Topic: Progress report on SFC3 "ASSIMILATION MOD"

[James Formo]

Couldn't think of a better name yet.   The beta version may be available late tommorow.

Whats in the BETA?

1:  Shuttles that drop mines. All playable races will have shuttles that carry 8 mines. This is the most distingushing feature   of the mod. The shuttles well also have shields so they can stick around long enough to disrupt the battlefield.

2:  Borrowing from Pelican's refit system. The Klinks, Feds and Roms will have up to 20 shield types. No other items will
have new refits. This will allow you to better customize your shield preferences. Weather you prefer enforce the front/rear
or whatever.

3.  The description for the refits will tell you how much protection  each armor or shield give. Or how much damage it does for weapons.

4.  The majority of AI ships have there officers increased from skilled/expert to veteran/legendary.  This makes the AI harder

5.  AI  ships well recieve the maximun available mines/shuttles and marines. The same as the player instead of about half as before.  This means that the player will also start completely supplied when they recieve a new ship-but will still need to resupply as they use items.

6.  Small items like instead of being told 3 times that you are on a collision or your leaving the sector. You will only recieve 1 warning. So pay attention to it!

7. The beta patch installs the Scimitar but has it non-selectable. You will be able to select this ship in campaigns and for Skimishes.

8. 3-4 Pelican missions. These will be added in the conquest campaigns. So you would need to restart a campaighn to try them out. Also I found it necessary to delete a script cache file which I will explain in the readme. The game loads the scripts from a cache file and won't read the new ones until you delete the cahe file. Then it just writes a new one when you play the next game.

9. Plan on having certain officer skills level slower.  Since Pelicans mods give out more prestige. Plan on raising the cost of ships and supplies.

____________________________________

What is not in the BeTA?

1: No new models yet.

2: NO changes in ship loadouts what so ever.  So all the arcs, weapons are still stock with the exception of the shuttles.

3: NO scenery mods yet.


This release is kinda by request. A few are unable to d/l large files with models and what not. So this is the meat and potatoes of the mod.  It will take  awhile to add ships, so this will also allow people to try it out and make suggestions before the Larger version with ships and scenery is put together.

Note-You need the Beta patch installed first.

 

[grave]

hey thanks james. much apericeated man. cant wate to get my hands on it  

[Captain KoraH]

I think it's great to have a new mod in the community. I'll have to give it a try!

[Rogue]

I think the mine laying shuttle idea is brilliant. I wont be buying SFC3 but wonder if it could be done in OP? Another idea to try out but I think I would use 2-4 mines.  

[James Formo]

Rogue, Its not possible in OP because of how the shuttles are done.  I haven't tried this yet because I don't really think it would be a good thing to have in game.
But in SFC3 it may be possible to have shuttles that launch shuttles. This would get out of hand because the shuttles that the shuttles launched would then launch more shuttles which would launch more shuttles.
lol.  

The 8 mines seems ok so far. The ships in SFC3 are more maneuverable and against a Maurader with Legendary helm, the shuttles don't get in position to use them that often.
When larger ships get involved it may be too busy-thats why I will need feedback once I release it.

Speaking of which. I have not figured out how to get the files zipped into seperate folders. Such as assets\specs and so on.  Can someone tell me what software
I need to do that. AS it is I have maybe 12 files. I could include a readme where each one goes. Yea a bit lame I guess. Maybe if I put em up at my club someone can
rezip them in the proper folders. They zip up in a 900kb file. There all set to go. Just need em organized.
 

[Major A Payne]

James. Are you after any borg models by any chance??

[James Formo]

Sure I'll take a few Borg. Probably be a week before I even look at a ship though.  

Here is my lame a** yahoo club host site for the Assimilation mod. The file is just under 800kb.

Hope you like. Install instructions are in the readme. I will send this over to SFU and see if they will host it.

For now you can get it here, but you gotta join the club.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfcmodels/

Its the assimilation.rar in the files section.

[Major A Payne]

Well if you want them I posted a zip file over on AFC  in this thread  Theres a couple you may recognise in there, plus a few are fairly low poly. Still its up to you anyway.

[Rod O'neal]

James,
  I'm not up on modding SFC3. I could do the zip arranging for you though. Once you see it done, it's easy. "Famous last words" lol. If you want to you can send the files to me. I have to work today so it'd be later tonight before I could do it. I'd be happy to help though    

[James Formo]

Thanks Rod, but I figured it out  The file is up at my Yahoo Club. Its got all its folders for easy install. Instructions in the readme.  Next I will need to figure out how to get 50mb + files uploaded at SFC3files.com. Since all they give is an email addy. I think the largest file I can send by email is 4MB.  I won't have to worry for a month as it will take a while for the full version of the mod.

Heres the link where the lite version of the mod can be found.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfcmodels/
The file is called Assimilation. Its the top one under the file section. Also uploaded this to SFU and SFC3files. Look for it there in a week maybe. Depends when they get time to upload files.


Update on the full blown version. First sorry if I havn't gotten back to people about ships. Was out of town for 4 days and when I got back, I chained myself to the computer and worked just on the spec files.  Wanted to get something out just so you can see some progress.

I still have yet to decide just how to fit the new ships in. Weather to mod the stock stats and what not. One option is to just fill in gaps. For example Put a ship in between the Saber and the Norway.  Giving it stats that would be the average of the Saber/Norway classes.  Need less to say I need to decide one way or another before I add 6 ships, then realize there is a better way and have to start all over.

Also need to check in with Mackie and see if he is doing up scenery mods. For now I will just kinda sit on it and maybe I'll get some new ideas.  Want to work on new textures for the mines. Being there a big part of the mod.