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Author Topic: New UQM mod  (Read 36990 times)
Nicholai
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New UQM mod
« on: February 27, 2008, 02:08:36 pm »

Hello-hello,

It's not a playable demo by any means, but it's something:

Some screenshots from the project!  (like, ones from the actual build of the game in its current form, not just little pictures of Diamond worlds.)

There aren't any real spoilers, per se...  If you REALLY want to be surprised by the game (you know, ten years from now when its finished) then I guess you should avoid them, but all they're going to really expose are some basic gameplay changes and some initial plot-elements (which are explained within the first five minutes of gameplay)...  All star names / locations have been edited out of the screenshots.

Also, to preface this:  EVERYTHING below is in a very, very, very early stage still, and is completely subject to change.  (especially graphics, names, dates, etc.) -- so don't get too upset if you see something ugly.

So... here we go!  Ninteen examples of why my girlfriend thinks I'm a complete nerd!


Whoa, what the...?  Something weird is going on here already.... I'm suspicious, Nicholai!  Why am I a Spathi?  And why is it 2159?  Are you telling me you have the audacity to try and make a sequel to the world's greatest game?  You're on a slippery slope, buddy...


Our fearless Captain Wiffy makes a good point... too bad it's the future.


Oh, great... How did this happen?  Aren't BOTH of these races supposed to be dead?


Huh.  Well, I guess I should trust you, violent Rhino-dude....  Hey, wait, why don't I know about this stuff already?  And aren't I supposed to be under a slave shield somewhere?  Damn, I'm so confused...


Well... we seem to be getting along better now.  I like where this is going...


New planets...


New planets...


New planets...


New planets...


Approaching the starbase of our new friends, the glorious Thraddash!  Oh boy!


Just ignore that weird, red glow.  Starbases are PAINTED that way, didn't you know?


Ah, I can see this is the start of a very pleasant and reasonable relationship.


Where are my turning jets?!  My thrusters?!  Help!  HELP!


Evidently, the Summer of '59 was a bad time to be a Thraddash...


So bad, in fact, that I don't really want to be friends with the Thraddash anymore...  I could show you more of this conversation, but suffice it to say, I was a VERY naughty Spathi, and I found the way to an Ilwrath's heart!


The Ilwrath's starbase looks suspiciously familiar to something else I've seen before, but I just can't quite remember...


I guess I should go see what the Thraddash are up... to....... Oh.  Hmm.  He seems a little upset about my dealings with the Ilwrath.


After roasting the entire Thraddash fleet (it took a while) -- Commander Grulk is left defenseless.  This can't possibly end well for him.


Oh my...  Didn't there used to be a starbase there?  Perhaps I was a little rough on the Thraddash.  Oh well.  Whatever.

-------------------

So, that's it for now on that front.  I'm slowly making progress with the game...  Here are a few of the new implimentations (I won't bother stating some of the obvious ones like "new flagship", "new planets", etc...):

- Multiple special weapon modules for the sis_ship.  (including BUTT missiles, naturally)
- Variable Spheres of Influence which reflect the number of ships you've killed, things you've done, etc..  (I won't explain how, but it's really cool, if I say so myself)
- The ability to ally / un-ally with nearly every race in the game, working towards a specific goal which you can fulfill using Alliance races, Hierarchy races, nobody at all, etc.
- More dynamic racial-interactions.  (it pays to be enemies sometimes -- it is NOT ideal to be allied with everybody and their grandmother)
- Greater benefits to alliances.  Information, resources, fuel, crew, starbases, etc, can be provided by many of the races.
- Hyperspace.  Quasi-Space.  And something else.
- No more Slylandro Probes.  Boo.  But maybe there's something much, much worse in their place..........  Or maybe that's just a red herring.  I dunno.
- NO infinite-battles.  If you really want to, you can more or less permanently obliterate any race in the game by assaulting their homeworld / starbase.  (granted, being alone on your own, personal Eternal Doctrine can make the game INCREDIBLY difficult)

Technically speaking, the game is sequential to The Ur-Quan Masters, but I have no delusions about trying to create a "TRUE sequel".... it's merely an experiment, following a different character, which hopefully people can get in to.

Anyway, it's 7:00am here and I just spent the last six hours writing Ilwrath dialogue, so if I'm coming off as a little crazy right now.... uh... that's why.

Also, if anyone is interested in assisting with any graphics work, I could definitely use people for a couple of things -- specifically:
- Alien portraits (one human, one something else -- preferrably in the existing SC2 style)
- Planet surface lifeforms (currently these are unchanged from the original game -- it might be nice to spice them up)

Questions / comments / angry rants / insults are welcome!

     ~ Nicholai

---EDIT---

I forgot to mention that this entire project exists only because of Meep-Eep answering all of the 10,000 questions I've brought to him about the source code so far.  I really don't know one lick of C or programming in general, so he has been an immense help!
« Last Edit: February 28, 2008, 07:32:10 pm by Nicholai » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2008, 02:35:44 pm »

YAAAAAAAAAAY! HURRRRRAAAH!!!

I'm eagerly expecting the release of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May the Twin Gods be with you!
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« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2008, 04:20:20 pm »

Looks pretty darn interesting!
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« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2008, 05:43:51 pm »

Hey, that's awesome. Smiley
Great job. Smiley
Can't wait to play this!
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grayfox777
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« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2008, 11:19:09 am »

Woah!  Shocked
I can't wait for this! Keep up the good work!
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« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2008, 01:36:21 pm »

So that's what you've been up to... it looks promising.

