22nd century Terraformer War mod. Getting a feel for interest.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

I'm laying out the groundwork for a mod - total conversion - which would take place in 2145, just before and during the ancient Terraformer War.

The scale of the project rides on the amount of interest in it - both from people who want to play, and people who want to help.

I've already constructed a new (and very large) universe map, and I've set up a completely new weapon and shield system. I'm also in the process of thoroughly ripping out the current sound effects, Betty voice, and music and installing my own.

For the mod to work, of course, there will need to be lots of new starship and station designs - 22nd century, human-made sort of stuff. I'm mainly looking for modelers who'd be interested in such designs.

If there's any interest in playing or assisting, I'd love to hear it. The eventual goal is to be able to play as Nathan Gunne...

A few samples of the map I've come up with.
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Some of the locales I've painted so far...
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And one of my new weapons - a big artillery laser, the High Wattage Tessellation Ray.
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Concepts.
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[Deadbeat_Spinn]

This sounds very interesting, I'd give this mod a go.

Couple questions,

1. I gather the only race's would be Humans and Terraformers?

2. The universe would be based around Earth and it's colonies (like Aldrin)?


I would be more than willing to help but my experience in modding is little to none (more the latter than the former), but I'm wouldn't mind learning new things.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Re- 1.

My concept will replace "races" with "factions," as it were. United Space Command is one, as would be a handful of companies (I've named two of them Galactic Commerce and Deep Space Development.)

Terraformers and Scavengers (pirates) would be the primary "antagonist races."

Re- 2.

Yup. Earth's on the "south" edge of the map I've made, and there's about 20 more star systems you can visit, Aldrin among them. You get around each star system using orbital accelerators, and between star systems using jump gates. ^^ A few other star systems will be familiar, too... Argon Prime and Brennan's Triumph among them, though they'll go by different names.

To be honest, I'm learning most of this as I go... it's gone pretty well so far!

Anyway, I've actually taken a few screenshots of my map and one of my new weapons... to be uploaded shortly.

[Deadbeat_Spinn]

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I like the look of that sector, esp. the planet in the background.

I see a cockpit and engine trails.

I take it the weapon (the Tessellation Ray) is on par (for ship mounting) of the HEPT?

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Thanks

Actually, the engine trail / cockpit mod is from two existing mods. Not done by me. But I enjoy them...

It's more of an in between of a CIG and PPC grade cannon. There's six weapon "classes" I'm doing: 50mm, 100mm, and 200mm mass cannons, low wattage and high wattage energy weapons, and the utility slot (mining, towing, repair lasers.) Compatibility is with the cannon grade - so if you can mount the 50mm conventional, you can also mount the 50mm EMP, 50mm rapid-fire, et cetera. Since everything is human-made, I figured things would be more compatible with each other...

[Lord Dakier]

Sounds good however, technology would be very outdated compared with todays X. So why not see how the total conversion works without sields.

*Let's Teladi Fans Scream Abuse*

Now we crank up the hull and minor some laser and missile damage and bobs your uncle we have something interesting. What if only the terraformers had shields as such? I just can't see that ship from Armageddon activating its shields lol.

If your bring cockpits back into this then I think we need something different which it seems you already started. Default X2 cockpits was good when it was X2 but got boring after that.

To understand what seems like early combat to us maybe you should see about turning larger weapons more like cannons. It makes sense that further into the future cannon firing would be quicker and more efficient being that if it missed take the PPC for an example of this.

Remember its your choice but I think total conversion should be taken to the Xtreme

Lord D.

[RyuKazuha]

The technology in that time was advanced enough to make Jump Gates.

I'd figure it even was pretty much more advanced than in X3:TCs present.

Iirc very much knowlegde about space travel and such was lost within the centuries since the end of the terraformer war.

Also, if the terraformers have shields, the military has them too, either created or adapted.

However, I'd like to see the more civilian ships go by "shields against roids, against anything other a good alt plate of armor.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Certainly a lot of technology was at a greater level - still, it IS only 135 years from today. My imagining is of small ships very much inspired by today's space shuttle, and larger ones like slightly more streamlined, armored renditions of the ISS.

