D'deridex Command

[LilWhiteMouse]

http://www.prdarkfox.com/lwm/warbird.7z
Drag the 7z on to GZDoom to run.



Flickr Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47474132@N ... 153126434/

Mouse look & movement keys control the camera. I advise disabling view bob for effect. I couldn't find any way to disable it from the mod end?
Hit 'USE' to select the next ship, the camera will snap behind it. Currently there's only one friendly ship, but it can handle multiple. Just "SUMMON WARBIRD" if you want to try it. Only the currently selected ship's target is shown. Holding 'USE' will keep the camera behind the ship.
'FIRE' will command the ship to move/attack. If the targeted enemy is destroyed, it auto targets a nearby enemy if there is one, otherwise it will hold it's station.
Holding 'ALTFIRE' brings up the Engineering applet. Use the movement/strafe keys to toggle a boost to the respective system. Only two systems can be boosted at a time. The fewer systems boosted, the faster the ships repair rate will be.
Forward (Up) - Shields
Backward (Down) - Thrusters
Turn/Strafe Left (Left) - Propulsion
Turn/Strafe Right (Right) - Weapons
'JUMP' forces the current ship to auto target the nearest enemy.
Holding 'RUN' while issuing a command will send that command to all warbirds in your fleet.
Inventory Next/Prev will select ship commands. The 'USE INVENTORY' key will active the selected command.

Top Menu - Ops, Helm, Tactical
Tactical - Return, Cloak, Shields
Helm - Return, Warp Drive, Impulse Drive
Ops - Return, Objectives, Transporters (icons are swapped in game is backwards)

Hull damage is automatically repaired if you have repair supplies (picked up from salvage & bases), or visiting a Romulan shipyard. While at a shipyard, shields must be lowered to be repaired.
While cloaked, shields recover at 1/4 their normal rate.
Transporters are only available when decloaked and shields lowered.
Engaging the warp drive will return you back to the galaxy map.

If a ship reaches the boundary, it'll be warped to the opposite side.

[SyntherAugustus]

It was neat for the most part. Took a while to figure out what was going on though.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Finally got around to replacing the temporary HUD. Added the command applet to the top: Transporters, Warp drive, Cloak, Shields. Warp doesn't do anything yet. The idea is to have it go to a CRPG style world map made up like the galaxy. Need to clean up the code, and will try to upload a new copy tomarrow.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Galaxy map and warp drive are now functional. It only works with the selected ship however. To travel to a location, simply move the ship to a star. The locations are currently hard coded for testing.
Transporters are currently only used to repair the selected ship when a starbase is disarmed.
Shields have to be manually raised. They're automatically lowered/raised when you cloak/decloak.

[Sarah]

That is too cool! Prestige 63! Blowin away the Federation. Now playing as the Federation would be cool too. I summoned 2 more ships and could control all three independently making it fun to work tactically, especially when one was getting a low hull. The learning curve is a bit steep but once you catch on it gets fun really fast. I didn't disable movement bobbing, so it kind of felt like I was running around the chessboard telling my pieces to go here, sneak up on this guy, ok blast him. Oh, that's the one complaint, I have to run all the way to the other side sometimes to make an attack selection. Sometimes its that the next enemy is too far away to see, but most of the time its that I cant get the selection cursor over the target. It's almost like a slightly more birds-eye view would help. I noticed that especially with the galaxy map. I started just walking over to the star and selecting it and watching my ship fly over to it. Other than that, multiplayer a must! But soo awesome to play alone!

[LilWhiteMouse]

The learning curve is a bit steep

This is a concern of mine I can't address, with all of my projects. It's a character flaw, I just can't teach.

Sometimes its that the next enemy is too far away to see, but most of the time its that I cant get the selection cursor over the target.

I intentionally limited the range of the cursor for stability reasons. I've had similar frustrations though, and intend some enemy equivalent of cycling through friendly ships.

Other than that, multiplayer a must!

Seeing as I can't MP, that's highly unlikely.

