Standoff progress report!

Eder

Mr. Standoff
About time, eh?

First of all, progress on the ships was kinda slow in the past weeks. I'm almost done modelling the Fralthi, but that's about it. Oh, and I also got word from JarJarThomas that he's working on texturing the four Kilrathi fighters I sent him a few weeks ago (Sartha, Drakhri, Krant, Jalthi) but there's nothing for you guys to look at yet, sorry.

While mpanty and Ladiesman don't send me the concept art and the final version of the storyline, respectively, I can't work on any cutscenes or locations -- this isn't that much of a problem, actually, considering there isn't any publisher forcing us to release this thing before x-mas ;) So meanwhile I'm working on the Perry Naval Base bar, which it's based on the one seen in Privateer. I'm almost done with it... expect a screenshot soon.

Finally, about the characters. Bodies are still a problem, but I think I'm already good enough at making human faces, and it doesn't take that long to make one when I have head-on and profile pictures of it. Therefore, anyone who can send me good front and profile pictures of him or herself is entitled to a part in the Standoff cast. (unless I receive more applications than there are characters, which I doubt I will) Keep in mind that the front picture must be especially good and with even lighting, preferably scanned from a document or somesuch. Also keep in mind that your character may be a wimp, or even worse, an annoying comm officer! :D If you're interested, email me at eder_hc@terra.com.br

That's about it for today, ladies and gentlemen.

--Eder
 
I don't know if anyone (besides LOAF, Quarto, Preacher, Wedge, and me ;)) actually reads the Editing forum at all, but I figured that this is the appropriate place for this kind of thing, instead of the main discussion forum (actually it took me a little help to figure that out... the last thread I posted at the main forum got moved here :p)

Well, anyway... I'm not working on any ships right now, not that there's much left to work on actually: I have to model the Dorkathi, Ralatha, Fralthra, and Fralthi, texture the Galaxy and Free Trader models (which are already done), re-texture the Talon (adding militia and pirate paintjobs besides the current retro one...), but (excluding texturing the Kilrathi ships, which is JarJarThomas's job) that's it for the ships department - at least until I decide that something sucks and needs to be redone, which believe me, will happen. I'm a perfectionist. *g*

Now about the many things that still need to be worked on so you can look at them while you're not flying... Some people applied for a part in the Standoff cast of characters, and I've already started working on 3D models and animations based on their faces. Needless to say, I've got less applications than there are characters, so there are still plenty of vacancies left for whoever wants to see his/her face in this mod (about 3/4 of the cast, actually... :()

I'm almost done with the Perry Naval Base bar, but I took a break from it to work on the characters, so no screenshots yet, and that probably will stay that way for a while. And no other scenes/places will be worked on until I get the concept sketches from mpanty either... but this isn't the priority right now, the characters and ships are.

That's it, I think.

--Eder
 
Hmm, you seem to have forgotten to mention the Kamekh... I'd be very disappointed if you decided not to make it after all :). Of course, I'd be equally disappointed if you decided to give it Priv-style texturing - I always prefered WC2-style.
 
Oops, yes, I forgot the Kamekh. :(

As for the texturing... I've asked JarJarThomas to make all Kilrathi textures look similar, in a good way... just like the Hhriss he textured, which looks more WC2-yellow-ish than WC1-tan-ish, the Kamekh and all other Kilrathi ships will have WC2-style texturing, no matter which game they are from.

As for the confed ships, I based their texturing style on the launch sequences from WC1, where it shows part of your ship up close in great detail... with some scratches and stuff like that.

--Eder
 
Never forget a Kamekh :). And for that matter, it wouldn't be too bad if you didn't forget the Venture, either. It's a neat design which never seemed to get the attention it deserved.
 
If I have time to do so, I'll add more ships to Standoff besides the currently planned ones. As for the Venture, I did model one, once, for the XWA WCTC... but in Standoff, I don't think I could even fit one of those in the storyline :p But I agree that it was made the most "unimportant" ship in all of the WC games, and I don't have a clue why they did that, since it is actually a good ship.

