[ *** V.2 ***] Realspace Backgrounds Mod

[matches]

My Tbackgrounds also increases visibility in all sectors. I also put some fog in specifi sectors wherit was a good cosmetic addition. But less then the original. I think it's a good balance, and sectors look better, so if you want can try my settings ... ehi man, after all I'm the Backgrounds Guru !!

Ain't that the truth!! You've DEFINATLY earned the title!!

[JBL]

Any idea whenn the Galaxy version for XTM will be out?

Can the current version be used?

[Realspace]

The Galaxy is ready but I'm working on it to make some changes I consider priorities. Indeed, now I change the sectors accortding to the new backgrounds available, makew them have more sense (all neighbourn sector share the same nabula) and represent somhow the position of the secors inside a real spiral galaxy..

The point is: 1) it is compatible with XTM but is a different Galaxy, so same ships but don't know about plot ; 2) Ships are modified, the go at 999km (increased other differencies thou), the XTM ships too.

If the XTM team is ok with this, I wil release it very soon, but, you know, everybody is proud of its work (expecially when it takes so long time as for XTM), so I don't want to be incovenient on this. Actualy I stil haven't asked.
For as I see the a game community, I'm working on the idea of small patches compatble with all other mods, others prefer to join in teams to make big self-standig Mod (most of which are really great). I have no problem if my work is used elsewere or in different ways, this is only a game after all so everyone should be free to modify accordingly to its wish, although I personaly don't like cheats (they ruin the game) except for testing...

The version currently online cannot be used since it modifies only vanilla ships not the XTM. You can use the map thou. A guy who is working on a Galactica mod already said he is using it for its mod...just remember to credit me if you put it in a mod of yours

[JBL]

Thanks Realspace,

Much sooner wait until you are happy with the release

[Tenlar Scarflame]

@ Realspace, when you say all ships have a top speed of 999, will this affect docking / combat AI much? How does the AI handle this?

As well, if all ships have a max speed of 999 now, what good is the Slipstream drive? I'd have thought it would be something like, all ships have the same slipstream speed (999), but a different 'local' speed (145, 329, 50, whatever the ship's usual maximum speed is). Less realistic, certainly... and obviously it's up to you how it works

EDIT

also, how have you changed XTended's galaxy? Just curious. ^^

[Realspace]

I'm not changing the XTM galaxy, I'm developing a galaxy that is compatible with the XTM using its ships, etc. all modified as said.

The Slipstream is needed for several reasons:

1) the sectors are so big the even at 999 m/s it's too boring to cross the sector or to reach the main stations (Equip, Trade, etc. they stay near the planet)

2) It is a solution to make ships go faster but not being able to use the guns during travel (a sort of cruise drive), so when in combat they must return to normal speed. It's a resonable technology for the X universe, some kind of space distortion that modifies the space/time so to travel faster but out of the disturbing common laws of physics (like inertia that would make you ship drift away for hours... )

At the moment I'm having problem with the Slipstream. It freezes my game, so we must probably wait for further releases by Cycrow.

About the 999, you can consider it a kind of conventional limit imposed by sector police, or whetever you want. Remember that in space there's no speed limit ... well, actually, by the time you get nearer to light speed it becomes harder (toward infinite energy) to accelerate ... but if we talk about such low speeds as in X3 there can be no limit. What changes alot is accelerations and manouvrability of ships (depending from mass, engine, and even shape).

So, I chosed 999 becouse it seemed to me the highest limit at which ships can still combat decently, and appear to be able to dock. But the music changes when it comes to capital ships: you must be carefull, since they can not decelerate so easily so their docking must be overwatched... Actually, they have neither the time to reach the limit of 999 since acceleration is also slow, so there shouldn't be any incident...

I'm still testing the fight response of small-medium fighters. They handle the speed mcuh better than expected. it seems to me even they are less stupid... I mean, since it's more difficoult for the player to catch them, they seem so.
The "fly away and turn around" strategy of AI (I think that's the most common i see) works better with higher speed becouse the player can not get on its tail so easily as before. Remember that NP ships are unable to undestand if you're targeting them and if you're following them, it was a bad advantage for the player that I didn't like.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Aaaah... so the Slipstream drive makes you even faster than 999 m/s? Eeeeexcellent... Will the slipstream speeds of various ship classes be different? Or is that a question that Cycrow could answer better?

