Nexus Skirmisher

Nexus Modding => Mod Development / Released Mods => Topic started by: Mularac on November 24, 2010, 21:35:29

Title: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on November 24, 2010, 21:35:29
Ok guys, for a while now Dreamor and I (well... mostly Dreamor) have been discussing a way to "unite" the Nexus modding community in one project.
Our primary objective is to further promote our beloved game and make it so that it reaches it full potential.

Our latest and more exciting idea so far has been to start an Open Source project, under the GPL license and all that where we'll work in further improving the game.
For example, we could add:


And also:


In a way, something most games have but not this one, a Community Expansion Pack.

So, who's in?

(thread mirrored in the keyswow forum: http://forum.keyswow.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=140 )
Title:
Post by: GeoModder on November 25, 2010, 22:23:13
I don't think I heard about the lightning patch before. What does it do?
Burst fire? You mean a weapon that fires say 6 torpedo's in one shot? That one already exists in the one and only modder-made campaign...
And about those new planet textures, could you point me to them? I'd like to compare them with some I converted from the Celestia space simulator.
Title: (no subject)
Post by: Mularac on November 25, 2010, 22:44:21
Hey, good to hear from you.

Firstly: lighting patch: here, I made it myself using Arparso and Jstubbles work ( Weapon lightsources (http://arparso.de/nexus/forum/index.php?topic=83.0) ):
If you've decompressed the nexus_00.dat: http://www.moddb.com/groups/the-nexii/downloads/dynamic-lighting-effect-patch-decompressed-dat (http://www.moddb.com/groups/the-nexii/downloads/dynamic-lighting-effect-patch-decompressed-dat)
if you haven't: http://www.moddb.com/groups/the-nexii/downloads/dynamic-lighting-effect-patch-default (http://www.moddb.com/groups/the-nexii/downloads/dynamic-lighting-effect-patch-default)

Secondly: About the burst fire, really? which mod? oh, and the code's already done and implemented it, I've already succesfully used it in my mod before, you can find it here: http://arparso.de/nexus/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=49 (http://arparso.de/nexus/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=49)

Thirdly: Yeah, Jstubbles made them for his mod, here you can see some screenies: http://www.moddb.com/mods/nexus-battlestar-galactica/images/planet-textures#imagebox (http://www.moddb.com/mods/nexus-battlestar-galactica/images/planet-textures#imagebox)
Title:
Post by: GeoModder on November 25, 2010, 23:10:34
Yeah, good to see you too, Mularac. ;)

Oh, now I remember! Silly me, I even posted in the lightning discussion thread.

About the burst weapon: it's in the New Conflicts mod by Frogger1108. It's a six burst-shot torpedo launcher.

From the planet textures, it seems "only" habitable planet textures were made? Are those in the 4.1 version of the BSG mod?
Since I converted a bunch of textures from Celestia, those are predominantly from our own solar system.

Two more things for your CEP proposal: do you plan to add the new asteroid meshes (for asteroid field background stuff), and how about an attempt to at least flip the Earth texture in the game so the planet rotates the "right" way?
Title:
Post by: Mularac on November 25, 2010, 23:37:57
Sure. This is a community expansion pack, it's not my mod, it's the communities, so yeah, we can do all that and more.
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Post by: The Old Dragon on November 25, 2010, 23:50:32
A Nexus:TJI CEP sounds good to me. I'd like to help out on that if I can.  :)
Title:
Post by: Mularac on November 25, 2010, 23:58:51
Hey, great to hear.
Right now we should really start some brainstorming.
Apart from the points above, what do you think we should add/edit/improve?
Title:
Post by: The Old Dragon on November 26, 2010, 14:34:04
How about things like random background occurances, a new AI that doesn't just sit there or behave like a robot... maybe some additional subplots to give the player more to do?

New standalone missions?
Title:
Post by: galaxy366 on November 28, 2010, 19:12:17
with all respect, why not remake nexus on the unreal engine?, and then release it for free :)

or if its not allowed then a nexus like game, with the ideas posted here already?
Title:
Post by: Arparso on November 28, 2010, 19:58:44
Would ultimately be the best choice, I fear... even though refurbishing Nexus sounds like a great idea, it is still a pretty old and unknown game and I doubt a CEP would attract a whole lot of players (and/or modders) - even if it's really awesome (and looking at the things already mentioned here in this thread it is going to be pretty awesome, if realised).

