Raptor: Call of the Shadows

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Androgeos
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During the last week of August 2012, when I was finishing up the last major updates to Descendence, I started to look at other old-school games that can theoretically be ported into the Transcendence universe, much like how I looked at porting Descent into Transcendence shortly before I finalised the Idolknight Heavy Fighter. With the benefit of hindsight this time, I started looking at simpler games to work with that had interesting game mechanics which would require me to learn more about tlisp in order to implement them. My search eventually narrowed itself down to only two games, both of which I have played extensively at one point or another. Between Raptor: Call of the Shadows and Tyrian 2000, I chose the former, mostly because it had fewer things to work with (i.e. was more manageable).

Before getting bogged down by real life, I was able to create a working development version of my mod that implemented Raptor's credit system, which automatically adds credits to your ship whenever you destroy something, as well as rudimentary recreations of all the weapons in the original game. Although I uploaded this version onto the shared Transcendence Dropbox folder, I opted not to upload it to Xelerus.de because I felt it was still too early in the development stage for me to do so.

As it happens, in recent weeks, I have been held up less by real life, so I was able to resume development of my mod at a comfortable but slow pace. It was when I had mostly finished my graphical touches to the Raptor Supertech Fighter that IronParrot, via IRC, indirectly convinced me that I should upload it onto Xelerus, so I have.

You can get the current WIP here. As I mentioned above, this mod is in a very early development stage, so many features I'm hoping to implement have not been...err, implemented. The weapons may not be balanced as well. What HAS been done (as of the time of this post) is this:
  • The Raptor jet is mostly finalised. It has 1 armour segment and can support up to 20 devices/weapons (the original Raptor can hold up to 19 weapons/utilities, so an extra device slot was added for a shield generator).
  • All the weapons from the original have been ported and are at varying stages of completion. Their levels and damage are determined by their original price relative to Transcendence's price system; the most basic weapon, the MG21C Reaver Twin Machine Guns, is Level VI, and the most powerful weapon, the Twin Laser, is Level XI.
  • A loose replica of the original game's credit system has been implemented. Destroying any ship or station will add credits to your ship based on how strong they are.
And this is a list of what needs to be done before I consider the mod finished:
  • The Raptor should have an unobtainable armour segment that functions like the original's regular shields, repairing itself slowly over time when the player is not firing weapons
  • The Raptor should have a reactor that cannot be refuelled, instead refuelling itself when the player is not firing any weapons
  • The player should lose a weapon whenever their ship takes a direct hit at 15% armor or less.
  • A sound event whenever the player switches weapons
  • The Energy Module should recharge 25 points of armour or 10 points of shielding
  • The Pulse Cannon's projectiles need to be coded to resemble the original game's Pulse Cannon projectiles more closely
  • The Phase Shield needs to be both a non-recharging shield generator with 500 hitpoints AND a usable item that recharges 100 hitpoints if the player already has a Phase Shield installed
  • The Ion Scanner should ideally show a small health bar of any sufficiently large vessel
  • HUD elements
  • Both the Auto-Track Mini-Gun and Laser Turret must be slaved to fire ONLY when a target is within a specific distance
  • Using a sovereign, make the player hostile to everyone except the Sisters of Domina, Ringers and Teratons
  • Create special stations which are the only places all items added through this mod are sold
...A little ambitious mod for a dinosaur game. Again. :roll:
[10:42] <Katami> TTECH: IT SEYS "ONCE YOU ENTAR A EYSTEM HAHAHAHAAHH~~~!~~~!<3<3<3
[10:42] <Katami> ~ROLLL 1D100 L0LL0LL0LL0LHAHHAHHAH!~!!~~:-):-):-)
Jay2Jay
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Ha! Saw this on xelerus before you made the topic!

Love the Descendence mod (who doesn't?) and on June 19th I will try this one. I expect good things from you! :D
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Androgeos
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[18:23] <Androgeos> Arrr. Did somebody download my Raptor mod before or after I updated it a few minutes ago?
This mod was re-uploaded to Xelerus.de at 80 (or 81) downloads on 01/07/2013. Here are the changes in this update:
  • Megabomb Launcher dockscreen image changed to torpedo launcher image from Vizth's Weapons Icons mod.
  • Power Disruptor plasmaSphere spikeCount increased to 1d6+6; spikeLength increased to 1d8+8.
  • Re-added "particle" to the Deathray's description, reverting it to Verbatim.
  • MegaCorps attribute removed.
  • Raptor maxArmor reduced to 1000. maxSpeed reduced to 33. Duralloy armor replaced with Normal Shielding.
  • Added Normal Shielding, the Raptor's standard armor plating, which cannot be looted, is not sold or available for order and cannot be repaired except through Energy Modules, Domina Restore or its own regenerative properties.
  • Mod file credits updated.
  • The Energy Module now works as both a shield repair device (10 hitpoints) and armor patch (25 hitpoints).
  • Registered unused sounds (alarm.wav, explosion.wav, switch.wav) to UNIDs.
  • The Phase Shield now works as both a shield generator with up to 500 hitpoints and a recharger for an installed Phase Shield, restoring 100 hitpoints when used.
This mod is now classified under the Shield category on Xelerus due to the Phase Shield being an actual shield generator.
switch.wav is still unused at this point.
[10:42] <Katami> TTECH: IT SEYS "ONCE YOU ENTAR A EYSTEM HAHAHAHAAHH~~~!~~~!<3<3<3
[10:42] <Katami> ~ROLLL 1D100 L0LL0LL0LL0LHAHHAHHAH!~!!~~:-):-):-)
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