A Homeworld Universe Mod - HWU v0.0.94 DL available

[altimer]

i have a good idea for a story for why all the races and i think i even have a loose campaing idea


ok after the hiagaran varge war they what is it call the big ring not balcora but Aarran i think and they use the sajjuk to epen it and send a scout fleet though

what they find is truly distrubing as hundreds of t-mat ships attack and destroy every ship in the fleet. right before this karah sar-jet dies so there are no real fleet commanders left. so the t-mat are running free and destryoing everything. so the future hiagara taiidani and vagre along with a few other races make a last stand with the sajuuk the battle is horrible for the ships but they managed to push the t-mat back.or so they thought as the t-mat leave they discorver that in fact far more evil is ruling them so they attack again and this time with the good guys ships destroyed the t-mat are unstoppable.that is untill the hiagarans break the true secret of hyperspace time travel.so to stop the hiagarans from opening the gate they try to go back to the past and right their wrong, but the t-mat attack and destoy hiagara completely so the hiagarans are forced to make a decision lose them selves in the war they can not win or use the time jump, they use the time warp and over shot their time direction so they go way back alll the way to the exile and see what the bentusi realy are themselves they profected the bionic system of the motherships and become the bentusi the player is playing as the hiagarans then the kushan for a bit then the play most of the game as the bentusi but heres the catch the t-mat folo u and they are forced to leave the kushan to take hiagara and wait for the mistace but then they forgot about the beast and the catalism so u get to play up untilt the second homeworld war as the bentusi, but thats not the end as u realize that u have to go back to the future to stop the past and then thats where the future eras come into existece by the bentus exploding they didnt die they shot out pod that could jump to the future and stop the t-mat how is still up to debate in my mind i was thinking the beast so u can play as the beast

sorry double post but the t-mat are the ones who destroyed the progeniters and they where locked inside Aarran

[doci7]

That's a lot to take in! The beginning part reminded me of Bentusi_Core's mod idea. I don't know if you Universe-mod-teamers pay much heed to the Mod Idea thread (I don't see why you would, since you're already working on one!) but there was this guy there (the aforementioned Bentusi_Core) who had a spectacular post-HW2 campaign all planned-out and professionally documented. If you want a post-HW2 campaign, I say this fellow is your man! I know he'd be excited to learn of your interest in his ideas, and trust me, they're pretty good!
For your consideration, here are the links to his snazzy .pdf's...
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11...0Breifing..pdf
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11...nformation.pdf
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/11...ampaign%5D.pdf

[Babasior]

Is will be a new beta soon after 0.0.5a + build.lua files updates ?

Because many thing seem to be made since last release ...

[MatthCoFreak]

@Moleman, doci7 and Qwaar-jet858 : I was also thinking of a long-range sphere burst weapon for the siege cannon. I just lack a nice bullet effect (and also if possible a nice explosion effect) to have it ingame

@Babasior : As chris80502A said, it's going to be soon. We're all impatient here, but he won't release it sooner if we pressure him


And I've started extracting sound files from HW and cata, I'm gonna work on fixing the sound effects for the somtaaw multibeam frigate and the bentusi superacolyte.

[Moleman]

we might be able to speak to the HW@ team about getting an early release of their explosion animation

[Vipey]

Just thought I'd let everyone know in here. Chris PM'd me a few days about about permission to use the Rhino Taiidan Dreadnaught. Don't know if he told you guys but I said he's allowed. My thumb rule for modding is that I'm not professional, I'm not better than you, her, him or whoever because I don't view myself that way on the internet. Therefore it's always been my philosphy that anyything I make on the internet for a game mod should be, and always will stay open-sourced.

[NunoDRKS]

i agree givinhg pca to somtaaw isnt as fun as u mght think... it is perfectly possible to mod an existing weapon so it can fire a bg ball that blows up like nucear blas from complex that shoul do the trick....

[MatthCoFreak]

@Demonslayer : I'm totally on your side, man. I've always been for open-source.
As it has been said before, many taiidan-based mod died on early stages, so it's gonna be really great to see post-hw1 taiidan ships ingame .
Btw you can consider every of my work here as open-sourced too

@NunoDRKS :Err... Can you translate ?

[chris80502]

Hello everyone, I have a small package for you all. It's the Tobari "Renegade" Gunship. I have included the source model as well if anyone can import it into the .hod without it coming out all smoothed which also screws up the texture a bit.

http://files.filefront.com/Renegader.../fileinfo.html

I'd post some screens, and did on moddb, but I can't access any of the free hosts I had accounts with and I also can't even login to the hwu.homeworldaccess.net server for some reason. I'll try to get them hosted else where in a little bit.

