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....
1. Sneak Peek:
Just wondering, that's all... - Mod DB
Changelog:
2016/10/13 - Edited by Kad_Venku: Added video.
2015/04/15 - Released by Burntstrobe
Wow, this is amazing work you guys make and I think we as a community can't thank you enough for the awesome stuff you will unleash in future. Can't wait to see the mentioned screenshots, seeing planets pulverized by highly advanced weapons. I'm really impressed how much work you put into that and the ideas and possibilities you are able to create in a nine year old game, which is even in it's vanilla form one of my favorites up to date. What you do is outstanding, keep it up and have fun. Cheers and may the 4th be with you!
I can't think words to express...
umm...
cool
It's really unbelievable!!
I can barely imagine the amount of work that has been done
Can't wait to test all of the stuff!
I think this Is the most ambitious project I have seen on moddb. Keep at it this sounds awesome.
F****** Epic, You guys have officially become my Heroes.
this is probably one of the best ideas i saw for a long time on the EaW front.
thank you for offering us those ideas and massif improvements
can't await using all these
Well damn, been following you guys for a long time, and i have to say its my favorite by far when it comes to EaW, and this just kicked it up that much higher, very impressive
This was by far, our hardest coding challenge. Many people originally thought I was crazy when I suggested it, but I just knew it was possible. All thanks goes to the team however, for they are the ones who believed in the idea, and were constantly pushed to think of creative ways to get the coding to work.
It's just amazing, you are going to change the entire concept of FoC modding! We will be always by your side guys, this is amazing and you deserve as much support as we can give you. Keep up this amazing work.
In two months this mod will be in the top 100 for the entire site and #1 for EaW. This is frigging phenomenal shiz. :D
this... I had ideas similar... but i never thought they could be possible... you guys continually prove every impossibility to be completely untrue... you sirs are the masters of modding. We bow before the might of the vong.
I've only read the prologue/dedication and this is for all you guys making this magic happen: Youtube.com
Now I'm gonna take a break, prepare my mind to be blown, and then read the rest.
I, I, I can't even, I have so many questions...
edit:
^^^ what Chimera said.
I've just now saw, that's a wrong link, sorry. :(
This is what I meant Youtube.com
It has been a privilege to work with all the creative minds we have on our team.
A shout-out to Brotapfelinhalierer, Nicktc and Kemasuk who have all made significant contributions in our Research Group, and 166248, our most diligent unit description writer and my partner-in-crime as we move on to our newest coding projects.
For all our fans: Thank you for your support. You are what makes modding worth the effort we put in.
Thanks for the beefy update. What you have planned sounds groundbreaking, congratulations to the team for what you've accomplished so far and good luck in implementing some of the best ideas like the whole planet bombing thing. That could add a whole new layer to planet invasions.
As I understood, they ALREADY HAVE IT ALL IMPLEMENTED AND WORKING!!! :D
Stretching the Alamo engine as far as possible I see.
I didn't see anything about it, but will we be able to build Planetary Shields to protect against bombardment? As the NR, we could send in a Bothan or someone else to sabotage the shields before the attack.
Yes, this is something I plan to try, especially for the battle of Coruscant and the suicide ships, but we need to work more to make sure we can do it successfully
cg!
raming a moon into a planet because why not
Captain... commense Base Delta Zero... turn that scum to dust!
The BDZ ability is cool enough alone but then throwing in all the other ways to destroy a planet and that is just amazing. Galaxy is going to be a dangerous place. Now that planets have hard points are they going to be able to fight back beyond the typical Ion cannon or hyper velocity gun. Make it so an attacker has to neutralize planetary weapons like heavy turbolasers. That might be a little overkill though but would make militarized planets hard to take out.
This is all part of the strategy development we are creating. Players will not know which ships can trigger the planet deaths, so just like the novels you will be caught by surprise by the Vong. Players will have to learn by observation and watch their worlds be destroyed in order to see which vong ships trigger which effects. Future battles will make a player have to decide upon either rushing ahead and destroying the special ships capable of triggering planet death or dealing with a larger more deadly battleship that can easily kill your heroes, for not all heroes will respawn...
The Galaxy will know suffering and pain, for such is the way of the Vong...
That is exactly how it should be! I'm really impressed of the quality you brought here. Makes me think about Zonama Sekot moving like the Death Star, spawning organic fighters and jedi heroes :p After all, you just did practically everything else possible. Great job !
that you actually got this to work is very impressive
i knew this is a huge mod but i had no idea how ambitious it actually is
this is truly mindblowing
hopefully you'll never loose your motivation to complete this great mod! :)
It sounds glorious! and its pretty damn awesome very very good job
FANBOI-ING INTENSIFIES!
Pretty cool. Good update. Thanks guys.
I was thinking if we put our game cursor over one of the city hardpoints on the planets, will it show the name of a city. Like if it's Tatooine, the hardpoints will show the name Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, or Bestine?
That's simple enough to do and is indeed the plan!
It is a great idea. I would like to see more ways of countering the weapons or their effects. For example a way to clean the Alpha red, vong spore, and poison bomb and thaw a frozen planet so that the planets return to their base stats. Otherwise, I think we may see a superweapon overuse unbalancing the game or making more or less useless the GC planets and map.
OH I did not notice this.
The only problem I see with this is that the AI (or myself: P) bombard each planet and not reach the stage of fighting on land.
I remember in SW Rebellion if you built a shield generator (tier 2) you couldn't bomb the planet. maybe could do something similar, of course using the centerpoint station or the Planechanga Hutt would destroy the planet with or without shields
Sorry for any errors that may appear in what I wrote, I do not speak English :(
very much text)
Hell Yeah! I need this mod! I didn't read NJO yet, but while I 'm will doing this during play the mod it will be divine!!!!
There will be graphics or effects enhancements?
thx
Everything is enhanced...Everything...
;)
This sounds better then the original death star i hope it works really well i see putting over 500 hours in this mod
Just a couple things I'd like to suggest, in case they haven't come up already; One, since there are now so many various ways to kill planets--which I assume will be used by the AI unnervingly often--there need to be a lot of planets. This way we can have the same feeling of dread that the books created, with the Vong slowly and inexorably pushing their way toward the core, leaving dead planets in their wake. Similarly, you should try to implement something similar to what Thrawn's Revenge did, which was permanent hero death; yes, they were awesome, and yes, they were incredibly useful to have in battle, but if you put them in a bad spot, or just got incredibly unlucky, that was it. It'll give the same feeling as when Yo'Gand's core was originally used, and make you want to fight harder when you lose a hero. Lastly, and this is one that I've actually suggested on other sites, but which is especially urgent here; the mod 'Absolute Corruption' includes special types of fighters which could be used as air support in ground battles(and a couple modified corvettes). Low-altitude fighters made repeated appearances in the NJO saga, and it would feel odd to not have that sort of thing. For the record, this is in descending order of personal importance; I think lots of planets would be the most important, then permanent hero death, then in-atmosphere fighters.
I am surprised that half the things you are doing are even possible with the game engine it will sure be fun!
man i cant wait to see these in action D: <3 they sound so amazing!
Shouldn't the Dovin Basal be able to be stopped at all? I mean in the books a it took awhile for it to actual accomplish it leaving time for it to be destroyed if it can be found.
Im in no way versed in coding to know how difficult it would be but wouldnt a mechanic where after the dovin basal lands you could take a force to the surface and try to destroy it before it pulls a moon down? Also would all planet have moons? Couldn't it be that that weapon would be ineffective on some planets due to in not having large natural satellite to be pulled down?
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