Rebellion 1.5 mod

[MrPhildevil]

When I do release the Beta version. Which may well be very soon as it could be late. It depends mostly on 2 factors. Wether I wait or not for DarthTex's position corrections (he was already halfway through, last time I e-mailed him) and wether or not I make new burns for all those ships that have incorrect ones. That may be very long though (in last factor's case).

[Antonius]

Understand.

Any changes about characters ?

[MrPhildevil]

Yes, but there's only one I remember. Bevel Lemelisk is gone and Jerjerrod is back.

[MrPhildevil]

I have began working on the Imperial Star Destroyer set of burns. I've decided to expand my fleet icon status concept (see Legend: FID and FIH)

 

Here's a teaser of what it looks like:

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y339/Mr_Phil_/Rebellion/ISDBurns.jpg

Legend:

FID: Fleet is damaged

FIH: Fleet in Hyperspace

HS: Hyperspace

M-B D: Mini burn : damaged

 

I need to choose between hyperspace burn 1 and 2. What do you think? Should I pick number one or number two?

[Slocket]

The cockpit window would definitely let you know it is hyperspace. I see that blue usually shows it is in hyperspace and red-orange it is damaged. I would use a visual cue to insure you know what is hyperspace and not moving. I would use color to show damage only.

 

Thus you have visual picture, cockpit shows if in hyper space moving or not.

 

You use color to show red if damaged or not. Blue if in hyperspace or not.

 

You could drop either the blue color or cockpit overlay entirely.

 

I am confused looking at the pictures.

 

Vanilla game uses ONLY blue exhaust to indicate movement. "Does it use also streaked background stars??"

 

Vanilla game uses additionally red marking overlay ONLY to indicate damage whether moving or not.

 

Maybe use a picture with the big blue halo to show hyperspace travel, and additionally a thin red ribbon close around the ship additionally to show damaged.

[MrPhildevil]

Uh, that's a lot of comments, and it is not clear to me what you actually think about the new burns. If I understood that well, what you tell me is that the old burns were fine compared to mine and that an exhaust blue trail at the engine is better than the blue effect.

 

The problem is that I can't find a way to make new exhaust trail without them looking totally out of place and they just don't fit with the engines.

 

You say you are confused about what is the meaning of the colors. Uh.

Well, I think the confusion comes from the fact I did not show the neutral picture. Of course, when a ship is undamaged, it is shown without any background (just like the Carack cruiser, there).

When damaged, there is the red/orange aura and when in hyperspace, the blue halo.

 

Seems pretty simple to me...

 

And as for the being damaged and through hyperspace, well, it seems it shows the damaged part over the Hyperspace part. I should think of something to counter that I will write "HS" in the damaged picture in pure blue (written with Aubresh alphabet). That should help, I hope.

 

The cockpit window would definitely let you know it is hyperspace.

It is fine for the build icon, but not great for fleet icon. Besides, it seems to me that the colors of the ship are not easy to see when it is in hyperspace. The blue defines-it better, in my opinion.

 

I would use a visual cue to insure you know what is hyperspace and not moving.

Not sure what you mean by visual cue. Is the Aubresh inscription I mentioned earlier a good example of this?

 

"Does it use also streaked background stars??"

Not for ships, but yeah, it does for other stuffs.

 

You could drop either the blue color or cockpit overlay entirely.

What would the improvement be in that case. Since I can't do proper trail exhaust, that would leave the game incomplete, don't you think?

 

Maybe use a picture with the big blue halo to show hyperspace travel, and additionally a thin red ribbon close around the ship additionally to show damaged.

Perhaps I could do something that might help in this matter. What if the damage pic was half the size it is now and the rest was transparent? We'd probably see the hyperspace color around, I think. Less visually aesthetic, but still working. But if I did that, I'd only do-it for fleet icon, because when looking at build icon, I'd see the status written: in hyperspace.

[Slocket]

No, I am not criticizing your work. If the ship engines are different it will require new picture instead of tail exhaust. In my remake, I am only using one basic picture to show all ships. A big blue Halo cloud when in hyperspace, and a thinner red envelope skin around the ship additionally to show damage in red color.

