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[In Development] Airships: Fight for Universe - Art of War
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Modding » [In Development] Airships: Fight for Universe - Art of War
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Discovery of suspendium allowed invention of new generation of airships and other flying machines. While deposits of suspendium weren't rare and were rich, they still were rather insufficient compared to the greed of rulers, who were seeking it. As result, another world war began, following by the arms race, which pushed technological progress to impossible limits, thus developing more efficient and gratuitous ways to destroy it's own creators.
Development Plans
• Addition of "Research" capability in campaign - all weapons would be unlockable only through research. Cities will provide bonuses only, instead of unlocking new technologies.
• Replacement of "Coal" with "Fuel" - there will be multiple types of "fuel" storages. Form original steampunk ones to advanced and hi-techs ones.
• Less restrictions on weapon placement (ability to put weapons inside ship, not only at front) - you know, cannons can be broadside too.
• New Weapons. New Damage Types. New Armors. New Engines. New Crew Types. New Rooms. And some other crazy ideas the might (or might not) visit my head :)
Captain, Engineering Corps
Now this is cool
Warrant Officer
You certainly have my attention, also that logo man. +1
Commander, Engineering Corps
Don't forget to make Kinetic Bombardment :D
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Dropped other modding projects of other games (because of inability to change anything due very limited access to modding API) and now completely focused on this one (when I have free time of course).
Meanwhile, I've surfed through source code (I liked how it's carefully and beautifully written - easy to understand). So far the biggest challenge for me will be adding Research Screen. There are 2 ways to add research screen: 1) Global - you can run only one research at a time. 2) Local - you can run amount of researches equal to the amount of cities you own, but while City does research, player won't be able to build other stuff.
So people, which kind of Research Screen you prefer?
For reference: every module (beside basic ones) needs to be researched, some will require other previous modules to be researched and some might just need you to step in to new Research Era (Steam → Alchemic → Industrial → Modern → Atomic → Digital → Genetic → Nanotech → Synthetic → Quantum). And the current amount of (planned) modules are: Armors - 42, Propulsion/Lift - 76 and Resources - 85. Rest categories still under design phase, but it will be somewhere around these numbers.
Commander, Engineering Corps
Does the game support sprite sheets of increased sizes well? never really looked at it... Multiple sprite sheets would be good (If Zark is reading this) so mods can have their own separate sheet.
I think Global would be the way to go, with # captured city's influencing the speed/availability.
Having local would get to messy if you have a dozen city's, making it hard to manage without pausing.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Thanks. I think I will go with your idea: Global + affected by amount of Cities.
You can have multiple sprite sheets... Source code is before you... You always can add more separate sprite sheets. Apperance.java is where you start :)
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
New from modding front: well, I've implemented a couple of basic features: 1) Dynamic HP bars of modules. They will change color based on how damaged module is. 2) Resource bars are now properly displayed, if one module have multiple resource types. 3) If not in Outside view, then Tracks, Wheels and Mecha Legs are hidden behind the module. Allows you to see what actually happens in the module itself.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
I even managed to implement Salvo Mechanic in to the game:
MLRS & Autocannons anybody? :D
Commander, Engineering Corps
Ooooo! The salvo stuff may actually make rockets relatively reliable. Is it still 1-ammo per shot? or is 1 ammo per salvo?
If you gave it a salvo rate of like 500 could you potentially make a grape-shot cannon?
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
It's 1 ammo per shot - lets be true to ourselves, ammo is counted in rounds and not in salvos :)
Also, in addition, there will be 8 types of damage:
Kinetic - (old Penetrative) damage caused by impact.
Thermal - (old Blast) damage caused by high temperatures.
Explosive - damage caused by shards and shrapnel.
Energy - damage caused by energy or/and hybrid weapons.
Radioactive - damage caused by Beta/Gamma Rays.
Concussive - damage caused by stuff similar to sonic weapons.
Chemical - damage caused by toxic and corrosive weapons.
Virulent - damage caused by biological warfare weaponry.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
About Grapeshot/Shootgun - I want to implement in differently - I want it to fire at same time and use only one sound for all shots. I'm also planning to add Shootguns with Salvo. This is why (a little bit) different mechanics is required.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Zarkonnen, it's so fun modding your game! Expect some amazing stuff. I'll even try to implement beam weapons. But I can't promise Heavy Metal Flying Space Sharks with LAZER BEAMS :D
Midshipman
85 resource modules? Shazbot, this is gonna' be awesome! Good job so far man, I can't want to see more progress!
