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976-KILL
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Bring Them Back?
« on: August 13, 2004, 05:08:18 pm »

For me single player both rocks and sucks simultaneously. It rocks because, obviously, it's a great game. It sucks because my two favourite ships - the Androsyn and the Melnorme are unavailable. The latter I'm not too bothered about, but I really wish I could get Androsyn ships in my fleet. I know they've skipped the dimension or been wiped out or whatever, but even so; the Shofixti were 'wiped out' but you could bring them back. Couldn't there be a sideline where you can discover a number of wrecked Androsyns on various planets and salvage bits over time so you could then make your own Androsyn - even if you never actually conversed with that particlar race - hence you could get Androsyns without changing the storyline. I mean, you DO already salvage stuff from a Dreadnought wreck so why not?

I'm not a computer bod or anything so I'd probably not be able to code something like this, but if anyone knows of a mod or something that I could get to implement this I'd be very glad.
« Last Edit: August 13, 2004, 05:08:55 pm by 976-KILL » Logged

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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2004, 06:41:54 pm »

While it might not be brought into the offical UQM game, you can swap ship files so that you get your clonies back. You might try, for example, adding the 'synth in place of the human cruiser.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2004, 06:51:54 pm »

You may think I'm an idiot asking this, but HOW do I go about swapping the files in this manner?
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2004, 08:54:01 pm »

Beats me...

I think thats a great idea...

Would the 'you need a native captain at the helm' excuse work here?

Androsynth are just human clones+1...
Now....what would happen if you flew around Orz space in it...? *grin*
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2004, 09:32:27 pm »

So HOW do I do it? Zeep-Eeep?
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2004, 09:41:40 pm »

From the content\packages\uqm-0.3-content.zip extract the files of the ship you want, and put those files unpacked in content\ with the name of the race you want it to replace. Unpacked files override packed files.

Note that you'll also change the sphere of influence this way, which may give strange results.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2004, 04:06:51 pm »

I thank you muchly, and shall try at once.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2004, 04:39:25 pm »

Hallelujah!! It works!!

I've replaced Human Cruisers with the Guards, and vice versa [so the melee screen isn't screwed up].

meep-eep and Zeep-eeep, my Androsyns thank you kindly.

By the way, since I've swapped them for Earthlings, which don't have a sphere of influence (least not as far as I know) - will I avoid strange results? Just if theres still a risk I'll not delete my current game [only just restarted] and run two games simultaneously in case the modified one screws up.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2004, 04:49:17 pm »

It's been a while since I tried this. However, I think that since the humans and the 'synth don't have any dialog, you can get away with extracting the androsyn.shp file from  content\packages\uqm-0.3-content.zip, then
copying the file to the content directory. Finally, rename the androsyn.shp file to human.shp.

You should be safe doing this, since neither humans or 'synth have speech or spheres of influence. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2004, 11:34:01 pm »

I've done this before I swaped the cruiser with the Transformer prices do not change it mearly uses a different ship, think of it as a new model for the race, if you swap them back, the save file will still work you will just have your "trusty cruiser." I've never swapped shp with SOI's before, however I have heard that someone swapped a cruiser for a dreadnought there when a few diffencesyou could build/start off with Dreadnoughts, the Ur-Quan used crusiers and strangely the Ur-Quan's SOI was colored blue.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2004, 11:51:49 pm »

So far so good. No problems as of yet.

I think the game still registers it as an Earthling, so I don't think there will be any problems. For example, it's still labelled Earthling Cruiser when you purchase one, still costs 1100 RU, and somewhat annoyingly, the maximum crew you can put into one is still 18, even though Guardians are meant to be staffed by 20 (not that I'm complaining - I can still get em and whoop ass Grin). Hence I don't think there will be a problem - all thats actually changed is the ship model - the game still thinks of it as a Cruiser.

It would be rather amusing if it DID recognise it as Androsynths though....

...go and visit the Orz for some payback!!    Tongue
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2004, 12:10:27 am »

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I've done this before I swaped the cruiser with the Transformer prices do not change it mearly uses a different ship, think of it as a new model for the race, if you swap them back, the save file will still work you will just have your "trusty cruiser." I've never swapped shp with SOI's before, however I have heard that someone swapped a cruiser for a dreadnought there when a few diffencesyou could build/start off with Dreadnoughts, the Ur-Quan used crusiers and strangely the Ur-Quan's SOI was colored blue.