 

I do not see the red damage in the photo HS 1 burn -I only see "BLUE" (where is the damage?). HS 2 burn I only see "blue" with cockpit. I do not see any red color to tell me it is damaged? I am confused. Please, sorry, I am not making fun of your work. I am missing something obvious I guess. BURN=DAMAGED???

 

BTY there is a new 3D space battle demo of the tactical engine using Dark Basic Pro. It does not seem many people are still here at the forum. Hopefully more will join if thing get along further.

 

 

If you mean by BURN is the character of the hyperspace 'trails', then I would pick Hyperspace 'burn' number 1. That is a ship in hyperspace moving with no damage.

 

I would like to see Hyperspace plus damage shown as blue AND red color maybe (even written).

 

Good work.

 

Peace.

[MrPhildevil]

No, I am not criticizing your work. If the ship engines are different it will require new picture instead of tail exhaust. In my remake, I am only using one basic picture to show all ships. A big blue Halo cloud when in hyperspace, and a thinner red envelope skin around the ship additionally to show damage in red color.

 

I do not see the red damage in the photo HS 1 burn -I only see "BLUE" (where is the damage?). HS 2 burn I only see "blue" with cockpit. I do not see any red color to tell me it is damaged? I am confused. Please, sorry, I am not making fun of your work. I am missing something obvious I guess. BURN=DAMAGED???

I can already see what is unclear. Typology. Burn is not a synonym for damaged. From what I gather, this name was chosen to design the special effects to a ship. The damaged part is one. The hyperspace part is a completely different one, but is still called a "burn".

 

 

BTW there is a new 3D space battle demo of the tactical engine using Dark Basic Pro. It does not seem many people are still here at the forum. Hopefully more will join if thing get along further.

I hope so. However, I personally can't use that definition and it makes me sad that I won't have access to your game. It has great potential

 

 

If you mean by BURN is the character of the hyperspace 'trails', then I would pick Hyperspace 'burn' number 1. That is a ship in hyperspace moving with no damage.

That was also my personal favorite.

 

I would like to see Hyperspace plus damage shown as blue AND red color maybe (even written).

I'll show you what I had in mind so you can tell me if that's what you mean by that

 

And thank you. This interface/GUI work, as I'm sure you know by now, is quite the pain. I feel like Reloaded was rushed because they wanted-it out to get to something else. I can see how a person motivated that works alone can go further, even if it's more long and I respect all the work yourself has been doing. Tell you what, if I support your definition and you are interested, maybe I could work on a better GUI for you.

[Slocket]

Yes you can do the art work for the Rebellion remake. You can place in good/better pictures for the place holder artwork. There are hundreds of pictures. Especially for the characters, agents, troops, GUI, etc. I placed a new version for older video cards for demo.

[Antonius]

Hey Slocked, do you live ?

How do you advancing with ur work ?

Maybe we can combine the 2 works, what do you think ?

[Slocket]

@Antonius

 

Good thank you! Check out the new Rebellion Remake demo on the other thread. It is a good spot to talk.

 

I do not want to hijack this thread.

[MrPhildevil]

I don't mind this thread to be hijacked, really

 

Actually, I think Antonius has worked more on character cards than me. So you could ask him for some, I believe.

[MrPhildevil]

So I tried to use the Aubresh thing and it was confusing, so I used my first idea: the red damaged icon is smaller than the blue HS icon. Works pretty well. I think I'll do that for the fleet status too (hope the mechanism is the same here, IE the damaged burn overlap the hyperspace burn...

[MrPhildevil]

So far, I have 4 ships done and maybe a few more in the oven for tonight Imp Star mk1, Assault Frigate, Allegiance and CR-90 are done with the above mentionned method. I'll try to get some screenshots for you...

[MrPhildevil]

Carrack build, ency and fleet has been redone. Will try to implement tactical too, but maybe I wont, because of the palette limitation. Carrack also has a new set of burns.

[Antonius]

Slocket : what kind of artwork do you need ? if i remember well, i've sent for u some pictures too, some time ago...

