Hi!

gestoord: Thanks for working on the Ioncross data files. They will be really useful for all players of the Monkeys. I think, when you learn something about modding it's not that bad. You could even become an active modder here on TLR. We need any new modder out there, as FL is as good as the mods are. So, keep learning and if you got questions you can either ask me or just all the guys in the forums here. They know nearly everything and I learned modding just with reading the forums.

Many thanks also for the message from the players on your server. It's always nice to hear that people like my mod and makes working on the mod easier. I already began the work on the next version and am also working on the Monkey Universe mod for your server (I only need to add the two new commodities and the two shippacks. All the other things have been added). So, I hope they'll have fun until I get ready with this one. If it is done, I think I will also come to the server (I hope the name Black Eagle is still free

Vader: Great second chapter! I love your story. Keep writing on it. I hope you still enjoy playing version 1.18. I'm currently working on a servermod for gestoord, but also on a small patch for the Monkeys (patch to version 1.2), which will add some new things, improve old ones (e.g.: the Nomad 1 system) and hopefully finish the commodity market.

That's it for now,

Black Eagle

Edited by - Black Eagle on 4/9/2005 6:01:49 PM

BLACK EAGLE
Hi ,this is Vader{MERCS}, how are you?..cool i hope.I am very glad to hear you like the 2nd chapter( that is ,if your telling the truth and not just being a nice guy, heh heh heh ).I am still ,very much enjoying playing v1.18 , as i found lots places in multiplayer that i've still yet to reach in singleplayer,heh heh heh, but there is yet a whole lot more than just that in this version , so i expect to be ' Looking around ' for quite some time ( which is cool !!)


Trading captured 'OUTCAST' Pilots to 'CORSAIRS' in exchange for Neutron Weapons, Vader{MERCS}

Black Eagle, I can't remember if you were going to incorperate this or planning to add something of this nature but the SolarCrusher Torpedo Concept reminds me and even acts exactly like a Robot torpedo. A fair countermeasure to the Nomad Torpedo (and it would make it second strongest, fitting your tradition).

And lastly a question, are you planning to include a combat oriented Light Fighter?

I thoroughly enjoy the Discover but it lacks firepower (mainly a torpedo launcher) and leaves it somewhat lacking. It's a bit unusual to find everyone flying an Anubis Mk II online.

And cheers for the excellent fan fic Vader, it's turning out great, esspecially the suspense bit. I await to see the ending, unless it's an on going project.

Yea well,I also fly the Monkeys Capatal ship,and The Anubas Mk2.I fly for the monkeys(Trent was wong,the order wasnt just the only one worth fighting for).Also,I started up a clan on that server.My name is {SF}Denstar3003.

Vader,

If you want to you could post your 2 chapters in our Monkey Universe forums...

Here is the link:

Monkey Universe Forum

Gestoord

Hi guys!

Hey Vader, I'm not just a nice guy in this point. I tried to write fan fiction some years ago and was not really content with my stories. But your story I really like and I hope you will go on with it. I'm cool so far. My exchange student will leave tomorrow and then I hopefully have some more time for modding again.
Good to hear that you did not already explore the whole mod. I got parts of a mod Rimshot was working on and there are great things in it. As he cannot go on with this mod, he allowed me to use it for the Monkeys. I will add as much as possible of his great ideas to the Monkeys. So, I might be ready with a first patch (to version 1.2) soon. Keep playing for now and have fun!

Dreyus: For the solar crusher, I was thinking about adding something like this, but I'm not sure for now. I will look how if it fits into the mod.
I will definitely add a combat oriented ligh fighter. I thought about adding some LFs and equipment for these, which are very expensive and have high level requirements. So, high level players could choose, if they wanted to fight with VHFs (strong hull, lots of weapons, slow) or with LFs (weaker hull, less weapons, fast, agile), as both could carry strong weapons, torps and all the things needed to survive in the new systems.
I also want to try to rebalance the new ships, so that not everyone is flying the Anubis MK2.
Thanks for posting all these good ideas. I hope we will meet on the Voidserver again!

Good to see a new face here Denstar. I will probably visit the server during the next days so that we might meet each other. Have fun with the mod!

I hope all of you are allright. As I said, I will probably have some more time to mod during the next days and as I got Rimshots mod, I also have some new things for it. So, keep playing and waiting for the next version

Black Eagle

Edited by - Black Eagle on 4/12/2005 3:12:27 PM

Oh,and in my clan,im looking for another capatal ship.And if you want to take the spot,you are also a commander(Im the lead).

Ah, I forgot to ask, could you give the Mystere triple torpedoes hardpoints as well? Both to balance it with the Anubis Mk II and the fictionary ferocity its given through its description (including speed loss by weight, A regenerating torpedo must weight some too it ).

