Star Trek: Defense Line (Developing a new ST RTS game)

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Good day! I'm the starship specialist in the Russian Star Trek Fan Club.
My brother is developing a new Star Trek RTS on the Unity 3D engine (v.5). The project is about a year-old struggle with difficulties, because he works alone with my help with some details. Nevertheless, he's already created a lot of stuff and the game looks promising. Star Trek: Defense Line is a successor of Star Trek: Armada series tradition and we are trying to develop the ideas of Armada to make gameplay more realistic and interesting. We already released some playable versions and you can find one on our web-site. Your opinions and comments are very important for our work.
The project is lack of good 3d models and if you could help us with models the project would rise to a higher level of quality. At the beginning we used downloaded models, but they had too many polygons and it is unfair to use someone's models in our project without permission. So we started to make our own models, and they are not good. So any volunteer modelers are welcomed to our team.

We would be very glad to you for any ideas, help or advise with our project Star Trek: Defense Line.
Live long and prosper!

 

[Mr Epic Payne]

An interesting project from the looks of the screenies and whilst its still in demo status there might be quite a few things to "tidy" up before adding to much content. Still. I do have a couple of questions with regards to the models your currently using as placeholders:

1. Having never messed with the Unity engine I am curious what poly counts the ships and stations are limited to. info on this would be helpful to 3d modellers when your making that kind of request.

2. What model formats are required?? This is something I'm pretty curious about seeing other games that use the same game engine.

With regards to the current demo release. I had a quick try of it, but couldn't really work out how to build anything thats available and when I did manage to place a station (I'm assuming its a starbase of some kind) It was absolutely massive on the screen so I'm assuming this is something that needs to be addressed.

As for help. Methinks your in the right place

Anyway. I'll be posting on your MODDB profile so you can take a look at my work (although I've had to start using a new profile).

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Thanks for your answer! The project is still in early production status. We're working on gameplay and physics now. A new demo will be released is a week (maybe earlier).

1. The maximum polygons for a model is 10K (10'000). Unity 3D starts to lag.

2. We're working with the standard 3D Max format, but 3Ds is also good for Unity.

We really hope to find anyone who would like to help us with the models.

As for the demo you tried. The building system is now repaired and stabilized. So the next demo will work correctly. To build a station you should select a constructor ship and click a station icon, than place the station somewhere. Than select a constructor ship and click a station hologram's center, it will go to build it. In the next demo this system is much easier. As for size - we're trying to make some real dimensions of ships and stations.

To look at your work...sorry.. I didn't understand. What do you mean?

 

[kjc733]

I saw this on the BC forum yesterday, I was going to post it here as I suspect you'll get more interest here.

1. The maximum polygons for a model is 10K (10'000). Unity 3D starts to lag.

Just to clarify, that's 10k per model, and not 10k total? 10k per model is a good number for the modellers here, who are typically limited to 3k-ish for A2.

2. We're working with the standard 3D Max format, but 3Ds is also good for Unity.

That's the format used for building the meshes, but is that the final model format (e.g. A2 use's .sod - this is more for curiosity). Can you take and adapt other file formats? For example, I build in maya and typically convert to .obj if it needs to be used with other software.

We really hope to find anyone who would like to help us with the models.

To look at your work...sorry.. I didn't understand. What do you mean?

If Mr Payne is a new name for Major Payne... he's been around in the A2 modding community for a very long time. In fact, he's mentioned in most credits for my mods as he wrote a .sod instruction guide I use to this day.

Anyway, if you have a list of ships you are looking for, I'm fairly confident most of them will already exist in more detail than is found in standard A2.

 

[Mr Epic Payne]

I think he means 10k per model looking at the reply. kjc. You are quite correct. Unfortunately my copy of 3d max 5 has disappeared, but I still dabble very infrequently with milkshape still and my old email addy has become unusable so it was time to re-register.