How long does it generally take to cross a sector, north to south gate or east to west gate, at 999m/s? What about at slipstream speed?

Nice to hear that fighting AI is working alright at high speeds... I'm actually looking forward to more edgy dogfights and chases

[Realspace]

Unfortunally I don't know the real speed of the Slipstream since, as said, it freezes my game ... I'm probably doing something wrong with installation ...

About the AI, I suggest you give a try and see if you like the new combat style. Remember that guns are now 5x faster and consequently 5x larger range. You can shoot the enemy from longer distance ... but:

1) the more distant, the more difficult for the shoot to catch teh target, even if the bullet is faster

2) you risk to go out of energy with your cannons if you shoot too early

3) you miss the target if you wait too much (ships are FAAAAAAAASSSSSTTT......)

4) forget to shoot down a small ship using an HEPT, you need fast guns for fast ships

I love all this

About crossing ,well:

- vanilla game has 50-100 km gate distances and ships going at 150 average speed

- my mod has gate distances at 1000-2000 km and ships going all at 999. But you must consider the lower acceleration

I let the calculation to you

In any case: I HATE the SETA

[Tenlar Scarflame]

So you propose to abolish SETA entirely? I like how you think.

Hmmm... so it WOULD take about the same amount of time without the acceleration difference. So the acceleration difference must be pretty drastic then? And obviously without SETA, crossing a sector would take a little thumb-twiddling. Yay slipstream.

Though, I wonder, how does all of this affect OOS combat?

[Realspace]

Though, I wonder, how does all of this affect OOS combat?

... I don't know

[unfunf]

Since you haven't modified damage or fire rate, it really shouldn't have any adverse effect on OOS combat.

[JBL]

Will this replace SETA? or will it still be there and if so how will SETA tie into your changes? I dislike the SETA as well and agree that something more realaistic is needed after all X3 is in the future

No pressure but do you think you will have the XTM version ready by yesterday

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Just flew into Great Trench today... ZOMG gorgeous!!!

*sigh* if only my graphics card would shade correctly... the beauty would be completed...

[Realspace]

I'm half way to finish the retouching of galaxy. It is a structure and cosmetic change that improves alot the beauty of the game and, my 5 c opinion, creates a more realistic galaxy.
This idea was somehow put in the vanilla game but just partially, it seems like the creators after preparing all that good stuff, got hurried just at the final stage of tehir work: the galaxy layot
The general idea is this. As axample. Argon Prime is the main abitable planet of the system. I assumed that every system has 1 abitable planet, well I know, binary planets, terraformed planet (Mars could be terraformed). So some exception is there. Then from Argon Prime you can fly to its moons (inabitaded). Essentially the system spams on 2-3 sectors (in SCI-FI usually 'sector' is used to delimitate vast part of a galaxy including several systems, but it's not the case of X3)
So, if you want to jump to other systems, you must first fly to one of the moons. Moons are the "transfer point" of the system. Sectors are no more all connected in a "random" way, they are groupped into systems connected through the "transfer points"
So teh actual layout looks like this
[ external image ]

Cosmetically, the sectors belonging to the same system share the same background and sun, of course. Then, assuming the galaxy map being a part of a spiral galaxy, the background change accordingly: the southern sectors are remoter and the northern are nearer to the core of the galaxy, so the more you go "north" the bigger the white galaxy core appear on backgroound. Then, when you go into nebulae, sometime first you find yourself in the border, so still can see stars, then going inside the nebula is bigger and brighter. There is a map I'm inspired by, I already put it in thi post, I think..

After galaxy completed, the next step is to eliminate jumpgates between main planet and moons (or neighbour inabitable planet, as e.g. Earth-Mars) and just leave the gates connecting the many transfer points (e.g. Earth Moon <-> Io or Europa; Earth Moon <-> some Proxima Centauri inabitable planet's Moon). Then from moons one can treavel to the planets, but not directly jump there.