For the SolarCrusher if you do incoperate it, an idea would be to either significantly slow down it's refire rate, or increase it to about two or 1.5 per second and drop the payload, making them a cross between missiles and torpedoes? Kinda like a Super Catapult Missile

Let me know if you need beta testing and such, as I can do that, and I have minor modding skills to make changes myself and get back to you with results that work.

Best of luck all around.

BLACK EAGLE
Hi this is Vader{MERCS},good to hear everythings all good with you.I just wanted to say , for so long have i wanted a craft that you could fly and battle in 'TURRET VIEW' and maintain in 'TURRET VIEW' without having to switch back into 'COCKPIT VIEW' to make a hasty retreat.The Monkeys Destroyer is one Bad-ass ship( my 'desktop background' is a picture of the Amun on its side firing all starboard guns on a fleeing pirate whose just had their squadron wiped out heh heh heh.I also have 2 captured Destoyer/Gunboat captains to simulate a flight crew heh heh heh)
One question though, what do you think about having an 'ORDER BASE' or Planet that sold pilotable 'Gunboats' ? Is this possible? It seems that with Heavy fighters, Very heavy fighters and Destroyers in your mod, Gunboats may be all thats missing ? ( Every Faction has Gunboats except the 'ORDER',plus i'd really love to be able to take the 'LIBERTY' Gunboat for a spin ,heh heh heh)


Capturing Pirates ' left right and centre ' ,Vader{MERCS}

Ta-da! The return of Powerdoll.
Long time no see guys, I miss you all!
I was just told that the Monkey 1.18 had been released, so I came back to check it out. And it's ture
Great work Black Eagle! You are the reason why I keep playing the FL.
Dear Vader{MERCS}, you are always so passional. I'm looking forward to reading the next chaper of your fiction.
And Dreyus, you are quite a writer I've learnt much from your posts about the new feature of the monkey mod, before I actually run it.
King Lin, I wish your PC has return normal.
I lost most of my game data during the last attack of virus too, including the save files and some handy tools.
So I'm reinstalling the game now. Meanwhile I'm reading the your posts these months. I wish I could soon keep up with you.
And that's it, for now.

Hi again!

Denstar: If you still fly only the Amun, you could take the Crusher Robot Destroyer as second capship. If however you mean that you would like more flyable capships in the mod, I hope you can wait a bit. I'm already working on the next version of the mod, but the most important things are some improvements of the current additions and more systems and small ships (fighters and freighters). I also need to reskin some ships and have to add some other things. Therefore I think it will take some time until I add more flyable capships. But as many like to have these in the mod, I will definitely try to add more.

Dreyus: One of the things I'm currently workiong on is the balance (I got some good points from you for this). On the Void server I saw that most of the players fly the Anubis MK2. I want to have at least three ships, which are equally strong, but have different characteristics (one speed, one weapons and so on). So, I'm now trying to rebalance my mod as good as possible. Maybe I will also give the Mystere additional Torpedoes. But again, I will rebalance all the new ships (and some of the original ones) and do not already know what exactly all the ships will be like then.
For the betatesting: Thanks for the offer, but I'm currently far away of a release date and there is not really a need for a tester. But if I got further with the mod, I may ask you for this, thanks!

Vader: So you are now a Destroyer pilot. I never liked capships, but if I need a ride to Planet Robonetic I will ask you

I will definitely add some more bases for the Order (also Planets). Adding Gunboats is a good idea and I already had a go on this some time before. They will be flyable in a future version, but as I already said to Denstar this might take some time as I will first add some other things. Hope you agree.
Freelancer A1-1 be advised you are chased by Vader{MERCS} and will not survive!

Powerdoll: Great to see you again! I already thought you stopped playing FL. I hope to see you around in the next weeks. Just try out version 1.18 and tell me if it is good. I hope you like it.

As I said several times I'm already working on the next version. Unfortunately it is going very slow and this time I will not make promises for the release date. I don't want to let you wait as long as for the last version.
But I will still release a small patch for the current version (patch to version 1.2). In this patch the commoditymarket will be finished and some new additions will be in the mod (a system and a ship or something like this). Hopefully the rebalance or rework of some of the "old" additions will also be finished for this.

King Lin, how is you PC? I hope you got it to work. At least I wish you good luck!

So, see you around guys!