USS Sovereign. Whilst the BC forum you posted on can be useful, you will probably find it better posting here. As kjc has quite rightly stated you should receive more interest here and as he suggests if your able to furnish those here with a list of ships and stations then you'll probably find your needs may be exceeded, in both amount of assets available and quality your requiring.
As for my "work". Well lets just say I've made my fair share of models in the past and rebuilt quite a few others, and whilst kjc is a relative newcomer compared to someone such as myself, his own work is outstanding and well worth looking over.

If you need some images and some other information then head to your MODDB game profile as I've posted on their under my profile name "mapayne". I'll also be sure to try out the new demo once its released.

 

[CABAL]

As for my "work". Well lets just say I've made my fair share of models in the past and rebuilt quite a few others, and whilst kjc is a relative newcomer compared to someone such as myself, his own work is outstanding and well worth looking over.

To be fair, most of us are newcomers compared The Major here. Anyway, I agree that KJC does some outstanding work.

I don't have any Unity experience, but MSFC can host the files in the download section if you want. I'm not sure if we can make it private, though. I'd have to look at the options.

 

[kjc733]

As they are looking for entire fleets, and probably would like consistence in quality of mesh and texture, my immediate thought would be Aad's work. He even tends to put the ms3d file in the downloads. Most of the rest of us focus on specific ships of interest, or maybe a single race.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Mr. Payne, your works are really good. We need such people in our team.

KJC-733, we are able to work with the majority of 3d formats. Most of the software can convert to 3Ds. So it would not be difficult to work with Maya. About Aad's works. How can I found his contacts, or communicate with him?

The ships&stations list is being worked on now. I'll post it as soon as it's completed. As for community models, please, explain me the procedure of asking permission. I should download a model, find the e-mail of it's author and write him to get permission, right?

CABAL, what options are you talking about?

Thank you all for your ideas and thoughts. Where it will be better to post our project news? On this page, or should I create a new thread?

Feel free to write you ideas about Defense Line. Maybe we would be able to make them real in game.

 

[kjc733]

KJC-733, we are able to work with the majority of 3d formats. Most of the software can convert to 3Ds. So it would not be difficult to work with Maya.

If you find a tool that converts directly from a Maya Binary (.mb) file then let me know - usually I have to convert to .obj to port with.

About Aad's works. How can I found his contacts, or communicate with him?

Aad Moerman is on this site and you should be able to PM him (go to Inbox on the top right of the screen, in the coloured bar, then start a new conversation). Most, if not all, of his work has been uploaded on this site (see Resources on the left side of the coloured bar at the top of the page). He has replaced virtually all of the stock models in A2 and I use his work as the basis for any personal mods.

The ships&stations list is being worked on now. I'll post it as soon as it's completed. As for community models, please, explain me the procedure of asking permission. I should download a model, find the e-mail of it's author and write him to get permission, right?

If it's available on this site then it's almost certain to have been made by a member here. Download the model and see if there are any instructions for releasing material in it. I would suggest that it's only polite to ask in any case - I would suggest dropping the author a PM.

CABAL, what options are you talking about?

I believe Cabal is offering to host your work here. However in all likelihood anyone would be able to access it, so it's probably not best to upload private works in progress.

Thank you all for your ideas and thoughts. Where it will be better to post our project news? On this page, or should I create a new thread?

I'd suggest just using this one thread for general news, it has a fairly generic title.
If at any point you want specific help then you could post a new thread with a specific subject line.

 

[CABAL]

CABAL, what options are you talking about?

I was talking about the settings when you upload something. I though maybe there was a 'private download' setting or something but it doesn't look like one exists, even for me. With the old system, we uploaded via FTP and manually created a download page, but if we didn't create a page then you could only get it if you knew the exact address of that file. We had a mod team or two use that to host team files here while still being private.

 

[MajorPayne]

Well thanks to Hellkite I'm now able to use my proper account here. Anyway. I'll keep an eye on this thread for the list of ships/stations that are required. If I have them and you can't find a better alternative then they'll be made available.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Ok, the ships&stations list is completed. We would be very grateful for any help and suggestions.

