Tactical Fleet Simulator 3G: v2.6.3 (Updated: 7/31/10)

[Battlecry]

Description:
Tactical Fleet Simulator 3G (TFS) is the third generation development of the TFS modification, with the goal of overhauling the original races in Homeworld2 while maintaining a balanced, strategic and tactics-oriented experience. The major changes include a variety of new units and research options, a completely different gameplay pace and balancing system where traditional ship classes are divided into several subclasses (unit types) with an emphasis on tactical adaptability. For more information and updates, please visit our Moddb homepage.

The single player campaign is completely functional, however TFS was designed with the multiplayer and skirmish game modes in mind. The mod has been thoroughly tested to ensure stability and smooth frame rates on older computer hardware. Please report any unexpected crash to desktop (CTD) occurrences or other bugs.

Current Version: v2.7.1
http://www.moddb.com/mods/tactical-f...ator/downloads
http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/h...mod/35717.html

TFS Wiki for v2.6 units and weapon system specifications:
http://tfsmod.wikkii.com/wiki/Main_Page

TFS v2.6 Official Trailers (HQ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFylMjXWCYg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld5xzG_RfiE

TFS 3G (2.6.0) Development Team:
Battlecry - Mod leader, scripter, concept design
Sagyxil - 3D Modeler and texturer

[SRI-Sajuuk]

Excellent. Will have to give this one a run. Glad to see TFS back in action!

[monolith]

I just tried it out and I have to say: It's great! I really like the sheer variety of units, not just these one-unit-for-one-thing stuff as seen in vanilla HW2 and many other games. TFS seems a bit like Surpreme Commander, just not that complex and not that slow. You got it just right!

[MelvinVM]

Its like PDS but without the crazy ship maneuvers and small ships getting slaughtered when you don't pay attention for a second, very militaristic, maybe a bit too much for default homeworld 2 players, supcom's game experience is very recognized in this, yes. I like it.

[Battlecry]

Thank you for the positive feedback. I have not played Supreme Commander myself aside from the demo a while back, but it's interesting to see people drawing parallels between it and TFS.

I have played Forged Alliance a few times, but I thought it was too slow-paced and difficult to control large amounts of units at once.

[Sagyxil_I]

The heavy ion beam emitter addition for the FFI-44 MkII (still a work in progress.)

[Jak170]

Personally one of my favorite mods. Great ships, Great tactics, great everything. Only 2 problems I've encountered

On the second Hig interceptor and the Assault fighter for the Vaygr, There seems to be an anti-aliasing issue. IF i zoom out a little, there are like little ants crawling all over the ship textures. This is due to the number of little details on the ships. I will post a screenshot if someone wants one.

The second issue is that sometimes when giving simple move orders, destroyers will flip and turn every which way and may take some time to align properly. One of the things I love about this mod is that capital ships are not restricted to the X axis and can move freely but flipping like a dolphin is hardly a good thing.

Great mod, once again.

Good work

[Battlecry]

The texture issue occurs with the FF/C-12A assault fighter, UWP-HLC1200 Platform and FF-25D Advanced interceptor, but we are working to resolve this issue for the next release.

The destroyers (and other capital ships) that have 90 degree pitch and bank properties in the .ship file will take longer to reverse heading. It's an unfortunate byproduct of not restricting their pitch to the x axis.

[Jak170]

Great, looking forward to it. Another few things i noticed are that it seems that the Vaygr have an edge over the Hig in capital/frigate combat. What do the blue bars underneath certain ships represent? are they sheilds? because they pop right back to full after they are used up.

A lot of the hangars in the ships are way too bright. Most notably the Hig shipyard.

