MOD: Privateer 1.2 Parallel Universe 1.0

Forum for discussing various mods for the VS-engine based upon Privateer. (Please play nice now, and extinguish all flaming materials.
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z30
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Drayman & Centurion fix

Post by z30 »

The beta patch will also address existing Drayman & Centurion issues :

* Drayman reactors will match the shield values. Formerly they had level 8 shields & level 7 reactors.

* Drayman fixed weapon mount will now carry turrets. Standard weaponry will be two FF missile turrets

* I may come out with a more heavily armed merchant variant, something with two turrets in front, two in the back and two somewhere in the middle.

Now for the Centurion :)

* Centurion sluggishness will be addressed by bringing it's weight into line with the heavy fighter range

As it is, with the Raptor and Saber becoming very viable heavy fighter choices, there is very little reason to go for the stock PR Centurion. Improving the manueverability to bring it closer to the original Privateer version should go a long way to making it a good choice again.

Galaxy fanatics will love the lighter weight of the stock Gal which has increased its agility and has brought it in inline with the original version.

Those who go for escort duties will enjoy driving & fighting in the HK variant. I fixed a bug that made level 4 reactors and shields unavailable at the local market.

With stacked plasteel & tungsten armor, level 4 shields and the combined firepower of three turrets plus two gun /missile mounts this really is the gunship escort of choice. And you get to do a little trade on top as well :)
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Post by rockstar »

Damn, here's the deal with the MILITIA GUILD ROOM.

Although I've started working on the lady I decided to drop it and restart from some sketches I made. My experience tells me that I would achieve much better results then. Unfortunatly my scanner won't work with the backends shipped with my Linux distribution. I've already checked out provided work arounds with no success. This seems to be a problem occuring for many people using a LiDE 20 and this distro release. At the moment I can just sit here and wait until something's updated so I finally can use my sketches as the drafts I urgently need... quite annoying this shit :\
I'm really sorry that this needs so much time to finish... really hoped for getting things done quite fast.
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Post by Solon Halwinder »

Some more observations from a new game.

1. The Tarsus Mark 2 is an awesome early-game ship. The belly turret really improves the firepower.

2. Mass Drivers are the best Light gun, hands-down. 60% more damage than Lasers, not substantially less than Mesons, plus less drain and quicker firing than them.

3. I really shouldn't be encountering pirates with three Fusion Guns on their Talons with RF not even started, should I? For that matter, are Talons even supposed to be ABLE to equip them?

4. The Krant is way too strong. With a well-equipped Galaxy, I'm barely a match for two of them.

5. Missiles do too much splash damage. I've killed myself with the blast from a point-blank Dumbfire at least twice today.

6. The Orion Mark 2 Trader only has one gun mount.

7. (old file) Apparently, Pentonville only shows up properly when you load your game while you're there.

8. Equipment descriptions are truncated in the middle on a LOT of stuff.

9. You cannot buy Autotracking for any of the Hornet CVL's mounts.

10. I still think a Gun Capability upgrade for missile mounts would be fun.
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Post by rockstar »

Are you sure those pirate talons are equipped with fusion guns? I somehow remember fusion guns and neutron guns to be kinda similar. Neutron guns have short range but do high damage when in reach of target...
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Post by Solon Halwinder »

Yes, I'm sure they were Fusion Guns. White bolts, as compared to the Neutron Gun's blue ones.

This was before I even left the Troy system, no less.

EDIT: Something I was curious about. Wasn't the Sartha the Kilrathi stealth fighter from Wing Commander 2? Or am I thinking of something else?

EDIT 2: This is regarding z30 saying the Ferret isn't supposed to be buyable. With the Drayman CVL's cargo capacity of 10000, making ships unbuyable doesn't keep you from tractoring them in, selling them at the Commodity Exchange, then buying them. Unless you plan to make ships take up 10001 cargo, which is ridiculous.
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Post by rockstar »

Ok, this was just a thought, Solon...

Here's a preview of what I want to be the militia guild room once... at least I hope it will...

Image
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Post by Solon Halwinder »

Hey, nice.

Might I suggest you see about redoing the old base textures from the original Privateer when you finish that?
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Post by rockstar »

Ehm, no... Ok, here're the facts. The old textures are taken from the original Privateer. Those textures are rendered images of 320x200 px size from over 10 years ago, but anyways. The characters including the animations are pixeled... You can find all frames of the char anim in the privateer RM data. Let's come to the core problem. If I remake all the textures I'll have to remake all the chars including anims in 3D. I have no difficulites to pixel a new char, but I know nobody here on the boards how's able to create or interested in creating a shitload of rendered images for that. That's why I just create a 3D model of this new guild room, scale it down to 320x200 and include the character with - hopefully - animations. The other option would be to use vector images to replace the current char images, but for me it's the same problem as with 3D.
At the moment I see more important things to be done for PR like some starship models and a lot of missing cockpits.