This could happen only in the DOS version of SC2, not in UQM. And still I don't realy belive that story. First of all the color blue is already taken by the Arilou. Secondly Humans have no sphere of influence, so if you switched the files Ur-Quan would cease to exist.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2004, 03:13:40 pm »

Plotwise it's a terrible idea since it greatly diminishes the sense of horror at the Orz's replacement of the Androsynth if the Orz have missed anything in the process -- the Orz are scary because their ascendancy was so utterly complete and inexplicable, like some natural phenomenon rather than a true war.

Gamewise, yeah, 'Synth are too good, at least from my perspective. They beat too many things; the same reason why it takes you forever to get the Utwig, Chmmr, and Yehat ships on your side, and probably why you only get a small amount of time to build Spathi (though even then I think Fwiffo by himself is almost too good). And why on the other hand you have a limitless supply of Zoq-Fot-Pik Stingers and Earthling Cruisers from almost the beginning of the game...

Also I think there were good reasons for not wanting the 'Synth to actually be in the game; it'd in some ways be harder to write dialogue for a race that was human in body but had a truly alien culture, especially the weird soup of emotions the 'Synth must have toward Humans. And, of course, 'Synth are just less interesting-looking than other aliens, even the Syreen, who at least have the advantage of being blue (among other interesting traits...)

And also I think Paul Reiche might've been uncomfortable putting a 'Synth in the game. I remember reading a chat transcript where he said he did, in fact, put together many ideas about the 'Synth based on American gay culture (they're all male and they wear the inverted pink triangle, a gay pride symbol, as their comm badge; they achieve their freedom from a second-class citizenship created by an extremist religious movement), and then later said he was uncomfortable about the stereotypes that engendered (art showing them with immaculately pouffed hair and referring to them as the "fashion designers of space combat"). Would you really want to see some B-list voice actor play around with the dynamics behind this idea? Well, okay, maybe I would, but it'd have a good chance of being an offensive lawsuit magnet.

I don't think the native starship captain thing is all about physiology (though that's certainly part of it -- look at how the Spathi cockpit is laid out). It's about having native training and stuff; you don't want the pilot of your Guardian to still be learning how the thing works in battle, even if he fits in the seat just fine.
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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2004, 05:20:24 pm »

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Gamewise, yeah, 'Synth are too good, at least from my perspective. They beat too many things; the same reason why it takes you forever to get the Utwig, Chmmr, and Yehat ships on your side, and probably why you only get a small amount of time to build Spathi (though even then I think Fwiffo by himself is almost too good). And why on the other hand you have a limitless supply of Zoq-Fot-Pik Stingers and Earthling Cruisers from almost the beginning of the game...


So what your proposing is that none of the good ships/ships the majority of people favour should be utilised by the single player, and that only the really naff ships that no-one really likes should be available?

Seems a waste of good design work to me......

[no offence meant to those who really enjoy using Zoq-Fot Stingers etc - Its just people, at least from my experience, do tend to prefer Utwigs, Chenjesus and generally the more powerful ships i.e. above 10 points.]

I agree Synth are powerful. I can beat down most anything with a fully staffed Synth, BUT vs computer AI, possibly the most valuable ship is the Thraddash. At least with synth, whilst most battles are winnable, they do require some skill to pull off. With a Torch, which ARE EASILY ATTAINABLE in the main game, you can easily beat every ship, assuming its computer controlled. Do you propose that Thraddashs' are, so to speak, banned from the single player too?
« Last Edit: August 15, 2004, 06:30:08 pm by 976-KILL » Logged

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Re: Bring Them Back?
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2004, 08:41:58 pm »

In Androsynth's case, there is a significant problem without native starship captain's. The Guardian is piloted by a number of Androsynth's and they communicate with each other telepathically. (see the captain screen with four guys, each with one task. specially the one who only controls one button is very interesting) So they always know exactly when to 'press the right button'.
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