MOD: Privateer 1.2 Parallel Universe 1.0

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

Jeez, what's that?... now I'm forced to behave like a communist!

Must crush capitalism!

Yep, only lets do it in PR.

[Dilloh]

I don't know if anyone has read my campaign discussion with chuck_starchaser. I was planning to implement the Fralthi campaign we discussed about 6 months ago. I tried to create a storyline that fits the canon Wing Commander timeline, but there are currently too many obstacles to take to make a campaign I'd consider to be good.

So, I decided to offer proposals for some campaigns I've thougt of:

1.) I've figured out how to lock/unlock ships and equipment during a campaign, like we've seen with purchasable ships like the Demon and the Drayman. I'm considering locking most the PU ships and unlocking them in several mini-campaigns. Examples:

• For the TarsusMK2, help the Merchant's Guild to repel the pirates and build up a stable trading network around Troy and Regallis. I think this one is good for the TarsusMK2 being an excellent startup-ship.

• For the Krant, help Confed Secret Ops to find out more about the (early) trading connection between cats and retros. You'll finally intercept and board a retro drayman carrying the Krants and find out that they come from a renegade Kilrathi clan. Scened around Valhalla.

• For the Fireblade (post-drone-story), meet a former HK engineer on Speke in Junction who owns bluebrints for the HK1303 and a cloak, trying to realize his dream of the Fireblade. Many cargo runs.

• For Hornet and/or Ferret, meet a corrupt Landreich officer trying to make money with selling Landreich ships at Hyades. Major battles with Landreich forces.

I know that z30 wanted PU to be for everyone, but I'd try to keep the campaigns simple and easy, in relation to the ship you acquire (e.g. the TarsusMK2 campaign will be short and easy so it can be flown in a TarsusMK1). I also know that it is possibly not canon, but hey, it's PU - and just think of the awacs campaign...
Comments and suggestions welcome! There are many more ships which need a story.

2.) Possibly we could stick to the Fralthi campaign, but with major changes to the story. Again, comments and suggestions welcome.

3.) I could try scripting the Militia Guild campaign, but I'd rather keep my hands off it, I don't know if the script that was posted can be considered as final.

4.) Your wish for a completely new campaign.

So guys, what's your favourite?

[Melonhead]

My favorite: Yes.

I REALLY like the idea of mini-campaigns, for a lot of reasons. First, it gives people a chance to try scripting in a way that others can enjoy and provide feedback on. Second, it gives us a larger range of talent and ideas to play around with. Third, it gives us new things to discover and explore.

A lot of ideas that revolve around the original campaigns are neat, but we all know how they turn out--let's face it, we're doing this for us, not for a commercial game that will ever sell a million copies. So, we can try things, and if we ultimately decide we don't like them, we just don't migrate them into the next big release. That's freedom you can only find in open source.

[Solon Halwinder]

I'm still around, but there's been a lot of real life intrusion for me, and I haven't been as much into PR since I started playing Maple Story and Knights of the Old Republic.

I'm still willing to do the script for the Militia Guild, but I've done nothing with it since I posted it on page 34. If someone could take a look and give me an opinion (I also need help with a few things, mostly "Mission failed" talks) I'd appreciate it.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

I'm still around, but there's been a lot of real life intrusion for me, and I haven't been as much into PR since I started playing Maple Story and Knights of the Old Republic.

I'm still willing to do the script for the Militia Guild, but I've done nothing with it since I posted it on page 34. If someone could take a look and give me an opinion (I also need help with a few things, mostly "Mission failed" talks) I'd appreciate it.

Does this follow a script like the bonus or the main ampaigns, or is it like the other guilds.

[javier]

Talking about scripts, I just finished a translation of the setup.bat to a shell script to use with unix systems. The only problem I have found is textures not loaded for the fireblade due a uppercase extension PNG. I have not fixed in the script as I think it will be better to rename the files from demontop.PNG and demonbot.PNG with lowercase extensions.

[javier]

Oops, sorry, the sh extension was not allowed. Please, rename the atachment from txt to sh to use it

[Dilloh]

@javier
That's great, this opens the door for the linux users! If you agree, I'll place it onto my download side. Be happy that this has been the last batch for a long time, or at least the last large batch. The next one will be much smaller. I might make a follow-up batch for a better overview, just in case you'll port those babies in the near future.

