RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (Full Version)

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Igard -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/5/2014 3:36:12 PM)

Just an update on this, I've got the mod to a place where I can probably upload it. I want to play a few hours first to make sure that I haven't missed anything big. It's certainly not finished. There are no design templates unless Ed has been working on them. I'm not a big fan of the templates anyway, they still don't seem to design ships the way I want them.

Just a few words on pirates in the Picard Era for Shadows. The 4 pirate variants have been replaced with Trek equivalents. You will have to replace the gametext file for these name changes to occur. It's still playable without, but I'd always recommend using it.

Raiders - Maquis
Mercenaries - House of Korgath (Klingons)
Smugglers - Ferengi Renegades (These are supposedly the aggressive Ferengi the Federation encountered early on in the series)
Balanced - Orion Syndicate

I've done dialogue and characters for the Smugglers as they're the most recognizably different. The others haven't been done yet, so I'd recommend not playing as them to begin with.

I'm also still working on shipsets for them. The Mercenaris and the Smugglers simply use a slightly darker version of the klingons and ferengi ships respectively. However the ships still feel pretty good for all the pirate factions.

Troop images for all factions are just about done. Only a couple of races are without, the Son'a and the Remans being the most noticeable.

I'll try and get as much played tonight as I can. My hope is that this should tide us over until Universe is released. Then the real work begins! Yikes!



[image]local://upfiles/34469/0557733EE5A84FD8BA6A14ABF6695B07.jpg[/image]



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/5/2014 5:29:30 PM)

Cool! Looks like great work so far.



Igard -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/5/2014 9:10:10 PM)

Thanks Cyclops. Had a lot of fun writing the dialogue for the Ferengi.

Here's a quick peak at some of the troop images. I know they're not amazing or anything, but they're sufficient. They appear so small in the game that putting too much detail in is kind of pointless. Nevertheless, I can't get the Klingons right. The special forces look ok, but the regular klingon troops don't look anywhere near fierce enough.



[image]local://upfiles/34469/14B8A07F436F4D78BBDA6362CE14A934.jpg[/image]



tjhkkr -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/6/2014 1:26:16 AM)

Nice



ehsumrell1 -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/6/2014 4:25:25 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

....There are no design templates unless Ed has been working on them. I'm not a big fan of the templates anyway, they still don't seem to design ships the way I want them.


Yes Igard, I put the design templates on hold. The changes to how the templates act that will occur when Universe is released as well as the last Shadows update that was recently built forced that.
It will be worth the wait though. That's about all I can say about it at this time.
[sm=00000506.gif]



DeadlyShoe -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/6/2014 4:44:51 AM)

pardon for just jumping in here, but:

quote:

Yes Igard, I put the design templates on hold. The changes to how the templates act that will occur when Universe is released as well as the last Shadows update that was recently built forced that.

does this mean any work done with templates in the Shadows format will be obsolete? I was considering making a set of custom templates...



ehsumrell1 -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/6/2014 5:21:27 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DeadlyShoe

pardon for just jumping in here, but:

quote:

Yes Igard, I put the design templates on hold. The changes to how the templates act that will occur when Universe is released as well as the last Shadows update that was recently built forced that.

does this mean any work done with templates in the Shadows format will be obsolete? I was considering making a set of custom templates...

No, not obsolete as in the meaning of the word. That's all I can say on the subject at this time.



Igard -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/6/2014 10:50:38 PM)

Thanks Ed. It's probably not worth while making design templates at this time then. Let's wait and see what Universe comes up with.

So I had a good game last night. Still had to tweak a few things. Biggest issue right now with the mod is that there aren't enough troop generals and admirals, which are the characters that seem to spawn the most. However balance seems quite good to me. The smaller races seem to remain small and the major races are quite challenging to play against. Sometimes you get a race like the Ferengi or the Bajorans growing very large and powerful, but that's to be expected with random events and lucky galaxy starting positions making a large difference to each empires game.

A couple of additional races to announce for the next update. The Zalkonians (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Zalkonian) and the Sheliak Corporate (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sheliak have been introduced. Zalkonians use a slightly modified vanilla shipset which I felt bared a resemblance to the one ship we saw.



ehsumrell1 -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/7/2014 12:52:28 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

So I had a good game last night. Still had to tweak a few things. Biggest issue right now with the mod is that there aren't enough troop generals and admirals, which are the characters that seem to spawn the most.

