[MOD] A New Dawn for Litcube's Universe - v07-07-2017beta released!

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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shellshock69
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Post by shellshock69 » Tue, 22. Aug 17, 08:50

So I went and installed your mod and ran into a kinda weird problem. I had LU mod installed of course along with all of the mods known to work with LU. I then added your mod and started a new game, well my PC didn't explode but my ship, all ships in sector and stations did lol. Not gonna lie I actually got a kick out of watching the sector explode, I then tried many different starts thinking maybe it was something to do with my ship. When that didn't work I thought it may be the cockpit mod, but still sectors exploding everywhere. After digging around mainly to find which mod is doing this for ya, the one I least expected was the culprit.

https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=312645 IEX a background enhancement mod, which I am sure you have herd or used. So after some testing I found two things if your mod is installed after IEX all things explode in a ring of fire. If your mod is installed before IEX no more explosions but your ships don't show up in the game. If I did not install IEX, even with all compatible mods installed, your mod worked fine and sectors didn't get nuked

Figured I would let you know, since I imagine you would want this mod to work with mods used in LU. Great job with the mod, maybe on my next play through it will be ready for a full play through.

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Tue, 29. Aug 17, 15:25

lol, well, that is unexpected... i will try to figure out what the problem is.

bluesoulsez
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Joined: Mon, 12. Jun 17, 22:54
x3ap

Post by bluesoulsez » Tue, 29. Aug 17, 21:00

This has been archived at: https://poisonedparanid.com/file/14/a-new-dawn

Download link 1 is a new archive on my server. If you wish to use it, please direct users to https://poisonedparanid.com/download/22

Thanks.

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Thu, 31. Aug 17, 13:38

bluesoulsez wrote:This has been archived at: https://poisonedparanid.com/file/14/a-new-dawn

Download link 1 is a new archive on my server. If you wish to use it, please direct users to https://poisonedparanid.com/download/22

Thanks.
Not that i am against this, but should you not have asked this first? I also noticed that the introduction text is incomplete. How is the download kept up to date with the latest released version?

EDIT: Posted something in the relevant topic, located here:

https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php ... 99#4676899

Added the links to the OP.

EDIT 28-09-2017:

After a long time of testing and bug fixing, sound creating etc, i am taking a few weeks break to avoid getting burnd out again with modding. Especially making the sounds is fun but tedious work and demands a lot of time... I will resume soon.

Slav
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Joined: Sat, 2. Feb 13, 23:05
x3

Post by Slav » Sun, 19. Nov 17, 16:13

This is really great and thorough work! Do keep up the great job!

Connstar
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue, 28. Sep 10, 14:28
x3ap

Post by Connstar » Sat, 9. Dec 17, 21:02

Hi, this looks awesome!

Is there any possibily of only the ships in a pack for XRM?

Chase842
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed, 9. Jun 10, 09:16
x3ap

Post by Chase842 » Tue, 16. Jan 18, 21:26

@ Anubitus

This mod looks really great!

Can we get a progress update the next time you find some time?

gastovski
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Joined: Tue, 3. Dec 13, 11:20

Post by gastovski » Mon, 22. Jan 18, 00:01

An excellent mod.

Anubitus
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Joined: Fri, 21. Jan 05, 00:44
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Post by Anubitus » Wed, 7. Feb 18, 03:52

Hey everyone

I am sorry for keeping you guys waiting for a update for so long but i wanted to let you know that i have been working on the mod for some time again now. I am giving the shield system a other try, but there is a lot of trial and error in doing it. I am confident tho that i can make it working.

A ship i have been working on recently, one of my favorite ships from star trek:

Nova class:
-------------


[ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ]

Keep in mind that these pics are early renders and the ship is in no way complete, also it is not supposed to be exacly the same but more like heavly based upon the ship from the star trek series. Curently its a M6 class vessel.

and there is also this:

[ external image ]

very early WIP of some other ship. ;-)

TR0LL
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Post by TR0LL » Fri, 9. Feb 18, 17:35

Any way to make this work with IEX? https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php ... sc&start=0 I use it with LU and every time I start a new game with new dawn installed every ship / station in the game blows up.

Guest242
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Joined: Sun, 12. Feb 17, 19:11
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Post by Guest242 » Fri, 9. Feb 18, 19:43

Cool that you still working on your mod! Very good! :)

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Sat, 10. Feb 18, 03:47

TR0LL wrote:Any way to make this work with IEX? https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php ... sc&start=0 I use it with LU and every time I start a new game with new dawn installed every ship / station in the game blows up.
I have no idea what might be causing this, my mod is just a bunch of ship models, some textures, sounds, modified TFiles to add the new stuff to the game, a text-id file and a altered x3_universe.xml file to add the ships to the shipyards. and a load text id/welcome text message script. My guess would be the changed x3_universe.xml file but i realy dont know. I hadnt had the time to try this one out myself yet, but i will.