[EDIT] Changes for next version:
While cloaked, enemy ships continue on their current heading instead of dogging you. Allows you to get some breathing room.
Improved behavior for some of the ships (notably the Klingon Bird of Prey).
New ships: Borg cube, Federation Galaxy and Akira classes.
When the cursor is over a galaxy map location, it's name is shown on the HUD.
Started balancing.

[Matt]

This is a concern of mine I can't address, with all of my projects. It's a character flaw, I just can't teach.

I think the big issue is only that there's a learning curve at all - Reelism, Action Doom, Ghoul's Forest, basically everything else on page 1 of the projects forum right now, however radically a mod changes gameplay it's still recognizably Doom and you're just learning new weapon and monster behaviours, while your mods change fundamental elements of gameplay that must be learned anew.

(That said though I'll probably just go back to playing Cammy at this point since I am awful at games where you have to move more than one character in real time)

[niculinux]

WOW great! a whole different game!

[LilWhiteMouse]

The foundation for the missions is in place. The galaxy is now randomly generated, though only the same 4 encounters are currently possible, plus a romulan supply base. Need to tweak the code though, as it's possible (however unlikely) that two locations can spawn right next to each other.
'USE' now works a hair different. Instead of moving the camera behind the next ship, it focuses on the next ship in the direction of it's waypoint. 'JUMP' can now be used to auto target the nearest enemy. Like 'USE', it will focus on the current selected ship in the direction of it's target. Both 'USE' and 'JUMP' can be held down now.
Destroyed ships sometimes leave behind cargo pods that can be transported to make minor repairs to the current ship. Transportable items appear on the sensors as cyan.
[EDIT] Changes for next version.

Ship explosions are handled universally now, accounting for the actor's radius and height.
Transporters now need to charge up before use like the warp drive, and the transporter object now gets the sparkles and fades out. Tripled their effective range.
Added Borg sphere.
Improved Galaxy Map behavior. Ship will only warp to the new map when both it and it's waypoint are near the location. Prevents traveling to the wrong location because the ship had to travel through another location. I've also doubled the detection range.
Raising shields, cloaking, or moving away after transporters are engaged but before beaming will abort the transport.
Destroyed ships no longer warp at the edge of maps.

[Amuscaria]

That...is....awesome!

Now I wish Highlander was real...then I can claim your powers!!!

[LilWhiteMouse]

Mission systems is in place. Added a few scenarios.

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Fight a faction for control of the sector.
Recover the ore samples before the Ferengi do.
Destroy the Federation shipyard.
Capture the Cardassian Starbase.
Rescue the crew of a destroyed D'deridex.

[EDIT] Change for next version.
Retextured the Cardassian starbase.
Added Federation Starbase.
Replaced the music with four new ones (explore maps, battle maps, victory/cleared, galaxy map).
Enemy ships at far range (other side of map) will not seek you out.
Warbirds now spawn in formation instead of on top of each other.

Warbirds not controlled on the Galaxy map now follow the controlled warbird in formation.
Holding the 'RUN' button while issuing a command now issues it to all ships (except for warp and transporters). Clicking a position will send the fleet to that location and form up around the controlled ship. Clicking an enemy will have all ships attack that target. Shield/Cloak commands will make all ships try to activate/deactivate the respective device. IE: If your shields are deactivated, then all ships will try to raise shields. Individual cloak status takes precedence though. So if you order all ships to raise shields, and a unit has it's cloak activated, it will not decloak and raise it's shields.

[LilWhiteMouse]

A new enemy ship & a few more missions. Cleaned up some more of the code, and fixed a few annoying bugs. A few aesthetic improvements. I *think* I removed all my debug messages. Tweaked enemy reinforcements. The more ships you destroy, the less likely reinforcements will spawn in.

[EDIT] Change for next version:
Overhauled the enemy ship's DECORATE and tweaked the ACS.
The pass over function (which makes ships fly over you instead of through) is now much smoother, and no more noticeable (if less) then the existing movement.
Ship repairs are no longer instant. Instead, beaming aboard supplies gives your ship repair points to be used whenever. You can carry a max of 1000: Bases give 500, salvage 50. Your ship has 500 hps, and can repair 1 point ever 4 tics.
More missions.
All larger ships have debris now (saucer sections, nacelles, etc). Makes their destruction a little more cinematic.
Working on a "Game Over" screen for when you're out of ships. Having trouble getting it work ATM.
Need to fix the galaxy map placement, had two systems spawn next to each other for the first time.