MatthCoFreak, I think NunoDRKS is basically saying the same thing you did in your previous post about the Seige Cannon. I also almost have the release ready, do you have the single ship stuff.

[NunoDRKS]

I agree giving pca (Phased Cannon Array) to somtaaw isn't as fun as you might think... it is perfectly possible to mod an existing weapon so it can fire a big ball that blows up like a nuclear blast from complex mod........... that should do the trick....

sorry about that, but my keyboard skips some letters when i write a bit fast... *cough* crap.... *cough* keyboard.... *cough* *cough* lol

i guess i posted a bit off context huh!!! lol

[MatthCoFreak]

@chris80502A : I thought I sent you the single ship stuff via PM. If you can wait a little, I'm going to have new sound and effects for the somtaaw multibeam frigate and the bentusi superacolyte

@NunoDRKS : No problem, but you know, for some of us like me, English isn't the native language, so if you start to misspell, I'm not going to understand anything :/

[chris80502]

MatthCoFreak, I don't remember receiving it, and yeah I can wait, just let me know.

Here are the images that were for the link above:






Here is a shot of the AI kickin' some butt - it's still pretty early in this particular game.


Here is a shot of the AI controlling the single vettes, looks okay so far.


One last one just for the fun of it:


I have added a bunch of Tobari ships to the game and added them as a team for the next release, though it will just be for critique it should allow everyone to look at the ships a little more closely and hopefully add some comments about the designs and the way the Tobari team is shaping up so far. I have also been fixing up the Carrier only option and changing all teams to work on the updated AI.

One note on the Renegade, I did just do a quick UV on the guns and I'm not finished with either the gun texture or the main texture and I know also that it doesn't have a stripe color layer yet, the weapons don't seem very effective yet either. I have both the KCs Fighter class ships added as well but need to add a few weapons quick.

[MatthCoFreak]

Done. As you can see, that was quick
So I send you here all I've done : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qnjytknljmz
There are :
- the single ships for kushan and taiidan
- the dockpaths for the support frigate and the repair corvette (made quickly, may look a bit odd ingame, but functional )
- sound effects and fx for the multibeam frigate and the superacolyte
- all my work with the multibeam frigate : stats, weapon, attack script. It's now really closer to what it was in cata

Oh and btw, the tobari gunship is really nice, good work !

[Starscream]

I have a couple of good news too regarding the Hw1 models. I have just overcome a couple of issues i had with the exported models (removing backfaces, weird seperated objects..etc ) and i am ready to resume the project, after taking a break to devote sometime to my mini mod.

@ Chris80502A: Really awsome work m8

Edit: A quick change on Taiidan interceptor --->Twin Taiidan interceptor ---> Triple Barrel interceptor



Edit 2: Something else concerning the face lifting process of the HW1 ships. Like chris suggested i am keeping all the main features of the ships intact so here is an example with what i came up for Kushan light interceptor.

Original HW1 model :

New version model :

I didn't mess with the model too much so that it won't loose its feeling. I just changed the weapons and the side wing a bit and added a few details on it.So if any1 has any ideas or suggestions on how you would like the old ships to look, feel free to share those thoughts

[MatthCoFreak]

Awesome work on the kushan scout. It's like what the Requiem War mod were doing, and it looks great

But for the twin and triple barrel interceptor, I don't know. Again that's only my opinion, but that's not the first time I see that, and I still think that all the feeling of the taiidan interceptor come from its unusual, asymmetrical look. Those multiple-barrel fighters looks really odd, or at least less taiidan-looking to me.

EDIT : And for suggestions about other ships, check the original concept arts. Some of them are close to the original ships, but much more detailled :

some concept art

And if you could get back the side armored fairing, which was on an early ingame version it would be great :

[chris80502]

Starscream, I like the twin gun version of the Taiidan interceptor. The new interceptor also looks pretty good, what is that little side thing anyways (in the middle of the ship). The only thing I wonder about is the antenna or sensor thing, or whatever you call it, the part hanging off the rear of the ship. It just doesn't seem right with those notch outs, is there some other style we could do that maybe looks a little more streamlined, this one looks kind of fat. I like the panels above the rear and in the middle of the ship, how about maybe recessing the gun barrels into the ship with kind of a little ring of space around them. One other thing I would bring up are some of the edges, I would be interested to see the edges on the rear section - main panels - to have the style of edges you revised for me on the Tobari frigate, keep the same panels, just make the transition edge a new panel so the look is a little more softer and realistic.

Here is something I worked on a little yesterday, does anyone know how to remove the letterbox effect?




