From Bastion to Dantooine, with love. news

So much has happened in the short space of time since I wrote my last piece. Making the Top-100 has quite a special feeling to it.

It is humbling that our project has been chosen by our peers to represent the cream of the modding community. This nomination provides an extra motivation to maintain the high standard of work we have set ourselves in the Freeworlds: Tides of War team.

The last time I posted, I was working on the Bastion system. I am happy to say that I have finished up my first round work with the system. There are some small things that requiring doing at a later stage, but the majority of that is adding detail to make it ‘pop' more.

The Imperial Fleet HQ, as seen from one hundred klicks away.

My final modular project in the system was the Imperial Fleet HQ base. Like the previous base I showed you, it took around five hours to build and probably another five hours visualising the base. It was a struggle to find an idea that would work, but one that didn't look similar to what I had done before.

I drew inspiration by looking at images of the International Space Station. I am sure when you look at this, you will see absolutely nothing of it within the design, but it is true! This station has a diameter of around 15 klicks. I'm not one hundred percent happy with it. More than likely I will change around those fighter docking bays, because the first choice used doesn't look right, as I am sure when you look at it, you will see.

While complete, there is always room for improvement. The docking bays are likely to be changed to find the right fit.

I'm looking forward down the line to when we are spending the time nitpicking over the scenic elements. That is a stage I feel I can really shine, with placing scenery elements to bring areas such as this alive and make them look like busy military ports.

With Bastion complete, my work carried me towards to Dantooine. This system already had an early stage ‘alpha' done by Sushi. He has been generous enough to let me run over any of his previous work to see about sprucing them up.

Similiar to the Imperial capital system, Dantooine is a small system. There isn't a lot in terms of planetary masses to be concerned about. I also had to be mindful about a large asteroid field that I had to fit in. One limitation that we have to deal with is that if an asteroid field goes so far out from the center of the system, we lose the larger asteroids.

The asteroid field, the ‘Wall of Dantooine' was described as been massive; so long that no one mining company could lay a claim to it. I've done by best to replicate it within the limitations of the Freelancer engine.

Another interesting feature is Dantooine's ‘Second Star'. Depending on where you read, it is described as a planetoid or an asteroid. Given that it is titled Dantooine's ‘Second Star', I surmised that it should be close to the planets sun. In systems such as Tatooine, we have seen that if a system has more than one star, they are close together. I do realise that might not be scientific fact, but it works a charm for me!

An image from the rough work-up on the nebula, containing Dantooine's 'Second Star', nestled just beside the systems primary star.

The ‘Second Star' is placed within a nebula, which gave me the opportunity to play around with the colour palette to get the right hue. I am delighted at how it has come off, especially against the burning light of the sun.

Finally, for this update, is the JSFC Training Base. In Freeworlds: Tides of War, Dantooine will be the home system for the Jedi Order. In our universe, the Jedi have additional non-Force user troops at their disposal. The JSFC (Jedi Star-Fighter Command) is exactly what it says on the tin, and is the Jedi Order's method of vetting new members into the faction.

Given that it is a training base, I played with the idea of having multiple docking bays to give the impression that multiple units were stationed there. With this station, I also placed the docking bays on different levels. I did this for two reasons.

One, I think it gives a better three dimensional feel to a base. With the modular stations pieces at my disposal, using a central unit is almost a given with these bases. I didn't want to have the vertical central unit base. Like with a Christmas tree, it looks better with more branches out of it.

Secondly, I don't always have the option to consider having a branch coming out at every ninety degree interval. I have learned from experience, that if there isn't enough room left, parts can overlap. There is nothing more annoying than realising after careful placement, that things overlap in a bad way!

The JSFC Training Base, which features a two-storey docking bay.

Hopefully I will have Dantooine finished be the end of the weekend. The advantage of working with an early alpha system is that a lot of the base coding is already covered for me. This leaves me with more time to spend on layout and base design.

Once more, I want to say a big thanks to everyone who voted for our mod for the ‘Mod of the Year' competition. Just making the Top-100 feels like a victory and everything after that is a bonus. I hope over the coming months, our team can continue to impress you guys with our work.