[LilWhiteMouse]

Game over screen in place. Crude, but works.
Reduced the rate at which energy is replenished (which affects shield regeneration).
Shield energy is indicated by a dark green bar when they're lowered.
Slowed the repair rate, and disabled it completely while cloaked.
Replaced the crew portraits. My editing skills suck though so I'll probably do away with the portraits completely. I'll just append a name to the position or something to indicate what section they are (Command, Helm, Science, Engineering).
Tweaked some mission behaviors.
About the new Anomaly mission:

---

After a Son'a Battleship creates a subspace tear, destroy one of their ships while evading the tear. Use your transporter on the warp core that gets left behind and lead the tear to it to seal it.

I've been trying to avoid it, but I think I'm going to cave and add an Objectives command icon to the menu. I intend to design some multi system missions, and might get confusing without a way to reference what you're supposed to do in a system.
'JUMP' key no longer moves the view, only targets the nearest enemy to the current ship.

[EDIT]
Discovered a number of bugs in the current version.
Changes for next version:
Ships trail plasma when damaged, location randomly chosen:

Started working on the crew system:

Cleared sectors are now indicated with a marker over the star on the galaxy map.
[EDIT2]
Multi system missions are now supported, though I've only added one so far.
Improved/more planet textures.
Cleaned up some more code.
New missions, improved some of the old ones.
Galaxy map generation is now a blend of reused generic fights, and unique encounters.
When there are fewer then 3 enemy ships on a map, they will seek you out at any distance. This is so you don't have to waste so much time trying to chase them down.
Yanked the Game Over screen due to misfiring. I think if I tie it directly to a warbird's destruction it'll work. Not a high priority.
Added a Romulan shipyard. It will auto repair a nearby damaged warbird if it's shields and cloak are off. No limit to it's usage.
Galaxy map is now more intuitive:

[LilWhiteMouse]

http://www.prdarkfox.com/lwm/GZWarbird.7z
Except for adding new missions (which is super easy), I think D'deridex Command is all but done. A few tweaks to do, and some code organization, but everything on my To Do list is done (that I'm going to do). I abandoned ship crews. The short play style wouldn't work well with it, and it would compound the code complexity so I decided it just wasn't worth the effort. Left the officer generator in though in case I come up with a different use for it. Also, you never get another warbird, again for short term gameplay balance reasons. All the code is designed to handle multiple ships though.

New missions, bringing the total to 21 (though 3 are two parters, so 18 missions if you count them together). About half are reused, and half unique. There is a two part ::gasp:: escort mission, but you can't fail it (short of losing your warbird). If the escorted ship is destroyed, a new one simply spawns in until one reaches it's destination.
Game over is now handled properly.
Completing all the missions results in a victory screen.
Added a fleet strength indicator (with faction icon). The lower the bar, the less frequently enemy ships will warp in. You cannot bring this down to 0, there will always be a chance for enemy ships to warp in (just highly unlikely after awhile). As mentioned before, destroying enemy ships reduces the chance for reinforcements. Larger value ships (borg cubes) reduce this more, smaller ships (cardassian hideki) reduce it less.
Worked on balancing issues.
Improved the skyboxes. I know the planets/moons are textured a little weird, but I can't do better then the default UV map.
Galaxy size is fixed, but no longer sandbox. Individual missions are still randomly selected. Clearing a sector (or reaching a certain point) unlocks another random sector.
Improved ship destruction fx, including your D'deridex's.
Colorized the torpedo sprites to faction colors.
New music (again). Not happy with it, but I don't think I ever will be.
Some missions have friendly shuttles and freighters flying about. They're merely cannon fodder/eye candy. Nothing gained/lost for letting them get destroyed.

[NostalgicAlgorithms]

I really admire the fact you made something completely different out of Doom. This is amazing stuff!

Great job.