Lost Empires

[Keedo420]

May Tribbles invest your cargo hold

I'm not quite there yet, but that is something I'm considering. I'll have to think of a way to trick the player into looting them and then come up with a way for them to breed out of control thus filling the player's cargo space and possibly disabling the ship until they find a way to get rid of them. Maybe jettisoning ALL of their cargo being the only way.

you have an image hosting issue? I have a solution.

http://imgsrc.ru/

It is FRREEEEE : I have used it for years ( shhhh ) it takes HiRes, can often be slow when linked images are called because of high traffic, but that is because it is secretly popular for boards/ forums/ blogs : mine included.

it is the backbone of much of my image sharing / linking.

I'll look into that. My biggest problem so far has been finding a free host that is pop-up free AND lets me use thumbnail links in posts instead of the full image. Some of these size comparisons have ended up being quite large.

EDIT: Tried that host, but no thumbnail links.

[Keedo420]

Today I bring you....the Shadow Dominion....(cue scary music)


The Shadows and Drahk are a little light on ship variety, but for now that's the best I can do. Neither race really had many ships in the show (Babylon 5 in case you weren't aware). The two Drahk fighters I made myself using some minor manipulation of the Drahk Raider image. Nothing special really, but I felt that they HAD to have fighters since their only capital ship at the moment is a carrier....

[Keedo420]

No new size comparisons to report. I'm working on the Trade Union comparison, but it needs more ships before I post it. Anyway, I've fixed the facings for the TIE Fighter, added facings for the TIE Interceptor, TIE Raptor, and 10 pirate fighters. I'll be doing more facings in the coming days, concentrating on the pirates for now since they'll be one of the first enemies the player encounters, but I'm also working on finishing the comparisons and I've also started putting together station comparisons (I'll have some pics for a few of those in a few days probably).

[Keedo420]

In addition to doing a few more pirate fighter facings, I also resized the carrier and added three new capital ships to the pirate fleets - 1 cruiser and 2 corvettes.


And here is a preview of the Federation stations as well as their construction and mining ships. This is still a work in progress as I don't yet have unique Federation shipyard or scrapyard images. But this preview is mainly to show the types of stations that the player will be able to build. I still have not fully worked out how research will work exactly, but which stations are available to the player will depend on research and possibly on what other types of stations have already been built. Note that this preview does not include defensive structures such as weapons platforms. While a Military Base will have strong defenses its main purpose will be for military functions such as training troops, military research, and intelligence.


Construction of stations is something that won't be hard. I already had it partially worked out before I had to restart the mod. My main obstacle regarding construction will be what to do about what it looks like WHILE it is being constructed. I'm thinking I may simply take each station image and slice off a certain percentage of it to represent each stage of construction and then set up a timed event triggered after the player has moved (or commanded to move) the construction ship to the desired location and then given the 'Build' command. Each stage of the construction would be a separate station (so that stations can be destroyed before they are completed AND so that a partially built station will not simply vanish if the construction ship is destroyed or construction is halted). The capablities of a partially complete station would depend on how complete it is but it need not be defenseless. After all, even the uncomplete second Deathstar could still fire its main weapon. When the timed event begins, the partially constructed station would be replaced with a more complete version after every 30 seconds or minute or whatever interval I end up settling on.

[Keedo420]

OK, so it's been over a week since my last update, but I have not been idle. I've updated the Sith Empire with three new ships - Lancer, Carrack, and Fury. The Fury was a pain to find a top-down view. The image I settled on was actually of a lego version of the ship, but at the size I scaled it down to you can't really tell.


I've also put together an initial size comparison for the Trade Union. Now, I am not satisfied with the image I chose for the Lucrehulk, but it is a must-have ship for the Trade Union, so....let me know what you think, and if you can find a better top view of the Lucrehulk (a.k.a. Droid Control Ship) PLEASE let me know. The Trade Union is so far the only faction that uses Transcendence ships. The main reason for this is that I can find no top views for most of the Trade Federation/Separatist ships, but I think many of the ones I've chosen (most notably the Northwind Armory ships) fit in well with the Trade Union since it is a corporate alliance.


Additionally, I have finished the facings for all 21 of the pirate fighters and also have 7 facings done for the Sith fighters.

