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News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

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Author Topic: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD  (Read 39783 times)
Shiver
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Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« on: March 24, 2009, 02:17:07 pm »

Net melee is--let's be honest here--a thing of limited appeal within a small fan community dedicated to an obscure video game. Knowing well in advance that the pay-off would not nearly match the amount of effort required, what was I trying to achieve by overhauling it? Maybe a sense of closure. I'm not sure why I did this, really. There's no point getting sentimental about it in any case. Before I get down to brass tacks I need to thank a few people. This project would not have gone anywhere without extensive coding assitance from Elvish Pillager, fossil, Meep-Eep and McMartin. A few of the new features were either Elvish Pillager's idea or something he sat down and made at my request. I should also thank Gekko for hosting my files and playing hundreds of test bouts against me. A test bout isn't much good unless both players are very skilled and play their best, so these sessions could often be very gruelling. At least a dozen other people stopped in #uqm-arena and played a test bout with me at some point from the time I started months ago up until this moment, so thanks to all of them as well.

The balance mod could also be described as "Shiver's Bells and Whistles Mod" at this point because, holy crap, just take a look at the change log. Nevertheless, the focus of this project was to make every ship in the entire melee line-up useful. In order to accomplish this, the various ships were strengthened or weakened so that every last one of them would be moderately effective at a high level of play. This mod is not suited for Star Control's main game, nor melee against the cyborg. Game balance may be the goal of the project, but many adjustments have been made for the sake of aesthetics or continuity. This mod is probably not 100% perfect as of yet, though I am positive that game balance is better than in default Star Control 2. Expect a 1.01 release at some point in the future.

Ready to get started? All the information you need is up on the Ultronomicon:

The Change Log

Installation Instructions

MODERATOR EDIT: The current version is 1.22
« Last Edit: March 03, 2010, 09:19:03 pm by fossil » Logged
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2009, 03:33:29 pm »

Even though I've never been a big melee fan, I have to say that this looks really exciting. Kudos on managing to bring a big mod to fruition. Seriously, you've done an amazing amount of work here. I guess I'll have to download it and try the new Traddash out.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2009, 03:56:31 pm »

I downloaded your code, and compiled it on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop, fired it up and started a test game against the computer.

Everything seemed to work well enough until the computer chose a VUX to warp in, and then the game crashed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same thing. Other ships so far haven't given me a problem. No clue if this behavior happens on windows or whatever, but figured I'd report it.
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Shiver
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2009, 04:11:57 pm »

I downloaded your code, and compiled it on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop, fired it up and started a test game against the computer.

Everything seemed to work well enough until the computer chose a VUX to warp in, and then the game crashed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same thing. Other ships so far haven't given me a problem. No clue if this behavior happens on windows or whatever, but figured I'd report it.

That's curious. The AI is fine on Windows with any ship. Are you sure you've got the effects package in your game? The VUX Intuder has another sound effect which the code calls for. I'll see what I can do to fix that if others have the same problem. AI is the very lowest of my priorities, but crash bugs do need to be stamped out.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2009, 05:19:01 pm »

Good call. The effects package isn't getting loaded. Not sure why though. I'm launching it with the addon flag.

Code:
$ ./uqm-balance -n content --addon balance
The Ur-Quan Masters v0.6.2 + Net Melee Balance Mod 1.0 (compiled Mar 24 2009 10:38:38)
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY;
for details see the included 'COPYING' file.

Netplay protocol version 0.3. Requiring remote UQM version 0.5.4.
Initializing base SDL functionality.
Using SDL version 1.2.12 (compiled with 1.2.12)
Using config dir '/home/ddean/.uqm/'
Using '/home/ddean/uqm/balance/balance_mod_source/uqm/sc2/content' as base content dir.
1 available addon pack.
    1. balance
...

Anyway, I'll try figuring out why the addon is being ignored. Thanks for the help.

Edit: Hm. Tried unzipping the effects directly on top of the content directory, which gave the Ur-Quan green fighters (which it didn't have before), but the VUX is still crashing.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2009, 05:33:08 pm by Spurk » Logged
Death 999
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2009, 07:23:48 pm »

Ooh. This doesn't change the practical issues of my generally being unable to play, but these look like very good changes.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2009, 07:25:04 pm »

Hurrah!

Seems I've found a glitch - Thraddash's main weapon sometimes explodes in a white square about the size of a ship. All other effects seem to be ok.
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Shiver
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2009, 07:44:17 pm »

Hurrah!

Seems I've found a glitch - Thraddash's main weapon sometimes explodes in a white square about the size of a ship. All other effects seem to be ok.

I suspect you're using an old effects package and/or need to replace your .dll files. Gekko doesn't have the correct SDL.dll hosted anywhere, but I do: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lm5kmjvq4n1 . Only people I've sent beta versions of the mod need to worry about faulty .dll files at all.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2009, 08:12:53 pm by Shiver » Logged
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2009, 08:00:32 pm »

Finally, a download! I've been waiting so long!

Can't wait to see the new ships!

EDIT: I really like the new Ur-Quan (just as I expected), but I was quite disappointed by the sound you replaced the zap sound with. You claim it's more "intimidating", but I think it just sounds quieter and more like an engine than a laser weapon. The good news is, that was the only thing I didn't really like, besides the new Thraddash weapon sound and the new Ur-Quan fighter look. (In other words, the mod is great, I just don't like your selection of sounds and graphics.)
« Last Edit: March 24, 2009, 09:09:21 pm by jaychant » Logged

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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2009, 09:09:03 pm »

Hurrah!

Seems I've found a glitch - Thraddash's main weapon sometimes explodes in a white square about the size of a ship. All other effects seem to be ok.

I suspect you're using an old effects package and/or need to replace your .dll files. Gekko doesn't have the correct SDL.dll hosted anywhere, but I do: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lm5kmjvq4n1 . Only people I've sent beta versions of the mod need to worry about faulty .dll files at all.

Replaced the old SDL.dll with yours. The glitch is still there Lips Sealed
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2009, 12:07:50 am »

Well done, Shiver. I like the new Chenjesu and Illwrath a lot. I've only played the mod for about 45 minutes but seems like a big improvement all around.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2009, 12:39:56 am »

I can't wait to try Ilwrath against a human (in net melee, of course). It would be so fun, creeping around them like a shark and avoiding their shots until you get the oppertunity, and then, BURRRN!!!!!
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2009, 02:26:18 pm »

Will have to give this a try at some point when I get the time. All in all, looks pretty interesting.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2009, 08:24:47 pm »

Love it; shrapnel spamming as Chenjesu looks REALLY COOL.
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Re: Net Melee Balance Mod: ALL ABOARD
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2009, 04:48:51 am »

This is really good work.  The changes to the Skiff and Torch were really needed (and the knockback effect on the new Torch weapon is very fun!).

However, I do have a bug to report. I'm not entirely sure what specifically happens to cause it, but some ways into a battle with a Dreadnought, a sync error often crops up. So far, it's the only ship I've seen that causes an error. To the extent of my testing, it's always when fighters are deployed, usually a lot of them. It probably has something to do with the new fighter AI behaviour?
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