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
And just now I finished new feature! A feature which allows you to put your weapons inside ship and not somewhere at front! It's called Embrasures or Broadside Embrasures (whichever suits better). Embrasures in action:
1st Part: it is what you always see, when you try to put weapon not in front.
2nd Part: it is what you see, if you placed an embrasure before putting the gun.
3rd Part: example how embrasures can help you turn harmless Belial in to pretty much mean machine.
P.S. Strut's graphics is just a place holder. There will be vertical and horizontal embrasures of different sizes.
Air Admiral
When will there be a download?
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Can't give any release date right now, even approximate one. First I plan to implement all basic features, which will be used by content I'm implementing. Then after I will implement at least a first couple tiers of content, i.e. Industrial & Modern, or maybe just Industrial, I will release first version of mod.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Updates so far: currently I'm implementing entirely new enum class ShotType, which will be responsible for definition of what you're shooting with. Currently planned: direct projectile, guided projectile or persistent beam. it already handles speed, trail size and trail color for direct ShotType. This is one of the important steps, to make new projectile types easily implementable.
If somebody really want - you can look at the Design Plans, what planned so far. I write it, when I can't work on the mod itself, but have access to the PC. Link: Airships: Fight for Universe - Art of War
Don't worry about quantity. I have enough imagination for all modules' textures and rather impressive sound effects library:
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Some particles improvement:
Air Admiral
A small suggestion. Can you make smoke clouds hang in the air longer? (They would have to set at a certain height) Or make it so that if enough smoke accumulating a smoke layer similar to that of the fog layer appears?
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Maybe, after I implemented all features I planned. Amazing results of successful splash damage implementation:
Splash has 2 parameters: Splash Range and Splash Falloff. Splash Range defines how much titles around impact title will be damaged by splash damage. And splash falloff defines how much splash damage will be reduced with increased range from impact title. Example: if new Plasama Launcher does 300 damage in total, has Splash Range of 4 and Splash Falloff of 17.5%, it means that at range 1 of impact title, it will deal only 247.5 damage, at range 2 - only 195 damage, at range 3 - only 142.5 damage and at range of 4 - only 90.
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
Well, Guided Projectiles were successfully added, including a lot of other features, which you will see, when you will play the mod itself (when it will be released of course). Meanwhile, just enjoy this Feature Demonstration:
Commander, Engineering Corps
Hah, I Recognize that Missile Launch sound!
Aerial Emperor
Oh wow those guided missiles look awesome!
Lieutenant, Engineering Corps
WolvrNZ, every old-school gamer recognizes it ;)
Zarkonnen, thanks. So far I've implemented 2 types of projectiles: Direct & Guided.
Direct Projectile receives these parameters:
Initial Speed
Acceleration/Deceleration - if it's rocket, it should accelerate, if its just normal bullet, it will decelerate. Direct Projectile Min/Max is limited to the 65%/145% of the Initial Speed. I've decided to leave it as standalone parameter, but later I can further evolve it to be based on the air friction, projectiles mass & etc. But for now it's better as stand alone.
Trail Size - in % based on projectile's image's height.
Trail Lifetime - for how much time trail exists after shot is done.
Trail Color - both RGB & RGBA can be used here.
Disable Trail - true or false. Rockets for example don't need trail, they have smoke effect.
Guided Projectile receives these parameters:
Initial Speed
Maximum Speed - well, missiles do have some maximum speed IRL.
Acceleration - no deceleration here.
Turn Rate - rotation speed of the missile.
Activation Time - dumb flight time, i.e. how much time missile will fly in direct line, before stating turning toward the target.
Beam Projectile Type is still work in progress at the very beginning, so nothing show regarding it so far...
Commander
I saw a thread stating that mods are not supported beyond 5.2. Is that thread outdated or is this written on version 5.2?
Commander, Engineering Corps
i think its just a case of "there's no mod packages/folder" everything needs to just extend off the base-game.
Lieutenant
Well, I don't know if development is still underway with this mod, but if it is, I wouldn't mind some news about it.
Commodore
oh, those missiles... if only this were still a thing...