14 replies to this topic

[Fenris_Wolf]

you may be wondering whats in store for tekagis..well the goals thus far are:

FLHook Intergration

TT has always been designed to run on Flac server software instead of FLHook. This has always been a drawback in my eyes, limiting our options on adding new features. Since running Flac is no longer a option, FLHook it is. Many parts of the mod need to be redesigned to reflect this, Cloaks, Dockable capital ships and repair guns to name a few. Parts that have formally relied on Flac need to be switched over.

Current Bugs and issues

These need to be hunted down and fixed before any major changes.

Auto Updater

This needs to be implemented, also before any major changes.

Content addition freeze
Systems, equipment, and ships that are currently in game will stay, and no new ones will be added (at least for now). However, expect a rebalancing expecially in the ships and equipment.

Rebalancing
Gear will be rebalanced so most items will be useful again, bringing back greater variety in ship loadouts, while making a attempt to retain the traditional feel of TT's combat.

Economy scaled down
Currently its too easy to break the 2bil cash limit. Some gear is extremely expensive and doesnt help with that problem. All prices will be scaled down by a % value, and the rebalance will help level out the equipment cost.

NPCs
The historic clans of TT will be turned into npc factions, and dominate their respective clan systems. Joining a clan (or any npc faction) will automatically set the tag in front of the players name, as well as setting their rep with other npc factions.
Pirates and killers will have a much harder time in places populated by police and military units, and hunters will have a similarly difficult time in systems that should be hostile. This also allows for much finer control over where players can land, and what gear/commodities they have access to.

Npc gear and ships will be modernized offering more of a challange.

 

Wingmen

One of the long term goals will be to implement FoxUnit's npc wingmen concepts from the flak88 mod. This is a major job and a longterm goal.

Normally this would be a fair amount of work, the expecially rebalancing and economy fixing for a mod this size, however I should be able to script most of it. I need to recreate some more modern tools for the job though, I still have much of my old code for manipulating freelancers files, but adding new features or customizing it will probably take more time then starting from scratch.

 

The main goal is too keep the traditional feel of teks, while implenting some of the things that were ment to be done ages ago, but never were.

suggestions and opinions welcome

[Fenris_Wolf]

Now that I've had some time to get my feet back on the ground, sift through the files in detail and
collect my thoughts, heres some spoilers on what to expect with the next major update:


    Weapons and Hardpoints:
Currently 95% of our equipment is useless. Most ships have class 10 weapon hardpoints, and weapons
of a lower class are rarely used, except when starting out. The weapon classes will be completely
redone. Instead of using vanillas 'class = weapon level' concept, classes will be redefined to a
system where 'class = weapon size and internal/external mount'. For example:

Class 1 Gun: Small emergency energy weapon, internal (think of the machine guns in the nose of a modern day jet fighter)
Class 2 Gun: Medium sized energy weapon, internal (approx the size of our current fighter guns)
Class 3 Gun: Large, internal
Class 4 Gun: Medium sized, external mount (this is our current common fighters guns)
Class 5 Gun: Fighter Missile Pod, External (our current fighter missiles)
Class 6 Gun: Fighter Missile Bay, Internal (our current missiles, but internally stored)
Class 7 Gun: Capship Missile Bay, Internal (same as above, but larger payloads and warheads)
Class 8 Gun: Gunboat/Destroyer Class Gun, Internal
Class 9 Gun: Cruiser Class Gun, Internal
Class 10 Gun: Battleship Main Guns

Currently Torpedos fill a role that is designed for missiles. These will be converted back into their original role,
a anti-capship/anti-base weapon instead of anti-fighters. Missile behavior will be revamped.

Ship hardpoints will be restricted, instead of the current 'class 10 lets you mount class 1 to 10', class 10 means 10 only.
The number of hardpoints per ship will be averaged out by ship type. For example a Heavy Fighter would have on avg:
one Class 1 Gun,
two Class 2 Guns,
four Class 4 Guns,
2-4 Class 5 or 6 Missiles,
one Cruise Distruptor,
1-2 Class 5 Turrets,
and one (optional) Class 2 Repair Turret

External Hardpoints will be the most numerous, but each item mounted will cause drag. It may no longer be ideal to mount all
the guns possible as each one will reduce your manuverability slightly.

