326 replies to this topic

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Hi guys, there is nothing wrong with my internet. I've been a bit distracted doing another CG project, the full size of this image (1280 x960) has been rendering for 48+ hours and is still going.



I'm turning my attention back to the mod now, though. Next thing modeled will likely be the sarcophagus. Don't worry, I will NEVER lose interest in making this mod. I'm way too stubborn to give up on something like this once I've started it.

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Update! I'm pretty much finished with the sarcophagus model.



It's not nearly as impressive as the naquadah mine, but my next update will be really good. I'll be working on the death glider next. *Getting back on track...*

For those who don't follow the series, a sarcophagus is a powerful piece of Goa'uld technology, it can heal just about any injury or sickness and can even bring people back from the dead. Sometimes, as seen in the episode 'Abyss', the Goa'uld would torture their prisoners to death only to revive them and repeat the process as they pleased.

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 31 January 2008 - 04:19 AM.

[Taralom]

how do you plan on using the sarcophagus?

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

The Goa'uld are going to be very powerful heroes, most of them will have something like 'wizard blast' because of the hand devices and will be able to use it pretty frequently. This is a big advantage even if the blast only does knock back, so the sarcophagus will be where Goa'uld heroes are recruited and revived instead of the fortress. I'm thinking it should cost 2,000 to build. That way the player doesn't just hero spam in the early game and it gives the enemy a chance to build up an army.

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 31 January 2008 - 06:14 PM.

[Dain Ironfoot]

Should you not prehaps be able to choose from only one Go'auld system lord? Each with advantages and disadvantages? And prehaps unique techs connected with them? (Anubis: Krull Warriors, Ba'al: Cloning:Cheap hero revival etc) could bring a unique gameplay slant.

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Hmm... Interesting, but I don't think I like the idea of limiting the player to a single Goa'uld.

Anubis is going to be awesome, I've already dabbled with some artwork and sound fx when not modeling. (On nazgul unit at the moment.)

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 31 January 2008 - 10:46 PM.

[Dain Ironfoot]

Its just it'd be more accurate to the canon, the heroes you do have could be more powerful and it'd add an extra level of gameplay to the goauld faction. The idea of having all the system lords together on the same battlefield is kinda daft. They'd almost certainly try to kill each other.

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Yeah, that's true. I'll give it some serious thought.

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 31 January 2008 - 10:48 PM.

[The Best Guest]

Apophis should have a power called mind control where he can convert poeple to his side

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Good idea!

I've been thinking about it, and now I'm going to do things the way Dain suggested. You will only be able to control one Goa'uld at a time, but I will use a command set switch to give them a LOT of cool powers and abilities.

Thanks to Fingulfin for writing a nice tutorial on how to do this. link

[Edit] Just completed that tutorial Fin, but I found you only need the two command buttons that do the actual switching, you don't need the separate shortcut buttons. Just make them un-pressable and the shortcuts still work.

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 02 February 2008 - 02:22 AM.

[Taralom]

Anubis looks tiny
i think you should drop the scale thing.

[Allathar]

No, I don't think you should. It adds realism and cool-ness imo, and also brings in something unique. Anyways, my thoughts on the System Lords. I think it'll be better to have more to choose from at a later point in-game since you can only select one from the beginning. Or, perhaps have the Goa'uld who were in the Great Alliance of System Lords or the System Lord Outcasts can recruit 'eachother', at later levels? Exception is Ba'al, who is member of the Alliance at lvls 1-6 and after that becomes Outcast.

Great Alliance of System Lords:
- Ba'al (lvls 1-6, since he later on betrayed the alliance he previously led (season 8 ep 1, New Order))
- Yu (gives acces to his First Prime, Oshu, and another members of the Alliance, also bonuses to ash'rak)
- Amaterasu
- needs more, can't think of any right now

Lone System Lords:
- Apophis (gives access to Klorel at lvl 3, also to Serpent Guards)
- Klorel (gives access to Apophis at lvl 5, also to Serpent Guards)
- Heru'ur (gives access to Ra-guards, able to join with any System Lord at lvl 10)

System Lord Outcasts:
- Anubis (gives access to Kull Warriors, and later on Ba'al when he reaches lvl 8)
- Ba'al (access to cloning and weak, cheap Goa'uld underlings, also Kull Warriors at lvl 7). Note that you have to choose Ba'al in the beginning, and that all Alliance upgrades will be lost when you decide to 'Outcast' him)
- Sokar (access to Devil-jaffa, anti-hero bonuses, anti-Tok'ra bonuses and Bynarr at lvl 4)

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

@Taralom: I'm not moving on the scale thing, it's not often you see something actually new being done with mods these days. I've made it so the camera can zoom in really close, so you can still look at the models closely if you want.

