Feature Request (EL) Racing Rings - Solar Panel - Cockpit modding

[SamKillitson]

Would it be possible in the future to add racing ring sections to the build or deploy menus? I'd like to lay out a huge track around and through a player made station. Sort of an agility testing/training facility. Even a solid ring with collision would be fine at a cost of metal.

Also, while I was thinking about it, cleaning and maintaining solar panels could be a lot more complex and fun if the panels were part of the build deploy menus. I can see some interesting configurations and tasks laid out both for building and cleaning with Quests included and possibly requiring the repair beam as well as the tractor/mining beam. Again, a test of agility requiring movement inside a tight area in order to repair and more surface to clean.

Finally, I would like a little more information on cockpit modding, where are the files? And is it even possible to do it with an open source program such as Blender? What are the issues?
I don't see any cockpits emerging so I'm thinking it must be limited to the more expensive solutions like 3DSMax but I'd like to know for sure.

Thanks.

[Edited on 2-25-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Edited on 2-25-2016 by SamKillitson]

[SamKillitson]

Also I had asked for a feature back in Mercenary that would help speed up the process of aligning the ship before jumps and I got it!
R Cntrl for the win, thank you!

I haven't taken the time to thank you before now Vice. The entire game is amazing, all of the best from times before and so many improvements and here I am asking for more!
Thank you!

[Edited on 2-25-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Sinbad]

I like those ideas... nice way to test/improve skills on maneuvering your ship.

I don't know much about modding cockpits (I'm sure someone more skilled than me will come and answer you)... but here's the link for info about Cutomizing and Modding EL (you can find it on the Downloads page of the website):

Customizing Kit for Evochron Legacy

[haloterm]

My main problem here is that you want rings. The rings you see in the game currently are virtual. They disappear once the race is over. So I imagine they just get projected on the windshields of the participating racers. This is a good solution because it doesn't pollute the environment

An alternative to your suggestion could be that you build something like small unobstrusive perimeter stations. You could use them to mark areas, and maybe they can have a "mode" which can be "activated" to let them project rings on your windshield during a race. They could maybe also used for other purposes, not just the "special interest topic" of the racing rings.


Your other suggestion I like much more. Solar cleaning could indeed be more consistent if the solar arrays were part of existing stations. The current solar arrays seem a arbitrarily placed; they would make more sense if connected somehow to the stations. Maybe the cleaning could also have an effect - maybe energy output gets reduced if the arrays are not cleaned, thus reducing station's shield strength.

[Marvin]

Solar cleaning could indeed be more consistent if the solar arrays were part of existing stations. The current solar arrays seem a arbitrarily placed; they would make more sense if connected somehow to the stations.

Dave can correct me if I'm wrong but, as far as I know, microwaves or some kind of electromagnetic energy would be far more practical for "linking" a large object to a solar array. That way, the array could be placed in a location which optimizes its ability to absorb solar energy. If too close to a station, much of that energy might be blocked by the station itself. (Admittedly, it would be cool if the solar array had some kind of thingamajig which looks like an EM transmitter.)

[SamKillitson]

Like the Power Supply chain in The Transporter quest.

I try to imagine things like this before I suggest them so that I feel they are plausible if not realistic but not so rigid in concept or complex that they would throw a wrench into any other part of the game or ask more than could be coded within the limits of the engine.
Fantastic things are fine and good enough, the immersion is there just from the activities we already have, anything new doesn't need to be exactly connected to any other part, just believable.

So a player quest that involves repairing a sequence of power supplies and their adjoined solar panels that would need cleaning as well and not all necessarily in a straight line but Power then at 90 degrees a panel and so on in a huge grid and add some more complex models for the panels that would involve some agility like flying inside to repair the internals.

About the rings, if one were to design a quest (player made) around them then that in itself could generate the rings.
I'm not sure how you could place the race grid for a quest though.
If I could do it, it would be a massive station wrapped crazy race.

I'm just dreaming lol.

[SamKillitson]

On the cockpit mods I haven't found or rather figured out how to find the actual files to mod. I read the how to in the customizing kit but I'm lost as to where the cockpit.x is located. I just want to edit the existing one a little for visibility.

[Edited on 2-25-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Misunderstood Wookie]

Same here...

I can import a model from the game to max or blender & I know how to export it.
I know how too configure the ships .ini file to use a custom frame design and I know where the hull template files are to use as a base.

Vice gave me the basic diffuse maps for each of the class of ship civ<mili<capital big thanks to him which was real nice of him as those are not included in of the mod kit documentation and sample kit available. I also am somewhat understanding the numbering system where whatever hull you see in the frame designer in game is the number to use example the third civ frame down the list would be "ship03.x"

However the mod kit does not include any cockpit references, I may to talk to vice maybe he might be extremely nice and give me the base cockpit design for civ and military frames as that would be helpful for texture redesigns and cockpit smoothing.


