Fleet Operations, the TOS Era (Sort Of) and a Lot of Free Time

[Amateur]

Looking good.

My one comment is of a pet peeve of mine, that seems to come up every now and again with TOS mods: The Surya.

The model you've made seems to have the full-length extended hull a-la the Miranda. The Surya shouldn't have it that long. The Surya's extended hull is much shorter, basically no longer than the saucer itself, just adding corners.

Every TOS mod likes to include the Surya, but they either use the long-hull model or call it "a TOS Miranda", neither of which are correct for the Surya, but both correct for the Coventry class (from the same source book as the Surya and Knox (TMP Surya)), which sadly gets missed out every time.

I'll scan the pages from the books when I get home, if it would help clarify what I mean.

Thanks

The problem with the Surya/Coventry, however, is that they're all re-imagining's made by Majestic and released a while ago; and I thought it only right to keep the names as he called them. To keep more in line with the original TOS era, I'd gladly rename the class but I'd have to check with Majestic first.

 

[Amateur]

Grr, forgot today's article.

References and Allusions

The literary critic Roland Barthes was a very clever man. He postulated that there was nothing truly unique; everything was an echo of something else. Of course, he was mainly talking about literature – but I think this mod goes some way to proving his ideas. The Federation ships that Majestic made are original certainly, but they’re based around original designs. They draw upon a history and lineage to create their own appearance.

Now, you’re probably wondering why I’ve said all this. Well, it’s because the ships aren’t going to be the only allusion or link. There will be other things, little things, which refer to other elements of culture. Federation warp-in trade ships, for example, have a chance of carrying a mysterious substance known as ‘Spoo’, and one of the primary components of the phaser arrays in the Declaration class is the ‘flux capacitor’.

 

[Amateur]

And today's progress. I've not got anything planned for tomorrow, as I'm out most of the day; and off to visit family over the weekend. Monday I should get some stuff done

Done Today

• Renamed Surya Coventry. Thanks to Atlantis for the suggestion and Majestic for giving permission
• Added the Daedalus to the game
• Meshed and textured the Kestrel from Starfleet Museum
• Meshed and textured Klingon battleship based around a ship from Legacy
• Attempted to make a background (task failed)

To be Done Next

• Tooltips for the Daedalus
• Rank specific ODFs for the Daedalus

 

[Starfox1701]

Nice Kestrel! you going to add the phasers or do the scout version?

 

[Majestic]

Looking cool, how do you get those lightmapped lights on the top? I don't know how to do that.

 

[Amateur]

Nice Kestrel! you going to add the phasers or do the scout version?

Not sure. Adding phasers would - in my opinion - ruin the impact of the two cannons. May do two versions, we'll see .

Looking cool, how do you get those lightmapped lights on the top? I don't know how to do that.

On the Daedalus? I rendered out a UVW map in Max, laid it over the texture so I knew where the top was and selected an oval shape. Fill that with a gradient in the Alpha channel, blur by 4.0; then fade it via linear dodge. After that it was transformed to the size and shape I wanted.

It uses a different texture than the standard hull, mainly because the spotlights over the registry get a little messed up when mapped to a sphere.

 

[Amateur]

I'm back

Managed to get some stuff done late last night, so yesterday's progress is now todays...in a way.

So, this is going to look a little different...

Done Yesterday

• Rank specific ODFs for the Daedalus
• Tooltips for the Daedalus and weapons
• Revised Federation GUI

To be Done Today

• New Background
• Add the Declaration class to the game

No article today, I haven't had a chance to write one yet

EDIT:

Hmm, images aren't showing. I'll use Photobucket today

 

[Adm_Z]

Nice! I like your unique systembackground images. Will you be using the system icons as well? They can be quite annoying to code...

 

[Majestic]

Could you upload the images via the attachment feature? As I can't see the images as they are too small and won't enlarge even though there is the cursor image to do so.

 

[Amateur]

Nice! I like your unique systembackground images. Will you be using the system icons as well? They can be quite annoying to code...

Thanks. I do intend to make use of the little system icons, but in a different way to 'stock' FO. If you look on the bottom, next to the hull bar, you'll see the icons there. I'm not going to have them spread across the picture in order to keep the feel of a genuine interface and to make it easier to find what you're looking for.

