'88 Flak

Aye, I’ve been busy this past week with finishing up my summer courses, so I’ve been bad with posting my usual updates in the Flak forums. However, quite a bit is happening behind the scenes, with Hazard’s new server getting set up and M0tah and I prepping for a full release, as he stated. Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll be able to pull everything together and we can all party on the server and stuff. XD

starred_one wrote:
Is this singleplayer– I’m just curious

Hey Starred_one, yes, Flak comes standard with OpenSP support (no campaign support yet, but that may come as I and others have been working more with story scripting lately). However, it is very recommended that, if you’re able, to start up your own local multiplayer server to play on by yourself, as you’ll be able to use many of 88 Flak’s features that just plain old don’t work in SP (AI wingmen, cloaks, regenerative hull things, etc.). In fact, 88 Flak has a special feature geared for solo players: AI Companion Bots - that allow you to convert any characters you make on your own server into AI wingmen. Thus, if you were to make 5 characters on your server, you could fly one while using the other 4 as AI wingmen, essentially allowing you to build up a whole fleet at once instead of just a single character.

Wolfenix wrote:
Looks like this is a pretty cool mod. There’s a couple problems though. I’m an old FL player. I used to play online when the community was quite large years ago.

So if this is one of the better mods out there… why have I not seen a single person on any of the three servers within the last three days?

Also, what exactly does one do in 88 Flak? I understand it’s all about freedom, but what is the point of the freedom without others to interact with? Is there a story in 88 flak?

I’m not complaining, necessarily… I just feel like I’m missing something. I would like to get back into this great game but it seems I might be too late.

Info?

P.S. I I hope I don’t sound rude, I’m just kind of a to-the-point kind of person.

Hey Wolfenix, not at all, these are some pretty valid questions. First, with the server player counts - I can’t really give you any solid reason for a lack in server activity, but my guess would be that, since server activity is greatest around new releases, player numbers may have fallen due to a lack of recent updates on the forums, as everyone involved with the project has been relatively busy these past few weeks. In addition, I believe most of Flak’s players are in the northern hemisphere, and as such many may simply be enjoying the rest of their summer. Finally, as Bas put it, there have been some recent changes with servers, and I believe many people are waiting for characters to be transferred to Hazard’s new 24/7 server - of course, all of that is still being worked out.

As for the mod itself, that’s a tougher question. Quite honestly, the core goal of Flak is to give players a fun and challenging combat atmosphere. It is designed to be a bit of a PvE / PvP sandbox, where if you feel like blowing up Rochester Base, you’re able to, and get loot from it. Flak’s gameplay can be sorta likened to old fashioned dungeon crawling - when killing AI, destroying bases, etc., there is always a slim chance of a rare item to drop (of which there are over 80 rare items), which can be used in some way to finely tune your ship’s power and shielding systems - and, of course, this loot can be sold for cash as well. When you have enough cash, you can eventually gamble it all for entry into one of several (still work-in-progress) “challenge systems”, where you will have to slay some ridiculously crazy boss for unique rewards such as an item that sets your ship on fire, a token that allows your ship to pull a 5 second cloak for a quick upper hand in a fight, etc. (again, challenge stuff is work-in-progress, but it’ll be finished soon!) This is all intended as a replacement to FL’s standard Random Mission fare, where you took on the same old set of missions over and over to make some amount of cash that you would eventually spend on the “best ship”, and be done with it.

… That was a long ramble, but I hope that helped answer your questions.

Xarian_Prime wrote:
Flak (as far as i’ve seen) has a pretty big playerbase… we just all don’t get on at once… lol… and now were over a few different servers… so a main one with a strong con would help a bit… but the main problem is…

FOX made it just tooooo much fun in SP… hehe…

and yes… 1.28 is the latest version released shortly after 1.27. Fox fixed a ton of bugs between the two, i got confused at release of 1.28 because the main server was still showing 1.27 and not letting me join… so i went into SP mode for a bit with 'me trusty wingmen… maybe a few others did the same… lol

How’s about a FLAK event? many of us have it even if we don’t always play it… im not thinking a battle event or anything… more a “meet & greet”… FLAK open day! … In a mod like flak… that might just work. The admins and regulars could stage big battles and show of the cooler stuff for the “guests”… Just an idea

Yeah, something along these lines is planned. XD

Here’s the next release so far…

Edit: See later post

I’ll keep this list updated as it progresses; feel free to discuss either here or in this thread. Changes are subject to change.