@Solon
Welcome back. I've taken a brief look at the script, mainly for the sake of technical issues. I currently see two problems:
1.) Concerning "Changing Sherwood from pirate to militia": I'm not too sure if we can change the faction related to a base within the game, since they are defined in the .system files.
2.) Concerning spawning DraymanCVLs: Spawning objects or ships at locations of your choice is an option which is not possible in VS or any mods - at least I remember I read that a couple of months ago in some other posts. However, we could take some looks at the Drones behaviour - it always spawns in the player's vincinity.

@MAS
It will be a real campaign.

@Melonhead
Glad you like the mini-campaigns, but also for another reason: They'll be much easier to script than a single, long campaign. I'll save the ships which are supposed to be unlocked from those campaigns. I also appreciate your thoughts of "talent-migration" - PU has not only spawned a lot of fans, but also a lot of contributors that constantly improved their modding skills. A larger, better, cooler PU will motivate everyone in the team to bring in more - as well as newbies, regarding most of our "from zero to hero"-curriculum modding privateerae.

[Solon Halwinder]

@Michael:
It will follow a script once implemented. See a post of mine on Page 34 for what I've written.

@Dilloh:
Sherwood Base becoming Militia is not a necessity to the campaign, I can rewrite thatp part easily if need be.

As to Drayman CVLs, presumably what'd work there would be the same thing z30 did with the Heimdall, how he has it orbiting Speke. He did have that working, right? The only question would be whether we could set that to trigger once the mission is completed, or if it would need to be an "always-on" sort of thing.

Speaking of z30, anybody know what happened to him this time?

[javier]

@javier
That's great, this opens the door for the linux users! If you agree, I'll place it onto my download side. Be happy that this has been the last batch for a long time, or at least the last large batch. The next one will be much smaller. I might make a follow-up batch for a better overview, just in case you'll port those babies in the near future.

Of course.

By the way, I strongly agree to the idea of small campaigns. Even better could be you got some kind of reward after suceeding that makes easier to advance in the main plot, i.e. not only some device of a new kind of ship, but something as simple like an attitude adjustment from some faction (and it will be easier to implement, also), so you can choose to carry the mission out or not at the expense of a more difficult path.
Thinking about it, you could even have some mission with a high reward but a negative adjustment with some of the big guys that makes the storyline harder to follow. Just an idea.

[Dilloh]

@javier
Hmm... relation fixing should be relative easy as the RFLynchCampaign shows how it works. I think it is more difficult to implement something into the main campaign. I'm also not too sure if we should go for that. I think the main campaign is easy enough, and other players could be scared off if we have our hands on those missions - at least all except of Oxford/Toth and Palan4. Also, the mini-campaigns are supposed to work as side-stories, playable at any time and fully independent from the main campaign. At least that was my thought.

@Solon
Uhm... I placed Heimdall into orbit, but never mind... Again, Heimdall is located in the Junction.system file - I currently see no chance how to "replace" it, except of taking it out (like Derelict) and respawning it elsewhere (like the Drone). And no, I also have no clue why z30 is gone once again.

[Solon Halwinder]

Oh, Heimdall was yours? My mistake.

Anyway, my thought was to insert scripting in the Nav Points I specified that would spawn a DraymanCVL there the way you scripted Heimdall to spawn in orbit of Speke.

[javier]

@javier
Hmm... relation fixing should be relative easy as the RFLynchCampaign shows how it works. I think it is more difficult to implement something into the main campaign. I'm also not too sure if we should go for that. I think the main campaign is easy enough, and other players could be scared off if we have our hands on those missions - at least all except of Oxford/Toth and Palan4. Also, the mini-campaigns are supposed to work as side-stories, playable at any time and fully independent from the main campaign. At least that was my thought.

