Sith Decimator Mod !UPDATED! V1.1

[Dungeon_master]

Hi guys. This is my first mod for WW. I have been modding the .ini files for my own pleasure for quite a while but now i decided to make a complete ship addon. So since i am a Star Wars fan i imported the Sith variation of the Decimator (a medium size cruiser) into the game. I believe that i have done a good job with the .tga (thnx for the guide whoever made it) and with the ship balance. Speaking of the ship i will try to describe it here

1: The ship has 6 weapon hardpoints
a: there are 3 hardpoints firing forward at a 90 degree range in total (2x Mass drivers V2, 1x Fusion missile launcer)
b: there are 2 side hardpoints which fire at the sides mainly (proton phazor beams)
c: there is a rear flack turret (micrometeorite gun)

2: there are 7!!! system hardpoints so you can install all the flashy gizmo you want (Proton Matrix shield preintalled)

3: It has trusters http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif and lightspeed engines http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif (Fusion tube and Ruby laser drive)\

4:base speed is a bit slower than the terran corvette but turning speed is like the scout's

6:Hull integrity is very good (something less than twice the Terran corvete.)

7: I mentioned a Mass driver v2. The original mass driver has an upgraded firmware http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif and can target destructive ordnance (missiles torpedoes)

The intros are also modified (hence the 700KB size)

Please post some feedbacks. I am in a good mood these days and working with the Gimp looks like playing WW (VERY addictive)

Thnx for playing if u play.

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<font color="red"> UPDATE </font>
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Updated shillouette, loadouts, turret arcs and a few changes. Download Sith Decimator V1.1 HERE!!!! (http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=33503)

[OmegaMagus]

Excelent MOD! I love the ship and your "upgrade" for the Mass Driver. Everything balances out really well. If you can find the cloaking device, you are almost unstopable! Good luck on your TC, although considering how well you made this MOD I don't think you will be needing it. I can't wait to see how it looks.

[Dungeon_master]

Welll the freelancer TC doesnt go as planned. I am opening the models and use a top down screenshot of them to make the .tga and shillouette .png but the 3D perspective of freelancer makes hardpoint allocation on a ship a pain. Most ships are very narrow and long (1:14 width:lenth ratio. I have already finished the liberty dreadnaught and the rheinland cruiser but most ships are just systems and guns in line. I think i will refine those two ships and publish them as a shp addon mod together with a more refined version of the decimator. About those Mass Drivers... It's not an "upgrade" just a firmware revision.One question to experienced mod makers. I refined the outline frame so that it is a real outline of the ship and although it shows up correctly when switching to weapon angles on the ship selection bar (the one on top with the outlined icons of the ships) i see a completely different outline. Any ideas? is that outline generated from the game?
Soon i will upload the Version 2 of my mod with refined hardpoints and a better ship shilouette with outline. Thnx for everyone who played. Awaiting your suggestions for everything in my mailbox shown in the intro screen and the readme. Thnx

[Fingers]

Your problem with the icon outline comes from the fact that the alpha channel differs from the RGB. It appears that the outline is drawn with pre-multiplied alpha in the task bar which makes the RGB show additively, while the button in the ship view window uses normal alpha blending so the alpha channel determines what's visible. You can fix this by just making sure the outline is the same in both RGB and Alpha. (The one in the alpha channel seems more correct in that it looks the same way as all the other ships)

Nice ship btw http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Some problems:
- the frames are too tightly packed together, so you tend to see filtering errors on the rear side of the ship (a flickering line that's basically the tops of the gun &amp; icon frames)
- the ship graphic is perhaps too large for a ship this small. You'll never see it in full size in combat so the detail is lost. This also contributes to the error above.
- the gun turrets and glows need some work, they look strangely "8-bit" on the more realistic looking ship.

[Dungeon_master]

Thnx a lot fingers. I tend to use 256x256 ship sprite because i use the shillouette for system coordination. About the filtering error it will be fixed by making the ship sprite 1 pixel shorter (changing its height to 255 in the ini). I updated the Rheinland cruiser mod to V 1.1 where i fixed those filtering errors with the method described upper. I use The Gimp, starting with a transparent image and creating many layers (one for each frame). I noticed the alpha channel problem but i wont fix it since i am working Freelancer ships now. Strangely the problem is not on the rheinland cruiser so i guess it is because i draw with the pencil the outline instead of using an effect. Thnx for the tips anyway. I now can set up a ship in nearly 3 hours after the artwork is done and perfect optimisation comes through gameplay.

[Fingers]

One pixel margin is not quite enough. When the ship gets squeezed down to about 64 pixels (which it is most of the time), it will use a mipmap level where one pixel is the size of four pixels in the original graphic. So keep at least four pixels of margin around everything. (the easiest way here is to move the guns and icons down a bit since you have room)