"Hoshikaze 2250 - Stars of Call" Adventure Project

[evilbob]

you know, when I saw this for download, the really big advantage of adventures appeared my head.

Being able to select adventures means that I don't have to have it permanently "on" as with most mods- i can try it, then move on, etc.

So here I go, lets see what we have here.

EDIT: oh wait, I don't have ATA, so that's that plan over

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Yes, but I didn't think about one thing : you MUST make a copy of your saved game, or it will be ovewritten with one in the Adventure the first time you hyperjump.

I don't want to cause any of you to lose a saved game ! I'll update the ZIP with this comment on the readme file ! And I'll edit the original post and the description...

Btw, evilbob, the Adventure mod is precisely interesting for that : you can play in one of many universes, each of them using the Transcendence engine, but none having to have things in common, except the base mechanisms... That's the genius in that game's modding structure !

As for ATA, it's included in the mod, as it is an absolute requirement. If Periculi is not OK, he can tell me to remove it and I'll arrange in another way.

I drafted some guidelines about using Adventude Mods and organizing data in order to manage multiple independant Adventures : the post is titled Writing an Adventure in multiple modules. I also asked George if in a version to come we'll be able to use modules in an Adventure as in the main Transcendence data.

EDIT : OK, comment added in the original post and ZIP re-uploaded !

[Periculi]

Cool, an adventure extension!

That little ATA mod sure is handy. As I recall, it took me a lot of specialty systems to make multi gate systems- you probably wouldn't want to have to go through the same process of discovering what a headache that can be. Go ahead and use ATA, it makes things much easier.

[schilcote]

Well, one glaring error, Neptune is Neptun. Wheered that e go?


One thing occured to me: you make accurate distances, now you need accurate images! I'll find you some. I'm a great datafinder.

Earth: Too easy.
Mercury: Quite a hunt, but I found it.
Venus: Pie.
Mars: Easy.
Jupiter: I got a really nice pic with a moon, and I threw Io in there too.
Saturn: Found.
Uranus: Another easy one.
Neptune: Real easy.
Pluto: I'll keep working on it.

I'll throw in a few backgrounds and other images as well.


I found pluto and a few others, but they're all in the same image.

Finally, Saturn! That's everybody, so here's the zip:

http://www.snapdrive.net/qs/17661e0bb4d1

Now hurry, because the file expires in 72H.

Current time: 9:40:30.25 PM september 8 2008

[Aury]

Well, one glaring error, Neptune is Neptun. Wheered that e go?


One thing occured to me: you make accurate distances, now you need accurate images! I'll find you some. I'm a great datafinder.

Earth: Too easy.
Mercury: Quite a hunt, but I found it.
Venus: Pie.
Mars: Easy.
Jupiter: I got a really nice pic with a moon, and I threw Io in there too.
Saturn: Too big, nobody's taken a whole picture. I'll keep looking.
Uranus: Another easy one.
Neptune: Real easy.
Pluto: I'll keep working on it.

I'll throw in a few backgrounds and other images as well.

and is the light coming from the correct direction?

[schilcote]

Look, it's hard enough just to find the files. Besides, the orbits are randomised and if the light was right for one position, it'd be wrong of another. George got awaw with shading the ICS because it was garunteed to be in one place relative to the Heretic star.

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Thanks for your replies ^-^

Periculi : Thanks a lot, so I'll keep it the way it is !

schilcote : the "e" comes from French, and I just must have not checked that I removed it when taking to English... Easy fix ^-^ Thanks for the images, for now I took the easy way and used the vanilla ones, just made the Moon from a CrateredPlanet to test how image resources worked. Just downloaded you pics, now I'll see what's inside the 5.3Mb !

Wolfy : Ill see for the light, anyway, is there somewhere a tuto on the requirements for images ? Indeed I never thought about that light problem, thanks for pointing it...

EDIT : for Wolfy, I've taken a closer look at the planets in the regular game and it seems they all got a shadow from the bottom-right side. Now how to make such shadow ?

[Periculi]

I just used Bryce 5.5 to render a bunch of planets. To get the light source set up was quite easy, and Bryce has a lot of planet textures built in.

For other planets I searched for and found some bump maps and textures from nasa for the solar system that were being offered in extremely large sizes and copyright free.

Associated searches found me some Bryce 5 tutorials on making new planet bump maps and textures to use- give a try in Google.

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Thanks all for your kind support !

Periculi, I'll get Bryce and see what I can do. Rendering is not my cup of tea, but I'll give it a try ^-^

schilcote, I already used your Earth and Mars. I also used the Rosette Nebula background to make an Adventure cover. Apart from the fact that Hoshikaze has nothing to do with this nebula, that pic was just too beautiful !

[OddBob]

If rendering isn't your thing but you need planet images with the proper lighting and google isn't cutting it may I recommend Celestia - you can take your own fairly easily.

If you're willing to play around with it a little it makes a nice rendering tool as well.

[Mutos]

Hi OddBob, hi all,


Yes, it's a nice idea, I already used Celestia to take screens of some systems, and it's quite easy to use...

But I'll also try to make some renders. Anyway if I get the time ^-^

[digdug]

Planet maps?

Here and here and here:
http://planetpixelemporium.com
http://www.mmedia.is/~bjj/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
http://www.evildrganymede.net/art/art_f.htm
http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/

Enjoy

[Mutos]

Hi digdug, hi all,


Waow, what a wealth of refs and pics !

I already knew JHT, I used his free textures for spheres in an earlier try at a stellar system editor in VB.net.

On the others, I like much the Lair of Evil Dr Ganymede, which has also a role-playing side, very interesting ! And of course the others are reference too...

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Here's draft #4, with some more details on stars placement and what is done or not, and some hints as stations and colonies, only numbers for now...



I'll have to refine each stellar system with suitable orbitals and inert things, then I'll be able to place stations and planetary settlements.

[Mutos]

Hi all,


Here's draft #5, with numbers of stations and colonies on all stars.