R.E.A.R.M. -alpha 0.0.3c

[Homdax]

I am sorry I meant AFF not PDS. My mistake...http://homeworldshots.net/main.php/v/mods/aff/

Other stuff noted. Will work on that during weekend. You could also register yourself and we can work on it both. I as Admin and You as Owner of that Album.

[Pouk]

OK I'll do that, I'll register there.

[Homdax]

Seen it, you're activated.

And now you own it.

[Pouk]

Cool. Editing now.

[Homdax]

Sure go right ahead...

[sudazima]

well i recognize that gallery...

[Zephyr]

Thank you

[Homdax]

well i recognize that gallery...

Wowsers, one of the AFF guys...

[Mikali]

@Ender, and whoever else may be curious...
...
...Geez, I hope they link properly...

Is the text baked into the textures, or is there some property of ship files I didn't realize existed?

[Pouk]

sudazima: I bet you do, AFF has a nice gallery there.

Mikail: I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but the text is a large set of buildable subsystems, so you can "type" on the ships anything you want. Name the ships or give them serial numbers, to track them through the battle or just to customize them. A small video about it.

[Homdax]

Ender, just out of curiosity, who are you thanking and for what...

[Mikali]

Mikail: I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but the text is a large set of buildable subsystems, so you can "type" on the ships anything you want. Name the ships or give them serial numbers, to track them through the battle or just to customize them. A small video about it.

Wow! Sweet!

[Mikali]

Wow, the movie player at ModDB sucks. It doesn't seem to cache files like YouTube. Means you can't just hit pause and wait for the entire movie to download before playing.

[tadamir]

Ha, thanks Homdax

Feel free to take any pictures I've put up; as Pouk said, I'm totally fine with it.
My attitude is; any pictures I choose to upload to the net becomes public domain pretty much (but thanks for asking ) .
(and btw, have you had a good sift through the 'screenshots' thread over at the REARM ModDB site?, there's some pics I really like there, from several people).

And most of them are taken from within Mikali's wonderful Maps so thanks to him too.

[Pouk]

Upgraded Mololu's Turanic raiders in REARM.

[Blaze]

:/ i wish i could had gotten the Chirstmas update...

[GBscientist]

Wow, Pouk, that jaw on the bow of the cruiser looks spectacular!

[CodeRed]

hi to everyone! This is my first post here

first of all I would to congratulate myself with Pouk for the amazing job he's doing with this mod. It's the first time that I really get into a mod gameplay and new ships without being a bit suspicious [normally I get bored of uneffective ships and, most of all, too complicated gameplays]. The modular destroyer is fantastic [very good looking with the full "torpedo suit"], and I'm quiete enjoying the enhanced vaygr fleet. The Supercarrier is just stunning.


Anyway, I don't know if you are aware of this, but if I start a skirmish with the max amount of RUs I see that the Higs AIs does not work properly. They build lots of carriers but very few fregates and just 1 or 2 DD. No BC at all and very few fighters and corvettes as well. Vaygr works well and its quiete challenging anyway, even if I saw them building very differently than usual. And when I use factions with higs, 3 motherships and carriers of each faction have their "birth" in the middle of the map and stay there like sitting ducks, while the AI attacks them instead of me [and gets trashed]
Just to let you know! Bye, keep up the good work!

[casojin]

I wonder about faction. I have tried a bit of it and I'm not sure how different each one is (other than different starting ships, different Flagship/Carrier weapons, limitation of units). Could you clarify this?

[Pouk]

Hi CodeRed.

It's the first time that I really get into a mod gameplay and new ships without being a bit suspicious [normally I get bored of uneffective ships and, most of all, too complicated gameplays].

Thank you. That's one of the things I'm tring to do, one of the reason I started modding was that all of the mods I wanted to play changed the gameplay way too much. I didn't want a way too fast and frenetic or way too slow combat, I just wanted those ships. And normal ships, ships which blend in and look good.