A couple of additional races to announce for the next update. The Zalkonians (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Zalkonian) and the Sheliak Corporate (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sheliak have been introduced. Zalkonians use a slightly modified vanilla shipset which I felt bared a resemblance to the one ship we saw.


I have many additional Troop Generals and Admirals (Star Trek canon races) that I'm using in my Menagerie test mod
that I'll zip up and send you. You can then integrate them into what you have already and make things balance. I also will send you the Sheliak Corporate race characters and shipset I have. It will be in your email in the morning (late night at the office!). The Zalkonians I know you'll have to be creative with!



Igard -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/7/2014 8:34:10 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ehsumrell1


quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

So I had a good game last night. Still had to tweak a few things. Biggest issue right now with the mod is that there aren't enough troop generals and admirals, which are the characters that seem to spawn the most.

A couple of additional races to announce for the next update. The Zalkonians (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Zalkonian) and the Sheliak Corporate (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sheliak have been introduced. Zalkonians use a slightly modified vanilla shipset which I felt bared a resemblance to the one ship we saw.


I have many additional Troop Generals and Admirals (Star Trek canon races) that I'm using in my Menagerie test mod
that I'll zip up and send you. You can then integrate them into what you have already and make things balance. I also will send you the Sheliak Corporate race characters and shipset I have. It will be in your email in the morning (late night at the office!). The Zalkonians I know you'll have to be creative with!



Thanks Ed, I've done both the Sheliak and Zalkonian shipsets. Just the Zalkonian one that is a bit disappointing because it's from the vanilla shipsets. Though, they are a minor race and I very much doubt many people will want to play as them, so I think it's acceptable.

Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow so I'll not get much done til the evening. Looking forward to seeing what characters you've come up with.[:)]



Registered55 -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/8/2014 8:53:11 AM)

Just wanted to say thank you really for your hard work, I really do take my hat of to you sir, coming back each time updating this Mod like you do...... I am envious of the discipline you have to keep doing this. time is very precious when one works, to do this mod the first time around is one thing, but to come back to the same project to update it for an expansion..... this is when the hard work really happens... what I mean is, finding that motivation to come back to the same project and bring it up to the expansion compatibility..... you know what... keep the hat my friend, LOL you really do deserve it.

Of course, a big thank-you to every one else who also contributes to this mod.... I applaud you all my friends.

Just wanted to say this really, I felt it was needed.



Igard -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/8/2014 5:31:57 PM)

Thanks so much, Registered. That means a great deal to me. It's hard sometimes, but I love this game and I love Trek, so really putting the 2 together, it becomes alot of fun.

Now I feel really bad, because I haven't updated this since July! I'd better get to work!!



potuyit -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/8/2014 5:59:43 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

Thanks so much, Registered. That means a great deal to me. It's hard sometimes, but I love this game and I love Trek, so really putting the 2 together, it becomes alot of fun.

Now I feel really bad, because I haven't updated this since July! I'd better get to work!!


Aw yeah! Igard's back! Can't wait until Picard Era btw. [&o]

EDIT: By back I mean back to updating mods. By wait until Picard Era I mean can't wait for the update to Shadows.[:)]



Tophat1815 -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/10/2014 9:16:05 PM)

Good things are worth waiting for sir! Never been disappointed with your mods yet.



Darkspire -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/10/2014 9:31:10 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

Thanks so much, Registered. That means a great deal to me. It's hard sometimes, but I love this game and I love Trek, so really putting the 2 together, it becomes alot of fun.

Now I feel really bad, because I haven't updated this since July! I'd better get to work!!


How comes there has never been a Janeway era? Some good shipsets and races in that era, even more so if you take into account the Borg (we have to excuse the Raven episode for continuity sake [;)])

Darkspire



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL 0.9.2] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/10/2014 10:11:50 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Darkspire


quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

Thanks so much, Registered. That means a great deal to me. It's hard sometimes, but I love this game and I love Trek, so really putting the 2 together, it becomes alot of fun.

Now I feel really bad, because I haven't updated this since July! I'd better get to work!!


