Breaching the Core Full Mod Discussion

[Hammish]

Yeah, the one with the super-long barrel is the one for the Naval Artillery.  I kinda wanted it to look kinda like arty barrels in real life.

It looked -really- awkward to me when it was just a longer barrel, though, given where the mounting post was on the back of the turrets.  So Flessen moved it forward a bit, though you can't really see it well in that picture.  The entire assembly rotates along an axis closer to the center, so it feel really heavy and is kinda cool to watch.

Wait until ya see the gfx for the multi-pack missile turrets he has rolling out.  I think there will be a 3-, 6-, and 9-missile version as his time allows and they look /gorgeous/.

[Hammish]

BTW, I saved the best for last:



Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... the Pirate Mod Athena.  (Okay, so it's seen better days.  I still like how the paint job turned out!  I really wanted a rusted-out graffiti'd look.)

[Hammish]

New Crab/Poseidon:



Still playing around with this one a bit, not sure if I like the extra shininess on it.  Part of me likes the notion of the better the base hull, the better the ship LOOKS (thus pirate ships looking beat to hell), but this might be a bit over the top.  I like how the meshes on the weapon mounts worked out, too.  Being the experimental version this one also moves the launchers outside the housing, though you can't see them in this shot, to the bottom of the craft as one of the upgrades it gets in terms of functionality: an arc on the launchers, instead of having them fixed.

[Hammish]

For anyone interested, I have a new release candidate that is compatible with the Steam version of VE.  Not going to toss up a link for it yet, but shoot me a PM if you'd like to try it out with the new UI.  Working on a few small things right now to hopefully make the icons for BTC mesh really, really nicely with the new game UI, then I'll wrap up Tech II development after the Steam launch.

[Hammish]

Main page for the BTC mod updated with some of the weapons changes coming for 2.0 with the Steam release.  Mine weapons are currently being worked on and some old ideas (like the rotaries that spun up) have been scrapped given some limitations in-game or general clunkiness of the concept.  Weapons are also now streamlined into themes with an upgrade along each tree (basic weapon, three 'standard' versions of the concept, then an experimental version with unique attributes).

[jeeplaw]

Hammish, should i hold off installing your current version just to wait for the steam release (windows)

[Hammish]

You can still try it out if you want, the current version linked on the main mod page should still work with the most recent non-Steam release for VE.  (I haven't tested it in a little while, but I'm pretty sure it's good to go.)  Just be aware that savegames will not be compatible going forward, even if the Steam release of VE allows for them; too many changes in too much equipment, with some things being tossed or renamed.

That being said, I'm still looking for feedback, even on some of the old weapons.  The plasma ejector (flamethrower), for example, is in the current non-Steam release but clunky and the projectile animations don't work all that well in the new version (or with multiplayer latency), so things like that I'm still looking for suggestions on... in addition to weapon systems or equipment people would like to see that don't exist in it yet that push the envelope of my creativity like the drone/fighter systems did.  A few good examples here are still wanting to develop some support modules with tactical tradeoffs like a repair beam or the ability to replicate ammo/fuel in the field (both probably carrying the drawback of effectively EMPing the ship and rooting it in place, making them dicey to use mid-fight) but would expand on the device/module slots of the game.  I just need more people on the project, still, or more hours in my day to really dive into the Javascript (which is a fair bit more complicated than tinkering with numbers in Excel and then swapping them into .XML files.)

The ultimate goal is to link all that sort of stuff in with the skill tree and provide some excellent late-game progression and really allowing a person to excel in a role while forcing tradeoffs (support equipment means less room for weapon modules, mining equipment or maneuvering assistance, you know!  There's even modules coming down the pipe that help traders, messing with margins and providing extra discounts; I would assume that a trader would have the electronics on his ship decked out in such a way.)  It's already at the point where a pilot leveling up needs to make some hard choices on skills given that most of the higher-tier equipment in BTC requires a skill unlock; I want to continue down that path and make customization really matter and shine.

[Hammish]

Just as a note for anyone who follows the mod, going to be releasing 1.9 before the end of the year with the new weapons and balance changes, since it appears that both versions of VE are now running off the same base code.  Could really, really stand to have some people lined up to help test and debug, especially with some of the new mechanics and effects I am trying out (like the new plasma streamer concept that won't lag out machines quite as bad, some of the new bomber types (sadly beam drones aren't an option due to how beam weapons originate) and the new fusion tri-beams.)

[Excalibur]

Hey Hammish,

I've got a bunch of folks playing intensely every day on a somewhat private server, if you need testers, I can wipe the server save and start over with the mod installed. Some of them are really looking for new content, they've basically burned out breaking the current game.

So, if you want it tested, I can certainly train the imps on it.