The most likely ship to be added is the Sabre, since Standoff doesn't currently have any ships capable of carrying torpedoes. As a matter of fact, it's almost certain that either the Sabre or Broadsword will be added, although depending on the ammount of work it takes to make a cockpit, hud indicators, and one (or three) player-controllable turret(s), they may be included as AI-flyable only... but some missions definitely need the use of torpedoes, and simply sticking them to Raptors is just too much of a cheap trick, if you ask me ;)

Anyway, it all depends on the time all these things take, so I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

--Eder
 
Ah, so you're responsible for that beautiful Venture model they have, eh? If it wasn't for the fact that we've got all the ships we need for UE, I'd already be begging... ;)

Actually, it wouldn't really be a cheap trick to stick torps on a Raptor, though strictly speaking the Raptor is a heavy fighter, not a bomber... so I guess it's got more in common with the Sabre than the Broadsword. Here's an interesting bit of trivia - according to the ancient outline of Squadron (WC's first working name) that LOAF has put up, the Raptor was supposed to have a turret.
 
I seem to recall from the manual that, theoretically, any ship could be capaple of mounting a torpedo, but they only allow turret-capable ships to mount them, since the torp run negates any manoeuvrability advantage.

And then, we all fall off our seats laughing our heads off when Angel talks about Epees torpedoing a listening post. :)
 
Actually, an Epee mounting a torpedo makes some sense -- flak guns are not particularly effective against light fighters with shields that regenerate quickly.
 
Do the Epees' shields generate that fast? They'd still have the lack of manoeuvrability on the run, anyway. I don't think I'd like to try a torp run with an Epee any time soon, especially with capships smart enough to use AMGs on you. Yikes!
 
Sorry to interrupt the topic drift here, but I got pictures to make up for that. :)

f44a.gif


drakhri2.jpg


(The Rapier is fully untextured, and only the textured parts of the Drakhri are shown in the picture... in other words, these are very unfinished ships, I'm only posting these pictures because it's been a damn long time since I've released any decent screenshots)

--Eder
 
Looks great as always, Eder. But I thought you were using the WC2 Rapier. Oh well, no harm in having the WC1 Rapier as well.

Tell Thomas that Dralthi looks great so far. I think that's just the right paint job.
 
Thanks, Wedge, I'm glad you like the pictures, and I've passed on your compliments to The Man Who Makes Kilrathi Textures already :)

Both Rapiers will be in... The WC1 Rapiers are going to be part of Perry Naval's fighter compliment, along with the Ferrets.

By the way, do you think I should give it the WC1 green paintjob or a Privateer-like gray and blue paint job, like I did to the Ferret? (Since all Confed fighters we've ever seen in Gemini are painted like that, I think this would make more sense... plus, I think it'd be nice to see how something different turns out instead of just re-creating the originals... but what do you think?)

--Eder
 
Pick a paintjob, and stick to it :). Otherwise, you're gonna have all sorts of different paintjobs flying around.

...Unless, of course, you'd like to use the paintjobs to differentiate between carrier-based and the Perry-based fighters.

What puzzles me, though, Eder, is why do we get so many updates here, and so few on your site? :p
 
Yes, the idea of differentiating carrier-based fighters from perry-based fighters using their paintjobs is what I have in mind... I think that's a good idea... right? :p

As for the site, well, it requires me to open up notepad, save the file, open up the FTP program, upload the files, etc, etc, etc.

I'm too damn lazy to do all that, the next site update will be either this weekend or next week... as soon as I have the final version of the Drakhri in my hands.

Plus, I don't like adding unfinished screenshots to the site. :)

--Eder
 
I don't think it's a sucky idea. Makes sense for carrier based fighters to look different to fighters from a base, especially a backwater one like Perry.
 
Probably. You know how well sarcasm comes through in text. Plus I don't recall reading much sarcasm from you. Oh well.
 
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