Freelancer: Serenity's Legacy Test Mod 1 RELEASED

[Hobbie]

This is my Christmas present to y'all.

http://files.filefront.com/serenityslegacytestreleasflmod/;12764482;/fileinfo.html

A couple of things to note.
A) This is a TEST MOD. And as a result, it's not finished, and nothing you see here is absolutely final. Things can change based on tester input.
B) I want the bejaisus tested out of this thing. The more input I get means a better final release!
C) There are no missions and no mining, so the only economy is trade routes. That's something I want thorougly tested.
D) Ship models are all Vanilla FL placeholders except for the FireFly and Trebuchet Battlecruiser (Sorry Cadellin, I couldn't get your Wren model into the game in time). They have the same stats you'll see in the final version. Be aware that turning on the big ships (Heavy freighters, capships) may be bugged.
E) All of the prices in the mod are cheap. This is not an economy test mod. This is a functionality test mod. Just to see how all the bits and pieces work.
F) I am fully aware that only Fighters and Gunships have weapons. I want to see how they work before I start whacking them on everything.
G) The test ship (Sabre) can mount anything and is pretty much immune to the Self-Destruct Device and Death Blossom. Anything nearby, however...
H) All equipment is sold on Londinium (the start base) so you don't have to fly far to test them out.
I) Ignore the dodgy station hitboxes. They will be fixed.
J) I know full well the Infocards aren't complete. Come proper release, they will be.
K) HAVE FUN.

So. Get playing, have fun, do some dueling, and most importantly, give me some feedback! Like I said, the more input I get the better this mod gets! Either PM me here, PM Owlman at http://www.freeworlds-mod.com/forum or E-mail me at jay@aldertonfamily.com to send me feedback. Or post in a topic. Either works.

[mcjomar]

Two things:

First, thanks for the hard work, I'll be getting on with this after the new year, as I'm not with my normal computer atm.

Second, is this a single player or multiplayer mod right now? Because a test server might really help out, plus get a community started perhaps.

Cheers

[Hobbie]

It's a MP only mod at the minute. I'm in discussions with a mate of mine about getting a test server up and running.

[mcjomar]

Cool.
I've chucked up a bunch of posts on the Firefly/Freelancer forums I go near most, so hopefully we'll see some action.
In the meantime, I gotta wait a couple of weeks to check this out.

[jorg108]

WHOOP!
YAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

[DMac]

should be able to get a server up in the next couple of days.

[Dooleus]

Tried it out - some of the fighters are super-powered, some of them can't hold very much ammo, and some of them have far bigger holds than they should. I like the speed of the full burn, and the idea of energy consumption - but it recharges. i guess a lot of stuff isn't implemented yet, but I thought there'd be a little more. Is the firefly the only non-FL ship? I tried using the one of the bigger ships but somehow my mouseflight got inverted, but then switched back to normal. The other large ship I used was so big I couldn't see around it. I think it was a FL battleship or something.

Didn't get to kill anything as there's nothing to kill, but the weapons seem to work pretty well... except that the refire rate on some of the weapons is extremely low, and the damage extremely high, but the lasers are puny looking
I like the ammo concept, just need to find a middle ground with the cargo space on the fighters, so they cant haul rediculous amounts of cargo but also aren't choked for ammo. Also give the battleships gun and turret mounts. Sorry if you've already addressed this stuff.

[Hobbie]

Yeah, a lot of this stuff needed work. The fighters that are super-powered and have huge cargo holds also can't turn for crap. They'll also be a lot more expensive when I finally work out prices. That being said though, the balance I used for this first release was only a basic one that will be expanded and adjusted for later releases. I am fully aware that there is still stacks of work to go.

The Trebuchet Battlecruiser is the only other non-FL ship besides the FireFly that's in this mod. Every other ship has a stock FL placeholder. This is due to my inability to find modellers up until the final week before release (Again, sorry Cadellin that I couldn't get your Wren model into the mod in time. I'm working on it as we speak).

Yeah, the bigger ships are basically placeholders at the minute. The Capitals and Large Transports (T3s) are probably glitched in terms of movement. I tried for a long time to rectify this but I couldn't do it before my deadline. They will definitely be expanded upon and fixed (including turret mounts) in later releases.

Yeah, there's no NPCs at the minute. They're inherently complicated to set up.

The S-(number) weapons are designed to one-shot fighters and hit things from a massive distance away. The range on those guns is incredible. Sniper Rifles, if you will. I also agree with the beams looking a bit silly, but they are just really high caliber bullets. That being said, I want to fix those beams. Along with the ones on the various tools (siphon, driller, miner, repairer).

