-= Wing Commander: Legacy =-
The year is 2711 and the galaxy is once more in turmoil. Ten years of peace has brought new heights of trade and commerce, but it has also brought complacency to the galactic powers and the different factions are once more growing restless in the confines of their territories.
After the events of the Nephilim War, the Terran Confederation is finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as the last threat to their galaxy has been push back towards the galactic core. The TCS Midway returns home heroes and Lt. Lance Casey is the new face of the Confederation after the loss of the legendary Christopher Blair. Though their military might has been downsized, new advances in technology help ease the burden. With the focus on commerce and diplomacy, the Terran Confederacy is able to forge long lasting alliances with the Free Republic of Landreich and the Union of Border Worlds. Humans have finally found the peace that they have been looking for.
The years of peace has not been as kind to the Kilrathi Assembly of Clans. Since the destruction of Kilrah, the surviving clans have been entangled in a civil war for supremacy waging across their sector of space. The Nephilim War brought a brief truce to the clan wars in order to join the Terran Confederation in fighting back the demons of Shivar. When the war finally ended with the destruction of the wormhole gate, the Kilrathi returned back home with a renewed lust for the hunt. The clan wars quickly were reignited with a fierce and bloody passion that ended with the rise of Ragitagha clan and the crowning of Emperor Karsh. With a unified empire and a warrior hunter for an emperor, the Kilrathi are poised to strike out once more.
Since their defeat at the hands of the Terrans and the Kilrathi, the Nephilim have returned to their corner of the galaxy to lick their wounds and rebuild their near total loses in the failed invasion. Tapping into their vast resources in their home sectors, the Nephilim quickly begin rebuilding and planning their next move into fulfilling their quest to conqueror the entire galaxy. Heavy research is taken into human and kilrathi technology from the large number of bodies and ships that were captured during their first campaign, allowing the Nephilim to develop deadlier weapons to achieve victory in their enemies. After ten years, the rebuilding effort and advances in technology have been completed and a new wormhole gate has been opened in the Hari sector to begin the invasion for the final time.
-= Terran Confederation =-
A combination of the Confederation, the Border Worlds and the Landreich Republic, the TC specialize in commerce, fast building ships, carrier strike groups and tapping into the human spirit to defy the odds.
Fighters
Arrow light fighter, Hellcat medium fighter, Thunderbolt heavy fighter, Dragon supremacy fighter, Broadsword bomber, Longbow bomber
Frigates
Galaxy-class colony ship, Bonnie Heather-class scout ship, Phoenix-class escort corvette, Tarawa-class escort carrier, Eagle-class missile corvette, Falcon-class anti-fighter frigate, Drayman-class starbase constructor
Cruisers
Bengal-class strike carrier, Hades-class missile cruiser, Tallahassee-class utility cruiser, Waterloo-class Intel cruiser, Gettysburg-class heavy cruiser
Capital Ships
Concordia-class fleet carrier, Exeter-class destroyer, Gilgamesh-class battleship, Paradigm-class planetary assault, Washington-class utility battlecruiser
Titan
Midway-class megacarrier
-= Kilrathi Empire =-
As collection of clans, the Kilrathi empire is a military juggernaught after years of peace allowed them to rebuild numbers and technology. They specialize in military technology, stealth, power over speed and the hunter’s spirit that guides them on their hunt for victory.
Dralthi-class light fighter, Drakhri IV-class medium fighter, Gratha-class heavy fighter, Vaktoth-class supremacy fighter, Asjaka-class bomber, Paktahn-class bomber
Lumbari-class colony ship, Melek-class scout ship, Kamekh-class escort corvette, Karga-class escort carrier, Kamrani-class missile corvette, Targu-class anti-fighter frigate, Dukara-class starbase constructor
Cruiser
Snakeir-class strike carrier, Butha-class missile cruiser, Jrathek-class utility cruiser, Strakha-class stealth cruiser, Fralthi-class heavy cruiser
Capital Ship
Bhantkara-class fleet carrier, Ralatha-class destroyer, Ralari-class battleship, Sivar-class planetary assault, Kiranka-class utility battlecruiser
Hakaga-class megacarrier
-= Nephilim Empire =-
Believing themselves to be the First Beings from which the universe created, the Nephilim spread across the galaxy like locusts in order to claim what they believe is theirs by divine right. They specialize in rapid transit, pack mentality and strong shield technology as well as the divine spirit which guides their hand along the righteous path of the gods.