Black Eagle

Hi, Black Eagle.
I've just run your mod. It's fantastic.
I like the new commodities most. They made the game more colorful. Since the air fight still costs me much to win out, I spent about 30 thousand on rep. hack so that I could go through out the sirus without being attacked. Then I collected all the wrecks except for those in the robot 1 system. I sold them and got about one million. Then I invested all these credits on the trading between H-fuel in Housen and Ancient Kusari Ceramics in Kyoto Base. Soon I earned my Abubis MKII It's easier than before, and more interesting as well.
I also like the new nomad battle ship fighting mission, which made my effect on weapon improvement worthy.
The robot 1 system is cool! The backgroud music is loud and clear. The wrecks work well. They are just a little bit concentrated in the minefield. I used to think they would be far from the bases.

Now I want to talk about some advices.
First it's dissapointed me a little to see that some advices we diccussed before are not taken in this mod.
For example, the robots' voice are still like human, not machine.
And the skin of Anubis MKII is still the same as anubis.
And special NPCs such as king, orillion and Juni are still not found on order's battle ship or any other bases.
And the systems locked after the story mode still need further developed. New systems are cool, but what makes players more exicting is to find some secret feature unlocked in the mod, just like you unlocked the mission offer on monkey planet, and the two extra torpedo hardpoints on anubis. The story mode has give us many materails on nomads' homeworld: jume gate, city, weapon flantfrom, and many other details, all locked after the story is finished. I think it's reasonable to make use of them. Nomads should be a faction with full fuction like others, job offers, rep. hack, and etc. We are freelancers, why can't we work for nomad for a period of time?

Secondly, I don't like the flyable battleships very much. It's great to give monkeys and robots their own battle ship. But it should not be for sale. I also don't like the Nomad Mystere very much. There should be only one kind of VHF for each faction. In the original game, ships of same faction share some features in shapes. For example, hawk, falcon and eagle are very similar in shape, they are of the same series. Nomads ships have their own very sepcial shapes. It's not a good idea to add extra VHF with different shape. What's more, the new ships's structure can not be shown on the HUD like original ships do.

Last, some little advices. I went to omicron alpha and saw outcasts were useing Liberty Cruisers to fight with corsairs. Its kinda funny, how could outcasts own Liberty Cruisers?
And you said you are going to add some new wrecks in the old systems. Better not. Enough wrecks have been placed properly in the old systems. No need for more.

I have just run this mod for several hours. So far I have not encounted any fatal bugs. I think it's generally a wonderful mod. Thank you for delivering the entertainment. And I will keep exploring the mod.

Hi Powerdoll!

It's nice to hear that you like the mod and I'm grateful for your suggestions. Just to answer some of your questions:

I know that we discussed many things that are nor in the current version. The reason is that I got a list with about 50 different points about things to add to the mod. Half of these or maybe even more are your ideas. But unfortunately I would need one year to add just 15 of these things to the mod.
In the last few months I was really busy with school stuff (my A-level is in one year and all marks I get now are already counting for it) and also some other things in real life. Therefore I did not have the time to include so many new things in the mod. As I wanted to have as much additions as possible I made at first the additions, which are easy to do, or better easier than other additions.
I hope you can understand this. Slowly but surely I will try to add all the things we discussed, but this will take some time, as FL is only a game and I also have a real life (really

The robot voices would have been an easy addition, but I could not find the voices until now and therefore skipped this for version 1.18. But I will definitely try to find out if they are in the game and if it is possible to add them to the Robots. But I once told you that in my opinion the Robots are so intelligent and highly developed that they speak like humans. This would explain their voices and if I remember right you agreed with this some time ago.
So, do you still want to have Robot voices and what do the others think about this?

I started to reskin the ships that are used twice (Anubis, Valkyrie, Legionnaire) for the last version. But after many, many ours of work there were still some bugs and therefore this did not get into the mod.
As I said before, I want to release a patch to version 1.2, in which the commoditymarket is finished. In this patch I will also try to add new skins for all these ships.

The special NPC thingy is quite alot of work (at least if I want it to be good). Therefore this is not in the current version, but will definitely be in a future version.

Also including the story-only systems is a lot of work and there are some problems. Some of them even cannot be included without having bugs.
But I already found a solution for this (I will clone the systems and put them in the same place on the Navmap ("over" the others). This should work and I will add this soon.

The Nomads are another thing that I want to add in the patch I mentioned. They will give you missions against Monkeys, Robots and Order and will tell you news, etc.

For the battleships I have to say that I personally also dislike them. I do really not like to fly battleships and just think that in FL (I don't want to say this for all space-games) flyable battleships are just crap.
But many asked me to add battleships in my mod and therefore I did something good for both sides. I added two flyable battleships, which have just the size of Gunboats and are still killable for one single player. This way, I have flyablke capships, but they are not necessary to stand against your enemies, so that everyone can decide, if he wants to fly them.
I will also rebalance these two ships and the torpedoes. Torpedoes will do more damage to capships, but will therefore be much slower. This way capships are easy to kill for VHFs/bombers, but still strong ships and torps are still no uberweapons.