As for shields, I think a lot of ships certainly wouldn't have them, and hull would be a much more important defense. Civilian craft up to station-mover size would lack shield slots. Only really big or really expensive ships would get them, and it would be a feature, not a necessity. Actually, that would make shields a lot more important as well - a lot of weapons might not actually damage shields at all, whereas expensive shield-busters or bypassers would do significantly less hull damage.

Incidentally, I've renamed all the shields as varying degrees of "hull polarization."

EDIT

As I recall, wasn't the jump gate principle discovered sort of by accident? And maybe the human jump gate is a rickety, unpredictable shamble as compared to the ones built by the Ancients.

[Lord Dakier]

Wasn't the Terraformers more advanced than Humans atleast towards the end. Let's be fair the last time you saw an enemy, Xenon or Khaak and you were in something that was similiar to it when was the last time you were scared.

In X2 enemies was just a tincey bit harder than they were in the other games. M3 vs M3 and you were in a Nova fighting a Khaak Fighter unless it was very well shielded you'd go pop before you even got out of its gun range.

[RyuKazuha]

The principle was found by chance, yes, but the gates build based on this were able to maintain a stable connection between each other and to various gates throughout the galaxy.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Wasn't the Terraformers more advanced than Humans atleast towards the end. Let's be fair the last time you saw an enemy, Xenon or Khaak and you were in something that was similiar to it when was the last time you were scared.

In X2 enemies was just a tincey bit harder than they were in the other games. M3 vs M3 and you were in a Nova fighting a Khaak Fighter unless it was very well shielded you'd go pop before you even got out of its gun range.

Very much true - and I would certainly like to make the Terraformers a very, very scary enemy to fight. Perhaps with THE fastest and best armored warships in every class.

Backstory and balancing are not terrible - I do write science fiction in my spare time. With a few new ships to play with I can begin the mod in earnest...

[Algoran]

I love the idea of this mod! A prequel sort of thing, very cool. Try and capture the feeling of horror as a swarm of supposedly beneficial robots return to destroy their creators, and desperation as we realize their level of organization and that they cannot, of course, be reasoned with

The sector naming conventions you've got going are great, and the way the universe is split into systems. And the rather more sensible sounding weapon classifications

I wouldn't mind helping with this, however the only thing I know anything about is trails. Praps if you want a special trail mod for it..?

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Thanks on all counts. I'm currently diving into the Mission Director to see what I can learn, but I'm trying to have the Terraformers start off blue to everyone... and at some arbitrary point, without warning or even a message log entry, start turning on everyone...

Actually, good fiery, smokey ship trails could be nice to have- especially on big ships. Makes them look quite grandiose. The ship models themselves are of course a prerequisite... ^^

[Algoran]

Thanks on all counts. I'm currently diving into the Mission Director to see what I can learn, but I'm trying to have the Terraformers start off blue to everyone... and at some arbitrary point, without warning or even a message log entry, start turning on everyone...

Hah that could be very fun. Watch as Earth forces scramble to protect core sectors while outer ones are left to fend for themselves? Of course, the player is unlikely to be very fooled by blue terraformers cruising around everywhere..

Actually, good fiery, smokey ship trails could be nice to have- especially on big ships. Makes them look quite grandiose. The ship models themselves are of course a prerequisite... ^^

mm, something that actually looks like its some kind of chemical rocket? And perhaps terraformers and advanced military ships could have some other kind of fancy drive technology, so they look different.. But yes, praps you'll want to get back to me on that

[Lord Dakier]

Yes, yes I see beauty and passion... we can make this stage look simply beautifull. Beautifull I say...

We need a new sort of LORE to get to grips with however. We know that Terraformers was no doubt stronger than Human ships now let's take into account some nice little scenarios.

