A mod never to be released

mbhm · Post by **mbhm** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 08:37

I can remember some people complaining, that 4 clusters would be to small to play withing and even one or the other wanting their X-Map back. That brought me to the really, really odd idea to repaint the map from X:AP (and maybe even add one or two sectors).

I went even as far as grouping the sectors to clusters (and yes, the plan was to make a X:AP sector into a X:Rebirth sector) and even paint the cluster map in Rebirth (a part of it can be seen in 'Modders Playground' as the 4 main cluster were repositioned into their place at that new/old map). But when it went to creating the sectors within the clusters, including some Zones (5/Sector, which should be a minimum) and connecting them with gates and highways, i came back to the earth.

We are talking of something about 36 cluster, 200+ sectors and therefore 1000+ Zones, lots of regions, highways, superhighways and gates. And that doesn't include cluster/sector backgrounds or even stations (and neither Borons nor Paranids exist, yet).

I'm not sure exactly why i'm writing this. Perhaps to make people think a little bit about how BIG the X:Rebirth universe could get, and how much effort would be to put into it, to get it to that scale. Maybe i simply want to tell a little story about modding for people to have something to amuse themselves with.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 12:45

well, thats a lot of work, yes.. but you are not the only one who is Mapping

i am currently getting into it, too

i am not really good with collobarative work, though - but i will respect the Places you choose and dont use them

(and i am not really planning to re-create currently non-available Systems - there are enough interesting Places in the existing Rebirth Universe, for example in Albion there are 3 Places with nice Scenery for Sectors and about 3 more to fill the Space in the Cluster Map)

one thing which should imo be changed is the Naming Scheme for Clusters, Sectors, Zones and HWs - because the one used by EGO sucks.. (just for the new stuff) - i changerd mine last weekend to a more intuitive one before i continued with adding stuff, before it got too much..

diabolos099 · Post by **diabolos099** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 12:46

sounds like a bunch of work

the idea sounds great nontheless and lets me dream of a X:R merged with the complexity/commandsystem and scale of X3-AP which will most likely never happen.

Stonehouse · Post by **Stonehouse** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 14:21

isnt the Lost Colony Mod a step to it?
Ok "just" a new cluster with 2 sectors ... but i like it

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 15:57

Stonehouse wrote:isnt the Lost Colony Mod a step to it?

Keep in mind, Lost Colony was originally intended (still is in part) to accompany my modding guide (sticky); which was posted coincident with game release to help modders get a start with this game.

I am pleased to see the work mbhm has done figuring out how to create highways and other things and I am encouraged to see others exploring the possibilities of this sort of thing as well.

Yes, a full recreation/replication of X3 universe would be a huge undertaking and there are lots of factors to consider in doing so. Nonetheless, I suspect we'll see modders creating new places to explore as time goes on.

In many ways, the Lost Colony mod represents my own modders sandbox and I will continue adding things to to it that I think players might enjoy and/or may be helpful to other modders.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 16:32

mbhm is not the only one who figured it out, i did, too

there is just one thing missing for me: Objects outside of my tubes are not shown, even when they should.. i think i am missing regions for that, but not really sure.. someone got another idea about the cause maybe? because i cannt find a link between regions, zones and tubes..

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 16:41

UniTrader wrote:mbhm is not the only one who figured it out, i did, too there is just one thing missing for me: Objects outside of my tubes are not shown, even when they should.. i think i am missing regions for that, but not really sure.. someone got another idea about the cause maybe? because i cannt find a link between regions, zones and tubes..

Just for clarification (you may already know), regions are primarily where resources (gas, asteroids, etc) are defined. They typically (but not always) reside within zones. Tubes generally enter and exit within zones because that is the purpose of them (tubes), but they are not necessarily dependent on zone location, presence or absence.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 16:53

most regions dont have ressources, so its not their primary purpose

and every Vanilla Zone has a Region assoicated with it - at least by Macro(?) Name - my new Sector currently has none and i dont see things outside the Tube when passsing through a Zone, just where the Exit is (not sure about the Entry) so this was a possibility. for Vanilla Zones this works fine, so there is some missing Link there.. maybe i make a Package when at home with my current Status so you can see for yourself ^^

PS and Pathfinding doesnt work currently, too.. only the Exit Zone is considered as valid Destination for the Tube - not Zones it passes through.. not sure if it is related to the first matter, though..

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 18:35

*Double Post so this is not missed*

ok, i have put my current Progress in a package and added a Savegame.. just load it and enter the Tube in front of you -> the Station in sight disappears.. leave the Tube right away and it re-appears..

DL-Link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3r3n9rhzfz48 ... tension.7z

PS not intended for regular Gameplay because its not finished and not toroughly tested ^^

mbhm · Post by **mbhm** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 19:10

Regions also contain fogs, nebulas and those regions where you can find containers.