The bulk of the text is too small to read of course but I think this looks pretty good. Anythoughts from anyone, I did remove considerable amounts of text along with a few features, I hope it's okay with Norsehound. I'm wondering too if maybe we should try to size the text for the original Homeworld 1 journey location markers a little larger and some of the fan fic a little smaller. I'm also going to remove the text next to the Relic logo and use that in the credits section. As I've said before, I like this background as it is not team, race or developer specific, hope you all feel the same. I am also open to other ideas if anyone has anything they think is either more appropriate or just plain cooler.

MatthCoFreak, that last screen you posted is pretty neat, can you elaborate a little bit about what that idea is and maybe where you found that screen.

[MatthCoFreak]

http://shipyards.relicnews.com/kushan/scout.htm
At the bottom of the page.
This is just an early version of the kushan scout, when it was intended to be much more like a light interceptor. As in HWU it is used as an interceptor, I thought it would be great to have that pannel back

And for the background, that's a great idea. I also agree with your ideas about sizing the text. For the letterbox, I don't know, but is it possible to keep a high resolution for the background ? Because a 1024x768 thing is gonna look ugly on my 1440x900 screen

EDIT : I just sent you a PM, chris. I say it here because you didn't received the last one (the one with the single ships)

[chris80502]

I did start this time with the 1600x version, I figured I'd post the low quality version here to save screen space.

[Moleman]

chris im not too sure if ou can remove the letterbox effect i havent seen anthing that does that yet, however could you resize the images to fit inside the letter box space? or is that something that were not wanting to resort to.

[Volans|SF]

Download link does not work on the first post, and no download link on moddb.

[chris80502]

Moleman, yeah I want it to be like the Slipstream UI main screen, I'll fit it into the small space if I have too...

Volans/SF: Sorry the filefront link died and I was going to wait until I had our new alpha ready to re-upload it. Also we won't post a dl on moddb until we have an actual release, not just an alpha. Give me a few more days and v0.0.7a will be in my signature, or maybe Moleman can repost the old v0.0.5a until then.

[doci7]

That map has a lot of races on it! Are you planning to represent every one of them? Even if you only had 2-3 ships for some of the races, that would still be kinda crazy!

PS: Out of humor-driven curiousity, are the Lozenge on that map anywhere?

[jamie_to_cute]

were can i down load HWU Mod, v0.0.5a the above link isnt working

[doci7]

Look up... two posts above yours states that v0.0.5a is broken, but chris80502A is working to upload a more complete version soon. Until then, you'll likely have to wait it out.

[chris80502]

Could anyone please upload 0.0.5a, I don't have the .big anymore (I only archive full-ish releases) and the version I have is a bunch different but not quite ready yet. If anyone can, please post as your uploading so multiple people don't have to bother with it - thanks.

doci7, Lozenge, hmmm... as per the other races, I don't know there are quite a few of these that are already represented but this map was created by Norsehound (theres a link a few pages back to the original). I do believe much of the additional ideas are from Norse with maybe some drawn from original concepts and documents to fill the map. To answer the question, probably not.

[Starscream]

As for the races thing i have to agree with chris on that matter. Considering the number of races on that map it would probably take 5 individual modding groups with modelers, textures, concept artists etc etc to make this work and with perfect coordination and communication among them which is not possible atm. Plus more races would probably cause more unbalance. Though i don't know how things will turn out in the future, but if we had more ppl dedicated on this we would probably reconsider that option. For example the Tobari is an easier race to implement on the mod cause there were already concepts refering to their ship desighn but for the other races i have no clue. Don't misunderstand me though, i would like to see as many races as possible in the mod just this is not a priority considering the state of the mod.

A different preview on the kushan interceptor. I changed a few things as u wanted chris and added a plating like Math suggested.

[Babasior]

Welcome to the next 0.0.7a release !!!!!

Are you included formations ?

[chris80502]

Starscream, that looks pretty good, I like the new antenna and the recess for the guns. In that gun recess it might look cool to add a barrel now, maybe taper the barrel base to fit the base of the recess and I would suggest that the barrel be half the length of the depth of the recess. I would note also to be careful about how small some of the details that are added will be in-game. I'm interested to see how you remodel the rest.

Babasior, yes I will include your formation work, but might we get a straight English version. I don't mind the French myself, but I do want to keep the mod all one language.

