WC4 Mod For Homeworld 2 In The Works (June 5, 2006)

[David Wade]

OK just thought I would ask I was thinking four fighters per flight and two bombers per section. Sorry my brain keeps trying to divide all the units into naval squadrons and air flights to use in my attacks

 

[L.I.F.]

OK just thought I would ask I was thinking four fighters per flight and two bombers per section. Sorry my brain keeps trying to divide all the units into naval squadrons and air flights to use in my attacks

Two bombers per flight would be problematic with the ammunition script, so I think it should be ruled out for now.

My reference is twelve fighters or eight bombers per squadron, the attack I described on the previous page involved one full squadron of Longbow and Excalibur as well as their reserve flights.

 

[ChrisReid]

Here is a comparison side by side of the Kilrathi Bhantkara-class heavy carrier with the original texture and a lighter version I just did. I'm going to work on a set of alternative textures for all Kilrathi capital ships and make them brighter if it's better for the faction:

I also definitely prefer the "lighter" version. It almost looks like there's mold growing on the darker one.

 

[L.I.F.]

Yep, I definitely think I'll update the textures with that variant.

Edit: all ships edited, I will put that in the next update (though I'm working right now on improving the missiles to actually hit reliably their targets, so all that stuff will be bundled together).

 

[L.I.F.]

Tomorrow's update:

- brighter Kilrathi ships, from the Kamrani to the Hvar'Kann
- much, much more effective missiles, as from now on, anti-fighter missiles can reasonably be expected to kill enemy fighters in one or two hits if they connect, and they WILL connect unless you are doing a lot of dodging maneuvers or, for light fighters, you outrun the missile. They will also be largely more reliable as to intercept enemy cruise missiles... if you angle your shots correctly (a deflection shot is much less likely to hit than a rear or frontal shot, like in real life).

-- FF missile: very agile, short range, low damage, 9 seconds worth of fuel, usually carried by bombers for self-defence purposes
-- ImRec missile: agile, intermediate range, intermediate damage, 15 seconds worth of fuel, usually carried by medium fighters
-- IR missile: minimum agility, long range, high damage, 20 seconds worth of fuel, usually carried by light fighters for sniping

Keep in mind too that as all units tend to fire more at missiles, a frontal encounter between several flights will probably end up with some missiles being shot down before impact. But now, getting the drop on an unaware flight from missile range can be quite devastating.

Edit: it's online and running.

 

[L.I.F.]

Small updates, nothing really newsworthy but just to let you people know what I'm working on at the moment, which are NOT online yet:

• I've set up a variant for the Border Worlds' Avenger bomber, which is equipped with Marines boarding pods and a light cloaking system. They will come as an advanced capture craft, able to sneak past the chaos of a battle both through their appearance as Avenger (rather than shuttles) and their short cloak. Keep in mind, however, that this cloak is the worst of the whole game, meaning that almost all sensors beyond the crappiest ones will break through it. But it can give a much-needed edge as well as set the craft as a long-duration recon element since it comes with unlimited fuel in all game modes. The unit is fully playable as of now, but not yet integrated in the UBW tech tree.
  
• The Flashpak. That little annoying disk is back. I've set up the weapon and tested it, as tradition requires, on a transport, and it works well. It will be the Black Lance superweapon, in the same fashion as the Behemoth and the Hvar'Kann are. To that end, it will be in the game as a special weapon you can unlock at the end of the research tree for a really, really hefty cost. It remains to be balanced, but the idea is that it WILL one-shoot, well... everything, except for the Vesuvius and probably the superbases. It is deliberately overpowered, but is a damn superweapon. It also means a Dragon/Lance will only be able to fire one every five or ten minutes. Plus, it can be shot down and is really slow once dropped, so any proper defence will shoot it down, meaning a Flashpak attack will require correct SEAD/DEAD work on the target and a drop correctly timed, which will be helped by the special weapon status, aka it will have its separate button once unlocked. The cost of the research, as indicated, shall be prohibitive, probably above 20,000 RU. But let's be honest, giving your already OP superfighters the capability to one-shoot a heavy carrier is more than worth it. The weapon works well with only one issue: I don't think it will be possible to make the ships go up like in Price of Freedom specifically for the Flashpak. I have yet to integrate its research in the game.
  
• Convoy jump buoys. I think I talked about these before, they involve a mechanic that will spawn a convoy heading for your base dropping resources before heading back to the buoy. I initially planned to have them all around the map to be found and captured, but I have issues doing that, so what will probably happen will be a modification of all the maps to include a variant in which each player will have a given number of randomly positionned jump buoys. Each game will hopefully have different trade lines to find and protect/raid. I'm currently debugging the code doing the whole convoy stuff. I'm no longer in the Crash To Desktop phase, nor even in the "Nothing is working and I don't know why" phase, but just in "It doesn't work like I want but can be fixed" phase.

 

[David Wade]

Seems the code got corrupted again I am getting banother general error will try to redownload tomorrow man having a new baby really cuts into game time

 

[L.I.F.]

Seems the code got corrupted again I am getting banother general error will try to redownload tomorrow man having a new baby really cuts into game time

Here is the detailed fix: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/403171608/458605613412923164/

 

[David Wade]

Thanks

 

[L.I.F.]