As it is currently, RC129 will probably be released as another normal beta release so that all this stuff can be tested in a live setting and feedback can be given. At that point, a full release will be prepped, tested, and then distributed to community sites etc. with large server parties and much drinking. After, development will begin again in the same fashion it is now, but instead with each RC simply being a full release - since 88 Flak will be distributed to sites every release, this should put it more in the public spotlight as it will be downloadable from many places, instead of just the forums.

Edited the above list.

Now with AI-Specific death messages!


Note that this was a test using foxBot in wingman form, so it was treated like any NPC - real AI Bot death messages would simply read the bot’s name, IE “DeathFlier was killed by foxBot with guns and missiles / torpedoes.”

More changes:

– Major improvements to functionality and stability of MP mission scripting, thanks to M0tah.
– Fixed the death_comm related bug.
– Removed the tips section from the death message text, as the tips text from the F5 tips screen is shown right below it.
– Currently active server options are now reported to the bottom of the F5 tips screen, so you don’t have to make a new character to see which options are enabled.
– Torpedo splash damage radius has been halved from 360m to 180m.
– The Player-Carrier stat displayed on ships now displays rather that ship can actually dock on player-carriers or not.
– Nomad Fighters now have a 20 Nanobot limit, raised from 10 (which was mistakenly 5 in the actual code, oops!). They also regenerate hull at 80hp/s, raised from 60hp/s.
– Repair Ship self-repair now repairs 100hp/s, raised from 80hp/s.
– Power Modulators now grant small amounts of hull regneration (5hp/s and 10hp/s respectively), so that putting a single dent in your ship no longer requires you to use Nanobots or go repair.
– Nomad Fighter weaponry has been buffed. It now deals more damage, and carries a faster firing rate.
– Adjustments made to price of various trade ships. The Large Transport / Train & Heavy Lifter, as well as the two Liners, are all $1,000,000 more (adding $50,000 to their Death Penalties). This was done to make trading in a Small Transport / Train - even though they are inferior traders - more worthwhile and cost-effective to pilot as a low-risk trader.
– Player-Purchasable bases now correctly sell the Order Shield and Order Thruster (which is needed, as that’s one of the few ways to obtain such items).
– The Faction Tag Removal guy has been turned into a “Mysterious Vendor” (sells all Player-Purchasable Bases, as well as some other goodies).
– Player-Purchasable Base offers now list the system where the PBase you’re about to purshase resides.
– Challenge systems are now based on a Credit Chip requirement, rather than Kill Tokens. Perhaps everybody’s precious cash reserves will actually be useful again.
– VHFs can now mount regular weaponry over the CD/Torpedo mount. The power supply, however, has not been increased, so overloading your VHF may not be wise.
– Ships are now automatically untargeted when they pass the death-revive threshold.
– Re-organization to the mission script structure. This fixes an issue with the F5 tips screen printing multiple times.
– A Class 5 EMP Missile, the Decimator Missile (Eraser -> Sweeper -> Neutralizer -> Paralyzer -> Decimator). Although the EMP missiles were previously classed as Class 2-5, they were in reality Class 1-4, so the Decimator rounds out the EMP line.
– Missile, CD, Mine, and Torpedo prices have been adjusted to be more reasonable. Previously, a single launcher was sometimes worth upwards of $250,000.
– Doubled damage of all guns, as guns were on the weaker side in general - missiles have not been changed. However, all power usages of guns have been doubled as well.
– Less stupid positioning of added fins on the Covenanter and Hydra VHFs.
– Added option to enable higher effect view distances but not the new effects themselves when using High-End FX.
– Better Cruise Disruption effects (now colored by engine color).
– The high-end damage effect now correctly only plays when High-End FX is activated. This should result in a large performance gain for those computers that don’t use / can’t quite handle High-End FX.
– High-resolution textures are no longer applied if High-End FX is not selected. This should result in a large performance gain for those computers that don’t use / can’t quite handle High-End FX.
– Major shield power draw rebalances. Shields are now balanced to the rare item formula of 5 Shield Regen = 1 Power Regen, and 100 Shield Capacity = 1 Power Regen.
– Shields have been majorly reworked, with low-class shields having a higher regen:capacity ratio and a low offline time, and high-class shields having a higher capacity:regen ratio and a long offline time - this makes low-class shields best against missile assaults, while high-class shields are best against sustained damage.
– Rare items have been slightly rebalanced. If you’re looking to finely tune your shield capacity/regeneration : power draw ratio, it is now much more efficient to do so via use of rare items - to the point where it’s worth combining a low-class shield and capacity/regen rares to “make” a high-class shield. Before, if trying to save power, it was always far more efficient to simply drop a shield class.
– The Light / Heavy Power Modulators now grant 200 / 400 added power regen, respectively, decreased from 300 / 600.
– Fixed an issue with AI Companion Bots ignoring your selected engagement settings (they were stuck on always engaging hostile targets, even if you picked “always engage unlawfuls” etc.)
– The 3D Sound Notice now displays when you launch from the n00b Base, since people seem to miss it in the menu.
– Tweaked behavior of the Wasp / Nomad Cruise Disruptor and the Hornet. The Wasp / NCD is now a very agile, short-range CD missiles (4.5km range), while the Hornet is a slower, long-range CD missile (8.5km range) with a wide area of effect.
– The debris option is no longer marked as “slightly unstable”, as it appears RC128’s stability fix did the trick.
– Increased the amount of shielding given from a Shield Battery to 1000, from 750.
– Lowered the resolution of Why485’s High-End FX smoke effect, which should result in a large FPS gain with minimal quality loss when using High-End FX.
– AI weapon usage has been slightly scaled back to ease up the difficulty a little. AI Bots remain unchanged.
– Commodities can no longer be traded in Alaska and subsequently linked systems, to correct trading exploits (and if you eject Commodities in these systems, they will be placed back in your hold). All other item types (normal items, rares, etc.) can all still be traded normally.
– Added four contrails to the Serafina, since it was lacking 'em entirely.
– Stations, Weapons Platforms, etc. all affect your reputation when killed - the amount of reputation drop is multiplied by the severity of the attack and the importance of the target - killing common NPCs is worth a fair amount of reputation, killing Players / AI Bots is worth a large amount of reputation, and killing Stations / WPs is worth a huge amount of reputation. If you single-handedly slaugter a Station, you will go from full friendly to nearly hostile for that faction (with relevant reputation changes applied to allies etc. as well)
– Reputation drop is now roughly based off the formula “inflicted damage on target / total damage on target” - meaning, if you only inflict 20% of the damage to a ship, you will only receive 20% of the full rep drop - but if you single-handedly butcher a target, you will receive a full rep drop (roughly 22.5% of the rep bar depending on target).
– Death messages are now shown when Stations, AI Wingmen, and AI Bots are killed - “A Navy Patriot was killed by a 3 Rogue ships with guns and missiles / torpedoes.”, “foxBot was killed by DeathFlier with guns.”, etc.
– Bribes for Nomads are now only offered by the robot in Nomad Buoys - you can no longer take the bribe on the neutral easter-egg planets.
– Added 26 AI Bots to the AI Companion roster, increasing the number of selectable AI Companions to 30 unique bots spannning a total of 52 different loadout selections to add to your AI Companion squad.
– 88 Flak ST music is now handled in a seperate music_st.ini activated by the ST, which will stop “Missing Sound File” errors when the ST is not activated.
– All 30 unique bots now have individual bot mini-factions and can be seen roaming the universe.
– Certain AI Bots now occupy their time trading various goods.
– Player-Purchasable Bases now sell all fighters and transports - there is a new mod option that will allow you to select the ship sold for you at Player-Purchasable Bases.

