Star Wars Fleet Operations Beta

[Adm_Z]

Merry Christmas everyone! Yep, that's right, the file has been sent in! This version is the beta, and as such contains a few bugs which I need help to fix. I draft you! the MSFC community to help me fix these problems. Included in the mod is a list of things for the beta testers(you all) to keep in mind. I will post that list below and elaborate. I really need help fixing the known bugs, so please read the list.

Known bugs:

Wandering warpin ships. Sometimes ships wander before arriving at their start location.(seems to only be acclamators though )

AI doesn't use bombers correctly(they can, they just never target capital ships)

Fighter launch button are in the wrong order. Should be V-wing, arc-170, Y-wing, then refuel.

Ships stop firing when ranked up or fighters are launched.

AI does not fire on human capital ships when bombers are present.

Ships do not fire automatically when told to move.

Avatars might not be lined up properly(please report this too)


Things that need testing:

AI ship warp times. Too soon, to late?

Fighter/bomber strength, OP, UP?

AI fighter numbers. Too high?

Credits- ship costs, rankup values and fighters.

Other maps. At this point, I have only tested on small two player maps.

Multiplayer not yet tested.


Ideas for 1.0:

Should I impliment a Hyperspace jump feature for ships to move around the map?

Should I give the option to upgrade your ship buying options to allow you to jump new ships to any point on the map.

Other buying options ideas?



Again, this is just the beta and I want to get the 1.0 out ASAP, but I can only do that with your help!

 

[Majestic]

Cool, I'll go upload it now.

EDIT: Uploaded and ready for some gruelling testing and play!

[highlight]Star Wars Fleet Operations (Beta) Download Link[/highlight]

 

[Styer_Crisis]

Want to test this online now?

 

[Adm_Z]

Sure, I will work on getting online now.

 

[Majestic]

I've tried twice with two different maps, but got a crash both times while try to load a instant action game.

 

[Adm_Z]

That's strange. It has some issues but the only time I got it to crash is when you put too many AI in multiplayer. Crisis and I ran a couple multiplayer games and it worked(besides a little
OOS). try two player maps with one AI.


Oh, and in multiplayer, it seems my SOD based weapons cause really bad lag... I will have to fix that.

Crisis thinks the ships are too slow and it needs more gameplay. I agree, and more will be added, but at this point, I would like opinions on core functions, visuals, etc.


Ideas for future gameplay would be nice too.

 

[Majestic]

That sorted it out. However I did find a bug. When I started with the ISD as the Republic, I found that my Acclamators kept circling an asteroid belt the entire game. Apart from that and some major balancing with the AI it's very good for a beta. I do agree the capitals need to be faster or you could create some maps for the mod and have them smaller and without the asteroids etc.

 

[Starfox1701]

That's strange. It has some issues but the only time I got it to crash is when you put too many AI in multiplayer. Crisis and I ran a couple multiplayer games and it worked(besides a little
OOS). try two player maps with one AI.


Oh, and in multiplayer, it seems my SOD based weapons cause really bad lag... I will have to fix that.

Crisis thinks the ships are too slow and it needs more gameplay. I agree, and more will be added, but at this point, I would like opinions on core functions, visuals, etc.


Ideas for future gameplay would be nice too.

Try these sprites out

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3697428/SWweaponseffects.zip

You might have to rescale the length depending on how small you have your Caps. These are setup to replicate the effects directly from Empier Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There are also Clone Wars era sprites too.

 

[Adm_Z]

That sorted it out. However I did find a bug. When I started with the ISD as the Republic, I found that my Acclamators kept circling an asteroid belt the entire game. Apart from that and some major balancing with the AI it's very good for a beta. I do agree the capitals need to be faster or you could create some maps for the mod and have them smaller and without the asteroids etc.

Oh good. I thought it might have been the music, but I guess not. I still think you would like the music though.

The acclamator thing bugs me. I saw that happen a lot in the early stages of my testing but I thought I had it sorted. Thankfully, Dom who knows a lot about that sort of thing can look at it and hopefully help me fix it. BTW, what major balancing do you think I need to fix with t he AI?

Try these sprites out

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3697428/SWweaponseffects.zip

You might have to rescale the length depending on how small you have your Caps. These are setup to replicate the effects directly from Empier Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There are also Clone Wars era sprites too.

Thanks fox, I should be able to just swap them out without doing a lot of work.


Also, with all this mentioning of ships needing to be faster. should I add that hyperspace jump feature? It would allow ships to basically jump around the map.




Oh, and another bug, the IMP venator is missing the launch v-wing button. not sure how that happened.


UPDATE: the weapon fixes are working well, however it seems we might be giving up impact explosions.

 

[Adm_Z]

Beta Patch

Ok guys, try these. Hopefully they will fix the weapon lag, and improve the physics. Oh, and the missing buttons.

 

[Majestic]

Oh good. I thought it might have been the music, but I guess not. I still think you would like the music though.