I have successfully implemented the shield scripts, now the capital ships will have fully working shield effects.

EDIT: Well, after much testing the shield scripts have a weird side effect. From time to time lots of one type of ship spawn, sometimes its discoveries or some other fighter type, but sometimes it spawns a few dozen xenon Q's... As entertaining it is to see them blow everything up, this is not realy the goal of the scripts. Back to the trial and error it is... I guess the shields will have to wait a lil' longer. :(

Guest242
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Morningstar/Hammerhead M3

Post by Guest242 » Sat, 24. Feb 18, 19:29

Your two M3s have a shield generator with 1520 and 1950MW. Maybe typing error and you mean 520/950. Especially the Morningstar seem to be a little bit op isnt it? I mean... 16 turrets, 200MJ shield and 250+ speed.

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Tue, 27. Feb 18, 22:41

Well, i was just having a bit of fun there. But yea, the mod needs rebalancing :)

I take it the ships you mean are the Morningstar and the Hammerhead, i do admit they are a bit OP but are very fun to play with tho. :) The Morningstar does have 2 turrets with each 4 lasers, so 8 lasers total and a front weapon count of 8. The speed is ok with LU, i can see M3 that are faster. 200mj of shielding is ok aswell, more "vanilla LU M3's" have it, the Falcon Sentinel even has two of these shield types. The shield generator is perhaps a bit much but i am also working on the shield system and i have added a few shields with very large energy requirements and low shield strenght but with very high recharge ratings. It is however still very much in the testing phase but the fighters you mentioned are supposed to be "state of the art" and where build with these new shield types in mind. These new shield types will be out in the next version.

The Hammerhead can mount up to 10 front weapons but had no turrets, and can only have 5 x 24mj shield, making a total of 125mj of shield strength, not that over powered.

Not too mention that they will also be very very expensive and will need a high reputation with the races to actually buy them. Lots of firepower, that i agree on. :)

Thank you for the feedback, feel free to play-test this beta pack and give me more of your thoughts.

Guest242
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Post by Guest242 » Wed, 28. Feb 18, 19:06

Anubitus wrote:Well, i was just having a bit of fun there. But yea, the mod needs rebalancing :)

I take it the ships you mean are the Morningstar and the Hammerhead, i do admit they are a bit OP but are very fun to play with tho. :) The Morningstar does have 2 turrets with each 4 lasers, so 8 lasers total and a front weapon count of 8. The speed is ok with LU, i can see M3 that are faster. 200mj of shielding is ok aswell, more "vanilla LU M3's" have it, the Falcon Sentinel even has two of these shield types. The shield generator is perhaps a bit much but i am also working on the shield system and i have added a few shields with very large energy requirements and low shield strenght but with very high recharge ratings. It is however still very much in the testing phase but the fighters you mentioned are supposed to be "state of the art" and where build with these new shield types in mind. These new shield types will be out in the next version.

The Hammerhead can mount up to 10 front weapons but had no turrets, and can only have 5 x 24mj shield, making a total of 125mj of shield strength, not that over powered.

Not too mention that they will also be very very expensive and will need a high reputation with the races to actually buy them. Lots of firepower, that i agree on. :)

Thank you for the feedback, feel free to play-test this beta pack and give me more of your thoughts.
Yes they are very cool :D

Yeah I mean Morningstar and Hammerhead. The first one is example faster, better shielding and generator, more weapons, more acceleratrion and steering than a Aamon. Additional the Morningstar is cheaper. So it makes the most M3s useless. No reason to use the other ones. Of course they can a state of the art fighter, but in my opinion it needs a big disadvantage like a very high price (example 10 mio.+) or very low hull because of powerful shield or low speed. the shield generator is btw more powerful than most of M6s :D and could mess with some M7s (Carrack, Solitas, Guardian)

I understand that your mod need more feedback. For me litcube is the new vanilla x3ap. Your mod give litcube more variation. Good job :)

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Sat, 3. Mar 18, 14:58

Your mod give litcube more variation. Good job
Ohh my friend, you have no idea of whats to come in the next update. :D

BTAxis
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Joined: Sun, 29. Apr 07, 15:08
x3tc

Post by BTAxis » Thu, 8. Mar 18, 11:41

Anubitus wrote:Ohh my friend, you have no idea of whats to come in the next update. :D
What a coincidence, neither do I!

Anubitus
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Post by Anubitus » Tue, 27. Mar 18, 19:00

Ok, time for another update.

