BSG Half Race Mod Error Reporting and Help

[Starfox1701]

Agreed that system rock for RTS games

 

[Adm_Z]

Yeah, I accomplished something similar, but it still doesn't work as well.

 

[Starfox1701]

The main problems with your are AI stuff that beyond your control man

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

I've been playing that game a lot recently and the fighter system in that game is the best available, even how the fighters launch in squads and each fighter flies in it's own way and can be destroyed individually.

I do hope one day the devs of FO try to improve the fighter system to simulate EAW/FOC a little more.

For those of us uninformed about this system (me me me! ) would you care to explain it? . Doca is always looking for ways to improve systems, and if there is a desire, there is a way (even if it takes a while)

 

[Majestic]

For those of us uninformed about this system (me me me! ) would you care to explain it? . Doca is always looking for ways to improve systems, and if there is a desire, there is a way (even if it takes a while)

Basically a ship that has a hangar can launch fighter squadrons, several different groups as well. So you can out of the same hanger get fighters and bombers. These squadrons consist of 4-5 fighters each and they while flying in a group each fly in their own way, looping around and such. As they get attacked you can see the individual fighters get killed off till the last one is destroyed. You can also target certain systems on the mother ship including the hangar which stops the launch of new fighter squadrons and each mother ship also can only put out so many fighter squadrons. Some can only do 2, others many more.

 

[Adm_Z]

For those of us uninformed about this system (me me me! ) would you care to explain it? . Doca is always looking for ways to improve systems, and if there is a desire, there is a way (even if it takes a while)

If there was a way to simply make fighters stay closer to their carrier, the system in FO would work much better, not withstanding the AI issues starfox mentioned.

In FO, if you launch a fighter that is controllable, which immediately launches several that aren't, they will follow the lead fighter. With a few tweaks, it begins to look similar to what is in EaW or HW2 but the fighters don't really stay very close to their 'carrier' or squad leader. The main problems happen when the lead fighter is destroyed, and when you want to limit your fighters to your carrier. As soon as you tell the lead fighter to do something other than guard the carrier, it no longer counts towards the currentchilds line. So, if you just move your fighters away from your ship, the carrier keeps producing fighters. Also, if you send a 'squadron' into battle, and the main fighter is destroyed, the rest of the fighters will kinda fly around dumbly and get easily destroyed because the no longer work as a group.

And of course, if the fighters aren't auto launched, the AI can't use them. You can fake it my making it only auto launch for AI, but it still isn't useful because the AI can't launch a bunch of fighters when it sees an enemy or be strategic with them.

Anyway, it isn't perfect, but if the Devs could fix a few of these problems Armada2 might get closer to EaW style fighters than anyone expected.

 

[kjc733]

There were those that said it couldn't be done. My answer is simple

Mwha haha. MWhahaha Mwha *coughs*



This has been driving me mad for many, many months.

At this point I must say a big thank you to Rodglas as he helped in overcoming one of the big technical hurdles (even if he didn't know the purpose at the time).

And yes, Galactica is the source of the weapons fire, and no, she's not at the epicentre of the blast

Now does anyone know how I can change the colour of the sensor jammer wave to pale blue?

 

[Adm_Z]

Uuh, find the texture and change the color? I"m pretty sure thats all I can think of. That is a pretty massive explosion.:Y

 

[kjc733]

The primary effect isn't all that big actually (I had the misfortune of targetting a bunch of freighters packed with latinum which is why there appears to be two epicentres), the secondary effect is very big. I need to play about and get the ranges to a more suitable balance. I was just pleased it's finally working as it should.

 

[thunderfoot]

WHOOO! HOOOO! BOY! Are dem frakkin' Toasters gonna be surprised or what?

 

[Avon]

Now does anyone know how I can change the colour of the sensor jammer wave to pale blue?

Very nice, I like big booms.
Now look for the textures named Wsenjam and Wsenjam_2

 

[kjc733]

Thanks, found them. Was just hoping it could be done by coding as my knowledge of photoshop is... well, second to everyone. Paint or powerpoint, I can do , but not photshop.

Well, an excuse to learn I guess lol

 

[kjc733]

Thanks to Uncle Thunder for his suggestion (and all the other work he does)

Other work to do (beyond fixing my shower again ):
1. Balancing the Nuke (that just sounds wrong )
2. Chasing down the Cylon Admirals Log ctd error (I've narrowed it down to one ship)
3. Integrating Uncle Thunders maps
4. Chase down wireframe and buildbutton problems (one ship only)
5. Adding the Cylon special weapons (and a standard weapon)
6. Balancing the Cylon ships
7. Tweaks to AIPs and ship balancing
8. Adding audio files
9. Writing the install guide and testing the installation
10. Misc stuff (there's always misc stuff)

So the end is in sight, it's just finding time to get blocks of time in. This week/weekend is unlikely to see much progress as I need to learn how to operate a Garmin 430 (oh for the good ol' days of paper maps and radios that were just radios).

