Homeworld-style Adventure Study MKII

[StealthX051]

This is the development thread of the Homeworld-style mod for Transcendence.
(This should be moved to Shipyards, mods)

This mod aims to recreate the feel of Homeworld, a classic 3D space strategy game first released in 1999, and recently remastered by Gearbox. In this mod, you will take control of a massive, self reliant mothership that can salvage and build ships.

This mod requires PSD v6+ from PM:
This mod requires Player Ship Drones V6.
1. Download and extract to Extensions/
2. Select the Mothership Project Alpha extension
3. Now select the Mothership at the ship select screen.

Features:
Salvaging of wrecked ships
Resource to ship conversion system (fleet building!)
Redocking of fleet ships, full hanger system
Blueprints for buildable ships
Reverse engineering of hulls and items
Realtime fleet command menu

Please note that this mod is in early alpha, and expect some bugs.

Upcoming features:
Capture enemy ships and make them your own.
Redone mothership graphic.
Build stations.
Adventure??? (This hasn't been decided yet.)

We have an early alpha release on xelerus.
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=1482

Please post your feedback here.

Most of the posts after this is development babble, please disregard.

[RPC]

Project is mostly dead but I have worked on it. Here's the unfinished prototype
http://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.p ... =15#p59304

[FourFire]

I and Autohummer initially came up with the idea, RPC recently did some nice (but incomplete) coding for the playership, and Autohummer has been inactive for the past six months or so.
Unfortunately I cannot code (I could wrestle with dockscreens, and maybe get some things working but it would take days just to get progress) and both Autohummer and I are awaiting the release of miningpack 2.0, which is depending on WillyTheSquid and (with Transgeek gone) now (Jay2Jay). we are waiting because we will need to use features which partially exist in the current, unofficial beta 1.4 but which are still mostly broken.

Because the mod is so vast, it is unlikely to be completed soon, but it may well happen within this year, or even three months, what it depends on is whether skilled and motivated people get involved.

The basic concept, of a self sustaining ship is pretty cool, and perfectly feasible, even by mishmashing existing mods together (which I might be able to do alone, in time), but having it work nicely and without bugs, that's going to take more structured approaches, and that's not to mention all the cool sur-features I want there to be in the mod.

[AssumedPseudonym]

 I don’t remember being involved in this project? I mean, it’s possible I was approached about it without having specifically by name, but it’s not ringing any bells. That said, I could probably work out a minor snippet or two of code if asked.

[TVR]

If you, StealthX, FourFire and RPC are still interested in collaborating for a mothership mod, we can begin coding after the Succession is started.

Will download RPC's prototype and see which features can be added quickly.

[RPC]

I'm in for cooperating.

[StealthX051]

I won't exactly be much help (I can probably only code the ship itself, not any of its features.)

[TVR]

@StealthX

No worries, coding is just one of many parts of a collab. We also need graphics, ideas and testing.

RPC - Coding
TVR - Coding
FourFire - Design and playtesting
StealthX - Graphics

Seem good to you guys?

[FourFire]

That looks Great TVR, I wish I could contribute more, StealthX501, you can find a 40 facings version of the ship graphics on the original thread though by now we want at least 120 facings for the ship since it is fully supported.

[StealthX051]

I'll try my hand at updating that ship to 120-facings, this is the first time I am trying this. I'll try to play test it before I release it to the thread. If anyone wants a different graphics for the playership mod, this is the time to voice your thoughts. Also, I'll try to the the thruster effects, though no promises on how good it will look.

[StealthX051]

Ok, I have already run into problems. I do not have the .3ds file for the mother ship. While I do have Homeworld 1&2, I am not sure where the models are located. I'll just do the mask.

Edit: I found the Homeworld ship files extracted for download on the net, I will start working on them. However, 40 facings mask is priority.

Edit #2: Well, the downloads for those ship extracts are dead. I am going to have to pull the ship files out manually.

Edit #3: Trying to actually open the .ship files that come with the game is becoming a headache, I seem to have reached a stalemate. Most of the links for .ship editors are dead or they cost money to buy the program.

[Atarlost]

In the long run It would be better to use a custom ship that isn't copyright to another game company.

[StealthX051]

The 40 Facings Mask has been rendered.
Atarlost: I have absolutely no idea how to make my own custom ship, someone else will have to do that, I can do facings and mask.

To all who are working on this project: Should I continue to rerender the HW1 Kushan Mothership or should I use another playership. I'm stopping all graphical work until I get an answer.

[RPC]

Rerender.

[StealthX051]

Well, we should start thinking about changing the playership though. The problem with the mothership I am going to rerender is that it is very vertical. Since Transcendence is nearly top down, the immense scale of the mothership will not be conveyed. This mothership is about 2.1 kilometers tall, and I estimate it is about three hundred or so meters in length. Maybe we should switch to another playership that has a large length or width. If we are not ready to render our own playership, maybe we should use the HW2 Hiigaran Shipyard or the HW1 Taiidan Flagship. Nevertheless, I will rerender the Kushan Mothership to 120 facings.

In other topics:
Some mods we could use code from:
DSTech-Force Dreadnought by: DSMK2 A dead mod, I believe, but it has some nice code for mining drones we might want to use.
Star Genesis 00 by: RPC Has a basic RU system (Scrap) and has the whole idea of retrieving resources from wrecks.
That is all I could think of off the top of my head.

Edit #1: I have done some reading about copyright, and I have found out that while Sierra has made the code open source, they have not released the models.

Edit #2: Since I am a noob at this graphic stuff, is the only way to create a 120 facings ship to manually rotate the ship with xyz coordinates and save a png file 120 times?

Edit #3: Given my inexperience at rendering facings, do not expect much progress from me in the next few days. If anyone else can render the facings, I suggest you tot take over. I'll continue trying, though.

Edit #4: Ok when I render the 40 facings, Blender gives me a 80x80 pixel picture. Is this intentional?

Edit #5: I'll try to make myself useful and start coding the playership in XML format, not any of its features.