Remaking the game from scratch is hard work, though. We'd need experienced coders and a lot of time for that.

As for me - I'd like to contribute to either project, but I'm already packed with work right now, including the Freespace mod amongst other things. As always I'm offering my help with any kind of scripting issues eventually popping up, but most other stuff is beyond my skillset and/or time budget.
Title:
Post by: Mularac on November 28, 2010, 23:07:27
Well, it's funny, but Dreamor and I (again, moslty Dreamor's... ) have the idea of making a space-pilot sim and perhaps also a shooter game in the UDK based on the nexus universe, I mean a space-pilot sim based on the Nexus universe would really hit off, but yeah, it's a lot of hard work. Either way, I'm thinking of starting reading about UDK's coding language this summer so that I would at least know what you can and can't do in it.
Title:
Post by: Arparso on November 29, 2010, 01:10:04
A space-pilot sim would rock... I sooooo miss that genre. Give me Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Freespace or I-War and I'm a happy pilot :)

Don't know about a shooter, though. It's a packed genre with lots of big budget AAA titles. How to set it apart from other shooters? How to make it appealing to the public when you most likely can't compete in the graphics and/or drama department? Of course, there are a lot of really great mods and indie titles out there, so it's not impossible - just really hard work for quite a lot of talented people. The current Nexus modding community certainly has people with these qualities in them... but I don't know about the quantity... :(
Title:
Post by: Mularac on November 29, 2010, 01:38:52
Yeah... but what about a pilot sim AND a shooter. That would certainly rock, right?
But again... shorthanded.
But even though our modding community is small, perhaps we can get some help from the huge UDK one, who knows.
Title:
Post by: galaxy366 on November 29, 2010, 15:37:16
im currently working on a idea for a homeworld like game, with maybe some nexus ideas, for UDK or irrlight,  :)
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Post by: Mularac on November 29, 2010, 20:15:16
Well, as time goes by I'm more and more seduced of the idea of making my own, true space flight simulator, and a true one while we're at it. Freespace, Freelancer and all those aren't exactly true space sims, more like space-ww2 simulators, but not actual space ones.
I'm thinking of a flight simulator that actually implements newtonian physics. I don't know guys, that's a project I'd really love to dive into...
Title:
Post by: galaxy366 on November 30, 2010, 15:17:25
people i have found a way to go to the nexus site,

the website is called INTERNET achieve, you place the URL, and then select the date, example the latest from 2007, now you can check the site back, and forums, but some might not work, and you cant download anything anymore.

what i also noticed that there was a starwars mod, called SW: Balance of power, that was released, does anybody have it?
Title:
Post by: nips on December 01, 2010, 02:47:42
@mularac
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegends/index.htm

Like that? o:
Title:
Post by: The Old Dragon on December 01, 2010, 10:12:07
Not to squash anyone's dreams or ambitions here folks, but we're starting to drift a bit off topic now.

We were supposed to be discussing how to improve Nexus:TJI...
Title:
Post by: Mularac on December 01, 2010, 18:29:32
Oh, yeah, sorry.
What thoughts do you have for making extra missions?
Title:
Post by: GeoModder on December 01, 2010, 19:36:32
"What if" missions of course. ;)

What if cpt. Cromwell didn't take on two Longswords but retreated after saving Francis' and crew? He has to lay in ambush near the place the OSEC expedition would return to if succesful: Ganymede.
And on the Raptor Genocide mission there are 2 other task forces chasing Raptors in the Scoratus system. According to how much secundary tasks Cromwell achieves during his visit to Earth, Angelwing is assigned to either Alpha, Beta, or Gamma task force.
There's a secondary task in the first mission of the Gorg section (Episode 3): take out all Gorg ships. If you don't succeed, you need to chase them to one of those Gorg mining posts in the system instead of saving the Ghost scout.
Episode 4 could be lengthened with a few interventions when rebel Gorgs try to interdict Noah transporters.
The Episode 5 Beta gate mission could be extended with a mission in the Equitis system in case the mission is adjusted so that one of the Mech infected Vardrag ships has a good chance to jump through.

