[MOD] [WIP] ETNO Chronicles (New Mod news avaliable - 13/05/11)

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Striker304
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Post by Striker304 » Sun, 19. Dec 10, 19:21

By the way those ships they look like submarines or some form of underwater vessels like those found in the animated movie: Atlantis.
Yes there are some Boron elements in the ETNO ship design.
And you're right, especially the ETNO M4 looks like a little armed submarine ;)
Watching Waiting Praying HOPING.

I hope you guys succeed!
We hope that too ;)

mfg
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Glumski
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Post by Glumski » Sun, 19. Dec 10, 19:32

By the way those ships they look like submarines or some form of underwater vessels like those found in the animated movie: Atlantis.
Hmm, I think I remember that movie... they had submarines? My mind...

Thanks for the replies! It's really cool to see that a small idea causes such a big fan group!

Greets
Glumski

IanA23
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Post by IanA23 » Sun, 19. Dec 10, 20:05

Ship models look alright, but you should try adding some of the shininess shaders (or mat3 textures, i forgot really, as I don't do modeling at *all*) to get them up to par with the other models in X3. They look kind of 'dull' because they do not shine like the other ships. I'm sure Observe or one of the XTC team modelers can help steer you in the right direction. I don't believe you have to change the model, polygon wise at all, just apply a level of texture.

Dinoff
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Post by Dinoff » Mon, 20. Dec 10, 14:11

i ask only one thing. make a light version including only the economy part for those of us running other mods.

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ScRaT_GER
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Post by ScRaT_GER » Mon, 20. Dec 10, 15:25

i ask only one thing. make a light version including only the economy part for those of us running other mods.
The impact of changing the ecnonmy as we did is quite big on the rest of the game (i.e. ships are not produced instantly, no "random" spawning by the jobs engine). So in my opinion it not that easy to isolate the "ecnonmy part". However the scripts run quite independently, so maybe it will be possible to use only part of the mod. But it should be clear, that this is not our primary goal.

Btw.: It's possible without problems to have multiple games installed, with different mods on every game.

@IanA23
Thanks for the input. The models are not completed yet and are still being refined. Additionally the game has some problems with race1 and race2 concerning some texture maps (it simply doesn't use them on these races), which could also a cause for the "dullness". But by now, we've changed that, by doing some race-switching.

Greetings,
ScRaT

lordofpie7000
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Post by lordofpie7000 » Tue, 21. Dec 10, 07:42

I love the whole idea of this, it sounds like its going to make things feel more "real". I have but just a few questions, compatability and warfare wise.

I like my ship rebalanced mod, it makes each ship already existant in the game feel like they have a purpose, and with you guys implementing new ships i can already tell that it wont be compatible. Although it sounds like there will be rebalance made to the ships so i am not to worried about that.


1. Will all the original sectors/Vanilla from vanilla still be included?

2 .Im curious as to what the size and purpose of M9 ships will be.

3. Will players be able to take over sectors? If players will be able to One thing you might want to implement for sectors owned by players is taxes. IR features taxes based on how many stations are in the sector, and population. (if there are better things to base taxes on, then do it =p im just giving a general suggestion)

4. Diplomacy would be an interesting idea to throw in, make the races more "real" and diplomatic would be interesting as the AI "knows no surrender" or peace treaties for that matter.

5. Im curious as to how big military fleets will be for taking and retaking sectors, when races lose them, how often they may be and the fact that ships now cost money for the AI to produce sounds awesome.

6. I know this is alot to even ask about, and i apologize ahead of time, but im a bit of a curious S.o.B., and this mod sounds like it could improve TC in more ways than....well 100?

Good luck with development, and i hope you guys do well, because im dieing to try it when you guys have a release ready.

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ScRaT_GER
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Post by ScRaT_GER » Tue, 21. Dec 10, 09:25

1. Will all the original sectors/Vanilla from vanilla still be included?
Yes, we extend the original map.
2 .Im curious as to what the size and purpose of M9 ships will be.
The M9 are highly specialized ships. They fulfill one purpose, but that's all (e.g. repairing other ships, extensive automated trading with drones, hit-and-run fighter).
There'll soon be a news posting about them (in the german forum there already is), which contains detailed information.
3. Will players be able to take over sectors?
Yes, that's definetely planned. In fact, we want every race to be able to take over sectors.
If players will be able to One thing you might want to implement for sectors owned by players is taxes.
We already implemented such a thing for every sector (not only player owned ones), but we still have to see how it really fits.
4. Diplomacy would be an interesting idea to throw in, make the races more "real" and diplomatic would be interesting as the AI "knows no surrender" or peace treaties for that matter.
While that is a nice idea, I it won't be included in the first release. :)
We first need to get "the other stuff" to work, before we can go further.
5. Im curious as to how big military fleets will be for taking and retaking sectors, when races lose them, how often they may be and the fact that ships now cost money for the AI to produce sounds awesome.
Fleet strength will depend on the races finances and the importance of the sector. At least that's what we planned. It's far from being implemented, though.