I am aware of the issue with the AI and high amount of starting RU. You know what? I think I'll remove the 50 000 RU option entirely. The problem is that the AI as it is is not made for such situation. It's probably "learned" to build the Shipyards and such ships as soon as it gets some RU, but it does it also when it gets that much RU right away from the start. And since I'm not very gifted in the AI modification area, I don't want to fix (broke) something which works with the normal settings. The 50K option in the present is mostly just for the MP, but people use it widely for skirmishes, I'm gonna remove it. It will be easier that way, less confusing and dissapointin. And if someone still wants a lot of RU, he can get to astronomical values with the RU injections option.

Factions are in the stage of categorizing now, every new ship gets it's specific build family and so it's in the right place in the faction gameplay build menu. But there is a lot of ships missing yet for faction gameplay to be what it's supposed to be. So it's playable, it works, but I don't pay too much attention to it until I'll have enough ships to support it. And that's why I probably didn't notice something or didn't test it properly. Can I ask what map was that? Didn't they again have too much RU? What specific factions were that?

casojin:
As I said few lines earlier, right now it's just about limiting ships based on their main weapon category.

[casojin]

Also, I've found a strange thing in Crimson Bonds with Faction mode on. The map simply has all Hiigaran sub-faction motherships and carriers in the middle of the map. When I play Hiigaran, I can capture all those and build all faction units. Is it a bug or something intentional?

[CodeRed]

@Pouk: Hi! Yes continue with this way of modding please! Check the vgr assault corvette anyway, it cuts down fighters like they're mosquitos! I know this is what is supposed to do but it's really effective, we're lucky that the AI doesn't use it in big numbers :P Or are you making an advanced pulsar corvette able to neutralize them?

Anyway, the map is Crimson Bond and no, the problem doesn't seem to be related with starting RUs. I was playing with the hgn high-tech faction, standard starting fleet, no RUs injection and 1 AI. The interesting thing is that these "intruders" were not able of building anything [they have no RUs and no collectors maybe] and they had the same colours, like they were infact one player with 3 motherships and 3 carriers, one per faction.

[Pouk]

casojin:
Crimson Bond, I'll check that out, I didn't know about it at all.

CodeRed:
In the current version the Vgr Assault Corvette is significantly less effective. The range of the weapons was way too high for corvettes and the damage and accuracy as well.

That's interesting, I'll look at it. I'll say more about it later today.

[Pouk]

You people are right about the factions and Crimson Bond, that thing is weird. I don't know what's causing it.

[Pouk]

New version up to download:


download 0.0.3c
or
download

Version 0.0.3c adds new units as a Vaygr Missile Battlecruiser and a fleet of Turanic raiders ships, new Kadeshi race (WIP), system of allies with Turanic raiders and Nassars, adds a system for naming your ships, new game rule options as win condition settings or an Explosion damage script and a new game type called High Command (WIP) for large scale battles.

Changelog:

Spoiler

-NEW RACES: -Kadeshi
-Turanic raiders (ally race)
-Nassar (ally race)

-NEW SHIPS: -VGR Missile Battlecruiser
-VGR Lance platform
-VGR Double Lance platform

-HGN Modular Platform
-HGN Double Modular Platform
-HGN Triple Modular Platform
-HGN Research Station (WIP)

-KAD 1G Needleship (WIP)
-KAD 1G Lanceship
-KAD 1G Scout
-KAD 1G Swarmer
-KAD 1G Bomber
-KAD 1G Pulsar Swarmer
-KAD 1G Advanced Swarmer

-Turanic Interceptor
-Turanic Gun Corvette
-Turanic Missile Corvette
-Turanic EMP Corvette
-Turanic Capture Corvette
-Turanic Capture EMP Corvette
-Turanic Scout Corvette
-Turanic Ion Array Frigate
-Turanic Missile Frigate
-Turanic Capture Frigate
-Turanic Gattling Gun Frigate
-Turanic Light Cruiser
-Turanic Carrier
-Turanic Resource Collector
-Turanic Resource Controller
-Turanic Gravwell Generator

-Nassar Strike Frigate
-Nassar Bombardment Frigate
-Nassar Modular Frigate
-Nassar Bomber

