FL10K (Looking for a Graphic Artist!)
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With Kawaiilancer apparently dead in the water, I set my eyes onto my own project. One that would bring Catgirls and mechas, giant laser beams and gratuitously oversized spaceships to Freelancer. It would be not only the cutest FL mod in existence (probably forever), but also the most fun, with crazy missions (like save the cat from the Nomads!) and NPC patrols that would blow your mind (example impossible!).
Then I decided it was all stupid and here we are with FL10K.
Spawned from a dissatisfaction of what was being offered in the Vanilla continuation storyline department in current mods (see; revisiting Sol, French superpower), Echo and myself began to dream of a mod where Sirius was more… Alive.
Where every faction acted as they should, and could fly ships of their own colour. Imagine having your tradelane disrupted in Colorado, three Xenos in Starfleas (poor buggers) covered in fearsome looking paint and insignia. In an obvious state of disrepair, they engage your brand spanking new (and shiny!) Starflea (poor bugger). You’re flying the same ship, but theirs is inherently different due to the environment it is kept it, and the owner who keeps it.
A Universal Shipping convoy, filled to the brim (199999 Water anyone?) turtles past, the Trains proudly displaying the Universal logo on their cargo pods, much in the same way as Semi-trailers in modern times.
Our plan is to give an unprecedented level of choice when it comes to the way you want to roleplay within the vanilla lore of Freelancer (and remember, roleplaying can be just as fun solo!). It is sometimes said that having too many choices can lead to unhappiness, but we beleive that having those choices available means you can have a better playing experience.
I like to ramble on, but everyone likes bullet points, so here’s some to sate your ravenous hunger for listed information;
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Skinned cargo pods for each Corporation
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Skinned civilian/BW ships for each (relevant) faction
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Full unlocked shiplines (House Militaries Get everything from a Light Fighter to a Carrier
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Complete House Government factions (LSF equivalents in each house)
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Unique ships for most factions (where applicable. For example GMG gets a mobile gas miner, Kruger get a custom mining ship, Universal Shipping gets some sort of big ass trasport, Bowex gets a battletransport)
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Hogosha no longer use Junker ships! (Yay!)
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Ambulances!
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No playable Nomads! (noone ever does it well. Ever.)
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[d]Catgirls![/d]
That’s just a crappy representation of what we want to achieve. Our first release, 1.0 as it were, intends to be a simple expansion to Vanilla Freelancer. Apart from new ship infocards, there will be no new storyline content to force down your throat!
Depending on the popularity of the 1.0 release, we may continue development in the ways of a storyline, for use on a Roleplay server. However, given we’re just another FL mod, we’re only hoping to gain a following, not taking it for granted. With that in mind, even if 1.0 is the final release, then it will be a release well made!
Now, this all sounds very fine and dandy as I’m sure you’ll agree. However, there is one major hurdle we have yet to cross (prepare your palms for face contact).
The devteam, currently, consists of myself, Echo 7-7, and Kronous.
None of us, have any sort of Freelancer Modding experience.
Well, I have some, but it’s mostly negligible. (Connection Established: Face)
Obviously, we’ve yet to run into any problems to change this outlook (having only just gotten started), but I feel that the plan for 1.0 release is simple enough to achive with who we have, plus maybe one or two others. Unless of course, our current members lrn2mod with any proficiency .:P
However, one thing we are definitely missing is a decent modeller, someone who can model ships to a quality level equal to that of FL (If they’re able to get them in game too, then they’d be an absolute saint). Isn’t there always a bunch of modellers hanging about with no job?They would need to be flexible in development speeds, given I can imagine a very stop and start process. (But hey, if you can do everything we need in a week, then all the more power to you!) I realise that asking someone to devote their free time to something they will never make a monetary return on is a big one, but we hope they like the idea and seeing their work into it will be reward enough.
We may be looking for other skills later, but other than that, expect us to be coming to TSP a lot for help. (Probably often for things that seem obvious or barely worth asking about. )
We hope to release by the new year, a deadline that I don’t think is too harsh at all. Though, given our level of skill right now, it could take a whole lot longer.
I hope you enjoyed reading what turned out to be a much longer post than I ever meant it to be, and if not I apologise profusely. But hell, if you made it to this point obviously you’ve found it interesting enough, eh? (Or you’ve got nothing better to do)
Anyway, we hope we can bring our dream to you!
And why FL10K you ask?
Why not, it’s a working title!
Until you’ve got a better suggestion, we do what we want! -
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No playable Nomads! (no-one ever does it well. Ever.)
For that I can probably hit you with a homemade intro scene for this. PM me or something and I’ll see what I can pull together when I have the free time.
Oh, also if you want me to teach someone how to do awesome stuff in LUA I’d be up for that too. -
Hey, that’d be great, thanks! We might take you up on that intro offer sometime in the near future!
[moddingnub]
What do LUAs do?
[/moddingnub] -
THNs. Scripted animated scenes.
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Ahh, like landing sequences and the menu movies I guess?
Probably a bit too advanced for any of us right now, and also not a huge priority for the mod.
But thanks for the offer, ruppet. -
Scripted Scenes are essentially the same as system editing with more precision and Syntax. They’re not hard at all.
As LUA is actually a real (embedded) programming language, there’s actually a lot more you can do than static or scripted scenes.Still, every good mod should have something. If only to remind people they’re using a modded version of FL. =]
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Ruppetthemuppet wrote:
Scripted Scenes are essentially the same as system editing with more precision and Syntax. They’re not hard at all.
As LUA is actually a real (embedded) programming language, there’s actually a lot more you can do than static or scripted scenes.Still, every good mod should have something. If only to remind people they’re using a modded version of FL. =]
Is there any good tutorial, Ruppet? I always wanted to integrated new scripts into FW:ToW but I can’t find any good tutorial so I can learn (or find someone that actually knows something about them).
And just so I’m not off topic, good luck on the project, Bob!
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If you can grab me on MSN I can run you through all the basics. There’s a Tutorial on TSP, but It was back before I actually understood the script properly.
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Yes, thankyou both. (sun)
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Any modellers hanging around looking for work?
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Well, we managed to get a hold of the talents of someone great for modelling, and now we’re looking for something a bit different, and not straight up freelancer relevant!
We need a graphic artist, someone who can design logos for the various factions, as well as various other important things such as the mod logo.
Basically, logos!
We’ll be asking about in various places, but on the off chance there’s someone hanging about here with the skills and would like to help out, give us a shout!