Greetings,
ScRaT

reiks
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Post by reiks » Tue, 21. Dec 10, 12:50

After playing XTC and found out that it didnt exactly had what I wanted and most of what I really want is here then it's safe to say that I am more eager to play this mod than XTC. (that is assuming everything listed in the front page will be done that is)

Striker304
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Post by Striker304 » Tue, 21. Dec 10, 14:20

After playing XTC and found out that it didnt exactly had what I wanted and most of what I really want is here then it's safe to say that I am more eager to play this mod than XTC.
Thanks ;)
(that is assuming everything listed in the front page will be done that is)
The things listed in the front page will be done as it is said in the front page.
Diplomacy would be an interesting idea to throw in, make the races more "real" and diplomatic would be interesting as the AI "knows no surrender" or peace treaties for that matter.
The idea is interesting, althogh diplomacy and warfare etc. will only be implemented when we have finished the economy-scripts.
Im curious as to how big military fleets will be for taking and retaking sectors, when races lose them, how often they may be and the fact that ships now cost money for the AI to produce sounds awesome.
The more money a race has, the more ships it can buy. But the race's allies will also provide support then in combat, so e.g. the could call some Boron ships for help.

mfg
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h2o.Ava
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Post by h2o.Ava » Wed, 22. Dec 10, 01:24

This sounds very very interesting.
I would really like to see the universe truly come alive.
I've created Organic Notoriety and Dynamic Colored Sector Names for that very purpose.

Striker304
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Post by Striker304 » Thu, 23. Dec 10, 12:57

The ETNO-News: 2010-12-20

As we said in the last news, we will now show you the ETNO M7, M7M and M8. But those ships are only a small part of our news today!

ETNO M7 & M7M

The ETNO M7 has been reworked 7 times in 2 weeks. Today we show you the changes we made and you'll see the beautiful result.
[ external image ]
At the beginning there was this design, with a good basic form, but with a not that good looking superstructure.
[ external image ][ external image ]
After that there were these 6 progresses and then...
[ external image ]
...we had two wonderful ships, the M7M 'Aries' (at the top) and the M7 Saggitarius (at the bottom).
After that, we made some little changes and the ships could be seen in game for the first time:
[ external image ]
This picture show the current concept of the M7 'Saggitarius'. In the background you can see the ETNO shipyard and the ETNO M2.
[ external image ][ external image ]
And in this picture you can see the M7M 'Aries' in game for the first time.


ETNO M8

[ external image ][ external image ]
These pictures show the still unfinished ETNO M8.
[ external image ][ external image ]
In these two picutres you can see the current version of the ETNO M8 in game.

The other M9-classed ships

You have already seen the ETNO-M9, but now we will present the other M9-classed ships!
[ external image ][ external image ]
These pictures show the first two concepts for the Argon M9. But we didn't like them because they didn't fit the Argon design.
After that, our modeller 'pantoffelhorst' changed the ship a bit and presented us the new version in comparison to the other Argon ships:
[ external image ]
Top-down: M6 Centaur, another M9 concept (unfinished), M9 concept, M7M Minotaur, M7 Cerberus and M1 Colossus.
After some minor changes there was this model:
[ external image ][ external image ]
These two pictures show the current version of the Argon M9.
[ external image ]
And here you see the ship in game for the first time.


During the last months, our modeller 'pantoffelhorst' also created some M9 concepts for the other races:
[ external image ][ external image ]
It's easy to see that the ship in the left picture is the Paranid-M9 and that the ship in the right picture is the Split-M9.
[ external image ][ external image ]
Here you see the Paranid M9 in game. In the foreground you see the ETNO-M8.
[ external image ][ external image ]
In the picture on the left you see the Argon M9 and an older version of the Split M9.
The picture on the right shows the Argon M9, the Paranid M9 and the Split M9 in game.