[Slocket]

Pretty much all of it since I have to make it in a higher resolution. For legacy graphics, I am going to try commands that auto shrink the high res graphics into distorted lower res aspect ratio graphics for support of all video cards. The main video is going to be 9:16 ratio, the main 1080* graphics of today.

 

The strategy map only makes sense in 9:16 for equal flight time in hyperspace between screen locations. If I change that, then fight time will not be the same vertical or horizontally, lending to confusion. Some people have noticed in Vanilla game there is a non-linear relation between planets traveling the same distance on the screen. This is more pronounced and noticeable when using 1080* 9:16 rectangular aspect ratio referring back to old square 1024* 4:3 graphics. There are a lot of odd resolutions in today's devices from laptops, hand held, and regular PC. This is meant for the PC platform. Should I included two sets of graphics? Many games do use dual resources for art work (and more).

 

I can see why they love the XBOX so much- one unified platform.

 

In order for me to use tricks of Windows for resizing graphics automatically and scrolling widgets, I need to use C++ and more sophisticated game engine and language such as Microsoft's C++ SDK. I am not familiar with making 3D graphics on it. It just makes it much more complicated.

 

I would try for the most modern fit, and a second mode that fits older archaic sizes. I just do not know.

[MrPhildevil]

Okay, back on topic.

 

Things have been slow in the last few days. Had Christmas parties and worked a lot.

 

However, I've got a major new for you guys: Darth Tex sent me the planet position and it was almost perfect. After he does a few tweaks, I'll be that much closer to releasing something.

 

Until then, I'm still working hard on those burns for ya guys. So far, I've got 7 done. Maybe I'll work on the fighters too, I'm not sure yet.

 

Maybe I'll work again on the Alliance GUI, by the way. I did not show you the final product, because I think the way I worked made me lose some color informations and this is not advisable. It is quite dark and I think I can remedy that.

 

I also plan on working some more on the load/save screen. It was a good experiment, but I think this could use a re-hauling.

 

Ask for screenshots if you wish. Only problem is that it is hard to get a specific ship damaged and put him into hyperspace yet. The AI is a little bit weak (as it has always been...), so it is hard to let my ship be damaged.

[Master_Xan]

I want screenies! And actually, if you have two computers available, its a cinch to make a multiplayer game with yourself for testing purposes. If you only have one computer available, Rebellion requires so few resources you can probably run two instances of it at once and do a multiplayer game. Just have at least one instance of it running in a VM so the two don't detect each other.

 

And good job with all the progress! I haven't commented much (again); this time my excuse is the holiday busy-ness.

[MrPhildevil]

I want screenies!

In 4 days, I'll be doing that for ya. Anything specific you want to see?

 

And actually, if you have two computers available, its a cinch to make a multiplayer game with yourself for testing purposes. If you only have one computer available, Rebellion requires so few resources you can probably run two instances of it at once and do a multiplayer game. Just have at least one instance of it running in a VM so the two don't detect each other.

I lost my old Win98 CD, so I'm afraid I can't do the VM thing. I've got another computer, but it has W7 on a 68-bit. To make-it work, I had to use budious's stuff and unfortunately, that means my Rebellion mod (which is based on 1.00, rather than 1.01 and much less budious's 1.02) make-it impossible to connect both games. So basically, I can't test mul;tiplayer myself until I find a solution to this problem. Maybe I'll try the .exe from my 64-bit computer, the one that is updated. That might do the trick.

 

And good job with all the progress! I haven't commented much (again); this time my excuse is the holiday busy-ness.

 

Don't worry, there wasn't much to comment

[MrPhildevil]

Don't know if I mentionned-it previously, but the Reffinery has a new pic, reference is courtesy of Antonius. Also, as the Sandcrawler is a mining vehicle, it has replaced the mine vanilla pictures. In other news, only one thing has to be corrected by Darth Tex before my vision of the galaxy is completed (within the limitations of the Rebellion interface, of course).

 

I've been able to make a multiplayer game with myself. That's pretty good news. It also mean that just maybe, you guys with Vista 64bit and Windows 7 64 bits are going to be able to play-it. When I'll release my beta, please tell-me if it wors on your 32-bit as well. It does on mine, but you never know...

