Privateer Beta Ready

privateer · Post by **privateer** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 10:34 am

If you wish to download the privateer remake beta,
please e-mail privater@gmail.com
That's spelled just like the old DOS exe name (one e only)

If you already have downloaded the beta, please send bugs to privater@gmail.com

Thanks.
Happy testing!

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 1:18 pm

Where do we get it? Do we have to email you? Doesn't it have a website?

scheherazade · Post by **scheherazade** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 3:52 pm

i believe hostage is an issue for now, and since it's a beta, you can get it p2p.
the release will be hosted of course.

-scheherazade

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:32 am

DAMN it's fun!

Post by **mkruer** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:58 am

But just remember most of this is just temporary

Post by **hellcatv** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:28 am

temporary? what do you mean mkruer?

Post by **mkruer** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 4:16 pm

temÂ·poÂ·rarÂ·y
adj. Lasting, used, serving, or enjoyed for a limited time.

i.e.

The Official WCU is still way faraway and most if not all the graphics need an overhaul. Hence temporary. The Priv branch will be replaced/absorbed into WCU.

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 4:42 pm

WCU will be great, but it should probably be a fork from Privateer, and not a replacement.

Post by **MamiyaOtaru** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 5:05 am

I am really proud that we have this out. The timing was crap though, it managed to come out right when I went back to school and had no net access, so I wasn't able to participate in the announcements

I imagine most of the assets from Privateer will get absorbed into WCU, but it was meant all along as a standalone re-creation of the original game. It's something I've been working on for several years, poking along at a very slow pace. Once Hellcat jumped in, we were able to cram quite nicely and get all the basics put in. His overall knowledge of the engine made things move quite a bit faster than they had been

With his help and assets and artwork from many different sources, we've got this beast out

It was my goal to do a remake of Privateer on a more limited scale than WCU because I loved Privateer, and also because I wanted to have something out and playable to show what was possible (and drum up support for WCU)

Anyway, balance is still an issue, I think shields and armor are too weak ATM, so any feedback would be appreciated

-MO

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 6:15 am

Yeah, shields and armor are too weak ATM. Or maybe I'm just forgetting how bad the starting Tarsus was.

Some other issues I've got:
-Ditch the VS economic stuff. It'll take a bit of work, but revamping the cargo list to have only Privateer cargo would be great. It might be tough to reconcile VS's category system with Privateer's per-item system... but even a reasonable approximation would go a long way.

-Make a wider variety of weapons available at different bases. It's cool that you can't get anything but lasers and a couple others on Helen, but you should be able to get a buttload of stuff at New Detroit.

-Repair All is WAY too expensive.

-disable noncombat mode. I'm using it to cheat WAY too much. But i'm too lazy to renable it if it was disabled by default. : )

-replace VS jumppoint image with Privateer jump point image
-replace other VS planet/base images with their Privateer equivalents.
-give the tarsus some kind of tractor slot.

Post by **mkruer** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:58 am

One thig that can be replaced was all the "smart" scaled images with the fricatial scaled ones, they look much cleaner if if a little cartoonish. you can find them in the SVN where the models are., and if you want me to take a crak at all the base art, send me the original and i might be able to fricatial scale thoes as well.

Post by **mkruer** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:27 am

Not really a bug more of a request/improvement, remove the ability to reverse thrust. I think it would be better for consistancy for the WC Mods.

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:50 pm

-Ditch the VS economic stuff
done

-replace VS jumppoint image with Privateer jump point image
done

-replace other VS planet/base images with their Privateer equivalents.
almost done

If someone could help us to capture animations out of the original Privateer that would be great...

Post by **hellcatv** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:01 pm

*really* thought the tarsus could mount the tractor on missile slots

that broken somehow?

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 5:06 pm

Ohh...... on the missile hardpoints. I didn't think to try that. : )

DMJC · Post by **DMJC** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:53 am

ok, this kicks ass, now I've played it I can pick it apart... I'm going to work on upgrading the interface gfx, they're too low detail, eg using the old privateer images at 320x200 rez also the way some stuff works is a bity wacky.. like the guild missions, why is the text appearing at the top of the screen? can't it appear on the mission computer screens, small details like this.. are things which make privateer fully immersive, disable autopilot at 20,000 out etc btw i found my ripped bartender speech files if you want em

DMJC · Post by **DMJC** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:25 am

I've redone the hud images for planets and jump points, I've also discovered and fixed a bug with relation to these images stretching, the image files are 128x128 and the sprite files had
planet-hud.png planet-hud.png
128 128
0 0
now by changing 128 128 to 96 128 the stretching effect is removed and the hud images look normal!.

Post by **hellcatv** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 5:46 am

hey DMJC awesome
do you have access to the svn repository

toss me an e-mail if you'd like it
that way you can just commit away happily

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:14 am

"I've redone the hud images for planets and jump points"

This is already done :) Many things are already changed but still not available... we shouldn't do things twice, needed are original sized upgrade images and base animations.

Greetings
John Cordell

Post by **mkruer** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 8:21 am

The Original Priv Images for merchandise (gems, tvs, brilliance) has been uploaded, but i am waiting for the origanl sceens so i can smart resize them

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:02 am

commodity images are already done...

things that are needed if someone likes to do some work :)
-base animations
-ejected pilot 3d model
-fix weapon effects
-animate wormhole texture
-fix textures (tarsus, drayman, perry, new const. ...) so that they look more like the originals

Before you start working on artwork ask if it isn't already done or wip.

DMJC · Post by **DMJC** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:41 pm

excellent.. I was hoping that the textures wouldn't be off limits, btw I've been able to dig up all my old stuff, I'll upload it to a new directory in the svn system so people can look at them and take what they want.

DMJC · Post by **DMJC** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:46 pm

as for making stuff look more like the originals, i have some of the original wing commander 2 and privateer meshes, they're not very useable, but the textures could be used, and edited.

peteyg · Post by **peteyg** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:19 pm

John Cordell wrote:-fix textures (tarsus, drayman, perry, new const. ...) so that they look more like the originals

Yeah, if you want it to look more like the original game, just color gray over the existing textures in MS Paint.

You're lucky it, the galaxy, and the centurion are textured at all.

John Cordell · Post by **John Cordell** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:35 pm

DMJC wrote:i have some of the original wing commander 2 and privateer meshes

Sounds interesting, can you upload them?