A lot of the time, the friendly AI just sat around with its mothership and the two carriers building nothing but fighters and corvettes no matter what the AI setting is set to. While it did produce fighters,corvettes, and frigates, the AI did not build any destroyers at all. The ships that were built didnt attack most of the time and there was just a wall of inactive strike craft sitting in front of the mothership. Perhaps some AI coding issue? This only happens for my team too. The enemy will build stuff quickly and efficiently and will send them into battle but in the end, it's like
My team==> <==Other team


This is just constructive criticism though. Great work on the mod itself. I can easily see the though that has gone into this mod. I've gotten some really epic battles with my destroyers coming down on the enemy at 90 degree angles. I don't know why people haven't really taken this mod up. Its quite strategic and just the way I like it. Oh and btw, i just saw a cluster missle break up into its smaller components in the GAME PAUSED screen. Did you guys do that or was it originally in the game because that looked just sick.

Keep up the good work.

[MatthCoFreak]

What do the blue bars underneath certain ships represent? are they sheilds? because they pop right back to full after they are used up.

EMP shields. They are the same than the ones that pop up when you use the emp of the vanilla scout. Some of the ships in this mod must be using emp weapons.

[Jak170]

? What is the use? they seem to have infinite life


Edit: it seems the Hig ai has serious issues and doesnt do anything of use

[Battlecry]

The bars represent the EMP shield. Most heavy weapons, such as fusion missiles and ion cannons, do limited EMP damage. When the EMP health bar reaches 0, the target ship is disabled for as long as the EMP damage value of the last weapon that impacted it. The Hiigaran AI seems to work fine when I tried it. What AI settings were you using, and were you using the AI build aids option?

The hangars of the ships were not changed from the original version. The Vaygr Destroyer and Battlecruiser are slightly stronger weight per weight than their Hiigaran counterparts, even in v1.1.

EDIT: New TFS video on Moddb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld5xzG_RfiE

[Jak170]

Ok, then the blue bars make sense. Thanks for clearing that up.

It seems that AI in general will sit and just construct units for a ong time before going in to attack. I'll test this more. On easy(standard), both AI's (hiig and vay) seem to do nothing. On aggressive, Vaygr AI storms me with destroyers and what not while Hig AI sits around building strike craft and a few frigates. I'll do some more testing before I accuse the code of anything.



Edit: Seems that the hardest level of AI works perfectly.

[Battlecry]

I tried playing with the CPU on Easy, Aggressive and Hard (Standard) and they seemed to work fine. Maybe the settings are too easy for you? Try using the "AI Build aid" option to improve their performance.

[Jak170]

hmm

well I usually play TACSIM so there's no AI build aids. I'll start playing the normal TFS 2.6 to see what happens with build aids.


Verdict: Well, AI seems fine with build aids and what not but now, I get my butt creamed by hard AI. they magically build like 2 battlecruisers and then hyperspace them into my mothership while my main force just left for combat. Rather challenging when they spew out twice as many fighters as I do. I did make some own modifications such as increasing the destroyer limits because to me, destroyer combat is the heart of this game, but that's just me.

Therefore <==approves this mod in all its entirety.

[Flogger23m]

Thought I would post a link to a recent TFS video I made.

TFS 2.6 trailer. Enjoy.

The version of TFS shown is out dated, and there have been changes done to the mod since then.

This is real gameplay with two people playing online.

I will be making another one soon with more updated footage.

[Flogger23m]

I recently finished another TFS video. Note: Continue watching after the first set of credits.

Video can be seen here.

The first part of the video features online gameplay footage between Phobos TFS and Battlecry in version 2.6.

The second part shows some work in progress and concept ship designs for for future versions of TFS (calling this build version 2.7 for now).

More information about the video can be found in the credits and video description.

[Immortal]

I love it. As a vaygr fan the adiition of oh so many fighter options is glorious for me.

However onething i don't like is the cap system. The complex system of crew and officers is much more realistic since you can use your cap in any way you see fit rather then maxing spesific ship classes. After all isn't that what a real admiral would do? Distribute his forces in the way he sees fit.

[Firewarrior1705]

I think there should be more anti missile options, mostly for the higarans

[Immortal]

I decided i need a change of pace and tried out the Hiigarans....and got brutally mauled. Can anyone give me tips on how to play them? As vaygr a fleet of carriers and a single BC amids my enourmous strike craft contingent works flawlessly....forthe Hiigs not so much.