-the vanilla campaign has been "REARMed" by adding new ships, research, and increasing the game's difficulty
-new game mode called "High Command" for large scale battles (WIP - serious crash issues, frequent saving recommended)
-system for naming your capital ships
-new Win condition option specifying which ships need to be destroyed in order to win the game (solves the problems when you needed to hunt down every last artillery frigate and similar ships with limited building capabilities)
-the "Explosion Damage Script v2.0" by Dim@ implemented. Optional, by default switched on. All exploding capital ships do damage to nearby units. (make sure your dying BC is surrounded by enemies or you guide it close to enemy ship yourself. Also don't scuttle your ships near your own units)
-new ally system
-new colored bay glows for faction ships (Hiigaran: yellow, bright purple. Vaygr: red, green. All for every possible ship with a bay)
-new "Capture the Mothership" Game type -MS with 500% health boost, unlimited capturers caps...
-some ships have custom visuals that can be "constructed" (Turanic Cruiser) and/or "unlocked" (Vay Chevron BC, 50 kills)
-unit caps info enlarged and moved to the top
-Hiigaran Defense Drone (ship model) finished
-Small Hyperspace Beacon finished
-Vgr Carrier armor finished, it will also give the ship the 10% health boost
-Significant revisions to ships created by others (Kadeshi, Turanic Raiders, Pulse Destroyer)
-added files allowing players to make a custom starting fleet, read installation instructions for more information
-new modules for Modular Destroyer (Defense Field Generator, Additional Engines)
-the "Queues" menu is bigger and contains 13 instead of 9 ships
-the Hgn Carrier and Battlecruiser team colors bug fixed (run the normal Homeworld 2, try bright red Hiigarans and look into the Corvette bay)
-the mod no longer uses duplicate models, which means the mod size and map load time has been decreased
-Modular Destroyer share health and speed upgrades with the default Destroyer
-view distance of standard mines significantly lowered, minefields are no longer visible from the other side of a map
-mines from the artillery cluster missile and minetrap now execute the open animation
-the artillery frigate turret light doesn't flash rapidly anymore, new NavLights in some subsystems
-"Naabal" changed to "Nabaal" in SP campaign mission 3 (which may not be correct according to HW1 documents, but in HW2 it seems to me that it's generally known as Nabaal)
-a lot of missing research fixed (for example faction ship wasn't affected by research etc.)
-new badges
-new menu backgrounds
-wallpapers and 12 new Windows icons of REARM ships
-lot of other things...

-BALLANCING CHANGES:

-HE Artillery damage increased from 102 to 125
-Tripple Laser Corvette damage decreased
-Assault corvette weapon damage, range and accuracy significantly reduced
-Transport Carrier's dock capacity increased to 12
-lifetime of mines increased from 200 to 270
-AI Hiigaran Supercarrier more aggressive
-Hiigaran Defense Drones can't target large ships anymore, only strikecrafts, frigates and missiles


-CREDITS:

Mod made by Pouk, other credits goes to:
-Mololu -base Kadeshi, base Turanic Raiders, kill counts based ship unlock script
-Mikail -his Gameplay Enhanced used for faction selection
-Dim@ -gamerule scripting -Explosion Damage, upkeep payments for ally ships, starting fleets, RU injections etc.)
-Baroness, Axel and Oni -VGR Pulse Destroyer model
-Riess -two Turanic ship tans
-Hell_Diguner -game ballancing and alpha testing
-Aico -installer and alpha testing
-Monolith and Rewilon -German translation
-jmbs16 -Spanish translation
-Novver -Hungarian translation

other alpha testers (in alphabetical order):
-Fil.zp
-tadamir

[Eos]

This promises to be incredible, but I can't get the new version to work. I'm on a mac. Any advice?

[Pouk]

I had confirmed that it worked (I don't have Mac, I couldn't check myself), but apparently it doesn't. So put this leveldata folder into your Data folder and use -overrideBigFile in your shortcut. It will override the Deathmatch with one that should work.

[Zephyr]

damn, I need to reinstall hw2

[gthompsn]

Really good work there Pouk!