Many thanks to M0tah for the hard work he’s been putting in the past few weeks to help get Flak out the door, and putting up with all my shenanigans. =3

More stuff:

– AI are now more likely to assist you / other friendlies in a distant fight (before, they’d always ignore fights in progress when far away).
– Bot AI / Hard Mode AI now have slightly slower repair usage times, instead of slightly quicker repair usage times, as delaying before Nanobot or Shield Battery presses is actually more efficient for AI usage. Before, they were using them too quickly and weren’t always getting the full benefit per-Nanobot/Battery.
– Better commodity market data for Ryuku Base and Heaven’s Gate (real name of Tekagi’s Base) in the Tohoku system. Before, they were treated as misc/rare bases in the commodity market, with all commodities sold for near-nothing.
– Better explosions for Nomad Fighter, Gunboat, and Battleship. The explosion creates nomad-y trails instead of fire/smoke trails, which suits the ships a little more. The nomad-y trails were given to all Nomad equipment as well.
– 8-Way Strafe plugin added courtesy of Adoxa. This allows vertical strafing to be used in tandem with horizontal strafing.
– Reorganized the SourceFiles folder; placed all files in folders by author.
– Player tags are now handled manually; you may set your tag with /tag (faction), for example “/tag Liberty Navy”. Purchasing an operative tag with no other tag present will still change your tag as always.
– Added another title song / screen.

For anyone interested, RC130 has just been released. A full changelog can be viewed in the 88 Flak Betas topic: http://www.memes.no/88flak/forum/viewtopic.php?t=114