Moray light fighter, Manta medium fighter, Remora heavy fighter, Devil Ray supremacy fighter, Lamprey bomber, Sting Ray bomber
Catfish-class colony ship, Snakehead-class scout ship, Swordfish-class escort corvette, Barracuda-class escort carrier, corvette, Tiger Shark-class missile corvette, Piranha-class anti-fighter frigate
Triton starbase constructor
Hydra-class strike carrier, Pike-class missile cruiser, Marlin-class utility cruiser, Salamander-class utility cruiser, Great White-class heavy cruiser
Leviathan-class Fleet Carrier, Orca-class destroyer, Kraken-class battleship, Hammerhead-class planetary assault, Otter-class utility battlecruiser
Tiamat dreadnought
-= A Note from the Designer =-
I have a special place in my heart for Wing Commander. The first WC was the first computer game I ever played and I have fond memories with my father playing the game. I have long toyed with the idea of modding SoaSE based on my experience of some excellent mods that have been produced by this community. Since my father’s passing from cancer, I finally decided to put the doubt to the side and jump in with both feet and develop my own mod for this great game with a universe close to my heart.
-= Design Goals =-
I have never created a mod before so this will be my first attempt. That said, I’m still learning the ins and outs of creating a mod and what SoaSE can and cannot do. Ideally, I would like to design the mod to be space fighter and carrier specific with many sets of fighters that can be used as that is truly the heart of what Wing Commander is. If that proves too difficult or impossible to implement, then my next idea is to “bump” the beloved fighters and bombers to the larger frigate roles. It isn’t ideal, but it allows for the most familiar and detailed aspect of Wing Commander to be in the game.
My first goal is to get one race out there fully done. This will be my learning curve so this will take the longest. Hopefully, once the first race is done, the other two can be released more quickly. If there is anyone out there that wants to jump in and help, I’m certainly open to working with others. As I’ve stated previously, I have never created a mod before so I’m learning as I go with the resources on this forum as my guide.
nice, I though my nephilim race was somewhat unique in space
Don't worry, yours is completely different from the WC-verse Nephilim so I would still call it unique minus the name
Thunderbolt as anti-frigate and Dragon as anti-cruiser would work if the Dragons end up mounting Flash-Paks.
I don't think I can give fighters abilities per say so that would be more of a flavor text thing I would think.
Flavor text is fine as long as there's a reason why they're wrecking cruiser-grade vessels without torpedoes.
One thing that bothered me about the WC series was that a small fighters. Even the light fighters could take down huge cap ships. Least until Prophecy. In Prophecy the way fighters took down caps made more sense by bombing engines, and the bridge. What made it better was that turrets would target the incoming torpedoes, and take them down. In Sins you cant really "duplicate" those game mechanics. However we can sort of "simulate" them. Same with many other game mechanics of WC. You can't duplicate them exactly. Not without re-writing the engine. but with a little improvisation you can work around them, and simulate those mechanics as "best you can". Will it be perfect? Of course not. The fans of the mod should understand this.
In other words. Use your best judgement on how to pull off the mechanics. If it works great. If not then just do the best that you can, and get it as close as possible.
Bombers should be exactly that. Bombers. Not as fast as fighters, but have heavy anti cap ship weapons. Maybe have some anti strike craft capability, but they shouldn't have a much survivability vs fighters.
Fighters in sins you cant really diversify except for their weapons load out, and hit points. They will always behave like anti fighter units unless there are no enemy strike craft. Then they will attack everything else. Obviously a dragon will be superior than an arrow. However arrows should serve a purpose.. Even if it is just to draw fire from the dragons, or the Kilrathi/Nephilim equivalents. IMO their weapons should be anti strike craft, and not do too much damage to other units.
Double Post.. Sorry.
Major..off topic a bit but since you brought it up..
Could the Devs slow down bombers in Sins to half the speed of fighters?
Wouldnt that help with the bomber spam everyone complains about? If they could be targeted easier would that make them less effective? In Sins 2 you should be able to target sub systems...it would open up a whole new level of strategy.
Damage modifiers control targeting priorities, so if a fighter's weapons do maximum damage to cruisers, it will automatically target cruisers. If a ship or strikecraft has multiple damage types, the one that deals more DPS takes priority, so anti-fighter weapons on bombers must do less DPS than anti-capital weapons or the bombers will prioritize fighters over warships. Bombers and fighters differ via statCountType, but from what I remember of your experiments roleType governs combat mechanics, not statCountType.
EDIT: Nightreign, there are some ChanceToHitTargetType modifiers in Gameplay.constants with different values for fighters and bombers. Perhaps you could experiment with those to see if they do anything, and if strikecraft with the FighterBomber statCountType can be made more vulnerable to anti-strikecraft weapons through increased hit chances than FighterCombat strikecraft.
That is a great idea SpardaSon21. I will take a look at the ChanceToHitTargetType and run some simulations to try and get the feel for bombers vs. fighters. My hope is that by reconfiguring the fighters to target specific types of ships (frigates, cruisers, caps, fighters, and bombers), there will be more strategy in what you build since different ships/carriers carry different types of fighters. I'm not sure how it will play out yet, but I have high hopes.