As per the map, here is a list of the extra races it shows, though I don't believe you can read any of them on the game version anyway:

Havilah
Edom
Caanan
Iyssade
Concordat
Idae
Hanoch
Valhalla
Nirvana
Manasseh
Gilead
Asshur
Lagash
Amalekite Lands
Frerran Aggreate

There are also:

Taanach
Republican Taiidan

Which I think are two HW races, though I don't know much about either or where the ideas started. The map also has the standard races of course (no Beast - but that's probably just as well as the beast was more of a virus than a race). I just left the race logos in there as I would have to change Norses map considerably to remove all the logos for these extra races/places and feel that I have already changed it enough.

[doci7]

Hmm... I recognize a lot of those names (as I imagine many people with knowledge of the Old Testament and some Norse-mythology would). The only one that's consistent with HW concepts that I'm aware of is the Frerrn (dang, no Lozenge), though besides the multiple mentions I've seen of the Frerrn, the ever-more plentiful mentions of Tobari, and the one concept picture I saw labelled Lozenge Ship, I guess I don't know of any other extras anyway. Thanks for the list!

[MatthCoFreak]

There are also:

Taanach
Republican Taiidan

Which I think are two HW races, though I don't know much about either or where the ideas started.

Republican Taiidan is from Cataclysm. They are what became the Taiidan Resistance we helped in HW1 (you remember Captain Elson ?).

@Starscream : Really great. There is nothing to say, excepting that it would be greater even with textures

@doci7 : I agree with chris too. We'll probably work on it asap, but I think we have enough work for now

EDIT : @Starscream : During the past 2 years, I collected multiple concepts arts from almost everywhere, so if you're starting a new ship and would like to take inspiration from some concept arts, you can ask me

[doci7]

I agree with chris too. We'll probably work on it asap, but I think we have enough work for now

I don't mean to sound like it is at all important to represent all the races, I just wondered if you planned to. And I certainly don't want to put undue pressure on you folks!

[MatthCoFreak]

Didn't really mean asap. Just wanted to say that's something we want too, and we keep that in mind. You know, I've sometimes difficulties with the nuance of some words in English :/

[Talros]

Hey I have finished a new concept, may be a Tobari destroyer or something like that. ;D

[Baroness]

nice ship

[Ap07he0s1s]

um since no one responded about HWU 0.0.5 ALPHA i guess ill upload it here

http://files.filefront.com/HWUnivers.../fileinfo.html

also on a sadder note i am going to resign from the music with this mod because i am also doing music and helping out with slipstream TPOF as well as the Earthen Forces mod and all the music sounds the same so it would be kinda weird people would be like, "hey isnt this from sliptream" and then playing slipstream , "hey isnt this from universe" lol idk

[doci7]

To MatthCoFreak: Ah yes, english isn't your native language, but I've got to hand it to you- I would never have known if you hadn't said so!

To Talros: SWEET! If only I could draw like that (it would probably improve my model-making ability). I hope to see it in the game some day!

To Baroness: You said it.

To Ap07he0s1s: On behalf of all of us who're totally stoked about Homeworld Universe-ness, thank you for uploading the alpha!

To the Homeworld Universe Team: Hypothetically speaking, would you all be interested in a non-canon, non-concept race ->*IF*<- it were one day to be finished?

[ajlsunrise]

@doci7: nice plug for your ships you're designing! However, i can't really say, b/c I'm not on the team, but I wouldn't think so, but then again, you can always hope! They are awesome and sort of have that homeworld-ish feel. (I wish I could model like that...)

[Ringleader]

I don't know if you are going to make custom maps, but here is a concept background of Valhalla.

Valhalla

Ill have a lot of free time at school to work on some other ideas, like different ship styles.

[chris80502]

Talros, nice work, I think it has a very good feel for the suggested role and the design looks very well thought out. It feels like a there are a few design hints from Vaygr, Kushan and Taiidan influences, overall I really like it and think it's a perfect fit for a Tobari (or even Turanic) destroyer with that classic Homeworld bad guy look.

Here are some other images to keep us thinking Tobari:





These next images of of this Assault Shipyard by Baroness, I took a few moments to add it into the game.



ap07he0s1s, thanks for uploading the mod version and for being clear with your intentions, best of luck in your future projects.

doci7, from post 1 of this thread. "...the only guideline being to keep it entirely within the Homeworld Universe, any era, any race (I'd especially like to incorporate one's we haven't seen like the Tobari & T-Mat)."

Didn't you say that the race you were creating was a Galactic Council race? That sounds pretty HW to me, it will be up to the community in the end if you do decide to donate your materials, I would recommend also a story as to why we haven't seen these beings before, do they hibernate for 500 years at a crack or something like that .

Ringleader, thanks, we are trying to incorporate as many locations as we can. Is the planet in a nebula? Is there any story to Valhalla or is it a total concept with a little help from the galactic map? Anyways, it looks really nice.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was also wondering if there was anyone out there who could do up a real nice symetrical high quality version of the Tobari logo for the mod based off of the concept above.