And, a whole new campaign direction could be taken if for instance the Angelwing was destroyed at Shukenja Alpha, at Ganymede or is lost during the Kissaki attack on the Sunflower base.
For instance, Frogger's Borelis wormhole link could be used as the staging ground for a new direction without any link whatsoever to Mechs, Noah, Vardrags. Just 'old'-fashioned Earth ships, the ISA and OSEC/Kissaki trying to kick off something in Borelis. The discovery of a new wormhole around say the Pallas asteroid (Borelis link) would sure as hell compell the ISA and its allies (SpaceTech for instance) to try take a hold.


I think I still have partial missions, or the setup for them, for a Gamma&Beta task force, and a Ganymede retrieval mission half-coded (if the code still works), with changes to Ep1 Mission3 so that it jumps to Ganymede instead of Shukenja Alpha.
Title: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lord_Valarian on December 08, 2010, 04:38:05
I'd like to add my changes. Fixing some of the game's failings.

#1:  Easy mode is NOT easy.  Adding a true easy mode.
#2:  Constantly switching back and forth between attack hull and attack shields.
#3:  Adding dynamic new weapons with non-standard effects

Phased Energy Disruptor
Heavy Phaser/Disruptor (Level 1,2,3):  Affects shields and hull
Device Phaser/Disruptor (Level 1,2,3):  Affects devices

Pulsar/Plasma Cannon
Pulsar anti-fighter/bomber (Level 1,2,3)
Pulsar Cannon anti-ship (Level 1,2,3)

EMP torpedo
Only works on ships with no shield or shields down. Just as dangerous to friendly as enemy ships. On a stand alone mission, works great. With missions, it crashes nexus.


The background story I'd like to do as a stand alone mission.

Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on December 08, 2010, 21:39:22
Quote
#1: Easy mode is NOT easy. Adding a true easy mode.

That's a very good point, I've played the campaign on all three levels and haven't really noticed any difference in difficulty.

That's certainly something to look into...
Title: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lord_Valarian on December 09, 2010, 03:27:53
Quote
#1: Easy mode is NOT easy. Adding a true easy mode.

That's a very good point, I've played the campaign on all three levels and haven't really noticed any difference in difficulty.

That's certainly something to look into...

I'v already fixed it.  It's playable up to e3.  The new weapons make it a lot more fun to play the missions. The Plasma Cannon is really effective against shields. EMP works great on "back to earth".

Proposed addition, the support ship gets damaged too easy, no shields makes no sense. It will have normal shields that expand out when the timer goes down. For me, adding some long range plasma cannons. The support ship should have some serious firepower. If it's a true support ship, any ships should be able to request repair and reload. Using the one the cheat keys/buttons, for a repair request. All ships should have repair crews for the hull damage. The more advanced the ship, the faster the repair speed.

We need to have the individual projects continue. Then someone to merge in all the changes. Plus individual changes to projects updated to the cep project.

I need beta testers. Post or private mail me.

Forgot to include:  Photon anti-matter/torpedos/(Level 1,2,3), named for the bright flash.



Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: DreamorCZ on December 28, 2010, 14:03:16
We should also add more small ships to make gameplay more diverse, mainly for MP. There are few unfinished models in Nexus' mesh folder we could use as inspiration.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: DreamorCZ on February 17, 2011, 11:17:33
Well, it's quite silent arout here. Did we abbandoned this idea or are we so not united community to even try this?
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on February 17, 2011, 23:50:10
Unfortunately, that's quite typical when it comes to modders and modding. When a new idea comes up there's an initial excited buzz which then dies away... and sometimes it takes the idea with it.

I'm still up for this though, I was thinking that maybe we should start with the background things like improving the scenery and better descriptions...
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on February 24, 2011, 15:07:05
Looks like the 'buzz and excitement' has gone out of the idea.

Well, I've now made a plan of action on how I think we should go about it; so have a read and if you think you can help out along the way, please let us know.

Quote
Nexus:TJI CEP Overall Plan
=========================

This plan is subject to change at any point dependant on what issues we run into... as I don't know what to expect, nothing is 'set in stone'.

Deployment
----------

All going well, what I'm thinking of doing packing this up into a .dap file like the Nexus:TJI patch 1.01 is (also including the patch itself). Although if someone with more knowledge can make a self-extractor to overwrite the various files, I'm more than happy to go down that route.


