Posts by Tito

LoL i love the "wife´s" one haha

1. Dont overtake the speed limits plz
2. If you do it, take care with the speedtrap photo...ppl do all sort of things while driving...

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Originally posted by FL_Freak
Swat is this a good idea? there are already 2 or 3 star wars mods out there, cant you just stick 100% with crossfire^^?

SWAT PORTAL is a multigame community covering basicly sci-fi games, also we pretend to be home for modders that have good projects in mind and can offer to the community the chance to test something new. CF is just a part of SWAT PORTAL freelancer section (a very important one) but not the only SWAT mod/project, we cover other mods for FL like Blaster Universe and Fast lane mod for example, but we do cover mods for other games like Starlancer: The Sol wars for Starlancer.

Considering this, SWAT has a staff capable to handle all these features and much more.

I was about to write a post "Missing in combat" about your abscense hehe.

What can i say, bed, duvet, rest, vitamine C, medicaments...combined with control remote and tv you can see some movies and shows¡¡

Thast OPs home, he lives, eat and sleep there. Its not nice to shoot at his house m8¡¡

Hehehe, kidding m8. That base has a MP purpouse...and thats why its invulnerable.

Well from my point of view BS would be usefull to tax if the cargo that trains drops when being shooted down were not blown by the train explosion. I know OP will work on that for 1.8 so expect more BS taxing when its released.

Well maybe something you would consider for CF1.9 or 2.0 or 4.6...hehe

Ownable bases is something that allready exist in other mods, but i dunno how its implemented and how they work...strange shit hehe...

Btw as an idea is great, but i think OP will Hardly implement it...at least for 1.8

Great idea OP importing those ships and stations, they look really great¡

Maybe use different paths for the installation?

Im sure that it can be done, i know players with more than one mod installed...

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Originally posted by kenneth98
hej OP do u have some new pics about the new alien races

Intructions to get proper answers from OP_R8R:

1st.- If you want something in particular, be as much particular as you can.

Example: OP have you got any pic from new alien races? And if you have, can you post some of them?

2nd.- If you ask a question wich it answer can be a "Yes" or "No", you wont get anything further than a "Yes" or "No". Consider it like if OP would have to pay 1 cent for each extra characters written.

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Steve Hartmeyer of NetDevil, Ltd., the makers of Jumpgate, Auto Assault, and upcoming titles Jumpgate Evolution and LEGO Universe joins us for the fourth in a series of developer diaries. His first three, covering the inspirations behind Jumpgate Evolution, its ship development process and mining in Jumpgate Evolution, may be found here, here and here.

As we develop Jumpgate Evolution, much of our programming work is built upon the codebase of the original Jumpgate game, which released in 2001. Weve learned many lessons from our older product, but we also recognize that many of its features need to be rewritten thoroughly as we adapt, alter, and enhance things to make Jumpgate Evolution into a completely modern MMO experience. Our new missile system is an excellent example.

Jumpgate Classics missile system was pretty simple. Each ship design had some number of missile hardpoints. Missiles were fired singly or as simultaneous-fire multipacks of two or four units. There was no lock-on process, which meant a pilot could and often would choose to dispense all his ordnance as quickly as possible, a phenomenon we called missile spam. The only countermeasures available were a passive jammer that redirected incoming missiles, a destructive device that could blow up any missile very close to your ship, but which required careful timing, or plain old white-knuckle evasive action, which turns out to be the method most pilots swore by.

Jumpgate Evolutions missile system is in an early stage of implementation now, and has just entered the iterative testing and enhancement process we use to refine game content. We expect that the system will be changed and extended considerably over the next several weeks. At the moment, pilots can only purchase basic missile launchers to mount on their ships. Each launcher can fire a number of missiles before its depleted. Weve added and are testing a new lock-on system, which has the twofold purpose of eliminating missile spam, while also delivering action gameplay familiar from space combat games like Freespace, X-Wing, and Wing Commander. As we build the system further, we intend to make some missile types lock onto targets quickly, making them handy in a dogfight. Others, particularly the powerful missiles necessary for damaging major targets such as capital ships, will almost certainly require the launching fighter to fly a straight course in order to obtain a lock, making the shooter vulnerable to turrets or opposing fighters for at least several nail-biting seconds.