@Allathar: Sounds complicated. I think I will just make it so you can recruit one system lord and all the tech that comes with them regardless of the experience level. I will give each hero a SYSTEM_LORD kind of and limit it to one at a time. That way if your Goa'uld dies, you have the option of either reviving them or choosing to recruit another system lord. For example: I start the game and recruit Sokar. This allows me to recruit some devil jaffa, so I do. Sokar gets killed somehow, but instead of reviving him I choose to recruit Apophis. I can no longer recruit new devil jaffa, but I still have control of those already on the map. This reflects the idea that a Goa'uld often absorbs the forces of a defeated fellow system lord into their own.

[njm1983]

Wow This is going to be amazing, Iam definately going to play this mod. By the way the System lord idea is , Have you thought about adding the wraith?

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Sorry, this is going to be a strictly Milky Way mod. (Evidently chocolate bars and flying horses don't get along so well. Who knew?) In all seriousness, this is probably going to be the first question I put on an FAQ when I get hosting and a subforum. The SG-1 universe is already rich and diverse enough to replace all 6 factions in the game, and no, I will not use subfactions. Besides, the SGA universe is pretty diverse in its own right and perhaps worthy of a mod of its own. Not by me though.

[njm1983]

fair enough. hehe, I only asked because the SGA team get everything they need through the SGC. I was only thinking that it might be interesting to have the Taur'i faction have 2 tech trees 1 for SG1 and 1 for Atlantis. thus diversifying that single faction. and the wraith would be a logical opponent. Im just explaining my thoughts I dont want you to think this is pressure or anything. Its a very cool mod idea, especially since the stargate series doesnt have any games. keep up the awesome work.

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

No need to explain yourself njm, we're cool.

A fellow CG artist on Blenderartists.com pointed me to a mid-poly death glider model he made and put up for download on scifi-meshes.com, so right now I am re-modeling it to be low-poly enough.



Left = Mid-poly wing Right = My progress on low-poly version.

Blender's retopo tool has been a lifesaver so far.

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 03 February 2008 - 05:37 AM.

[Fingulfin]

I think I will just make it so you can recruit one system lord and all the tech that comes with them regardless of the experience level. I will give each hero a SYSTEM_LORD kind of and limit it to one at a time.

Very sure you can't create new KindOfs... There are a TON of unused ones that you can use though (leftovers from BFME I)

[Lord of the Rings Junkie]

Sweet. How could I find those out?

Okay, now I'd like to discuss a bit of building mechanics with you guys. Obviously with the new game scale a lot of things are going to change, and one important thing is the amount of damage buildings take from ground troops. Most buildings are going to be pretty tough to take down with troops, and fortresses almost impossible. Each building should take a decent amount of siege to take them down like in S.E.E., and fortresses should take quite a bit of siege. To compensate for their strength, building times are going to have to be made longer. If I may quote Sul:

It's a bit sad to see a catapult destroy a farm with some effort and turn to the second farm all the while an enemy porter rebuilds the first farm faster than he can raze the second building.

So here are my thoughts:

Resource structures should take 1 minute.
Unit production structures should take 2 minutes.
Air unit production buildings should take 2 minutes 30 seconds.
Buildings where unit upgrades are researched should take 2 minutes 45 seconds.
Attack buildings such as sentry towers and fortress expansions should also take 2 minutes 45 seconds.
Fortresses should take 5 minutes. (This is the longest of any building.)
Still don't know about wall hubs, it will depend on the strength and type of wall.

I will be removing the auto-repair behavior on all structures so that they can only be repaired by porters, and the rate at which they are repaired will be 0.5% per second.

I've thought these through a bit, and I believe them to be a good compromise between reality and playability.
Any thoughts on this subject?

Edited by Lord of the Rings Junkie, 03 February 2008 - 06:28 PM.

[Fingulfin]

Sounds good for logic. Although something to note is that a minute is a LONG time... I dunno, test it out in game, you will find that perfect balance

On another note, what kind of siege would we be talking about? Ships? Ion Cannons? If so, how long would these take to build, and how much would they cost?