I finally got into trying out the mod today ... don't take it personally, it's just that working on this mod's predecessor for monthes straight made me swear off Freelancer entirely until January :lobsided grin:

Anyway, I finally loaded it up and was *very* pleasently surprised to see Vindicators over Manhatten in the intro ... the whole effect is one of professionalism, and helps convince people this IS a total conversion instead of a piecemeal job. I was a little concerned in the first mission, where things were too hard (the pirate ships were nearly invincible one-one-one) ... then I got the Crossbow and blew everything away without taking any damage! Actually, I never took much damage in the Epee either, which is a bit concerning ... you'll probably want to edit the shield and armor values in future versions.

Other suggestions:

-change Cardamine to Brilliance (and, possibly, eventually add Ultimate)
- change name of Confed Hornet. This seems odd, considering that all the other ships are preceded by their designation. It's probably be better to replace it with its proper form, the F-32 Hornet.
-replace faction police with InSys Security, the Confed police force (also the guys Blair flew for at the beginning of Wing2)
- Think about removing afterburners from the Crossbow (as the ship info lists it as not having them and it'd help balance things out a bit).
- Increase collision damage as it'd make asteroid combat more Privateer-y (but not too much - the autopilot has a nasty tendancy to smash you into objects when docking with tradelanes and the like) ...
- Instead of making all hardpoints level 10, make them either light, medium or heavy, and split the weapons accordingly. This'll keep players from making all six hardpoints on the Thunderbolt fusion cannons and blowing everything to Kingdom Come
- Add armor upgrades, as in Privateer.


Also, the file I posted earlier has a Steltek drone subbed for the Nomad fighter, but it's not very good ... you might want to look at it anyway.

You may also want to look into increasing speeds - say, doubling them (which would also reduce dependancy on the afterburner for short-distance bursts) ... of course, you don't want to make it TOO fast, since then the game becomes all but unplayable (shudders at the memory). Interesting, the autopilot isn't too much affected, and is even quite proficient at handling the extra bursts.

Look into editing the missile stats - at the moment, they don't seem to do much except knock you around a lot. My recommendation would be to drastically increase their stats, then limit the amount you can carry (throwing fifty missiles out isn't really WC, unless you're on a frigate or something). An idea would be to make the ammo take up cargo space - this would limit you from being a super trader/bounty hunter and also make things more realistic.

I also experimented a bit with the Stormfire, but found it unbalences the game. You might want to try a Stormfire with limited ammo and/or refire rate.

For Tolwyn:

This is a minor complaint, but I don't really like the paint scheme of the Crossbow, I prefer the original, more colorful one which I believe is shown in a screenshot on the website. While the more subdued scheme is perfect for the more subdued Freespace engine, it just doesn't match with Freelancer, which is often fairly carnival-like (look at the costumes if you don't believe me). Freelancer makes much greater use of color than in Freespace2, and compared to it, the Crossbow just looks ... a bit bland (not to mention it also lacks the FS2 engine's specular lighting). This isn't bad on the other ships, since they're far superior to any current maps ... but on the Crossbow, it just seems a bit disappointing, almost a step back.

Also, I'm sorry to say the Sabre skins are messed up. Looks like you may have forgotten to flip them in Paintshop beforehand

Overall though, I'm *very* impressed with what's been done here, and glad to see Wing Commander in Freelancer isn't dead Keep it up, everyone!

Edited by - Bob McDob on 1/30/2004 9:29:45 PM

Thanx for the link.

1) The shields were set up for gang-banging pirates and nomads. 1-on-1 yeah they're rough. I've rebalanced both the shields, and weapons, so the next version should show it.

2) I'm planning on adding/changing commodities when I get a chance. I've got some bugs to kill, and a coupla new ships to add, created 3 new guns, fixed the dumbfires, got the planets rotating, blah, blah, bla, bla....

3) Renaming the various factions is low on the list. We need to see which ships we get, how much I can do as far as changing things, before we change names around.

4) I copied most of the ship ID info from the previous mod on Tolwyn's site, I'll change that Hornet.

5)Agreed about the Crossbow. I'm planning on setting it up for use in all of the Torpedo runs, along with the Broadsword (if it checks out.)

6)Collision damage should be an easy change. I had planned on waiting 'til final ship stats had been done, as speed affects that damage, but I can crank it up a bit.

7)The Level 10 slots is a carry over from my The Equalizer Mk II mod, which this mod is based on. I've readjust ship's generator's to only handle a full load of Level 7 weapons. If you load it with a full load of Fusion Guns, You'll get 1 or 2 shots of bewteen the long recharge times. If it's still a problem, I can change the hardpoints in a matter of seconds, but I'd like to try this way once, first.

