Some Thoughts on Making BSG a Playable Race in A2 V1.1

[thunderfoot]

All I need to do is make up some odfs for the rest of Majestic's BSG ships which I have not done yet. Then I have test this to ensure it does not cause a CTD event. It may work with PP1.2.5 installed but I am not going to worry overmuch about this. if it does work with PP1.2.5 installed, or works better, would someone please post something for the rest of us?

 

[thunderfoot]

Apologies for the double posting. Just got done function checking the hardpoints on Maj's Galactica and Colombia. I was checking to make sure the Vipers actually came out and went in where they are supposed to. They do, lol. Maj put together some very lovely models here. The textures need some adjustment, though. Coxxon did a beautiful job for the most part. However the details sometimes get lost. So I decided to see just how close I could get the color of the textures to a pic of Galactica I found. I used an old texture I've had laying around and decided to see what it looked like on the model. I was surprised at the difference. Judge for yourself and please tell me which one should be included in the mod.

Spoiler: Side by Side

I really like the models. For the Columbia, the Vipers launch from the starboard Flight Pod and recover to the port one. Galactica's fighters launch and recover from the port side only.

 

[Majestic]

No problems on the double post, here at MSFC a double post means if you post before the edit option expires, which if I recall is about 30 minutes. After that it's not constituted as a double post.

Plus the idea of not being able to post in old threads that some sites have is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. I feel if that's the case why aren't the old threads deleted after a month or what not? Some people, we at MSFC are a community and reviving old threads and updating threads with new posts even if you were the last person to post is perfectly fine with us and in fact sometimes encouraged.

As for the ships, thanks for the compliment, you may want to check your PM's by the way.

I say use your edited one, it looks better to the one I released. I still need to look into doing more hero versions for the Columbia down the track, but at the moment getting the Cygnus, Valkyrie and Titan ready and released are my BSG A2 concerns.

So yes I say use your edited version it looks better to the one I released.

 

[thunderfoot]

Couple of pics before I am off to work today. The mod is moving towards release rather well, actually. I find I have some tweaks to make, add in proper missiles and Nukes, test and then it is finished. This will be as much Maj's mod as anyone else's. He's graciously allowed me to include the PRP BSG ships and they flesh out the Colonial Fleet nicely. Currently I have about 35-40 Colonial ships of all types. Nearly all of these are available somewhere already. I also have decided to use Maj's Colonial GUI, since it matches a little more closely to the Stock GUIs BB and wireframes will be new. The Jump Drive button in the pics is a placeholder. I have a better one. One of the tweaks is to see if I am smart enough to make a Jump Drive flash effect which matches more closely to what has been seen in the series. 'Nuff chat. Here's the pics.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[Terra_Inc]

Looks awesome, me wants!

 

[Starfox1701]

What are using for the jump drive?

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I am always very impressed to see the pics Thunderfoot makes, they are far better than I could do, hehehe.
I am very happy to see you still making BSG stuff for ingame, I am reloading my batteries while making some models from other series (did I say that loudly? ).
Keep it up!

 

[Majestic]

You know Thunder, I have a WIP new Colonial GUI I was making using Achilles Metathran GUI as a base.

It's not complete but you're welcome to it if you like.

 

[thunderfoot]

You know Thunder, I have a WIP new Colonial GUI I was making using Achilles Metathran GUI as a base.

It's not complete but you're welcome to it if you like.

I appreciate the offer. The one you've already released is pretty good. I think for now I'll just stay with it. Although when or if someone gets around to doing something like this for the Cylons, the WIP one may be very useful.

 

[Majestic]

Fair enough, here is the post with the GUI images if you change your mind and decide the new one is more for you.

MSFC - PRP GUI Post

 

[thunderfoot]

I have added in nearly everything I want to include in the mod to my custom install. All that is left are just some very minor details and fixes of things which I need to improve or do better. When I get home from work this evening, I intend to transfer everything over to my guinea pig Stock1.1 install and see if I can get it to run one time without crashing. Cross your fingers, please. This is where I expect the bigger problems to occur.

