A few days ago, liuruoyang1995 became the latest addition to 9CCN, the team behind the FX mod. As a new member to the communications department, his presence will allow us to further close the gap between the English and Chinese communities of the FX mod. To commemorate, we decided to organize a Q&A Session with none other than the team themselves.
How does it work?
Write any questions that you have about the FX mod(s) and would like to have answered by the team in the comments to this entry below. liuruoyang1995 will then forward them to the team, and once we have the answers we'll put them up for all to see.
[ ! ] Please bear in mind that the team selects both the amount and which question(s) they want to answer.
Asked Questions
Q: Are there any plans to resume development on FX: Empires?
9CCN wrote: No. I'm sorry, but it died. The project leader of FX-E is xangle13, who no longer participates in 9ccn's mods developing.
Q: How is the news on Homeworld:Remastered affecting your plans, if at all? Do your plan to import your mod to the remake?
9CCN wrote: We have no idea about that because we don't know how many changes will be made in HW:R,and we don't know if it will be easy or difficult to make our mod work with the new engine. So, there are no plans for that yet.
Q: What is the command structure / hierarchy of the mod team?
9CCN wrote: We are hobbyists. We are not a professional development team, so we frequently try to do things outside of our field of work, or things that are not directly related to it. The basic command structure is: Designer, Modeller, Programmer, Tester.
Q: How does one apply to be a part of the team?
9CCN wrote: As we are hobbyists, anyone can join us. Testers, writers, translators or PR/communication officers .. even if you don't produce anything you're very free to join us for a talk, having a chat about hobbies etc. Since we are a Chinese community the language barrier may be a bit of a problem, though. But, we're still happy to make new friends from other countries.
Q: What is your ultimate goal?
9CCN wrote: There isn't really an 'ultimate goal'. We love Homeworld, so we will keep on doing what we do and what we can do -- as slow as that might be, hah..
Q: What is the team currently working on?
9CCN wrote: We are currently working on FX v2.2 / v2.3. The Hiigaran and Vaygr will return soon.
As for ships, there are no plans for any new vessels on the short term. On the long run we have plans for a Taiidan battleship and a Kadeshi capital ship called the "Beetle". The RPG mode for FX and another Gundam SEED mod are also in the works.
Q: RPG Mode?
9CCN wrote: The RPG mode is the single-player campaign for the FXmod. It allows you to freely 'jump' between maps through a number of hyperspace gates that 'connect' all maps. You can receive missions from NPCs and do many other things, just like a real RPG game.
Thanks for reading!
How are the new releases of the Homeworld games affecting your plans, if at all?
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As we don't know how many changes will be made in the homeworldremastered,and we don't know if it will be easy or difficult to make our mod work with the new engine,there are still not any plans for that.
What is the command structure of the mod team? Can we get details of the hierarchy/positions?
What is the communication structure of the mod team? Is everybody able to communicate with everybody else? If not, why not? And don't you think that it should take priority so that the team can be as productive as possible with the least amount of delay between decisions and actions?
How does one apply to be a part of the team? What are the requirements? Do you have a community team? Can we apply for those positions? Is there a limit to how many positions are available?
What is your ultimate goal? What are your current priorities? And what are members of the team currently working on? (E.G. Example is working on modelling. Blah is working on texturing. Etc. Etc.)
We are organization form some hobbyist.
Basic Members of the Division:
Date Designer
Model maker
Programmer
Tester
But because we are not professional development team so sometime...or most time we try to do more do not belong to own work
Any time we can communicate instantly.but...as your see.My English is so bad.so communication with your not so well..
We are fan club so anyone can join us.Testers, writers, translator, or just like to communication.But..we only Chinese
community now.
SO about we ultimate goal? NO.We love homeworld so we well keep on doing. Only cannot do.---Of course, maybe so slow.hah..
Currently working is FX2.2\2.3,the hiigara and vayger come soon.
In the short term no have SHIP model plan.long-term plan have a TAI battleship and KAD capital ship"Beetle",The RPG Model.and THE 9CCN Another MOD Gundam SEED.
and sorry again by my “chinglish”. hope everone can understand my comment
I think it's better to call it "RPG mode" instead of "RPG model".The word "model" can sometimes make people confused.