EDIT: Forgot to address full-burn. Full burn was designed to recharge slowly (otherwise you'd be stuck floating and due to FL's constraints you'd be stuck until you F1ed out), however, it also needs work. The final goal for the equipment setup is for the best recharging reactor to be able to match the highest engine power drain. However, the values are fiddly at best (with one integer difference being a fair bit) and will require more balance work.

[Dooleus]

So you won't have to refuel?

Also, how much of the system is in this release? I've only found the core planets that are all near each other. Any border worlds yet? Not much trading to be done when all the planets are similar and there's no threat of pirates or reavers or whatever.

[Hobbie]

The entire system is complete. I need to set visit flags for the jump buoys so that they can be found easily. You can make it to the outer planets, and even run along the rim, you just need to find the jump buoys. And like I said, there's no NPCs as of yet, except for the Reavers (which are just renamed Nomads at this point) near Miranda.

EDIT: And refuelling mid-flight is impossible by game standards. Plus, once you run out of fuel while flying, no one can transfer you fuel anyway. You'd be stuck and have to F1 out, which completely eliminates the purpose. The only rational solution I could come up with is a slowly regenerating fuel system, so that when you do run out, you're stuck cruising at half speed (maximum) until you stop and regenerate. And by that time, pirates will be all over you.

[Dooleus]

I thought the whole idea was to not run out of fuel ;P

I see where you're coming from... but what if the full burn used MUCH MUCH less fuel, but without the regeneration. I don't see why you'd have to refuel midflight as long as you can hold enough fuel to make long journeys.
The part about not being able to transfer fuel is a bummer... but usually most ship refueling would be done while docked, anyway, presumably.

Whenever Wash does a hard burn in the show, he tends to kill the engines and float through space once he's on course. I do the same thing in FL. I dunno, it seems like without having that danger of running out of fuel and being on the drift, some of the realistic atmosphere gets lost.


I'll check out the border planets and look for the Reavers when I get a chance :>


Edit- do your normal engines deplete energy, too, or just the full burn? If it's just the full burn, then your normal engines would be kind of like your backup power, so you could at least get to the closest base and refuel.

Londinium's commodity trader's prices don't show up on the other planets.

I'm also having a hard time finding a jump gate. Any hints? Maybe a map?


Edit3- The ship dealer on ariel doesn't seem to be working properly. Or the Tien Shien Fuel Refinery.

-Getting too close to the sun gives me radiation damage

Where is the trebuchet?

[Dooleus]

Okay, I found a jump gate finally. I found the southern one and the trebuchet battleship on Boros. Could you make the turret cam a little more zoomed in? Also, are you going to add more engines to it?

I'm having a weird glitch where my mouse flight is inverted sometimes, usually when I first use the bigger ships with slow turn speeds, and then it corrects iteself but then goes back to inverted... very strange.


- Docking is very difficult in this mod - if possible, you should increase the distance at which you can use the autopilot dock - it gives you destination too far errors because everything is so big. Some of the planets (I think it just happened to me on Hera and it's happened on another planet) will send you flying in a circle endlessly when you try to dock, forcing you to F1, and others I can't find the docking point at all.

[Hobbie]

Yeah, not every base sells ships. I didn't have time to take all the shipdealers out. It's been done on my end though already.

The mouse flight glitch is something I know about and inherent in the bigger ships. I'm working on it now.

The Trebuchet is still just a placeholder. It's gonna get zoomed in and more engine flares are being added.

Sun damage is deliberate. Why wouldn't it be?

Docking is another thing I'm working on. It needs to definitely be extended.

Normal engines don't touch energy consumption. But players are still going to F1 out when their energy drops to nothing for a free refill. Nothing I can do about that, unfortunately. And that Full Burn concept is a good idea...

[mcjomar]

A suggestion on r-fuelling in space.

You could have some friendly local come dump some fuel in canisters near you for you to collect and drag on board?
Or alternately a "friendly" local could come along

Just a thought. Depends how many people are online i suppose.

[Dooleus]

But there aren't items that recharge your weapon energy in vanilla FL, so is that even possible? In fact, is having to pay to refuel when docked at a base even possible?

Maybe you should have to buy fuel cells and mount them instead of the engine or reactor or something - and once your weapon energy hits zero it depletes one and you have to land and equip the next. If that's even possible. I really have no idea.

Happy New Year, all!