Phase One
---------

Phase one will be improve the scenery (backdrops, starmaps, celestials). Look into adding new lighting tweaks.

Things to do...

1)   Look into adding Geomodder's planetary descriptions.Possibly increase descriptions for all systems in Nexus.

2)   Look into getting all appropriate celestial models to rotate.

3)   Work through the Nexus systems to improve their overall 'look' (Place background things like nebulae, comets and asteroid belts).

4)   Look into adding the Dynamic lighting Mod.



Phase Two
---------

Here we can look into improving the model/ texture quality, possibly weapons effects too.

1)   As there is a lot of models and textures (not just the ships, everything from small fighters to the largest capships, asteroids to celestials) to possibly work on, we'll keep it to this single task.

Asteroids already revamped by DreamorCZ.



Phase Three
-----------

Adding new models and weapons.

1)   Design and build new models as well as import from other mods (seek authors permission first!!!!) to improve variance. Have a general conflab to discuss model concepts and other things related to modelling.

2)   Do the same with weapons.



Phase Four
----------

Bug hunting phase. Open threads in several Nexus forums to ask players for any problems they've run into while playing the vanilla game. See if we can fix some of them.



Phase Five
----------

Optional here, look into adding new missions and content to the game. These would probably be side/behind the scenes missions as matching the original character voices would be problematic.


Phase Six
---------

Look at adding demo versions of the mods currently out/in depvelopment as well as Arparso's Skirmisher. Talk with the various mods authors to arrange when the time's right.



As stated earlier, this plan is subject to change as options, ideas and problems arise.


I've started on getting things ready, so that we can all work from the same source the starting files have been uploaded to a dropbox folder. Anyone seriously interested in helping, please pm me and I can give you the details.

@GeoModder
If you don't mind, I'd like to include your newer descriptions mod. Out of curiosity, does your work cover all of the text entries for the various celestials, models and such?

@DreamorCZ & JStubbles
You guys seem to be the most knoweldable about getting the planets to rotate, again, this is something I'd like to include. Would it be possible for one (or both) to work on these?

@JStubbles
I read somewhere (may have been here or ModDB) that you'd improved the planet textures? Was that all of them and would you allow us the use of?

The Dynamic Lighting patch... not sure exactly who created it, but I'd like to include it.

Kindest regards,

The Old Dragon
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Arparso on February 24, 2011, 16:16:49
The overall plan sounds good to me. Just keep in mind, that any changes to the stock game will also affect installed mods using these changed assets like effect textures, icons, ship models or revamped systems. Changes to the tacticstypes.ini are particularly "dangerous" for mods not having their own tacticstypes (and thus relying on the default one). "SAMPLE 01  A Complete Mission" and "NEXUS Skirmisher SP Settings" are two such cases.

For those mods, the Skirmisher doesn't read the actual default tacticstypes.ini, but falls back on some other default file included with the Skirmisher. This would need to be changed accordingly as well and could be provided with the installer or the mod archive.

Quote from: The Old Dragon
All going well, what I'm thinking of doing packing this up into a .dap file like the Nexus:TJI patch 1.01

Yeah, that'd make the most sense as well as make uninstallation easy - just remove the .dap and the mod is gone.

The Dynamic Lighting patch... not sure exactly who created it, but I'd like to include it.

I'm fairly certain Mularac created the patch, based on this discussion (http://arparso.de/nexus/forum/index.php/topic,83.msg739.html#msg739) mostly between jstubbles, GeoModder and me. I don't believe anyone will object to including this patch. ;)
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on February 24, 2011, 19:45:35
Quote
The Dynamic Lighting patch... not sure exactly who created it, but I'd like to include it.

Yeah, that was me. The patch is insanely simple, I just added
Code: [Select]
CELESTIAL
Name ""

Radius 0.00001

Type 1
Mass 0.00001
Gravity 0.00001
Color 0.00001
Size 0.00001
END

At the end of every .system file.

If it's ok with you, I'd deal with the last two points of the phase one.
Also, since this is going to be a big project made by many people we should agree on some method of version control.

