Great job, the collision problems are gone.  Also appreciate the extra reinforcements being given to the REPs too. I'm not sure if it has balanced the game or not since I've discovered that it seems that my  REP tanks are universally "bouncy" across all the maps, doesn't seem to be an issue with Dust Plains, but a global one.  Very odd, since I checked my global SIDES folder and I'm using the shipped REP LVL and not one of my modified sides.

The moment I go to strafe with the Rep hovertank (or if the AI try to strafe left/right), the tank just rolls over and eventually rolls upside down, as if no gravity were present at all. Totally bizarre.

I was able to find Empire vs Clones last night, so I'll be reposting that sometime this week when the free time arises.  Still looking for the other stuff.

Quote from: SleepKiller on March 31, 2012, 11:24:53 PM
I really must try more of your maps sometime. They look fantastic!

Maybe I'm just very good at making promotional pics

Sorry for the double post, just want to keep the two galleries separate since there are so many pics.

Also on that DVD-R are some of my promo pics for Empire vs Clones:


 













This one was not a side mod, but a big mission map pack. I stuck in every clone and imperial I could think of and without making the LVL too gargantuan.  It was created because I wanted to do a nice "what-if?" mod with the old guard fighting the new guard. There's Royal Guards, Magma Stormtroopers, Blackhole Stormtroopers, Imperial Officers, and of course a playable Boba Fett with flamethrower.

IIRC, this also came with a special bonus "Empire vs Empire" which takes place on the Death Star (SWBF2 map ported by scum/strike) with Vader's forces trying to overthrow the Emperor.  However, I remember some people reported problems loading that mission map for reasons I could never determine.  It could've been a problem with the map port itself, given that the Death Star map apparently had some issues that made it harder for scum/strike to convert compared to some of their earlier efforts.


edit: found some pics from 91st Assault Corps: The Battle of Coruscant map:


 




     

Don't worry kitfisto, I did conduct a search through a stack of unlabelled discs tonight.  I found my oldest dvd-r burn, which has some of my JvC assets but more importantly, the promo pics that I did for the 41st Elite global sides mod that I made back in 2007.   Since you were wondering about this mod, the pics probably will help explain it better than just words alone.

41st Elite: The Defense of Kashyyyk (or however you spell it) was a global side mod, and it replaced the regular clone units with troops more specific to the Kashyyyk battle (namely Yoda, a big honking wookie, Cmdr Gree, 41st Elite clonetrooper, and the AT-RT driver):





I also made new sides for the CIS too, based on some expanded universe designs that were created by Hasbro for some of the Battledroid action figures (basically Hasbro gave them some camo) with new weapons. If you installed these sides, another thing that automatically changed is that some standard vehicles would now be swapped in for newer ones. So say you normally play a map that has the eps2 Jedi starfighter, now you will find it has the eps3 Jedi starfighter (Yoda colors i.e. green) or if a map used the hovertank, it now gave you the AT-RT instead automatically. The gunship now used the green deco instead of standard red (once again, based on the gunship released by Hasbro back then).


 


   

Anyway, had a lot of fun making that one - I don't think many people used it which is probably why there aren't any backups.  Today obviously I would have made that into a more expansive set of mission maps, rather than just a side mod alone.

I'll keep looking thru my dvd-rs as time permits...


     

Okay let me reply to everyone in order:

@kitfisto:
> Napseeker how do you make the final battle at utapau a global sides mod?

Even after I switched to doing mission maps, I still tried to set up the sides files (REP and CIS.lvl) so that they can work as a global sides mod too.  All you have to do is take the normal REP and CIS LVL files that are in the SIDE folder where your game is installed and move those files elsewhere for safekeeping. Then you can copy the REP and CIS LVL from the FBaU map's Side folder, into the SIDE.  It should work, but I can't guarantee it just because I always forget to test that before I do a map release.  Just do the REP LVL alone first, play a standard map to verify that my REP.lvl doesn't crash the game. If not, then now copy over the CIS LVL and play the standard map again to make sure no crash here either. 

@Buckler:
Hey thanks for that explanation, good trick there, never would've thought of it, so I bow to you, kind sir!  I copied your explanation into my modding journal for future reference... for that day sometime in the far future when I've got a spare sec to mod again, lol.  Will try out your mod once I've found those missing pesky maps of mine... DVerik doesn't have them either so it's up to me to seek them out. 

@Sleepkiller:
Sweet, appreciate you checking that out for me.  Now I look forward to trying out FBaU with the improved port...

@Phobos:
Yeah it's full-sized... both the Acklay and the Rancor are playable.  I posted a pic like what, 2 years ago where they were all in a conga line in the arena (which I thought was funny, maybe no one else did).  Even got the Orray and Cart working.  Have a half-modelled, untextured Nexu, but I doubt that one will ever get done. Mind you, it's definitely an imperfect walk cycle just due to the usual trickery I have to resort to, but it looks just good enough to be acceptable to the not-too-discerning gamers.   I still have those vidcaps I posted somewhere, probably burned alongside with all my other junk somewhere, will post it if I can find it.