[Eos]

Pouk
The new Hig and Nass forces are swell (even if the Nass command ship is incomplete), but I'm afraid I'm still having a couple of problems:
1: Attempting to play a game with the Vaygr is impossible-attepting to load them as either an opponent or the player race crashes to the desktop with a "bus error," according to my terminal
2: The same problem goes for maps-attempting to load a standard HW2 deathmatch map (Terah, Kharam wreck ect) crashes the game.
3: The game is somewhat laggy, and doesn't take long to reach the extent where units suffer a low-res look automatically.
4: Tactical pause (F12) no longer works in single player (presumeably as a side effect of -overrideBigFile, sorry).
If there's any way I can help you with these, please give me a shout. Sorry to be such a whiner, but I'd love to try this mod out fully.

[CodeRed]

Very nice! I love how you've organized the Kadeshi, and the new ships are all very well done But I can't hear any music and sometimes the audio from a ship [resource collector for example] remains for a few second after a zoom away from it.. very strange!

[Homdax]

Trying to put those cruisers as desktop background on my w7 phone but i fail miserably ...

[casojin]

I would like to suggest something (for future version). The Vaygr Command Frigate should have PDS to defend from strikecrafts or missiles/torpedoes. I would make them more realistic (not many people would field a large recon/command ship without any weapon at all). You might add it as module if you don't want to add it right away.

Also, Turanic Carrier tends to head into battle automatically. Did you make it this way intentionally? Could you adjust its attack pattern to be more like carrier?

[aurora419]

Great mod Pouk. The Vagyr certainly have a large arsenal now. So many frigates to choose from! Hopefully we'll see more ships for the Hiigarans now.

The only ships that I don't like in this mod are the drones. I played with a friend, and he had his missile cruisers and built 4 of those anti-fighter traps. My bombers didn't stand a chance. Those things annihilated 10 of my bombers in like 2 seconds. )= I hope these get nerfed.

At Eos : Are you using patch 1.1 of Homeworld 2?

[Pouk]

Eos: Lags are being solved, they don't appear on my PC or on computer of any of REARM testers, so I didn't know about them earlier. The cause is now found and next release shouldn't have those problems.
I never had pause on F12.

casojin: PDS as a module might be possible, why not. But the ship already has three times more concussion missile launchers.
Turanic Carrier is now fixed, it will be fine in the next release.

aurora419: Yes I'll have to focus more on Higiarans now.
If you by 10 bombers mean two squadrons, then that's perfectly as it should be. If you mean ten squadrons, then it is quite a lot.

Picture update:
-Turanic raiders, new Missile Battlecruiser and it's alternative hull paint and a new High Command game mode

[Eos]

Great news. Your work is still some of the best I've seen here. Looking forward, as ever.

[Pouk]

Thanks.

[Pouk]

Nassar Light Plasma Corvette:

[Avetorian]

Hello Pouk. I gotta say so far this mod is by far the best in terms of what it has to offer and the goals you are achieving with it. I have been a long time homeworld player myself since about 2000, I lurk the forums all the time and never post on any mod because they never get completed lol. Me and a couple of friends having been testing the mod extensively, we just got finished trying various scenarios, 2 v 2 3 v 3. Our main problem is the out of sync error, first it happens when damage is on, I have confirmed that when I self destructed one of my battlecruisers. We have tried all different settings, if we enable factions, out of sync right away, regardless of what settings we picked aside from that option.

Then with damage on, once we lose one of our capital ships, one of us gets out of sync and the others follow. Lastly we took explosion damage off, the game seemed to last awhile, we were nearly done, then got out of sync at the last moment. More extensive testing will need to be done on that particular option. Singeplayer though I have not found any problems.

Overall though, we were having a blast checking out the new units. I like what your doing with the game, not changing it, but only adding to it. Thats the way I'd prefer my homeworld mods. I look forward to seeing the new Vaygr SuperCarrier, I have been a Vaygr player ever since I've started playing homeworld 2 years ago. It really is a shame getting Homeworld 2 to work on multiplayer can be quite a pain in the ass. I miss won =x.

And on to questions. I only have one question really, and that would be, are you ever thinking of a way like changing how unit cap is handled? for instance, Carriers seem to have no real purpose other than to serve as mobile factories and disposable ones at that, since they are so easy to replace. I was wondering if giving them more of a strategical objective would fit into your ideas, Like for instancing if you build more carriers you get more unit cap or something. I've seen what complex has done but I am not all to fond of it. I prefer Homeworld cataclysm's unit cap handling than Complex. And really I'd only add this set up as a game mode, to give people the option of playing the original, just a thought really. Otherwise Good work! and good luck.