EDIT - added second picture. Hadn't considered trying to see what it looked like in 3D instead of plan.

 

[kjc733]

So I get confused sometimes, GPS instruction guide, STA2 odf files... easy mistake to make

Progress update:
1. Shower is hopefully sealed again
2. Fixed the Cylon ctd error (finally, had a capital C in the race name instead of a little c...)
3. Five of Uncle Thunders excellent maps are now safely tucked away in the install.
4(ish). closing in on suitable values for the big bang (you'd think I'd get bored testing that... I don't! It never gets old!)

 

[kjc733]

todays update (after finding I did pack my A2 disk after all ), loaded Uncle Thunder's new planets and maps. Even in stock they look great.

 

[Majestic]

Looking great mate.

 

[thunderfoot]

Just realized I forgot to do the gas giants. Oops, my bad. I was swapping out a texture for the Class J in Stock when I realized it would be perfect for Ragnar, the gas giant located near the center of the cluster which the Rag Tag Fleet retreated to to restock the armories. There are five altogether. Ragnar, Zeus, Hera, Hestia, and Ophion. So I guess I'd better stop posting and get cracking, lol. Should have some pics later on.

 

[thunderfoot]

With apologies for double posting, because I did not think I'd be done so quickly, I'd like to present the five gas giants of the Cyrannus Cluster. Looking at NASA pics of our own gas giants, I realized the shadings between the bands should have far less contrast and sharpness to them than seen previously. I have some tweak to apply, then these will be packed up and sent off to kjc as fast email will allow.

 

[kjc733]

Progress update:

• TF's gas giants have gone in and the ammended maps work.
• First draft of Cylon special weapon has gone and worked first time (shock horror). Still needs a bit of working on but mostly minor stuff (i.e. making some ships immune).
• Checked that the AI will use the nuclear weapon. Came as bit of a shock when they did (the fight was going so well... oops).

Plans for this weekend (besides gardening ):

• Reallocate the specials on the colonials
• Finish the odf for the first cylon special
• Modify the cylon ship odfs
• Start a second cylon special
• Try and track down the WF and BB problem for the command ship

I just wanted to thank you all for your patience. The original BSG HRM was very quickly done, and I had originally hoped that this version would follow suit. Now I have a million and one excuses that I won't bore you with, so I'll just reassure people that this mod will be released in the near future. I posted a "to do" list not so long back, it's not an extensive list and I could probably do it in a week if I could sit down and just get on with it.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go against conventional wisdom and put down a date. If this mod is not completed by the end of October (two and a half months is not unreasonable in my opinion) then I'll open what happens next to the forum. You can decide whether it should be released as is or be withheld until complete. Either way, if it isn't finished by then (and I'll be annoyed with myself if it isn't) then I'll release several elements of the mod as it is unfair to keep people waiting.

 

[kjc733]

More odds and ends done today. So my previous list of actions now looks like this:

1. Balancing the Nuke - done, just needs playtesting to confirm
2. Chasing down the Cylon Admirals Log ctd error - done
3. Integrating Uncle Thunders maps - WIP, 6 done and I'm told there's more on the way
4. Chase down wireframe and buildbutton problems - done
5. Adding the Cylon special weapons (and a standard weapon) - WIP, odfs are pretty much done and work. Just need BBs and balancing
6. Balancing the Cylon ships
7. Tweaks to AIPs and ship balancing
8. Adding audio files
9. Writing the install guide and testing the installation
10. Misc stuff (there's always misc stuff)

 

[kjc733]

Taken the week off (wahoo! FREEDOM!), but I suspect that progress will be slow as I'm visiting the folks and the laptop bluescreens on a fairly regular basis here (no idea why - it just does).

Anyways, done a bit of fiddling with audio files (now I'm semi competant with Audacity there may be some more work done) and I've done a bit of fiddling with the Colonial point defence weapon as I was never particularly pleased with my previous efforts.



Not the best pic but they're the bright explosions just to the left of the Galactica. A definate improvement in my opinion.

