Is anyone still using the pre-Expansion version of EM?

[DaveK]

Is anyone still using the pre-Expansion version of EM?

I would like to 'tidy up' the Resources thread: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11017 and add the many mods that aren't included yet.

As part of the process, if everyone is playing with EM2, I propose to remove any incompatible mods from the thread to prevent confusion and disappointment

Comments appreciated - it is your thread after all!

[RagingRascal]

you could just slpit it up in 3 sections; EM2 mods, EM mods, and cross compatible.

[DaveK]

you could just slpit it up in 3 sections; EM2 mods, EM mods, and cross compatible.

Thanks for the comment, raging Rascal.

I'm trying for clean, neat and simple - the forum scripting engine isn't designed for this sort of thing - it's not like typing into a WP! I'm having to hard code the formatting in a text editor (just like in the really olden days before wysiwyg! ) I want to create a comprehensive list of mods, background stuff, learning materials etc for the present game - clean and lean will make it easier to avoid errors and dead links creeping in and being missed. There are actually only a few mods that might disappear - for example in EM1, background nebulae were a single image - in EM2 they are made of six images arranged in a cube around the space you are flying in and so EM1 nebulae can't be converted or tweaked - they would need to be totally recreated.

When Vice created and released the Expansion he deliberately made it a free upgrade to avoid the community splitting into two - those who couldn't afford an upgrade and those who could. I really just want to check that there is no-one out there who hasn't upgraded because don't realise.

If everyone is using EM2, and the creator of an EM1 only mod either can't (nebulae for example), doesn't want to (for whatever reasons) or isn't still playing then there's no point in having the mod cluttering up the main post and risking confusing the less confident when it crashes EM2. These earlier mods will still be available on the forum - they simply won't be in the resources thread. Similarly, if a mod is compatible with both EM1 and EM2 then it will be in the resources thread anyway - the fact that it also works with EM1 isn't relevant.

Having trawled through the forum it clear that the amount of stuff the community has and is creating is awesome - I reckon the updated list will be at least half as big again, and that just playing catch up.

[_-Caleb-_]

Hola.

Yep.. for example i play Evochron Alliance 2.0 in my netbook then

I think this: All mods are part of the history of the games, maybe an "classic games mod list" thread is a good idea and the use the new one only for EM2 but is just my opinion...

Regards!

EDIT: I have 2 or 3 users in the spanish community using EM1 for they low-specs PC

[Edited on 10-3-2013 by AdamSelene]

[DaveK]

Thanks for that Adam! If there are EM1 users out there then there should be a list of EM1 compatible mods available for them.

How does this sound (off the top of my head and after midnight ) . . .

The main thread would have all of the EM2 mods (some of which would work with EM1 as well)
A second thread would list the EM1 only mods but also include the EM1/EM2 mods as well.

That way an EM1 and an EM2 player only has one list to look in and can be confident that the mods in 'their' list will work for them?

[Capt_Caveman]

old mods could be updated someday but only if they can still be found
I would keep the download links somewhere

[DaveK]

old mods could be updated someday but only if they can still be found
I would keep the download links somewhere

Part of the update to the resources thread involves me sorting out and rationalising the mass of mods and other stuff I've downloaded in the past as well as downloading any mods I've missed or begging copies of any that are off-line if anyone has them squirrelled away . I must admit I don't trust the cloud for long term storage and people allow file sharing (and YouTube) accounts to lapse.

I suppose if a mod's creator no longer plays or hasn't got time to upgrade a mod (assuming that there is a demand for it) then perhaps another player might be willing to take the upgrade on!

[_-Caleb-_]

Hola.

Maybe if we found some web developer we can make a www.evochronmods.com and put in different sections

Regards!

[DaveK]

Hola.

Maybe if we found some web developer we can make a www.evochronmods.com and put in different sections

Regards!

We've already got one - he's called SeeJay! - founder of [HB], ace combat instructor and all round great guy!

http://evochron.junholt.se/
http://www.evochron2.junholt.se/

SeeJay's in the middle of moving stuff from the first to the second website!





[Edited on 4-10-2013 by DaveK]

[_-Caleb-_]

Hola.

Maybe if we found some web developer we can make a www.evochronmods.com and put in different sections

Regards!