How comes there has never been a Janeway era? Some good shipsets and races in that era, even more so if you take into account the Borg (we have to excuse the Raven episode for continuity sake [;)])

Darkspire

Shhhh.... if we are really really lucky that entire fiasco will fade away as a bad nightmare. The only good Voyager ever brought was 7 of 9, and even then it wasn't even remotely for her acting... /shudder


Somewhat off topic; Have any of you ever noticed the single most common theme in the Star Trek universe? Everyone, well almost everyone, that they meet is larger, more aggressive, higher tech, than the pansy ass Federation? Cardassians, Dominion, Borg, <insert superior enemy of the week here>
Not to mention that the Federation is a Socialist state beyond Marx's wettest dream. A Money, Labor free society, food from replicators, all you need is energy to have any lifestyle you want.



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 2:16:41 AM)

I've uploaded the current version of the mod for you all to test and hopefully enjoy.

Remember, it's not finished. Let me know if there are any problems and report your experiences.

Here's a list of the races as I like to set them up -

Happy Trekking! [image]http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/34469/2F5C78DD6EFB4D57BA9E80B377F081F5.gif[/image]



[image]local://upfiles/34469/997072A007C044B7B925C2FF7C8B84E6.jpg[/image]



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 2:32:15 AM)

DL'ing now.
Thanks!

EDIT:
New Flags - you might consider swapping the Black and the Secondary color mapping on some of the flags, the black overwhelms the smaller colored areas. On the one that looks like a large black Oak Leaf there seems to be no trace of secondary color at all.

Tech - All Racial techs are turned on for all races? I would personally prefer All Off as a default.

This looks to be a bloody war in the offing with almost all the races having some degree of larger military ship size, up to +70% could lead to some truly Super Dreadnoughts and Carriers.



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 1:22:15 PM)

Thanks for the feedback Cyclops.

Can you post a screenshot of the problem you're having with the flags? I've had some issues where the flag colours randomize for no apparent reason, and sometimes they appear to have no background colour when viewed in the editor. However I've not come across anything like you describe.

I can assign the racial techs to a specific race, but I don't know of a way to turn them off for all races. I'm not sure if there is a way. I actually rather like having the open branches.

I'd forgotten how big the ship sizes are. They haven't changed since the Legends version, so hopefully things are still balanced. I'll make changes as needed.






CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 3:03:54 PM)

re: Racial Techs, ok as long as it was an intentional choice. It does render several branches of the tech tree pointless; Mega density Fuel cells, Shadowghost, Raptor, S7 repair off the top of my head.

This will give an example of the flags, used two high contrast colors

[image]http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/CyclopsSlayer/Picard1_zps083bb040.png[/image]

[image]http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/CyclopsSlayer/Picard2_zpse22a5baa.png[/image]



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 8:01:53 PM)

Oh I see what you mean. I really should have explained this. Those are the new png image files. Each race that uses them has white set as the secondary colour. It doesn't always load them the same, but I've had lots of games where it loads them perfectly. Obviously, if you're using one of these coloured flags, you'll want to use white as the secondary.

I'll compile a screenshot with all the different race flags so everyone knows what colours are best to use. Unfortunately part of the nature of Distant Worlds is to give the player the choice of colours (which is nice) but it means that it mucks up the rest of the race's colours.

The oak leaf flag is the Maquis and doesn't actually get used by any race, you can just ignore it. Pirates have their own flags anyway. I put this in to see if I could force the pirates to use it somehow.



Tophat1815 -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/11/2014 11:41:31 PM)

Gotta download this right away! muhahahaha!



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 5:55:09 AM)

@Igard

Ah ha! You are quite right they look much better with white as a secondary color.
The Gold and other tertiary colors will not even display for me with any other secondary color than White.

re: Tech
How well does your NPC AI adapt to the open techs? Does it know to research them and use them? If not, the player will easily hold a vast tech superiority and that makes the mod feel very 'weenie mode'.

Other than that, just a personal issue, I have yet to find any real problems. The alert messages are a bit hard to read at 1920x1080, but then all the text always is mod or no.



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 7:53:01 PM)

Cheers Cyclops

quote:

ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer

@Igard

Ah ha! You are quite right they look much better with white as a secondary color.
The Gold and other tertiary colors will not even display for me with any other secondary color than White.


I really should have explained to use the white in the first place.

quote:


re: Tech
How well does your NPC AI adapt to the open techs? Does it know to research them and use them? If not, the player will easily hold a vast tech superiority and that makes the mod feel very 'weenie mode'.


The AI appears to sometimes use the special techs. It seems OK to me, but I'd like to hear your experiences. I'll certainly change it if necessary. Don't think for a second that I'm the authority on the matter. I need you guys to test this stuff and report back.

quote:


Other than that, just a personal issue, I have yet to find any real problems. The alert messages are a bit hard to read at 1920x1080, but then all the text always is mod or no.


