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Author Topic: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA  (Read 12766 times)
lendrick
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SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« on: May 12, 2008, 08:31:56 am »

THE PROCESS IS INCOMPLETE, YET WE HAVE EMERGED.   Wink

GalCiv fans, you know you've thought about it.  Ever since they announced that Galactic Civilizations 2 was moddable, you've been pondering the thought of creating a Star Control mod for it.  With the latest expansion pack allowing different (moddable) tech trees for each race, I thought maybe it was time to give it a serious attempt.

Here are some preliminary screenshots.  While not much has changed yet under the hood, it at least has the beginnings of that Star Control feel. 










Playable races are:
* Human
* Ur-Quan
* Syreen
* Yehat
* Shofixti
* Ilwrath
* Druuge
* Spathi
* Chmmr
* Zoq Fot Pik
* Kohr-Ah
* Mycon

I'd love to add more, but there's a limit to the number of allowed playable races.  These are subject to change as I figure out what works and what doesn't.  Smiley

This mod is completely preliminary, and right now the races use the tech trees of the race they replaced in GalCiv.  This will of course change as time goes on.  I've adjusted racial alignments and personalities so that the races will act approximately the way you might expect them to, but there are still a lot of wording changes that need to be made (ship names, etc, still refer to the Galciv 2 races and not the Star Control ones).

No music is included in this mod, although on my own machine I have it running with a lot of the Precursors remixes (GC2 with the Hyperspace remix playing in the background is TO DIE FOR.   Grin )  If I can figure out how to contact them so I can get their permission, maybe I can include their music in the next release. 

The original SC2 art is currently in use as a placeholder.  It's way too low-resolution (even running GC2 at 1024x768 there's obvious blurring) so I'd like to replace it with original artwork as soon as I can get my drawing skillz up to par or recruit someone who can already draw.

I would eventually like to do the following:
* Add a bunch of non-playable SC2 minor races (like the Melnorme, Pkunk, Supox, Utwig, and everyone else that wouldn't fit into the main races)
* Update all of the dialogue to be specific to the Star Control universe.  Right now, none of it has been replaced, so some of it is generic and some of it is blatantly GC2 related.  Smiley
* Update the tech trees for each race.  I think I might want to make the tech trees simpler than they are in GC2, but not sure.
* Same with planetary improvements.
* ... and star name lists.
* ... and random events.  There's a lot of opportunity for flavor there.
* Get some 3D ship models and model parts built, so that the Star Control ships can be emulated more closely.

Timeframe?  Who knows.  Depends on whether or not people want to help, I suppose.  Smiley

Download the mod here:
http://www.timbermaniacs.com/sc2/SC2mod.zip

To run it, simply extract it in your GC2 mods directory (you *must* have the Twilight of the Arnor expansion).  With a default install, the mods directory will probably be "C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Mods".   You should see a folder called SC2 inside it when you're done.

Then, go into the game main menu, check "Use Mods" under Game Options, then immediately below that select the SC2 mod.  You will probably have to restart the game for the changes to take affect.  When you start a new game, you should see the Star Control races in the race select screen.

*whew*

I'd love to get some feedback on this.  Is this a good idea, or a waste of time?  Smiley

Peace,
Lendrick


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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2008, 10:20:18 am »

I'm playing GalCiv2 ToA at the moment in my free time so I might give this a try. But uh, same tech tree as the default game? I'm not too keen on playing Arceans with a Yehat facelift. You're gonna need custom tech trees, which will probably be a nightmare to create and balance. What I would like to do is to grab your custom ship templates. Is there a way to get those working with any of the game's default species?
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lendrick
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2008, 08:08:37 pm »

Well, as I said, this is all very preliminary.  For this to be a complete mod, the tech trees will need to be altered significantly.  Here's a brief list of what I've been thinking...  If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be interested to hear them.

* Human
  * Start with missile and point defense tech
  * Keep the standard tech tree

* Ur-Quan
  * Start with beam weapons, small scale building
  * Initial ship designs should include dreadnought and fighter
  * Preserve the slavery parts of the Drengin tech tree

* Syreen
  * Focus should be on influence and espionage
  * Planet quality bonus

* Yehat
  * Start with mass drivers and shields
  * Bonuses to ship attack and defense

* Shofixti
  * Base technology on honor and spirituality
  * Large numbers of small ships

* Ilwrath
  * Slow technological progress
  * Solid ship attack and defenses
  * Fearless soldiers
  * Gain morale with Torture Centers.

