[WIP] The Wastelands

[Avon]

Good to hear at least someone is still modding armada. Keep it up kitteh and let me know if there's any help you need

 

[Majestic]

Good to hear you're still at it. While I don't play the game anymore I do like to see pretty pictures and read about progress so I'm still following your work. I loved the concept and story line of this mod.

I took a stroll down Dead Mod Lane recently, browsing through old FF news and stuff. It's hilarious reading "Is A2 playing and modding dead?" in 2004 or so. "This is the best mod ever, and it'll be released in a few months!" in a post about a mod I never heard of, and never will again, because the post is almost ten years old. God knows I've pulled enough of these. You always think you'll have enough time to do some serious work and to finish, and then a few days later something pops up and distracts you. Ah, whatever. Reminiscing and whining is not gonna do any good.

That was me had all the intentions but motivation dried up.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Hm. I might have a little surprise soon. Let's just say a little cyber-bird tweeted in my ear that there's going to be some so-far-unreleased stuff in my install soon.

 

[Terra_Inc]

I am in paradise.

Spoiler: awesomeness

ships and yard by r5d5. sun by yacuzza. outpost by Micheal Raab, texture elements from LC_Amaral and Red Dragon, further edits by teh JF.

I struck a deal with R5D5 himself, granting me access to a whole bunch of so far unreleased material straight from the source. (In return, I've helped a bit with clearing a permission issue. I hope that by the time this mod is done, things have worked out for him so he'll have released the whole pack publicly. It's really good stuff.)

 

[Majestic]

Excellent job, those Miranda looking ships look great. Awesome work on the extra material deal as well.

 

[Knight]

That looks amazing. Really like those little ships too

 

[Avon]

Agreed, they look really nice

 

[Terra_Inc]

Alright, time to necro this thread.

The recent fall of A2Files and the associated nostalgia shock has motivated me to go back and finish this mod. I have everything I need, only some ODF glue and creative thinking is needed to put everything together. Right now I'm setting up an A2-capable system, and after that I will officially resume work on Wastelands.

For those of you who read about it for the first time or have forgotten about it in the almost three years this project stagnated, this is how this mod is going to work. The only really playable side is the Federation slash UFP mining companies, which feature predominantly ' second choice' designs. The other races will be implemented basically as map races with a very reduced line up - say, a starbase, mining station, yards and three to five different ship designs. This allows me to reduce the effort spent on them and also allows me to put a lot of them on the map, hogging the resources the player so desperately wants. They will have AIs, so that is that.

The mod is geared towards smaller fleets, instead of the massive battle groups we all know so well from stock and mods like AOW. I aim for high resource costs, which will simultaneously keep the number of ships in your fleet low and drive you to control more resources.

Here's the list of planned adversaries:
- Klingon Empire
- Rogue Klingon house
- Romulan Star Empire
- The Syndicate (illegal miners)
- Cardassian Union
- ?$% tHeY wAlk Betw33n tHE sTaRs #&$

Again, these will be small-scale races. And not all of them will be of the same size. They will also hopefully act very different, I have some AI concepts for them.

Okay, let's talk about plans. Obviously, even such a mini-TC is a project that should not be underestimated. But I am dedicated to getting it done this time. So the plan is to finish of the feds for good and also, say, half of the adversaries so you can have a decent gaming experience and I can have feedback. If my plan works out and the feed back is mostly positive (I.e. not "silly kitten, this is stupid and boring"), I'll follow it up with the rest of the adversaries, bug fixes/rebalancing and possibly a few campaign missions. That's the idea.

-----

Okay, mod update is done. Now we get to the part where I need your help.

A big part of my pet peeves with stock is the ridiculous colonization system. So I've planned to eliminate habitable planets entirely. Now, I remember that stations can also provide crew, and that there is an odf setting for that. My question is, does anybody know how exactly that works? Does the command just define a crew gain rate of X per minute / hour/ undefined period of time? Does this setting do roughly the same thing as the equivalent command for planets? I'd be grateful if someone could help me out on this.

Any way, that's it for today's Wastelands update. If you're still around and still want to see this project completed, keep an eye on this thread. And go grab a chair, cause we are going to be here for a while. Snacks are available in the kitchen, tea is served every day at five and I hear the cake is excellent. The coffee is reserved for me, though. Terra_Inc signing out.