Gears of War - Outnumbered, outgunned but you are the elite
Mass Effect - Specialists at fighting you can be stopped and no doubt need the extra man
Terminator - Outgunned, outnumbered and death is around the corner your enemies are as scary as they are cold metal AI's
Halo - Your enemy ships out match your own... only with superior numbers can you make a battle fair

These are not exactly plot starts but more of what a combat LORE would be like. Terraformers should be no doubt stronger, Let's look at it this way. I feel as if Terraformers being all bad ass at this point should be stronger so whats say you have 1 Terraformer ship being able to take on up to 2 Human ships. This means that the Human USC should need to bring 3 destroyers into battle if they expect to defeat a Terraformer one.

No doubt you'd be scared of the enemy after seeing the Humans get mopped up.

I was thinking of factions and what of the following just for small examples;
United Space Command + Galactic Commerce + Deep Space Development;
American Branch
Asian Branch
European Branch
African Branch
Oceanic Branch

Rather than having Earth as a whole have different branches within which work like the corporations. It would only make sense that the European Union put in a more futuristic format would have their own colonies same with other regions. This would make your map more descriptive. Ofcourse you would have USC who controls most popular and important areas of space but then you'd have the continents of Earth doing sub management for the United Earth Order if you like.

Have one that excells more than the others in different places. One sells higher quality of ships the other may have better asteroids in there space. You don't need to lose the other races from X exactly just replace their names as such. Europe was all about large empires as such they'd be the new Paranid as such. The workload would appear more simple then too

[Dreamwizard]

I for one, am very interested in this gameplay concept. Mass drivers and their varients and missles will also probably play a bigger part on the weapons front for the time period.

I Like the direction this MOD might take!

I thought this resource might help out a bit: http://www.thexuniverse.com/showwiki/Timeline


DW

[Tenlar Scarflame]

American Branch
Asian Branch
European Branch
African Branch
Oceanic Branch

Actually, that's a pretty awesome idea. You could even just straight-out rename them to America, European Union, Russia, China, and Japan. Almost has a Starlancer-like ring to it. What's more, some ship designs could be common across multiple nationalities, with small differences (perhaps sold by one corporation to whoever will buy) but more specialized designs would be nation-specific. Overlooking all of them is the Earth United Space Command, but their jurisdiction only extends so far...

I like your Terminator parallel the most out of those. I remember fighting the Sohnen in the X3R XTended mod... they were pretty close to that.

@Dreamwizard, many thanks for the link. ^^

[Lord Dakier]

American Branch
Asian Branch
European Branch
African Branch
Oceanic Branch

Actually, that's a pretty awesome idea. You could even just straight-out rename them to America, European Union, Russia, China, and Japan. Almost has a Starlancer-like ring to it. What's more, some ship designs could be common across multiple nationalities, with small differences (perhaps sold by one corporation to whoever will buy) but more specialized designs would be nation-specific. Overlooking all of them is the Earth United Space Command, but their jurisdiction only extends so far...

I like your Terminator parallel the most out of those. I remember fighting the Sohnen in the X3R XTended mod... they were pretty close to that.

@Dreamwizard, many thanks for the link. ^^

Yeah well I thought having different continents or companies do this sounds much more realistic. Would seem a bit odd the Earth being United fully and all works done through one government if you like.

The thing about the Terminator like aspect is that the enemy come in large numbers and are also overpowering it will take the best pilots to survive

About the earlier comment of the mass driver. It was a newly designed weapon back in the X2 days if I'm correct. Most commonwealth weapons wouldn't seem normal for a mod set so long before. I think only the longest variants of IRE, PAC, HEPT and PPC are the oldest formats if I'm correct. Even in the X games storyline they're becoming outdated by the likes of PBE, PRG, CIG, PBG, IBL, Gauss Cannon. The old weapons are mostly used as an all around average as none really specialise in certain areas.

[Gemini24]

Very interesting idea, im sure ull be able to find plenty of people interested in helping/using it Lookin forward to the outcome

Just as an idea, you could look at Nexus: The Jupiter Incident for ideas on how to have variants between the different Factions' ships.

[Treelor]

This looks pretty cool - as a person who has never been able to play the original X:BTF, I have a huge amount of interest in this so I can experience that timeline.