I have made a lot of progress and was able to implement a lot of ideas i had. The Argon ships are nearly done, and as soon as they are, i will be releasing a Argon test pack wich will probably include the following:


Shields:

I always felt that there was not enough choice here, i mean its either use the optimal shield or a lesser one, but no real options. I have tried to change that by adding some new shields. There are also two new shield classes. Here are some examples:
Ghost 36,5 MJ Shield wrote:Medium Class Shield
Developed by: GateStar Equipment Developement
Shield Strength: 35,5 MJ
Energy Requirement: 250

The "Ghost" shield generator was build by GSED as a answer to the "FarCry" generator produced by Jonferco and the "Helios" generator made by Star Warrior Inc. While being a little weaker then both of these shields, it has a faster recharge rate and is slightly smaller wich makes it more suitable for heavy fighters with a smaller cargo hold. Its also a little cheaper due to lower production costs
Elanoar 24 MJ Grid wrote:Medium Class Shield
Developed by: Jonferson Space Dynamics Division
Shield Strength: 24 MJ
Energy Requirement: 2350

The "Elanoar" FGP made by Jonferco was the first FGP available for the heavier classes of fighters. OTAS has recently developed the "Raptor" and, while the OTAS's FGP is more powerfull, this remains a budget frieldly alternative.

A Flash Grid Projector is a very fast recharging type of shield. Because of its masive power requirements, it is best used with the lates and most advanced craft available as only those can provide the power needed to make full use of the recharge capabilities of this shield type. This advanced technology is only available for those who have gained enough reputation.
Veron 7,054 GJ Barrier wrote:Capital Class Shield
Developed by: Optimised Technology, Armaments and Shielding Corporation
Shield Strength: 7,054 GJ

The "Veron" is the most powerfull Energy Defence Barrier ever created for any type of ship. Its shield capacity is unmatched by any other type of shielding. Its huge mass makes this shield type only available for the biggest capital ship classes.

The idea of the Energy Defence Barrier was to greatly increase the defensive power of the shield by completely sacraficing its regenerative capabilities by removing the generator. The Energy Defence Barrier or EDB uses much smaller batteries to project a barrier of energy around the ship that absorbs all incoming laser fire up to the point where the batteries are depleted. A EDB can only be recharged at a carrer craft or on a space station. This advanced technology is only available for those who have gained enough reputation.
This also explains why some ships have such a big shield generator. Ofc, this needs balancing.

The shields will be fully implemented into the game, this means they will be buyable at equipment docks or military outposts, they will be added to the companies and there will even be a few new companies (factories) where the new shields will be build and sold. NPC ships will also use these new shield types. The vanilla shields will still be available in the Argon test pack as other races ships will still be using them.


Ships:

This pack comes with a few new ships, one of them is a Rail Gun Artillery Corvette (a repurposed, retextured Argon Quasar M6, i mean, c'mon, it always looked like a big flying gun to me :D )

[ external image ]

Another special ship is the Pharoah M5:

[ external image ]

This special service craft can mount up to 3 Repair lasers and can be used to repair ship hulls. When combined with this awesome [MOD] Mobile Ship Repairs script, this ship is a extremely handy tool.

Wich brings me to another item, the different ship classes/sizes. If you check sizes ingame, the M5, M4 and M3 ships are all roughly the same size. I wanted to make use of the different ship class designations and give them a diffrent meaning. I have changed almost all vanilla M5, M4 and M3 ships to M4 class. Only the bigger vanilla M3's like the Teladi Kite and the Argon Eclipse will remain in the M3 class. The M3 class will be used for the bigger "small" ships like gunboats and small freighters like the Moke and the M5 designation will be for the realy small vessels like the Hex and the Viper MKII. Also the Pharoah will be put in this category. Doing this creates more possibilities when using ship combinations, there can now exist some kind of docking port where only a certain size of ship can dock instead of a certain class of ship.

For example the Teladi Gohper Mobile Mining vessel (M7). With automatic mobile mining in mind, i have added a lot of dockinslots for M4 sized ships. in this example i use Teladi Snapdragon (M4) ships equiped with Mobile Drilling Systems. The Gopher also has 1 M3 size docking port, so a M3TS class ship can pick up the mined minerals and sell them around the galaxy without the Gopher every having to leave its mining area. This screenshot shows a Gopher (M7) with some docked Snapdragons (M4) and a single Fulmar (M3).

[ external image ]

With the clasic small class system only one nova would be able to dock at the Gopher, using the one M3 size slot, wich would be stupid because the Nova is roughly the same size as the Snapdragon as you can see in the screenshot:

[ external image ]

Another example: think of this scenario: In the afthermath of a big battle, you are able to claim a few heavly damaged ships... To get them to shipyard to sell them, or repair them, you would need some sort of carrier to dock them and transport them or you would need a lot of patients for them to fly there on their own power.

