MSFC Dominion Mod

[Majestic]

Well the other day Syf have me an idea, I was thinking about something similar myself but with Syf's suggestion it all clicked into place. To get to the core of it, I never liked the Super 'God' weapons/units in stock Armada (Temporal field, Phoenix ship etc) and I have left them out of every mod I have ever made.

Well now I have a suitable replacement.

Each race now gets a new station and depending on the race naturally, this station can either call in prototypes or reinforcements. There will also be a techtree that will allow a game to be played without these ships if one so chooses.

For the Dominion they will have their allies reinforcements. So far the Sona will be there and I may consider adding the Cardassian Galor and Breen Battlecruiser. These units will be limited and the Sona vessels will have subspace weaponry making them effective against well anyone as they can create subspace rifts with their weapons.

I have even given a little thought on the Federation prototypes that can be called in and so far I have two confirmed designs and Syf expressed an interest in making some original Federation designs so they will be included. Before anyone asks, yes the Prometheus (with MVAM) will be among the ships in the prototype batch, another is a Federation design produced as a kind of hybrid design using Jem'Hadar technology.

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I would do that, but I need to record with the mic-headphones that I've got back at my regular home in order to do this, but I will try.

Thanks any voice-overs would be appreicated. I will see about drawing up scripts in the next few days.

god it all looks so... so pretty...

I am happy you like it. I still have much more to do but it's getting better and better.

 

[Borg_Queen]

Each race now gets a new station and depending on the race naturally, this station can either call in prototypes or reinforcements. There will also be a techtree that will allow a game to be played without these ships if one so chooses.

Have you chosen anything for the Borg yet in this area?

 

[Majestic]

Not yet Borg Queen, I am thinking of perhaps some assimilated Delta Quadrant ships like the ships included in the pack Avon released. The Borg sadly are the most complete race due to the small number of ships of them I am including. Right now I have pretty much every ship and station that I need for them but won't be releasing or working on them until a later date.

Well I finally got the Dominion ingame, and here are some early screenshots for your enjoyment.

Spoiler: Attack Ship Squadron

Spoiler: Heavy Attack Ships

Spoiler: Super Carrier

Spoiler: Battleship/Battlecruiser

Spoiler: Battleship/Battlecruiser

Spoiler: Combat Cruiser

 

[DarkPhoenix]

*whimpers* i feel like a puppy, that can see what he wants soooo badly but is stuck on a leash and is about to choke on the leash's collar to get at it. all the while, piddling and whining.

 

[Majestic]

Since I am releasing it as a full race mod and then additional races as addons you will get the Dominion before long. Infact I already have permission from both Achilles and Avon. That means I really only need to get Smiley's approval, considering he has allowed both Yacuzza and Achilles to port this models in the past I doubt I will have any trouble with that.

Right now my focus is to try and get the fleet complete model wise as well as start on the balancing and coding of weapons. I like to remind the aim of this mod is to have a multiplayer alternative to stock so won't be as fancy as mods like Zero Hour, KA2, Tactical Assault and Yesteryears.

I will be including updated physics, graphics and making all units stronger and more like A1.

 

[Knight]

the new ships look awesome (i love the carrier design but then i'm apparently a carrier fan lol)

everything you have in mind for the mod sounds pretty good, looking forward to seeing how its implemented

 

[Aerilon]

Looking Good Majest, your special station research sounds pretty neat too.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks guys, it's amazing what a little texture modifications can do. I got some very basic weapons in game now as well.

Spoiler: Jem'Hadar

Spoiler: The Dominion

 

[Dan1025]

Looks good, though the phaser flare looks a little big compared to the thickness of the beam. Other than that the ships and weapons look really good

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Dan, the flare is too big you're right, something I intend to fix soon as well as changing the colour of it.

EDIT: Dominion GUI Ingame. I decided upon a already existing one saving me the time from making a brand new one. I may do a few edits to it before release though.

Spoiler: GUI

 

[Aerilon]

The image doesn't work.

 

[Dan1025]

It does for me, the GUI looks great, as do the ship and station

 

[Majestic]

Tycoon, I have uploaded it as an attachment for you. The GUI still needs edits, especially in the resource panel as I am not using stock resources and not as many as shown there.

 

[Borg_Queen]

Talk about size difference between those two Dominion ships! Nicely done.

 

[Majestic]

Yeah thats the dreadnaught, for pathing issues I will be reducing it in size a little but all in all that is roughly the size it will be. That being said it's a monster and only one or two will be buildable.