[ external image ][ external image ]
What you see here are the first concepts for the Teladi M9, pantoffelhorst called the ship 'the school bus'.
[ external image ][ external image ]
After these two developement stages the ship looked like a pig...
[ external image ][ external image ]
...as you can see here. On the right you see the ship in the darkness.
[ external image ][ external image ]
After that there was some strange design, but then the ship was nearly ready.
[ external image ][ external image ]
The result was this beautiful ship, which fits the Teladian design very well.
[ external image ]
And here you see the ship on its first flight through the universe!


Concepts for the new M9 classed ships

As you might have noticed, the ETNO mod will introduce a new ship class, called M9. Those of you who played the XTM for X3:Reunion can compare the M9 to the XTM M8.
The M9 classed ships are highly specialized ships.
Every single M9 has got it's purpose, and the M9 are not comparable to other ships.
Those ships will probably only appear as a mission reward. The different purposes of the M9 ships are listed below:

Argon M9 - Quasar
This is the best "Hit and run" ship when attacking enemy capital ships. With its strong main guns and it's high top speed this ship will be able to take out enemy capships in a very short time, but it will be as fast as an M4!

Boron M9 - Sturgeon
This ship is designed for crating a blockade. With its strong shields, its Ion-cannons and especially with a new Boron weapon called "Ion bomb", that causes an extremely high shield damage to all ships around the location of its detonation, this ship will survive strongest attacks and it will be able to hold back an enemy fleet until some reinforcements arrive.

Paranid M9 - Proteus
The Proteus is quite similar to the Argon M9, but the Proteus will be the ultimate ship for attacking groups of fighters.
This ship combines excellent anti-fighter weaponry with a gateless jumpdrive.
But because of this the cargo bay had to be very small and the ship is unable to withstand enemy capital ships.

Split M9 - Taipan
The Taipan is is a ship which you could definitely call a weapon. Built to destroy the heavy Boron shields, the Taipan is a heavy armed ship, but shields are almost missing completely.
So the conclusion is: Shoot first, and then ask the questions.

Teladi M9 - Cormorant
This ship may be what every Teladi was dreaming of: It's the best ship for Trading. Equipped with a fleet of trading drones trade with every station in a sector at the same time, and with its huge cargo bay it is also able to buy every ware in that sector.

Yaki M9 - Hayabusa
The Yaki created this unpredictable ship for only one purpose: Hijacking the commonwealth races' ships. It will appear without any prior warning and will also be able to disappear with the hijacked ship that fast.

Terran M9 - Hel
This ship was created by u24j7x5, and we are very grateful that we can use it. It is quite similar to a M0. With the 8 fully armed turrets, the main guns and the large hangar bay you will be able to spread terror among your enemies.
The only negative aspect is that the ship is very, very slow...

ETNO M9 - Trident
This ship is an allrounder, which could even be used as a light carrier with its 4 docking slots. It combines a high speed, good armament and strong shields. It will also be able to repair the docked ships.

Terraformer M9 - T
This ship will be a central part of the terraformer-fleets, because it will be the ship that will do the actual terraforming.
It will be important in the final version of this mod, when also the planets are important for the economy. But even now it's a fascinating sight and one of the largest ships in the universe.

Xenon M9 - CPU
This is the CPU-ship that is also known from vanilla game (e.g. #deca)

Split-Rebels M9 - Cougar
The cougar will be able to place and to clear some mines. Those mines have been rebalanced, and you don't want to get close to them or even to activate one...

That was pretty much stuff you just saw here.
But we still are a quite small team and we are still looking for new members! Especially modelers and mission director-scripters are needed.


The ETNO team

reiks
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Post by reiks » Thu, 23. Dec 10, 15:01

The Argon design looks like a Flashlight :D still prefer it than the Vanilla designs.

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X2-Eliah
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Post by X2-Eliah » Thu, 23. Dec 10, 15:15

Those models are clearly showing a major progress, guys :) Bravo.

x3nooby
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Post by x3nooby » Thu, 23. Dec 10, 15:32

If you Guys Did nothing but change the economic model of the game......

I would be impressed beyond all expectation!!!

The eye candy is just awesome sauce!!!!!!!!! :) :)

Flippi
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Post by Flippi » Fri, 24. Dec 10, 17:21

Hey Folks.

We have some good news. Our team has got two new members, Reacecor and h20.AvA. Both are Scripters and will hopefully be accelerate the developing of the mod.

But we still looking for more people to help us. Especially Scripter and 3D Modeller are needed.


And another good news: Our Map with more than 300 Sectors are in alpha status. This may be one of the biggest maps for Terran Conflict.