[Keedo420]

So it's been over a month since my last update. Blame the holidays. I haven't much exciting to report, mostly just to say I'm still working on this.... I am now up to 13 facings for the Sith Empire (all of the fighter sized ships up to...or down to, depending on how you look at it...the Lamba-class Shuttle), I've added a couple more ships to the Sith comparison though I've not updated the pic here yet. I've also started working on a size comparison for the Federation member-worlds (Vulcan, Andorian, etc) who only have a few ships each at most and don't need a comparison of their own. Additionally, I'm thinking of another new way for handling the storage and launching of fighters and other craft small enough to fit in a hangar. My thought is to make the Launch Bay be a launcher "weapon" that "fires" fighters instead of missiles. In theory, when fired, a single fighter or squad of fighters depending on how the Launcher is configured is created by the player ship while simultaneously removing the appropriate number of fighter "ammo" from the player's cargo. If a fighter survives long enough to "return to the hangar", it will be removed from play and a corresponding fighter "ammo" will be added to the player's cargo. None of this is programmed yet. It's all theory at this point, but I've examined code from several mods and believe I can make it work. Any thoughts/comments however, would be welcome.

[Keedo420]

OK, status report time again... I've done facings for 7 Kilrathi fighters, updated the Sith size comparison with two new ships (the Sentinel shuttle and the TIE-X M3 which is really just a TIE Interceptor with missile launchers added to the outside of the wings), and I updated the Syreen size comparison with a new fighter and a new version of the Penetrator (which I'm rather proud of since I made it myself by copying and pasting various parts from the other Syreen ships in order to make something that has the basic shape of the Star Control 2 version but has graphics to match the other ships. If you remember the Syreen Penetrator from Star Control 2, tell me what you think of my new version (it's the second one on the bottom row).

[Keedo420]

Update: I now have 13 facings done for the Kilrathi fighters. I also added three new fighters to the Sith Empire: the Assault Gunboat, Missile Boat, and Preybird. Additionally, I have created a 2d Ship Facings Tutorial which can be found here: http://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5645

[Keedo420]

Progress report: Added two more ships to the Sith Empire (the Mu-class Shuttle and the I-7 Howlrunner), two more ships to the Civilian comparison (the YT-2000 and the Pinook), two new ships to the Alliance (the Consular and the R-41 Starchaser), and five new ships to the Trade Union (the Recuscant, the Providence, the Authority IRD, the Razor Fighter, and the Planetary Defense Fighter). Currently I have the Munificent as part of the Alliance, but I will probably move it to the Trade Union. Also, I forgot to add the names of the Recuscant and Providence to the Trade Union size comparison. I've also done two more Kilrathi facings, bringing their total up to 15 done. And finally, I've updated the pics for the four sovereigns mentioned above.

[Keedo420]

OK....I am now working with a new image host. So far no popups or offending ads on this one...so far. All of the ship size comparisons can be found in this thread's first post. Anyway, progress report time....

In my last progress report I had meant to say that I moved the YKL-37R and the Gozanti from the Civilian comparison to their rightful place in the Alliance comparison but I hadn't realized until I started making the post that I had failed to move the Gozanti to the Alliance comparison though I did delete it from the Civilian. That has been corrected. I also finished all of the Kilrathi fighter facings and have done 6 Alliance fighter facings, bringing the total facings done to date as follows:
Alliance: 6/55
Sith Empire: 13/43
Kilrathi: 18/31
Pirate: 21/38

And finally, I moved the Munificent to the Trade Union, and did some very minor image manipulation to the Munificent and Providence. The Munificent still looks pretty bad, but for now it's the only top-view of it I can find.

[Keedo420]

I have done 4 more facings for the Colonial Alliance, bringing their total to 10. I also updated the Romulan comparison with a few more ships, added a comparison for the Borg (finally), and added a comparison for a new faction - the Cardassian Union. I'm not sure of the exact sizes for some of the smaller Borg ships and most of the Cardassian ships so I just sized them to what seemed appropriate. If I can ever find any size data for them I will go back and adjust them accordingly. And a few ships don't have proper names yet so I just labelled them based on the type of ship they're supposed to be.