Federation:
Ships:
Galactica class
Galactica class (cargo type)
Defiant class
Saber class
Nova class
Akira class
Intrepid class
Steamrunner class
Luna class
Prometheus class
Nebula class
Galaxy class
Sovereign class
Excalibur class

Heroes:
U.S.S.NAGASAKI prototype
U.S.S.BEOWULF prototype
U.S.S.INCURSION prototype
U.S.S.DEFIANT prototype
U.S.S.HERBERT Nebula class
U.S.S.EVOLUTION prototype
U.S.S.BLACK ROSE prototype

Stations:
Starbase
Resource recycling station
Dry dock
Outpost
Scientific station
Phaser turret
Surplus Depot
Sensor Array
Trading station
Torpedo turret
Shipyard

Borg collective:
Ships:
Constructor
Transport
Scout-Cube
Drone Carrier
Sphere
Assimilator
Conus
Cylinder
Diamond
Star
Pyramid
Cube
Tactic cube
Destroyer cube

Heroes:
Command diamond (Diamond)
U.S.S.REVOLUTION Evolution class

Stations:
Nexus
Resource recycling node
Construction Matrix
Weapon platform
Scientific complex
Phaser turret
Resource Assimilation center
Sensor Array
Torpedo turret
Advanced Construction Matrix

Klingon Empire:
Ships:
Construction ship
Trader ship
D-53
Ktin’ga refit
K’vek
Bortasqu
Vodleh
Vor’cha
Vork’ang
I-73
Qu’Daj
K’torr
Negh’Var
Bird of Death

Stations:
Starbase
Resource recycling station
Dock
Outpost
Scientific station
Disruptor turret
Debris Recycling station
Sensor Array
Trading station
Torpedo turret
Imperial Shipyard

RomulanStar Empire:
Ships:
Construction ship
Trader ship
Talon
vas'Deletham
Aye Mosaram
Morlasasi Stelam
T-12
Fire bat
C-5
Valdore
D'deridex

Stations:
Star base
Resource recycling station
Dock
Outpost
Scientific station
Disruptor turret
Phaser turret
Debris Recycling station
Sensor Array
Trading station
Torpedo turret
Advanced yard

Cardassian Union:
Ships:
Construction ship
Grouma
Hideki class
Damar class
Rasila
Barkus class
Sartan
Legate
Keldon
Galor
Talor
Borak
Bretnok
Hutet

Stations:
Starbase
Resource recycling station
Dock
Nor
Scientific station
Phaser turret
Sensor Platform
Trading station
Torpedo turret
Advanced shipyard

8472:
Ships:
Mother ship
Storage Ship
Starship carrier
Heavy defender
Biophaser defender
Heavy starship carrier
Scout
Battle Ship
Behemoth
Fleet Destroyer
Support ship
Nemesis ship
Command ship
Planet destroyer

 

[MajorPayne]

Hmmm. Thats quite a list and most of the ships themselves should be fairly easy to find but theres a few I'm Not sure about so I'll go through them as I see them:

- Galactica Class. If this is the ship type I believe it is (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/26/2f/6a/262f6af5b2048ebbf7afbcd664eae991.jpg) it would require a brand new model, but is this the one??

- Some of the heroes haven't a specific class type. Are they Unique or hero versions of those from the Federation list??

- Resource recycling station. Any ideas on what this might look like?? Is it likely to be animated (moving sections) or require animated textures??

- Drone Carrier, Conus, Star, Destroyer Cube. As these are not standardised ships for the Borg you might want to give us some idea of what these may look like.

- Borg Hero Evolution Class. Is this an Assimilated ship and if so what race is it likely to belong to??

As for the other races, theres quite a few there which I don't recognise the names for so you may want to include some sort of brief description for each. Finally I would strongly suggest adding the website for this project as your signature and open a forum up there. It'll help in the long run.

Anyway. With regards to my own models, if you take a long look through the ones I've released and let me know those you require I'll sort them out and PM me an email address where they can be sent.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

We will post schematics for other races' ships. About my signature, it's said that I can't add any links in signature. Maybe, I could give our e-mail via PM, if someone needs it.
Thanks, I'll look through your models.

