Lost Empires

[Keedo420]

Are you using the Galactic Map function? I'd like to see what galaxy you're using for the Not-Yet-Named Mod. Spoilers pls!

OK, here is your spoiler finally. I'm using this image for my galaxy map:


It is the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1097, in the constellation of Fornax (the image is by ESO/R. Gendler). I like the way it looks and the image is suitably large enough (2296x2296 after trimming off the excess black space at the bottom) for my purposes.

[RPC]

NIce, I'll look forward to exploring it
Looks ripe for the taking

[Keedo420]

You'll definitely have to do a lot of exploring to see all of it when I'm done. I have rather ambitious plans for it, but I won't say much about that right now in case some of what I intend to do doesn't work out.

[Keedo420]

Here is my progress report for today....

I have combined the Construction Drone graphic with Bobby's Packer Auton to create a new version of the Mining Drone. Here are a few screenshots:

Just starting to collect mined ore:


Cargo holds are full, returning to station:


Ore offloaded to station, returning to mining:


I still need to add in some code for what happens when both the station AND the Mining Drone are full, but that should be an easy fix. In addition to the Mining Drone, I have converted a number of new ships including some more Kilrathi ships, a different version of the BSG original series Cylon Raider, the Centauri Rutarian-class fighter from Babylon 5, and a few others. Additionally, I have been doing more work on the Sovereigns, and will be putting together some compilation pics for each Sovereign showing all of their ships for size comparison. And I have finalized my choice of image sizes for each type of ship. They are as follows:

Fighter: 32x32 to 50x50
Corvette: 52-70
Frigate: 72-90
Destroyer: 92-120
Cruiser: 122-150
Battlecruiser: 152-170
Dreadnought: 172-190
Battleship: 192-210
Carrier: 200-250

Any opinions on these sizes are welcome and will be considered, but for the moment I am satisfied.

[Keedo420]

OK, here is the first of my size-comparison pics. This first one shows the current Federation Of Non-Aligned Worlds and Colonial Alliance ships. It is important to note that member worlds of the Federation will have their own ships defending their stations. Ships of the Federation fleet will only show up as reinforcements at member stations/planets, but the Federation will have its own stations as well and Federation ships will occasionally be encountered as random encounters. On the other hand, the Colonial Alliance has a larger variety of ships to be encountered both randomly and defending their stations/planets. With that said, here is the pic:

When viewed at full resolution, these are the actual current in-game sizes.


The Defiant still feels a little too big, but since it has its own small shuttlebay, I can't make it TOO small. And the Delta Flyer could probably be made a little smaller as well. Other than that, I am more or less satisfied with their sizes, but your opinions are still welcome. It should also be noted that the Type 1 Fighter is a temporary name. I keep forgetting what that type of shuttle is called.

[Keedo420]

OK, believe it or not, I'm still working on this. The sad news is that a rather unfortunate hard drive failure wiped out the data. The even sadder news is that somehow in the process of putting newer files into the zipped backup folder in my flash drive caused the WHOLE DAMNED folder to be replaced with JUST ONE of the files I was putting into it. I don't know how/why it happened, but all my previous work is gone. But that's OK. I've started over and I've found a ton of new ship graphics to use (many of which I never thought I'd be able to find such as a better top-down view of the Imperator-class Star Destroyer than I was previously using...the most commonly seen SD in the original SW trilogy....you'd think that ship would be easy to find but NOOOOOO..... anyway....). So yeah. Moving on.... I've still got all of the Star Control 2 planet graphics (since they're in a zip attached to an email...) plus a ton of new planet graphics.

So in the process of starting over, I'm focusing on Star Wars ships first this time, since there are so many to choose from. I've got Old Republic ships (and even a few New Republic ships), Imperial ships, Chiss ships, Mandalorian ships, civilian ships, fighters, freighters, transports, corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battlecruisers, and more varieties of Star Destroyers than you'll expect (and indeed more than I expected to find). But I'm starting simple with size comparisons first. I've made fighters even smaller and while the bigger ships like Star Destroyers won't be perfectly to scale, I'm doing my best to keep the smaller ships relatively to scale. Here's a small sample size comparison pic of my work so far.

From left to right: TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, Nssis-class Clawcraft (a Chiss fighter), TIE Bomber, TIE Advanced, TIE Aggressor, T-65 (a.k.a. X-Wing), and of course the YT-1300 (Millenium Falcon as if you didn't know). They're not perfect obviously (the TIE Aggressor's wings are a little too...blocky?...and the Xwing is a little too blurry). I'll have to tweak them a bit before I do the facings. As far as size goes, that pic is in-game size. The TIE Fighter is about 20x20 whereas the Millenium Falcon is 90x90. I am basing the size of each ship on the cockpit sizes of the TIE Fighter and X-Wing. Keep in mind that the fighters are not intended to be player ships. When I get around to the larger ships I'll have to make some judgement calls between relative size and making sure they don't take up the whole screen (this is the main reason I reduced the size of the fighters). Anyway, that's all I have to report for now.

EDIT: Tiny update...A search for the Skipray Blastboat which I had been having trouble finding a top view pic resulted in me hitting a small jackpot of other ships I was having trouble finding top views of...Two different Mon Calamari capital ships, the Nebulon-B Frigate (finding a top view of this one was understandably difficult since the design of the ship causes much of the ship to be hidden from view from above), that transport ship the rebels used to escape from Hoth, and some others. In another day or so, I'll post a complete (for now...) list of all the Star Wars ships I intend to include along with an updated Size Comparison pic. And on a final note for today, before I release the full mod, I will be packing together all of the ships I make into 2D graphic packs (all ships with 40 facings) and releasing them as modders resources (just in case I never finish the mod...I tend to have a lot of hard drive problems....not to mention a short attention span...).