 

[CABAL]

- ?$% tHeY wAlk Betw33n tHE sTaRs #&$

What???

A big part of my pet peeves with stock is the ridiculous colonization system. So I've planned to eliminate habitable planets entirely. Now, I remember that stations can also provide crew, and that there is an odf setting for that. My question is, does anybody know how exactly that works? Does the command just define a crew gain rate of X per minute / hour/ undefined period of time? Does this setting do roughly the same thing as the equivalent command for planets? I'd be grateful if someone could help me out on this..

I'm pretty sure it's a simple crew-per-second expression.

Yes, found it. It's crewAccumulationRate in the faction ODF. The specified value is the number of crew gained per second per object with the starbase class label. I think A1 may have let you specify different rates for individual starbase classes, but it looks like A2/FO use a single value for all starbases under the control of a particular faction.

 

[Rifraf]

Wow an A2 mod back from the brink. Sort of feel like it's 2005 again with talk of this.

Will it be stock A2 or a mod in FO? Will it use Midnight Universe and similar mods to pretty up all the backgrounds/objects or will it be strictly stock except for your ships/station additions?

 

[Terra_Inc]

What???

Ah, I was just making a joke. The originally planned end boss of the campaign was Species 8472 with a heavy lovecraftian bent. They will still appear in the mod, and they will retain the lovecraftyness.
$%& tHe 0lD oN3s wErE, ThE OlD 0nEs ArE aND th3 0Ld OnEs sHaLl bE &$&

I'm pretty sure it's a simple crew-per-second expression.

Yes, found it. It's crewAccumulationRate in the faction ODF. The specified value is the number of crew gained per second per object with the starbase class label. I think A1 may have let you specify different rates for individual starbase classes, but it looks like A2/FO use a single value for all starbases under the control of a particular faction.

Oh, okay... Thanks a lot. I can definitely work with that.

Wow an A2 mod back from the brink. Sort of feel like it's 2005 again with talk of this.

Will it be stock A2 or a mod in FO? Will it use Midnight Universe and similar mods to pretty up all the backgrounds/objects or will it be strictly stock except for your ships/station additions?

It's stock A2. And yes, it uses the latest and greatest in stock eye candy. If you take a look at the old posts in this thread, you can see for yourself how it looks. ;-)

 

[Majestic]

Nice to see a mod back from the grave. This one was always an interesting concept. Great to see you're back at it. I really need to sort my dren out so I can get back into AGC and YY.

You're an inspiration Terra.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Alright, here's the Wastelands update of the day. I've started putting the Talarian Syndicate faction into the game. It's not a particularly large faction, so it's just right for getting back into modding.

Have a few screenshots of these sinister guys!

Spoiler: Screenshot 1

Here we see a Syndicate base out in the Wastelands, and three Talarian warships heading out for a patrol run,

Spoiler: Screenshot 2

Here you can see a fortified mining outpost - a mining station, two automatic turrets and the Talarians' chunky mining freighter.

Spoiler: Screenshot 3

And here we have a Talarian battle group, most likely on the way to blow up a UFP mining outpost.

Spoiler: Credits

Syndicate base by Achilles
Mining freighter by ???
Other ships by Avon
Celestial Bodies by Yacuzza
Lights by FahreS

As you can see, the Syndicate base is an absolute monster, bigger than the Avalon stations even, and armed to the teeth. The Syndicate's ships aren't much to write home about - standard issue Talarian warships. The most memorable thing, apart from their good looks (thanks a lot, Avon!), is that they are rather cheap and fast to build compared to the other faction's ships. To make up for it, the Syndicate heavily fortifies its installations with automatic turrets. They also have a large and tough mining freighter.

That's the Wastelands update for today. Tomorrow I'll most likely do ODF refinements and take a shot at balancing those beauties. After that, we'll see what comes next.

---

Alright, now comes the part again where I need your help, folks. I have this model of the Batris you can see in the screenies above. I got it through Achilles way back in the day, and I'd really like to use it. Thing is, I have no idea where he got it from. If someone could help me identify the source of this model / textures for permission and credit info, that would be really great.

