Thrawn's Revenge

Mod & Network News => News & Updates => Topic started by: Corey on February 04, 2017, 08:44:29 AM

Title: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: Corey on February 04, 2017, 08:44:29 AM
As we've just finished the Greater Maldrood playthrough (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh-_Yhdqkk1_m6AWo4KSnNWUxVV-OLOBk) (click right there for the playlist) on my personal channel, I've started a new playthrough as the Pentastar Alignment on the reworked Stars Align GC. In this playthrough, along with general development topics, you'll get to see the new UI in progress, the new Bellator, Procursator, ground combat changes and a look at some other new Pentastar goodies. I'll be posting episodes tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays for those who are interested in seeing more and would like to subscribe. Everything will, of course, also be posted on the forums, Facebook and ModDB as it's done for those who aren't interested in this sort of longer-form content as well; these videos just tend to involve a bit more offhand/in-depth development discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KN385z4DbU&list=PLh-_Yhdqkk1-ZVxPk-txc2JZ1Y0z_XE5T&index=1

There will be more regular news posts coming up, however as I mentioned in the video, I'm dealing with some family issues at the moment. So far, we don't expect it to delay the demo, but it has temporarily prevented me from releasing some of the regular news posts that we intended
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: StarBornMichaelh165 on February 04, 2017, 12:54:56 PM
One Question Corey did you make sore that Jerec didn't have the Vengeance. And their be like two Vengeance Class Super Star Destroyers?
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: Revanchist on February 04, 2017, 01:43:39 PM
One Question Corey did you make sore the Jerec didn't have the Vengeance.

I'm sure if you watch it you'll find out.
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: DarthRevansRevenge on February 04, 2017, 02:02:21 PM
oh, he did. because Sysco is a 40,000 credit/18 pop hero, which he hasn't yet built. but, honestly, he should do the Bellator first
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: StarBornMichaelh165 on February 04, 2017, 02:49:42 PM
oh, he did. because Sysco is a 40,000 credit/18 pop hero, which he hasn't yet built. but, honestly, he should do the Bellator first
Yeah and I agree but when the first I see Jerac in the Video he still has 15 populated point so what that about?
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: DarthRevansRevenge on February 04, 2017, 03:33:17 PM
really? huh, i hadn't noticed that.
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: Mr.Puerto on February 04, 2017, 04:08:28 PM
I'm guessing it was just an accident
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: DarthRevansRevenge on February 04, 2017, 08:55:37 PM
your right, it's there. jerec must not be done yet
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: Lord Xizer on February 06, 2017, 10:20:57 AM
Looking good, I'll be on and off for a bit. Wisdom teeth removal and general army annoyances
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: DarthRevansRevenge on February 06, 2017, 01:58:06 PM
ouch. sucks
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: c7x8z4 on February 08, 2017, 09:43:14 PM
Great play through, it was exciting to see the new changes.

I've got a few questions/suggestions.

1. For building turrets, is it possible to also include a faction build pad next to the buildings? That way, the player has a bit more flexibility in choosing turrets to outfit? Also, for production buildings, I suggest adding an associated repair facility. (i.e. barracks get a bacta tank, and vehicle factories get a vehicle repair unit)

2. For space stations, I suggest adding space turret platforms next to the station (kinda like ground buildings). Again, it would be nice if space stations could come with a repair unit to heal starships. Furthermore, I would like to recommend adding back into the game long rang sensors, and gravity well cones for space battles, if possible. Also, any way to increase space slots? Right now, most planets can only support 2x Golan I stations, is there a way to increase the number of slots?

3. For land battles, I would like to advocate for increasing the toughness of indigenous forces. This can be done by simply increasing their number of structures, and slightly buffing their unit stats. This would make them a bit more challenging. For the orbital bombardment, is there a way to improve the graphics of the turbolaser hitting the planet? Right now, the seem somewhat uninspiring. On a related note, when placing the orbital bombardment, I suggest reducing the radius of the orbital bombardment graphic indicator(e.g., the graphic that shows where you would like the bombardment to take place) The radius is currently huge, yet the actual bombardment only really hits the center region.

4. For the land fighter squadron; is that a unit that changes with era? In space, capital ships that carry squadrons change strike craft class (e.g. Imperial strikecraft include tie fighters, interceptors, etc, all depending on current era). Will the ground squadron class change with era as well?

Thanks! This mod is awesome!
Title: Re: Pentastar Alignment Playthrough
Post by: Corey on February 09, 2017, 10:02:34 AM
1. For building turrets, is it possible to also include a faction build pad next to the buildings? That way, the player has a bit more flexibility in choosing turrets to outfit? Also, for production buildings, I suggest adding an associated repair facility. (i.e. barracks get a bacta tank, and vehicle factories get a vehicle repair unit)

Build pads are distinct from turrets. Putting a build pad on buildings may be possible because of how MDUs work, but I don't know for sure; the turrets are just regular hardpoints, not build pads, and things like bacta and repair stations work differently from that as well. If that did work, it would still cause issues with orbital bombardment and bombing runs, since they only would destroy the hardpoints (which is why turrets on the building are not not separately targetable).


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2. For space stations, I suggest adding space turret platforms next to the station (kinda like ground buildings). Again, it would be nice if space stations could come with a repair unit to heal starships.

Individual turrets would be essentially useless, that's why Golans exist. Having a turret on a building on ground makes sense because ground units tend to only have one or two weapons, but a single space turret in an environment where even the smallest ships have about 20 built in wouldn't be useful.

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Also, any way to increase space slots? Right now, most planets can only support 2x Golan I stations, is there a way to increase the number of slots?
Some planets have two, others go up to five.

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3. For land battles, I would like to advocate for increasing the toughness of indigenous forces. This can be done by simply increasing their number of structures, and slightly buffing their unit stats. This would make them a bit more challenging.
Now that regular infantry can run and shoot, we may end up using that as the differentiation and therefore be able to buff the actual stats of indigenous units up to regular infantry.

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For the orbital bombardment, is there a way to improve the graphics of the turbolaser hitting the planet? Right now, the seem somewhat uninspiring. On a related note, when placing the orbital bombardment, I suggest reducing the radius of the orbital bombardment graphic indicator(e.g., the graphic that shows where you would like the bombardment to take place) The radius is currently huge, yet the actual bombardment only really hits the center region.

It can actually hit the edges just as much as it can hit the center. Our goal with this was to have some actual difference between bombing runs and orbital bombardments. Bombing runs are more precise, orbital bombardments you use if you want to kill a lot within an area, but you're not guaranteed to hit any specific target. Their function is basically the same otherwise in the base game. The reason for the graphics being a bit less impressive for the individual shots is related to that. In the base game, they were using all the particles essentially for that one burst, and could cover stuff up within it. In the mod, we had to cover more shots without causing the game to lag because of too many particles. People have repeatedly complained about this though, so we're likely just reverting back to the samey OBs/Bombing runs from before we changed them.

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4. For the land fighter squadron; is that a unit that changes with era? In space, capital ships that carry squadrons change strike craft class (e.g. Imperial strikecraft include tie fighters, interceptors, etc, all depending on current era). Will the ground squadron class change with era as well?

No, the fighters changing between eras in space is tied to the carrier, on ground it's the opposite. You'd have to make an entirely different unit for a different ground versions, so the game can't really replace that between eras very efficiently. The stuff being used on ground tends to be things that don't go out of style anyways (X-Wings, TIE Fighters)