Topics

1

Scripting / Behavior 4 as a 'holding pattern'

« on: May 19, 2010, 05:34:04 »

I've read of using Behavior 4 to create wreck yards, which set me to wondering - how viable is using Behavior 4 to create hordes of ships that 'wait in the wings' until a condition is met (say, the AI fleet falling below a certain number of ships) before becoming active and entering the fray?

2

Scripting / Shields that prevent their parent ship from firing

« on: May 15, 2010, 07:19:53 »

Would it be possible to create, and if so how would I go about implementing, a set of shields that prevent their parent ship from firing when active?

As some background for the question, in my mod, shields typically take the form of energy screens that cause incoming laser weapons to "bloom" just before impact and in so doing vastly reduce the damage they deal. In the case of a "full defense mode" shield, however, it would actually fully stop and absorb incoming fire, at the expense of also absorbing outgoing shots within its area of effect. Thus, as long as they're up, they prevent their parent ship from being damaged, while also preventing it from attacking - perfect as a "decoy ship" thrown into the AI fleet to draw their fire while the rest of the fleet moves into place, for example. Of course, such would work against the default AI, but would only work against the AI I intend to create for the mod if you keep all other ships out of sight, but that's a matter for a different thread.

Edit: Instead of asking one specific question per thread, and thus likely overwhelming this area with my learning process, I'll limit it to a single thread and post a new question here whenever a new issue comes up.

3

General Discussion / The Ingredients of Challenging Scenarios

« on: May 07, 2010, 04:48:43 »

A fairly simple question, here: In your opinion, what makes a scenario challenging, yet fun?

Once you've answered that question, to make it more complicated, assume your ships are significantly more fragile than traditional Nexus ships and that you can request one reinforcement at a time (the stronger the reinforcing ship, the longer it takes to arrive). What changes would you make to your initial answer in light of these alterations?

If at all possible, please answer both questions. ^_^

4

Mod Development / Released Mods / Beginner's Guide to Mission Editing

« on: February 16, 2010, 02:44:15 »

The Beginner's Guide section on the Nexus Wiki is decidedly lacking (lacking to the point of not existing, actually), so I thought I'd request a little help. I've got the basics down, and I haven't the foggiest idea how to handle mission objectives and the like. If I may, I'd like to ask that someone create and break down an example mission, in which a Noah Cruiser is tasked with investigating an asteroid, then destroying a combat drone (Frigate?) that was hiding there. As a secondary objective, I'd ask that there be a "repair" Platform some distance from the asteroid, and upon moving to the Platform, a previously disabled Torpedo system be reactivated and another one installed.

Hopefully, this request is both simple and meager enough that someone would be willing to help me, and anyone else who reads it, out. Please?

5

Game Assets / Model Variety

« on: January 29, 2010, 08:21:04 »

Building a mod using only the models built into the game would be fine, if I wasn't so picky about appearances and continuity. I've sifted through all of the default models, and assigned as many as I think would fit to the ship types I'm trying to match.

I'm trying to find models that will fit with the four remaining ship classes I have yet to match. They could all be considered capital ships, so a certain degree of size is required. In order from smallest (or least armored) to largest (or most armored):

Battlecruiser - Will bear 4 anti-ship batteries, a shield system, and 3 flak cannons
Battleship - Will bear 5 anti-ship batteries, a shield system, and 4 flak cannons
Battle Dreadnought - Will bear 5 anti-ship batteries, a shield system, 4 flak cannons, and 1 fighter squadron
Super Dreadnought - Will bear 5 anti-ship batteries, a shield system, 4 flak cannons, and 2 fighter squadrons

I'm trying not to use the same model for two different ship classes, in an effort to make each immediately identifiable at a glance. So far, the only model I haven't used is the Noah Battleship. I suspect it will fall to the Battleship class, as the name suggests that would be the most fitting.

Has anyone else found themselves in a squeeze when coming up with models while having no modeling skills? Were you able to find someone who was willing to share theirs? And lastly, would I be lucky enough to find someone who has models that a) fit with existing Noah/Earth ships, and b) were designed for but are now unused in a mod they're working on?

6

Scripting / Full Thrust

« on: January 24, 2010, 07:37:44 »

Full Thrust is a tabletop fleet combat game created by Ground Zero Games. The rules are available for free from their website, and are designed to be compatible with any setting you want to adapt them to. It is due to this adaptability, which necessitates a simple set of weapons, that I selected it for my first modding attempt.