And that's what I mean. I didn't mean aditions to the main story in the sense that if you didn't fulfill the objectives of the mission you couldn't progress, as failing in the main path did, but some side missions you could take any time after a trigger event and that by faction alignment, equipment or any other means could decrease or increase the challenge of certain missions. It's the player who decides if they took the missions or if he pass on them.
Think about how many times there have been a question in the forum like How do I finish Oxford x or Palan z? You could answer: Go to wherever and take that mission and you will have this one time using missile that makes the mission you are having difficult to win easier.
Or you are at Troy after you have completed the campaign for the 100th time, now riding an scape pod with a laser from the beginning to the end and you want a better challenge, so you could talk with that fixer who promises you a ton of credits for some cargo runs. But after completion you find yourself hated by everybody and no more richer than before. Now you have a more dificult building phase, if you want to.
At the end, there is two no mutually exclusive ways to expand the game: make it longer adding campaign after campaign, and make it wider, adding side stories, even alternative routes.
I think that right now, almost everybody have completed the campaign, and solved the puzzles, so when you have the bigger badest übership and a helluva ton of credits, what it's the point in keeping playing? What's the point in doing all from the begining if you're going to do all the same way solving the same problems and killing the same guys again?
My point of view is that we already have a reasonable privateer game for those who wants to play the old game the original way. There is no point in attaching to the original storyline when we have introduced already so many changes, and the more that will come, that the game is no longer the original. So, let's make a wider, not so linear, more flexible game. Let people to become a merchant, a hunter, even a retro if they want to, and put new challenges here and there so we can have a diferent story every time we start a new game.

[Dilloh]

@Solon
That'll make it easier, although I currently have no idea how to spawn a ship during the game at a certain location - I'm pretty sure that you can only have one thing, either a definitive location right from the beginning of the game, or a spawning during the game progress on a random location in the system. Question: What is the purpose off all these CVLs? Are they ment to do a blockade on the system, or on the whole sector, or to track down the player?

@javier
Sounds good to me. An interesting point to be fooled by a fixer. No payoff, but bad relations. Your suggestions even inspire me to possibly implement money decreasion. Some sort of space pirates who have a ship similar to the Black Rhombus capable of "downloading" your bank account - maybe worth a side campaign.

I also hate the "godships", they make the game way too easy. There's only the chance to either rebalance them, or to make even harder foes. There might be a chance to "release" the player of his equipment using the same script which removes the steltek gun - I might try to do some experiments with it at some time.

Maybe a side campaign could offer the unique chance to acquire a single set of supermissiles which can be saved for Oxford or Palan.

I'm further willing to implement some old ideas into canonHUDs2.0, those are especially:
- to make the drone more powerful, which means higher speed and more powerful steltek guns. I think it's currently way too easy to escape the drone.
- to rebalance the player's steltek gun: fire delay x4, energy usage x4, damage x4 - this will make the usage of the gun a real challenge for pros. Whe had this discussion some time before and I think it would really make the priv campaign harder - as it was in the original.

[zeo1234]

Yes, definitely, make the Drone a better challenge.

At the very least it should be impervious to normal weapons but I've found if you have enough missiles you can take it out without even resorting to the boosted Steltek gun.

And it should be taking out other ships left and right to keep with the story description of it taking out scores of ships in its path.

So maybe equip it with its own boosted steltek guns instead of standard guns.

Though this will make it hard for those who wanted to tractor it. Perhaps have a side mission in which you can equip RF level shields to the Drayman?


As for suggesting what could make the game better. . . Personally I enjoyed the exploration portion of the game the most, exploring uncharted space, etc.

Perhaps expand upon that. . . Like perhaps there's a secret jump point left by the Steltek Scout that tractored the derilect ship away. Invisible to most sensors but is basically a super gate that leads to another galaxy.

But you can't access it until you finished most of the other campaigns and both found and equipped a ship with steltek jump drive upgrade. Basic benefit is unlimited jumping, using power instead of fuel. But it is also the only jump drive that will let you access the super gate.

You can make the gate one way like the one at the end of RF. So you have to explore to find the gate to take you back but of course that sector will be crawling with Steltek Drones.

Ultimate prize though, besides a nice side adventure, could be adding an actual Steltek Fighter (not the scout ship you meet in the first campaign) to your fleet by the time you return to known space.

Though it should be stripped down since the Steltek won't just let you leave with a fully equipped ship. So won't be a super ship when you get it and you will have to rely on normal human developed tech to equip it.

