Space Above and Beyond for XWA

This is the place for chit chat! Everything goes even Star Trek! Just make sure to buy the Moderator a drink!
Post Reply

Space Above and Beyond for XWA

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Thu May 14, 2020 5:47 pm

Currently into the mission building phase for what is going to be not a complete total conversion, but about 2-3 'Battles' worth of customized missions in which the player gets to participate in humanity's war against the Chigs and the A.I. Silicates. Some of you may remember the TV show from the 90's; it was on Fox and therefore doomed to cancellation after one season, which is exactly what happened. The creators were Morgan and Wong, the same guys who did the X-Files. In Europe I think it was called "Space 2063."

Missions will break down something like this:

Battle 8: Remember Tellus!

M1 "Phobos Station" Conduct visual ID of targets in the Mars sector. Oh, and encounter the enemy for the first time.
M2 "Ship in Distress" Scramble to the outer Mars patrol sector to render aid to a destroyer under enemy attack. Things progress from there...
M3 "Brawl in the Belt" Conduct a joint USMC / Royal Navy board and capture operation against a Chig-held mining outpost in the asteroid belt, which they've been using as a forward base.
M4 "Defeat at Neptune" Fight in the disastrous fleet engagement at Neptune, which temporarily puts Earth squarely on the defensive against the Chig invaders.
M5 "Battle of the Belt" Participate in the glorious repulse of the Chig fleet led by the newly formed 58th and the USS Saratoga.

Missions 1-3 are complete. I can usually build a single mission in 1-2 days, which includes a lot of testing, bug-killing, and finessing. That includes building the briefs and writing the text portions, where most of the 'storytelling' happens. That'll give you an idea of the timeline I'm on. I'm an old, old experienced hand with AlliED- all the way back to when it was shareware.

Battle 9: The Farthest Man From Home

A set of 5-6 missions that will be reminiscent of the Guadalcanal campaign of WWII. Some planetary based missions as well. This battle will be set in a system with 2 habitable planets, and the player will gradually learn the landmarks as they chew some of the same scenery in multiple missions and regions.

Battle 10: On to Victory!

A set of 4-5 missions in which the player will vanquish Chiggy von Richtofen, the leading Chig ace flying a new, dangerous prototype craft. Plus the wrap-up.

Looking at probably 15 missions or so total. There might be a couple additional 'short' missions used to tie story elements together. Craft made just for this will include the Saratoga model, two versions of the Hammerhead, Terran Destroyer, Terran carrier, Chig mothership, Chig Bomber, Chig fighters (2 variants), and Chiggy von Richtofen's 'Abandon All Hope' prototype. It also uses some stock game models, mostly bases and such, as well as a few craft borrowed from other genres, such as the Marine dropship from Aliens and the Orion III space shuttle from 2001. Just because.

Other custom stuff includes some music files, sound effects, and audio clips from the show.

I would like to release this when it's done. The reason I'm mentioning it now is that I could use some help (when the time comes) packaging this up in an installer so that it can be installed and with a single click, and hopefully backing up the stuff it changes. Manual installation will certainly be possible, but pretty tough for players who aren't familiar with modding the game and using tools like MXvTED, and very time consuming even for those that are. So if anyone is interested, please let me know.

Side note: Anyone who might interested in doing a little 'front end' work, give me a yell. Since I'm going to do very little (if any) modding in this category other than music, as much or as little as anyone wanted to do would be welcome. Talking about stuff like making the ranks reflect Marine Corps ranks, or changing the medals to real life medals, or putting some squadron patches in the mission picture windows instead of the Falcon assaulting Death Star II's main reactor. Stuff like that. I've already got it set up so that you get to listen to Patsy Cline when you're in your quarters.

Screen shots of some of the craft can be seen in the 'share your non-SW custom opt files' thread.
Last edited by jmarso on Fri May 15, 2020 9:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Ace Antilles
Admiral (Moderator)
Posts: 7829
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2000 12:01 am
Contact:

Post by Ace Antilles » Thu May 14, 2020 6:27 pm

Sounds cool. I liked Space Above and Beyond but I don't remember a lot about it lol Some shows never seem to get repeated much sadly.

