WC4 Mod For Homeworld 2 In The Works (June 5, 2006)

[L.I.F.]

For the curious people, the mod has been updated with the new icons for all units from the Wing Commander factions. Enjoy!

P.S.: I will try to upload this to ModDB during the week, I'm waiting for any possible bug that escaped me.

EDIT: corrected convoy-related bugs, the convoys should now spawn properly even if there are several players with Wing Commander factions, and both their ships and buoys have been made resistant to the radiation clouds found in some maps.

 

[L.I.F.]

After two days of work since her release by @Klavs81, the Concordia is now showing her colours in the mod (unreleased). The model has been worked a bit to optimize its rendering for the HWR engine:

The girl still needs quite some outfitting before she can go fight at Vukar Tag (turrets, docking paths, hangar glows, engine glows, etc.), but she's one hell of a beauty, so thanks again, Klavs!

 

[L.I.F.]

I am proud to show you @Klavs81's new version of the Tarawa!

With a bit of creative editing on the textures, her sister-ship Sevastopol should join her later.

 

[Dundradal]

Bravo Zulu on the new ships!

Everything looks great!

 

[L.I.F.]

Bravo Zulu on the new ships!

Everything looks great!

Thanks! But don't forget to thanks Klavs first and foremost. The good news is that I now have a workflow optimized for his models, so I'll try, this week-end, to integrate all of them in the game engine (without the weapon, subsystem, engines and hangars yet, though).

 

[L.I.F.]

Mini-update for the Kilrathi: the Skipper cruise missile. It comes as an expensive one-shot unit (850 RU, so like a corvette or a small frigate per shot) that can be ordered to kamikaze on a target for roughly 50,000 damage, has unlimited range (though does not navigate waypoints or move in an optimal attack position first so as to not be too OP), the speed of a light fighter (400) and has a manually activated cloak that lasts a few seconds per use before needing to recharge. It won't kill fleets, but it's a really nifty tool to snipe some high-value targets and avoid a long-range CAP as well as terminal defences... unless of course there's recon units or light cruisers around, who will see through the cloak.

 

[L.I.F.]

So, first attempt to port the Broadsword @Klavs81 released yesterday and it looks pretty nifty already. Just a few issues of small surfaces disappearing for some unknown reason during the process so I'll try an alternate way of getting the models in-game. Still:

Your models are damn well awesome, mate!

 

[L.I.F.]

Klavs' Sabre, in all her glory:

 

[Vidmaster]

Broadsword released yesterday? Where?

Looks cool ingame, but I still want to voice my concerns for this as-many-ships-as-possible policy of yours. Even when trying to tweak the textures a bit, I still think that the WC Saga Models and other source just do not flow together at all. I think it would be better to either split the mod into different 'eras', which each era taking models from only consistent sources or throw away tons of models and focus on a polished whole. This mod is cool and impressive and stuff but many aspects, especially visually, feel wrong to me. It just does not look like one wing commander game, but more like a cobbled-together frankenstein mod.

Please PLEASE PLEASE do not take this as an insult, I really respect and admire the work you are putting into this. I am just thinking that less is sometimes a lot more.

 

[L.I.F.]

Broadsword released yesterday? Where?

Looks cool ingame, but I still want to voice my concerns for this as-many-ships-as-possible policy of yours. Even when trying to tweak the textures a bit, I still think that the WC Saga Models and other source just do not flow together at all. I think it would be better to either split the mod into different 'eras', which each era taking models from only consistent sources or throw away tons of models and focus on a polished whole. This mod is cool and impressive and stuff but many aspects, especially visually, feel wrong to me. It just does not look like one wing commander game, but more like a cobbled-together frankenstein mod.

Please PLEASE PLEASE do not take this as an insult, I really respect and admire the work you are putting into this. I am just thinking that less is sometimes a lot more.

Keep in mind that I explicitely said I would do so, with the Wing Commander II era ships being intended to be used first in a campaign to recreate End Run and then as an alternate skirmish mode with the selection being made for the game to take place either in WC II or in WC III/IV era. You will notice, if you have the game, that these ships are not yet included in the game, except for the WC II era fighters used by the Border Worlds, as part of their nature of using second (or more) hand equipment. At the moment, these models are integrated into my custom version of the mod (there are many, many more things in my 200 GB work folder that have never seen the light of day outside this computer and the external back-ups - one day, if the CIC staff is crazy enough to free that much room on their servers, it could be uploaded to be a massive repository of tools, ships and textures) but for example I haven't done any work on their weaponry, integration in a tech tree, etc., steps which are among the most time-consuming.

There's a LOT of stuff being done for the mod (and others, I've spent one or two weeks on the derived convoy mod for vanilla HWRM, for example, using elements from the Wing Commander one) here and there, and I have some competitive players who got their hands on it in order to see what can be improved on the balance and stability. The next really big thing to be done is the integration of the HD version of the Strategic Readiness Agency - Black Lance faction when DefianceIndustries finishes the ships for it (though he's also busy with other stuff, of course ^_^; ). Then the End Run campaign, then the integration of the Wing Commander II mode in the game.

But right now, I'm doing the quick integration of Klavs' models in the game, because the guy makes an awesomely wonderful job with these and showcasing them in space is the least I can do to thank him.

 

[L.I.F.]

Klavs' F-44X Super Rapier is now in-game:

 

[L.I.F.]

The Venture-class corvette in action:

 

[Horton]

The latest screenshots were posted on April the 1st, please prove they are real ships.

 

[L.I.F.]

The latest screenshots were posted on April the 1st, please prove they are real ships.

Send a mail to Elon Musk telling him the Blue Hair Man sends you. Black helicopters from the Kenyan FEMA will capture you soon after and deliver you to his private secret spaceport at the bottom of a volcano. There, Dr. Cochrane will strap you in his experimental rocket that will send you in deep space where you will find the actual ships that I photographed a few hours ago, since this is much simpler than integrating the ships ingame. Mwahaha.

 

[Horton]

There, Dr. Cochrane will strap you in his experimental rocket that will send you in deep space where you will find the actual ships that I photographed a few hours ago, since this is much simpler than integrating the ships ingame. Mwahaha.

The world is flat Monsieur Duck. There is no rocket I see! Don't trust Dr Lizarduck! And certainly don't trust the guy called Donald!

 

[L.I.F.]

The world is flat Monsieur Duck. There is no rocket I see! Don't trust Dr Lizarduck! And certainly don't trust the guy called Donald!

The world being flat is no obstacle to a space program. The Discworld showed a couple of perfectly viable space exploration missions, you know.

 

[Horton]

The world being flat is no obstacle to a space program. The Discworld showed a couple of perfectly viable space exploration missions, you know.

But the sky is a roof and the the stars are party lights dangled down. Don't you know? I thought you flew up there...

 

[L.I.F.]

Klavs' Hornet is now in-game:

 

[L.I.F.]

I don't know what you people think, but IMO, the Rapier A is the sexiest of all. I fell in love right away when I saw her in the game engine:

Her colours and angles are just wonderful to admire, right?

 

[L.I.F.]

Excellent! It's weird, but the Rapier A was originally not much more than an afterthought. She is probably the ship I put the least amount of thought and effort into, her original shape was very easy to discern and she just kind of leapt off the 'page' she looks glorious and I can't wait do dial up a couple of divisions to tear up a Dralthi spearhead!

And now, for an iconic spacecraft, the Scimitar!

I filled the lower part that had a hole (probably for the landing gear or the ladder).