Lastly
I saw a cockpit floating around here for Merc the Perch I believe it was called it would be possible to convert the model over but beyond that I have no idea how to texture the thing.

[Edited on 2/26/2016 by Misunderstood Wookie]

[matchbox2022]

Like the Power Supply chain in The Transporter quest.

I try to imagine things like this before I suggest them so that I feel they are plausible if not realistic but not so rigid in concept or complex that they would throw a wrench into any other part of the game or ask more than could be coded within the limits of the engine.
Fantastic things are fine and good enough, the immersion is there just from the activities we already have, anything new doesn't need to be exactly connected to any other part, just believable.

So a player quest that involves repairing a sequence of power supplies and their adjoined solar panels that would need cleaning as well and not all necessarily in a straight line but Power then at 90 degrees a panel and so on in a huge grid and add some more complex models for the panels that would involve some agility like flying inside to repair the internals.

About the rings, if one were to design a quest (player made) around them then that in itself could generate the rings.
I'm not sure how you could place the race grid for a quest though.
If I could do it, it would be a massive station wrapped crazy race.

I'm just dreaming lol.

This could be done, but it would be a very painful process.
It wouldn't be virtual and use a LOT of metal
Best analogy is exactly what I'm doing, but your's is a more grander scale ironically.

Build a LOT of one module into the largest the course will be let's say, a 10k by 10k cube. Then, you shoot out the tunnel you want to build, test, shoot some more, just like how water makes caves through rock basically.

Not gonna lie, I'm doing smth similar and it's painful with only one person....and the majority of my idea involves hollow spaces, your's would have to be an entire solid cube at first to work the way I think you want.

[matchbox2022]

Same here, I know how to import a model from the game to max or blender I know how to export it.
I know how the configure the ships ini file to use a custom frame design and I know where the template models.

Vice gave me the basic diffuse maps for each of the class of ship civ<mili<capital which was real nice of him as those are not included in any of the mod kit available. I also am somewhat understanding the numbering system where whatever hull you see in the frame designer in game is the number to use example the third civ frame down the list would be "ship03.x"

However the mod kit does not include any cockpit references, I may to talk to vice maybe he might be extremely nice and give me the base cockpit design for civ and military frames as that would be helpful for texture redesigns.

I saw a cockpit floating around here for Merc the Perch I believe it was called it would be possible to convert the model over but beyond that I have no idea how to texture the thing.

I miss the perch....
And the coffee button it had.

[Misunderstood Wookie]

I miss the perch....
And the coffee button it had.

The hard part is not getting the model into Legacy it is textures as there are no samples available for the existing cockpit in terms of everything other than the HUD display side of it I have nothing to use for a base to know where to point my little brush on so to speak and make new diffuse and normals.

Getting the perch model updated for Legacy is not hard in itself from the model standpoint just a few things needs to be added to the model. Getting the thing working in-game also not too hard if all you want is a white or black cockpit haha with no nice little interfaces beeping and booping around anything other than the hud elements.

Since the hud elements can be scaled and re located to any area on the cockpit easily enough.

[SamKillitson]

We need Customizing Kit for Evochron Legacy 2.0, The lost episodes, lol.

[SamKillitson]

I miss the perch....
And the coffee button it had.

The hard part is not getting the model into Legacy it is textures as there are no samples available for the existing cockpit in terms of everything other than the HUD display side of it I have nothing to use for a base to know where to point my little brush on so to speak and make new diffuse and normals.

Getting the perch model updated for Legacy is not hard in itself from the model standpoint just a few things needs to be added to the model. Getting the thing working in-game also not too hard if all you want is a white or black cockpit haha with no nice little interfaces beeping and booping around anything other than the hud elements.

Since the hud elements can be scaled and re located to any area on the cockpit easily enough.

I was just now able to get the perch to load in game with its textures and no error messages but it is a bit jumbled...
Anyway, renaming the files was the key,

I renamed the jpg as,
ccpit1.jpg
ccpit1normal.jpg
ccpit1shader.jpg

and the .x as,
ccpit1.x
ccpit1displays.x
ccpit1glass.x

And don't forget to rename the textures in ccpitshader.txt.

Knowing that, I'm thinking you might be able to do a little bit of 3DS magick.
Keep in mind, it is jumbled and unusable but it did load into the game. Maybe you can find my mistake.

And my apologies for what I said about the kit above. I think the information to do this is right there, you just need to know what your doing to pull it off.
Good Luck!

[Marvin]

How is it jumbled?

[SamKillitson]

How is it jumbled?

Textures are loading in places they shouldn't. Its probably my mistake I just don't know how to diagnose it.

Its pretty easy to test it, just rename perch files as Vice said and load it up for a look.

[DaveK]

Solar cleaning could indeed be more consistent if the solar arrays were part of existing stations. The current solar arrays seem a arbitrarily placed; they would make more sense if connected somehow to the stations.

