Hello,
I know a month between updates is a long time, but the team has been hard at work adding content, incorporating new features, fixing bugs, balancing, and working on missions. The full changelog will be shown with the release of Version 3 (which will likely be very soon), but for this update I wanted to focus on the new mission, shield features, cockpit additions, and bug fixes.
The main showcase of this update is the nearly complete first official mission of the Original Trilogy campaign. The mission is even voice acted (thanks to Altureus and Gen_Rhys_Dallows) thus the only aspect left to finish the mission is to fill in a few more voice dialogue lines. If anyone is interested in testing this mission send me a PM and I will gladly send you a pre-release Version 3 file pack to experiment around with. The mission puts the player in the events directly before the opening of A New Hope (fans of Battlefront 2 might be pleasantly surprised). Here are some screenshots to give a you hint of what might happen. Also in these screenshots you can see the new cockpit additions, which we are utilizing form the now defunct Star Wars Galaxy game.
Briefing screen for the Prologue mission. Battlefront 2 fans might remember fighting this mission as an Imperial in the Battlefront 2 Campaign.
The mission a;so allows the player to pick their allegiance.
In terms of new features I have been incorporating the newest features of FS2 Open into the mod. The main feature is a complete overhaul of the shielding systems on all ships. In previous versions of this mod it was difficult to tell where different shield sectors ended and started. Now, the shield sectors for each ship have been recreated and individualized for each separate ship and these changes have been subsequently matched to the HUD icons. Also, as to maintain accuracy to the movies, small craft now only have a front and rear deflector shields (re-watching the Battle of Yavin is an excellent example). Also large ships now have strategically positioned shields, such as a bridge deflector shield or engine deflector shield. The unique placement for each ship opens the door for more advanced strategies and tactics. As a result of redoing the shields, all ships now have higher quality HUD icons, too.
Showing an example of the new shielding sector for the X-wing.
Also in regards to new features is the incorporation of subsystems on all ships. For example, if your craft’s engines get destroyed the vessel will stop, or if your sensors get critically damages the radar and messages fail. Also, subsystems are present on both large and small ships.
In addition, the interface has been tweaked and improved again, so take a look.
There have been many bug fixes as well. The infamous ERANGE error is now longer present. Crashes in community created missions have also been fixed. Also, while not exactly a bug, the Falcon’s cockpit has been correctly positioned to the correct side.
In summary, these are just a few of the aspects to Version 3. The complete release will be publicly available soon and upcoming work will focus on mission creation. The goal of the finished campaigns is to insert the player into the events of the movies, fighting for either the Empire or the Rebels. This concept stems from the desire to be able to replay and relieve the events of the movies from the cockpit of Star Wars vessel, such as an X-wing of TIE Fighter. In order to complement replaying the events of the movies, the missions that occur between movie events will be structured somewhat differently. These missions will focus less on linear game play and more on randomized events, all in an ultimate effort to increase replayability. For example, the possibilities of ambushes, available reinforcements, and changing objectives will vary each time the mission is played. These missions will not only span the movie event missions, but also tie into the setups of those events as well. For example, saving a ship (or capturing) in one mission may allow that ship to appear later in a movie event. Overall, our campaigns start directly before the beginning of A New Hope, and ends with the conclusion of Return of the Jedi.
Of course if you have any comments, concerns, and/or questions please post in the comments or PM me. As always, if you feel like you want to help with the mod in anyway, we would be more than happy to hear from you. Thank you for your support and comments, and may the force be with you!
So, how many missions are we talking about? 10? 20? 30? More? And what's the distribution between Movie missions and EU ones? How many missions one Movie would consist? For example, the big Battle of Endor could be made into a number of smaller missions. And Episode V could have a few different missions (Battle of Hoth, the Escape, the chase in the asteroid belt, then escape from Bespin... not to mention maybe some events we didn't see, but could have happened at roughly the same time).
Well I would say there will be somewhere between 10 and 20. But we will ideally plan on releasing more as additive content for later releases. The plan though is to make an Imperial and Rebel option to most (but not all) missions. Thus you can play as either one in order to further increase re-playability. With the actual movie battles there are only 2-3 direct cuts from the movie (Battle of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor). But missions that are directly tied to or in conjunction with movie events (like the first mission) would ideally be at least half of the missions. Another example would be covering the escape from Yavin or Imperials searching out and fighting various pirates and smaller rebel bases as Lord Vader searches for the main Rebel Base prior to Episode V.
My name is Daniel 'Yitzchak' Bennett, orchestrator of the TIE Fighter: Reconstructed soundtrack. I was contacted through Youtube about the possibility of allowing my TIE Music to be used within this mod. Having played around with it, I am honoured to allow my soundtrack to be used with this mod.
Great work here, guys!
Thank you! Your work is awesome and it is clear you are very talented, and all of us on the team certainly appreciate it!