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Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
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Posted - 2007.03.07 15:06:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Zatch on 07/03/2007 15:05:54
This is a continuation of the original EVE Mod thread. The mod is under new management (has been for a few months in fact,) we've made a lot of changes, and I'd like a clean new thread without the first few pages being filled with some amusing & creative death threats. :)
Our official boards are located here; most screenshot updates are posted there first, since I don't have to worry about the repercussions of bumping threads there.
I'll answer a few potential questions --
Are you serious about this? Do you have permission from CCP? -- Yes and yes.
When will there be a public beta test? -- Never, as per my agreement with CCP. We must submit the final product to CCP for review before releasing it to the public, to ensure that the mod's quality is on par with that of EVE proper.
Can I join the team? -- We currently have a very small, dedicated team working on the mod. Henceforth I will not allow more people to join the team, only because it actually introduces more work for me rather than lightening the workload. We may still be looking for new members in the future, especially when we start working on the campaigns.
You mentioned campaigns, how many will there be and what about the other game modes? -- Four campaigns, one for each race, all taking place during the major conflicts in early EVE history (namely the Gallente/Caldari and Amarr/Minmatar/Jove conflicts.) Skirmish and multiplayer will both be fully supported.
So will this be a practical fleet simulator? -- Not really, the HW2 engine has limitations that prevent us from simulating all aspects of EVE combat (including navigation and electronic warfare, not just shooting.) We are of course trying to make combat as fun and similar to EVE combat as possible (note that there will be much less ship-by-ship interaction, much more large-scale direction.)
For those of you who are new to the mod, I encourage you to check the FAQ and screenshot sections on our official boards as well as reading through the previous thread for some background information. We are taking this mod very seriously, and have already made a decent amount of progress considering all work on the mod is done in our free time. Feel free to continue posting in this thread as you did in the last one, questions will be answered to the best of my ability and feature suggestions will be taken seriously if they are presented seriously.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.03.07 19:28:00 -
[2]
"Will it be free?" -- Yes, all you need to pay for is Homeworld 2 if you don't already have it (and assuming you don't, it should be in a bargain bin by now given how long it's been out.)
"ETA on the first version?" -- Although I can't give an accurate estimate since Summer will soon be upon us (relatively), I'd say mid to late 2008. Of course, this really depends on how much free time I can scrounge up. Even at this rate, working between 5 and 10 hours some days on the mod (I don't have a paid job and my classes are easy this quarter ;)), it's going to take a while.
"Are the maps getting a rework too?" -- Yes, all maps will be new. The mod will be distributed as a complete replacement for stock Homeworld 2 (this would be the first true TC) in order to eliminate scripting conflicts, as well as removing the original maps from the equation.
"Will the new UI be far more minimal?" -- Yes. It will have a minimalistic and hard-edged EVE feel to it.
"Support for more resolutions?" -- I do intend to address this, actually. Stock HW2 has icons for 1600x1200 and 800x600, so at higher resolutions your icons are being stretched and sometimes distorted, I intend to fix that.
"CCP gets to play it first? :(" -- Nope, I do. :)
Thanks for the comments, and I'm sorry for not answering the RP-related questions (storyline and such) as my main focus at the moment is solely the game mechanics, storyline is in the queue.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.03.13 04:58:00 -
[3]
Edited by: Zatch on 13/03/2007 04:56:37
Had a bit of a setback yesterday, my video card fried and I don't know if the mobo/PSU is at fault (I don't overclock my card and the fan/HS was working fine.) As a result, my desktop is out of commission until I replace the components. Hopefully I'll be back in action by the 21st of March.
As soon as I noticed something was wrong, I started making a current backup of the completed mod work, though I didn't manage to copy my workfiles before the computer crapped out. Hopefully the harddrives are fine, I'm pretty sure nothing is damaged there, so this shouldn't set me back in terms of what I've already completed, it just means there will be a week long respite from the modding.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.03.28 07:32:00 -
[4]
Edited by: Zatch on 28/03/2007 07:32:07
Small update:
March 28, 2007
* Add 1 fighter to the list of ships ingame: Firbolg
* Fixed several textures, specifically the glow and color layers: Catalyst, Moros, Incursus, Vexor
* Tweaked the glass texture's specularity.
* Added fighter dockpaths to the Thanatos (note I encountered a problem with the speed of the fighters and may need to either reduce drone speed or all ship speeds to address this issue.)
I have backed up all of the mod's progress prior to today's update, and my new hardware seems to be nice and stable so the work has resumed. Classes this quarter aren't particularly challenging so I'll be working at the usual pace. For those of you dying to see some Minmatar ships ingame, I'm going to remap the Tempest to see just how much work I should expect to encounter with the improper exports. It shouldn't take more than 1 day to get the ship ingame without turrets, an additional few hours for turrets, engines, etc... By the way, I've been having a blast with navlights, I've added all of the necessary blinking lights to the Thanatos and the Erebus thus far, a video will be released some time this weekend to show it all off. :-)
Note: The test server gives me bluescreens with the current build (Tranquility is fine) so don't expect a huge number of new ships ingame unless they're cheap and I can fly them on Tranquility.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.04.08 04:08:00 -
[5]
:bump:
Small new video released: Ascension_glow_and_nav.avi [43.6MB] Encoding: XviD, no audio, 2 minutes & 13 seconds at 1680x1050.
