its not foing well.

If I can figure some of that stuff out I may do a HH mod in the future.

Well depending on what the poly count of the model was to start with, a hundred or so extra pollies shouldn't make too much difference.

The bridge/obsdeck I designed pushed my superdreadnaught over the 1000p mark, not a huge lose given that its the end of the build list but disappointing none the less.


Question for all. How do your machines handle ships with with a very heavy weapons load?

Most of the TSR ships have at least 10 standard weapons, rat of fire is not excessive, but with twenty ships on screen its a lot of fire floating around. I've got quite a powerful machine and haven't problems yet but I figure I should see what others have going on.

Rod

 

[Dan1025]

Mine should deal with it fine.

 

[Atlantis]

Low poly counts are fine, I agree with what you've done already in that regard.

However, if you want the ships to look more detailed and of better quality, i'd suggest improving the textures a bit. You can do a LOT more with a decent texture than adding pointless polygons where they aren't needed. That way you can keep the poly count low and have good models.

 

[Rodglas]

Here is an attempt at retexture, I've added a few features, in this case exterior sensors to the texture map.

This is the Lancaster-Class Battlecruiser
-8 Heavy P-lasers arranged in banks of 2 (to fore, 2 aft and 2 for each broadside.
-20 Missile launchers (10/broadside)

This is not the final texture, just a first attempt at impoving the look. Those large arrays on the broadside for example are too large I now think. I also want to add some cargo doors maybe.

Rod.

 

[Dan1025]

Looks really good, the extra features give the look of a high poly ship, while not including the pollies. Nice job

 

[Rodglas]

Looks really good, the extra features give the look of a high poly ship, while not including the pollies. Nice job

I don't know if I'd go that far, but thank you.


Here is something a little closer to the final product..

The Medusa Class Battleship

16 Heavy P-laser (4 fore, 4 aft, 4 in each broadside)
20 Missile tubes (10 in each broadside)

the gold circles are the ships main sensor array (gone are the large arrays on the Lancaster), the dome on top is the primary comm array. There is now cargo/launch doors on the aft quarter (both broadside top and bottom).

Rod

 

[Majestic]

The textures sure have improved, I am impressed. As for weapons and machine speed, I have never had a problem with that, it's really only high poly ships my machine has ever had problems with.

I looking more and more forward to this, keep up the excellent work.

 

[Dan1025]

The textures sure have improved, I am impressed. As for weapons and machine speed, I have never had a problem with that, it's really only high poly ships my machine has ever had problems with.

I looking more and more forward to this, keep up the excellent work.

What he said

 

[Jaing Skirata]

I just got a new gaming machine; It's literally just a few steps short of a supercomputer with the 5ghz processor and brand-new graphics card. So it won't be a problem.

There is no lack of inspiration from Honor Harrington in the TSR side that is for sure. I'm limited in some sense to what the game engine will allow, Impeller wedges and sidewalls would be sweet but I'n not sure how to get them to work in game. I've been dirstracted the last day or so trying to get a working laser head, and its not foing well.

If I can figure some of that stuff out I may do a HH mod in the future.




The bridge/obsdeck I designed pushed my superdreadnaught over the 1000p mark, not a huge lose given that its the end of the build list but disappointing none the less.


Question for all. How do your machines handle ships with with a very heavy weapons load?

Most of the TSR ships have at least 10 standard weapons, rat of fire is not excessive, but with twenty ships on screen its a lot of fire floating around. I've got quite a powerful machine and haven't problems yet but I figure I should see what others have going on.

Rod

See if you can work a change-over midflight from a missile to a few dozen laser beams. Maybe make it a spawner? That would require building up a sequence(like a ship going warp), but it would be doable.

 

[Rodglas]

I thought I would report the results of a very interesting battle.

4 races two teams on large map, Poth Edar and TSR on one side (TSR as myself) and two forces of Dread on the other after a hard fought battle the TSR and its allies emerge victorious.

The most important bit, 'we' built nearly 450 warships while they produced almost spot on 1300 ships, with almost zero lag. It did get a little slow (but only a little) when the largest formation of ships fought. Enemy formations numbered well over 100+ (possibly closer to 200+) combat ships in major engagements.

Its was the kind of smash'em, dash'em battle I was hoping for and with almost no lag, I'm very happy so far.

Rod.

 

[Majestic]

I thought I would report the results of a very interesting battle.

