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[WIP] The Wastelands

Majestic

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"This is the sloppiest, most amateurish operation I've ever seen... If you ever do something like this again, count me in."

Yeah there obviously would be other Ferengi out there where profit wouldn't be at the top of their priorities. Rom and Nog are other examples who don't put profit at the top of their lists.

I could see the Ferengi in wastelands as a group who have hired other species to do their dirty work. They could have an assorted fleet of different spaces working for them, obviously being ripped off by the Ferengi and seen as expendable. Less known races would have been the victims the Ferengi would have targeted for negotiations.
 

Terra_Inc

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I certainly appreciate your ideas and suggestions, and I agree that thematically the Ferengi would fit into the Wastelands. However, I personally never really warmed up to them, and they would be more than difficult to realize in terms of models. So they most likely won't make it into the mod.

Oh, and I definitely agree with Maj about the Rommies. Hence, they'll only show up as an NPC. They are intended to be a small, but high-level threat. Back when I had plans for a full campaign, they played a role in one of the missions that would have you do some things for them in exchange for information about Avalon-Delta. Also, they're basically almost done, so I don't really want to throw them out. I think I might explain them as border guards or something like that.

Actually, let me just put this down here for further reference. This is how I envision things right now:

Playable Factions:
- Federation (Intersolar Mining Corp.)
- Klingons (???)
- Cardassians (???)
NPCs:
- Romulans (RSE Border Guards?)
- Talarians ( The Syndicate)
- Species 8472 (Great Old Ones)

As you can probably tell from my previous posts, the Syndicate is meant to be the outlaw faction, running loads of illegal mining operations all over the sector. They're pretty aggressive, but won't pose a big challenge (unless you assault their base).

Finally, the 8472 were the original end boss of Wastelands, the eldritch abomination unleashed because you "dug too deep". The balrog to your space Moria, basically. Rather appropriate for a story about mining in dark places. As you may know, I've kind of retconned them as Lovecraftian creatures, a bit reminiscent of B5's Thirdspace aliens I guess. They are meant to be the most terrible threat in the Wastelands, a race of giant, space-dwelling life forms who may very well be older than time itself. Summoned from their native dimension by a terrible experiment more than a hundred years ago, they have lain dormant for some hapless mining team to stumble upon and promptly be eaten by.

Alright, that's the idea right now. Please remember that this was never meant to be a full-scale TC, hence the existence of NPCs and reduced number of playable races. I would love to have lots of different factions competing in the Wastelands, but unfortunately my time and energy is limited, so I have keep this project small enough to be actually able to complete it.

Also, as you can see, the Klinkers and Cardies don't have faction names yet. I invite you to suggest some. As long as it's not, say, House K'bek from the Khannadha Nebula, I am open for your ideas.
 

CABAL

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Klingon:
House Go'rek of Moq'bu'ro
House Mek'or of Korlek Prime

Cardassian:
???
 

Majestic

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Cardassian:
Mosec Mining Corporation
Livok Pty Ltd :lol:
Cardassian 6th Order "Who says each order is a full military unit, one order in Season 7 was considered a retirement unit, as Martok describes them as the "Old men and walking wounded"
 

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Terra. Just a heads up. Feel free to use whatever you want that I've currently released (just check the any associated text readme/credit files that came with the materials and all is good).
 

Terra_Inc

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Livok Pty Ltd :lol:
Haha, very funny. :lol2:

Those are some good names and ideas, folks. I can work with that.

Terra. Just a heads up. Feel free to use whatever you want that I've currently released (just check the any associated text readme/credit files that came with the materials and all is good).
Thanks a lot MAP. I appreciate it. :worship:
 

Majestic

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Happy to be of some assistance Terra. :D

Keep up the great work .
 

Terra_Inc

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Alright everyone, here's a Wastelands update.

I have 8472 ingame and running. All that's missing now is some AI tweaking and balancing. I'll do the latter part once I have a playable race done to balance them against - I want to get the feeling right. Meanwhile, have some screenies of this sweet Lovecraftian threat to life and sanity. If you've been around for a while, these probably look familiar. I consider Chiletrek's work on 8472 to be some of the best the community has seen for non-Fed races. So here they are! They walk between the stars and sing the praises of the Great Mother! Iä! Iä!

mother.png
A mother with her progeny. Although they may seem small and insignificant compared to the massive being that spawned them, they will one day grow to become powerful Old Ones.
attack.png
A squad of Old Ones. Apart from flying through space and looking cool, these guys also pack a mean punch.
collector.png
A group of collectors looking for resources. They mostly stick to asteroids and planetoids, but some claim that even spaceships have been devoured by these hungry guys! Eat up, little Old Ones!
8472 by Chiletrek.
Celestial Bodies by Yacuzza.