- Galactica class. I meant this variant. We identify it as Galactica class because of it's similarity with a ship from another series. It is Atlantia class according to this schematics.

- As for hero ships.
U.S.S.NAGASAKI - is of our own design. We created a model for it, but it's not good, so we would be pleased is someone would rebuild it.

U.S.S.BEOWULF - we need this concept adapted for the game:

U.S.S.INCURSION - is a hero ship from ST Armada 2 & ST Away Team

U.S.S.DEFIANT - NCC-74205 (a hero ship from DS9)

U.S.S.HERBERT Nebula class - is just the certain nebula class starship. Maybe it can have soe differences from the buildable variant of Nebula class.

U.S.S.EVOLUTION - is the prototype of a new class. We have only a "Frankenstein built" high poly, bad textured variant. It will not work in game and needs to be rebuilt.

U.S.S.BLACK ROSE - is some kind of Nova class variant. We have just a one concept art.

- Resource recycling station should have animations. It's a station which have every race. Resource collectors take resources to this station and player gets dilithium and titanium. Like Armada series system.

- Drone carrier is something like a dropship. It transports borg drones to target ship and assimilates it's crew, capturing the ship. Conus is a cone-form middle cruiser. Star is an extremely powerful vessel, with this shape:

Every pike has a cutter beam emitter.
Destroyer Cube is some kind of a flying station. It can repair nearby borg ships and is extremely powerful.

Borg hero U.S.S.REVOLUTION is assimilated federation ship of the same class as U.S.S.EVOLUTION (federation hero).

Other races schematics we will upload in a few days.

As they are looking for entire fleets, and probably would like consistence in quality of mesh and texture, my immediate thought would be Aad's work. He even tends to put the ms3d file in the downloads. Most of the rest of us focus on specific ships of interest, or maybe a single race.

I can't find out how to write PM. In my Conversation menu (Inbox) there is no buttons to start conversation or to write to another subject. Maybe I have no right to write PM?

 

[MajorPayne]

if you click on a members name it'll give you a small window and you can start a conversation from that.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

if you click on a members name it'll give you a small window and you can start a conversation from that.

Maybe I do something wrong? There is no ways to start conversation here.

 

[CABAL]

There's usually a link there between "Profile Page" and "Unfollow" but it doesn't show up until you've posted more or a red-named Administrator manually bumps you up from "New Member" to "Community Member." A staff member should be able to start a three-way conversation between them, you, and whoever you want to talk to, though.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

There's usually a link there between "Profile Page" and "Unfollow" but it doesn't show up until you've posted more or a red-named Administrator manually bumps you up from "New Member" to "Community Member." A staff member should be able to start a three-way conversation between them, you, and whoever you want to talk to, though.

Thank you. I understood.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Are you wanting to completely redesign the USS Evolution or are you wanting a better model? I ask because you didn't include an image of that ship.

Also, how close does the Beowulf model need to be to the concept you've posted? I ask because I might be able to kitbash something together that closely resembles the Beowulf, but I need to know how accurate I should be.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Are you wanting to completely redesign the USS Evolution or are you wanting a better model? I ask because you didn't include an image of that ship.

Also, how close does the Beowulf model need to be to the concept you've posted? I ask because I might be able to kitbash something together that closely resembles the Beowulf, but I need to know how accurate I should be.

Evolution class - is a variant of sovereign class. We Frankensteined a sovereign model to get something like this, but it's not enough. It would be better to make more differences between this class and sovereign.


About USS Beowulf, we need exact this model, maximally fit with the schematics.

Thank you for you desire to help!

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Is there a specific look you're wanting from the Evolution? Some drawings of what you have in mind might help.

 

[MajorPayne]

Just incase you read here BEFORE going to MODDB I've sent over the first zip file, but not to your personal email address. Once I strip out the station models I'll send them over as well.

USS Sovereign. The second federation pack has been emailed to the email as the first pack. Full station set included.

The third pack will take a bit longer, but I have some ideas for unique hero ships which might fit in better than a kitbashed sovvy.

