Star Wars faction mod (imperial/alliance)

posted on February 27th, 2013, 5:29 am

So, there's been lots of talk about different star wars mods, and many of them look pretty sweet. I'm keeping tabs especially on the Star Wars: Fleet Operations, which is looking very promising.

A while ago, I started on 2 Star Wars factions. This was primarily because I had grown a little tired of the 5 stock factions in FO and wanted to expand the game. I had an easy time modifying the ODF's and adding new ships and stations, but I ran into a few (extremely frustrating) issues when I tried to create models:

1. Most modeling software is either outdated or extremely expensive.

2. Apparently, it was someone's bright* idea to create a Milkshape importer that only imported stock AO files, which was created in lieu of a true importer to protect files that modified a video game from being modified. I don't wish to debate the broken circular logic behind that decision, but the bottom line is that it made it pretty hard to study some high poly works so I could create my own models. I fixed the source code and tried to recompile the file, but discovered that Visual Basic 2012 is unable to correctly recompile the dll.

3. When I turned with exasperation to other modder's works, very few Star Wars SOD files exist on Filefront. The models that I found were extremely low resolution.

So, essentially, I had the ability to create a faction, but I was unable to create or import high poly models. I gave up.

But... I'm interested again after seeing some of these awesome mods.

---

That's where you all come in! I'm posting this to see if there would be any community support for a mod that adds two new factions to fleetops. If I was to finish the rest of this project, is there any chance we could make it a community mod? I would love to work with the intelligent community here.

Here is some basic information about the two factions (and how they are different and balanced with other factions in FO):

Rebel Alliance

Strengths: Sabotage, mobility, raiding
Weaknesses: Buildings are weaker then most factions, larger ships are extremely slow

Special Units: Mobile Resource Collector - a mobile resource collector, similar to the Species 1872 collector; some ships can be upgraded to mobile HQ

Special Buildings: Recruitment Center- allows an infinite trickle of various ships to 'warp in' and join the alliance.

Special Abilities: Raiding abilities are extremely common. So are abilities that disable engine and weapons subsystems.

Short Description: The Alliance excels at sabotage and infiltration. A large Alliance armada contains a mobile HQ and collector. However, alliance structures are easily destroyed and should not be considered permanent.

Galactic Empire

Strengths: Very extensive techtree, powerful stations

Weaknesses: Low defensive values on most ships. Many ships have a critical weakness that another faction may exploit. Many large ships cost exorbitant amounts of money.

Special Buildings: Superweapon Chassis- allows a superweapon to be built; SuperStarDestroyer Chassis- allows an extremely powerful vessel to be built

Special Units: Super Star Destroyer - starship that can rival a borg cube in firepower; Eclipse- Class Star Destroyer- a Super Star Destroyer that trades some weapons for a devestating super laser.

Short Description: The empire generally expands from a fortified position, and then tries to capture and fortify as many moon pairs as possible to fuel it's extremely large techtree.

posted on February 27th, 2013, 5:32 am

So, to clarify what the point of this thread is, I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in contributing time to making this work. I wouldn't be able to start in earnest on this for a week or two, but I could upload the mod's files to the internet so people would be able to contribute.

[Adm. Zaxxon]

posted on February 27th, 2013, 5:55 am

Last edited by Adm. Zaxxon on February 28th, 2013, 1:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, when I release my mod, you are welcome to use any code or sprites in it. The models you would need to ask Amateur as they were done by both of us or, or just him.

But yeah, I'm very happy to share if you are at all interested in copying features from my mod.

posted on February 27th, 2013, 3:35 pm

Please read about my mod here: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=11965&view=unread#unread
because I made my own Star Wars Mod for Fleet Ops, and probably could be interesting for you to create your personal Star Wars Mod.

Regards,
Miklos

posted on February 28th, 2013, 3:56 am

If you do a Rebel Alliance faction you should have upgrades available for the stations, maybe make your faction progressive from the first ships of the Alliance to the New Republic. I have something similar planned for my mod using the T-Wing and Z-95 headhunters as 'earlyhanger1 & 2' then upgrading those to 'normalhanger' which is X-wings and Y-wings, I also have 'advancedhangers' E-wings and B-wings.

posted on February 28th, 2013, 6:15 pm

Well, when I release my mod, you are welcome to use any code or sprites in it. The models you would need to ask Amateur as they were done by both of us or, or just him.

