Project: PLANET DEATH news

So our team has been hard at work.

Our project has many secrets... some we hint at, some we mention, a good many we hold back. The size of our project is very large. It far exceeds just adding new models to the game, for we are essentially rebuilding the game from the ground up. We don't just tell everything, for we try our best to make sure all our ideas work first before we post pics and tell everything. It takes a long time to make some of these ideas, and our team gets tired, but they always, continuously push on, for we all believe in this project and the motivation of our fans drives us to continue. For that, we thank all who support us, and continuously leave comments of encouragement, start interesting debates and even leave funny comments about "innuendo" or "Jay Leno's chin"... for after a long day of work or school, and coming home and dealing with family issues, real life problems, and everything else, at the end of the night, when most of us sit down to really find the time to continue modding, it is our fans comments that drive us forward, and give us the inspiration to continue. For that we thank you.

We have grown. We see our team as a family. We all work and talk daily to each other, and we support each other whenever needed. The people we have on staff are great. Without them, I would be left alone to work on this mod, and I can't thank them enough for all the time that they contribute and for putting up with how hard I push them. Our core staff remains myself, cheesecake, Kharcov, Wariscool, Sam032, Revan5678, Unassuming Whiteguy, Niko, TheTriangulum and Warb_Null. We continue to work with our affiliate partners such as Lord Enpremi, Geroenimo, and the entire Steiner Modding Group team along with many others as well. Our newest additions to our team as members are _Vulcanus_, 166248, CaptainFordo, Sacer, Guardian, Nicktc, Brotapfelinhalierer, and Kemasuk. If I have forgotten anyone, please let me know. These guys have been diligently researching, fact checking and writing all of the unit descriptions for every unit in the game. Wariscool is now beginning to teach them how to xml code, and soon we will be having them work on coding all units into the game. These guys are great, if you see them comment on the forums, know that they are part of our crew, and thank them for all their help.

Now, on to the grand show...

PLANET DEATH

When we first started this mod, I knew that we had to incorporate the famous event which marked the true terror of the Yuuzhan Vong, Yo'Gands Core (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yo'gand's_Core) which is the tactic of crashing a moon into a planet. While I planned out the coding for this event, other methods of destroying a planet soon became remembered which would also need to be added, these included the Poison bombing of Ithor, the Spore bombing of Nal Hutta, the Reflective Condensing of shieldships to Helska IV, the power of Centerpoint station with its hyperspace laser capability, the Chiss Alpha Red virus and of course the well known fact that a Star Destroyer is capable of bombarding a planets surface to nothing but rubble.

I am very happy to announce, that after months of work, discussions and trial and error from our coding department, and the extremely invaluable assistance and continued support from Smallpox, whom which none of this would ever be possible, that we have finally solved the coding issues to destroy planets several ways, during space maps, on the Galactic Conquest map and having their appearances change both in space and on ground maps.

To explain this idea, let's first start at the beginning, and then we will expand out. When a space battle starts, planets will now be appearing differently. Each planet will be created in a manor where the planet will have hardpoints on its surface, similar to being a giant space station with hardpoints. These hardpoints will represent cities, so some planets will have many, others such as Tatooine will only have a few. We have learned how to code hardpoints to only be targetable by specific weapons, such as long range heavy turbolasers or the octuple turrets of a Star Destroyer. When a ship with the proper weapon types becomes within range of firing distance, these ships will be able to target the 'city hardpoints' by means of using a special ability. Once all the hardpoint on a planet are destroyed, the planet will be considered completely bombarded, and the texture of the space planet model will reflect this during the space battle. When the player returns to the Galactic Conquest map, the texture of the planet on the GC map will also change to represent the fact the planet has been bombarded. This ability will not be available for the Vong, only they NR and Hutt forces. It is planned that the ground map will then also change to show a bombarded cratered ground, with fires and fewer build spots for buildings. A bombarded planet will also destroy all units on the ground, and buildings.

Reflective Condensing is the ability of Shieldships to freeze a planet. This will be a special ability given to shieldships that allow them to target planet and freeze them into balls of ice. A shieldship will need to get very close to a planet, and once the special attack is initiated, the effect will occur very fast, which means to prevent freezing, the shieldship will need to be destroyed before it reaches the planet. Once the Reflexive Condensing ability is triggered, the texture of the space planet will change to a frozen ice covered planet. When the player returns to the GC map, the planet will resemble a planet shrouded in a frozen mist. Ground maps will also change to a ice covered landscape.

Poison Bombing by the Vong will be launched from a specific Vong ship. Once the projectile is launched, there will be no means of stopping it. The effect will cause a poisonous cloud to spread across the planet as all fauna dies and anything metallic is turned to a black sludge. The poison Bomb will kill all ground units and prevent the building of any structures on the planet surface, rendering the planet as dead rock in space. Cheezecake and I have made an exceptionally nice effect for this for the GC map.

Vong Spore bombing will be unleashed when vong spore ships can get in close range of a planet. Spore bombs are released into the atmosphere, killing all ground units and vongforming the planet surface. A vongformed planet surface will give building bonuses to Vong units.

Alpha Red will be an attack launched from the Galactic Conquest map, not from within a space battle. The player will be able to crate an interplanetary missile that will travel to a specified planet on the GC map. When reaching the desired planet, the Alpha Red Virus will be detonated in the atmosphere. This will cause all Vong enemies and buildings to die, but will leave a lasting effect that damages all infantry for all sides for future ground battles, similar to how volcanic ash causes damage.

Centerpoint Station will work in 2 ways. The first method is the super hyperspace laser. This will work very similar to how Alpha Red works, where the laser will be fired from the GC map, and the laser will be given a 1 time move to any planet in the entire galaxy. Upon arrival of the laser, the planet will be destroyed and reduced to an asteroid field. The second method of using Centerpoint station is that whichever faction is in control of Centerpoint, they will be able to build a minor hero unit known as a Centerpoint Laser Targeting Analyst. This minor hero will be be given a special ability during space battles, and will be able to call upon a long range laser fire from Centerpoint Station to attack enemy fleets. So, during a space battle, the CLTA hero can order a Centerpoint Laser strike, which will trigger a wormhole to appear, and a massive laser will emerge from the wormhole and target the center of an enemy fleet, creating a large explosion that causes severe area damage to nearby ships, friend and foe...

Yo'Gands Core

Yo'Gands core will be activated by a Vong capital ship. The Capital ship will fire a dovin basal missile at a moon during a space battle. The attack cannot be stopped unless the capital ship is destroyed before launching the missile. Once the missile hits the planet, a large dovin basal will be implanted into the moon, causing it to move towards the planet surface. When the moon collides with the planet, a massive explosion will occur, killing all units in space, friend an foe. The vong will however return to the GC map, the planet model will be replaced with an asteroid field, but a Vong Shipwomb will be present in space. A sacrificial attack, but a prize well worth the tactic.

Once again, I must take time to thank Smallpox. Without his assistance and script writing, we would not have been able to develop the necessary code to enable all this to work. We have the LUA scripts written, and from this point forward we will continue to develop each of the above described Planet Deaths. The changing of the planet's appearance on the Galactic Conquest map has been a many month long endeavor. We are very proud to announce that now it will happen, and the entire galaxy will see the true fear and terror that was unleashed during the heights of the Vong War. Thank you again Pox, and thank you all to our team, especially Sam032 who has been leading our Planet Death Coding endeavors for the past year.

Soon we will start posting screenshots....

Changelog:
2016/10/13 - Edited by Kad_Venku: Added video.
2015/04/15 - Released by Burntstrobe