BSG Colonials As a Playable Race...Sort Of.

[thunderfoot]

Between the stuff Mike Mckeon has done, I have done, and the things Majestic has released lately from PAR, there is now enough BSG content here to do a fairly repsectable Colonial playable race. I have one installled in my A2. It works with A2 patched to 1.1 as well as my custom install. It is not currently possible to make a full race mod as there are no stations, colony ships or other things A2 requires to make the Colonials AI friendly. As to the Cylons they have even less available but I have them playable as map units. Not much I know, but better than nothing.

Is anyone interested in an A2 mini mod which allows one to play as the Colonials against the current six races in the game? I can package what I have and send it in for others to try out. My Colonials have no nukes (which seriously unbalance the game) or special weapons. (Jim, I'm a modder, not a magician!) Other than these things they work pretty well. With Cylon Base Ships and Raiders as map units it is possible to play as Colonials.

Mike and I have a standing arrangement regarding permissions for each other's materials(useage with credit). Dan has already given me permission for Pegasus' release here once. I cannot imagine him saying "no" to a second one. I am fairly sure Majestic would agree to allow me to include his stuff for a release here at MSFC.
(Yeah, I know this is a long shot. My grandfather was Corellian, so never tell me the odds, lol.)

Drop a line in this thread if you want something like this.

 

[EAS_Intrepid]

Sure sounds interesting.

Just don't overpack it with fan-designed ships. There are some really good works, but most if it is rather less creative.
In the end, you have thirteen variations of Galactica, Pegasus and Valkyrie.

Take the tree mentioned designs plus backstept's escort destroyer, the Titans support cruiser and the Jumpstar as light patrol unit and you're set.
Too many ships ruin tactical thinking, not enough ships is not a good diversity.
And no mix of TOS and BSG designs.

These would be the things I'd "like to see".

However, you're modder (maybe) doing it, you decide
Your modding work is pretty impressive, but if you need help, I see how I can benefit this project.

 

[Ryderstorm]

I agree with what EAS_Intrepid has stated. Also I would like to add that balance plays a super huge role. Sure its fun for a little while to blow the poo out of everything with a big bad a** ship but then it's short lived....I myself know of many "in progress" BSG mods for A2...
Even myself am curently developing one for FlOps... but with that being said one of the biggest snags is balancing the vessels to other races - and trying to balance different universes against each other is really hard as I am sure everyone is aware of.

But since I live in a democratic country (for now) I am gonna cast my vote as a Yeah! for a BSG race mod... I've looked over a bunch of your work, Thunderfoot, and you do nice work.
In fact I have vanilla running again thanks to your mods as you have breathed in new life into vanilla (thats in my humble opinion) and inspired me to do that.

Corrected spelling and some grammar. Please be a bit more careful next time.
EA

 

[thunderfoot]

What I currently have is the ability to recreate a small version of the Rag Tag Fleet, which is mostly civilian ships, being escorted by Galactica and Pegasus. The Colonials have the ability to build Valkyries,Airagos, Assault Raptors (bombers) and Vipers but not many other combat vessels. SAR Raptors can repair ships. The Mining vessel mines metal, and the Tube mines dilithium. The Tylium Refinery processes and stores both. Cloud9 creates crew. The Fabrication Ship can build the rest of the civilian ships and a few as well as the Valkyries and Airago.

I was trying at the time to recreate a mission from the series with Base Ships and clouds of Raiders spread out all over the place. I cannot get the AI to build BSG ships. I was simply trying to get the Colonials to enter the map at one end and exit from the other. It is not possible to write entirely new missions at present. I agree the ships should not be GodShips. It is far too easy to make these and far too many modders happily do so because far too many players want only these kinds of ships. I have reworked the ODFs from what I have released to bring the BSG ships more into line with stock A2 ships. The hit point totals and for the various systems are much lower than what I have released previously.