 

[thunderfoot]

Very nice! Is this the same texture you sent me? If so, then I'll add a light map to it and that should make it look better. It looks good enough here though and I am trying to avoid 'mod creep' so late into the project.

Music. Whenever I listen to Bear Mc Creary's stuff, I get a cold chill down my spine. It is almost as if he has tapped directly into my brain and wrote something especially for me. I have forgotten whether or not I sent you both pieces of music I had picked out for the Colonials. Music makes up about thirty percent of the way we perceive a game. Very smart fellow by the name of Chiletrek pointed this out to me once. As always, he is correct. I can prove it is true. Nearly everyone can hum the first few bars of HALO, can't they? If you're reading this, the tune is running through your brain right now, lol. I was given this power only because I promised to use it as a force for Good in the world, rofl.

The music for the Colonial Fleet in BSGHRM v2.0 should evoke a sense of a desperate struggle against nearly impossible odds, IMV. It should be a major factor in creating and maintaining a high level of tension in the Colonial player(s). A song which does not do this does not do justice to all the hard word work you've put into this. I can look around and find the other piece if I have not already sent it to you.

 

[Walternate]

BSG is my all-time favorite series, and I've always wanted to see a good game based off of it, so I wish you all the best with the next version of your mod.

Glad to see you got Galactica's point defense turrets working, they're one of my favorite things about battles in BSG. And on the subject of Bear McCreary's music, I suspect the man made some sort of deal with eldritch forces in exchange for the ability to write music that good.

 

[kjc733]

This image is from the file I sent today, the one I said was slightly compressed. It works rather well, especially when a group of basestars do an alpha strike. But hey, new weapons is half of what makes HRM2 special, so anything you can do to finish them off would be appreciated.

Music, I totally agree and you did send me two files. One of which has gone in (the cylon one), the other I'm not so sure of. I'm tempted to use "Prelude to War" for the colonials, I did want to use "Storming New Caprica" but I don't think it sits right.

(And no, Reach is now running through my head as it was the first Halo I played and I really love the main piece - so your powers are weak old man )

 

[Adm_Z]

Prelude to war is the one I use for most of my bsg music. Definitely one of my favorites.

 

[thunderfoot]

This image is from the file I sent today, the one I said was slightly compressed. It works rather well, especially when a group of basestars do an alpha strike. But hey, new weapons is half of what makes HRM2 special, so anything you can do to finish them off would be appreciated.

Music, I totally agree and you did send me two files. One of which has gone in (the cylon one), the other I'm not so sure of. I'm tempted to use "Prelude to War" for the colonials, I did want to use "Storming New Caprica" but I don't think it sits right.

(And no, Reach is now running through my head as it was the first Halo I played and I really love the main piece - so your powers are weak old man )

Ha! That'll be the day, my young apprentice! Take a listen to "Precipice" or "Mandala in the Clouds" and tell me they are not perfectly suited to HRM. I use "Mandala in the Clouds" right now for my BSG music. I am only sorry I didn't find it prior to us releasing HRM v1.0. Might have garnered a few more D/Ls all by itself. I think it is that good. Hits all the familiar themes to lull you into thinking, 'Yeah. Right. Bear McCreary BSG tunage. Kewel!'. Then it kicks you squarely in the brain and the reproductive parts at the same time.

 

[Walternate]

Yeah, Prelude to War was of course the first thing that popped into my head.

Which piece are you using for the Cylons? Battlestar Sonatica?

Something Dark is Coming might also be a great background piece for either faction.

 

[thunderfoot]

Prelude to War has been used too much for nearly everything, I think. Hard to find a BSG vid on YouTube or a mod for a game which does not use it. For the Cylons I think I sent kjc "Are You Alive?". Has that haunting little bell piece right at the beginning which instantly says Cylon.

 

[kjc733]

Yes you sent "Are you Alive" and "Precipice". Just checked out "Mandella in the Clouds" and it's definately on the possible list (there's far more BSG music on youtube than there used to be). Just listened to "Deathbed and Maelstrome" and need to take a break cos that one really does hit me hard.

 

[kjc733]

After several days of "research" I have come to a decision. There are far more BSG pieces on youtube than the last time I looked. "Resurection Hub" especially came close to the top and now features as one of my regularly listened to pieces.

In other news, Uncle Thunder has sent me the updated point defence files and they look better for it. The job started last weekend was the (rather extensive!) credit list and revising the readme's. Job for this weekend is to put together another install (as there have been a few changes from when TF tried it) and test from fresh.

So just to reassure people, I haven't got carried away with maya and flying, this mod is still being worked on and getting ever closer to release.