[Jak170]

well for higs. ( i only ever play higs) i always need to know whos where and probes are key for that. Then, based on the enemy's construction plans, I'll usually rely on various frigates to counter them with a lot of corvette/fighter escorts. Sometimes, I'll get the max number of those missile bombers and use them as an insert force against hig carriers and stuff. Higs have stronger frigates i believe and have cheaper fighters(?) not sure though. So basically, Frigates and corvettes with destroyers will work for hiigs.

[Battlecry]

My typical Hiigaran build is two fighter facilities up front for FF-25C and FF-17A fighters until I max both of their unit caps. After that I usually go with capital ships, on smaller maps I use the CVE-74. On larger maps or in 2v2 games I go with a Shipyard and either cruisers or Battlecruisers. Though it really depends on who your teammate is and what your opponent is building.

Although this is for an older version of TFS, these recorded MP games might be of interest to you:
http://tfs.hyperimpact.net/

Hope this helps.

[yasotay]

This does look promising!

[Bob Smith]

Dropping in to say this is a really fun mod.

I am in love with "Strikecraft Only" mode. Building 40 squadrons of fighters and throwing them at enemies is a wonderful experience.

[HisDivineShadow]

is there anywhere i can download the version 2.4?
for some reason the older versions wont run properly on my laptop and id really love to reinstall this particular version

[Battlecry]

You can download v2.4 from this site (at the bottom of the page under old TFS versions).

http://tfs-database.wetpaint.com/pag...0Extra%20Files

If you are having issues with older versions, v2.4 will probably have the same issue because it is over two years old itself. Have you tried using v2.5 or v2.6 on your laptop?

[AndrewN]

Battlecry, can't answer. Clear your PM.

[HisDivineShadow]

its got something to do with the shaders or something he used in 2.5 and above.
2.4 worked fine on my laptop, i just uninstalled it and wished i did not
i mistyped, i meant the NEWER versions of TFS
my laptop is quote old...only has a 1.4 ghz processor and 512 mb of memory, with a video card that meets the bare minimums of stock HW2
2.4 ran great with only a minor bit of lag though

[Battlecry]

AndrewN,
There should be some free space in my inbox now.

HisDivineShadow,
As a last-ditch effort, you can extract the TFSv2.6.big file content, delete the shader folder than re-package it. It should work with integrated graphic chipsets if you do that but you wont be able to play the mod with anyone who does not have the modified version.

[Titan.Sunace]

Are you planning any NEW SHIPS? I know there are plenty of modelers out there but i don't think their work is very good. I'm trying to learn texturing and shading through BLender. Could I be of use?

-Titan

[MatthCoFreak]

I know there are plenty of modelers out there but i don't think their work is very good.

Not very nice from a still unknown person here. There are many talented people here dude, you should show a little more respect

[Ludovsky]

Proably a bit of a semi-necromantic bump, but I've been trying to download this on moddb, but all I get is a "file not found" error. Is that normal?

[Battlecry]

I have uploaded a new version to moddb today that addresses the issue people with integrated video cards were having (the shaders have been removed entirely from the mod). The latest version should also work on Macs, but let me know if you still run into any compatibility issues.

[Esch1lus]

There's an issue in the trail of light and pulsar gunships (HGN)(O = ship):
---O <--- 1
O || O
---O <--- 2

The trail of ship 1 is too long and it is inside ship 2.

Also CF-17E Fighter formation block image in the menu has a block cut off (the first in the delta formation).

[Esch1lus]

Did you fix the issues I reported above?

[herbyguitar]

This mod is very good. It's obvious you've put a lot of work into it. Thank you.

Level 3 SP mission has a bug with probes. Can't leave the level if gameplay doesn't follow the strict letter for letter mission objectives. Objectives window shows enemy probes not all destroyed but there are no probes left to destroy. I searched in vain for over an hour trying to find the hidden buggers but they are not there.