The Map Editor menus and race odfs are finished. All of the ships which Maj has allowed me to use are finished excpet for two or three. I have versions of these which work, but Maj's are much nicer. The mod is still on schedule, so no worries over the better versions. These may be released as a follow on pack since all I will be replacing are models and textures. I need to redo some of the Build buttons and wireframes.

I have elected not to include Nukes. They are simply too powerful and do not add significantly to game play. One of my playtesters gleefully used nothing but nukes and sacrificed every Colonial ship he had which did not have them. All those explosions left me a little rattled and there obviously was not much challenge in the game. The Borg and 8472 were little more than neatly lined up targets for him to flash burn out of existence. I should like to point out again, this will only allow a player controlled Colonial Fleet. Currently, I am not smart enough to make a version which the AI can use. If anyone does come up with a good build list and AIP, would you please share them with the rest of us? Thank you.

 

[thunderfoot]

Okay, I've spent the evening testing some things. One of the things which has bugged me is 'How do I get a player to build and protect the Rag Tag Fleet?' I think I've come up with a partial answer. The techtree and intrinsicValue. To access the better warships, a player will have to build the civilian ships. The second part of this is I've just gone through and redone the intrinsicValue settings in the ODFs as well. The Rag Tag Fleet are all set much higher than the combat ships. Played it through a couple of times and I may have set the values too high. An AI controlled Base Ship forced its way past two battlestars to engage the civvies. I reset everything and then placed the Base Ship so the civvies were at the very fringe of its sensor range. The results were spectacular! The Cylon ship jumped to a point smack in the middle of the civvies and proceeded to lay waste to them before either Galactica or Pegasus could launch Vipers or even fire. Kinda neat watching the Beast wiggle her way through the remaining civvies trying to get to the Toasters before they killed everything Colonial in sight, lol. Wish I'd have remembered to turn on the FRAPS. Ah well, maybe tomorrow. 2 AM here and time for bed.

 

[kjc733]

Hey you managed to get the toasters to jump. Great news

 

[Adm_Z]

Mine do also. fighters and all http://www.msfc.com.au/forum/picture.php?albumid=44&pictureid=459


Sounds like an epic battle thunder, a video would be really cool.

This sounds like a really cool mod. I think I will actually re-install stock A2 just to play it

(jk I have many stock mods, and yours will be one of my favs, right up there with A2:Tact. Assult.)

 

[thunderfoot]

I am trying to use as many of Maj's PRP BSG ships as possible. The models are pretty, free of mesh errors, and the poly counts are lower than a simple import of one of Coxxon's wonderful ships. Further, Maj has been trying to use the same set of textures for more than one ship. I think the total number of textures might be less than one dozen and there might be three textures total for one or two of the ships. This is something which Dan1025 did for his Cardassian mod as well. Good idea. I always cringe when I opened a mod I really wanted and see as many as seven or eight textures for one ship.

Ran into a bit of a snag today. Maj always includes a few heroShip setups and I am trying to be faithful to these as well. His Pegasus v2.0 is one such. So I went through the usual process of renaming the SOD files and then installing the ships into everything. Opened the Editor to start the scaling and...CTD. Which has gone on for the last three hours and one half hours. No matter what I do or try. I know the models will work and are not flawed because I can call each of them up in Storm3D and they look magnificent. I used CV to locate the hps, so I don't have Vipers launching out the top of the head or something equally silly. This one has me a little aggravated with myself. Obviously, I've done something wrong somewhere in the ODF and for once I cannot find it. So, I think I'll just start over with a blank sheet of paper and redo the entire thing from the beginning.

 

[Adm_Z]

wow, thats suprising.

The only things I can think of for that is misspelled weapon names, hardpoints that don't exist but that just doesn't fire...