This video features the fixed glow maps on the Vexor, Catalyst, Incursus, Moros, and Thanatos (the Erebus is featured too but the glow maps were fine before.) Also, the small blinking navlights are now visible on the Erebus and the Thanatos (hence the high resolution, although all videos will be released at this resolution from now on.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.04.08 04:55:00 -
[6]
Edited by: Zatch on 08/04/2007 04:52:33
The mod is multiplayer-capable, probably up to 6 players in the bigger maps.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.05.02 12:10:00 -
[7]
Well don't ready the gallows just yet, we're still making progress. :)
I'll post some screenshots later today (must sleep and then go to class today.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.05.03 00:56:00 -
[8]
The two ships below were imported by my apprentice, manwithakite. Although he doesn't have the new shaders yet, the ships are already looking great as I'm sure you'll agree. :)
Dominix
Hyperion
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.05.03 05:04:00 -
[9]
All the ships in the mod will fight just like they do or should in EVE, drones will be used in moderation though (only the major drone carriers for each race will field drones, examples being the Vexor, Arbitrator, Dominix, etc...) Handling is an important consideration, although there are some engine limitations that prevent things from being right on the money (for example, 4km/s is too fast for the engine to handle, the ships just stop turning.) Battleships will feel slow and clunky, dreadnoughts will be obscene, frigates will be zippy, etc... :)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
The Sani Sabik
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Posted - 2007.05.17 11:55:00 -
[10]
Edited by: Zatch on 17/05/2007 12:11:17
Thanks to a fellow programmer on the Relic boards, we now have access to a much better background making tool. Here is one of my early conversions: Erebus + EVE background. Note that is rendered in the HW2 engine. Like it? More is on the way. :)
Note that my next big hurdle is to create a program that converts EVE's cube maps into proper spherical maps, since HW2 uses a form of spherical mapping. The image shown above doesn't betray the horrible distortion at the poles of the spherical map, which I intend to fix. :)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
The Sani Sabik
|
Posted - 2007.05.18 14:24:00 -
[11]
Edited by: Zatch on 18/05/2007 14:25:19
The only ETA I can provide is the very rough, tentative "late 2008." It might not even be that early so don't take my word for it. This depends, really, on how much work I can do over the Summer. All I can really promise is that I won't release it to CCP for approval until I, myself, can barely stand to tear myself away from it because it is unbearably awesome.
I don't know if I can make it to Fanfest this year (no money) but next year I should be able to attend, where I'll offer an unofficial wandering Q&A and suggestion session between CCP's presentations. I know the excitement is sort of wearing off since I haven't been posting a ton of screenshots/videos lately, I just ask you to have faith that this mod will reach completion and promptly blow your mind.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
The Sani Sabik
|
Posted - 2007.05.23 03:59:00 -
[12]
Shuttles may be included as unarmed scouts, but with a reasonable limit on their build-count to keep things from getting out of hand (no bumping capital ships with hundreds of shuttles, sorry.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.07.06 18:51:00 -
[13]
Working on the glass shader and putting the Caracal ingame today (need a break from Gallente, even if it's just for one ship.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.07.06 19:35:00 -
[14]
Edited by: Zatch on 06/07/2007 19:45:46
Just so you all know I'm not yanking your collective chain, here's the Caracal in HW2:
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4519/ss00004zy9.jpg
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4439/ss00005rx9.jpg
Edit: And something has come up. I'll be visiting my brother for a day or two (read: won't be here at my desktop computer.) That which I've started, I shall certainly finish, fear thee not.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.07.12 06:58:00 -
[15]
I have a short video to share with you: ascension_blinky_caracal.avi (~9MB, XviD)
I had to shrink it to keep the filesize reasonable, so it is a 1680x1050 downscaled to 1024x640 video. The navlights can still be seen though, if you look close (that's the focus of this video, those little blinking lights on the Caracal.) Note that the Caracal is spawning with a Thanatos just because I'm using Gallente as my test race. :)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.08.19 18:36:00 -
[16]
New screenshots available here: link
My apprentice, mantaray, has been tearing through the Caldari ships and is doing a fantastic job. I haven't been working on the mod much because of my class schedule (over Summer, yeah, I know.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
YouWhat
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Posted - 2007.10.11 20:39:00 -
[17]
Thanks for your continued support. Things have been pretty hectic lately but we're pecking away at the mod.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
YouWhat
|
Posted - 2007.10.18 09:33:00 -
[18]
For those who don't know, we've been featured in issue #009 of E-ON. The article includes several exclusive screenshots and an interview with yours truly.
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
Zatch
Gallente
Royal Hiigaran Navy
|
Posted - 2007.11.15 05:50:00 -
[19]
Most of the progress updates are posted on our official boards first. The link is in my sig.
Also when the mod is released, I'll send out a mass email to all of our forum subscribers (in case interest dwindles as we work quietly.)
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MLCalc Creator
HW2/EVE Mod Team Leader |
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