[ajlsunrise]

from post 1 of this thread. "...the only guideline being to keep it entirely within the Homeworld Universe, any era, any race (I'd especially like to incorporate one's we haven't seen like the Tobari & T-Mat)."

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that

[Babasior]

@chris :

I will translate "formations" scripts to english if you want (but i need some time ) ?
I made them in french, because it's my primary language and it's more easy to understand bugs for me ....

But you're right, it's will be better for most users, if they are in english ...

You can use/modify them as you want !

Nice mod background title ! (don't forget to include a 1920 x 1200 screen size ... I'll be very happy )

[Phatboygeo]

Are the weapons on the shipyard thingy, buildable???

Oh, i will try the tobari thingy, im at school so i have photo shop

[Ringleader]

Yeah, its a concept only off of the Galactic map, I don't know much about the HW lore. I just sort of made what I envisioned what the planet would look like based on the name.

[doci7]

Thanks chris! As a part of the race concept, I already had a good reason thought out as to why they've yet to be encountered. They live in a cluster of black holes and can't leave it for very long, because they've become physiologically dependent on high gamma radiation levels and other exotic particles given off by black holes over the eons they've existed there. When they do leave the cluster (to collect supplies/ conduct research) they come en masse, but this happens VERY infrequently as they collect over 5 years worth of goods, and due to the time-dilation of their close proximity to black holes, 5 years for them is equivalent to hundreds of normal-space years. Thus, we haven't seen them!

But that doesn't mean that they have to be encountered during one of their expeditions. Their biology is in stark contrast with their disposition-- they love to explore space and encounter new cultures. So, in attempt to satisfy their own curiosity about other races, they grant sanctuary to anyone who will come to their space, as sort of a perk to make the 'new cultures' come to them. But they take that job very seriously, and while they're generally peaceful, they're one of the meanest and most determined forces to be reckoned with in the galaxy if you try to mess with someone who's ventured to seek their protection.

Third possible encounter: a declaration of war by the Council. They would understandably take a little longer to get involved, but they keep a fleet at the ready should they need to contribute to an act of war by the whole GC.

Sorry if this is too much information.

[rifleman101]

Its nice, but it seem s a little flat. The design seems.... 1997ish.

Very good though.

[ajlsunrise]

to what are you (rifleman101) refering to?

[NunoDRKS]

it has an hiigaran-ish style, (like seen on BCs, carriers, even shipyard) the flat horizontal disposition is typical from hiigaran units... while vaygr have the trademark o flat vertical ships

[rifleman101]

The assault shipyard. Its not that its flattish, its that its FLAT. Perfectly flat.

Just seems bland to me.

[Starscream]

@ MatthCoFreak : I would love to see those concepts m8. It would be a great help for me if you could e-mail them too me or upload them somewhere. I always need new ideas for future models.

@ Tarlos : A...A...A.........AMAZING!!! I spent 15 minutes just looking at it. I just couldn't get my eyes of from that ship!


@ doci7 : Really nice m8. Considering those models in the showroom i feel really thrilled to have them in the mod.

@ chris80502A: " I would note also to be careful about how small some of the details that are added will be in-game."
To be honest i had the same concern myself, on how small details will look on strikecrafts since most of them are used in squadrons (limited zoom). so i did a little experiment. I made a custom Kushan Heavy interceptor with lots of small and big details on.

Model Preview:

You can see that i loaded the model with details which are visible with the shaders in Wings 3d

After that I textured it [the textures are not the final, they were only made for this test (an excuse for the crappy job i done)]


Some of the details are not as clear as before cause of the textures, but they are still visible.

And here comes the real test. After a quick hodding i added the model in game and took a few shots.


All the shots were taken in max zoom. Also the ship was not use in a squadron in any of the pics cause it was clear that even with these settings a few of the small details are not visible at all. The thing is that i didn't use Cnls shaders and i thing we will be getting a lot better results with his shaders ..Oh btw there were a few flaws in the hod but i was too bored to fix this since the hod was made just foe the test.

[doci7]

That looks awesome! For whatever reason, I thought you were using the scout model as the interceptor, which made me sad because I love the K interceptor design (all the more now that you've added some sweet panels and whatnot). I am glad to see that I misunderstood what was going on!

Really nice m8. Considering those models in the showroom i feel really thrilled to have them in the mod.

Thanks a lot for that! I really want to participate, but I have a lot of work ahead of me, and it all remains rather daunting. Though it is good to know that my stuff is welcome as it becomes finished.