The next step will probably be to complete one of the player races so I can start the proper balancing. I've had a ton of balancing concepts so far, and none of them really satisfied me. I really just need to play this thing to get a feeling for it. I haven't decided yet which one it'll be, though. Probably the Feds, though the Cardies have been looking at me with puppy eyes.

Anyway, that's today's Wastelands update. Stay tuned, more is coming soon. :thumbsup:
 

Chiletrek

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So here they are! They walk between the stars and sing the praises of the Great Mother! Iä! Iä! :thumbsup:
Hello:
So that makes the Rift Maker the Shub Niggurath of Star Trek? :lol:.

I am very happy to see you are using my models, and the name "Old Ones" is indeed very interesting. I look forward to see how is your whole mod progressing :) . Keep it up!.
 

Chiletrek

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Exactly! She even has it as unit name! :thumbsup:
Hello:
I think that also gives it a fitting name since it is the final boss of the stock A2 game, hehehe.

Will that one be included in your mod? Or better to leave it as the 8472 legend? only mentioned but beyond humanity's ability to reach? ;) .
 

Terra_Inc

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Will that one be included in your mod? Or better to leave it as the 8472 legend? only mentioned but beyond humanity's ability to reach? ;) .

Well, it most likely won't be included in the 8472 race. Back when I still had a full campaign planned, it was meant to be the final boss of the Wastelands, both as a reference to the stock campaign and to cement the status of 8472 as Lovecraftian creatures. I mean, you're literally fighting a Great Old One! I had to cut down my campaign concept, but if I get around to making the "Heart of the Wastelands" mission I planned, I'll definitely put it in there.

Although I think I'll have to shrink it down a little - at that size, the embryos leaving the rift maker get stuck on the map ceiling. Physics-defying creatures defeated by the restrictions of the A2 engine, how is that for a change. :p
 

Majestic

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Great work Terra, Chiletrek's 8472 are awesome indeed. :D
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
Well, it most likely won't be included in the 8472 race. Back when I still had a full campaign planned, it was meant to be the final boss of the Wastelands, both as a reference to the stock campaign and to cement the status of 8472 as Lovecraftian creatures. I mean, you're literally fighting a Great Old One! I had to cut down my campaign concept, but if I get around to making the "Heart of the Wastelands" mission I planned, I'll definitely put it in there.

Although I think I'll have to shrink it down a little - at that size, the embryos leaving the rift maker get stuck on the map ceiling. Physics-defying creatures defeated by the restrictions of the A2 engine, how is that for a change. :p

Campaigns surely look like another level of modding this game. Maybe when the post-FleetOps games is released (the NX project) it would be better for all of us :) .

A model I don't think I released was the 8472 Matriarch, which is a scaled-down version of the Rift Maker. Somewhat bigger than the normal motherships (using the Rift Maker's model), a player should be able to get one and a friend gave it a temporary rift ability to gate-in bioships. maybe that idea can help you? ;).

Great work Terra, Chiletrek's 8472 are awesome indeed. :D

Thank you very much Majestic! :excited:.
 

Terra_Inc

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Campaigns surely look like another level of modding this game. Maybe when the post-FleetOps games is released (the NX project) it would be better for all of us :) .
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with FO-NX and how moddable it will be. I personally hope we find some way to convert SODs to the new model format NX will use - it would be a shame to lose all the hundreds of cool models people have done over the years when the Storm3D engine no longer works on modern PCs.

A model I don't think I released was the 8472 Matriarch, which is a scaled-down version of the Rift Maker. Somewhat bigger than the normal motherships (using the Rift Maker's model), a player should be able to get one and a friend gave it a temporary rift ability to gate-in bioships. maybe that idea can help you? ;).
Yeah, that sounds cool! I might do something like that.
Also, I'm considering switching the position of the battleship and frigate as they are in stock balance - the frigate is bigger and looks more ferocious than the battleship, so IMO it should be the more powerful one. I'll come up with new, more organic names for them anyway. Considering inhabitable planets aren't really a thing in the Wastelands, the biopulse conduit won't be needed, and the frigate can fill the gap between battleship and behemoth.
 

