Heyya,
of course this project is not dead already. But because i have a time-consuming work, progress is rather slow.
But of course there is some progress i can tell you.
But unfortunately there is no progress regarding Act III Part 1 itself. Actually i did not change a single line of the already released Act III missions, but played them sometimes to get knowledge about what i had to change for later :).
But there is progress for the mod in general as well for the upcoming Act I update.
First the general progress.
I uploaded two new screenshots which demonstrate the new ship icon i included in this mod.
As you know, the Act III object does not have any shield icons, i fixed this with a complete redesign of the target computer that the ancients use in this modification, so to speak. I now use the "generate icon" flag in the tables which creates a ship icon directly from the model automatically. So, every object, even cargo containers or destroyers now show up as an icon in your HUD aswell. Next to better subspace technology, now the ancients had also a better targeting computer compared to GTVA ;)
Additionally i create radar symbols for the Act III ships and stations finally. So all objects that you will encounter through the three Acts will now be covered by a Radar symbol. If you use them, of course.
So there is nobody needed for ship icons anymore, but i still need someone who is interested to finish the unfinished models of Act III. So to speak to finish the models as well, and more important, the textures.
For the Act I update i correct some bugs of all missions during the last weeks, as well i corrected some messages to be more neutral regarding the gender of the player. Also i thought about the coop version of Act I and i can say, that there will be two missions that will be different in multiplayer. Some of the changes affects also the single player version of the mission. In other missions i will only change the ship you can choose in the loadout screen.
The first mission, called "A Legacy Begins" will be much the same for single player. There are only minor changes like a new message in the case all wingmates are down. And the second Aesdherian fleet will jump in in much shorter distance.
The multiplayer version instead will be different, because the player(s) will be ordered to scan the second Aesdherian fleet as well. So it is not an optional task in the coop variant. You have to fight with your friends against whole wings of Dart fighters now to finish this mission successfully :).
Another noticeable change pertains the mission "A new Adversary", the first encounter with the shivans. Next to fixes of the obvious wrong wing names in the directives screen, i handle the encounter with the SD Vassago much more different. In the updated version the Vassago actually fire upon the Ancients destroyer and will start some escort fighters next to bomber wings to take the Koumasa down. But in the single player version there will be only few differences, because the Koumasa will also start bomber wings next to escort to take down Vassago's main cannons as well the escorts without player involvement. For single player it will be still the same big dogfight mission, only that there is more happening around you.
In multiplayer instead the player(s) are actually forced to take out the shivan main cannons themselves to secure the Koumasa, also they are forced to intercept bombers. So the coop version will contain some new elements, for example fighting in the near of an enemy destroyer as well a escort and protection of a friendly capital ship. Next to the dogfight around the Knossos, which will also be more difficult because there will be more enemies, that will be harder to kill, in all coop missions.
I thought also, if i should include "Fury AI" in this mod, too. To be a harder challenge for everyone. But of course this would change the balance of all missions significantly and i would have to rebalance the whole modification. So i think it is better to keep the retail AI now and to release a "Fury Patch" maybe after the release of Act III Part 1.
Greetings,
Novachen