Merry Christmas
Greetings Flippi
KI Schiffsnamen/AI Shipnames
ETNO Mod Techdemo/Ressources Release: English / Deutsch

h2o.Ava
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Post by h2o.Ava » Fri, 24. Dec 10, 18:40

After seeing the dev boards, all I can say is..
This is going to be amazing. :)

Striker304
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Post by Striker304 » Sat, 1. Jan 11, 16:22

The ETNO-News: 2011-01-01

Experiments with illuminated bodys

Some time ago, pantoffelhorst experimented around with some different ways of modelling.
Although there were also some models which you could call 'unsuccessful', but there were also some models that were looking very great:
[ external image ]
This picture shows the Terraformer M1. This model also has got the 'bump maps' (without them, the model looks quite 'plane') and it has already got the illumintations.

[ external image ][ external image ]
These two pictures show the first concepts of the new Sohnen ship.
Of course the Terraformer M1 and the Sohnen ship are still in the works.


Terraformer M0/M9

In the following pictures you see the Terraformer M0/M9, but its purpose isn't certain yet. It is more likely that the ship will be a M9 than a M0.
[ external image ][ external image ]


Our balancing

The ETNO team has planned to change the balance a long time ago. Now we are going to present our ideas.
We will change everything, missiles, weapons, shields and ships are quite different to a vanilla game.

The weapons

We did many changes on the weapons. It can't be true, that a weapon works in a different way then it is said in the description, so we have changed that:
The weapons are working quite similar to that what is said in their descriptions. Debilating effects on the engines, lowering weapons energy or damage over time are now noticable very easily.
This will be very interesting, because there will be more challenges in combat. If you are travelling alone, you have to reckon to be destroyed. But of course the mod will still be playable, but it will get much harder. Who wants to attack a corvette using a fighter may be destroyed by flak-cannons.
But the player doesn't only get challenges, but also some tactical possibilities.

The missiles
The missiles are way better than in vanilla. The will chase and hit you. Almost no ship will be faster than the slowest missile, only the M5.

The ships
We will try that every ship an every shipclass has a reason for being, so that the player has got the choice.
There will be some surprises, but this part of our balancing still needs some time to be ready.

The shields
The shields have been changed completely. There will be many new things and also new possibilites.
For every shield type we have created different variants, so there is a standard shield, which is quite like vanilla, then there are shields with a very high recharge rate, but with a low capacity and there are shields with a high capacity, but with a low recharge rate.
So there are more tactical possibilities to equip one's ship.
There are also special shield versions, e.g. a shield with a low capacity and low recharge rate which needs not much cargo space and is quite cheap and which is buyable everywhere. So you can equip freighters acting in secure areas with shields without having a loss of protection and cargo space.
And there are now shields for space stations. No, there's no mistake, you can really equip your space station with other shields!
As you just read here, there are quite many changes, so the shields have got a new name, because otherwise you wouldn't recognize the different versions of the shields.

Now to the names of the shields
So, as mentioned before there are new shield names:

Type 1 shield: This shield is a shield produced for the M5. The standard version of this shield has got a capacity of 5 MJ. So the M5 are now better to use in combat, but they still have got a low fire power.

Type 2 shield: These shields have been developed for the M4. The standard version has got a capacity of 15 MJ, so M4 have good features in combat.

Type 3 shield: This shield is used by M3, TP and some TS. The standard capacity is 35MJ, so the M3 will have very good shields.

Type 4 shield: M6, TM, and most of the TS are using this shield, which offers a good protection.

Type 5 shield: The first shield for capital ships is used by TLs and M7.

Type 6 Schild: M1 and M2 will use this shield

Typ 7 Schild: Some M1 and M2 will use this powerful shield.

Typ 8 Schild: This is the strongest shield in the universe, which will protect stations which are placed in dangerous sectors.


The different versions of the shields:

High charging shield: This version has got the best recharge rate of its type. It is made for those pilots who want to have their shields recharged in a short time. But the capacity is quite low. This version is available for all shield types, but not for type 8.

Trading shield: This version doesn't need much cargo space, but it has got a very low capacity and recharge rate. This version is only available for type 3 and type 4 shields.

Standard shield: This shield is the average shield. This shield is good for you if you want no changes.

Blockade shield: This shield has got a very high capacity, but a low recharge rate. If you don't want to leave the combat area or can't leave it, this shield is good for you.
This version is available for all shield types, and for type 8 shields this is the standard version.

The standard shields will keep the price from vanilla, the trading shield will be offered almost everywhere and it will be very cheap. The new versions, blockade- and high charging shields will be very expensive and offered rarely, but they have many advantages.