We've already got one - he's called SeeJay! - founder of [HB], ace combat instructor and all round great guy!

http://evochron.junholt.se/
http://www.evochron2.junholt.se/

SeeJay's in the middle of moving stuff from the first to the second website!





[Edited on 4-10-2013 by DaveK]

Hola.

Yes i know i know

I wanted to say is it would be nice to keep the mods somewhere. in the future maybe someone wants to modify or update for the last version of the game.

[Busch]

Really hate to suggest adding more work, Dave. However, there are also those pilots who are still flying the Legends iteration. I do, from time to time, as 'proof of concept' for a few things. The mods that I do have and use for Legends are a few selected HUD, sound, and environmental files. Pretty basic stuff, but welcome never the less. Admittedly, with the advent of Mercs 1 & 2, there's not been much call for Legends, or even Renegades mods. I agree with Adam, though. It might be nice to have a dedicated, inclusive archive for sw3d games, such as what SeeJay has built and maintained for the Mercs side. Yep, lots of work and time consuming. If you like, I'll assist as I am able, maybe vetting the mods offerings as well ?

[Edited on 10-5-2013 by Busch]

[Nigel_Strange]

I have a pre-expansion EM, but it does not work on my system. I think it needs to be on a different drive with slightly tweaked settings, but something doesn't quite work.

Oh well. I'm happy with EM 2.x!

[DORN]

Hi Dave,


Yes, I occasionally fly pre expansion.


Dorn


PS: Thank you for all your work on the Guide. Really appreciate it .

[DaveK]

Hola.

Maybe if we found some web developer we can make a www.evochronmods.com and put in different sections

Regards!

We've already got one - he's called SeeJay! - founder of [HB], ace combat instructor and all round great guy!

http://evochron.junholt.se/
http://www.evochron2.junholt.se/

SeeJay's in the middle of moving stuff from the first to the second website!





[Edited on 4-10-2013 by DaveK]

Hola.

Yes i know i know

I wanted to say is it would be nice to keep the mods somewhere. in the future maybe someone wants to modify or update for the last version of the game.

As part of my project to maintain Viper's Resource thread I'm collecting all of the mods I can get my hands on. For the visual mods (like HUD's and ships, nebulae and warp effects etc) I'm also in the process of producing a cross between a 'coffee table book' and an illustrated shopping catalogue, so pilots can compare HUD setups easily and also pick and choose HUD parts to create their own custom jobs.

RL is settling down and I'm well on the way through my catch up list, but it will be a while yet,I'm afraid.

Hopefully between us SeeJay and I will have a complete set of mods.

[DaveK]

Really hate to suggest adding more work, Dave. However, there are also those pilots who are still flying the Legends iteration. I do, from time to time, as 'proof of concept' for a few things. The mods that I do have and use for Legends are a few selected HUD, sound, and environmental files. Pretty basic stuff, but welcome never the less. Admittedly, with the advent of Mercs 1 & 2, there's not been much call for Legends, or even Renegades mods. I agree with Adam, though. It might be nice to have a dedicated, inclusive archive for sw3d games, such as what SeeJay has built and maintained for the Mercs side. Yep, lots of work and time consuming. If you like, I'll assist as I am able, maybe vetting the mods offerings as well ?

[Edited on 10-5-2013 by Busch]

I don't mind creating things - I just want to avoid creating stuff that no-one actually wants or will use! The truth is, I love creating stuff for this community - it's a way of giving something back for the help, support and friendship I've received!

I'll start with EM-II, then sort out the EM-Original-only stuff and finally if there is a demand create a cache of EL mods. Hopefully, Once I've caught up with what's out there it will be easier to keep things updated (especially EL and EM-Orig)

Busch I would greatly welcome any help and time you can spare!

[SeeJay]

As always your work is amazing Dave and most appreciated.

As you might know, there is a dedicated section for each game on my site and they are waiting to be filled!;)

[Rexor]

... I left the game last winter ..........
... I have only recently installed the new expansion ..................... and aside from the better looks of the stations and the planets ........... everything else seem to me worse (sorry) .....
I like the new cockpits, but I don't like the new hud, I don't like its style, too "heavy", ..... the highlighting of other vessels in the HUD is too big and annoying ................. but these are the less important things !!!!!

