No, no! You misunderstand what I've done here! I've created an ocean surface, that players can actually interact with (i.e., they can crash into it and die).

I've also developed a whole new physics system for aircraft, new spawning techniques (which should be quite intriguing to the community when I unveil Alpha 3) and a whole slew of other things, which are quite new and very different than just clouds "poking through the sky".

Go download Alpha 2, start up a server and client... and see for yourself. When it's done, it will be an experience very, very different from the original game (which is the whole point, of course). Even in that early Alpha build, you can see most of the things I'm talking about- Alpha 3 will feature a new cockpit (for easier aiming) a slew of additional tweaks, boats that spawn only on the surface of the "sea", and much, much more...

Ok right. I'm just saying that this concept has potential to be carried on in other ways.

Sure does. And when Alpha 3 is done, I'm sure that lots of people will be interested in how it was implemented... the short answer being, "it's very tricky to get the engine to do exactly what you want, period".

But you can fake it, or do other whacky things

Yes, this system has great potential for planetary landings, missions to take out buildings etc - I have ideas in the offing for my FLank mod (Freelancer / Elite & sequels combination) for those Frontier/First Encounters type missions to skim the surface, slaughter defence fighters and torpedo a base Now if i can get the d*mn FLModelTool to work nicely so Argh can do what he needs to with the model files....

+++ out of cheese error - redo from start +++

Edit * still learning to spell :S

Xtreme Team Studios

Edited by - Anton on 11/16/2004 2:13:50 AM

I'm thinking more along the lines of having a whole new universe to explore in a way. Since it is possible to make new station models, you could make a station that looks like a huge city and sink it into the ground couldn't you? You could, in theory, actually fly through Manhattan. It be a ton of work, but you have done the hardest part argh. I am very impressed, its about time someone figured it out, its been a dream for over a year. Very awesome. This mod, and more importantly its concept, needs to be hyped more.

The best way would be to make jumpgates paths to "planets"...if you could find a way to make a sphere of sorts...you make a system a sphere....put a docking ring in it....you fly into the system....which is the planet...and then use the docking ring to dock

Don't worry... when Alpha 3 is (finally) ready, I think that most people will take some notice. Among other things, this evening I'm replacing the planets with dockable "islands", and I already have "ships" that spawn on the surface of the "sea", and will soon have player-purchaseable ships, so that you can drive them around, and fight other ships- I mean it wouldn't be much fun if you couldn't blow things away, right?

It's been a very long road to get this far, though- I'll be the first one to say that. And I'm merely building on the fundamental work of others, who originally began working out the details of how to mod the game engine and built the tools that make it easier than it used to be... so it's not like I'm really a pioneer... think of my work as "creative leeching", hehe...

@Parabolix: I hear what you're saying, but I think that making a model of an actual planet that huge (and having it be in some way interactive, and not just a dead display) would be a wee bit too difficult to do with this engine... the problems with draw distance can probably be solved, but there are a host of others that'd be almost impossible (or so much work that they wouldn't be worth it). For example, flight would get all funky, because the FL engine doesn't have any gravity simulations available, let alone a gravity simulation which also affects the center of balance of the ships, so people's vectors would tend to take them constantly towards or away from the planetary surface, which would have to be extremely high-poly to not look horrid.

The way I did it in WOS is meant as a compromise between the things that haven't been solved (in particular, custom SURs) and the things that have. Anton has been extremely helpful at getting the current version of FLModel Tool to do some new and unusual tricks, so that I could manipulate SURs in ways that are probably very unfamiliar to most modders... and get the results I wanted here.

There are a lot of things that I'd like to have working properly... that just can't be done, unfortunately. I've run into some serious limitations regarding the spawning behavior of the FL engine, among other things, that I've had to kludge workarounds for. So it's definately not all roses and lollipops, hehe...

Edited by - Argh on 11/16/2004 7:05:47 PM

argh, this mod i what ive been waiting for. somebody with the guts and determination to stand still and hack a sci-fi game to peices to make it have a WWII type feel. Although this mod is not perfect it is well on the way to being great. although my opinion dosent matter too much in the face of great ones such as urself, chips, harrier, parabolix and others, well, thought it was worth it to let people know that we do have a pioneer here. Youve hacked a sci-fi to ribbons and whacked it out of shape t create a WWII game that is actually stable. Youve done what many others either couldnt or didnt do (no way i was even gonna dream of doin that) an d that makes u a pioneer.

It has biplanes, isn't it WWI...

close enough. u know what i mean

Encircled by vicious Brutes, the Master Chief lowers his dual SMGs. He hears a female voice in his ear "Bet you can't stick 'em"
"You're on"

I'm not trying for "historical accuracy" here at all... the aircraft that'll be in the mod will range from late WWI (1917-1918) to the end of WWII, with a lot of fantasy designs, as well as ones that look at least somewhat like their historical versions. So we'll have biplanes, triplanes and monoplanes, but no jets (although I am considering building a rocket-powered aircraft, which could be interesting). Also no helicopters or gyrocopters (I have yet to build a convincing flight model- if I ever come up with one, I'll use it).

But we'll also have ships, and you can buy one and fly it, of course. I also plan to have "hovertanks", blimps and a host of other interesting things that you can buy/fly, but these things are still in the dream category- I know how to make them, but I haven't gotten models built yet.

Anyway... glad to here y'all are having fun with the mod. I'll be releasing Alpha 3 as soon as I've gotten done with a few more things around here...

Crap, stupid Freeworlds mod messed up the server files, I can't do the mod now. Doh. Have to do a clean install. Again. Argh.

you could make the Gloster Meteor and the Messerschmict 262 (first 2 jets) the best planes. The rocket powered plane is the Messerschmict 163 Komet, type any of thos into google images to see them.

also, can we see a Spitfire at some point?

Alpha 3 is now out- check Mod Announcements for details.

I'm sure I'll put in a Spit analogue or three... it's one of my favorite designs (my all-time favorite is the P-40 Warhawk, which the Flying Tigers used).

As for jets... no, I think I'll stick with props- rocket craft would more-or-less be a "stunt" aircraft, with special thrusters (that obviously couldn't be looted) that would give enormous thrust, but only for a short period, much like the Komet's rockets (but far less dangerous).

As for "best planes"... I'm pretty consciously trying to develop the fighters so that there isn't a "best plane" in the usual sense- each aircraft is good at some things, bad at others, and none of them have shields or weapons that the other can't use, and their hitpoints are in a very narrow range from 2500-5000.

For example, the starting aircraft (a very cartoonish mock-Hellcat) is well-armed, fast, and fairly durable, but steers sloppily and accelerates poorly. The Pirate Fighter is slightly less-well-armed, slower, and less durable, but it's incredibly manueverable. And the Police Fighter is even less well-armed, but it hardly ever "overheats", even with the strongest autocannon now in the game, and it's both manueverable and fast. Each one has different strengths and weaknesses. For taking down bombers, for example, the starting aircraft is probably best. For tricky dogfighting, the pirate aircraft is probably best, and the police fighter can do a little of everything, but is weak in all areas (but, I must add, it's only slightly weaker, and is a decent ride).

The game is being balanced for PvP combat, so I'm going to be deliberately messing with the game design to balance the aircraft to some degree.

Not that there won't be "better" aircraft/ships/hovertanks/blimps... but they'll be "better" at a given job, not "better, period", like the Eagle/Titan of FL. I really hated that concept for MP gaming... it's counter-productive and undermines skill. I want the final game to be about playing skill, not how much money you have in the bank...