I think that it would have been better to post this in the General Discussion forum though; I suspect that it will be seen by more people there.
As a moderator, I can still split up the thread, if you want. Just give me the new subject.
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« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2008, 04:42:05 pm »

Wow, looks fantastic! Can't wait to see more!  Smiley
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2008, 08:04:24 pm »

Looks to have much potential. I wonder if it's possible to actually add species to the game, not subtracting from the others? That might be something mighty interesting. Anyhow, looking forward to the progress, I can offer to help with some stuff if you want :p.
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2008, 08:07:12 pm »

Awesome Nicholai, keep up the good work. In fact it looks so sexy that i'm surprised that noone else has attempted something like this in the last few years. It's a simple idea and has the potential to make lots of funness.

I don't doubt though that writing a whole plot and sets of dialogue is estrememly time consuming.

Keep plodding along and you'll make a lot of SC geeks very happy.
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2008, 10:54:19 pm »

Question: If you can wipe out any race in the game singlehandedly, will the other races be receiving a stronger AI or a few extra-powerful ships around their starbase? Spanking the computer at melee is way too easy right now and I'd hate to be able to wade through your mod and wreck everything right from the start.
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #10 on: February 29, 2008, 12:18:35 am »

This ne wgame looks amazing! I want to play it. Will your version compile
on all of the operating systems UQM does? I'd like to compile and give this
a go on my Linux box.
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #11 on: February 29, 2008, 01:54:47 am »

Question: If you can wipe out any race in the game singlehandedly, will the other races be receiving a stronger AI or a few extra-powerful ships around their starbase? Spanking the computer at melee is way too easy right now and I'd hate to be able to wade through your mod and wreck everything right from the start.

I’m sure Nicholai would welcome a contribution from someone offering to improve the AI – after all, that’s one hell of a job.

In the meantime, I think that finite number of ships per homeworld is an interesting and welcome change. Maybe have the number slowly rebuild to a maximum over a period of time after decimation (1 per day or something).
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Nicholai
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #12 on: February 29, 2008, 05:45:49 am »

Looks to have much potential. I wonder if it's possible to actually add species to the game, not subtracting from the others? That might be something mighty interesting. Anyhow, looking forward to the progress, I can offer to help with some stuff if you want :p.

Yeah -- it's actually pretty easy (all things considered) to add a new race to the game.  I'm wrestling with the concept right now of whether or not I want to add one, because I feel like a lot of people have that delusion before, and I've never really wanted to see it done by anyone other than Paul and Fred.  We'll see though -- if I do do it, I already have a pretty good idea of how I'd use them.

If you can make surface alien sprites, or alien Conversation portraits, or mod-music, I could give you the list of what I want!  Heh-heh.

In fact it looks so sexy that i'm surprised that noone else has attempted something like this in the last few years. It's a simple idea and has the potential to make lots of funness.

This is what I've been wondering!!  I work full-time and I don't know a thing about programming, yet somehow I'm managing to stumble through this project.  (probably because I've wanted to see SC2 expanded upon since 1993) -- but still, if somebody actually got a small group together and devoted a few months to it, I feel like they could make something really cool, especially if the UQM source continues on its path towards being more mod-able (as Meep-Eep has suggested to be the case)  ... Maybe this project will inspire people, heh.

Question: If you can wipe out any race in the game singlehandedly, will the other races be receiving a stronger AI or a few extra-powerful ships around their starbase?

This is an issue I'm working on right now.  There are a couple of things in place to prevent this, as well as quite a few incentives to NOT go around being a space-thug.  Similarly to the way that Commander Hayes gets mad at you for selling too many crew to the Druuge, there are repercussions for a lot of the things you do in the game now.  Since you're not just accountable to the Earthlings (and even then, the Earthlings were completely dependent upon you) in this mod, you're accountable to everyone.  Some races (the Ilwrath) are quite pleased when you act like a violent jerk, but others (the Chmmr, for instance) don't really appreciate it.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but there are some things to lead players away from that sort of path (and make it difficult if you DO choose to go that way) -- Also, making unique or extra-powerful ships is quite easy, and I might employ that if necessary, but if it can be avoided, I want to do as little meddling on that front as possible.

Will your version compile on all of the operating systems UQM does? I'd like to compile and give this a go on my Linux box.

I have no idea... uhh... I downloaded the source code from the Sourceforge page, fiddled with it, and always compile it on Windows XP...    Does anyone else know?

I’m sure Nicholai would welcome a contribution from someone offering to improve the AI – after all, that’s one hell of a job.

Of course!  Whenever I look at the AI, I just see a bunch of gibberish like "ARCTAN" and "COSINE" and "half_circle" and weird operators that I don't understand...  If somebody knew how to improve it, it would definitely be welcome!

      ~ Nicholai
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #13 on: February 29, 2008, 08:08:11 am »

Quote
Quote from: Zeep-Eeep on Today at 12:18:35 am
Will your version compile on all of the operating systems UQM does? I'd like to compile and give this a go on my Linux box.

I have no idea... uhh... I downloaded the source code from the Sourceforge page, fiddled with it, and always compile it on Windows XP...    Does anyone else know?


Im sure once you get the game fully finished, people will be ready and willing to help with any conversions for working on other systems.
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Re: New UQM mod
« Reply #14 on: February 29, 2008, 09:07:46 pm »

Are the races' ships the same as in normal UQM? If not, I might help with the AI.
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