I'd recommend SVN or Dropbox. Any ideas?
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on February 25, 2011, 00:45:12
Hi Mul,

Dropbox already set up, looks like you can only link to one dropbox at a time though (unless I'm missing something). And having to download the contents of a box everytime you link to it isn't practical. So for some (i.e. me and yourself at least) we'll have to manually sync with dropbox.

Sent you a pm with the dropbox details. By all means on point 4, I may well tinker with some of the systems as well.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on February 25, 2011, 10:22:09
I've been working on making higher quality textures for a bit myself, if I ever get them to look right I'll let you know. For the most part what I've been making has been higher quality asteroid backgrounds, and a few ship retextures.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on February 25, 2011, 14:39:24
Hi LT,

I'd like to see what you've done with the asteroid backgrounds, they always looked a bit horrible if you got near them.

PM with dropbox details will be on it's way soon.

Regards

The Old Dragon
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on February 25, 2011, 18:56:44
i don't think Dropbox will be suited for a project this big, a SVN account will be more suited in my opinion.
If you want, I can set it up myself.

The google code project hosting page is a good site, grants us up to 2 gb of space, but it has a minor flaw. Our project has to be Open Source.

And Old Dragon, yes, you can have two Dropbox accounts running simultaneously, just download a stand-alone client and voilá! done.

So, SVN or Dropbox?
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Arparso on February 25, 2011, 19:42:44
Assembla (http://offers.assembla.com/free/) might be an alternative to Google Code - they don't require you to go open source and also offer 2 gb of free storage space.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on February 25, 2011, 21:46:43
Oh... that's nice one! I was using xp-dev until now for my projects, this one sounds much better!

Well, I think that we should assamble a subversion host.
However, which would be our project's folder? Nexus folder itself? so that we can test the project on real time?
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on February 25, 2011, 22:29:19
For the time being, at least, all I'm looking for is a place where we can stage a 'central repository' that we can all access and work from; so storage space works for me.  I'm quite happy for you to find us a suitable home Mularac.

 The first two stages are more concerned with improving the existing textures and models than anything else, so any testing can be done through the standard mod folder. At a later date, when we're ready to look at coding, the CEP can quickly be compiled into a .dap file and then placed into the main nexus folder... will make installation/uninstallation a very simple affair.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: DreamorCZ on February 26, 2011, 19:04:20
I completely agree with Old Dragon's plan.

About the planet rotation. It will take quite a lot of time because all planet textures must be placed on a new mesh and then animated and added to system files and there is also a little problem with night side of planets when there is not possible to re-add texture with city lights.

Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 02, 2011, 04:55:59
I just took a few screenies of my asteroid background textures, Nexus is hating on me though and making them a lot blurrier then I made them. It's not to bad though, just gonna make them smaller so it's less noticeable. Anything you guys would like to see floating around in those asteroids?

(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/15/14671/thumb_620x2000/nexus_DX9_2011-03-01_191226.png)

(http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/15/14671/thumb_620x2000/nexus_DX9_2011-03-01_191214.png)
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on March 03, 2011, 09:00:08
Hi LT,

Looks quite a bit better that the original background textures. Good work   :)
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on March 08, 2011, 05:16:41
Ok guys, I got ourselves a home. The site is https://www.assembla.com/ (https://www.assembla.com/) You need to make yourself an account there and then post it in on this site so I can invite you to the project.

The project's url is: https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/nexustjicepmod/ (https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/nexustjicepmod/)
But since it's not Open Source, the only way to access that is if you become part of the project.

Assembla provided us with our own SVN repository. For the ones of you that don't know what SVN is, I'll tell you.
SVN  is a software versioning and a revision control system.

How does it work?
By a simpe 3 step mechanics.

Step 1:
Before you start to work you UPDATE. This will (of course) bring you to the latest revision, changing, adding, deleting and merging all modified files since the last time you updated.
ALWAYS remember to Update before begining to work.

Step 2:
While you're working and you've achived something (finished a piece of code, cleaned up a bug, etc) you COMMIT. When you commit you'll bring the SVN repository to a new revision, marked by your changes. But before you actually press the commit button is of good practise to hit the Update one again, in case someone has made any modifications since you started working.