Unfortunally you can not simply eliminate jumpgates, and use a script to tranfer you, becouse this wai AI ships would be unable to jump away.
Also for this I need the help of Cycrow, who is working at a script that work also with NP ships, for its Star trek mod.

So, I foresee a release very soon but without this enhancement that requires some scripting, for now only a better layout and cosmetic, and the idea of transfer point partially put in place

[Tenlar Scarflame]

If you're in a pinch, you could make "in-system" gates different and just call them something else.

For example, the gates that link to other sector blocks (systems) would be the current X3 gates created by the ancients to travel massive interstellar distances. Whereas, the gates that link sectors to other sectors within a system could be a new gate, a much simpler construct that simply acts as a waypoint / monitoring station, and calibrates the vessel's slipstream drive as it passes through the ring to arrive precisely at the waypoint on the other side. There'd be no wormhole, just a very very large ring-shaped station, much lower tech than the original Jump Gates. Up for some modeling? You could even potentially make these destructable, and able to be reconstructed by the AI. Gigantic Xenon convoy following your Titan as you pass into Argon core space? Nail the waypoint behind you and stall their advance. ^^

Doing it this way could also open you up to placing several waypoint stations within a sector that go to the same sector, just different parts. No more bottlenecks, except between systems.

[Realspace]

I like this way of putting it. It's exactley the idea behind. More than local gates I like the transfer points such as military stations or similar that, as you say, give you the coordinates for orbital travel. ... but I don't know how to do it without using something like gates, maybe invisible gates. The only important thing is they must be UNTARGETTABLE, so you can just travel across not jump in from other sectors. But this is viable. You change the gate models with a station having some kind of big invisible ring near it (an hidden gate) so when you pass neare that station you are transferred to the neighbour system (planet <-> transfer point). But you can not target this station from OS as you make now with gates. Only the real gates (transfer point <-> transfer point) can be targeted from OS.

Or, the station could be as you say a circular one, some kind of TRADE LANE start, but not fixed as the Freelancer. Properly it points to the momentary right trajectory to enter the orbit of the moon or planet it is aiming, and gives you the initial push, some kind of space/time distortion but not as gates. One could even create a new cinematic for this, not a blue tunnel, better a light-white tunnel inside normal space

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Either way would be cool. It could even just be navigation buoy of some kind, with a very large area around the buoy being the jump-in / jump out zone. That way it would make sense to have multiple waypoints (buoys) in a single sector connecting to waypoints in a neighboring sector.

Why untargettable? Especially if they're buoys / waypoint stations. Just wondering.

Also... any idea how the AI would handle the multiple-gates-to-the-same-sector business? Would it correctly pick the shortest distances?

This is some really exciting stuff you've got cooking, Realspace. Sorry if I'm bombarding you with ideas, that's what I do when I'm excited

[Laureati]

Pretend it's kind of like Babylon 5, and the jumpgate is simply a stabilised wormhole. The gate keeps the wormhole open, creating a premament, stable jump event. That's how I've rationalised the gate technology.

You could put a station near a gate, but the gate could be anywhere in-sector, even right in the middle, because all it is, is a portal to the next sector / galaxy / whatever.

[Laureati]

Loved the images on your screenshots!

I was so up to giving your backgrounds a try but then your file hosting site refused to let me download it. Some crap about exceeding the download limit (think it's something to do with how my cable ISP assigns IPs).

You mind adding a mirror site or an alternative file sharing host?

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Now thinking out loud... I wonder if it's possible to designate the system-to-system jump gates and the sector-to-sector waypoints as using different types of jumpdrive to function? As in, you can only jump to a sector's buoy within the same system as you using an in-system jumpdrive (a witchspace sort of device, instantaneous slipstream speed? something like that. ), and you can only jump to a warp gate using a galactic jump drive (the jumpdrive as we know it in X3.) Something to ponder. More that you'd have the change, though, so I'd completely understand if you let that be ^^

They could be called a Witchspace Drive and a Jump Drive, to differentiate. The jump drive could, perhaps, be fueled by something other than Energy Cells and require vastly more energy to use (quantum tubes/ crystals maybe?), while the Witchspace Drive would run on E-cells but have a very limited (in-system) range.