I can maybe help you with an installer after it's ready but the future is so unknown right now.
I would also be willing to consider hosting it on my website. Whenever I get it done! lol

As for Frontend I can't help you do that myself. If you do the pics then it's easy.
Sometimes best is to make 2 versions as 1 takes long enough. The frontend stuff could be added later if you finished it.
Chief XWAU Team annoying nitpicker.
Ace Antilles - The X-Wing Outpost
Image

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Fri May 15, 2020 9:51 pm

Ace Antilles wrote:
Thu May 14, 2020 6:27 pm
Sounds cool. I liked Space Above and Beyond but I don't remember a lot about it lol Some shows never seem to get repeated much sadly.

I can maybe help you with an installer after it's ready but the future is so unknown right now.
I would also be willing to consider hosting it on my website. Whenever I get it done! lol

As for Frontend I can't help you do that myself. If you do the pics then it's easy.
Sometimes best is to make 2 versions as 1 takes long enough. The frontend stuff could be added later if you finished it.
Kewl. I'll let you know when it's done and we'll see. Finished up Battle 8 today. First 5 missions are done except for maybe some very minor tweaks when I run back through them for final tests.

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Thu May 21, 2020 2:17 pm

UPDATE:

The mod is progressing nicely. Battle 8 is complete, as are the first 2 missions of Battle 9. The way the missions are unfolding, I'm changing the order of things up a bit. The missions with Chiggy von Richtofen (associated with the episodes 'Never No More' and 'The Angriest Angel') will happen at the end of Battle 9, and the 'Guadalcanal style' missions I'm planning will be in Battle 10 instead. That's because the first few missions of Battle 9 are standalone, and in order to do it the way I originally planned, Battle 9 would be really fat and Battle 10 really anemic.

For anyone who ever wanted to drink a bottle of scotch like it was Chiggy von Richtofen's blood (and celebrate his death), or listen to a little Johnny Cash while traversing a black hole wash, this'll be the mod for you. ;)

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Tue May 26, 2020 4:21 pm

UPDATE: Battle 9 complete. Three of the six missions are fairly short. Two of the short ones are fairly 'scripted,' being more for storytelling purposes than actual gameplay. The final mission of the battle sees the player go out solo against Chiggy Von Richtofen like in the episode "The Angriest Angel", so the length of that mission depends somewhat on the skill of the player.

User avatar
Mark_Farlander
Rebel Alliance
Posts: 580
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:47 pm

Post by Mark_Farlander » Wed May 27, 2020 9:42 am

Short missions for storytelling are not a bad idea, though if you want to tell a long story than you might need many radio messages, resulting in a long mission anyway.
I don't judge tactics. The Battle is the best and only Judge.

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Wed May 27, 2020 4:15 pm

I use radio message for mission specific stuff and some musical additions, for the most part. Most of the 'storytelling' happens in the commander's briefings, mission briefings, and debriefings.

I have generated a lot of messages for this mod, however, using audio clips ripped from various episodes. Most of them are there for 'flavor' but a few are relevant to the overall story. It is much more immersive to hear characters from the show in game, using the show's terminology, than simply relying on the stock messages from Alliance.

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Wed May 27, 2020 4:22 pm

Editing the music has been an interesting lesson. I replaced ALL the game's music files. The ones that work in the front end environments work well: Patsy Cline (Never No More) in quarters, some mood music in the mission briefings, victory and defeat music, and so on. What DOES NOT work is the in-game music, like the pieces that play during a fight, or when friends and enemies arrive or are blasted, and so on. It turns out that that those muscical pieces were carefully chosen and edited in the original game to allow for seamless transitions between one piece and another as circumstances change. I don't have the time or skill to try and do the same with the musical files I have available from the show's soundtrack. So the in-game music ends up sounding frakkin' horrible, with pieces clashing against one another and cutting each other out at odd times. My hat is definitely off to whoever did the music editing for the original game.

So what does work (and I'll put this in big bold letters in the README when the time comes) is to turn OFF the in-game music. Then, in every mission, I've slotted in some 'messages' that aren't actual messages, but mood music wav files instead. They mostly happen at the very beginning and end of missions, with a few 'battle' selections added when there's a lot of shooting going on but not a lot of talking other than the standard pilot chatter. That, I have found, works very well.

jmarso
Cadet 1st Class
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:51 am

Post by jmarso » Tue Jun 09, 2020 9:59 pm

Right around midpoint of the last battle, mission-wise. Hopefully the whole thing will be done in another 3 weeks or so. That includes time off for RL work. :p

Post Reply