Favor the Bold / Star Trek:Homeworld models?

[Dasher42]

Looking through your forum, I see that a major issue for your project is finding a large library of low-polygon, quality meshes.

I'm the former code monkey of the Star Trek:Homeworld and TrekMods mod team. That group fell on hard times after some internal conflict, but back in the day, we started out modding for Homeworld, which is a harsh mistress for texture and polygon limits. We learned to LOD carefully and get the most out of lower requirements. Our mod, Sacrifice of Angels, received favorable reviews in a number of gaming magazines.

When Bridge Commander came around we got excited, not so much by the gameplay as by the in-depth Python scripting layer. I myself wrote the Foundation plugin system for Bridge Commander, which nearly every script mod for that game uses; it provided a simple API and copy-in setup for additions of mods of virtually every kind. I have quite a lot of hardpoint information, support scripts and their highly balanced ship stats that could be automatically applied to either Homeworld and BC projects.

I'd invite you to look at the "carcass" of the project that succumbed to Real Life. We have a large stable of ships whose polygon counts at maximum detail fall between 1500 and 5000 polygons. Textures are fairly reasonable.

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/fi ... ease;36895

The difficulty is that major team members left, and the Dolphoenix who was responsible for LODding and exporting is long gone. However, you may have heard of names like Redragon, Stresspuppy, Vorlon, ThomasTheCat, or Howedar... we all worked together on this.

I for one am fed up with having worked so hard on game engines that we had no input in on the specs, and have been abandoned. I'd also rather contribute to an ongoing effort that makes games I could play on my Linux box, or a Mac.

I don't know how much I can offer, but I am in contact with artists familiar with the requirements of games like this one, I've got coding experience, and maybe we can give your project a boost. :)

[WolfsLoveRage]

Sounds good to me, al though I have no part in the game what so ever. By the way... how did you learn all that stuff? I have a lot of ideas and good imagination, just no skills.

[Dasher42]

Sounds good to me, al though I have no part in the game what so ever. By the way... how did you learn all that stuff? I have a lot of ideas and good imagination, just no skills.

Heheh! My first *real* project was picking up CircleMUD and hacking the C code. I moved into C++, with regular trips to the local bookstore. I then learned Perl at one job I had, and used it until about two years ago, when I picked up Python. Mostly, I've used the scripting languages for these projects, creating hardpoint-balancing programs that use a simple table of coefficients for each ship to set all kinds of detailed settings, and others to lay out tactical displays for fired weapons automatically, others to alter weapon effects for every model of weapon on all ships that use them...

I don't know why, but I've not seen anyone else that does this kind of thing use an automated, math coefficient-based system. For managing a fleet of more than a dozen ships, it's the only way to go.

[WolfsLoveRage]

So if I was to start... what would I need to learn? C++ or other things?

[charlieg]

Start with python. The majority of code for this mod will be in python, and only a few extra engine features would require rather experienced C++ knowledge that you can't hope to attain in a reasonable time frame. (These things just take a long time to learn.)

Dasher42: PeteyG is the authority on this mod. I do believe he's done most (if not all) of the work on it. Try PMing him or IMing him to get his attention as I'm not sure how often he checks the forum. Links are available from his profile.