But will still have advantages like you can give it high level weapons, shields, and power generator. It'll be fast and uses dimension compression so can have a massive cargo capacity that doesn't effect the ships momentum unless close to full.

Counter will be that you can't get the ship until pretty much all other campaigns are finished and by then other powerful ships, gunships, etc, would be around to help balance it.

You can then just perminently remove those super gates or have the Steltek Jump drive burn out and not be repairable. So it's a one way trip that won't effect the rest of the WC universe.

Well, just an idea anyway.

[Dilloh]

So maybe equip it with its own boosted steltek guns instead of standard guns.

Something like that - maybe even better. I remember when I played the original, I nearly got panic (okay, I was about 12yo or so) and had to afterburn all my way, no autopilot was possible unless some cats made the drone busy. Talons were a matter of 10 seconds for the drone. I want to bring back this feeling.

Though this will make it hard for those who wanted to tractor it. Perhaps have a side mission in which you can equip RF level shields to the Drayman?

But why? Tractoring in the drone was quite easy, I virtually took any damage. Make this a real challenge, for it can be considered as some sort of bug.

Like perhaps there's a secret jump point left by the Steltek Scout that tractored the derilect ship away. Invisible to most sensors but is basically a super gate that leads to another galaxy.

Maybe to the place where the Steltek have retreated to. The player can land there, take a look around, come into contact with the Steltek. Else, there could be an entry to the Privateer 2 Tri-Star-systems. But I favour entering steltek space.

But you can't access it until you finished most of the other campaigns and both found and equipped a ship with steltek jump drive upgrade. Basic benefit is unlimited jumping, using power instead of fuel. But it is also the only jump drive that will let you access the super gate.

Reintroducing Taryn Cross and Dr. Monkhouse; though his luxury liner is shot down in Chucks storyline, he was smart enough to contact the pirates to bring him to another base. Taryn gives you the exploration missions, Dr. Monkhouse helps you with the ship.

You can make the gate one way like the one at the end of RF. So you have to explore to find the gate to take you back but of course that sector will be crawling with Steltek Drones.

What about stationary turrets near the jump points? Even friendly Steltek, like the Scout you met before? I think the player should discover a little empire with peaceful Steltek, flying around and first talking before shooting, like the Scout did.

Ultimate prize though, besides a nice side adventure, could be adding an actual Steltek Fighter (not the scout ship you meet in the first campaign) to your fleet by the time you return to known space. Though it should be stripped down since the Steltek won't just let you leave with a fully equipped ship. So won't be a super ship when you get it and you will have to rely on normal human developed tech to equip it.

Some sort of light ship - okay. One gun mount, maybe something like a slightly better escape pod.

It'll be fast and uses dimension compression so can have a massive cargo capacity that doesn't effect the ships momentum unless close to full.

You mean that the cargo is stored in a dimension rift, like the Suliban do in Star Trek - Enterprise? I always thought this was a strange concept, but we could make use of it.

Counter will be that you can't get the ship until pretty much all other campaigns are finished and by then other powerful ships, gunships, etc, would be around to help balance it.

That's great, but as long as you can tractor in the drone, you'll always have a better ship. So I could rebalance the drone as well as the Scout - lowering warp capacity to minimum, Scouts maneuverability and speed really low, and of course no cargo capacity.

You can then just perminently remove those super gates or have the Steltek Jump drive burn out and not be repairable. So it's a one way trip that won't effect the rest of the WC universe.

Take away is good - let's say the super jump drive is capable of retrieving Steltek jump data, along with an access code. After you return to normal space, it'll be destroyed. Other ships trying to enter the system will be tracked down by the turrets immediately. I'll search in units.csv if there's already some sort of super-jumpdrive, combined with adequates jump lines.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

In one game i played you have one way worm holes that like the discriptions say, let you jump one way only. You could try to impliment something like that. And make better jump points, maybe a swirling mass of matter.

[Zool]

I know a lot of people wont like this suggestion but here goes.

Why not just fix it so that you cannot tractor in ships anymore (if possible). You could have (renegade) bases, like a black market, that sell the Kilrathi ships and anything else that cannot be bought on the normal market. There are a lot of empty systems out there and there's already one hidden Kilrathi ammo dump to be found, if you haven't already. Why not a hidden dealer in illicit ships. IMHO the game doesn't need the ability to make millions of credits in one fell swoop and scooping up dralthi and flogging them for 1.4 million a piece really defeats the purpose of working for a living. Also you would not have to hack your drayman to make it flyable or hack your fighter to fit more fighters inside.