Could you upload the images via the attachment feature? As I can't see the images as they are too small and won't enlarge even though there is the cursor image to do so.

Sure thing. My connection has been playing up today, and the upload attachment thingy timed out twice. Didn't want to force the issue, so I used Photobucket. They should be at the bottom of this post, unless BT are still fiddling about at the telephone exchange...

 

[Amateur]

Today's update. Back on track now

Done Today

• Added the Declaration class to the game
• Made a new background (no pictures for that, it's a secret )

To be Done Tomorrow

• Tooltips for the Declaration
• Race specific ODF for the Declaration

Pictures are from the Map Editor, hence the Borg GUI.

 

[Styer_Crisis]

Says in a Viking Accent

oy, good to se ya back on track mon, i liuk those declaration pics. Ohhhhh c'mon mon, shuw us sum backrund piks mon, me need to se to se it.

 

[Majestic]

Thank you for re-uploading them. They look great I especially like the idea of the passive icons being at the bottom of the wireframe, that's a nice touch.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

Nice to see another mod breaking barriers

 

[Atlantis]

• Race specific ODF for the Declaration

That bit sounds intriguing. Care to tell any details?

 

[Starfox1701]

Great to see the pics getting better

 

[Amateur]

oy, good to se ya back on track mon, i liuk those declaration pics. Ohhhhh c'mon mon, shuw us sum backrund piks mon, me need to se to se it.

There's got to be some secrets

Maybe I'll show a picture later. Only one mind, and not of the interesting part

That bit sounds intriguing. Care to tell any details?

Darn Freudian slips! Oh well, gives me something to talk about in the article...

Mixed Tech

Yet another piece of FlOps that shows how much work the team have put in. I doubt the designers had any idea of the potential behind alliances and comparisons. More fool them, I say.

Still, Mixed Tech is a weird one for me. I love the idea, and the implementation is good, but I wanted something a little different. The idea I had was that when a vessel is captured, it changes. The Declaration is going to test the idea for me later, although in truth it will just be a simple tooltip change and a chance to see if the button works.

In a nutshell, it works like this:

USS Declaration captured by the Klingons.

This opens up a replaceweapon (hopefully, I haven't messed about with the ReplaceWeapon yet) that allows the ship to be refitted to more Klingon standards.

USS Declaration gains Klingon heavy torpedoes in exchange for lowered shield points..

USS Declaration proceeds to destroy the Federation fleet.

Now as I say, I still need to test this - but I've looked through the guide and have a rough idea of what I'm doing. Can't really do much until all the races are done but test the idea.

 

[Adm_Z]

Yep, if you have the ability to research a mixed tech pod, have a replaceweapon that requires that pod to be used and uses the showonlyifhastech = 1 line. Then you just activate the replaceweapon on the ship, and it will be replaced with...whatever.

FO makes mixed tech reaalllyy easy.

 

[Amateur]

Yep, if you have the ability to research a mixed tech pod, have a replaceweapon that requires that pod to be used and uses the showonlyifhastech = 1 line. Then you just activate the replaceweapon on the ship, and it will be replaced with...whatever.

FO makes mixed tech reaalllyy easy.

It works a little differently to that, but until it's fully done I'm keeping quiet. Once it's implemented I'll make a video.

It uses that line though, and one ReplaceWeapon per ship. Very surprised it worked if I'm honest, thought I'd have to come up with a workaround. Indeedm, I may still have to. The tests work, but I haven't had chance to try it in game yet.

Anyways. todays progress:

Done Today

• Declaration class ODFS and tooltips
• Tested the new Salvage options. Worked well, hoping for a complete test when I start on the Romulans

To be Done Tomorrow

• Constitution class in game

[Pirate]There do be pics here, and they do be showin' that new background that Crysis did be wantin' to see.[/Pirate]

 

[Starfox1701]

Nice keep ot coming

 

[Majestic]

Very nice Amateur, top quality stuff.

 

[Adm_Z]

That is a sick background. Great work so far man!