Dave can correct me if I'm wrong but, as far as I know, microwaves or some kind of electromagnetic energy would be far more practical for "linking" a large object to a solar array. That way, the array could be placed in a location which optimizes its ability to absorb solar energy. If too close to a station, much of that energy might be blocked by the station itself. (Admittedly, it would be cool if the solar array had some kind of thingamajig which looks like an EM transmitter.)

Spot on Marvin. Serious work is going on to design systems of orbital solar collectors that would transfer the energy to ground stations via tight microwave beams. Part of the issue is avoiding cooking the populous of the beam wanders! Orbital collectors can be arranged to that they are in sunlight for most of the time - no more cloudy day and night time limits. They can even be the start of an energy collection Dyson Sphere - it dosn't have to be complete, nor solid to work well

[Misunderstood Wookie]

I miss the perch....
And the coffee button it had.

The hard part is not getting the model into Legacy it is textures as there are no samples available for the existing cockpit in terms of everything other than the HUD display side of it I have nothing to use for a base to know where to point my little brush on so to speak and make new diffuse and normals.

Getting the perch model updated for Legacy is not hard in itself from the model standpoint just a few things needs to be added to the model. Getting the thing working in-game also not too hard if all you want is a white or black cockpit haha with no nice little interfaces beeping and booping around anything other than the hud elements.

Since the hud elements can be scaled and re located to any area on the cockpit easily enough.

I was just now able to get the perch to load in game with its textures and no error messages but it is a bit jumbled...
Anyway, renaming the files was the key,

I renamed the jpg as,
ccpit1.jpg
ccpit1normal.jpg
ccpit1shader.jpg

and the .x as,
ccpit1.x
ccpit1displays.x
ccpit1glass.x

And don't forget to rename the textures in ccpitshader.txt.

Knowing that, I'm thinking you might be able to do a little bit of 3DS magick.
Keep in mind, it is jumbled and unusable but it did load into the game. Maybe you can find my mistake.

And my apologies for what I said about the kit above. I think the information to do this is right there, you just need to know what your doing to pull it off.
Good Luck!

If you want to zip up and send me the modded files I will see what can be done... Sounds like it's probably a texture thing as I saw you renamed the shader to glass well a shader texture isn't for glass lol. But yes some 3DS magix and it should come good.

(edit)
In-case you don't get back to me in-time I will rename the files and check it out. Thanks for this post.


[Edited on 3/3/2016 by Misunderstood Wookie]

[Marvin]

Way back when, the guy who designed the Perch cockpit also posted some screenshots of the actual frame ... with textures. If anyone has the expertise to actually build the ship, it would go great with its own cockpit.

[Marvin]

Btw, here's the original post by ijon ... it was his ship: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... #pid132160

[SamKillitson]

I'm pretty sure you can grab the mod on Seejay's site in the mercenary section.
I didn't mod anything, I just changed the names of the files to see if it would load in game.
Badabing, it did, no errors.

I think the model itself is going to need to be moved a bit if I remember correctly, forward.





[Edited on 3-3-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Misunderstood Wookie]

Emailed Vice.

He is thinking of a HUD Race type of system for custom race courses he likes the idea of something like that.
I suggested a start and end RING which triggers the course on the HUD show support for it if you like it as Vice has not really seen much request for custom races.

[Marvin]

...Vice has not really seen much request for custom races.

In EM you could actually generate the default race course where half of the course was planetside ... it was the only way I could beat Cindy (she usually failed to slow down). But, try as I might, I couldn't generate one in an asteroid field (for obvious reasons). So the problem became: You do the race two or three times ... and then what?

[matchbox2022]

Wow. A lot happened here.

PERCH WORKS?!?!?!!
...kinda?!?!

I'm definitely for this race thing.

And that's pretty cool about EM, didn't know..

mind you Ive been too busy lately to play.

[Misunderstood Wookie]

Yea perch works it's a bit finicky though would require texture remapping however it worked just fine also need to remake the gauges and HUD Text alignments for EL.

[SamKillitson]

Looking over this guys amazing mod, >>> Daedalus <<< http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12363
gave me the clue I needed to get Perch to load.
It was right there in my face and I did not at first see it because I failed to read with comprehension. The naming convention has changed from Mercenary and it was plainly documented in the modding instructions.

The only other thing I could ask and I think it is just too much, would be a simple way to import and export certain models into freeware modeling software such as blender. I fully understand the complications and I have no skills or skin in the game so I can't expect much in that regard.

Racing is a great way to test agility in any frame and find the sweet spot for other flight objectives.
I could see a race with 5 players, each docked at a door in station and all flying an equal distance through the rings to a larger ring that could accommodate five wide. This would be bad ass.
Anything that adds to racing will be a huge plus.


Edited to make the link work. -Marvin-


[Edited on 3-3-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Edited on 3-3-2016 by SamKillitson]

[Edited on 3-3-2016 by Marvin]