[MOD] Terran Helreginn - Ancient M0 (in-game M1) [ON HOLD]

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Hi Everyone,

I am in the process of creating a mod for an Ancient M0, I am in a hurry at the moment so here is the brief description (more to follow sometime next week).

"A Terran expedition discovered an Ancient vessel and retrofitted it but the vessel & crew were lost during a systems test. Recently an Intelligence expert at the USC HQ uncovered potential details of the location of the Ancient vessel, but the Xenon Hub is required to get there."

UPDATE Mo-31-Aug-2009
Ok... here are the basics...

Terran Helreginn
Mobile Base/Weapons Research Lab
Class: M1 (would be M0 but I don't think it is possible)
Dimensions (Approx.): 16km x 11.5km x 5km
Hull: 750,000
Speed: 0.0m/s (0.0m/s max)
Acceleration: 0.0m/s2
Rotation: 0.2rpm (0.2rpm max)
Cargo Capacity: 60,000 XL
Ship Capacity:

• 60 M8/M6/M5/M4/M3/TS/TP/TM (internal - 12 Launch Bays/1 Triple Docking Bay)
  2 M1/M2/TL/M7 (external)

Shields: 10x2GJ
Weapons:

• Main: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Front: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Rear: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Left: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Right: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Up: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC
  Down: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC

Missiles: Poltergeist, Spectre, Wraith, Phantom, Ghoul, Shadow
Power: (Osaka +50%)

• Shield Generator:28080 (1176s to recharge from 0)
  Weapon Capacity:675000 kW
  Weapon Recharge:13500 kW/s

Special Abilities:

• Ancient Jump Drive:
  • P2P Jump: 5000 EC for cross-sector jump and 500 EC for relocation in same sector (20s charge time, 120s cooldown, no jump gate required, unable to use regular jump technology)
    Jump Singularity Projector: 30,000 EC to project a Jump Gate (300s to initiate, 3600s cooldown after cancellation, while projection active or cooldown period is in effect the Jump Drive is disabled, jump gate projection is self targetting but can be targetted by the Hub or any current jump drive technology)
  Ancient Hull: Self-repair of 750 hull units per second... shield recharge energy used during repair... shield capacity needs to be above 25% while repairs are active and jump drive is kept off-line.
  Weapons/Shields Research Lab: Reverse engineer and manufacture guns/ammo/missiles/shields... start with plans for all equipable weapons/shields... manufacture requires e-cells and time.
  Missile Flurry: Simultaenious launch of upto 84 missiles... at the cost of 84 times the recharge

Backstory
During the early years of terran expansion through the universe they stumbled upon a vessel thought to have been built by the gate builders (often referred to as the Ancients). The ship appeared to be derelict so the scientists boarded the vessel and began retrofitting it for Terran equipment (something that the ship seemed to do automatically). During a test of the Ancient Jump Drive System there was an unknown event that caused the ship and it's research team to disappear from known space. It is believed by some that the Ancients discovered what they were doing and activated some form of security system that transported the vessel outside of Terran reach.

Recently, some enthusiastic reasearcher in the Intelligence division of the USC had been studying radio signals from rare star formations and stumbled upon an old Terran top-secret distress code eminating from a system surrounded by Pulsars (probably the reason it had not been discovered before). Knowing the story of how the Aldrin system was reconnected to Terran space, the researcher formulated a plan for the retrieval of the ship by one of the Terran's greatest Heroes...

UPDATE We-02-Sep-2009
Specification update (reduced external capital docks to 2, may increase back to 4 if testing proves it is feasible)

UPDATE Fr-11-Sep-2009
Ammended size specification (width of model was incorrect) and docking/launchbay information.

[LukeB117]

Sounds good
M0 means big ship or am i wrong

sorry about mistakes im german
and not good at english

mfg LukeB

[Gazz]

M0 means big ship or am i wrong

In X3, an M0 is a ship with the sole purpose of destroying planets, not other ships.

But since the thread title also mentions "M1" it's most likely a piece of toast trying to do the job of the coffee mug as well.
What it really is? Nobody knows since the only information in this thread is the ship's name Helgi. =)

However, since there was a Xenon M0 in BtF (a real planet killer) the story makes sense insofar the Xenon could have built another.
Considering the Xenon's jump beacon technology it would be prefectly okay to build it larger than jumpgate sized.
...but then it wouldn't be an arcane relic because that is a very recent Xenon development.

The Khaak had also built an M0 in X² but "Xenon hub required" hints to Xenon origins where a Khaak M0 is more likely to require the Goner UFJD to find.

[Vanger]

I'm already working on a new one for X³TC:


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the other part and size comparison:

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I can't say when it's ready, but it should be very soon

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

M0 means big ship or am i wrong

In X3, an M0 is a ship with the sole purpose of destroying planets, not other ships.

But since the thread title also mentions "M1" it's most likely a piece of toast trying to do the job of the coffee mug as well.
What it really is?

In this case I am following the example of the XTM mod in that the M0 in this case is a mothership.

Nobody knows since the only information in this thread is the ship's name Helgi. =)

The name "Helreginn" is taken from Norse mythology (c/f ATF ship names).

However, since there was a Xenon M0 in BtF (a real planet killer) the story makes sense insofar the Xenon could have built another.
Considering the Xenon's jump beacon technology it would be prefectly okay to build it larger than jumpgate sized.
...but then it wouldn't be an arcane relic because that is a very recent Xenon development.