[Keedo420]

Well, I decided against posting a full list of every ship I intend to use since some of them I'm not 100% sure about. However, here are two more size comparison pics. First up is the Imperial ships. All of the Star Destroyers I sized last night. After consulting Wookieepedia, I realize the Ardent should be much smaller. Which is good because it is too blurry at its current size. The Allegiance should probably be slightly larger and the Victory slightly smaller, but I was sizing them based on the bridges compared to the Sith Corvette (which I need to rename since the model it was based on is a troop transport that I'm fairly certain is fan-made since so far I can't find it on Wookieepedia). The Victory is unfortunately blurry and not as detailed, but I have so far been unable to find any other top views of it so I am sticking with it for now. It should also be slightly smaller. The IPV Patrolcraft should actually be named IPV-1 System Patrol Craft (I shortened it to save space in the pic ). I debated about putting it in this comparison pic since it was originally a Republic ship.


OK, now we move on to the Republic/Rebellion comparison pic. The VCX-350 should actually be about the same length as the YT-1300. The CR90 Corvette should be larger. So should the Venator. The Nebulon-B is another unfortunately blurry ship, but until I find a better top view (unlikely) I'm stuck with the current image. I'll probably try tweaking it a little though.


Keep in mind all of these ships were sized without being able to consult Wookipeedia. Updated pics will be posted in another day or two.

[Keedo420]

OK, so after some deliberation, I've decided to try a different approach.... Using the info on Wookieepedia, this is what I'm looking at if I set their size as pixels=meters. So, with the Imperator being 1600 meters this is what I end up with. Note that this size comparison pic does not show fighters. I've not decided yet if I'll make them to scale, but since a standard TIE Fighter is barely more than a one-person cockpit with wings it doesn't strike me as wrong to make the TIE fighter roughly the size of the game's missile graphics. Depending on how it looks ingame, I may either make the fighters slightly larger than scale or reduce the size of missiles. Anyway, here's the size comparison pic showing 18 different ships. You'll have to click the thumbnail to read the names and see the smaller ships, but as they are now the Imperator is the largest Star Destroyer I will probably use and not as a player ship, though I may give the player the option to build one as a base defender or patrol ship.

[Keedo420]

OK, here's an updated size comparison pic showing what the fighters will look like IF I decide to make them to scale. Most of them are still immediately recognizable, though how they will affect combat being so small is something I have yet to test. Especially when at least one of the fighters (the TIE Aggressor to be exact) has a small laser turret. There are also a few more larger ships like the VCX-350.

[Atarlost]

You can't use a linear scale for stuff like this. The fighters won't show up against the starfield and the imperator will barely fit in the viewport. Because objects centered outside the viewport are not drawn it will not be visible until you're on top of it.

[Keedo420]

Yeah, I figured I'd end up having to make the fighters slightly larger than scale and the big ships slightly smaller. But I want to start with how big they're supposed to be before I decide how offscale to go.

[DangerousDude]

How about...Galaxy X?

[Vachtra]

But I want to start with how big they're supposed to be before I decide how offscale to go.

If you want to start with how big they're supposed to be then you need to follow the standard set out in the game.
1 pixel = 12,500 km or 12,500,000 meters. This makes all ships less than a pixel in size.
Even the planets are bigger than scale.

[Keedo420]

If you want to start with how big they're supposed to be then you need to follow the standard set out in the game.
1 pixel = 12,500 km or 12,500,000 meters. This makes all ships less than a pixel in size.
Even the planets are bigger than scale.

Well, that's not exactly what I meant, but I am working on the sizes. I'm still sticking with the 1 pixel = 1 meter format. The big ships have been scaled down considerably, but the fighters and small ships will remain more or less to scale (they DO show up against the star field, it is only when they are not moving that they are hard to see). I don't have any screenshots yet, but I have been testing the TIE Fighter, X-Wing, and Imperator Star Destroyer in game and am mostly satisfied with how they look. I'm having some minor issues getting the facings smoothed out. It is surprisingly difficult keeping a 15x15 pixel image centered (the TIE fighter is actually only 7x7, but of course there needed to be some leeway for the 45 degree angles). And before someone says something about something that small being hard to hit....
"We count 30 ships Lord Vader, but they're so small they're evading our turbolasers."

Anyway, here's an updated Size Comparison pic with the larger ships scaled down and a few extra ships added. I should note, that some of these images are not final. I am particularly displeased with the Ardent and Nebulon-B. They look hand-drawn out-of-place compared to the others. Also, the Victory SD image has already been replaced with a slightly better one but it is not reflected in this image.


The main work I've done on the new version of the mod though has been with the planets, asteroids, and systems. I got the 50 Star Control 2 planet types made using a combination of the orginal graphics I used and some other graphics that were more suited to certain planet types. I've also increased the variety of asteroids with over 40 new images spread out amoung different types of asteroids (rocky, metallic, volcanic, ice, frost, and a few unique types). In increasing the variety of asteroids, I've also added a variety of types of asteroid belts: rocky, metallic, icy, volcanic, gassy, kuiper. Each with its own mix of asteroid types.

Anyway, I have to cut this post short. I'll post again soon with some screenshots showing the new asteroid belts, as well as the fighters in action.

[Atarlost]

Your capital ships are too big for the Trans viewport by a factor of at least three.