I thought about creating the earth cluster as that one with 20+ Sectors alone would make up for an standalone-mod, but as i get it Observe is already at it, so i don't want to reinvent the wheel. On the other hand, the Yaki space also could be put together into a nice cluster, especially as i remember the Yaki sectors from XTM which give a nice hint about what could be put there.

Argh.. so much things that buzz through my brain.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 19:29

mbhm wrote:Argh.. so much things that buzz through my brain.

Indeed! Welcome to the club.

mbhm · Post by **mbhm** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 21:48

I had a look at your mod, it's an interesting effect, but i can't contribute too much as i haven't added a station ever. I tried to include a region into your zone, but it either didn't have any effect or he didn't load the region when loading that save.

However, i can 'help' you with your problem with those sectorhighways. You did rotate the sectors within the cluster, but when doing so, you have to completely recalculate every position-tag of entry- and exitpoint and every splinetube within every affected sectorhighway in sechighways.xml. I'm not sure, if that's really worth the efford as you can't simply do the same 'trick' with those positions that you did with the values in clusters.xml because then you would have to do that with the positions of the gatezones in the sectors, too. If you do that they will be out of position in relation to the zones so you'd have to change the zones and doing that, the game starts over because of the zonehighways.

Post by **UniTrader** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 22:06

mbhm wrote:However, i can 'help' you with your problem with those sectorhighways. You did rotate the sectors within the cluster, but when doing so, you have to completely recalculate every position-tag of entry- and exitpoint and every splinetube within every affected sectorhighway in sechighways.xml. I'm not sure, if that's really worth the efford as you can't simply do the same 'trick' with those positions that you did with the values in clusters.xml because then you would have to do that with the positions of the gatezones in the sectors, too. If you do that they will be out of position in relation to the zones so you'd have to change the zones and doing that, the game starts over because of the zonehighways.

the stuff with Rotating the Sectors is part of my next intended Sector in Omicron, it has nothing to do with Behind Rupture in Albion

i noticed that Omicron is basically a Tower viewed from the Top, which is why its Sectors appear so close to each other in the Map, but my indended Potition is practically on top of Commerce Core, so it is not really useable in the Map -> so i thought about rotation the whole Sector for 90 degrees to spread them better, but to see if it has the intended result i just need the Sectors at first, if this makes their distribution in the Map better i would have done the rest, too

and yep, i did use the wrong Cluster.. that was the stuff i did last - shortly before going to bed last night

just noticed now, and now i know why i didnt notice a difference in OL

simply delete everything after the comment with the rotation stuff..

EDIT: just re-tested in the right Cluster (Sectors only) and it is really better

although i have the feeling that qz should be -1 not 1

- thx for pointing that out

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 22:23

mbhm wrote:I thought about creating the earth cluster as that one with 20+ Sectors alone would make up for an standalone-mod, but as i get it Observe is already at it, so i don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Please don't let whatever I've said I am working on dissuade you from following your ideas. I tend to become side-tracked on new projects, so it's unknown if/when I'll actually release specific ideas in the form of mods. I like your Yaki cluster idea and I encourage you to follow it or anything else that comes to your mind.

mbhm · Post by **mbhm** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 22:57

It's the backgounds, that make me the most headache at the moment.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Mon, 7. Jul 14, 22:59

mbhm wrote:It's the backgounds, that make me the most headache at the moment.

Yet another of the seemingly endless things to unravel.

Post by **UniTrader** » Tue, 8. Jul 14, 18:24

mbhm wrote:It's the backgounds, that make me the most headache at the moment.

what part of them gives you a headache?

btw: i did it: i rotated OL by 90 Degrees

InGame you wont notice that, except for the Map ^^ and OL is HUGE from that view - Radiant Heaven is FAR more distant from the rest than Far Out... estimated twice the distance..

mbhm · Post by **mbhm** » Tue, 8. Jul 14, 23:11

First of all the textures. For some earth sector i'd need quite some textures and i don't know if i could get them from X:TC. Also i don't have any clue how i'd create those rings (see Saturn). But having a look into some xmls it looks like my name changes to Sisyphus, trying to make even a small part of the asteroid belt, placing every asteroid individually and by hand.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Tue, 8. Jul 14, 23:22

There are various places you can get high resolution planet images for free. I have a bunch I used for my X3 Transcend mods. Try searching NASA and other related mapping sites. Here is one: Visible Earth. There are others too.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Tue, 8. Jul 14, 23:47

As for the rings, if you have 3DS Max, you could install the maxscript for importing and see how its done. Transcend did that as did other mods as I recall. There are several ways it can be done. One is a planar disc with the rings image combined with the sphere. Another is more of a cheat where you make the ringed planet as the background image. You can have a combination of "real" asteroids / ice crystals along with the images. Take a look at the regions file. No need to place individual asteroids. Just some suggestions.

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A mod never to be released

A mod never to be released