Megaproject: TC Retold

[Mechanis]

Hey there!
It's been a while hasn't it?
now, I don't know about you folks, but I really love the X-univerce storyline in TC. what I don't like, however, is the ship and weapon design, the bland, copy-and-paste stations, the arbitrary variants, the utterly idiotic way ship-construction is handled, the boring, always-chaotic-evil enemies, the lack of a real underworld that the number of Pirates would suggest (and the fact the there are only about 8-9 really unique Pirate ships) and a number of other little annoyances.

after several years of tinkering, and going on two fiddling with models, trying to bring an ever-increasing list of mods to bear to get the gameplay to the justice I believe it deserves, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to just rebuild the whole frakking thing, top-to-bottom, wherever it is possible.

however, this is rather beyond my own abilities. while I can get a large portion of the work done myself (Namely, modling, stats-balacing, sector design, even music,) I am an amateur at best with the scripting engine and Mission Director.

I've been focusing my efforts of re-designing the ship class system and developing stat algorithms to set up ships, but I've also been working on backstory, mission script (as in, storyboards for missions, including "generic" ones,) and design documents related to the things I'm not able to do.

the long and short of this is that, as of now, I am recruiting for folks who can do code, or work MD, to help build what I hope will tell the TC story like never before, as well as anyone else that want to lend a hand. just so everyone knows what they might be getting in to, I'll list the mod's goals:

Terran Conflict: Retold
A mod that will vastly alter the telling to the Terran Conflict, its aftermath, and a few other events of note beside, as well as diversifying and revitalizing the X-univerce as a whole.
List of goals:
-Complete overhaul of ship class-system, including total replacement of all existent ship models.

-total rebuilding of the X-universe, sector-by-sector, in order to improve environmental immersion and provide a sense of exploration sorely lacking to veteran players of the previous games.

-Improve immersion by creating a larger amount of visual variation in race ships and stations.

-improve and 'flesh out' the mostly neglected Yaki, Xenon, Ka'aak, and Pirate factions, giving fully-functioning economics and race relations for the purpose of creating factional starts.

-overhaul and re-balance the various weapons and missiles in the game, as well as their effects, along with adding new weapons.

-add several additional plots, as well as a number of 'set-up' plots that can be completed with minimal resources, in order to extend game time and provide additional character depth with non-linear plotlines.

-Refurbish and retell the main and secondary plotlines of the original Terran Conflict game.

-rebuild the God-engine that runs the universe to a better standard, so that it does not radically impact game-play speed as the current one does (where the hell'd that disruptor missile fab go?)

-create a more lively universe, with a more effective military and police force, as well as more appropriate Pirate behavior.

-create a universe with more room for growth for the player.

-restructure the game economy into something approaching sanity (IE no constant streams of boron through Xenon sectors)

-generally improve the whole gameplay aspect of the game, along with story and immersion to boot.

In short, fellow sentients, I'm essentially taking the TC engine and the TC general plot, binning everything else, and re-building the whole thing from scratch.

I, Myself am-

Project lead, modeler, ship and weapon balancing guy, sector desginer, music-maker and story-writer, Mechanis.

I'm looking for folks that can contruibute the following:

-Script engine or Mission Director code

-Textures for ships, particularly fighter-craft, all of which are of my own design

-effect textures, such as engine exhaust or weapon effects

-Background textures for varying sectors

-Jobs file editing

-Voice acting (later)

-Beta testers (Much later)

If you can help with any of the above, Kindly contact me via PM or here in the thread, and I'll PM you the link where I keep the mod design documents, and related files, such as the in-progress manual, story outlines, and (If I can ever get my scanner to work) Concept art.

If you can do something that someone (like myself) is already doing, and still want to help, feel free to volunteer. many hands makes for lighter work and all that.

[Mechanis]

This post reserved for sneak-peeks, once I get that far.

[Mechanis]

This post reserved for...
something. I'm sure I'll need it later anyway.

[dougeye]

I love the ambition but unfortuantly the skills your hoping to bring into your mod are the one thing in short supply i.e MD scripting and coding (creating plots) even long established teams like the guys who make XTC have shyed away from extensive plots and for the mean time have removed them from the upcoming XTC v2.0 as the one person who can actually write them has dropped out. If there were alot of people in the community who could write decent missions and could be bothered too we would have alot more plot based mods being thrown about for people to try, alas most people love making models and fiddling with basic stats but dont want to do the boring pages of code, hence why in the games industry coders are payed far more than the equivalent artist/modeller.