I just noticed yesterday that the tech alert messages have been changed to include a picture of the component, thus crushing the image of the PADD. It's quite hard to read those.



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 8:46:13 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: CyclopsSlayer

@Igard
quote:


re: Tech
How well does your NPC AI adapt to the open techs? Does it know to research them and use them? If not, the player will easily hold a vast tech superiority and that makes the mod feel very 'weenie mode'.


The AI appears to sometimes use the special techs. It seems OK to me, but I'd like to hear your experiences. I'll certainly change it if necessary. Don't think for a second that I'm the authority on the matter. I need you guys to test this stuff and report back.




Not had a lot of time to play a deep game yet. Couple of things I noticed, might just be bad luck or something;
-Pre-warp starts seem even more cash strapped than typically. My usual income tricks seemed useless. Also Pre-warp in this mod seems insane as the Pirates seem to have Really big ships early.

-Played a small universe game as starndard Romulan. Everyone went to war so quickly it was hard to get a feel. Restarted about year 15.

-Restarted as Federation and played about 25 years in so far. The Breen two empires of which are near me, seem to absolutely HATE the Feddies. Had a Free Trade with one and BAM they declared War, followed almost immediately by the other Breen empire. The other Empires DO seem to be researching the 'Racial' techs, but so far no obvious usages of them. Been to busy with wars and pirates to capture enemy designs and see what they are using.
So far seen them R&D Shadowghost, Raptor, and the Ultra Efficient engine designs. None have done, so far, the Shakturi burst, Fast recharge Shields, Robotic repair, High volume thrust, and advanced maneuver techs.

I know pirates can get strong if ignored long enough, but they were running fleets of 6-12 Cruisers before I had my third colony landed. Just about every world I have conquered or colonized has had to fight a Hidden Pirate base at least once.

Overall, so far, a very good total conversion.

Future concerns;
I will try and note the dialogs a bit closer, but it seem that ruins frequently are using the same names even more noticeably than in vanilla Shadows. Plenty of characters so far it seems.
I abandoned the Romulan game due to being overwhelmed with Silvermists. I found 4 and others have released a couple as well. Two of my key core worlds were wiped clean by them, /sigh...



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 10:06:28 PM)

Thanks for the info Cyclops.

I am leaning towards reducing the ship sizes now. They were implemented during Legends before pre-warp was introduced and before pirates were buffed significantly. In the mean-time, there's no shame in turning the quantity and strength of pirates down a notch or 2. I haven't focused at all on pirates so I've been playing on few and normal and they're a pushover.

quote:

I abandoned the Romulan game due to being overwhelmed with Silvermists.


Not playing with the total conversion installed? That would make me sad. Or did you mean Crystalline Entities? [:)]






Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 10:20:38 PM)

Is this graphic I made any use to people? I threw it together but I'm not sure if it was a waste of time.

Note: I've set the Son'a to use the primary colour of the Mechanoids. However, the game doesn't allow you to choose this for your race (only AI races will use it). Therefore if you're playing Son'a the closest match is sand, the same as the Gorn. This can produce a knock on effect where other empires will change colour to avoid clashing.



[image]local://upfiles/34469/30AD7ECEB42C4AB5B5AB2624789F7B45.jpg[/image]



jsolo15 -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 10:44:54 PM)

love the flags Ingard great work.



CyclopsSlayer -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 10:46:42 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Igard

Thanks for the info Cyclops.

I am leaning towards reducing the ship sizes now. They were implemented during Legends before pre-warp was introduced and before pirates were buffed significantly. In the mean-time, there's no shame in turning the quantity and strength of pirates down a notch or 2. I haven't focused at all on pirates so I've been playing on few and normal and they're a pushover.

quote:

I abandoned the Romulan game due to being overwhelmed with Silvermists.


Not playing with the total conversion installed? That would make me sad. Or did you mean Crystalline Entities? [:)]


Game uses the crystalline Entity graphic, but when released it refers to them as Silvermists. Probably another text file to convert, or that I failed to swap properly.



Igard -> RE: [REL Beta] [Shadows] Star Trek - The Picard Era (2/12/2014 10:58:40 PM)

Well I'm glad to hear you're using the total conversion.[:)]

It's the gametext.txt file. Place it in your DW directory remembering to backup the original.



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