Oh and a mis-spelled sprite file.

But I"m sure you already know this, so a clean odf is prally the best idea.

 

[thunderfoot]

I have no frakkin' idea how it happened but now everything is working. The ship shoots, moves, Jumps, launches Vipers, etc. I did not change anything significant in the new ODF either.

I am relieved as well, I was beginning to doubt whether or not I was smart enough to pull this off. The only reason I can think of for all this trouble is...

Sabotage by a Skin Job!!! ​

 

[Adm_Z]

Hmmmmm, the name isn't really long is it?

My work process was stopped completely for months because some of my file names were too long. The game would crash all the time, but at different places, and sometimes it wouldn't crash at all. it was weird.

 

[thunderfoot]

Naaah. It is not the name of the files, my friend. See, if I cast allegations upon an as yet unproven to exist saboteur(Skin Job!), I get to neatly avoid responsibility and accountability for my own shortcomings. In the 21st Century, I have this right, lol.

 

[thunderfoot]

Well FRAK! FRAK! During testing my Installation Instructions, I discovered I do not like the new build buttons and wire frames I have made just for this at all. They look terrible! I also apparently did not make Admiral's Log pics for a few of the ships. So, this means the release date will be set back one week to March 27th. Sorry for the delay, people, but my ego is telling me I'd like this to look as professional as something Achilles, Dan1025, FahreS, or Yacuzza has done. There's too much half done stuff already available which only messes up someone's enjoyment of the game. Not going to add to this if I can help it.

 

[Starfox1701]

Hows that saying go "It will be done when it's done."

 

[Katala]

That 27th of March release date will help Majestic, as both our power supplies are playing up at the moment. We are looking at taking them back tomorrow to get replaced as they are only a couple of months old and have a 12 month warranty on them and have died again already so either something is wrong with this house or the psu's are rubbish.

Majestic will post at a later date. He is spending every second night away from home for the next couple of weeks and only has access to the internet via my laptop.

 

[StarBlade]

I realize this is off-topic, but that's awful news, Katala.

 

[thunderfoot]

That 27th of March release date will help Majestic, as both our power supplies are playing up at the moment. We are looking at taking them back tomorrow to get replaced as they are only a couple of months old and have a 12 month warranty on them and have died again already so either something is wrong with this house or the psu's are rubbish.

Majestic will post at a later date. He is spending every second night away from home for the next couple of weeks and only has access to the internet via my laptop.

This is distressing to hear. A dodgy power supply can do much more harm to a comp than many people realize.

As to the off topic thing. TSK, I always say, "Rules, Schmules! Bah!" The "Topic Rule" is one of those Interwebs thingies I find annoying from time to time. After all, we would not carry on a face to face conversation with someone eavedropping occasionally to ensure the conversation stays on track. As a Special Junior Assistant to the Senior First Level Apprentice in the Mod Ninjas dojo (Hai, Sensei! Wakirimas! Domo Arigato!), I find "the rules" get in the way of common sense sometimes. You were being polite and considerate towards another person's troubles. How can this be wrong?

Oh no. Oh No! It's a Moderator! Heading right for us! Must. Return. To. Topic! Pull up! Pull Up!

*Insert sounds of large, multi-engine aircraft with engines straining loudly over ominously swelling, tension inducing music from the soundtrack of your favorite Summer Blockbuster - here.*​

Whew! Close one, wasn't it?

Alrighty then, I was trying to test out the BSG Half Race Mod in a stock 1.1 install I have for trying out such things. I can play any of the tutorials. I can access any of the BSG ships via the Editor while in the tutorial. These ships can do everything I intend for them to and are fully functional. Whenever I try to start an Instant Action game or a Single Player Mission, the Loading Bar goes to about ten percent then stops. The game locks up and I have to CTRL-ALT-DEL back to the desktop. Here's the interesting part. All of these ships work flawlessly in my custom install and I can play an Instant Action or Single Player game there. I built the mod in the custom install and then copy/pasted all the files over to the Stock install. It should have worked in the Stock install as well. I have never modded the game this extensively before and I am stumped as to what I've done wrong. Already checked for all the usual errors, but if someone suggests doing so again, I will.