The redesign of the missile system should enable us to include some features in Jumpgate Evolution that were considered for Jumpgate Classic, but never added. For instance, mines can be defined as missiles that do not move, but possess large warheads and proximity detonators. Even though proximity detonation was a pre-existing feature, mines would have been of limited use in Jumpgate Classic because missile objects were culled if the shooter left the area. Due to major changes in the system design for Jumpgate Evolution, however, missiles are now independently persistent objects, so mines or sensor drone variants are good examples of potentially viable features we could now add.

To further extend missile combat, were planning a suite of active antimissile countermeasures. Active countermeasures are vastly preferred over passive kinds of countermeasures in our design decisions, because action, fast decision-making, timing, and pilot skill are all crucially important to the feel of our dogfights. Some possibilities for active countermeasures are classics such as chaff dispensers or decoys, which could fool the guidance of an attackers missile, or even things like sandcasters, which would project a cloud of fine debris that could destroy the incoming missile by physical contact. Countermeasures such as these keep piloting decisions and situational awareness at the forefront. We also plan to examine the performance impact of testing bullet collision against missile objects. Impossible in Jumpgate Classic, bullet collision tests against missiles would make it possible for point defense turrets, and perhaps skillful fighter pilots, to down missiles with gunfire, adding an entirely new factor to missile defense.

As with most systems we put into the game, we want missiles easy to use, but difficult to truly master. The HUD elements must be immediately clear and easy to understand, but to use missiles effectively should require judgment and skill on the part of the pilot. To be worth the development investment, of course, the rewritten missile system absolutely must be fun and add excitement to Jumpgate Evolutions fighter combat. Over the next few weeks of iterative work, well be striving to ensure it does exactly that.

Im very happy that SWAT host this project, im big fan of Starwars and I would love to fligth a Tiefigther hehe¡¡

Good luck with the project and thanx for having the courage to work on it, I wish you guys all the best. I will follow it closely and give a hand if a can ¡¡

link

Wolvie m8, if any rule must be cleared SP will take care of it, and be sure admin will be informed about it. But admin is very busy at the moment, so let admin do his HUGE work cause a reinterpretation of RP rules is not something he will do rigth now...

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OT

Maybe all Clans should write an advertising letter in RP style, that could be funny to read :]
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Thats a very good idea, we should make a thread about it, kind of "Clans History"

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Originally posted by Kermit
After the no suiciding Rule (btw. i have the feeling that some NPC´s growth up to the hell in strength lately ^^) did any pirate try to tax a small amount of cash instead of "Hey Kermit 6 Mil. or 3 or 2 Tax"? Tax a Million, i bet some would pay instead of fighting when a full load of Ammo is about 800000 (without any repair costs of course) - the highest repair i payed lately was about 2,5 Mil - thanks Doom And with my Ammo it was 3,3 Mil. so others would have this costs too.

Correct me if im wrong but I just understood this from your words:

The new "no suicide while trading rule" has make players to trade less> Players have less cash> Pirates should tax less amount of cash.

If its like that, we hold the weigth of the new rule over our shoulders...great.

Steve Hartmeyer, programmer of Jumpgate Evolution, is this weeks guest writer as we present our second Jumpgate Evolution dev diary. Today, he discusses the process of ship development in their upcoming Sci-Fi MMORPG.

Ship development in Jumpgate Evolution is more a story of our art pipeline than anything else. Many of the ship roles derive from standard types that were set in Jumpgate Classic, and weve only just begun modifications to our codebase that will support the variations we want that will be specific to Jumpgate Evolution. The process of putting a new ship into the game begins with generation of a style, then a concept for the specific ship asset. A model is built from the concept and put into a form that our render engine can use. Finally, stats are chosen that will define the ship in-game, at which point its ready to be flown. The entire sequence generally takes several days of work for each of the artists involved, and the stats for ships certainly wont be considered final until the game releases, if then.

Concept Phase
Our ship design process actually began more than a year ago, when Kirk Lunsford, our concept artist, joined the Evolution team and was tasked with creating new styles for each of the nations in the game. Over a period of several weeks, he chose general forms for each nation based on background information he was given about their cultures and outlook. Once these styles passed team review and became the look of each nation, Kirk began developing specific designs suited to different ship roles, such as fighters or transports. These each start as black silhouette drawings, with value and hotspot glows gradually shaded in. Kirk typically paints dozens of these in a group, but only a tenth to a third are chosen for detailed work-up.