It makes no sense to me people should have to D/L BSG stuff one or two ships at a time or wait so long for someone somewhere to finish a full race mod sometime when I can make the Colonials into something approaching a viable race. Which would be a good start point for some of the high powered modders around here to do something excellent with. Me? I have only an overactive imagination, backed up with average modding skills. I like the idea of Galactica being required to shepherd a group of targets...errr, civilian ships, around the map. Make it feel closer to the series, ya know?

 

[thunderfoot]

Thought I'd post a few pics of what I have already ingame. Not all of these have build buttons or wirframes yet because I did not like the way some of them came out. All of these will be as complete as I can make them before release. All ships are fully functional and I just finished re-balancing them against a Stock Galaxy-class. The Galaxy is probably the yardstick used by the devs to balance all the stock ships. The secondary civilian ships have no function in game but to provide extra targets for Raiders.

Spoiler: Starting Player Fleet

Spoiler: Primary Warships

Spoiler: Secondary Civilian Ships

Majestic's Colonial GUI is nearly perfect. Some of the resource numbers were not quite centered in their windows but this was easy to fix. Not pictured is Majestic's Colonial Defender which I use as a screening ship and the Cygnus released by Kreeargh and imported to A2 by Mike McKeon. I dislike intensely the color choices Krearrgh made for her skin and I probably will not include her. I'd like to keep the 'Fanon' ships to a minimum, even if I could secure permission to use her. Majestic's Solaria-class is probably the sole exception to this. It is a good looking ship and I have given the textures the Akira Treatment to more closely match Pegasus and Airago. I also have not included pics of the Blackbird, Raptors, Vipers, and Shuttle. Weapons are complete. Sound effects are complete. Game voiceovers are complete but not currently working due to a bug I have not yet found.

The BattleStars all will launch Raptors and Vipers, but if I try to enable the 'Repair' function, the ship will move to the nearest mapedge and no longer be usable. The fighters will recover to the nearest BattleStar if the DEL key is pressed when they are selected. They launch from the Bays and the build time is minimal to attempt to recreate the mass launching of fighters. The BattleStars function best when supported by clouds of fighters although against smaller Stock ships they are quite formidable without fighter support.

 

[Majestic]

As far as stations go, the PAR Project will be releasing at some point the Rangar station (unfortunately over 5000 pollies however), once I can get the bugger textured. Yes I need a texture for it and so far I am at a loss as I can't make textures so the model sits un-textured on my hard-drive.

I am also planning on releasing a Cygnus, Valkyrie pack (3 versions of the ship) and 2 more Colonial vessels, the Titan Missile Frigate and the Jumpstar Scout Corvette.

So there will be more non-canon, yet good looking designs for the Colonial which of course you are welcomed to use in the mini mod of yours as long as the content isn't hosted off MSFC.

Also good work on the GUI fixes, that was something I have been meaning to do but unfortunately never got around to it.

 

[thunderfoot]

IDK if I want this faction to be stationed based. I may just use some of the Civilian ships as replacements for stations to see if I can keep the Colonials mobile. Fits in with what is seen in the series better if they remain nomadic. Mike McKeon has some great concepts for Special Weapons and I have few more which should give the Colonials about four or five in total. I am thinking nukes should be the BSG superweapon. And nukes should be set up to be a last resort weapon which may kill off the BSG factions at the same time they kill off the last enemy starbase. I'd rather not hang specials on every ship in the Fleet because I do not see the Colonials as having sufficient resources to devote some to weaponry science. As far as an upgrade station, again I may use one of the civilian ships and just tack a module onto her, if I can figure out how to do so without tying the game engine up in knots.

This is the place where someone posts something which states, "That cannot be done with A2. It will never work because ___________." Better physics could not be done. Fighters could not be done. Battlestars which launch and recover fighters could not be done. Better SP mission AI could not be done. I've gotten to the point I kinda enjoy making the game do all these things which cannot be done. Y'all just keep on modelling and texturing all them purdy ships. When Y'all are done drawing 'em, I'll make 'em dance like Y'all are wantin' 'em to. lol