All dreadnaughts (with the exception of the Federation) will be roughly that size and have that limit put on them. The Federation has the Sovereign and as we all know the Sovereign is roughly the same size as the Galaxy.

The Borg Cube will be roughly the size of the dreadnaught as well and again not a great many of those will be buildable. But they have the bonus of having transwarp, holding and assimulation beams come standard. Not a lot of research is involved with the borg and most of the borg fleet will end up being assimilated vessels, very much so in the begining of a game.

The Dominion will be spammers so to speak. Except to see bugs and other Dominion smaller vessels produced in almost insane numbers. While they do have their larger ships, class 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be the most used by the AI and players will not doubt follow suit to get the best out of them as possible.

I have also come up with a tiny storyline for the mod. In a nutshell it's a alternative reality where the Dominion war is still going in 2378, the Cardassians never repelled and there is still no end in sight for the war.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

oh my god that cruiser is HUGE. sweet bug too... oh i can't wait. there's two now.

 

[Aerilon]

Yeah thats the dreadnaught, for pathing issues I will be reducing it in size a little but all in all that is roughly the size it will be. That being said it's a monster and only one or two will be buildable.

All dreadnaughts (with the exception of the Federation) will be roughly that size and have that limit put on them. The Federation has the Sovereign and as we all know the Sovereign is roughly the same size as the Galaxy.

The Borg Cube will be roughly the size of the dreadnaught as well and again not a great many of those will be buildable. But they have the bonus of having transwarp, holding and assimulation beams come standard. Not a lot of research is involved with the borg and most of the borg fleet will end up being assimilated vessels, very much so in the begining of a game.

The Dominion will be spammers so to speak. Except to see bugs and other Dominion smaller vessels produced in almost insane numbers. While they do have their larger ships, class 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be the most used by the AI and players will not doubt follow suit to get the best out of them as possible.

I have also come up with a tiny storyline for the mod. In a nutshell it's a alternative reality where the Dominion war is still going in 2378, the Cardassians never repelled and there is still no end in sight for the war.

All sounds good, and yeah, that Dreadnought is huge

Then again, I've got the same problem with mine, though I believe, I've scaled mine much smaller than yours. You've not only got to worry about the combat with other ships, but also how it'll be built, and its effects with asteroids. There were problems on stock A2 with the Fusion Cube, kept running into them. Don't want this again...

 

[Majestic]

You are right Tycoon, a problem I don't face in YY due to the lovely sizes of TMP era ships.

The Dreadnaughts are built with the construction ship and not a shipyard. I do plan to scale it a bit smaller and considering only one possible two can be built (thanks to FlOps patch) I won't be paying a whole lot of attention to them and they can be turned off with techtrees options (like no science etc).

 

[Majestic]

Well I am back working on this while I await for Amateur to complete work on the PAR models.

Last night I completed the heavy shipyard and also got an idea for a turret wich I plan to make/kitbash today so with any luck this afternoon I will be able to post some new images of some new Dominion units.

Also thanks to Aad Moreman and Tycoon, I recieved three Cardassian units that were cut out of Zero Hour and Tycoon has made them exclusive to this modification. I am still working on the textures to get them to match the Cardassian units I have but this has really cut back on the production of the Cardassian side and now only require some retextures and one ship modelled (Tonga) which should happen in the next month or so.

So with that I am considering releasing the Cardassians at the same time as the Dominion so you all have someone to beat up.

 

[Dan1025]

Glad to hear the mod is progressing, looking forward to seeing more

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Dan, well the turret didn't turn out all that good and half way through it's construction it turned into a mining facility so I must say no loss there. I just finished building her and now I plan on hardpointing her and getting her ingame. So thats two new buildings for the Dominion in under 24 hours, lets see if I can go for three.

Well time for show and tell, I have finished three new stations in the last 24 hours, 2 mining stations and the heavy shipyard. I am going to be retexturing one of Achillies Metathran turrets for the Dominion too so that will be another station down leaving only the research station(s), starbase, a light turret, a sensor station and two combat ships required.

I am looking into the ships issue as we speak I have an idea on a freighter and a class 1 combat ship. I still need to finish the texture changes on the Seige Cruiser and start and complete the texture changes on the construction ship.

I am also looking into special weapons, if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Anyway enough of that now onto the screenshots.