But yeah, I'm very happy to share if you are at all interested in copying features from my mod.

Thank you! This is highly appreciated! I'm looking forward to seeing your work.

If you do a Rebel Alliance faction you should have upgrades available for the stations, maybe make your faction progressive from the first ships of the Alliance to the New Republic. I have something similar planned for my mod using the T-Wing and Z-95 headhunters as 'earlyhanger1 & 2' then upgrading those to 'normalhanger' which is X-wings and Y-wings, I also have 'advancedhangers' E-wings and B-wings.

I like this. I haven't though too much about the fighter system yet. I'll definitely keep the hanger idea in mind!

posted on February 28th, 2013, 6:43 pm

The Rebels are also planned to have a techtree that is based on 'recruiting' other factions, for example researching 'Imperial Defectors' at the recruitment center gives you Nebulon B frigates, researching 'Correlians' give you Correlian Corvettes, 'Mon Calimari' gives you Mon Cal Cruisers, etc.

These are the minimum Rebel and Imperial ship models I would need:

(anything in parenthesis is optional)

Rebel

Corellian Shipyard
--------------------------------
Corellian Cruiser: light destroyer
Corellian Corvette: support vessel
(Corellian Transport): fighter carrier

Rebel Shipyard
--------------------------------
Nebulon-B Frigate: all around cruiser
Rebel Frigate MK II: agressive cruiser

Mon Cal Staryard
--------------------------------
(Mon Cal Frigate): support ship
Mon Cal Cruiser: defensive battleship
(Mon Cal Battleship): crazy amazing defensive battleship

Alliance Fighters:
--------------------------------
(Z-95): The equivalent of a Tie Fighter in strength
X-Wing: Powerful fighter (collapse wings special ability)
Y-Wing: Powerful bomber (good vs. ships, Ion cannon special ability)
A-Wing: Fast but weak Interseptor (good vs. other fighters)
(B-Wing): Expensive but powerful fighter/bomber (change between fighter/bomber special ability)
(E-Wing): Powerful Escort fighter (about as powerful as X-Wing, but grants a defensive bonus to the ship that carries them)


Imperial

Axum Staryard:
--------------------------------
(Imperial Patrol Corvette): Support vessel
(Imperial Patrol Cruiser): Light Destroyer
Imperial Escort: Light Defensive Cruiser
Alcamator I: All around Cruiser
(Alcamator II: Agressive Cruiser)

Kuat Staryard:
--------------------------------
Victory Class Star Destroyer: Defensive Cruiser
(Interdictor Class Star Destroyer): Heavy Support Vessel
Venerator Class Star Destroyer: Defensive Battleship
Imperial Class Star Destroyer: Agressive Battleship

Fondor Staryard:
--------------------------------
Super Star Destroyer: Super rediculously powerful Battleship
(Eclipse- Class Super Star Destroyer): Super Star Destroyer with Superlaser

Imp. Fighters:
--------------------------------
TIE Fighter: Standard weak Imperial fighter
TIE Bomber: Standard weak Imperial bomber (good vs. ships)
TIE Interceptor: Standard weak Imperial interceptor (good vs. other fighters)
(TIE Defender): Powerful tie fighter class (expensive, but good vs. everything)

posted on February 28th, 2013, 8:24 pm

I know the Rebels are the starfighter jockeys, with Imperial starfighters being little more than cannon fodder, but ever since playing the X-Wing series i've always thought of it sort of like this

Z-95 Headhunter = TIE Fighter
X-Wing = TIE Interceptor
Y-WIng = Assault Gunboat
A-Wing = TIE Advanced (TIE Avenger)
B-Wing = Missile Boat
E-Wing = TIE Defender

Gives a nice balanced feel to it. Of course they are not perfect matches (TIE Advanced has more guns than the A-Wing etc) but fleshes out the Empire quite nicely. Food for thought?

EDIT: And by the same token, the Rebellion could have MC40 Light Calamaris as a match for a Victory or a Venator, and a Strike Cruiser as a match for an Acclamator.