Majestic

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I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with FO-NX and how moddable it will be. I personally hope we find some way to convert SODs to the new model format NX will use - it would be a shame to lose all the hundreds of cool models people have done over the years when the Storm3D engine no longer works on modern PCs.

Last I hard the SOD format will be supported by the new engine, it just won't be the model format of choice for new mods including the base FO models.
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
that is the problem with super-updates, you risk making all previous work to be uncompatible :( . Let's hope that will not happen.

Well, I am sure Majestic would agree with you since frigates in A2 werekinda dissapoiting and not very used as they should have been.
 

Terra_Inc

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Last I hard the SOD format will be supported by the new engine, it just won't be the model format of choice for new mods including the base FO models.
Oh really? That would be cool. I must admit I'm not up to date with all the information that has been coming out about the NX engine. I mean, it would make sense for the sheer moddability of NX to support the SOD format. We would have 1.5 decades of creative work ready to be plugged into a brand new game and I think that would be really great.
 

Chiletrek

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Last I hard the SOD format will be supported by the new engine, it just won't be the model format of choice for new mods including the base FO models.
That would be amazing, because that means we can still use our models and plugins, at least until new plgins are out and we can export in the new format :) .
 

Majestic

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Oh really? That would be cool. I must admit I'm not up to date with all the information that has been coming out about the NX engine. I mean, it would make sense for the sheer moddability of NX to support the SOD format. We would have 1.5 decades of creative work ready to be plugged into a brand new game and I think that would be really great.

I also remember that ODF files might be supported as well. Not 100% sure if that will make it into the final product. It's easy enough to copy the balancing and values over to XML files or whatever script format the new engine adopts.
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
I do hope they will warn us, with time, about all changes. But I know they are doing things already, like the new techtrees and compatibility with dds texture format.
 

Majestic

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I am sure when the time is right they'll make a news post and let people know what is happening.
 

Chiletrek

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I am sure when the time is right they'll make a news post and let people know what is happening.
Hello:
And you are right :) .

I've heard rumors of things they are adding, like asteroid bases (that I need a lot).... and we might (totally speculative) get moveable turrets.

We can only wait and hope :D .
 

Terra_Inc

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I also remember that ODF files might be supported as well. Not 100% sure if that will make it into the final product. It's easy enough to copy the balancing and values over to XML files or whatever script format the new engine adopts.
Yeah, that would be really easy. In fact, I think I could just write an ODF parser to translate them into whatever format they are going to use. It's not that hard.
 

Chiletrek

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Yeah, that would be really easy. In fact, I think I could just write an ODF parser to translate them into whatever format they are going to use. It's not that hard.
Maybe ODF into BMP? :lol2: .

I better hide now ;) .

Terra, if I get some more 8472 ideas,I will let you know, ok? .
 

Majestic

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Anything you post here on MSFC is very welcome Chiletrek. :D
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
Please do. I never get tired of 8472. :thumbsup:

That's awesome, if i do it will most likely be in a PM, to avoid clutteriung your topic :) .

Anything you post here on MSFC is very welcome Chiletrek. :D

Thank you very much, although I am still unprepared to restart a topic of my own yet, maybe soon :) .
 

Terra_Inc

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Not much to talk about right now. I'm working out the Fed side of things. Lots of fiddling with ODFs and techtrees. It's kind of satisfying to see things progress, though.

Meanwhile I'm making a list of weapon sprites I need to do. I'd like to use my own where possible, although I might end up using some of Rake's where I can't (or where everything I make looks crappy).

I'm considering giving the Cardies my large TNG-style disruptor, and making a smaller version of it for the destroyers and such so that they can spam their little pulses. Considering the 3rd Auxiliary Order uses older, weirder designs than you might expect in the frontline units, it would fit.
 

Chiletrek

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Hello:
I can imagine it is satisfying, but balancing can be veeeery tricky to get right o__O .

Always good to have a list and a plan-B. Even if a sprite doesn't look right at first, you might retry it again at a later time :) .

That sounds right to me about the Cardassians, just don't forget that stock-A2 is the only place where a Galor can defeat a Galaxy Class :lol2:.
 
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