As for the overall feel of the game, there will have to be some forgiveness in the fact that Sins is a game that focuses on larger ships, not the individual fighters. However, for those of us that are big fans of the WC-verse, the carriers are just as important as they were the base of operations in the game (Tiger's Claw probably being the most famous). For us hard core fans that have read the novels based on the games (not the movie novel), other cap ships also play their part.
For right now I'm still putting together the English.str file and coming up with abilities for the cap ships. I'm also trying to hunt down meshes that people will let me use. Once that is done, I will get into the entity files and start playing around with numbers and see what happens.
WBino I can't say what the Dev's will do, or will not do with Rebellion, or the hypothetical Sins 2 itself. I can pass your suggestion their way, but can't guarantee any response. Why don't you bring up Bomber speeds in the Rebellion forums, and see where it goes from there? Hopefully the trolls wont drown the topic out.
As far as modded strike craft are concerned. You can adjust strike craft speeds in their respective entity files. Making bombers slower would help avoid that unstoppable "alpha strike" issue that has been around since Original Sins, or at least give any anti-strike craft weapons a chance of taking down ships before they can launch that alpha strike.
I will certainly play around with it since I'm going to be messing with those files anyway.
I've found myself amazed at all of the work that needs to get done to pull off a mod. So much stuff to write, models to create and graphics to design. I think I may have taken for granted the mods that people put out. There is sooo much work that goes into these things and I think we should always remember to thank them for the effort they put into these things.
That said, I have been busy with the vast amount of work that needs to get done to even get this mod off the ground. Just a little progress report from me.
1. Modelling. I'm probably going to need help with this. I took a look at the Softimage Mod Tool and I was completely lost on where to even begin. This will take the longest of everything. Thankfully, I have managed to gather some models (mostly 3ds files which are apparently a pain in the ass to convert) with textures that date back to the 90's that will need to be updated/refined.
2. Graphics. There are a whole bunch to make, thankfully I know my way around Photoshop CS5 very well and so this won't slow me down too much I hope. I've got race profiles done already along with a load screen, main menu updated, loading screen done (figure and plate images).
3. Coding. I've really only been messing with the English.str file right now and using that as a baseline for branching out into entity files. Probably 40% done with this.
4. Research and Abilities: Haven't even started here yet.
5. Ships. I haven't coded any of this yet and I don't have any models to test it with, but I've been scirbbling out ability ideas for ships which I've gone ahead and noted below. There isn't a lot of theme to these powers as of yet, but they will be fine tuned as I get further along.
I did not do the mesh for this fighter. I did try to redo the texture. It isn't top notch yet, but I don't think it is too bad as a first attempt.
.3ds files aren't difficult to convert, assuming you have access to 3DS Max, or a modeling program that can open those files. Then you just need to export them as .obj, then you can easily open them in Softimage.
yeah, it is the converting from .3ds to .obj that is proving the difficult part. Trying out some different programs to see what works best since I don't have 3DS Max.
If you're a student, you can get it for free from Autodesk. That's what I've done personally.
Milkshape 3d exports to most known formats as well. It is a cheap low end modeler, but it comes in handy especially for conversion.
If you can get your hands on Deep Exploration. that is also a handy tool for converting meshes.
All you need to do if follow the modding documentation for softimage. You dont have to make the model itself in softimage, but you will need softimage to do the finishing touches, and get it ready for Sins import. like hooking up materials, adding the mesh points, and tangents.
Thanks for the advice. I will look into those!
WC rocks. Just not the movie. My true first action game aside from Silent Service 2. Rocked my old 386sx-16 back in the day with that massive 1mb of ram. I think I still dream about the pilots running to their ships cut scene before every launch
I dont suppose it is possible to use excalibur fighters from the WC3 era is it. maybe as a fan wank lol
It is possible to use excalibur fighters. I initially decided not to use them since they were really designed as a SpecOps fighters and really only saw use on the Temblor Bomb run and by Black Lance pilots.
Though I could probably find a place for them if people want it in there. Maybe as a special fighter used by starbases.
In WC Prophecy, and Secret Ops a few missions IIRC you got re-enforcement squadrons, and they were mostly Excalibur's. With a mix of others from WC3. Point is they were flying Excaliburs all the way into Prophecy.
Though RL has gotten busy, I'm still working on this mod and self teaching myself 3ds Max so it is slow going on getting anything up off the ground.
For those wanting pics, I have a semi-done pic of the Concordia class carrier. The texture needs some touch ups, but you can get a good feel for the design already.
7DS has some Wing Commander vessels in it. If you download the mod for entrenchment, I'm sure you could find the meshes/textures. We converted some of the models found on the WC site mentioned posts prior so go ahead and use them if you'd like. Using anything else from the mod, however, please ask.
Good Luck. I loved the WC series.
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