The important things, how works the combat, disappointed me :
I don't know if it's just me, but ................ I tried to fight .... and I struggled a lot to hit the enemy ...... the range of the weapons seems decreased and seems to cause less damage ........ the enemies hit me easily, and when they hit me, the ship shakes to the point that often doesn't respond to the controls, ...... the countermeasures seems less effective against the missiles even if the ship is not heat .............................. I spent an hour to try to fight (with the same ship and in the same location where I had just played the game without the expansion few minute before) and it went very badly.
( I'm not a newbie. In 1.8 version, I got high military rank, Starmaster, Evoch E, 500 millions credit ).

Also I had left the game, because I don't like a lot how the ship moves.
I mean, I like the fact that its physics is really realistic, but I would like that was more responsive to the thrusters, more powerful thrusters, both normal thrusters and afterburner, .... to have a better reactivity to direction changes, less drifting, more fast moving, more fast dogfights.
This is what I think.

[Edited on 11-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 11-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 11-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 12-12-2013 by Rexor]

[DaveK]

... I left the game last winter ..........
... I have only recently installed the new expansion ..................... and aside from the better looks of the stations and the planets ........... everything else seem to me worse (sorry) .....
I like the new cockpits, but I don't like the new hud, I don't like its style, too "heavy", ..... the highlighting of other vessels in the HUD is too big and annoying ................. but these are the less important things !!!!!

The important things, how works the combat, disappointed me :
I don't know if it's just me, but ................ I tried to fight .... and I struggled a lot to hit the enemy ...... the range of the weapons seems decreased and seems to cause less damage ........ the enemies hit me easily, and when they hit me, the ship shakes to the point that often doesn't respond to the controls, ...... the countermeasures seems less effective against the missiles even if the ship is not heat .............................. I spent an hour to try to fight (with the same ship and in the same location where I had just played the game without the expansion few minute before) and it went very badly.
( I'm not a newbie. In 1.8 version, I got high military rank, Starmaster, Evoch E, 500 millions credit ).

Also I had left the game, because I don't like a lot how the ship moves.
I mean, I like the fact that his physics is really realistic, but I would like that was more responsive to the thrusters, more powerful thrusters, both with and without IDS, .... to have a better reactivity to direction changes, less drifting, more fast moving, more fast dogfights.
This is what I think.

[Edited on 11-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 11-12-2013 by Rexor]

Welcome back Rexor

Is there anything about ship fight and flight sytems that you do like? It could be a good starting point for sorting out your concerns.

One of the attractions of the game is that it has avoided virtually all aspects of 'arcade combat' - the sort that was described as 'fighter planes in space'. The more true-to-life physics is harder to get the hang of (he says from experience! ) - I'm not good at combat and wasn't before the Expansion. I noticed quite a bit of comment/grumbles in the forum about combat getting harder with the Expansion - even the AI have got more intelligent. In fact the only thing that got easier was that AI ignore you if they are more than 5K away! Pilots said that they'd had to relearn combat techniques but once they'd sorted it then the concerns disappeared.

From what you've said I wonder if Arvoch Alliance, which is combat orientated, might be more matched to what you want. It's also got some really cool graphics (flight trails and awesome cap ships), as well as a different flight system - high speed long distance flight instead of jump drives.

There is a lot of combat advice in the Hints & Tips Guide, though you need to be careful to avoid spoilers!

EDIT: As far as HUD's go there are lots of mod alternatives - and you can mix and match bits from different HUDS - have a look at the resources thread. I'm in the process of trying to compile a list of all the mods available but because this rotten community keep producing more and more it's hard work trying to play catchup!

resources thread



[Edited on 11-12-2013 by DaveK]

[Rexor]

Hi !! Thanks for your attention !


Mainly I like fight, practically I don't care about all of the other aspects except a little exploration ......... but I like the game "open sandbox" ( if my memory doesn't betraying me, and it's the appropriate term ), not mission based, ......... when you can do and go where and when you want, ..... take the missions that you want, when and where you want, ......... also with trade features ... like a realistic universe simulation ................ .
That's the reason why I don't like a lot Arvoch ... .