The Khaak had also built an M0 in X² but "Xenon hub required" hints to Xenon origins where a Khaak M0 is more likely to require the Goner UFJD to find.

The technology is Ancient (as in the Gate Builders c/f the Boron Helpers) and the reason for the need to use the Hub is that normal jump drives are unable to target the sector it is in due to various anomolies caused by the cluster of pulsars that have masked the signal for so long.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

I'm already working on a new one for X³TC:
...
I can't say when it's ready, but it should be very soon

Nice design, but I already have a ship model in mind... still a work in progress but hopefully will have an alpha of it ready in the next couple of weeks (if not sooner). Please feel free to provide constructive feedback/information.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Updated specification.

I am in the process of trying to test the first draft of the basic ship at the moment but the game is bombing out during loading. Any ideas what could be causing it? (Not a platform issue - main vanilla game directory is still working)

I am working with the cat files extracted but the DDS and BOD files still compiled. Helreginn BOD file loads ok into X3 Editor 2. I have added a name and description to the english language file (60101/60102).

Any ideas?

[xor01]

too big perhaps?

just make the size twice the Valhalla and we're set

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

too big perhaps?

just make the size twice the Valhalla and we're set

Does an oversized model (dimension wise) cause an engine crash then? The bob file is only 138K so I doubt if is the number of vertices/textures.

[ScRaT_GER]

The problem with huge ships is, that fighters might never be able to reach the fire distance, because the collision avoidance interferes.
You'll have to test if this is the case with you ship.

EDIT: Of course this shouldn't lead to a crash. Is the model displayed correctly in the XModels3D Viewer by exogenesis?

Greetings,
ScRaT

[Killjaeden]

Maybe it's the model itself ?
If it was only a box model - it would have some very long but rather thin quads/vertices/faces/whatever - try to cut those in to pieces, some game engines don't like long but thin faces
hmm or Shader/textuer issues?

i doubt that it is caused by the size since the khaak asteroid introduced in 2.1 Aldrin expansion is ~1500km in diameter

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

The problem with huge ships is, that fighters might never be able to reach the fire distance, because the collision avoidance interferes.
You'll have to test if this is the case with you ship.

EDIT: Of course this shouldn't lead to a crash. Is the model displayed correctly in the XModels3D Viewer by exogenesis?

Without the cat files the XModels3D Viewer does not work and with them it does not recognise that my new ship is in the game (even when told to load extracted files). However, the model loads into the X3 Editore 3D viewer ok.

Adding the CAT files back in to the modded copy of the game resolved my game start crash and the engine recognises it has been modified now so now I can test the ship out... I think

[Gazz]

I am in the process of trying to test the first draft of the basic ship at the moment but the game is bombing out during loading.

The typical cause is that an object reference (like a shiptype) was removed from the CAT/txt while an object using that reference/ID is still present in the savegame.

Main: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC

FBC? Are those the 100 km range torus lasers?

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

I am in the process of trying to test the first draft of the basic ship at the moment but the game is bombing out during loading.

The typical cause is that an object reference (like a shiptype) was removed from the CAT/txt while an object using that reference/ID is still present in the savegame.

Well the problem seems to have been caused in my case by me deleting the CAT/DAT files after extracting them. Resolved by copying them back in from my master installed copy of the game.

Main: 12 x EMPC/MAML/SSC/PSP/FBC

FBC? Are those the 100 km range torus lasers?

FBC = Fusion Beam Cannon (Terran Top Secret Beam weapon that currently you can not acquire and only the Truelight Seeker can fit)

[O'Nemesis]

Hi, your mod seams really nice! I just have one suggestion, since its an M0 shouldn't it have a bit more shields ? 20GJ is just 2 times the shields of a boreas, and since its a lot bigger it will get a lot more punishment!

Now i have a few questions, is the ship models any near completion, and if so can u plz post some images? How long till you finish the mod, any idea ?!

Well thx in advance and I hope it will be as great as it sounds

PS: It would also be really cool if there was some kind of plot to get the ship, it shouldn't be just getting to the system and there you have it

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Hi, your mod seams really nice! I just have one suggestion, since its an M0 shouldn't it have a bit more shields ? 20GJ is just 2 times the shields of a boreas, and since its a lot bigger it will get a lot more punishment!

Now i have a few questions, is the ship models any near completion, and if so can u plz post some images? How long till you finish the mod, any idea ?!

Well thx in advance and I hope it will be as great as it sounds

PS: It would also be really cool if there was some kind of plot to get the ship, it shouldn't be just getting to the system and there you have it

I may have to rethink things a little... there could be problems caused by people using tractor beams on it if the big model is a ship... I may need to look at making it a station that can be jumped between sectors (not worked out the details yet... but that seems to be the likely way)... There will however be a new capital class ship associated with it that has the weapons loadout as described and internal docking for M8/M6 and below but no external docks... The station on the otherhand would likely have the 2 big ship external docks, unlimited internal docking for M8/M6 and below, and two jump gates allowing for Hub style connection with the additional ability to swap the gate connections (thus if combined with The Hub you could theoretically rewire the gate system)...

There will be missions associated with the mod but I have had to put development on hold for a while as other events are taking priority at the momment.

It will be coming but it will be a little time away... no projected release candidate date yet.