The RPG mode is the single-player campaign for fx mod.It allows you to jump from map to map freely through hyperspace gates in every map.And you can receive missions from NPCs and do many other things just like a real RPG game.
By the way ,it seems that dreadnought9ccn forget those who draw the concept art when introducing their members.
By the way ,it seems that dreadnought9ccn forget those who draw the concept art when introducing their members.
How true will you stay to the races original concepts?
If I may suggest
We know the HIigarans are many different Kiths, I really liked the way PTV made you select your combination of Kiths, could we expect something like this?
How different is the Taiidan compared to HW1? Do you use Chassis research instead of production modules?
I like how you races looked in the last English version of the mod.
If I may share my opinion.
The Progenitors are cool but I feel that they don't give me the same mysterious feeling I got from facing them in the campaign, I feel that a way to make them is to make them different from other races and not have a strike craft for every role as scout interceptor and bomber etc.
I believe they should be a race of a few ships that they heavily upgrade with awekening dormant ship systems and possibly lacking modules completely.
I suppose that apart from this you have to pick how they are going to be built, from debris or from complete ships. I suggest having some kind of Carrier ship and have the Gate as a shipyard.
I'm also sure you would rather use your ocreated Progenitor ships instead of borrowing from an other mod.
Anyway as the Carrier ship in my suggestion I always preferred the Sleeper from the PTV v0.04 bt might be irrelevant in your case as I don't think you'd like to use it.
There's one more thing I think you can accomplish, the Complex mod has an armor module for the Pride of Hiigara I wonder if you could add a such module slot for every capturable ship for the Progenitors, this way when the Progenitors capture a ship, that ship will get that module slot filed with a module called Progenitor enhancements or tech which would boost the stats percentage wise (this way no different armor modules for different ships), all captured ships will get better in every way and capturing these to non Progenitor ships will get you to keep the armor, retiring it should grant some additional research for enhancements with general upgrades or new abilities, like regenerative hull with the help of nanites, the armor would also add that ability and the ships with the armor module could have an other texture to show that it's upgraded.
By the way Dark Sajuuk knows how to make production ships able to build stuff when captured by other races, I suggest this to be applied on all but the Progenitor production ships.
I also think that most ships should have the phase shield, also the PTV 0.04 has a Drone upgrade that allows it to act as a bomber please take a look at that version, I especially liked the timing on the Gateway effect in that version, I'm hosting it at my account.
1,How true?It's hard to say.Anyway,we will continue our style that you have already seen in FX MOD.
2,The game engine only allow 7 races in one mod,so we can't (and also have no energy to) make some more different Kiths.However,we may make some different fleets with some special ships in the coming RPG mode.
3,Technology trees for all the races have changed a lot in FX2,have a try.
4,FX MOD is a different mod from PTV and Complex mod.We pay more attention on deathmatch. Thus we must keep the following three goals:
1)balance of all races.
2)no lags.
3)not too complicated.
That's why Progenitor need strikecrafts to keep balance with other races.
Also,the phase shield system is proved to cause lags,so it has been removed from our plan.
5,Making production ships able to build stuff when captured by other races will be a too huge work.We need to rewrite the research systems for all races,adding many things to them to achieve that.So it's not in our plan ,either.
Anyway ,we may try adding phase shields to some special ships in the RPG mode though.But it hasn't been decided yet.
Concerning the point 2, about giving the Hiigarans several Kiths, I think what Raygoza meant is that when you play as them in the PTV mod, you can chose two Kiths to support you, through the Research panel. This gives you access to certain technologies depending on the Kiths you selected, meaning some ships specific to a certain Kith and some passive bonuses, like faster and more efficent mining if you took Kith Soomtaw.
So it does not clash with the races limit.
It is a nice detail; in my opinion represents quite nicely how the Hiigaran fleet is composed of ships from different "clans". It would be nice if something similar would appear in your mod, but even if it does not, its still a great mod so far.
Although it's a good idea, we have too much work to do now.So as I have said,"we(have no energy to) make " those things right now.
That is why said i "would be nice" if it appeared.