---Avetorian

[Pouk]

Hi, thank you for you comment. Most of the adressed problems come from the fact that I can't script myself. I can do enough to make this mod, but scripting won't ever be part of my skill set. As far as I know (or think) random functions cause out of sync, which may be related to the factions, but other than that I don't know. I will have to ask Dim@, the author of the Explosion Damage, about the rest. But of course I'll try to fix that, with someone's help.
Same applies to that Carrier gameplay proposion, I can't do it myself so I can't promise anything. But I like it. What I'd really like to have is a one skilled coder who would be part of the team (so far I've got bunch of script from bunch of different people) and who's responsibility would be to make sure everything works seamlessly and to produce new scripts and gameplay options or even gameplay modes.

About the mod goals: Not finding a single mod that would just add a new ships and don't radically change the gameplay is what got me to modding. And that's also why I sometimes dare to call my mod an "unofficial expansion". There's also the issue of most of the mods never being completed. I know that every modder says that "he won't let his mod die", so me saying that is nothing special, but I really do feel that I'm hooked enough and that I'm doing it for long enough and that I have a sustainable workflow, to say that I really don't let it die that easily. The only think that may cause it's death prematurelly in my current situation would be a HW3.

[Avetorian]

You're welcome for the comment. Yeah I do remember reading about not understanding how to script, that seems quite complicated honestly I hope you can find someone who can help you out with that. The most I can do right now is play your mod, find bugs and report them. And I understand that this being a solo project is probably a heavy work load, so I am not one to complain about how long it takes to release stuff. I been going through tutorials on learning how to model myself, and I spent a long time just working on this one model as I'm learning, and then there's texturing which is to me anyway as hard as modeling itself. I plan on going to school for this though.

I'm practicing with blender and I've already completed one but I have to texture it, so I'm on that step. Once I get better at this I'd offer my skills to this mod as a modeler/texturer.

On to another bug I have found. I was playing through the singleplayer campaign and on the third mission where the 3 vaygr carriers are supposed to jump in. I hear a "Enemy hyperspace signature detected" then nothing happens, they don't show and I can't continue the mission. I'm going to try restarting my campaign deleting all saves etc and see what goes from there.

As far as not letting the mod die, The quick response you gave me is definitely assurance of your commitment to that. I'm happy you like the idea about the carrier gameplay proposal. If I can find someone who knows how to make that stuff work I'll definitely send them your way. And yeah I could see Homeworld 3 causing any HW2 mod to die honestly, then re-arm could just be moved to HW3 =P assuming they wouldn't be borrowing from your ideas.

[Pouk]

Mission 3 is buggy in general. It may be problematic in certain cases even with normal Homeworld. I know about the problem, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to fix that.


Anyway, a new picture, a new unlockable Hiigaran Hull Paint:

[WangTangManPro]

i would love to see a Hiigaran "Modular Battleship" whit alot of guns

btw very nice mod

[Avetorian]

Yeah I did a fresh install and still had the same problem with the mod, So to anyone who is planning on playing re-arm SP campaign, the best thing to do is play the vanilla to mission 4, start re-arm at mission 4 and its smooth sailing from there. Re-arm and Vanilla do not have that much in terms of differences up to that point. or you could do what I did, start re-arm at mission one, don't research anything that is non-vanilla like the cloaked fighters/bombers then play vanilla mission 3 then start re-arm again at mission 4. That's my work around so far.

After that I had a lot of fun, it was a little laggy on higher resolutions though, I seem to play best at 1024x768 even though I can play any other game at max settings, I think that's just homeworld 2 being funny. I love the Vaygr battlecruiser warpaint, that is awesome. It makes me appreciate their battlecruiser more than I normally do, mainly because I wish that Relic had used the original battleship design that seemed to follow style that the Vaygr destroyer has. But that warpaint actually looks like it belongs there, and actually gives a more aggressive look to the battlecruiser.

That is a damn nice paint for the Hiigaran cruiser. My friend is probably gonna love that one lol, he's a dedicated Hiigaran player, can't wait to see that in the next release.