There is another solution however, imagine:

You call in your Claimed Ships Repair Crew. A Service Barge (M3TM) wich is docked to a R-45 S.B.E.M. (Speed Booster Engine Module) (TM) wich gives it a very high speed. The service barge has 4 Pharoah (M5) docked to it equiped with repair lasers and the Mobile Ship Repair software to repair the damaged claimed ships. Now the ships will be repaired in no time.

Whis pack may contain a few new ships, but not many as i focust on another aspect of the ships. I always thought it was strange that ships in this game only have back thrusters. Ofcourse i know it is more space fantasy but i like some level of realism. Therefor i am adding front thrusters to every ship in the game. The argon ships are nearly done. Here are a few examples:

[ external image ] A Buster with its retro engines at full power
[ external image ] A Nova with its retro engines at full power
[ external image ] A Titan with its retro engines at full power

Another thing that i have been working on was adding more visible steering thrusters to all ships:

[ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ] [ external image ]

Small ships already had them but they where barely visible. I have also added them to TS class ships:

[ external image ]

Steering thrusters have their limit in usefullness in Albion Prelude unfortunately, ships must have a certain steeringspeed for the thrusterflames to be engaged, therefor M6 and TS class vessels are the only ones that will be getting them besides the smaller ship classes. M7 and above dont have enough steeringspeed.

And one last thing, as you can see on the screenshots i was playing around with the color of the thrusters. I have always found it ugly that the ship has for example bright yellow engines (argon capital and trading ships) or bright light blue (argon small ships) and used dark blue thruster color, thats why i wanted to change this. First i wanted to change all thrusters colors to match the color of the engines, but that resulted in a lot of yellow/orange/peach colored thrusters (a lot of the races have yellow as their engine color). So now i was thinking about just changing the engine color on the ship models to something neutral so any thruster color can be used. Here is a screenshot of a altered Titan:

[ external image ]

Now when the engines starts producing dark blue flames, they dont look out of place.


Bridges:

Oh boy, bridges. I can not describe the feeling when i installed the bridge mods. It looks so cool. :D

For my mod, i decited to use two cockpit/bridge mods: [MOD] PSCO1's CockpitMod v1.33 for X3TC v3.1 (update: 13.09.2014) and [MOD] X3TC/AP ITS-PSCO1-Shawn Cockpit MOD V6 - 24.01.2012

I know one is supposed to be a replacement for the other, but both have different things to offer, and they both look awesome.

You will have to have both mods installed if you want to have cockpits in my mod. Install instructions will be added in the OP when the testpack is released.

I have also tried to create my first bridge. It is for the Rail Gun Artillery Corvette.

[ external image ]

The screenshot was taken from the Missile Specialist station. On the bridge there is also a Helm station and a Main Weapon station. I spend a lot of time on this bridge, it is tedious but fun work. For now i used parts from the ITS-PSCO1-Shawn Cockpit MOD (i hope ITS doesnt mind). In the future i will create my own set pieces but for now i just wanted to see if i could actually do it. :)


Galaxy:

As mentioned above, i have added some factories that will produce and sell the new weapons and shields.

One other big change i made was to the NPC ships in the galaxy. No longer will they be called "Race-Shiptype-Jobdescription" because this dont make any sence. Its like driving your car and seeing a truck on the road called "Polish Volvo FMX-A Grain transport". Most ships will now display a company name along with their jobdescription. If you want to know more about the ship, you will just have to investigate. Only police, military and security ships will still have the racename.


Weapons:

I have added a few new weapons (inspired by movies and other games):

This red laser cannon, this red laser cannon, a nice red beam weapon to go with the awesome red lightball missiles. Yea, i like red. For those that want other color weapons, i also added this blue laser cannon along with a artillery weapon based on somthing like this. I am sure there will be more in the future but this is a nice start i think. :)

I hope you like what you see and are as excited as i am. Tell me what you think of the items i have shown you here as your thoughts matter to me.

Stay tuned!

AnU

sdfgwrtetyryr
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xr

Post by sdfgwrtetyryr » Mon, 2. Apr 18, 16:08

Hi, thanks for the awesome mod. I just got a question, might be a bit dumb one, but I am not really familiar with modding.
So, I play LU with my custom Tships file, I modified it via X3 editor to suit my playstyle. Will your mod overwrite default tships file, or is it just some "addon" to it, so installing it won't overwrite my custom settings?

Anubitus
Posts: 693
Joined: Fri, 21. Jan 05, 00:44
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Post by Anubitus » Mon, 2. Apr 18, 18:07

I made a lot of modifications to the TShips file. Yes, it WILL overwrite the custom one you made.

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