ThetaOrion

So what precisely do you want to know that hasn't already been covered?

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Well, I have been playing around with the Search Feature on Relicnews:

And, I see where you (Thud) have applied for an official update for the Steel Legion Mod.

How is it going? Is the Steel Legion for SS team coming together?

I resurrected a couple of the Steel Legion threads from the bottom there on RelicNews. I want to see if anything is happening there.

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In the I_DH thread, I have been participating there. I put up a link to Compiler's Official SoulStorm Beta so that people can download it. I suppose a Hotfix for Compiler's Official SS I_DH Beta is in order? It looks to me as if Undirector is now trying to take up the balance changes on that one. If Undirector gets a preliminary Hotfix for that one, then as part of the Hotfix, I would assume that Undirector would make sure that the 3.10 AI Mod is properly applied as well?

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I can see that Undirector is participating here in the Harlequin Mod Forum. If he gets the Harlequins balanced right and a SS version of Harlequins released with your help, Thud, then I suppose Undirector would be in a good position to apply those Balance Changes and make a Hotfix for I_DH, and maybe even Steel Legion at some point?

Obviously, I wasn't able to get into the Harlequin Mod Forum to participate, so that's why I created this thread here.

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I assume that people around here want to keep me out of betatesting.

But, I should probably express my particular interest in the Harlequin Mod and offer myself as a betatester on that mod if you or Undirector desire me to be involved with it in some way. I'm not a modder, but I can betatest the Harlequin Mod and some of these other Race Mods for SS that Undirector is getting involved with rebalancing, and make some suggestions if someone wants me to do so.

I found and downloaded the 4.5 Tyranid Mod for SS last night, and gave it a go. I also found the dead Tyranid SS thread on RelicNews and resurrected it, and gave a small report of my experience while playing a game as the Tyranids under SoulStorm. I didn't comment much on balancing, because I would rather have it balanced for 3.10 AI Skirmish Mod gameplay if I'm going to be playing as the Tyranids in SoulStorm. I wasn't all that impressed with the generic Relic AI, obviously.

I guess I'm willing to be a little bit more involved with the update of these Race Mods to SoulStorm and to the 3.10 AI Skirmish Mod, if someone has some betatesting for me to do in that regard. I would just need some guidance as to what specifically needs to be tested or looked for, so that I'm not wasting anyone's time reporting on things that are of no use or of no interest.

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OTHER POTENTIAL CANDIDATES:

Thud Bud:

A) I have noticed by reading Relic Forums and by looking at your responses there that there is indeed a SoulStorm Beta for Compiler's Demonhunt Inquisition Race Mod. And, by going to Compiler's own Forum for the mod, he seems to indicate that he isn't going to do any more work on it, but what he has done he claims to be SoulStorm compatible. Is that what you need in order to take it and run with it and make it Combiner Mod compatible? Compiler seems to imply there in his messages that you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, as long as you give credit where credit is due. I take that to mean that after installing it, you can then apply some sort of Combiner Mod to it that will turn on a couple of the flags it needs to play right, including giving it another unit that can capture listening posts if you think that is what it needs to be SS Combiner Mod ready. I'm pretty sure from the way he talks that he wouldn't mind you giving it an AI and tweaking a couple things so that it fits into the mix in some sort of Combiner Mod -- Compiler was the king of the Combiner Mod for awhile there. (Now, I personally could never figure out how to win as the DH-Inquisition, so I never liked playing them. Their economy and way of doing things was purposefully weird, and done that way on purpose. I just never got into them or learned to like them, so I was always able to do without them. Nevertheless, I did notice that the AI in Dark Crusade seemed to know how to properly play the DH-IQ Race Mod just fine, and if I had decided that I liked the DH Mod and wanted to play as the Inquisition, then I probably would have studied more carefully what the AI was doing and would have tried to mimic it. This DH Inquisition mod was never a favorite of mine and thus never a priority, but since there is a SoulStorm version of it out there, I suppose that is why you and others are talking about making an AI for it?)

B) What is the status of the Steel Legion Mod? Is there a SoulStorm Version? Will there be a SoulStorm version? I never got into that one, because it always kept crashing on me back in the Winter Assault days. It seemed stable in Dark Crusade, but in Dark Crusade, I simply preferred playing the Tyranid Mod all the way around, and it is with the Tyranid Mod that I spent my time. Is there any team working on the Steel Legion Mod porting it to SoulStorm? Or have they all disappeared? I did notice that when I tried to go to the Steel Legion link that you provide on Relic News the other day, it was a dead link. My interest in the Steel Legion also kind of dropped when Relic put out the Imperial Guard in Winter Assault. But, I suppose that it would be easier and faster to switch Steel Legion to SoulStorm than some of the other mods that aren't even close.