Quote from: Buckler on March 25, 2012, 11:31:37 AM
Hi Napseeker,

Thanks for looking into the maps.  I would be happy to pay you postage and supplies costs if you wanted to send me a disk instead of uploading somewhere.

Oh no, I'll find it and upload it... if I don't have it or have badly lost track of this stuff, I think Darth Verik may have the missing maps and be able to upload them for me (I just sent him a complete list of my mod/map releases so he can see what he has which needs to go up to the site).

Quote
My own project involves something called SWBFupdate 1.0, which includes may new units and maps.  We have a way to bypass the addon map limit, and it has been fun so far.  I would love to be able to stock it with some of your units if you have assets handy, too 

Well, there wont be much tweaking to this website, so it has been pretty stable so far.   My plan is to keep the site up as it is for at least 10 more years...if we can still play SWBF anymore or not

A way has been found to bypass the addon map limit?  Get outta here!  Where's the tutorial?  That limit has been so confining on modders in the past few years it's ridiculous. 

I should probably do an asset release of some kind... errrr, where ARE all of my assets?  I'm not sure anymore! Probably on the same DVD-R as the maps that I can't find   That said, I think I will need to re-release the assets that I had already put out before (Aayla Secura, General Grievous, and Palpatine/Darth Sidious). Those don't seem to be on this site either. I'm sure they'd be useful to someone...

@kitfisto: would love to do more maps and mods... isn't a question of not wanting to do more, unfortunately we are in very hard economic times and all of my time is now spent just working... working to pay da bills, to pay off da man.  I still have so many unfinished mods sitting around somewhere it's not funny... that EaG2 map was almost done (that's the one with the playable Rancor which some of you ancient users may recall), Force Unleashed mini-game, Return of the Jedi mega-mission project... yearrrgh. 

Excellent job, SK. I was quite happy to finally play this one in SWBF1 at long last.

I have two comments though:
- there's a floor collision problem near one of the CPs.  It's the big mountain/hill, when you spawn from the CP there, and just move a few feet away, you can easily fall through the ground and down into the interior of the mountain mesh.
- I'm not sure if this is a problem with my version or what: I was playing with the standard clone sides and I've noticed that the game balance is off.  There's no way for the REP team to win. Ever!  I've tried different tactics, but every time the CIS just eventually slaughters the REPs in single play.  I think a big part of that is because none of the REP hovertanks are working right... they seem to be as light as air, and literally do somersaults like tumbleweeds when you try to pilot them around.  As a result, the REP only has just the AT-TE to fight off the hailfire droid and the errr, pod things that shoot the lasers (man, I really have forgotten a lot about SWBF!) so the REPs are outgunned badly.

I do hope these can be fixed, it certainly would make it more fun to play in single player mode.

@Buckler: thanks for those links, B!  Yeah Sleepkiller's ports are fantastic. I'm really happy to see Tantive and the Geonosis map finally playable in SWBF1... seriously had a modding urge while I was playing with Tantive and Geonosis to whip up some new sides for it (just to make it more movie accurate looking, because that's what I do )

From that list of my old maps/mods, I think I can see what's missing: Battle of Coruscant, Empire vs Clones, and the one that uses the 41st elite sides (which is obsolete now anyway, I was planning on redoing that one). You probably don't need to keep that beta of Duel at Mustafar as I see you also have the final release too.  Now that Sleepkiller has done the improved ports of the older scum/strike maps, I'll have to get around to adjusting my mission maps to load the improved maps (unless of course the new maps use the same mapnames as the scum/strike ones... in which case, no work needed - yay!)

Man, wish I had the time to go back into modding again...

@kitfisto: I'll look for the BoC map next Saturday (at the latest). Weekdays are not kind to me right now. If I can also find Empire vs Clones, will try to upload that and send out the links to you and Buckler.  Yeah I love the 212th too... mainly because orange is my favorite color.  Just happy that I got General Grievous into a BF1 map at last with FBAU since that was a big dream of mine.

Keep in mind that with the past 3 SWBF forums, every single time I finish uploading all of my modding projects to the site, post gallery pictures and a nice long description, that forum/site not long after... dies.  I swear that posting my stuff in its entirety seems to be the kiss of death for every SWBF Mac/PC site!  So, sorry in advance Buckler, I hope this site escapes that fate

Hey kitfisto, I saw your email.  Man, did all of my maps/mods vanish into the ether?   I'm not even sure where my Battle of Coruscant map disappeared to on my system... I burned it onto a DVD-R ages ago and it got filed away, errr, somewhere

If no one else has it or is willing to upload it, I'll look around for it later this week (kinda busy this weekend) but I recall it was a  massive rarfile, probably around 100mb.

edit: oh, BoC is not to be confused with the Space: Battle over Coruscant (damn, those names are so similar even I get confused).  Battlebelk's Polis Massa map is a great port but it has one serious, serious flaw in that the AI on the REP team eventually get bottled into one specific area and never leave it.  If you play as the REPs, you then, over the course of play, wind up with fewer and fewer AI teammates because they become trapped in that part of the map and won't explore anywhere else.  BTW, you may also want to find my mission map for BB's Polis Massa: it replaces the standard team with Bail Organa, and some other appropriate characters.