Internal mount weapons will be much harder to destroy and cause less drag on the ship, but will come with cost. There maybe
limits on which weapons fit in which ships, and will have a smaller firing arc then external weapons.

This, and a rebalance of the weapon stats in general, will help ensure that 95% of junk we have actually has a use again.

    Ships:
Some hardpoints in the models need to be changed, all sur files rebuilt using modern methods for more realistic collisions.
Most of our models were built ages ago (some up to 13 years ago!), and the surface files are just resized vanilla ones that
dont fit the ships giving very poor collision detection, shots that pass through the ships, or hit when it was really a close
miss. Between this and redoing many of the hardpoints, this part is a massive job.
Choices in equipment will have a greater effect on ship performance, in a way that allows for personal preferences. Thanks to
adoxa's awesome FL modifications, equipment choices will cause drag and increase mass of the ship, mounting the strongest UH
may no longer be the ideal option for some players, as it will reduce ship manuverability more then a lighter UH would.
Expect npc pilots to be far more of a challange, AI will be tweaked to make better use of things like engine kill and straffing,
and their equipment will be more in line with what players use....space will get alot deadlier.

    Factions:
Currently we have 98 factions in teks, some with very little or no actual use or function in game. There is a shift in the
balance of power for several factions planned, and some will be removed outright to make room for Clan npcs (there is a RP
background story in the works for the changes, but no spoilers on that yet).

    Systems:
Our current system layout is horrible and without any sense of order or reason. Some routes from system to system take more
then the safe limit of 10 jumps (waypoints can cause server crashes). Systems in general will be resorted while attempting to
keep clusters together. Some jumpgates and holes will be relocated or removed, and some systems will have their position on
the navmap moved to make more sense and reduce clutter.
Some bases will be destroyed and left in ruins, new ones may pop up...many will shift factions due to the new balance of power
(part of the RP story). Eventually bases will be made destructable as well.

 

    File Clutter:

One part of my new modding toolkit generates a list of files in the mod that arent actually used...theres quite a lot of old junk that

was removed from game but still exists in the files. Now that I can actually see what these files are, they can be properly removed

or repurposed.

    Now that we're running FLHook instead of Flac, adding functionality is much easier, and we can actually add features
that were formally impossible but long time planned...like the wolf spiders or automated capture the flag games


    I know alot of this moves in a different direction then the v6 that was in the works, and alot of work had gone into
that (not only the technical mod work, but RP story), but having missed all of that with my absense, playing catchup and
figuring out v6's state is near a impossible task. We do have the v6 files (thanks rags!), but i'm afraid it will have to be
sorted through and anything from it added on a case-by-case basis.

    This will all be a major effort, and will take time before its done (no ETA), but the current version will stay up and running

til then and receive bugfixes as needed.

[Hammer]

I'm glad to see Tekagi's being revamped and revived.  I will pop in and visit from time to time to see how you are doing.  Good luck to you all!

[Fenris_Wolf]

Seeing as its been a while i should probably give a status update....

A auto updater has been coded and will be implemented when the update gets rolled out.

Internal structuring of the data inside many of the files has been sorted, making it MUCH easier to work with.

The system nicknames (not the player friendly system names) have been restructured to make more sense.

NPC's have also been restructured to a more dynamic system, allowing for easier dynamic replacing of factions if needed. This includes the clan factions..currently 13 clans are in place, with room for 10 more, again these can be dynamically updated or replaced with little difficulty now. Many existing factions were removed to make room though.

The navmap mess has been sorted, grouping related systems closer together so it all makes sense, no changes to actual layout inside has been made, or to any of the actual jumps.

Faction borders and territory is more defined with the map changes, and the major factions/houses consist of Liberty, Bretonia, Rheinland, Kusari, Macedonia, Francia, Tekagis Samurai, The Coalition, Gauri, Centauri, Ven and the Borg

The name/infocard dll files organizing and restructuring is almost complete.

The junk (older unused) files have all been removed.

NPC fighter AI has been vastly improved providing much more of a challange.

Some of the equipment rebalancing and performace testing has been done, but this was put on pause until the file restructing was completed.

 

Goals have slightly shifted, the update will occur mid-way between a war. The Coalition centered around Sol has launched a full scale invasion, and the Samurai have gained mass amounts of territory becoming the major threat to Sirius. The Liberty, Bretonia, Rheinland, Kusari, Macedonia and Francia Houses allied in repelling this double threat. Expect to see capship battles and travel through hostile space will be much more difficult. Cloaks will become a MUCH more useful item for travelling instead of the novelty they were before.