The pictures I have to share are of my attempts at developing the core three weapons of the ruleset - those being C, B, and A-Class laser batteries (magenta, blue, and cyan, respectively). At this point in time, I'm torn between the two styles. I have Beam batteries:


Or Pulse Batteries:
]

Some other information on the mod:

- Shields, called screens in this setting, only protect against laser batteries. Additionally, they only reduce the damage taken, rather than absorbing incoming fire.
- Ships have far less survivability than your average Nexus ship.
- Weapons have a much greater range than your average Nexus weapon. A-Class Batteries and Plasma Torpedoes can fire at ships up to 20,000 meters away.
- Accuracy is quite low, ranging from 16% to 50% hit chances.
- The mod will be designed to use predefined Ship Types, and as such, will be balanced for them.
- As shown, the mod will feature custom weapon animations. It will not, however, feature any custom ship designs.

So, could I trouble the folks here to weigh in with their opinions?

7

Mod Development / Released Mods / Two Mod Ideas

« on: January 19, 2010, 01:02:06 »

As the title suggests, I have ideas for two mods for Nexus. They both have challenges, and I certainly don't have the technical knowledge necessary to create them myself.

The first is a Dead Space mod. I loved the setting in Dead Space, and the appearance of the ships was pretty cool. There were also sequences in the game where you got a bit of a feel for the sorts of weaponry they have available, which suggested a few intriguing possibilities to me. The downsides to this idea, as I see them, are as follows:
1. The game only presents the design of four ships. More would have to be extrapolated from the designs presented in order to get enough to make the mod worthwhile.
2. The ships shown aren't shown in a manner that would make modeling them easy (I would think). If one could extract the models directly, that wouldn't be as big a deal, assuming they were in a format Nexus could handle.

The second idea is a mod based on the browser game OGame, in which players colonize planets, build up space fleets, and wage war on one another in an attempt to become the highest ranked player (or be a part of the highest ranked alliance) on their server. There are no different races, so it's really up to the players to determine which technologies they get first, how fast they advance, etc. The problems I see with this are as follows:
1. As a browser game, there aren't really any 3d representations of the ships to work from. There is a promotional video available on the main site, and its scope is limited.
2. With only one race, variety may become an issue.
3. Six of the fourteen total ship designs are civilian in nature, and not really suited to combat (fine for objective purposes, though).
4. Of the eight combat-oriented ships, the largest is realistically only useful as a battle station. The remaining seven are two fighter class, two cruiser class, and three capital class designs.

By discussing these here, I'm hoping to get some opinions on them from the other forum regulars, mostly about whether or not they think either of these mods are doable and worth pursuing. Of the two, I think the second idea is likely the easiest to achieve, while the first would be more visually appealing to me (based on ship designs, that is). Thoughts?

8

Mod Development / Released Mods / Beam Weapons

« on: January 09, 2010, 23:45:53 »

Concerning beam weapons, or lasers, if you'd prefer to call them such. In Nexus, there are a wide array of such weapons, in a few different colours and thicknesses. I intend to use this thread as a personal resource, available to all, to document which lasers have which descriptions. I identify the lasers by the three numbers used in the Start/Travel/End categories in DeviceType in the tacticstypes.ini file.

50/51/52: Thin green laser. "Squirty" sound effect.
53/54/55: Thin green laser. "Squirty" sound effect.
56/57/58: Thin green laser. "Squirty" sound effect.
62/63/64: Golden laser, normal thickness
65/66/67: Yellow laser, normal thickness
74/75/76: Orange laser, normal thickness
77/78/79: Thin red laser.
80/81/82: Purplish laser, normal thickness
83/84/85: Purplish laser, normal thickness
89/90/91: Pale purple laser, very thick. Sound effect can only occur once every 2 seconds. (Siege Laser)
176/177/178: White laser, normal thickness

This post will be edited with more details as I test each type. I didn't see anything on the wiki that suggested this had already been done, so hopefully this helps serve as a resource for more than just myself.

9

Mod Development / Released Mods / Redefining Sets

« on: October 27, 2009, 19:14:41 »

As I assume most, if not all, the people reading this forum know, all devices have specific Set numbers associated with them in the tactictypes.ini file. In fact, most have as many as five associated with them, only one of which appears to be used to define which slot they can be set in. Does anyone know the purpose of the other numbers, and has anyone tried simply defining their own? Are they, in some way, hard coded to specific effects?

10

Game Assets / Default ship models?

« on: October 06, 2009, 01:08:50 »

Just a quick question - is it possible to utilize all the basic ship models in a new mod, or do you need model/mesh files if you want to use a custom tacticstypes.ini file?