* Druuge
  * Mass driver tech
  * Center that reduces population growth to add production

* Spathi
  * Speed and ship defenses
  * Fear management techs should increase morale, soldiering
  * Population growth.  Spathi should be weak soldiers and have low ship attack, but make up for it in sheer numbers

* Chmmr
  * Start with beam weapons and small scale building
  * Low population growth, high production
  * Technology should be based aroun completing the unification process

* Kohr-Ah
  * Start with mass drivers (their spinning blades), point defense, and small scale building
  * Very low diplomacy and influence, but great in a fight

* Mycon
  * Not sure how the Mycon will work, exactly.  Maybe not the best idea to have them playable.  Swap out for Orz?

* Orz
  * Thinking of including these guys as a playable race.  The tech tree could be hilarious.  *PARTIES* and *SMELLS* and whatnot.
  * Low diplomacy, great combat.  Immune to cultural subversion, due to all being one entity.

* Zoq Fot Pik
  * Not particularly special in terms of combat, diplomacy, or influence
  * Cheap ships and improvements
  * "plucky" Zoq Fot Pik should excel at morale, from their race specific Frungy arenas
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2008, 08:59:05 pm »

Thats really awesome! Good work!
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2008, 09:39:53 pm »

Good work indeed.
A suggestion regarding the Spathi: As they advanced from the bronze age to the space age in less than a century due to the threat of the Evil Ones, maybe they should also have fast technological progress? Or even better, if it's possible, you might want to toy with the idea of an ability that triggers when their race is in great peril, greatly boosting their production (or something similar).
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lendrick
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2008, 09:54:42 pm »

Good work indeed.
A suggestion regarding the Spathi: As they advanced from the bronze age to the space age in less than a century due to the threat of the Evil Ones, maybe they should also have fast technological progress? Or even better, if it's possible, you might want to toy with the idea of an ability that triggers when their race is in great peril, greatly boosting their production (or something similar).

That's a really amusing idea.

I'm not sure how complicated these sorts of things can be in Gal Civ -- whether or not it's possible to do something like that (have motivation be triggered by war or some other sort of peril) is up in the air for me at the moment.  I'll have to do a little research and see if there's a way to pull it off.

Failing that, rather than increasing morale by allowing the Spathi to manage their fear, the Safe Ones might build planetary improvements to *scare* the Spathi into working harder.

The other thing I can look into is whether or not random events can be race-specific.  It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for the Evil Ones to scare, say, the Ur-Quan into working harder, but if I could have that just randomly happen to the Spathi and no one else, it would be a viable option.
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2008, 09:58:36 pm »

This looks super cool...unfortunately I'm saving my money for a convention and thus have not gotten TA yet. When I do, I'll be sure to try your mod. As I said, awesome.
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2008, 08:02:35 am »

Progress report:

* I've reverse engineered the undocumented Conversations data file, which should allow me to insert specific dialogue in for when various races speak to each other. 
* I've removed all of CG2's non-generic dialog, so that jarring setting-specific GC2 conversations won't show up.
* I've swapped the Orz in for the Mycon.
* I've added a tiny bit of preliminary first contact dialog for the Ur Quan.  When races plead with the Ur Quan or Kohr Ah, I might have them use The Words. Smiley

These changes are not major, and have not been uploaded.  I'll upload them when I get a little more done.  If anyone comes up with any fun ideas that would fit into this, please post them here and if possible I'll work them in. Smiley

For my own reference, here is a link to some text files with all of the dialog from SC2.
http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scwc/quotes/

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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2008, 01:35:53 pm »

For my own reference, here is a link to some text files with all of the dialog from SC2.
http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scwc/quotes/

You can also use this more colorful site. Also, I think the SCWC version might lack a few lines, although I'm not sure.

There's also the UQM data files, as stored in the UQM project's SVN repository (look for the text files inside of those directories). The advantage of this is that each line has an identifier like "NEUTRAL_SPACE_HELLO_1" which makes it easier to separate the friendly/neutral/hostile hellos and goodbyes.
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lendrick
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2008, 08:06:00 pm »

Yeah, that's really helpful.  Thanks.  Smiley

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generallykaiden
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2012, 09:08:43 am »

Man, this sounds like the sickest shit to ever slick.
But I can see that last time someone posted in this thread was back in 2008. Anyone know if this is still happening?
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #11 on: August 19, 2012, 05:48:10 pm »

Great work man! I love this, gonna start playing galciv2 again! Smiley
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #12 on: August 25, 2012, 09:52:39 pm »

I for one would be thrilled by a Star Control 2 total conversion mod for Galactic Civilizations 2. Those are two of my favorite games of all time!
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2012, 06:14:16 pm »

I know this is a double grave dig, but if there's one thread that deserves a decent double bump than it's this one. Would love to see someone pick up this project.
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Re: SC2 mod 0.1 for GalCiv2:TA
« Reply #14 on: November 26, 2012, 12:20:46 pm »

I think the Syreen should not be super diplomats - the fears about their psychic powers, and reservations about how they use them, outweigh their actual psychic powers in terms of getting what they want. They were banned from recruiting at allied colonies in the first war.
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