For reference, Achilles' credit file states:

afreight - dilithium freighter
3D MESH:Totally Games
2D TEXTURES:Totally Games
Chris Graham:Ultimate Trek Mod Viewer
darkdrone files to 3ds: unimatrix one
converted to sfc3 by Models please.

 

[Jetfreak]

I think the Batris Freighter was a Bridge Commander port, meaning it came from the vanilla version. I did some backtracking and "Totally Games" is listed as an actual game developer - with BC under its belt. So it was basically ripped for SFC3 then made its way into A2. Cross-porting ftw!

I even did a slight nip-tuck of its textures some years back, notably fixing the ugly engine stretch in the rear.

 

[Terra_Inc]

I think the Batris Freighter was a Bridge Commander port, meaning it came from the vanilla version. I did some backtracking and "Totally Games" is listed as an actual game developer - with BC under its belt. So it was basically ripped for SFC3 then made its way into A2. Cross-porting ftw!

Ah, I see... Is it even okay to use it in a publicly released mod then?

 

[Jetfreak]

Its a tricky grey area to be honest, but personally my rule of thumb is just to give everybody involved credit in the readme. A win-win situation if I ever saw one.

Oh, I'm readily available if you need some help with any specific texture editing and what-not. Just give me a PM and I'm sure to give a helping hand.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Its a tricky grey area to be honest, but personally my rule of thumb is just to give everybody involved credit in the readme. A win-win situation if I ever saw one.

Oh, I'm always available if you need some help with any specific texture editing and what-not. Just give me a PM and I'm sure I can give a helping hand.

Alright, thanks man. I think I have everything I need at the moment, I'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up though.

 

[Rifraf]

I checked out this thread yesterday and looked back through it all. It looks really good and there are some neat ideas you have going. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

 

[Majestic]

Its a tricky grey area to be honest, but personally my rule of thumb is just to give everybody involved credit in the readme. A win-win situation if I ever saw one.

That's what I was going to suggest as well. Being a stock model, just credit everyone involved in the port. That way it covers them. That's what I asked one member here who wanted to use our Legacy ports for his Homeworld mod. Legally they aren't mine but I did port them and Jetfreak did many texture alterations, so I just asked him to credit us with a link to MSFC.

 

[CABAL]

Do you know what the player factions will be? The only one I found in the thread was the Intersolar Mining Corporation on page 2.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Do you know what the player factions will be? The only one I found in the thread was the Intersolar Mining Corporation on page 2.

Honestly, that concept is from the very early days of my work on Wastelands, and a lot has changed since then. I still have the old planning sheet for the mining corporations, but I haven't decided yet whether I should go along with that or scrap them and go for playable Cardies, as I announced somewhere in the thread. Regardless of my decision, second playable sides will probably arrive with release two. This is still far away, so if you have a preference, please let me know!

Also, sorry for the lack of updates. I haven't been able to work on Wastelands recently due to an injury. As soon as I have recovered, I'll start posting updates again.

 

[Majestic]

I would love to see Klingon and Cardassian mining companies as well. That would be cool. The Mining Company War

 

[Terra_Inc]

I would love to see Klingon and Cardassian mining companies as well. That would be cool. The Mining Company War

You know what, that might even work out... In the current concept, I have two Klingon NPC sides. I could put them together and make a playable faction out of them. I have enough ships, the main problem would be the relative lack of stations. I might have to dig through my archives and see if I can pull this off. But yeah, if people would like to see this, I might give it a try.

 

[Majestic]

You know what, that might even work out... In the current concept, I have two Klingon NPC sides. I could put them together and make a playable faction out of them. I have enough ships, the main problem would be the relative lack of stations. I might have to dig through my archives and see if I can pull this off. But yeah, if people would like to see this, I might give it a try.

I would check out Achilles mod, the BIVR mod by @MajorPayne and the release @Aad Moerman has released for stations. I am sure there should be enough stations floating around to sort out a Klingon side.

A full Klingon side would be a lot of fun.

As for Cardassians, anything I released for my Clash of Empires mod you can use. I did 2 full sides so there should be plenty of stations.