I haven't found a way to add armor upgrades, shield upgrades, speed boosters, etc.

9)And try as I may, I've found no way to limit the number of missiles, decoys, or mines. It appears to be embedded in the code, not in the ini files.

10)The Seltek sounds like a "gotta check it out."

11)I tried making the ship speeds the same as their WC/P sats. Ever try to fight at Mach 2+? You think the Liberty Rogue's Bloodhounds are bad now? Try 'em at Mach 2+!!! They're only running at .4 Mach right now!

12)I've increased the Missile blast radius, and power, it should help, won't know 'til I do a run through.

Some great suggestions! I'll try and get most of them in the next version.

Watch your 6!

To add armor upgrades, paste the following into your misc_equip.ini:

[Armor
nickname = armor_upgrade1
ids_name = 263712
ids_info = 264712
hit_pts_scale = 1.100000
volume = 0

This'll create an upgrade that multiplies your hitpoints by 1.1x when you buy it. Of course you'll need to add something like the following to your misc_good.ini:

[Good
nickname = armor_upgrade1
equipment = armor_upgrade1
category = equipment
price = 1000
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\EQUIPICON_armor.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 458976
shop_archetype = equipment\models\hardware\br_protective_armor.3db
material_library = equipment\models\hardware.mat

Ditto with power plants. They're in the misc inis.

And I know for a fact that weapon ammo can be changed, though sadly it changes ALL weapon ammo - there's no way to make so that, say, a Heat-Seeker and a Dumbfire have different max ammos, which is why I resorted to changing how much cargo space the ammo takes up. The changes excape me, but I'll look for it and post what to do.

EDIT: hehe, right after I posted I remembered where. It's in Constants.ini - add the last part to the [Constants subheading:

[Constants
COLLISION_DAMAGE_FACTOR = 4.000000
MUSIC_CROSS_FADE_DELAY = 10.000000
MUZZLE_CONE_ANGLE = 40
PLAYER_COLLISION_GROUP_HIT_PTS_SCALE = 3
PLAYER_ATTACHED_EQUIP_HIT_PTS_SCALE = 5
MAX_PLAYER_AMMO = 800

Also, you should probably change the weaponmodbb.ini file so all weapon types do the same damage to all types of shield...since you don't seem to be using the grav-tachyon-pulse shield system of Freelancer.

Bob


Edited by - Bob McDob on 1/30/2004 9:58:08 PM

I was about to say, I thought I remembered someone making an armor upgrade. And lo, here Bob presents it.


Sir Spectre

You read minds really good, Bob!

I downloaded that mod, ran around Manhattan, saw all those things for sale, and went, that SO....

Anyway, couldn't do much, it crashed after the Donau was attacked!

BUTTTTT!!!!!
I stripped the Centurion, and your stats, out of it and slipped it into my mod....
"I'm in Heaven!!!" I've got to fly a new Centurion!!!
I've got to rework it's stats.
You've got the turret set up wrong, and a bunch of hardpoints aren't there.

I came online to ask if I could add that armor upgrade, it's slick!
BTW-Do the shield and power upgrades add another unit as cargo, or actually replace the original unit?

Also, you mentioned that the Centurion isn't yours, so which ones are yours?
And can we use them?
And if I can't reach Stannum, maybe Pani, or Tolwyn, can fix your Centurion?

A Side note:
Your name was added back to the credits when it was pointed out that it had accidently been omitted a page or so back. After all, you started this. It was your post that I found while searching the internet for Privateer stuff. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you.

Watch your 6!

I always wanted to fix the Centurion, but as I already said, I do not want to do the whole conversion again. That is why I need the milkshape file, it makes the whole work MUCH easier.

EDIT: I think the Centurion model was made by CAM, butt I am not sure.

Oh, on the side note, TCS CV-44 Lexington is almost done

@Bob: you may like it or not, BUT the mod has to have a defined texture style. So it will stay as-it-is.


Wing Commander Saga
Wing Commander Saga Forum
~Project Head of the "Wing Commander Saga: Battlegroup Serpent" Project
I still loveWing Commander. Given the right opportunity, I would definitely revisit it." - Chris Roberts.