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

USS Sovereign. The second federation pack has been emailed to the email as the first pack. Full station set included.

The third pack will take a bit longer, but I have some ideas for unique hero ships which might fit in better than a kitbashed sovvy.

Thank you, major! We have already added your models to the game. Stations are on turn. Tomorrow we will watch the models and decide what to do with each of them.

Is there a specific look you're wanting from the Evolution? Some drawings of what you have in mind might help.

Evolution is a very strong, fast and heavy armed sovereign. Our team leader made the 4-naselles variant to show how it should look, but it's just an extremely rough design.

 

[Aad Moerman]

Hello USS Sovereign,
I have read your request for new ships and stations. Perhaps you can find the things you want under resources at the this site. If you have any more questions, you can start a conversation with me.

Kind regards

 

[kjc733]

Hello USS Sovereign,
I have read your request for new ships and stations. Perhaps you can find the things you want under resources at the this site. If you have any more questions, you can start a conversation with me.
Kind regards

Just a note USS Sovereign, if you can't access the Resources section it is because you are a new member (see below). If you can't create a conversation, try replying to the three way conversation I started for you.

Spoiler: Download Criteria

To be eligible to download files, the user must be a participating member of the community and is required to post an introduction thread in the introduction section of the forums and post at least 30 posts of decent size (mass amounts of single or 3 worded posts within a very small time frame will be deleted as this is noted to rapidly increase your post count just to gain access to downloads and is also considered to be spam), be active for 7 days and have made some contribution (ie, participate in discussion on the forums) to the MSFC community and have a like count of at least 3 which can only be gained by other members liking your posts, if you are still waiting after a substantial amount of time, please PM a staff member, who will give you the rep required.

 

[Hellkite]

I will add to KJC statement

Please use the Edit post function at the bottom left next to the time stamp to Edit your post Instead of Double posting

 

[OpetJa]

Hi guys This is very, very nice to see, well done!!! Why don't you add Dominion as playable race, or Ferengi, Breen, Tholians, Gorn?? Or add vessels of mentioned races (and others from ST universe) randomly on map like A1/2??

Where can be demo downloaded?

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Hello USS Sovereign,
I have read your request for new ships and stations. Perhaps you can find the things you want under resources at the this site. If you have any more questions, you can start a conversation with me.
Kind regards

Thank you! I've replied to your message in our conversation. Thanks, KJC!

Hi guys This is very, very nice to see, well done!!! Why don't you add Dominion as playable race, or Ferengi, Breen, Tholians, Gorn?? Or add vessels of mentioned races (and others from ST universe) randomly on map like A1/2??

Where can be demo downloaded?

There are some plans about non-playable ships of minor races in game. They will appear randomly on map and affect of gameplay. But first of all, we should build a playable races to let you fight with AI. An old demo can be downloaded from our page on ModDB.com. Try to search Star Trek Defence line in game section.

Please stop double posting - HK​

 

[OpetJa]

Personally, I think it would be better to see Dominion as playable race (or another) rather than 8472...I've never played with 8472 in A2 because I didnt like it much... I'd be cooler to see Bioship randomly on map and one hit from it and you're doomed like we've seen in ST Voyager...

 

[u.s.s.sovereign]

Personally, I think it would be better to see Dominion as playable race (or another) rather than 8472...I've never played with 8472 in A2 because I didnt like it much... I'd be cooler to see Bioship randomly on map and one hit from it and you're doomed like we've seen in ST Voyager...

We will think about adding Dominion side, but we will not exclude 8472 from the list. There will be two superpowerful races - Borg & 8472. All other sides will be outmatched by this two in direct combat. There will be some features that would allow to defeat the Borg playing as Federation (or other race), but in direct combat one Borg cube would destroy the whole fleet, and just a couple of Borg ships will be able to vanish all the base of "ordinary" race. 8472 are needed to create a balance. Maybe we will create a special game type where you play for the Borg or 8472. I forgot to say, that the Borg and 8472 ships will be extremely huge. So if your scout meets a Borg one, it's really doomed (even if it's an akira class vessel).