I had already read "Hints & Tips Guide", 2 years ago, ..... And I think I was good in combat (... I did easily the missions against 7 Vonari, in the Evoch E, but also in certain civilian ships).

For the HUD, I know, it's absolutely not a problem, there are several mods for all the tastes !

It would be great if in Arvoch, after finishing all the missions, you could have the game "open sandbox", with the same universe and features as Evochron .......................

I don't like arcade games, but I don't like the direction who took Evochron ..........
Also IMO is not necessarily more realistic, how can we know how will be fighters in space, but only more difficult.

Evochron, before the expansion, was not very far to satisfy me completely ..............
... Perhaps with more powerful thrusters and afterburner, it could be very interesting for me ...........
There is is a way to modify this values (only for SP, of course !) ?
(In the majority of the games, these are values written in files that you can open even with notepad and change the numbers, ............ but in Evochron not)

[Marvin]

In those games where you can modify performance files, problems (cheats) usually crop up when you can play in both single-player and MP. Which is why those files are compiled for EM.

[DaveK]

In those games where you can modify performance files, problems (cheats) usually crop up when you can play in both single-player and MP. Which is why those files are compiled for EM.

I (fondly?) remember it being able to alter EvochronData.Evo in Notepad.

I didn't actually try because it only changed SP and not MP and flying a bomb-proof super ship would have taken all the fun out very quickly. Anyway it is so much more fun in MP! It would also have been hard to resist the temptation to have a peek for hidden or interesting features

I for one am grateful that Vice has removed such temptation from me

[Rexor]

I didn't mean to have a "bomb-proof super ship", ..... only a little more reactive to thrusters.

The level of difficulty preExpansion seems really enough for me, ......... I have reinstalled the 1.8 version.
Perhaps I should try it more, ........... perhaps in MP it's more interesting ..... but it left me with a so bad impression ... that I have uninstalled it.

I'm curious ; how are Legend & Renegades compared to Evochron ??

[Marvin]

Well, in those games, you didn't have the Thrust Multiplier ... which, I'm sure, you've already made use of in EM.

[Rexor]

I know that. ... I meant differences in combat, difficulty ......

However, I remember that I had tried the demo of Legends and Renegades .....................
.......... And I was really surprised ........................................................ I was really surprised to see a game, that while it grows up, worsens its style, its atmosphere ............................................

I mean that the style, the atmosphere, the music of Legends, IMO, are really better, more "COOL", more aggressive macho, warrior style, ...................... extremely better than in Mercenary ( ... also the cities seems to me really worse than in Legends .... ).
It's a matter of taste ; I Absolutely prefer the more aggressive, macho warrior style ............................
............... I can be pleased to listen metal band like ManowaR http://youtu.be/A-px1RWf6kw , ................. surely NOT Mozart !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

( It's beautiful the music by Rich Douglas .............. but I can find a lot better for me ... ).
That's my opinion !!!!!!!!!!

[Edited on 16-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 16-12-2013 by Rexor]

[_-Caleb-_]

I know that. ... I meant differences in combat, difficulty ......

However, I remember that I had tried the demo of Legends and Renegades .....................
.......... And I was really surprised ........................................................ I was really surprised to see a game, that while it grows up, worsens its style, its atmosphere ............................................

I mean that the style, the atmosphere, the music of Legends, IMO, are really better, more "COOL", more aggressive macho, warrior style, ...................... extremely better than in Mercenary ( ... also the cities seems to me really worse than in Legends .... ).
It's a matter of taste ; I Absolutely prefer the more aggressive, macho warrior style ............................
............... I can be pleased to listen metal band like ManowaR http://youtu.be/A-px1RWf6kw , ................. surely NOT Mozart !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

( It's beautiful the music by Rich Douglas .............. but I can find a lot better for me ... ).
That's my opinion !!!!!!!!!!

[Edited on 16-12-2013 by Rexor]

[Edited on 16-12-2013 by Rexor]

Hola.

This is true, the old cities are better BUT the new Custom Kit alow mod the cities, plants, etc

And in the music style, i like the RD composition, and i like the rock/Heavy but for evochron i prefer some classical music, like the Gustav Holst suite.

Regards