Mod Wish List Here!

The goal of this thread is to help unify the vision for "The Long Post" mod. Post the things you would create if you could. With luck we can find some solid overlap and form up a design.

My end goal is something like Dark Currents. It will be a long time in finishing, but I would like to keep my efforts aimed that direction. Meaning that I am interested in improving the game mechanics to support dynamic missions. Things like Economics, Reputation, Police patrols, the Chessboard (fleet placement and maneuver without player), Subsystem destruction, Player fight rebalance, standard sensor behavior.

For me, a first bite might look like:
1. Mercenary missions surrounding fights between nations, corporations and underworld.
2. Chessboard and enough economics to allow faction vs. faction fighting. Ship purchases, loss, and bankruptcy.
3. Improved background information. A huge and vital effort. Who is fighting? Where? For what cause?
4. Rebalance ship combat. More expensive ships means fewer. Create more and varied combat experience.
5. Improved combat scripts. Give the player wingmen and stations some self defense and ability to handle more orders (blockade, stay here and bombard, attack move).

I am not interested in working on new single player game with a fixed script and plot. I also don’t want to spend lots of time creating exacting detail that really never makes a difference to the play of the game.

I can offer a large amount of time. Some POG programming skill. No model skill. Poor writing. Tons of ideas how I think systems work. Need lots of help with characters (tendency to see cogs and gears, not people).

As for background development, I am very flexible. I started a new cluster, under the working title Middle States. Set after the collapse of the Commonwealth in civil war (aliens never happened varient). I designed it to have many conflicts, areas of lawlessness. Real pirates (like the Barbary Coast ones that terrorized the Mediterranean for centuries, not poorly armed peasants). It has long trade routes. Varied empires. Salvage. Unexplored areas. Capital cities. All in about 30 star systems. Lots of detail to change or fill in. And I am not jealous, so it can be ripped up and reformed. (posted. My site under design docs, middle_states.rtf).

After Mercenary, it would be fun to do Outlaws or Free Trader. (or do those first, I am partial to all three, so chime in your preference).

-Gtrout

Edited by - GrandpaTrout on 09 Oct 2002 02:23:05

Edited by - GrandpaTrout on 09 Oct 2002 23:36:45

Edited by - GrandpaTrout on 10 Oct 2002 01:49:05

Hi Grandpa',

Well I never quite got into the programming aspect, being as that's all I do all day. However, I do use Lightwave, PhotoShop - the works. So from a ship/universe design angle - I can lend some expert resource.

However, I do use Lightwave, PhotoShop - the works. So from a ship/universe design angle - I can lend some expert resource.

Excellent! Especially if we end up doing a new cluster.

So I hear that the original Iwar models were in lightwave. Do they have many polygons? Would an Iwar 1 biobomber import well?

I was thinking it would be cool to make a new mobile Junker base out of a biobomber and some chopped off freighter engines. Kinda Jawa like.

-Gtrout

Well I never quite got into the programming aspect, being as that's all I do all day. However, I do use Lightwave, PhotoShop - the works.

Wait a minute! And you get paid for this? <realizes he's gone into the wrong profession> Damn!

Do they have many polygons? Would an Iwar 1 biobomber import well?

To both questions I don't know, but there's only one way to find out

Wait a minute! And you get paid for this?

Hehe. No, this one's off my own back. And I'm not sure you are in the wrong profession, being that it's a dog-eat-dog world in this one.

Hey Soup,

Something that would be quite useful no matter what cluster we do:
Some new shapes for the 3D Hacking interface I am working on. I posted up a new varient of the prototype on my site, under prototype mods. There is a *.jpg to look at if you don't want to install it. The readme.txt describes what you are looking at and how to move around.

Right now I am just using the countermeasure avatar to represent programs and network links. I really need some new shapes. A few simple geometrics ( squares, triangles ) would be great. About 1/4 the height of a cargo pod. Translucent and glowy to give them that computer world feel. Maybe do 3 shapes, with 3 colors each to give some variety. That would be enough for a prototype to test out combat.

Thanks!

-Gtrout

Edited by - GrandpaTrout on 09 Oct 2002 15:00:44