Edited by - {Tolwyn} on 1/31/2004 1:30:53 AM

@warzog

thanks.... i will do my best to put all my knowledge and time in this mod

now i do the arrow model, which tolwyn send me.... after that i will make some kilrathi ships....

where i can geht the latest version for testing? my brother will test the mod for "bugs" or something.... Tolwyn wrote, theres an ftp-link or server where i can download it. write me a mail plz

regards

Fair enough. Still, Id like the old Centurion model and skin, if you have it. Just for personal use, mind you

Re: the Centurion, I apparently lost it in a recent hard drive crash. I dug around on on my archive discs, but it doesn't appear to be there. At this point, your best bet would be to contact Stannum, who made the model, and also was working on an Orion and Galaxy last time I checked. His email is [email protected] ... I haven't heard anything from him in monthes, though, so naturally I assume he's dead. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check.

And if that fails, use this one: http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/downloa ... asp?id=369

Re warzog: the only meshes that are mine are the Dralthi and Paradigm (neither of which are terribly good). I remember Stannum saying he'd work on them a bit when he disappeared. I did do what I thought was a decent-looking supercruiser, but because of Tolwyn's hatred for the Wing Commander movie we probably won't be having it :\ Here's the model credits as listed in the readme:




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributors: Cam (Centurion model), DMJC (Orion, Tarsus, Galaxy), Eder (Talon, Gothri, Stiletto, Rapier, Raptor, Gladius, Free Trader), The Unknown Enemy Team (all the placeholder textures ... we'll change them soon, I promise), vegastrike.com (textures for the Stiletto), Mephistopheles (wing textures for the Epee), Steele (Arrow model), Kruer & Scheherazade (Broadsword model, Thunderbolt model), Howard Day (Hornet model), CptEisen (Hellcat & Demon converter)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




By all means, add the armor upgrades/etc., that's what they're for Besides, I'm not the one that invented it. As you said, a lot of stuff was yanked from Freelancer and is hidden right below the surface. I believe they replace the originals.

As for speed - yes, I've tried kicking the fighting speeds up to 450. And it's not an experience I'd like to repeat. Ever. Still, things in FL at default seem a but slow. I'm not talking about quadrupling the speeds - maybe just doubling them. It's not as bad as it sounds - even when I was playing at 450, your reflexes adjust surprisingly fast.

And thanks for readding my name Even if I haven't done a whole lot ...

Edited by - Bob McDob on 1/31/2004 2:27:46 AM

I still have the Centurion model somewhere on my hard drive. Lemme check

yay, I found the Centurion


Wing Commander Saga
Wing Commander Saga Forum
~Project Head of the "Wing Commander Saga: Battlegroup Serpent" Project
I still loveWing Commander. Given the right opportunity, I would definitely revisit it." - Chris Roberts.

Yay! Thanks.

EDIT: Wait, did I say Centurion? I meant Crossbow ... I'm sorry, really ... damn, to have put you through that ... do you still have the model for the Crossbow? You don't have to have it right now ... I need sleep ...

Edited by - Bob McDob on 1/31/2004 6:04:47 AM

@Tolwyn

---

yay, I found the Centurion

---

Huray for our side!


Sir Spectre

(Just by what i've seen)
Playing though the mod i like how the Epee started with dumbfires, decoys, and 2 partical cannons.
Now i don't know if its my computer or what but first order ships nearly killed king and then the rouges kill transport2 and nearly 1 (fixed by buying lasers)
the weapons run out of energy as they sould but the energy bar is wack.
Enemy Shields come back way to fast.
Besides that I'm enjoying this mod because it is by far the best but for humor of the old time WC fans, replace Manhatten's fatter barkeep with Shotglass (from the Tiger's claw "even though he's dead"second would be for Liberty's battleship's skin would be a Midway Style and as for the stuff i've seen bout the stealk replacing nomads that would work i mean Nomads=Glowing opal shaped ships, Stealk = Big Green Egg but uh could you also replace Xenos with those funny Retros nothing like blasting them into space dust.
Oh and as a side though replace Transport/large transport with Drayman's easier to protect.

When the Going's get Tough, The Tough get a bigger Battleboat.
"Shotglass moments before the Tiger's claw blew up"

Bob:
1) Your're Welcome!
2)Thanx!
3)The Crossbow is in the current MOD.
4)I kinda figured that the shields were replaced.
5)Know of any way of doing Repair Bots?

Tolwyn:
I got the Concordia, and the Arrow.
I don't have milkshape anymore, the timer ran out.

Pani:
Tolwyn sent me an Arrow, so we don't need another one right now.
We're planning on adding everything in that Doc that you sent me.
I'm not sure if we can duplicate the Gemini sector.

To ALL:
I just slept for 12 hours, but my head is a blur.
I'm not feeling very well.
I think I'm a bit overwhelmed right now, so I'm taking a break.
Besides, I got the paperwork to do my taxes today, and I need to get that out of the way.
Take care, all.


Watch your 6!