The most I have done when it comes to modding is tweaking around with the files of my Empire at War game, but considering how long it took me to get things working they way I wanted them, I can almost imagine how much energy it takes to make an entire mod, with new models, tech-tress, etc.
Anyway I am sure that if the next release of the mod gets the same care and work as the previous ones it will be awesome in its own way.
With regards to the Taiidan battleship, LevithiansWrath obtained permission a while ago for you guys to use Enterprise-E's "Vanaar Jet" model in the mod. It's an awesome ship that many agree stays close to the Taiidan design. Just google for some images.
I am among those who would -love- to see this ship in the mod. Do you have any plans on using it?
Also, seeing as the Heavy Cruiser has the sound / engine FX from homeworld1..would it be possible to give the Taiidan Destroyed the sound / engine FX from homeworld1 as well? I think it would be a lot more fitting than the current hw2 destroyer sound.
Finally, will custom map support return?
Thanks for your time!
Yes i like homeworld1 sound too.I will ask our "assembly guy" to change it.
And the battleship we will own design and make it.but thanks for LeviathansWrath.
The path of all FX's deathmatch maps is leveldata\multiplayer\fxdeathmatch, if by 'custom map' you mean using your own maps in FX
Thank you -so- much for that .. I still had the custom maps stored in the \deathmatcheprandom folder used in 1.88 and lower..I changed the name and now it works.
I was able to help them get permission to use both the vanaar Jet and the Qwaar Jet mark 2. Anyways HWU was able to find a way around the 7 race limit and now we have 24 playable races. If you want you could adopt the script in HWU but getting each race to be different is gonna be tricky, all the races are on the Hiigaran Slot so they all have hiigaran style of play and various stuff related to the AI. I been having issues getting the Revamped Kushan and Taiidan teams to use research ships since i switched them over to non modular builds cept for sensor modules and FCTs. ALso liuruoyang1995
liuruoyang1995 can i get permission to use the FX taiidan flagship i am in need of higher definition ships and need a replacement for my aging taiidan flagship. Being a one man mod team sucks because i lack the skills needed to texture Starscreams flagship he gave me, hell i got some remade kushan and taiidan ships from him but need to be textured which i cannot do and that includes motherships for the kushan and taiidan teams.
The flagship maker is me.personally i agree to permission you use it.but this is all our team's possession.so i'll ask most members to agree it.
As for Vanaar Jet,personally I think it's different from the common style of Taiidan ships (heavy,metallic...).Vanaar Jet give me an impression that it's more light,fast so I think it's better to be an assault destroyer rather than a battleship.
And as for the Qwaar Jet you give us,we plan to make it the heavy cruiser of Taiidan Republic in the RPG mode,so that the Empire and the Republic will have different heavy cruisers then.
Does your team do "requests"? Like, if some of your members of art and modelling had spare time on their hands, would they be able to create new Somtaaw models for public use?
Probably a far-fetched hopeful question, but I figured asking wouldn't hurt, right?
As you see i am model maker for FX.so yes.personally i have so like somtaaw dreadnought and kuun-lan.But now we still have some ship need be complete.I'll think about make somtaaw dreadnougt MK2 later.PS:I like to call it "mooncake" hah
Do you plan to import your mod to the remakes?
We have no idea about that because we don't know how many changes will be made in the homeworldremastered,and we don't know if it will be easy or difficult to make our mod work with the new engine.
What changes are you planning for the Hiigaran and Vaygr?
The HGN will heve more advantage of mobility.and the VGR capital ship will be slower but more powerful.then will have more ancillary Capabilities.
So, the VGR capital ship will become a real battleship then?
Nice.
Another thing of this mod to look forward to.
The RPG mode sounds interesting. I have some questions concerning it.
1.How will ship building be handled? Like in skirmishes; but with different prices, or maybe by purchasing the ships at a shipyard?
2.Since it is an "RPG" will the ships gain exp and be upgradable (new weapons, subsystems, etc.)?
1.Purchasing is most likely the way we will choose.
2.The ships is likely to be upgradable.You may even give an unique name to each of your ships.
Anyway,the RPG system is still far from complete, everything can be changed before it comes out.
Naming the ships the way I want? Now that would give the whole thing a personal touch. I hope this gets included in the system.
That system exists for Rearm but only for capital ships.