The acclamator thing bugs me. I saw that happen a lot in the early stages of my testing but I thought I had it sorted. Thankfully, Dom who knows a lot about that sort of thing can look at it and hopefully help me fix it. BTW, what major balancing do you think I need to fix with t he AI?

The balancing is how they manage to jump in so many ships. One game I was attacking the directly with my starting force and they had only killed some of my fighters yet I couldn't afford a Venator and they had jumped in two ISD's. I had already killed two Acclamators.

I also think that the Acclamator thing could be tied in with your warp-in issues. With how they wander off and all that.

Don't get me wrong you've done great and as a beta you've done very well. Just trying to help you out.

 

[Adm_Z]

The balancing is how they manage to jump in so many ships. One game I was attacking the directly with my starting force and they had only killed some of my fighters yet I couldn't afford a Venator and they had jumped in two ISD's. I had already killed two Acclamators.

I also think that the Acclamator thing could be tied in with your warp-in issues. With how they wander off and all that.

Don't get me wrong you've done great and as a beta you've done very well. Just trying to help you out.

No, no I understand. The problem you are having is related to the rankup system. I was actually considering making the AI harder.

When an acclamator gets a kill of at least an acclamator, you will get enough credits to buy an acclamator. Same with the rest. An ISD may kill two acclamators, but it won't get you any money until it kills at least an isd. Try playing the second avatar. you will find that your ships will rank up almost every kill. You will get less money in the long run, but it will come faster.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

As on FO.net

From my testing, I'm pretty sure it's not the SOD based weapons: the problem is you aren't using LODs with any of your textures.

Frame rate reductions are enormous, with even just 1-3 big ships on screen, not to mention 10-20 fighters. If you LOD up the (already huge) textures, you'll remove most of that frame rate reduction Smiley. Models and Textures - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

For weird fighter movement: I think that replacementmaintainorders = 1 should not be present on your fighters replaceweapon, as they appear to be remembering the movement orders of the mother craft, and cause some weird issues some time - they will also remember the attack orders, which may not be desired (as they will attempt to attack the craft that the mother was attacking before).

For weird attacking issues: You should scale your attack value of the capital ships to be far higher than the fighters in my opinion (or at least equal) - Craft - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations . Right now, the reason your/AI's capital ships stop firing as soon as fighters are on the field is because the fighters are much higher target priority: the capital ship wants to target them, but cannot in most cases, and so they don't fire at all. (I think there will still be problems after doing this - for your fighters - , but it should be much less)

If you really really want to make sure that your fighters ONLY attack other fighters, you can kind of cheat: have the main weapon of your fighters be a weapon that places a u-ball, which fires your fighter-type weapons at only other fighters (using valid targets). This way, even if the fighters prefer to try and target enemy capital ships, they will only ever fire on enemy fighters (better said: their u-ball weapon will only fire on them).

I'm still looking into the warp in issue, but haven't done that much experimentation yet . Were there any other issues that you know of that you had questions/concerns about?

EDIT: it really seems that the warp in issues result when the warpinspeed is too fast really (it exacerbates all the other physics effects): is it really that painful just to make ships pop out of hyperspace-like effect? It would have a much better handling, and I don't think it would look bad personally

 

[Zelph]

I think that TUN's Starfox mod has the same problem with warp-in issues, if I remember correctly. Caused me some grief when my carriers and cruisers were just orbiting an asteroid field for half the game, although they eventually got there.

Only real problem that I encountered was this weird tendency for my Y-Wings bombers to disappear into this weird small circle in the middle of an enemy ship. Couldn't select them, control them or anything after they did it.

 

[Starfox1701]

This sounds like a physics issue with the ships not being able to stop on their arrival point so they keep circleing teing to hit it.

 

[CptBenSisko]

game crashes at launch... i also downloaded the patch and applied that before i tried to start it...nothing...

 

[Adm_Z]

@ zelph/starfox

Yes, it is indeed a product of my physics and the avoidme = 0 line. Since the fighters can't shop moving, they have to pass through enemy ships or otherwise they would push them. The floating around inside of the ships thing is a necessary evil.

@ Capt.

Thats strange. Maybe you have the same problem as Maj. Is the crash when you start the the game or click on the instant action button?

 

[Adm_Z]

Patch 2

Ok guys, I"m sending the second patch in.(does not require the last but does require the main mod) Completely revamped warpin system, texture LODs(took hours... also why it is so big.) and other minor improvements.


Thanks for the previous feedback guys, and I look forward to some more.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

 

[Zelph]

Sweetness! I'll look forward to playing around with it some more. With the LODs, are you going to make the switch back to SOD-based weapons or will you stick with the Sprites? Personally, I think they both look pretty good.

 

[CptBenSisko]

The game crashes as soon as the status bar fills all the way to the end... makes me think its something with the startup units or avatars

@ zelph/starfox

Yes, it is indeed a product of my physics and the avoidme = 0 line. Since the fighters can't shop moving, they have to pass through enemy ships or otherwise they would push them. The floating around inside of the ships thing is a necessary evil.