As well as having all bases turned destructable, the goal is to have custom hook missions (based on your affiliated faction) to assault and capture enemy positions. After capturing a base, the mod files will be automatically modified to reflect the new situation, and updates will be pushed out after the daily server reset (with the auto-updater). Ideally players and clans can shape the direction tekagis takes giving the mod a life of its own. The code framework for rewritting the mod files in place automatically is essentially done, but still needs to be rolled into a hook plugin.

As well as the military based custom missions, new trade based transport and courier missions will also be included.

 

Still tons left to do but figured i'd let people know where were at.

[S31-Zero-Order]

The APOC aren't a major faction?

[Fenris_Wolf]

and spoil your fun of personally leading the apoc invasion of sirius?

[S31-Zero-Order]

No, that's still going to be a thing -- totally. They just need to recognize that the conquest is real.

[Fenris_Wolf]

Its been a while since I posted, so brief update and spoiler vid:

Work is still progressing, the gear is pretty much all done. I've work though some python scripts that allow REALLY easy generation of patrol paths for the npcs, and generation of equipment/ship infocards with detailed specs and literally update the infocard details automatically when things change...our long tradition of outdated infocards is now a thing of the past.

Npc combat AI has been majorly improved on in the last few days, some of the maneuvers I've been watching them pull off are just plain scary.

Theres still a fair bit of work to be done with system cleanup and readding the ships back in (I yanked them all out while restructuring), and alot of work still in our FLHook area.

 

But anyways, heres a spoiler video of the new AI in action, samurai kicking lib navy around in alaska

[MINDDRIVE]

all i heard was bases are destroyable.........

 

**** but captain... theres nowhere to land....**** 

**** damnit jim im a doctor.... ****

**** oh look a docking ring.... HEY WHOS GOT MARSHMALLOWS!?!!? ****

 

hey fen... have to restart the server again... everythings all blowed up ~_~

 

ugh... *sigh* really... REALLY... its only been 3 hours....

 

on that note... if you dock somewhere and blow that dock up and then die, where do you respawn?

[Fenris_Wolf]

Good question...as is, destroyed bases can be undocked from (but not docked with), so the default would send you back there as normal unless i hook it. Best options would be nearest friendly base (in system), clan home base, default start base, maybe a custom user setting? I think i like that last one, combine a "nearest friendly / clanhome / custom base" into a player set option

 

The bases still need a ton of work done to make it all happen smooth though, but most of those bases are pretty nasty. Lots of armor, guns capable of ripping fighter hulls in 1-2 solid hits, and with the armor+firepower combo they can mess up a BS pretty bad if you get too close, Ideally you have to park out of its range and keep it frontal... good luck if you get flanked by hostile capships, your main gun is facing the wrong way and the only direction you can move is forwards into the base! (capitals turn slow)

Your best bet is soften the base up with bombers and heavy torps, strip the base of its turrets (npc bomber wingmen will do this for you sometimes). Even harder are bases inside asteroid fields, you have to engage with fighters, bombers and corvette class ships only, everything else is just too big to maneuver.

 

I dont see everything getting destroyed in 3 hours

It will be on a 24h restart schedule though so it can write changes into the mod files though

[MINDDRIVE]

collision damage perhaps? fleet of cap ships smashing into stations MUAHHAHAHHAHA

 

the reason i asked was the whole looting a station, then undocking and then blowing it up just to be a jerk cause well.. thats what bad guys do > 

 

itd be cool if all the people that can/do mod freelancer got together and tried to port it to a newer engine 

[S31-Zero-Order]

I'd love to see this get ported to another engine, but I have a feeling that Microshit would have a stroke over it if we tried.

[Fenris_Wolf]

http://the-starport....#forumpost61766

theres one in the works, MS wouldnt really have a say either, a rewrite such as this contains none of the original FL code, as long as its not distributed with copyright content like the ship models or data files, its just a program that happens to be able to read those data files

[MINDDRIVE]

downloading the july demo now....

 

 

damn no vanilla install :/ 

 

is there an easy way to revert back to vanilla fen?

[S31-Zero-Order]

I usually keep a copy of a clean FL install sitting around on another drive. That seems to be the easiest way to revert to vanilla when you need it.