Mod project

[Goblin Wizard]

I've thought about something like this but after I estimated the amount of work, testing, etc. I gave up. If you finish this it'll be great.
I'd like to know your ideas about re-balancing the game. What do you want to change? and how?

one thing. I'll add collision spheres but not the textures. I don't know much about UV mapping.

[TrashMan]

There's nothing to add...just hit M in 3D Max, and use the texture in the rar as a diffuse map, apply to the whole model. Done. The meshes are already UV mapped

Later in IMD, in the material tab, the texture name might get messed up. Just type in the right one, hit enter. Done!

[Goblin Wizard]

Do you know how to change meshes back to "standard primitives"?
When you save as 3ds all spheres become meshes (part of the ship) and this cause an error during export to imd. I've saved all as 3ds and now I have ships with fu.king balls. I really don't want to do all again. I think default "max" format can carry all informations but 3ds can't.

[TrashMan]

Yes, it appears max scenes are the way to go.

there is another option tough...linking the spheres to the hull. But I don't see why you'd go to the fuss of experimenting with that when it's not necessary.

[TrashMan]

Originally Posted by Goblin Wizard

I've thought about something like this but after I estimated the amount of work, testing, etc. I gave up. If you finish this it'll be great.
I'd like to know your ideas about re-balancing the game. What do you want to change? and how?

I'm writing it all down in the .xml spreadsheet. Basicly normalizing stats.

for example, prices, shield, armor (and agiltiy if I figure out how that works) fall within a specific range for each generation of fighters.

So:
Gen 1 fighters have hull/shield in the 300-400 range, cost between 10000-20000.
Gen 2 fighters have 400-500 and 20000-30000
Gen 3 500-600 and 30000-40000
etc..

similar this regarding weapon costs and efficiency. Some useless weapon are made more powerful but more expensive, and all turretd weapon get an accuracy boost (seriously, who EVER used the Poleaxe/Vulcan family on a turret?)

I need to see what determines the amount of loot a fighter drops..

[Goblin Wizard]

Check this.
IMO Prometheus's (0,0,0) point is moved to the back too much. Mastersphere is automatically positioned at 0,0,0 so it has to be huge to cover whole ship.
"imd" version of Prometheus has some visual problems after import to 3dsmax 8. "max" version doesn't.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by TrashMan

I need to see what determines the amount of loot a fighter drops..

AI.ini -> "Module extraction" section
PercentToExclude - equipped modules
PercentToExcludeInventory - stuff in cargo

[TrashMan]

Did you move the (000) point? It's no problem if you did.

Thanks for everything.

I'm not making a few huge-ass turrets for it (thankfully, they don't need collision detection AFAIK)

I have more things in progress, but I'll set up Max scenes with spheres in the future instead of 3ds files.

[TrashMan]

Looks like the facing is wrong...the ship is pointing up


Also, the ship center is OK, you didn't check the axes..thus, you made the sphere far larger than it should be.

Say, what did you to to make that plugin work? I don't want to bother you with constantly converting things for me.

I uploaded the fixed 3D Max scene to the same folder as everything else. If you can run it trough the converter again I'd appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I have no idea if the scale is going to be OK. I added another file, ship_facing. The scale of that fighter SHOULD be the guidilne (as I used that one when I converted other ship) but I'm not 100% sure.


B.t.w. - the super huge turrrets are done. Screenshot will come soon.

[TrashMan]

[Goblin Wizard]

I'm just a casual 3dsmax user Don't expect too much.

About plugin - I've just copied two files to the plugins folder. That's all. This plugin works with 3dsmax 8 only. Try if it works with original imd game files.
I'll send you the converted files in an hour or so.