 

[Terra_Inc]

I would check out Achilles mod, the BIVR mod by @MajorPayne and the release @Aad Moerman has released for stations. I am sure there should be enough stations floating around to sort out a Klingon side.

A full Klingon side would be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'll look around and see what I can use. Tbh you just kind of sold me on the idea, I look forward to figuring out how to set up the playable Klinkers.

As for Cardassians, anything I released for my Clash of Empires mod you can use. I did 2 full sides so there should be plenty of stations.

Yeah, with both CoE and Dan's Cardie fullrace I have more than enough material to build a player side for them. Hence why they were my first choice when I planned additional player sides. It also happens to fit thematically.

 

[CABAL]

Honestly, that concept is from the very early days of my work on Wastelands, and a lot has changed since then. I still have the old planning sheet for the mining corporations, but I haven't decided yet whether I should go along with that or scrap them and go for playable Cardies, as I announced somewhere in the thread. Regardless of my decision, second playable sides will probably arrive with release two. This is still far away, so if you have a preference, please let me know!

I like the idea of all playable factions being corporations, but playable Cardassians and such would be cool, too. A mix where it's all corporations but not all of them are Federation in origin could probably work. This whole thing seems like it would be right up the Ferengi's alley.

Building on that:
A Federation company may have a contract with Starfleet and be able to get assists from them on occasion while another could be more independent with a preference for armed civilian ships instead of military surplus.

The Cardassian company could be state owned and effectively a branch of the Cardassian military with a more professional approach than the others.

Ferengi players could sell mined resources for latinum and use that to buy ready made ships instead of building them.

Klingons would be a bit trickier. Probably not a real corporation but a lesser house that wants to sell to one of the Great Houses. Honor or glory could be some sort of secondary resource.

Some sort of independent NGO beyond the borders of the major powers could also work, with a mix of whatever they can buy or invent. A of mega corporation that effectively is the law in places like the wastelands, or even further out.

 

[Majestic]

Yeah, I'll look around and see what I can use. Tbh you just kind of sold me on the idea, I look forward to figuring out how to set up the playable Klinkers.

Yeah, with both CoE and Dan's Cardie fullrace I have more than enough material to build a player side for them. Hence why they were my first choice when I planned additional player sides. It also happens to fit thematically.

Sounds like you have the fundamentals in place. I don't think the Rommies would work well into this concept though.

I like the idea of all playable factions being corporations, but playable Cardassians and such would be cool, too. A mix where it's all corporations but not all of them are Federation in origin could probably work. This whole thing seems like it would be right up the Ferengi's alley.

Building on that:
A Federation company may have a contract with Starfleet and be able to get assists from them on occasion while another could be more independent with a preference for armed civilian ships instead of military surplus.

The Cardassian company could be state owned and effectively a branch of the Cardassian military with a more professional approach than the others.

Ferengi players could sell mined resources for latinum and use that to buy ready made ships instead of building them.

Klingons would be a bit trickier. Probably not a real corporation but a lesser house that wants to sell to one of the Great Houses. Honor or glory could be some sort of secondary resource.

Some sort of independent NGO beyond the borders of the major powers could also work, with a mix of whatever they can buy or invent. A of mega corporation that effectively is the law in places like the wastelands, or even further out.

I really like that idea, the Ferengi would make an interesting concept. Maybe a renegade faction like the group that captured the Enterprise in the episode where Picard and co were transformed into kids. They had stolen B'rel Bird of Preys. Some food for thought.

I like the idea of having a non-aligned group who are a mix of various odd ships. Whether that could incorporate the Ferengi or not is another idea.

 

[CABAL]

I really like that idea, the Ferengi would make an interesting concept. Maybe a renegade faction like the group that captured the Enterprise in the episode where Picard and co were transformed into kids. They had stolen B'rel Bird of Preys. Some food for thought.

They don't even need to be renegade to want to exploit the wastelands. There's profit to be made, after all.

 

[Majestic]

True, was just thinking of models as there aren't many Ferengi models out there of decent quality.

 

[CABAL]

True, was just thinking of models as there aren't many Ferengi models out there of decent quality.

Good point. There's a few Marauders and... that's pretty much it, I think.

Just realized they would probably need a slightly different mindset than the other Ferengi, too. There are safer ways to make a profit. Leck may be a good example.