Step 3:
When pressing the commit buttom, a window will appear (if you're using the program turtoiseSVN, which'll be the one I'll be using as example) showing you all the changes you've done while you were working. There, you can choose which ones to commit and which won't (it'd be best if you only commited finished or at least clean partial code, nothing half-done or something like that) and finally, write down a summary of your change log in the designated "message" area. This is very important, always leave a message when you commit, always. Otherwise it'll be quite tedius to keep track of our project.

And an optional step 4: Undo any possible merging problems (this'll happen when SVN tries to merge two modified files by two different people and for some reason the two files differ too much for it to do a proper merge and it can't tell appart which one is right. If you've followed all steps this is very unlikely to occur, but still)

Ok, that's how SVN works, now how to make it work on your computer. If you're on windows I recommend the program turtoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html).
Ok, once you've installed your favourite SVN program on your computer, it's time to do the Checkout. In case of tortoiseSVN, doing so is very simple, as it's a shell program, fully integrated with windows Explorer. All you have to do is right click on the folder you'll choose to keep our project in and then click on SVN Checkout. This will automatically download all the files of the latest revision. It'll ask you for the SVN url, to which you have to paste the one that appears in upper section of this post and done! You're good to go to start working.

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7665328/svnTut2.jpg)

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7665328/svnTut3.jpg)

To update and commit using turtoiseSVN: Simply right click on any on the project's folder (nexustjicepmod) and then click on SVN update or SVN Commit... depending which action you want to perform.


(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7665328/svnTut.jpg)
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on March 08, 2011, 08:54:26
Hi Mularac,

Have made an account under my avatar - The Old Dragon and await an invitation.

Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on March 08, 2011, 15:52:59
Invitation sent. Also, one last thing I forgot to mention.
In order to keep things simple, I think it'll be best if we place in svn only the files to be added the .dap file instead of the whole nexus_00.dat content.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The Old Dragon on March 08, 2011, 21:38:33
I've uploaded the files from the dropbox.  I also agree about keeping things simple.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: jstubbles on March 09, 2011, 03:35:13
Created an account as "jstubbles" :D
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 09, 2011, 05:22:13
I made an account as LtBrandon, I did it yesterday and managed to forget about posting here  :-\
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: jstubbles on March 09, 2011, 07:15:25
I can add the planet textures to the CEP project for public use as I make them but they are in fact, for BSG. I also have a lot of other art content on my plate so things in that department might go a little slow for now.

For the rotating planets, maybe Dreamor will know more, but the only way I've gotten it to work was with a custom model and texture applied to it. I don't know if you can swap textures in the system editor like with normal planet models. However, I can be totally wrong on that. I didn't mess around with it TOO much.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: jstubbles on March 10, 2011, 07:14:04
Hmmm, I seem to have accidentally checked in a bunch of file to the project. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here. I made a new folder, then tried to import through SVN using the link listed on the site. Nothing happened - it gave some error. So I right clicked and made the folder a respository, then tried again. After that it got latest on the files. Except, the project files aren't showing on my end and the crap files it automatically made have been uploaded to the project =\

I've only used SVN a few times, over a year ago. Any help would be great! I hope I didn't damage anything in the directory =\
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 10, 2011, 12:07:53
Nothing seemed to be damaged when I went through it. Just added a few folders of random crap to the project. What SVN client are you using? If it's tortoise then make a folder, use the project link for checkout with your username/password for assembla, it should then download the files and allow you to upload content.

Just to be sure your using the right link, this is the one I'm using https://subversion.assembla.com/svn/nexustjicepmod


Edit: I just went through and cleaned up what your SVN Client added, anyone see anything I missed?
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: jstubbles on March 10, 2011, 15:35:19
That worked Brandon - thanks a lot!
I think the issue is just the terminology differences. At work, we use Team Foundation and Source Depot for asset management. The term "checkout" is for actually checking files out for editing, while "get latest" has it's obvious function.

Thanks for clearing that up as well as clearing out my mess!
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: jstubbles on March 10, 2011, 15:42:59
It will take quite a lot of time because all planet textures must be placed on a new mesh and then animated and added to system files and there is also a little problem with night side of planets when there is not possible to re-add texture with city lights.

If you're making a new planet mesh anyways, the default method of swapping planet textures doesn't seem to work anyways. When I tried exporting the mesh with no texture, the model would actually change when I tried swapping it's texture in the system editor.