[Keedo420]

OK, this was a big weekend for me, at least in terms of working on this mod... I went on something of a facings frenzy among other things. I've added three new ships to the Cylon comparison and did two facings for them as well. I've also added two new fighters to the Trade Union - the Scarab and the Tri-Fighter (Cylons will be using them as well though I still consider them TU ships). The Klingon comparison has been updated with a few new ships, though some of them lack proper names atm. The most significant work, however, was with the Sith Empire and the Alliance.

I slightly adjusted the hue on some of the Imperial capital ships so they are slightly more uniform in appearance, and I improved the resolution on the Imperator. Additionally, I lowered the size of the Mu Shuttle, moved the VCX-350 to the Civilian comparison, and added one new fighter - the TIE Phantom, and finished the facings for all of the bottom three rows of ships (11 since my last posting I think).

Regarding the Alliance, I adjusted the hue/brightness/contrast on some of their ships as well and got a better image for the Galactica. I also reduced the size of the Torrent and added one new capital ship - the Cygnus, and finished the facings for all of the ships on the bottom two rows (a whopping 18 since my last post).

And finally, I've also tested out a proof-of-concept auto-defense weapon that targets ships as well as missiles. It will be the basis for things like Turbolaser batteries on Star Destroyers or the Flak cannons used by Battlestars. No balancing has been done yet, but I have verified that it works.

Total Facings So Far
----------------------
Alliance: 24/56
Cylon: 2/10
Kilrathi: 18/31
Pirate: 21/38
Sith: 24/43

[Keedo420]

Time for another progress report....

I've added 5 new ships to the Pirate comparison (including the Firespray...aka Slave I...which may be moved to a Mandalorian comparison at some point along with a couple other ships), added the Ghtroc 720 freighter to the Civilian comparison, added the DP20 Gunship (aka Corellian Gunship) to the Alliance comparison, and added about 10 new ships to the Federation comparison (mostly shuttle/fighter sized craft like the Delta Flyer and Danube-class Runabout). I also resized a number of ships in the Civilian, Alliance, and Imp comparisons.

I've stopped working on ship facings for a while to focus more on planet/system generation. I've added one new system for testing (the Vahaba system which I based loosely on its description from the Star Wars X-Wing: Solo Command novel), and I've modified the moons to have the same variety of types as the planets (though the type of moons generated depends on their parent planet) and made it so that they now show their orbit around their parent planet. Here are a few screenshots from me testing out the system generation:

The starting system...I chose this screenshot mainly because it was one of the rare instances of a unique planet being generated (Felucia in this case)...


And here's a closer look at Felucia...It was also a happy coincidence that the stargate happened to be generated here...


The Vahaba system...The novel described it as a red giant system with many planets and a large asteroid belt that resulted from a destroyed planet. I took a few liberties, so it's not exactly as described in the novel however.


And here's a closeup of Vahaba's outer gas giant. I customized this system so that the outer planet is always a gas giant, but the other planets/moons are random. The gas giant has a large number of potential moons, though only 4 were generated this time. Obviously I need to work a bit on their spacing.


I've also created a new missile launcher designed specifically for the Wing Commander fighters and did facings for 6 new missiles. Here are a few screenshots of me testing out (or rather having them tested on me.... ) the new missiles in addition to showcasing as many of the pirate fighters as I could get screenshots of. All of the pirate fighters that I've done facings for are now in the game, though they are not yet completely balanced. The pirates also use TIE Fighters, Interceptors, and Bombers as well as X-Wings, A-Wings, and Y-Wings.

In this one I'm flying the Sith Scimitar-class Interceptor...


This one shows 4 of the new missiles being fired at me....Note the large number of pirate bases here. That was merely to increase my chances of getting as many ships and missiles as possible in one screenshot. It will not be so drastic in the final version.


And here's an extra one that shows a couple of the heavy fighters (which are relatively rare so far) and one more missile not shown in the previous shot. The only missile not shown in any of these shots is the Disruptor missile.

[RPC]

Nice job on the system generation!
Btw, how did you find that planet? Can you add your planets to Xelerus so I can add it to Planet Parallax? :3
Also, how did you get the names? Did you add them manually in the screenies?

[Atarlost]

All mods with Star Wars content have recently been purged from Xelerus because of concerns regarding paranoid ABC/Disney lawyers. It would probably be a good idea to remove those factions.