[Pouk]

WangTangManPro: Big ships won't be modular (there will be one exception, but that won't have much firepower). Because downgrade modularity doesn't make sense, you're left to make modular weapons stronger than normal weapons. But that's forcing player to modularity and to micromanagement. Just look at the Modular Destroyer, I don't want another example like that amongst the Battlecruisers or even Battleships.

Avetorian: Good ideas about the mission 3, that's gonna be useful.
0.0.3c is laggy because of the ship naming. None of my testers or me experienced it, so it was released like that. If other mods or normal Homeworld works fine, then that's the cause.

[WangTangManPro]

awwwww damn

how about some more turrets for the Battlecruiser? its hull is so huge... so much space for more guns

btw i prefer projectile weapons instead of Ion beams and stuff maybe add a BC whit another loadout

--------------

edit: could you add a menu option to turn off research (for some fast action)

[Pouk]

I'm fan of that less number of turrets configuration, it's so golden today in a world full of anime mechs fireing 150 missiles at once and spaceships made only of guns and ammo with some more guns on top of that original guns...
But to give you a serious answer: I'm sorry, I like those more exact and systematic RTS games -without powerups, without over the top action for effect. I like my units having significant weaknesses so you can bring an effective counter. I'm an anime hater. You won't see much better from me, it's always going to be less guns in REARM. Again really sorry but no, never in my life.

But you will have in the future something you might like. A defensive Battlecruiser, that will have some more kinetic guns and less or no ion turret (will be partially modular, that's the exception I was talking about, the one with less firepower). And a Modular Heavy Cruiser. That's my solution for making the modular ships not way too strong, you have a solid Battlecruiser and lesser Modular Heavy Cruiser.

[Avetorian]

Hmm... well if its the ship naming, could I request that be a feature that could be enabled or disabled for multiplayer use? on another note, I don't seem to have much lag when playing in 1024 by 768 when compared to the highest resolution that I can get from the default homeworld 2 settings.

I have to agree, giving ships too many weapons will only bog down the game and make it less enjoyable, I prefer battling over resource on a map and fighting over strategical objectives than playing who can spam the most ships with the most weapons at one another. I like anime, but I have no wish to see a homeworld turned anime style. I have tried complex, I have tried PDS, They both have good concepts but over the top action and power on some of the ships is a bit too much. Seeing a battlecruiser sized vessel fly around the map like that in complex was hard for me to take seriously haha. Anyway a modular heavy cruiser would be interesting.

What about having a ship with the Phased Array Cannon, as over-powered as it is, I'm thinking it would be interesting to see a large ship dedicated to firing that, or having a battlecruiser sacrifice most of its guns to fire that thing, (Kinda like the voidray from starcraft 2) ofcourse its slow rate of fire and lack of defenses would be its weakness. I just think it would be awesome to be able to fit that weapon on one of your ships if your hiigaran. I don't know what i'd give Vaygr to counter that. I'm just speaking in terms of fun here, its pretty awesome to see that thing fire and light up the map Lol, if there was a way to implement that and balance it out so that its not OP that would be sweet.

[MelvinVM]

I'm fan of that less number of turrets configuration, it's so golden today in a world full of anime mechs fireing 150 missiles at once and spaceships made only of guns and ammo with some more guns on top of that original guns...
But to give you a serious answer: I'm sorry, I like those more exact and systematic RTS games -without powerups, without over the top action for effect. I like my units having significant weaknesses so you can bring an effective counter. I'm an anime hater. You won't see much better from me, it's always going to be less guns in REARM. Again really sorry but no, never in my life.

But you will have in the future something you might like. A defensive Battlecruiser, that will have some more kinetic guns and less or no ion turret (will be partially modular, that's the exception I was talking about, the one with less firepower). And a Modular Heavy Cruiser. That's my solution for making the modular ships not way too strong, you have a solid Battlecruiser and lesser Modular Heavy Cruiser.

Naval space battelship is soooooo 2010 anyway.

[preston]

Pouk,i just d/l the R.E.A.R.M.i gotta say i love so far..(only playing the single player right now).great work.the best i have tried