Spoiler: Heavy Shipyard

Spoiler: Heavy Shipyard

Spoiler: Mining Station

Spoiler: Mining Station 2

Spoiler: Mining Station Comparasion

Spoiler: Planet Conquered

Spoiler: Fleet

 

[Dan1025]

I have to say those models are flawless, they really fit the Dominion perfectly

 

[Majestic]

Not too shabby for a couple of kitbashes all from the one model ay?

Edit: Well I now have a Dominion turret, just a retexture and small mesh change to one of Achilles models. The longest part was actually changing the texture to match the shipyards one but I am happy with the end result.

I also did another texture change to the strike cruiser by Achilles, this time changing the windows as I always personally felt they were too big for the ship.

Spoiler: Dominion Image

Spoiler: Dominion Image

Spoiler: Dominion Image

Spoiler: Dominion Image

 

[Starfox1701]

Special weapon segestion, Changling sabator. There are several weapons that could be adapted to fit that idea. I think the bug ram was done in the dominion ultimate mod.

 

[Aerilon]

Also thanks to Aad Moreman and Tycoon, I recieved three Cardassian units that were cut out of Zero Hour and Tycoon has made them exclusive to this modification. I am still working on the textures to get them to match the Cardassian units I have but this has really cut back on the production of the Cardassian side and now only require some retextures and one ship modelled (Tonga) which should happen in the next month or so.

Glad to be of survice. Your Dominion items look quite good also, plus I see you've thought the same as me, in regards to the Strike Cruiser windows The stock release had them far too big.

 

[Majestic]

Special weapon segestion, Changling sabator. There are several weapons that could be adapted to fit that idea. I think the bug ram was done in the dominion ultimate mod.

Thanks Starfox I didn't think of the Changling one I might just have to use that, as for ramming I am using that for the Gorn in Yesteryears and had planned to use it in here, but again thanks for the suggestion.

Glad to be of survice. Your Dominion items look quite good also, plus I see you've thought the same as me, in regards to the Strike Cruiser windows The stock release had them far too big.

Yes, I felt they were too big for my own tastes. I have always felt that the Strike Cruiser would be equal in size to the Intrepid/Steamrunner classes of the Federation. I am actually scaling all ships off the bug, though some of the larger ships obviously need to be smaller to be effective in the mod.

Well last night I made another unit, this time a sensor or light turret, not sure which yet. I am going to attempt a light turret soon and if it turns out good then the station I did last night will be a sensor station.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Looks very awesome so far Majestic, and glad to hear some of the old ZH stuff is going to get used.

 

[Majestic]

Yes, you can all thank Ash and Avon for that, they are the ones that allowed this to happen and it's helped the mod a lot.

Now onto a pressing matter, a name. This mod has been called many things from MSFC Dominion War to MSFC Mod to Dominion War. I have a small list and I want to know if anyone at all has any suggestions. I will put a poll up later on and allow people to vote but I want to get some more options before I do that. So if you have an suggestion by all means jot it down here.

Now onto the Dominion, I have completed nearly all stations, I only have the Starbase and research station to do. The starbase I may be able to tackle myself and Syf said he may be able to do the research station I am after, but I may be redoing the mining stations as I am not totally happy with them personally. I am also considering a repair yard and have shipyards unable to repair stations, I want to know what the community things of this idea. While not all that original (Syf came up with the idea for Yesteryears which I decided against due to the sizes of the ships) it may work well for a TNG era mod.

I also only have two more combat ships left (Class 1 and Class 8), 3 if I decide to dump the dreadnoughts in favour of more pathing friendly vessels. I have also started rudimentary balancing though since I have nothing to balance against it's rather easy.

All in all it's going good and that turret I was working on turned out to be the best station yet so I am very pleased with the turrets for the Dominion.

Also I am still after special weapon suggestions so far I have the follwoing weapons on the drawing board or already in-game:

• Kamikaze Attack
• Attack Ship Formation
• Founder/Changeling Saboteur

 

[Atlantis]

Hmm, special weapon ideas, eh...

- Ketracel White Enhancement - Temporarily increases fire rate and/or repair rate for a short time.
- Polaron Burst - Temporarily overwhelms shielding systems.

As for a name, I'll think and get back later =)

 

[Majestic]

Thanks for the weapon suggestions Atlantis, I will look into them.

Station time, the sensor and pulse turret are here. The pulse turret took the longest as much editing was required from the turret2 model to get the look and fell I wanted and is by far my favourite Dominion station yet.

Spoiler: Sensor

Spoiler: Pulse Turret

Spoiler: Pulse Turret