Don't get me wrong. I would really like to do all this stuff in 3D or even vector, but my skills are low and it's alot of stuff to be done. To make it more easy to understand you might check the thread about the new Hornet model and you'll see how long it might take to finish ONE thing.

Btw. I just want to say that I really appreciate the efforts beeing taken here. This extended Version of PR ist quite interesting 'cause WCU is not running that good. Thumbs up, guys!
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Post by z30 »

Solon Halwinder wrote:Some more observations from a new game.

1. The Tarsus Mark 2 is an awesome early-game ship. The belly turret really improves the firepower.

2. Mass Drivers are the best Light gun, hands-down. 60% more damage than Lasers, not substantially less than Mesons, plus less drain and quicker firing than them.

3. I really shouldn't be encountering pirates with three Fusion Guns on their Talons with RF not even started, should I? For that matter, are Talons even supposed to be ABLE to equip them?

4. The Krant is way too strong. With a well-equipped Galaxy, I'm barely a match for two of them.

5. Missiles do too much splash damage. I've killed myself with the blast from a point-blank Dumbfire at least twice today.

6. The Orion Mark 2 Trader only has one gun mount.

7. (old file) Apparently, Pentonville only shows up properly when you load your game while you're there.

8. Equipment descriptions are truncated in the middle on a LOT of stuff.

9. You cannot buy Autotracking for any of the Hornet CVL's mounts.

10. I still think a Gun Capability upgrade for missile mounts would be fun.
I'm really happy with the way the TarsusMk2 (Goss take a bow :) made the climb to the next better ship that much easier. The stock Tarsus is really no longer up to date with the PR universe environment which is much more hostile than the original game.

Will make adjustments to the Talon & the Krant, for the Talon it's a matter of limiting the gun mounts to medium guns at the most. I agree that the Krant is too tough, will downgrade the reactor which is level 3 right now and adjust the shields values if necessary.

The OrionMk2 will be corrected and will doubcheck eq descriptions on the units.csv & master parts list as well.


Thanks for all the input Solon !
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Post by z30 »

rockstar wrote:Ok, this was just a thought, Solon...

Here's a preview of what I want to be the militia guild room once... at least I hope it will...

Image
It looks just damn beautiful rockstar :)

This is possibly a controversial idea but I am playing around with placing the Militia guild office in roving Drayman CVL's.

These fortified Draymans will have supplies for light equipment (& stocks for light missile replacements) and will provide Defend & Patrol missions.

Goss's idea of providing scramble fighter routines for these mobile HQ's would also fit in.

Docking with a Drayman would be more interesting and it would pave the way for the next major modification I'm considering - the idea that only ships with planetary capabilities should be able to land on planets.
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Post by z30 »

rockstar wrote: That's why I just create a 3D model of this new guild room, scale it down to 320x200 and include the character with - hopefully - animations. The other option would be to use vector images to replace the current char images, but for me it's the same problem as with 3D.
At the moment I see more important things to be done for PR like some starship models and a lot of missing cockpits.

Don't get me wrong. I would really like to do all this stuff in 3D or even vector, but my skills are low and it's alot of stuff to be done. To make it more easy to understand you might check the thread about the new Hornet model and you'll see how long it might take to finish ONE thing.

Btw. I just want to say that I really appreciate the efforts beeing taken here. This extended Version of PR ist quite interesting 'cause WCU is not running that good. Thumbs up, guys!
I agree with your approach, in fact for the first cut of the Militia Guild I'm thinking that your rendered office ,an operational guild mission computer and text dialogue would be enough.

We could add in the people & voice stuff later, starships & new cockpits would be more important sub projects.

Thanks for the encouragement and all the work in making this game available at all.
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Post by z30 »

Solon Halwinder wrote:Yes, I'm sure they were Fusion Guns. White bolts, as compared to the Neutron Gun's blue ones.

This was before I even left the Troy system, no less.

EDIT: Something I was curious about. Wasn't the Sartha the Kilrathi stealth fighter from Wing Commander 2? Or am I thinking of something else?

EDIT 2: This is regarding z30 saying the Ferret isn't supposed to be buyable. With the Drayman CVL's cargo capacity of 10000, making ships unbuyable doesn't keep you from tractoring them in, selling them at the Commodity Exchange, then buying them. Unless you plan to make ships take up 10001 cargo, which is ridiculous.
The Strakha was the Kilrathi stealth fighter, the first one of its kind and if its every going to be included in this mod I think it would be neat to have them as part of a special militia or confed mission.

