Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Decent FreeSpace: Into Chaos (Mod)
This is a living document and may change from time to time.
Goal
Recreate the FreeSpace universe in Sins with relative accuracy. Attempting to avoid utilizing non-canon units and items, assets will be created.
Races
Galactic Terran Alliance
Strong manufacturing and military research. Culture spread bonus, due to their initial fast paced expansion.
Neo Terran Front
Cheaper ships but long build times, due to convincing the crew. Culture resistance bonus.
Parliamentary Vasudan Imperium
Strong resource harvesting and trade. Resistance to bombardment due to subterranean dwellings. Culture resistance bonus.
Hammer of Light
Fast and guerilla like due to being basically terrorists of space. Able to steal to get a research bonus.
Shivans
Powerful vessels with a high cost. Knowledge of subspace allows them faster phase lane travel and non-linked jumps, think Vasari Phase gates.
Gameplay and Flow
Other FreeSpace conversions exist for SoaSER however they tell other stories besides the original. This “Expansion” will follow the story ARC of the original FreeSpace games. Obviously not exactly due to game restraints but to the tune of milestones in FreeSpace. For example, The Great War is tier 0-2 of the research Silent Threat is 3-4, and FreeSpace 2 is 5-7. This may change later due to research requirements but should for the most part remain the same for the time being.
I will be doing strange things with the races as well, such as making GTSC Faustus a military research lab, making The Arcadia Installation have a broadcast ability for culture and so on.
Fighter combat will also get a rework, only the FreeSpace side, by adding multiple weapons systems and attempting to make “special weapons” if SoaSER will allow the concepts to function. So far shields are out and abilities like the Pegasus cloak are not going to happen.
Differences between games
Besides obvious differences there are several minor ones that make conversion difficult. The speed values, weapon strength and distance ranges did not have any unit of measurement. In any case I will do my best to create FreeSpace in SoaSER and attempt to keep the SoaSER variant relative to the FreeSpace original.
Weapons
Creating the weapons visually will be simple as it is just effects, but the ranges and weapon values are a whole other ball game. The FreeSpace weapons were converted using math to create accurate and relative weapon values.
Example
Terran Turret does 43 damage per second in the FreeSpace tables. The Pulse gun from the Vasari light frigate does 2.1 per shot in each burst. (Yes, I calculated this, it took forever.) I created a conversion from FreeSpace to SoaSER and changed the Terran Turret from 43 to 3 damage per shot. Using this I was able to calculate all other weapon values.
Speed
Like the weapons but a lot easier. I averaged the speed of all ships in both games, separating the Fighters and Capital ships, this allowed me to convert the 10ms speed of a Leviathan into 208.
Hull Strength and Shield
Just like weapons and speed this was a nightmare.
Range
I made this simple and just doubled the range of the FreeSpace items. I may revisit this later.
Ships
Due to the lack of capital ships in FreeSpace in comparison to SoaSER many ships will be reused for other functions. However, the other functions will be like the original role or a role they would be seen doing.
Example
GTC Fenris cruiser is a light strike cruiser. The FreeSpace 1 variant will be the starting cruiser with the light frigate flag, and the FreeSpace 2 variant the GTC Fenris MK2 will be the mid game mainstay with the Long-Range flag.
Strike-Craft
This was easy due the numerous fighters and bombers available in FreeSpace. However, this created another problem, where to put them all. The fighters and bombers are currently added to the era specific vessels.
Example
The Great War era Orion will have Apollo, Athena, Medusa and Ulysses fighter and bombers due to the FS1 era and the Orion MK2 will have the Myrmidon, Pegasus, Artemis and Boanerges fighters and bombers.
They will also have multiple weapon systems, unlocked via research.
Current Mod Status
Balancing, it’s a continuous process.
GTA - Implemented
Need to refine the research
Create abilities for the units.
Continue balancing the Hull strength and weapon values.
Models need to be rebuilt to correct Tangent issues, mesh points and scaling.
Textures require rework
Weapon effects
Orbital structures
PVI – Not Implemented
Models need to be rebuilt
Abilities created
Research created
Orbital structures
Shivans – Not Implemented
Models need to be built
Abilities created
Research created
Orbital structures
Sounds such as music will be implemented fully later as I believe the core of the Mod is the units and the Factions.
Like stated in the beginning the is a living document and may be updated later.
If you would like to assist in the creation of this mod please PM me.
Can't wait to play a Vasudan vs Terran multiplayer game!
With a dash of shivans further ahead :P
Oh its gonna happen. Currently busy getting the FreeSpace Effects into the game. Reworking the Weapons, Engines, and Subspace portal. Weapons are looking great, well they should given I have been recreating the animation files in Sins.
In the subject of weapon effects…
i noticed that freespace mod has the slash effect for beams, i assume it's because you can't just mod it in sins.
I will look into it, and which mod are you referncing.
Oops i meant to say "neither freespace mod", i was refering to Sins of a Blue Planet and this one.
Ah, yeah sins is simple, that would too complex for it.
Also have you had any issues with multiple GTAs in a match.
i've played a 2 GTA vs 2 GTA singleplayer game and it worked well, i haven't encountered the crash since the last patch.
Ok a guys has been post issues and i am unable to verify them. how does the balance feel ?