This, the few Admiral's Log pics I've not done, and the better BBs and WFRs are all that stand in the way of this being released. Well, really just this. The other stuff is just me being nitpicky about appearances. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

[StarBlade]

Usually a ten-percent load crash means that there's a problem in one of the main files (techtree or race .ODFs), especially if everything works in the map editor.

As to the other part, it's not a question of civility. Without Majestic around, it's just Sci-Fi Central.

 

[Katala]

Darn straight it is awful news, we are currently mid looking for a new house, having only until the 19th April 2010 *which incedently is my birthday* before our eviction lapses so we need our pc's working in order to find us a new house to live in, with Maj staying at his mum's place while she is touring the UK it is also the easiest form of communication for Maj and I PLUS all my assignments are on my pc so I am unable to even try to re-backup the files to print them off by putting my harddrive with another pc *which we already tried and discovered it was the psu and not the gfx* I am so close to graduating so you can imagine how annoyed I currently am!

I have sent Maj back to the store to get two new ones once again using my Specialist money so we will have to once again dig into the remaining of our wedding savings sometimes I wish life would just hurry up and stop testing us....

 

[Starfox1701]

Tfoot The problem with the install will be in one of the files that you did not copy from coustom to stock; what I mean is you need one or more of the files you didn't copy.

Katala While I have no solution for you both at this time I have often found these guys and there music to be very insperational

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMS30HLopFs&feature=PlayList&p=FD425A9FEA3B4067&index=1

 

[Majestic]

Thanks to Katala's awesomeness at PC's I am once again back in action!

However Katala's PC needs a burial as it has finally given up the ghost so after we move she will be building herself a new PC as hers was about 5 years old anyways and was due to be upgraded. Once again Thanks Kat! No wonder I love you!

 

[thunderfoot]

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions. I shall use them to check everything. Anyone interested in playtesting this as it currently is? A different pair of eyes or a less shell shocked brain may find the error I've stared too long at and missed.

*Watches in dismay as MSFC members run wildly into the night. screaming.*

Now why does everyone do that whenever I mention the word, "playtest".

 

[Katala]

This is distressing to hear. A dodgy power supply can do much more harm to a comp than many people realize.

More than you would realise for the most part! My whole pc is dead, and before we realised this we put my memory into Majestic's PC to try and give him a memory boost only to have his not work either, I suspected the memory may have been his issue after putting a new PSU in my Pc and still not having a working Pc and voila! I was correct so now his is working and mine must be completely rebuilt, sad but I guess it was coming anyways lucky for me I still the trusty laptop for internet and assignments... Too bad it is not so good for my 3d based games :x

Oh no. Oh No! It's a Moderator! Heading right for us! Must. Return. To. Topic! Pull up! Pull Up!

*Insert sounds of large, multi-engine aircraft with engines straining loudly over ominously swelling, tension inducing music from the soundtrack of your favorite Summer Blockbuster - here.*​

Whew! Close one, wasn't it?

hehe ever the comedian you never fail to bring humor to anything you post

Thanks to Katala's awesomeness at PC's I am once again back in action!

However Katala's PC needs a burial as it has finally given up the ghost so after we move she will be building herself a new PC as hers was about 5 years old anyways and was due to be upgraded. Once again Thanks Kat! No wonder I love you!

crawler!

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions. I shall use them to check everything. Anyone interested in playtesting this as it currently is? A different pair of eyes or a less shell shocked brain may find the error I've stared too long at and missed.

*Watches in dismay as MSFC members run wildly into the night. screaming.*

Now why does everyone do that whenever I mention the word, "playtest".

Someone needs to help TF with this, any offers?!?!?! Come on people don't be shy!