Status

Our main goal is an alpha version, where we want to present the basic changes. In the following we will show you what we have done so far.


The map

The map is almost finished. Many new sectores, different backgrounds and many more will be waiting for you.
We are working on a dynamic universe, in which the races will be at war, and with a realistic economy. But to get there we had to take a drastic step:
We have killed GOD.
The GOD-module is for most of you only a squishy term. In general, it is responsible for the economy. It rebuilds destroyed stations or dismantles stations which don't make much profit. The latter may have been noticed by many players, when the GOD-module destroyed the terran economy.

That was something we couldn't let go on, especially because we want to add some independent companies, which will build or dismantle stations on their own. So we made it that GOD doesn't know anything of any stations any more.
(For those of you who are interested how it works: The GOD-module does only build or dismantle stations which are registered in the map file. So we freed the map of all stations and place them afterwards using the MD instead. Doing this by hand would mean an enourmous effort, so we made a little program which does this automatically within a few seconds.)

The user will see no difference, besides the fact that the GOD module doesn't take action any more. So your actions will have consequences.


'The scripts' or 'A never ending story'

This headline doesn't sound very hopeful, but somehow it is true: There is still much work to do. Our scripters (namely Draguun, ScRaT and Striker304) are also very busy in their real-life, so the work doesn't go on as fast as we would like to see it. In addition to that, assembling our ideas is sometimes quite difficult, because some things never existed before and so we often had to experiment.
As a sedation: Just before Christmas, we got two new scripters (namely Reacecor and h2o.AvA) and we are advancing - slowly, but also continously.

In our alpha version, the basic economic system will be included, and also some other scripts. But because we changed the trading system completely, the standard traders you know from vanilla game are no more available in our mod, but they have been replaced with our own creations. But another consequence is, that the trading scripts, e.g. the commercial agent, will have to be adapted to our trading system.

The companies and the race wars will probably only be available in later versions of our mod.


'The models' or 'pictures say more than a thousand words'

As you have seen in our news we have presented before, there will be many new models created by our modeller pantoffelhorst. Here are some more of them:


Ships from X2

As some of you might know, we use killerog's X2 ships (many thanks to killerog at this point). Now, pantoffelhorst did some work on those models, and here are the results:
[ external image ][ external image ]
On the left you see a picture of a Teladi condor. The ship has already got some textures, but many textures are still missing. On the right you see a Split raptor with a texture of a Teladi ship. Both ships are not finished yet.

[ external image ][ external image ]
These pictures show the Python. There is still much work to do on that ship.

[ external image ]
What you see here are the Argon ships Titan (at the top) and the Colossus (at the bottom). The textures are missing completely, and like the ships we have presented before, they are still in the works.

Comparison of the ETNO ships

[ external image ]
This picture shows the ETNO ships, and is also a good status report. Most ships are still in the works.
On the left there are the following ships (top-down): M7 Saggitarius, M7M Aries, M2 ISN, M1 Naminos.
On the right you see the following ships (top-down): TL Canis, TS Gemini, TP Cygnus.
And in the middle there are theses 3 ships (top-down): M3 Serpent, M8 Auriga, M6 Kapella.

[ external image ]
In this picture you see the M8, M6, M9 and the M2 of the ETNO. This picture was actually created in order to demonstrate the size of the M9 in comparison to the other ships.

Another screenshot...

[ external image ]
What you see here is an ETNO trading-station (on the left), the Argon M9 (at the top) and the ETNO M8 (at the bottom). The latter has already been changed, e.g. the red lights have already been removed.

The ETNO solar power plant
Some weeks ago, pantoffelhorst developed the first concept for an ETNO solar power plant (SPP in short form).
[ external image ][ external image ]
These two pictures show the first concept, so there are no detailed structures.
[ external image ][ external image ]
And here are another two pictures of the SPP.

So, that's it for today.
A happy new year and best wishes for all of you!

The ETNO team
Last edited by Striker304 on Sat, 1. Jan 11, 16:39, edited 6 times in total.

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for sale
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Post by for sale » Sat, 1. Jan 11, 16:29

Like I said in the german Forum...
The name of the M8 is Auriga.

execuse me striker....
i have overseen it :oops:

Striker304
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Post by Striker304 » Sat, 1. Jan 11, 16:31

Oh I remember that naming discussion.

thx

mfg
Striker

IanA23
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Post by IanA23 » Sat, 1. Jan 11, 19:06

I have to say, that Sohnen ship looks amazing to me.

I like what you folks are doing with the shields, as well.

Hope to see more!

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