Right, so this is basically the technique that I described in my advanced mission map tutorial of using what I call map overlays (or underlays, depending on which of the two maps you load first).  It's described here:
http://forums.mpcgamers.com/index.php?topic=417.msg11006#msg11006

Rather than just combining pre-existing maps (which IMO, seems to just produce a lot of mishmashed junk), my point in the tutorial was that you can use it to "edit" a compiled map to add in new props or fx (in Empire vs Clones, this was a simple way to add rain onto the Kas Docks map, or add a flood of water into the entire Jedi Temple by loading in a slightly edited Kamino map) via the overlay/underlay map.  I'm really surprised that no one has taken advantage of this technique - you could add in new vehicle spawns when the original map offered none (in Final Battle at Utapau, this was how I added support for the AT-RT into scum and strike's Utapau ported map).    Give this idea a try folks, as you can get more precise and cooler map combinations just by making your own simple map to load alongside the shipped/compiled map.

edit: for any further ideas - just take a look at any one of my mission map releases from as far back as my Shocktroopers: Duel at Mustafar mod from a few years ago (2006?).  If it was a mod based on one of scum/strike's ported maps, then I likely used overlay maps all over the place to modify their maps to add in new stuff (as well as try to fix some collision issues).

Quote from: MileHighGuy on December 16, 2010, 11:15:39 PM
Hey this looks amazing! About the bright terrain, i have a tutorial up about that http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2098.0 hope it helps!

Hey MHG, I saw that tutorial (nice job), but in this case it isn't brightness per se, just the shadow that seems to be cast down onto the terrain from the arena walls itself (which are very high).  If I remove the walls completely from the map, the shadowing for the units work fine, but once they are put back in, they darken the whole terrain. I can brighten it back up again by burning the terrain, but that doesn't really solve the actual issue (i.e. why placing the sun directly overhead the map still causes the shadow).

@ggctuk/gogo12:  gametoast is one possibility, although I would prefer just to stick with mpcgamers if the plan by the new owner is to keep things consistent.  I'm already registered on enough forums and sites, I'd prefer to actually stay with what I'm familiar with.  MXG/MPCG is where I started off and most loyal to, so I'd rather not leave...

On the bad side, I have gotten zero modding done over the holidays due to work commitments... maybe Darth Verik shall get his April "birthday present" after all, at this rate 

Thanks Bacara and Fire, much appreciated.  DVerik/Darth Santa, I do hope it comes out long before April. I should have more time to work on it over the Christmas holidays - the only real problem seems to be the placement of the sun, which despite being directly overhead, still seems to cause the arena to cast a looooong shadow over the arena floor, making it all too dark.

Well it's dark if you have the ShadowQuality turned to High (not a problem if it's low or off, as the ground is "bright" although the units don't seem to cast shadows no doubt because that arena wall's shadow is still there in effect). If I can fix that, I can proceed ahead with the final stuff to do a beta release... it's a fun map, retuned to work on faster PCs and much closer to the events in the film.

I'm hoping to have it out late January. Having some issues with the brightness of the terrain right now that seem baffling....

Just a reminder (before all this Rancor love gets out of hand) that you mostly just walk around when you pilot the Rancor, there's no arm movements whatsoever, so you can't grab or smack anyone or have them for lunch.

Other than a scattershot vomiting of blood and guts at your foes, it's been designed to be a giant walker that mostly annoys the soldier units rather than wiping them out.  Same goes for all the beasts, since I don't want the gamers to beat the map just by hopping into a beast.

For a soldier unit to kill a beast, it is difficult, especially if you're a Jedi. Lightsabers won't do any harm since the collision here is off (if it did work and were realistic, those beasts would be dead with one swing of the saber anyway, not much fun there). Grenades are the most effective and the CIS battledroids have plenty of those in case you, as a Jedi unit, decide to pilot one of the beasts.

I should note that for the first time I've given the Jedi a grenade-type weapon (which can be used to attack the beasts). Previously I didn't want to give Jedi actual grenades since we all know they don't use these in battle ever. Still, it felt unbalanced not to give the Jedi something which they can toss at the enemy and have it "explode". The new "grenade" is the Jedi training ball (seen in Star Wars ANH, when it zaps Luke as he is training with the blastshield helmet).  The padawans and some Jedi Knights carry it - throw it at your enemy and the ball lands on the sand. Half a second later, the training ball levitates into the air and begins firing green zaps in every direction. Unlike in the movie, the enemies don't get poked when hit, they're killed

Similar to the Jedi training ball, I've also given them a mine-type weapon also. Here the Jedi tosses the training ball onto the sand. Instead of immediately levitating into the air and firing away, the ball will sit there until an enemy comes close and once it does, THEN it levitates up and starts firing. So it acts like a mine in essence.