[dillpickle]

[dougeye]

yeah sorry i may have frased it wrong in regards to XTC but i still stand by the fact that you dont see many new plot based mods, i do hope you find some guys who can do it for you though

[Mechanis]

Don't worry, Given the sheer scope of this mod, by the time it's actually at the point of the MD/SE stuff being beyond the conceptual stage, the XTC folks will probably be done

if not...
well...
Guess I'd just have to learn, ne?
anyhow, given that I'm still hashing design documents into something beyond the horrible shorthand in my notebook, crafting backstory, and fiddling with about three of over eighty ship models alone, and that's not even counting stations, gates, signs, etc, It'll likely be a long while before any kind of scripting or MD-ing is even able to be done, much less needed. I'm posting now because I'm well aware of the shortage of the skills I do not posses, and would like to have this 'on the radar' of those what can, so when they get done with prior commitments, and still want to do something, this is available. given how quickly I work on this many things at once (read:not very at all,) I'm quite content to be someone's 'next project.'

World-smithing is hard, even for me, and I play Rifts! (you know, that one where the steam-powered nazi AT-AT is actually an official thing, in the rule book, and has a pre-painted miniature...)

[X2-Eliah]

In that case, it would help people if you gave an estimation of when you would need said MDcoders and SEscripters

[EmperorJon]

Hey, by then I might be able to do MD. very ambitious project, and I would sign up except for one thing: timing. TC is quite significantly old. AP already exists. And, if what you're saying is to be understood correctly, Rebirth will be out by the time you're done. Now, porting the old games to Rebirth's engine is something that could be impressive...

[Coruskane]

[Mechanis]

I'm well aware of XTC. I'm doing something a little different, but similar in nature. as for Rebirth, it sounds cool and all, but I'm afraid that even If I had the spare dollars for it (being a starving collage student and all) My aging rig just can't handle it. until I can afford a new rig, I'll not be tinkering with rebirth at all.
and besides, this project is something I've been trying to do for years by combining various mods.

as for the scripter-types, 'when' is 'whenever you're available.' It'd just be a matter of finishing and uploading some of the mission scrips, ware descriptions, and other things of that sort.

[Killjaeden]

[Sorkvild]

Life's work for a single person, but good luck

[Mechanis]

I'm redoing the models for several reasons. The biggest, of course, is that the stock models, particularly the capital ships, are rather monotonous. and the class system is bollixed, especially with destroyers frigates, and carriers.
while races ships will still share family resemblances, the ship models I've already produced are very visually distinct, even at long distances- I like the argon flying-bricks as much as the next guy, but I have trouble telling them apart without Gravadar- a potentially fatal flaw for a Piratical character, when the Titan you mistook for a Mammoth opens up on you- and it also allows me to make ships that actually look good with the game's shoddy turret mechanics, something that, sadly, none of the stock models really do. There will be no shooting through the hull when I get done with this (*Grumblegrumbleimmirsion-ruiningidioticturretmechenicsgrumblegrr*)
and I'm not exactly 'flying blind,' I've a rather large stockpile of 'mostly' done ships that I whipped up in my free time- I mess around with Max and Blender for fun, so I'm not exactly short on engine pods, cockpits, ship hulls, space-station bits, greebles, and other sundrys. If I devoted all of my free time to ship-modeling, I'd likely be moving on to stations in less than a month, but there's no need to rush, so I'm putting out about a ship and a half a week. on that note, have a preview of the in-progress Argon Battleship (which is exatcly what it sounds like- a big stick with oversized broadside batteries, that is utterly rubbish aganst anything smaller than a Tin Can. the days of single-ship battle groups are over.)

Note that the rear section, which I have yet to make, comprises a little over a third of the vessel's length, and that those rings spin (only a few folks have Agrav, last time I checked the lore- hence, spinney habitat rings)
It'll still has that lovely suggestion of brikishness, but you can probably guess where turrets go. note the the ship i currently lacking greebling, which'll get put on later.
(I Started work on this a nine AM Thursday. it is now four-something am Friday. I worked on it maybe two and a half hours spread out over that time, not counting concept sketchery. I'm not worried about getting all the ships done. stations are currently the thing that's going to take the longest, but that's jut because there's so Fisking many of them to make.

[Zeron-mk7]

Sounds interesting and very big project.
From the modding side, I would recommend you to move your project to the AP, because, into the AP are add more script commands and MD features, also there are some game engine fixes/upgrades.