Sartha's are more like the Kilrathi equivalents of Epees and Ferrets, front line scout and patrol ships. If they're proving too tough (like the Krant) for this class of ships let me know.
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...and more Updates

Post by z30 »

* Krant reactor level reduced to 2

* Talon gun mounts limited to medium weapons tops

* Centurion balanced (correct weight and much nicer agility)

* Drayman now has level 8 reacs & shields. Can mount two turrets

I'm tinkering around with the 2 emitter shields, these have front & back protection but nothing on the sides. To make it interesting, I've made it cheaper than the standard PR 4 emitters and faster at recharging.

If I can get this to work, light and medium ships can upgrade one shield level above what they normally can when taking the 2 emitter option.

Great for small fast ships :)
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Post by Gosshawk »

(Bows)

Mobile HQ's would be great. Projection of force is a very usefull tool that should be employed by the militia.
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Post by Solon Halwinder »

I think 2-emitter shields aren't really practical here, with the crazy stuff the AI can still do occasionally.

If I remember WC1 and 2 properly, the front shield covered both the front and left, while the back covered the rear and right. Maybe that would be the way to go.

Also, I wouldn't complain about perhaps rescripting the main campaign to have multiple paths through it, though obviously they would all have to end at the same place. I do some writing on the side, I could volunteer my skills at that if you decide it's a good idea, or perhaps if you need someone to script a new side campaign.
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Post by z30 »

Solon Halwinder wrote:I think 2-emitter shields aren't really practical here, with the crazy stuff the AI can still do occasionally.

If I remember WC1 and 2 properly, the front shield covered both the front and left, while the back covered the rear and right. Maybe that would be the way to go.

Also, I wouldn't complain about perhaps rescripting the main campaign to have multiple paths through it, though obviously they would all have to end at the same place. I do some writing on the side, I could volunteer my skills at that if you decide it's a good idea, or perhaps if you need someone to script a new side campaign.
We'll see how the 2 emitter shields do in the beta test, I'll let you guys decide whether it's all worth it .

Offer to write missions gladly accepted, those Mobile HQ's on Goss' militia Draymans will be even better with custom side stories interweaving with the main plot line.

I wonder though, are there bars in Drayman CVL's ? :)
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Post by rockstar »

Bars, eh?! Guess no... Draymans are cargo ships and no waylanders or mobile bases. Did you ever see a container chip with an oboard bar? :D
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Post by Solon Halwinder »

Well, the Militia variant Draymans which z30 refers to Gosshawk working on would probably be a lot closer to mobile bases than normal Draymans, so maybe they would have bars.

But even discounting that, you would still need somewhere to put fixers on a Militia Drayman.

Also, I should probably clarify what I meant by "writing": I just meant doing the plot, text, etc. I don't have any skill at actually coding them or anything.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Drayman always had bars i think.
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Post by OnyxPaladin »

Considering the amount of cargo space on a drayman it wouldn't be very difficult to put up prefabs walls, stairs, etc. to turn the open areas into crew quarters, training rooms, and recreational facilities.

Since we're talking about a drayman retrofitted to be a mobile base, it's likely that it would be designed to be able to travel for long periods of time before needing to dock at a station. Which means that a bar is fairly likely since the crew will need R&R so that they won't succumb to cabin fever.
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Post by Gosshawk »

TCS Tigers Claw had a bar on it. Same with the Victory and the Concordia.
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Post by z30 »

Gosshawk wrote:TCS Tigers Claw had a bar on it. Same with the Victory and the Concordia.
Bars it is then :)

Btw, Tilias weapons document is correct. I was able to fix the Proton Torpedos :

---------
<Bolt name="ProtonTorpedo" mountsize="heavy-missile">
<Energy rate="0" stability="6" refire=".3" >
</Energy>
<Damage rate="0" phasedamage="30" longrange="1" radius="2" radialspeed="500" >
</Damage>
<Distance speed="1200" pulsespeed="15" range="1000000" detonationrange="50" volume="2">
</Distance>
<Appearance file="weapons/proton_torpedo.png" soundwav="torpedo.wav">
</Appearance>
</Bolt>
----------

The trick was to transfer the damage value from Damage Rate to Phase Damage. I tried the corrected torps on a Galaxy, three hits and the ship blew up - with shields intact :)
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Also draymans should have more than six jumps. Woops. typed into wrong post.
Last edited by micheal_andreas_stahl on Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Also draymans should have more than six jumps. and you should be able replenish your missiles.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Killing ejected pilots would be murder would it not? That COULD get you to be disliked. Why doesn't change you rep with confed and militia when you kill a ejected pilot. that's what the kilrathi do.
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