[Hammish]

I'd love that, though you shouldn't even need to wipe the server; I haven't tinkered with the server configs much but you can always just create a new world with the mod installed, yeah?  If you wouldn't be adverse I could even pop into your server and get some feedback directly, if if you had a planned time when people were around and you knew when you might try it out.

I'd say hell, you could just install the mod on the existing game, but that generally doesn't end well; BTC has some fairly massive balance changes to gear and in particular at large component sizes it starts to show (the small weapons are about in the same range as core, but instead of following a x1/x2/x3 pattern for S/M/L in core, BTC follows a x1/x1.5/x2 pattern on overall DPS, with larger guns for the most part having a longer cooldown between shots in exchange for large burst potential and armor-defeating capability.  If you develop it as a character you can get armor up to some pretty obscene levels, enough to completely nullify shots from small turrets that aren't aren't dedicated anti-armor and even some shots from the faster-firing medium-size turrets.)  Plus, you know, completely new skill tree for BTC, hard to cross-work it.

The initial 1.9 should have all the new weapons, hulls and skills and most of the new components, in addition to the custom sounds and sprites/particle effects.  I'll be looking to see how people feel in general about the gear selection and skill tree and then move on to balancing NPCs and the like; fair warning, things may get crazy with the new changes to NPC scaling, I have no idea how it affects stats yet.

[Hammish]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1xd6b16gaxeekb/btc180.zip?dl=0

I give you... BTC 1.8.0.  Happy new years!

Because I know I've been sitting on it for far too long. :|  It's still buggy but at least people can start checking it out.  Hull and equipment changes are still coming but will be moderate, this version will allow you to at least see and test out the new weapons.  As always feedback (or offers for assistance!) are welcome!

Known issues:

• Muzzle flashes currently lack a z-coord, will be tinkered with as I have time.  (In general the offset to the flashes is better now for some of the new models, but I could still totally use someone good with tinkering to get them perfectly aligned to take advantage of all of AT's hard work with the new system)
• New sounds coming in about a week or so, I hope, but they shouldn't change anything actually in the game.  (Won't require wiping saves, ect.)
• Only the Small version of fighters are currently in while I tweak the values for them.  Still, test them out if you would!
• I left the Cheater class in for now.  If you want go ahead and make a Cheater, he'll start with a Zeus-X cruiser hull to play with medium/large ballistic weapons.
• Loot tables are unchanged, they will drop vanilla VE gear.  Will be changed by final version.   Same goes for NPCs using vanilla weapons.

[Hammish]

Showing off the new tri-barrel turret and plasma ejector turret.



This is a destroyer with four of the new fusion beams.  It's scary but you don't want to know how quickly your capacitor will deplete.

[Syrophir]

Hi,

downloaded the 1.8 from the dropbox link.

Trying to activate the mod with the latest version of the game 1.5.3. No other mods.

When the main menu loads up after a couple seconds I got this error:
"Local server fatal error"
"Something bad happened with the local server. Try load your last savegame or start new game."
"Main Menu"-button to click, and then the same error happens again.

Any ideas?

Edit: found the cause, and fixed it.

Parsing errors:
*1) "btc.mpk\data/items/hulls/hull_falcon.xml":
    1) file not found: Icon="content/textures/items/hulls/hull_falcon.png"

The file was in: "/hulls\hull_falcon\hull_falcon.png" and was named untitled-1.png changed the path for it from hull_falcon.xml, and this error perished.

Edit2: Is the topic folder needed at all it just messes up every quest dialogue with numbers, for me at least? Deleted the topics folder of the mod and dialogues worked as in vanilla.

[Hammish]

Huh.  I guess the scripting code for dialogue must have changed yet again.  Thanks for the heads-up on both bugs, and I'll have a fix up later tonight.  The major reason for the having the topic folder is that eventually there will be custom chains for BTC.  As it is, before it was broken, Joe's initial quest is changed in the fact that at the end he gives you a choice of entry level hulls to suit your playstyle: cargo, fighter or interceptor.

I'll have a working 1.8.1 up tonight still.  For repayment for possibly breaking saves I will include some of the new custom sound effects for weapons, too.  And thank you very much for offering the testing and feedback.

[Hammish]

Link to 1.8.1 up in the main thread, should fix the quest issues (think it was just the change to localization variables the screwed it up) as well as the missing .PNG.  Also added in the two new sound effects and threw in the hull revisions I already had done for the next balance pass.  (After I get enough feedback on the new weapons, hulls will be next, with changes coming like stepping the Hera up to an Advanced hull and replacing it with the Hercules MR cruiser, which uses the Yamato hull.)  The Artemis bomber now uses the Boomerang model, the gunships now come in ballistic or energy configurations, and the Persephone military refit should be working now but in need of testing (it replaces the huge cargo hold with two drone bays, giving the first true hybrid ship with 2 medium energy and 2 small drones.)