C) There is also the KRMZ Witchhunters Mod that I am aware of. I have the DC version installed, and although I really don't like playing as the Witchhunters because the gameplay isn't "natural" and didn't seem to come without a lot of work, I do like firing that one up for a look once in awhile -- possibly the best one for screenshots, especially throughout the Base or Stronghold area, even better than Harlequins. I heard rumor last spring 2008 that there would be a SoulStorm version of the WitchHunters Mod, but the whole thing looks dead to me. So, I don't know what will happen there. There seemed to be a lot of hurt feelings and animosity associated with this one, especially after Relic decided to do the Sisters of Battle in SoulStorm. It's as if Relic doesn't like KRMZ and team, and as if KRMZ and team don't like Relic -- lots of hurt feelings all around. I have noticed that when Relic does a faction and releases it, the associated Usermade Faction simply dies; that's what happened with all the Usermade Necron Mods. I'm afraid that it is going to happen here as well.

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And, those are the UserMade Race Mods that I'm aware of. The rest of the stuff so far is simply vaporware, and I don't know if we will see anything from any of the others or not:

a) It looks to me as if the Tau Mod is dead. Alf seems to have in a sense abandoned it, but we already have Tau, so I haven't been as excited about that one, and others don't seem to be all that excited, including Alf.

b) I don't know if the Dark Elder Mod will do anything or not. But, we have Dark Eldar now, so the excitement seems to be waning there also.

c) Some people are excited about the Blood Angels Mod -- aren't they just more Space Marines?

d) The SplinterFleet Mod has been silent for awhile, but then if we have Kaveman's Tyranid Mod completed and ready for SoulStorm, the need or eagerness for another Tyranid Mod will wane, I suppose. I tried to find a 'sound guy' for the Splinterfleet Mod, at one point, and got one of my friends involved there for awhile. I have indeed mostly been wanting Tyranids and Harlequins finished and ready to go.

e) And, somebody there was putting out a RaceMod of Demons, all the Demons in the DoW Warhammer universe, and that mod looked cool, but I don't know if anything is coming of it or not. I like the Race Mods that are unique, rather than being a simple rehash of a Race that Relic already gave us.

Is there anything on the Horizon that is close that we simply don't know about? It has been rather dead over there at RelicNews, compared to what it was like a year ago.

Anyway, I wanted to discuss the Race Mods and a possible SoulStorm Combiner Mod, and do so here, if that's okay. As far as I know, Thud and team were the ones to give us the Combiner Mod for Dark Crusade, and I would like to see something along that same line eventually built for SoulStorm as well, so that we can play the different UserMade Race Mods against each other.

Congratulations to the team!

I haven't been playing many RTS this year -- getting too old and having problems with the reflexes and tendons and joints and stuff. I have been mostly turn-based this year if I play computer games at all. My skirmish reflexes are down or gone. Earlier this year, I did run through the SoulStorm campaign at an average setting three times as three separate factions, but that's about it.

But now, it's definitely tempting to dust off the SoulStorm and give it a go for a bit in Skirmish Mode.

I have particularly been hoping to try a couple of the new race mods -- the Tyranids and the Harlequins when they are ready to go under the 3.10 Advanced AI -- if nothing more than for the eye-candy and to see what is there. I hope that Thud will get the Combiner Mod team back together and follow through and make sure that there is a functional Combiner Mod for Soulstorm that combines together the willing Race Mods into a functional whole under the control of the 3.10 Advanced AI. I'd like to see Thud complete the vision or the dream that he gave to me and others so very long ago!

Nope, I have always seen the Hommonculus alone, never attached. Not ever seen the AI make and attach Apothecary and Mad Dok either!

And, when I see other SM Commanders and Eldar Farseer, they are always unattached.

The attaching thing might not be working well in 3.0.

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I have only had one crash with SoulStorm, and that was while running the AI Mod 3.0 and the randomizer had given me a thing of all Orks, 2vs2, 4 factions of Orks. I had bunkered Gretchin in a listening post, and when I detached them or unbunkered them, then it crashed on me.

That's the only SoulStorm crash I have had so far, and I have played SoulStorm Campaign for a month and this AI Skirmish Mod a whole bunch, and had only one crash. Not bad!

I have been very pleased with the stability of the thing compared to some of the other junque that other game places have released this past year for their first release.

Yes, that's kind of starting to bug me too.

The way they are going, they just as well skip 1.1 and start on 1.2 and get that done. It's kind of a joke, actually.

I read about the 1.1 patch hangup with people who buy online, but the way they are going when it comes to solving the hangup, Relic won't have it solved until 1.2 is ready anyway.

I have noticed, though, that anything from THQ in terms of patches takes on the order of half a year or more, compared to some other game producers. I don't think THQ is all that reliable anymore, either.