The detailed concepts are given color and texture treatments, and become individual works of art in their own right. We have adorned our team workspaces with an abundance of glossy prints and paper printouts from this phase of asset design, and we add more by the week as Kirk works. After review by NetDevils Art Director and other members of the art team, the forms and material types may receive modification, but these mature concepts are generally the starting point for the next phase: 3D modeling.

Kirks main tool is Adobe Photoshop, but on rare occasions he employs a 3D tool, such as Autodesks 3ds Max, or even modeling clay, to convey a more complete concept. When a concept representing a new style is handed off for modeling work, Kirk often stays closely involved in a joint creation process with the artist doing the modeling and texturing. Once the first model of a style is completed, though, much of the design responsibility is passed to the modelers for further assets that use that style.

The design methods Kirk originally used for each of the three major nations are revisited for each new group we add to the game. Weve only just begun the process of developing all the subfactions and independent groups that will populate Jumpgate Evolution, so Kirks workload remains considerable.

Modeling and Texturing
Once each ship concept is ready, it is passed to the two members of our art team who do 3D modeling, Darrin RoGLaRiCoN Klein and Cole KonStruCt3D Eggen. The starting point is generally a single three-quarters view, though occasionally a 3D work-up is used. The first step for the modeler is to block out a rough mesh in 3ds Max, but after that theres considerable latitude in procedure. The first complete low-poly mesh is usually set aside at the bottommost level of detail (LOD). From there, the artist may choose to move directly to the highest-poly mesh, or may work gradually up to that point by adding further details every step of the way, setting aside each completed LOD mesh as each one is completed.

Basic texturing, or the color map, occurs as a natural part of the modeling process. Once a high-poly version of the asset is in progress, a combination of the high and low poly meshes is used to bake detail into the textures used by the lower LOD meshes. Our modeling process employs four separate texture maps: the diffuse, or color map, a specular map, used to define specular color, a normal map, used to define lighting volumes, and a composite map called the GES map. GES means Glow, Environment, and Specular, and each non-alpha channel of the map holds data for one of those three texture features, which are independently processed by our render engine.

After the texture maps and LOD meshes are created and exported, our 3D artists work is almost done, but not quite! Special effects still need to be defined and linked to points on the model, which we call control points, or CPs. CPs are also used as physical anchors on the model for other processes handled directly by the game code, such as an interaction point. Since our art team is small, our modelers also double as special-effects artists, so any unique effects needed for a specific ship asset are also their responsibility. We use Fork for many of our particle effects but some are created and executed through an in-house particle engine instead.

To store all the information about the meshes, textures, and special effects used by a particular model, the modeler manually creates a metafile that our asset loader can read. Making up for all the seeming drudgery of mesh and file creation, our modelers have a large amount of creative freedom. They arent required to follow a concept religiously, and often are given chances to create variant assets within a style entirely on their own.

Code Support
When a ship model is ready to be put into the game, its a simple matter of adding the metafile name to an object list. Our asset loader reads the metafile and determines what textures and meshes are required for the model, placing those into client memory as necessary. Weve gradually made our loader more sophisticated as work on the project has progressed, and we may perform further iterations on the technology if we find we need them to maintain our minimum client specification.

The final but ongoing step of the ship definition process is to choose stats representing the ships in-game attributes, such as power needs, gun hardpoints, cargo space, pitch and yaw rates, and the like. These are manually entered into a database used by both client and server applications. Most of our ships were initially populated with stats from the original Jumpgate Classic game, but as the Jumpgate Evolution codebase has diverged from that of its predecessor, the ship attributes have likewise begun a process of redefinition and adjustment that will surely continue through the beta test phase of the game.

The process of putting ships into Jumpgate Evolution, or any asset model, really, is demonstrably an art-intensive exercise. Aside from occasional tweaks to tools which support the art pipeline, the programming side of this effort was largely complete once the render engine and asset loaders were written, early in the development process. Though our art team consists of only three individuals, they are now able to create assets and place them into the game at a steady and rapid rate. The screenshots and in-game video released thus far are a testament to the talents of our art team and their unfailing efforts to make Jumpgate Evolution all it can be.

I would suggest you to follow different clans actions during a period of time and check what they do...if you are happy with clan members and with the RP they do, then go and join. But dont join the first clan that offers you cash or equipment...after all most of the clans will give it to you. Main thing is to have fun with the clan members...take your time to choose and choose wisely.

I understood it as if a player is taxed no pirate should tax him in the next 2 hours, if its not in this way it would be nice to clear it up.