@ Capt.

Thats strange. Maybe you have the same problem as Maj. Is the crash when you start the the game or click on the instant action button?

 

[Majestic]

Sweet, I've posted the new file, but it's still uploading:
http://www.msfc.com.au/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=644

The game crashes as soon as the status bar fills all the way to the end... makes me think its something with the startup units or avatars

Try playing with only two factions/teams/players. That worked for me.

 

[Adm_Z]

Sweet, I've posted the new file, but it's still uploading:
http://www.msfc.com.au/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=644



Try playing with only two factions/teams/players. That worked for me.

Yeah, for some reason, The AI does not like to play with other AI. I can't understand that, so that should be added to the list. Here is the revised version I suppose.


Known bugs, still need help with these:

AI doesn't use bombers correctly(they can, they just never target capital ships)

Fighter launch button are in the wrong order. Should be V-wing, arc-170, Y-wing, then refuel.

Ships stop firing when ranked up or fighters are launched.

Ships do not fire automatically when told to move.

Avatars might not be lined up properly for all resolutionsd(please report this too)

Multiple AI's crash

Things that need testing:

Multiplayer lag.

Fighter/bomber strength, OP, UP?

AI fighter numbers. Too high?

Credits- ship costs, rankup values and fighters.


Ideas for 1.0:

Should I impliment a Hyperspace jump feature for ships to move around the map?

Should I give the option to upgrade your ship buying options to allow you to jump new ships to any point on the map.

Other buying options ideas?


Fixed/tested:

Wandering warpin ships.

AI does not fire on human capital ships when bombers are present.

Other maps. At this point, I have only tested on small two player maps.

Multiplayer not yet tested.

 

[CptBenSisko]

Sweet, I've posted the new file, but it's still uploading:
http://www.msfc.com.au/forum/downloads.php?do=file&id=644



Try playing with only two factions/teams/players. That worked for me.

Thats what i was doing... i downloaded and applied the patch..but i haven't played yet as im at work right now...

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

Your attackPower values are still incredibly low: I'll give a sample calculation of how they should be at minimum to get desired effects

sw_rep_venator
Current:
health = 3000
attackpower = 8
Attack priority is 375

sw_rep_v-wing
Current:
maxhealth = 15
attackpower = 1
Attack priority is 15

In other words, for a fighter to want to shoot that Venator, the Venator has to get to 120 health or lower. That means its total hull has to be reduced to 4% of full to get targeted

If you want that V-wing and that Venator to be equal in attack priority, assuming the V-wing stays the same, the Venator would have to have an attackpower = 200. See a bit of an issue with the current values you've used?

 

[Adm_Z]

Thats what i was doing... i downloaded and applied the patch..but i haven't played yet as im at work right now...

That is very strange. And you are using this as a mod in stock FO 3.2.6? What map are you using?

Your attackPower values are still incredibly low: I'll give a sample calculation of how they should be at minimum to get desired effects

sw_rep_venator
Current:
health = 3000
attackpower = 8
Attack priority is 375

sw_rep_v-wing
Current:
maxhealth = 15
attackpower = 1
Attack priority is 15

In other words, for a fighter to want to shoot that Venator, the Venator has to get to 120 health or lower. That means its total hull has to be reduced to 4% of full to get targeted

If you want that V-wing and that Venator to be equal in attack priority, assuming the V-wing stays the same, the Venator would have to have an attackpower = 200. See a bit of an issue with the current values you've used?

Aha, that just shows you how little I understood that line. Thanks dom, I will adjust the values accordingly.

 

[Majestic]

I tried playing this today and still the AI is way too strong. They started with an ISD, and two Acclamators and I started with Two Venators and a Acclamator. By the time I got to them, they somehow had the resources to warp in a ISD, Acclamator and Ventor and took my ships out straight away.

I don't mind a challenge but the AI needs some serious adjustments so the player at least has a chance of winning. On another note, well done on the fix to the warp-in, I didn't have an issue with my warp-ins, although I only got the starting units.

 

[Adm_Z]

Haha, ok, I will make them easier. I suppose I am biased anyway. I will increase the time between their warpins. Because I am using a weapon to jump ships in, the AI can't just build ships with resources, so they warp them in and they ignore ship costs.

 

[CptBenSisko]

I still have an instant action crash. It gets all the way to the end of loading bar and crashes out... using stock 3.2.5... should I d/l the 3.2.6 patch?

 

[Adm_Z]

You can try that. You can also try using different maps, settings, etc. You could even try the map editor. all my ships are under the NPC section.

I"m sorry you are having these problems man.

 

[Adm_Z]

Alright guys, I would like to get this back in gear and finish up the 1.0, but I need more feedback. I still have some un-resolved bugs and issues, but at this point I would be happy to get feedback simply on the gameplay and maybe some ideas on how to imporve/ elongate it.