I think the wingman options need to be looked at more as I won't use them as they are next to useless. Everytime they see one of their own enemies they won't respond to my commands, especially in the Palan mission when Murphy gives you the two militia and I'm on friendlies with the Kats, they just do thier own thing and get creamed. What a waste. And reloading doesn't always work either. Sometimes you just don't get them.
But if there was a way to set them up better then that would be great. and make then less expensive to hire maybe.

[Night10194]

You know, it's been a long time since I played Priv Remake, but this mod's gotten me interested in it again. I love my Galaxy GS and its turrets, and I call it the Havoc.

I've been going over the posts, and while I'm totally useless at computer-intensive work, I like to think I'm a decent enough writer. At the very least, I could help spellcheck/grammarcheck scripts. If anyone needs anything typed up, just ask. It's my hobby, anyhow.

Also, hurrah for the idea of a militia campaign. Go, underpaid spacecops! Go!

[Night10194]

Also, I gotta ask, I see all this mention of a storyline and things, but I haven't spotted any of it in the actual game thus far. Has this all not been implemented, or have I just missed the download of the latest patch? No offense meant, but finding *any* download amidst the long discussion of story, etc is kind of a bother.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

like to think I'm a decent enough writer.

Ooh, could you help me with the walk through for the bonus campaign??? I would really like some help.

Andreas

[Zool]

Hey Guys, I've had an idea for all those pilots left floating around space. I see heaps of them around New Detroit and as things are now it's not really worth it to scoop them up; small profit in selling them as slaves and the risk of getting caught with contraband. Turn them into hitchhikers you say, worth a lot less.

What I was thinking is this. Is it possible to make is so that the pilots belong to their respective factions and then if you go around and "rescue" them you could then return them to a base of their faction for a reward. (Obviously make it worth a lot more than selling them as slaves). Added to this it could also increase your rep with that faction. eg Take Merchant pilots to Speke or New Detroit, militia pilots to Speke or New Detroit, military pilots to Perry Naval Base and pirates to a pirate base (or maybe even create a pirate HQ/ base/world and a retro HQ base/world.)

Also you could take pirate and retro pilots to a base, eg PNB/Speke/New Detroit, for a reward if you did not want to turn them over to their own people, and if you turn them over to the authorities this could count against your rep with that pirate/retro faction, AND improve your rep with the authorities. Similarly, if you take merchants, militia and military pilots to a pirate or retro base. As for the Kats, you could take them to Perry Naval Base to be interrogated, for a bounty of course, or create a secret base near Kilrathi territory and return them for a reward, with the appropriate rep increase/decrease.

[Zool]

@MAS

I'd like to offer my services to help you with the walkthrough. Text based stuff I'm a whiz with. Just tell me what you'd like done.

[Solon Halwinder]

Question: What is the purpose off all these CVLs? Are they ment to do a blockade on the system, or on the whole sector, or to track down the player?

The idea is to show that the Militia has a moderately strong presence throughout Gemini, and provide you with (relatively) easy access to Militia missions. I figured restricting the spawns to pure Nav Points (nothing else there) would help keep the number realistic. Might even be a bit too sparse; can I get someone to count how many of those there are?

[Night10194]

It would help if the bonus campaign didn't get bugged when I try to dispatch the pirate freighter. For some reason, my autotrackers always kick off and won't turn back on when I hit that mission, after dumping the ultimate and staying with the cops. Otherwise, I'd gladly write a walkthrough for it.

Also, I just gotta say...the Fireblade? An entire mini-campaign? That thing isn't even worth the 500K as is. Maybe if it could be customized instead of being totally straightjacketted...

Anyhow, the plot with the Militia is already written? I'll take a look at the scripts, maybe make a few suggestions. I know, I know, I'm kinda getting into this late, but at the least, it can't hurt to look over the grammar, huh?

Still, I already enjoy what's been made in this mod, and I can't wait to see what comes next! Sounds like it's just gotten started!