4 races two teams on large map, Poth Edar and TSR on one side (TSR as myself) and two forces of Dread on the other after a hard fought battle the TSR and its allies emerge victorious.

The most important bit, 'we' built nearly 450 warships while they produced almost spot on 1300 ships, with almost zero lag. It did get a little slow (but only a little) when the largest formation of ships fought. Enemy formations numbered well over 100+ (possibly closer to 200+) combat ships in major engagements.

Its was the kind of smash'em, dash'em battle I was hoping for and with almost no lag, I'm very happy so far.

Rod.

Thats excellent news, plus the lag may of been thanks to running other problems or the compressor doing something in the packground like a windows update or virus scanner update.

 

[Atlantis]

Your computer has a compressor? Sounds like an impressive bit of machinery to need that to keep it cool ;-) hehe

One problem I have just realised though, is... if you're going to be having fleets that big, how are you gonna control them all? Using normal fleets etc you can only control 160...

 

[Rodglas]

I'm not certain what you mean, I've never run up against any control limit that I'm aware of.

Moving a fleet that large is certainly a ponderous task, but that adds something of the right effect. Once your fleet forms into something like a line of battle it becomes a sledgehammer and you become largely commited to the fight. Sure you can redirect them but it takes as much time as getting them going in the fist place.

Rod

 

[Dan1025]

The maximum number of ships you can select in A2 is 16, and the maximum number of fleets you can have set to the numbers on your keyboard is 10 (0-9 keys).

16x10 = 160

 

[Timothyjmcneeley]

Don't forget Aircraft Carriers, there where plenty of those in WWII

 

[Syf]

But that's only the fleet presets. One can control larger groups, it's just a matter of what's on screen.

 

[Dan1025]

Yeah, and the fact that you can control 450+ warships is why I love this game

 

[Syf]

That, and using options in the "orders" controls, you can whip out large fleets and have them ready to attack the moment their scanners detect an enemy.

I agree, the controls are limited with only 160 within one's fleets, but the ranks/hoards of ships one can amass is the greatest appeal of the game, and these mods.

 

[Dan1025]

Hear hear, and if you can have that many ships ingame at once with so little lag, then this mod is certainly something to look forward to

 

[Syf]

Let's keep with the rules about posting. Sentences are required.

Rod, I have to say, I am looking forward to your mod. It's got what most mods don't an original theme.

 

[Rodglas]

Don't forget Aircraft Carriers, there where plenty of those in WWII

WWII is not the inspiration for combat in this mod, 18/19century to WWI is. There will be no aircraft carriers.

Its also arguable if space combat would use starfighters at all.

Rod

 

[Syf]

I'd love to debate that, but that's a different topic.

I like the concept behind the mod. The ships look great... This mod is on my top 3 pick list of the current "in-development" mods.

 

[Dan1025]

No worries about the fighter/carrier thing, A2 wasn't really desinged for fighters anyway.

 

[Majestic]

The maximum number of ships you can select in A2 is 16, and the maximum number of fleets you can have set to the numbers on your keyboard is 10 (0-9 keys).

16x10 = 160

Remember the mod is for A1, correct me if I am wrong Rod, and in A1 you can only group fleets in 8 not 16 like A2 can.

 

[Rodglas]

Correct on both counts, the mod is for A1 and only 8 ships.

Rod

 

[Dan1025]

oops sorry lol, I must have skimmed over that sentence to get to the pictures

 

[Syf]

I don't see a problem with it being A1... I have that one too. I'll be dusting off that CD for this mod.

 

[Rodglas]

I've been working on the first pass AI for the Poth Edar and the StarRep which I'll be testing tonight. In the meantime I've designed the 'flags' for three of the races officer buttons.

The Terran StarRep

Based loosely on the British Union Jack

Poth Edar Imperium

The central shield is based on an Elven shield design for the LOTR movies. The Rings symbolize the Poth Edar Race (centre ring), The peoples of the Poth Edar Imperium (middle ring), and the connection to all life (outer ring).

The Dyntai Grand Empire

The central symbol was the Standard of the Dyn Ruling house that formed the Imperial family. The Orange disk is a sun disk added to symbolize the Dyntai Empires right to rule the stars.

Rod

 

[Dan1025]

Looks great rod, the last pic especially, it looks like a different shape each time you look at it. Nice job

 

[Majestic]

Indeed nice logos, though I reccommend saving them in either TGA or PNG (for showing on forums) as JPG's, GIF's and BMP's get grainy after conversion.