The Mystere I personally like. I think that I will not give every faction two different VHFs, but especially the Nomads are a good faction for this. They fight against everyone and their first VHF was just stolen from Rheinland (Improved Valkyrie). The Mystere and the Valkyrie N1 have differences (maybe I will also rebalance these two to make them even more different). This way, players, who are friends of the Nomads (and therefore enemies with all the other factions selling a good VHF) can offer a good VHF to every player and it doesn't matter how he likes to play.
Another reason for the Mystere is the alien-like design. In my opinion it fits to the Nomads.

The not-showable structure is a problem of all ships, but it will hopefully be solved soon (the code is already known and Anton is working on a tool for it). But I think that having new ships without the structure is better than just using old ships again or have new ships.

The battleships for the two big pirate clans are easy to explain. The Corsairs stole some Rheinland capitalships during the first Nomad war. And the Outcasts stole some Liberty capships to guard Planet Malta and Omicron Alpha. In my opinion it is quite usual that bigger pirate organisations are able to steal things like battleships. And of course it adds some more action and difficulty to the Omicrons and the whole game.

I hope you agree with me, but it would be nice if you tell me what still needs to be improved, or which of my arguments are not good enough.
It's good to have you here again and I hope to see you around!

Have Fun!

Black Eagle

Okays, another longish post, but I'll try and keep it short as possible

Black_Eagle : Extra torpedo hardpoints mean nothing in multiplayer, firing two torpedoes at someone in PVP will be a kamikaze. So dual hardpoints is fine, one for CD and the other for Sunslayers Also many people (including me now) are flying Conqueror's as they are FAR more agile (you never mentioned that) and speed is a neat bonus too. Also they introduced the Spartan VHF (looks like a Sith Inflitrator I've been told, not sure what that is, VERY agile though) today, take a look sometime if you can.

Powerdoll : I am in no way a good writer, but thanks The original Robot voice scripts are *extremely* limited ( I "think" as they were extras, that's probably hy BE changed them to humans.

The skin of the Anubis is rather cosmetic lol, BE is focusing more on script, appearance can be fixed later, I don't think BE is a shipwright either, so maybe tossing some texture at him would cause him to change it If you have an idea I should be able to wihp it up in Photoshop, though I'm furthest thing from skilled in art lol.

King, Orillian and Juni (Van Claussen too, he's my favourite, only one sensible and honest to himself I think, although he did disappear) probably weren't included cause they're details, at the moment BE is trying to fix balance of power issues, storyline (as a side thing in infocards), perfecting the black market and finishing the new systems and weapons. This is information is all pulled from previous posts so BE might have changed priorities, so feel free to correct me BE

Check out the Void mod for utilization of old Nomad stuff. Technically it isn't possible at this time (Freelancer ime period not our time), as the Nomad's still exist and are kicking butt and their techonology is still being reverse engineered, so your getting a bit ahead of yourself. There is a reward *during* the storyline, bu it's a pain in arsenal to find it, and even harder to get it. I posted it, but edited it out. Even still it's not terribly worth it, try the OpenSP for Monkeys mod (probably not the exact name, but something along those lines) to get rid of that pesky story.

Agreed, me and BE both don't like em, and we discussed it, but he said it's included as a request, and that truely is fair. It's not stronger than fighters so no worries (in fact their easy kills to me).

Now I strongly disagree with your view on the Mystere. The idea of only one VHF per faction is simple tradition, it serves little to no point. The Mystere is a valid extension of the Nomads, although I'll admit it's a break from their usual appearances. On a serperate note, fox's Freelancer Un-named Mod-Thing v0.8 Beta has the option to choose what skin colour the Nomads are. Selecting the Grey/Black one sounds pretty scary (imagery not actually scary) and would probably make it fit more as Powerdoll says, something to consider? Ill try and take a look at it, fox say it's a bit crashy, but it would give the Nomads the "tradition" Powerdoll is asking for.

The stolen cruisers do fit. Liberty is occupied by Outcasts, although your kinda right, the Outcasts lack discipline enough to act as uniformed as the Corsairs. Nevertheless it's not as out of the question as you make it seem, Orillion and you (in SP) break in to Alaska from Buffulo base, why can't Outcasts?

The only recognizable bug that I've encoutered is the Nomad Battleship/Gunboats randomly disappearing, but it looks cool cause it's like their clocking. Also be on the watch for invisible Thoth's and Crushers. That bug occured with me, and several others on the Void server rather randomly but it fixed itself by all accounts. Delivering entertainment sounds a bit undignified, still thanks Black_Eagle, for all your volentary work, much appreciated.

Hope it answers many questitons.

Edited by - Dreyus on 4/23/2005 3:34:33 PM