 

I'm still working on the burns, but slowly and as University is coming, I expect progress is going to slow even more. Especially since I decided to start over new with my Rebel interface project (the idea remains, but I'm gonna try to brighten the thing a notch and perhaps change a few pics here and there...)

[MrPhildevil]

I calculated where I stand with the burn making process, and I've got 43 % done. Basically, I've got 30 ships york on and so far, I've done around 13. That means I've done more than 52 burns, as some ships are being updated. Jyst today, I've changed the Golan III for a better ref pic and used the dreadnaught encypic to enhance build and fleet pic. When I'm done, there will be a whole new feel to this game!

 

Stay tuned. I'll get more for you when possible (and sorry for lack of screenies, I'd rather work on the actual mod for the moment).

[MrPhildevil]

detailed Burn Status:

 

Home One class: done

Corvette Marauder: done

Assault Frigate: done

Neb-B: done + Changed image

Al. Escort Carrier: Done

Corvette CR-90: done

MC-40a: NY + change image

Lucrehulck: NY

Gunship DP-20: done (May change image though)

Defender Star Destroyer: done

CC-7700: done

Viscount Star Defender MC: done + changed image

MC-80b: NY

Neb-B2: Done + changed image

Dauntless: done

Strike Cruiser: NY + change image

Lancer: NY

Interdictor: Done + changed image

Carrack: done

VSD: done (May change image)

ISD: done

Executor class Star Destroyer: done

Corellian Heavy Gunship: done + change image

DS: done

Picket Cruiser: done

Golan Defense Station III: done

ASD: done

XQ2 Station: done + changed image

Star Forge: NY

Dreadnaught: done

 

Edit: Darth Tex has completed the last stuff that had to be changed. The Galaxy changes are now as perfect as possible. At least, I hope it is, since I would have to have a fully conquested galaxy to be entirely sure.

 

Edit 2: If I do what I wish to do, that means I have 24 ship burns ready to go and mostly perfect (though I admit I improved my method from when I began doing burns and may wish to re-do them again.) In practice, though, I did some more, which are subject to changes and as such, are not gonna get used in the beta version. That would put the count at 25/30. Roughly, I did work on 160 pics so far and more to come!

[MrPhildevil]

Sacrament! That was a lot of work. All in all, 120 burn pictures done. I had to redo about 60% of them twice to fit the correct pattern.

 

Also, I tought a few of the cards did not look good enough for my taste and I wanted to make at least some of these cards myself, so these are either brand new cards that I did or old ones from me too:

 

Nebulon-B Frigate

MC-40a

Defender Star Destroyer

Viscount Star Defender MC

Neb-B2

Dauntless: edited

Strike Cruiser

Interdictor

Carrack

VSD

Dreadnaught: edited

Star Forge

Golan Defense Station III

XQ2 Station

Picket Cruiser

Executor class Star Destroyer

 

Next, I'll try to make the correct credit section for the ships:

Assault Frigate: Pucho777

ISD: VinBadir

Corvette CR-90: Lord la forge/Edited by me

Death Star: EW/A'Kula/Edited by me

MC-80b: Rebellion Reloaded/Edited by me

Home One class: Hal Horn/Edited by me

Lancer: Nairb Lots/Edited by me

Corvette Marauder: Mylok

ASD: Reloaded/Edited by me

Al. Escort Carrier - Quasar: EW/JohnMeyer/Edited by me

Lucrehulck: VinBadir/Edited by me

Corellian Heavy Gunship: EW

 

Gunship DP-20: vanilla

CC-7700: vanilla

 

Ah, and there is a slight new: I am very close to a release. First, I need to correct a little blue thing, switch a few chars, perhaps and correct the mine ency pic. But basically, the 2 biggest part are done: galaxy and burnS. I think I'll go ahead and release the beta with the alliance GUI for the moment, because it will take several hours to fix-it. Still, it beats keeping Reloaded's set of colours, in my opinion. Stay tuned!

[MrPhildevil]

Read-me for small, non-extensive changelog.

 

Rebellion 1.5 Beta is ready, even if not entirely complete.

 

Link ready in 2 hours...