Since we then have to apply textures like a normal model, you can always just apply the __night map as a __lum map instead. Sure it might look odd if you made it particularly bright or if your sun isn't that bright, but it's the only real solution I can think of. Thats what I'm doing for the planets in the BSG mod and it looks pretty decent still.

Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: GeoModder on March 10, 2011, 17:43:50
@GeoModder
If you don't mind, I'd like to include your newer descriptions mod. Out of curiosity, does your work cover all of the text entries for the various celestials, models and such?


Late to the party, I know. Blame my vacation last month and workload this month. ;)
I don't mind at all you're going to include the descriptions mod. It's for public use.

The files covering briefings, text underneath movies, helptexts for objects (weapons, ships,...) and labels in general for single player weren't included since I didn't change a thing there.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 11, 2011, 00:05:46
That worked Brandon - thanks a lot!
I think the issue is just the terminology differences. At work, we use Team Foundation and Source Depot for asset management. The term "checkout" is for actually checking files out for editing, while "get latest" has it's obvious function.

Thanks for clearing that up as well as clearing out my mess!

No problem, I had the same thing happen to me the first time I used it. Once you figure it out it works quite nicely though.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 14, 2011, 04:37:02
I've been thinking, with the story I have for my mod would there not be a possibility of it being part of the added missions?

I personally think it could defiantly fit in if we do the missions right, and we wouldn't need the original voices for it to work either. My mod currently uses a lot of content that came with nexus so it wouldn't make the project to large, I'm also planning on introducing that race that never really got used(Talking of the Feher stuff, it looks like the white ships did to me). It just keeps bugging me in the back of my head so, anyone else think it might work out? Of course I'm welcome to ideas as to what might get changed with my mod, and I think new players might enjoy it. I'm going to be putting up the updated story on the MODDB page sooner or later.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: GeoModder on March 18, 2011, 22:52:26
Took a quick read on your general notes of how you envisioned the missions of your mod. It striked me that so to speak out of the blue a ragtag crew suddenly got help from whole fleets in several missions.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on March 19, 2011, 01:01:20
The things on the moddb page are still pretty outdated, but basically the player is part of a decent sized pirate group. That's where those extra fleets come from, but I did write the original idea up at 4am last year so that's the main reason for some things not fitting right.

Edit: Haha, after looking back at the MODDB page and my current mission plans the story on MODDB only applys to 4 missions. Also, there was another reason I mentioned my mod maybe being part of the CEP. I had intended to use the .dap file myself so when people finished the nexus campaign it would just continue on to mine, and with this method I wouldn't have to pack the whole nexus universe folder in with the mod. I also didn't exactly want people to have to constantly swap between the .dap files, as it gets very annoying to do that after a while.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: DreamorCZ on August 03, 2011, 20:51:58
Very well, we should start moving on with this. We have our shareplace on SVN and some vision, so we must go step by step now.

Let's take 1st mission and star talking about what new we want to see there (or see fixed) and if we want to make any optional side mission after that.

Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on August 03, 2011, 21:21:32
uhm... I'd start by make it shorter if you want to skip all the tutoriales. Just a thought.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Mularac on August 06, 2011, 21:51:10
As some of you may or may not know, I'm working on a new mod for Nexus. The mod is pretty green and alpha, but I do have some work put into it.
Basically, the mod will be a bit of a Solar Bandits meet Warfare mod. It's inspired (but not based) on those two mods. Basically, you'll be able to move your fleet through different locations within a system and battle an enemy who will be doing that exact thing too. You'll also be able to call in reinforcements from other fleets in the system.

Right now I'm working on the background code and haven't got into the campaing-based stuff, but I'm getting there.

My point: I've been toying arround with the idea of making this mod a bit open source-ish, and I remembered about the CEP mod and how it hasn't gotten any... anything for a while now. So I was thinking of adding my mod to the CEP repository.
I'm not specting any help or anything, but leaving it outhere can has it's advantages.

So basically I'm asking for your permission to host my mod on the CEP svn url
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: Lt.Brandon on August 07, 2011, 01:13:07
It sounds interesting, I'm fine with it being there if others are.
Title: Re: CEP mod for Nexus
Post by: The_Small_Time_Modder on September 27, 2011, 23:42:58
What Mularac is describing sounds oddly like the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Galactic conquest type gameplay.... good times....