I ran into this once before with a mod but never figured out how to fix it. Any clues?

[Proripper]

Had the same problem when I played. Any way around it?

[Battlecry]

The latest release, 2.7.1, addresses the problem some are experiencing with the third level by including a hotfix big file.

[Altaille]

Hi all !
Firstly, I had to say my english is bad, I'm french ... :P
I post here because I had a problem when I was playing to TFS 2.7.1 ...
When I zoom on a vgr FB-58 Tactical bomber, a back to desktop. I test with some other fighters, and the bug seems to only concern this model ...

My Hw2.log file :

Spoiler

Sun Feb 13 11:43:30 2011
Loaded Archive: 'Homeworld2.big'
Loaded Archive: 'english.big'
Loaded Archive: 'TFSv2.7.big'
Loaded Archive: 'TFSv2.5_NT.big'
Uing ..profiles\ for profiles folder
GAME -- Using player profile Altaille
Changing from a 32 bit colour depth in winNT (5.1 build 2600), Service Pack 3
Using ATI Technologies Inc.'s 2.0.5949 WinXP Release RADEON XPRESS Series x86/SSE2 renderer (Suspected driver is atioglxx.dll 6.14.10.5949)
Loaded Archive: 'englishSpeech.big'
Loaded Archive: 'Music.big'
SOUND -- created destination [ fdaudio ], handle [ 4 ] with [ 48 ] channels created
SOUND -- created destination [ fda streamer ], handle [ 5 ] with [ 8 ] channels created
Build name: The Dust Wars - AutoBuild3569 - Ordered by smmatte
Built by : mrbuild
Data path : D:\programmes\Homeworld2\data
Resetting fp control word.
CmdLine: -mod TFSv2.7.big,;TFSv2.5_NT.big
EngineTrailStatic::getTweaks requesing index(7) that doesn't exist.
EngineTrailStatic::getTweaks requesing index(10) that doesn't exist.
EngineTrailStatic::getTweaks requesing index(7) that doesn't exist.
EngineTrailStatic::getTweaks requesing index(10) that doesn't exist.
parameter: `=' expected;
last token read: `.75' at line 35 in string "?"

I try to install the patch which remove engine trails, but the bug remain ...
I have made some modding test befor installing the mod, but I don't change the imprtant files ... I don't understand
I'm on XP, with an old ATI integrated card (ATI RADEON XPRESS 200).

Thanks to had read me !

[Esch1lus]

I saw that you did not fix the issue I mentioned above, is it difficult to do?

[Battlecry]

Altaille,
I haven't had any problems with the FB-58A on my HD4870 and Nvidia GTX 260 video cards, so I am going to guess that either integrated video chipsets or old ATI drivers are the reason for the CTD. I tried running TFS on my old PC, which has an AGP ATI X700 video card and the game CTD when the FB-58 came into view. My only suggestion is to try updating your drivers or purchase a dedicated video card.

Esch1lus,
I don't think the CF-17E icon being slightly cut off warrants any attention and effort at this point, since the game is virtually dead.

[Altaille]

Thanks for your answer battlecry. I found the solution some weeks ago. That was a V-sync problem, and the installation of the ATI control center (which wasn't integrated to the last driver of my video card ...) corrects it.

[nansounet]

hy !

first sory for my poor english, next i would play the campaign with the mod but i hace the bug in the mission3, with the drone, but i have the hotfix activated.. so if somebody had a solution please!! i have try to edit the files of the games to unlock the next mission, but in all case when i launch the mission 4 (or othert after mission 3, i have try to...) i have "mission failed" ouch... and this my shorcut:

C:\Jeux\Homeworld2\Bin\Release\Homeworld2.exe -mod TFSv2.7.big;TFSv2.7M3.big -luatrace -w 1440 -h 900

please help!!

[nansounet]

there is nobody to help me?

[Proripper]

Where's the music for the main menu from? curious 'cause its great. It fits really well.

[lmsmi1]

Great mod!