 

[Amateur]

Thanks all

Todays Article:

Divergence in the Timeline

You may have noticed, by now, that this mod differs from the 'real' TOS. That's intentional. Someday, in the future, there may even be a campaign (one step at a time though).

The thing is, I haven't got a comprehensive idea of what's happened in this reality. Things are different, and thing have changed, but I haven't worked it all out yet. At the moment, I'm getting the stuff in the game; as soon as that's all done I can actually weave a story around it. If ever there is a campaign though, I'm going to be looking at the episodes for inspiration. Expect 'Balance of Terror' to involve an advanced Bird of Prey that needs to be stopped, and 'The Doomsday Machine' to be a race against time as it moves towards an important starbase. 'The Guardian of Forever' may make an appearance as well; leading to a mission with ships from the Starfleet Museum in the Romulan War (actually a really good idea. So doing that!), or a glimpse of a future yet to come.

In all, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I've not even finished the Federation combat ships yet, and still have to work out stations and techtrees. But, on the plus side, the longer I take the more time I have to work out the story. Who knows, when it comes time for the campaign there may be one quick and simple editor built into FlOps. That'd make my job easier!

 

[Amateur]

Time for today's update. Didn't get much done, it was a pretty hectic day. Hopefully got a nice free weekend though.

Done Today

• Added the Constitution class to the game

To be Done Tomorrow

• Tooltips for the Constitution
• Avatar ODFs for the Constitution
• Secret, but I'll have pics :zipped

Speaking of pics, you know where they are by now

 

[Starfox1701]

pics are getung better

 

[Majestic]

Beautiful work mate, I love what you've been doing with these models.

 

[Styer_Crisis]

Thanks all
In all, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I've not even finished the Federation combat ships yet, and still have to work out stations and techtrees. But, on the plus side, the longer I take the more time I have to work out the story. Who knows, when it comes time for the campaign there may be one quick and simple editor built into FlOps. That'd make my job easier!

And who knows, with the progress MegaDroids made on his mission mod, we may find our selves with an easy to use campaign editor in our hands sooner than later

 

[Amateur]

Thanks guys, glad you like the stuff

And who knows, with the progress MegaDroids made on his mission mod, we may find our selves with an easy to use campaign editor in our hands sooner than later

*Fingers crossed*

Update time

Done Today

• Constitution class avatar odfs
• Constitution class tooltips
• Some of the secret item

To be Done Tomorrow

• Finish off the secret thingy
• Take pics of the secret thingy

No pics today I'm afraid. There's really not much to show.

Double helping tomorrow though. I promise

 

[Terra_Inc]

And who knows, with the progress MegaDroids made on his mission mod, we may find our selves with an easy to use campaign editor in our hands sooner than later

This shouldn't be too hard, if you ask me. Yes, it'll be quite some work to actually MAKE it, but the concept isn't that hard to understand. What he'll have to do is have the editor create predefined code parts. Not that hard. Of course, with the immense opportunities MMM offers us (have you ever taken a look into the tracker?), it'll be hard to fit them all into a GUI. Honestly, I think that some of these interfaces will be left out of the editor. They can do too much.
I don't know if you are programming-literate enough to realize this when reading Chris' posts, but we're able to go FAR BEYOND what the A2 missions had to offer. Awesome times for people like us.

EDIT: actually, if I wanted, I think I could hack something together for at least the basic mission parts. waaay too tired for it, though, and way too busy nowadays.

 

[Amateur]

To be honest Terra, I've not given much more than a cursory glance over Megadroids work. Coding is not exacly my strong suite, and I've been hesitant to dive in head first.

Besides, without ships and whatnot - how am I going to make the missions

Anyways, I'm sure I promised a double helping of pictures today. With that in mind, I can lift the veil of secrecy and reveal that the secret item has been, in fact, two things:

A new Romulam GUI
The first Romulan ship.

Now, the GUI was heavily influenced by my iPod touch, and I personally think it suits the Romulans; but that could change when I actually start work on them properly. Pictures 5 and 6 show the GUI, these shots were taken in the map editor - so I was lucky it came up really

This ship is only in for the Fed's to shoot at, as it were , so I haven't got rank or avatar ODFs sorted yet; I probably won't until the Fed's are all done, but it all depends on how I feel at the time.