I've had reports that the new textures made computers lag, as well as other issues with them. There's a new patch up now that should fix all of these problems.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

were you using the original textures w/o resizing them?

 

[L.I.F.]

were you using the original textures w/o resizing them?

Nah, it's just that when I edited the .tga, I messed up with GIMP and used a command that wrecked some dark pixels, making them green, and when I turned the .tga back to .dds, I forgot to recreate the mipmaps.

For your info, I am really scared that I can write the previous sentence and understand what the whole stuff means. One year ago, this would have been like greek to me.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

As Obi Wan says, "That's good! you've taken your first steps into a larger world."

I'm learning/re-learning pascal just to work on the MUP. Wing Commander: It's a journey of learning.

Oh those turrets you've ordered will be done in the next few days.

 

[L.I.F.]

As Obi Wan says, "That's good! you've taken your first steps into a larger world."

I'm learning/re-learning pascal just to work on the MUP. Wing Commander: It's a journey of learning.

Oh those turrets you've ordered will be done in the next few days.

Awesome! Thanks!

With them, I think I should be able to mix up what's needed for a first release of the Border Worlds 2.0. There will still be the issue of the AI, but I will get to it after Gearbox releases their next mod-breaking super-patch.

 

[ChrisReid]

Oh, and regarding the insignia. The thing about that swastika-like insignia, is that originally it was supposed to be just the Intrepid's individual insignia. You know, the "evil I". It's purely by lazy texturing that it became more common, when the Intrepid model was reused as the BWS Tango, without the Intrepid's unique insignia being removed. We've also used it in various ways in UE, but all things considered, it probably would have been better to revert to it being a unique Intrepid thing, and then come up with a simplified roundel for other ships.

The logo may have been reused, but the Intrepid and Tango actually had different textures, which I've always considered a pretty impressive bit of extra effort. The Tango lacks all the battle damage that the Intrepid suffers in its early battles in the game.

 

[Quarto]

The logo may have been reused, but the Intrepid and Tango actually had different textures, which I've always considered a pretty impressive bit of extra effort. The Tango lacks all the battle damage that the Intrepid suffers in its early battles in the game.

Ah - I'm pretty sure I can explain that . When making textures, it is much easier to make shiny-new textures, and then add battle-damage on top of it. So, the "extra bit of effort" is actually not the Tango, but rather the battle damage on the Intrepid.

 

[ChrisReid]

Yeah, I really hope they didn't design the Intrepid's textures and them clean them up again for the Tango. The extra effort I was referring to was thinking about this kind of thing at all. Likewise there are distinct Arrow paint schemes for the pirates, Confed and Black Lance, and even the Confed one is different than WC3 Confed.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

The Hellcat is another good example, they did a very nice job making the WC4 Hellcat look vastly different than it's WC3 counterpart. It's likely a different model than its predecessor, since it has particle cannons in place of the lasers (neutrons?), but the lazy way would be to just recolor the texture and call it a day, they moved the particle guns out of the chin mount and embedded them in the fuselage.

Oh @L.I.F. Speaking of WC4 hellcats...did you want one? I know it would clash with the Saga models, so if you say no I won't be too hurt. much...

 

[Quarto]

Yeah, I really hope they didn't design the Intrepid's textures and them clean them up again for the Tango. The extra effort I was referring to was thinking about this kind of thing at all. Likewise there are distinct Arrow paint schemes for the pirates, Confed and Black Lance, and even the Confed one is different than WC3 Confed.

Oh, absolutely. It would be easy for me to disparage this by pointing out that texturing is the easiest way to diversify models in a game - but at the same time, that makes it a very easy option to overlook, and it is because of attention to detail that these things did get done in WC. I personally especially loved the ace markings used by the Kilrathi in WC3.

 

[L.I.F.]

The Hellcat is another good example, they did a very nice job making the WC4 Hellcat look vastly different than it's WC3 counterpart. It's likely a different model than its predecessor, since it has particle cannons in place of the lasers (neutrons?), but the lazy way would be to just recolor the texture and call it a day, they moved the particle guns out of the chin mount and embedded them in the fuselage.

Oh @L.I.F. Speaking of WC4 hellcats...did you want one? I know it would clash with the Saga models, so if you say no I won't be too hurt. much...
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It would definitely be a nice addition that could come handy for the time we can get different game modes for the different eras, but IMO, it's a bit less of a priority than getting the remaining core units for the last two factions. We are close to completion for the BW and the BL already have a decent number of assets covered, so, yeah, a WC4 Hellcat would definitely be cool, but it wouldn't add much for the players.

Though I would like to have it one of these days, if only to be able to recreate the cutscenes of the games in the HWRM engine. BTW, when you'll get on the Dragon, would it be possible for you to make submodels for its wings? If you do so, I would be able to animate the wings folding in for the Fusion guns.

@ChrisReid: there is something else I thought about, for the models we have. With this mod, we are kinda compiling some of the best usable models and textures for Wing Commander units, and I think it would be sensible to transfer to the CIC all of the assets I accumulated for the mod's creation once we finish it. Textures, models, etc., for archival on your drives. Each model and texture has been made by one of various individuals or teams, who would need to give their approval for use in other projects, thus why I would list, for every file, the creator, but for pure archival and safekeeping, I think it would be alright. These files plus a few low-profile extremely useful 3D management software systems could be a good addition to your archives, don't you think so?