Scout, the screen dont apear lol =p

Scouttrooper, i have taken a first look at the skin, mostly its great. but the shields are much to strong shining. they have to be just slightly visible, nearly invisible. i found a pic at SW databank, it shows what i mean:
http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/droideka/img/eu_bg.jpg)

its not realy possible to make the shields more round cause first the polycount gets high very fast on spheres and second i need for every vert on this shiled one bone so i can fold it in. the max bones for one object is 32, i could make thje shield out of two or more objects but then its not folding proberly and i geta horrible count of shield-bones. if we make the shields more transparent, i hope they wount look that cornered anymore.

the other are the holes in the wings, they look a bit too big and not symetricly on the wings. i would place them more in the middle.

i will take a closer look at it and give you more feed back. in the pk3 file more additions, could you please tell me what you changed or added. did you change the veh file or added weapons or any other effect? we have to keep the overview of all changed things, i will pass all those things you changed to RenegadeOfPhunk, so we have one newest version.

Originally posted by Scouttrooper
yeah, I know.. those holes are not that great... but hey it was a beta :P, I see now how the shield got to be so when I think its done, ill put a new screenshot here :)

sorry if i sounded roud, your droideka skin looks fantastic, specialy for someone who makes skins like i made :)

And so amazingly fast :eek:

He means that he really aprreciate the skin cuz he is a skiner and he knows how much you worked (i think lol)

Scouttrooper, LightNinja was right, i realy admire your work :)
i also passed the beta skin to Phunk. as soon as you think the skin could be ready we will put a droideka mod version together. it will have your skin, all the new coding and everything. we want to test and balance it, i hope you could join us with that.

about the guns, i think they shot two together, one side after the other. thats all part of the codeing stuff i didnt sent you. you will see that in the droideka mod beta version. when finaly released it will be part of OJP.



NOTE: i am tring to post this for a few days now, but somethings wrong with the thread and the hole forum. posts take very long to add or doesnt work at all.

the skin is great, i think we nearly done it. with your ok, Mark, i will sent it to Phunk and we puzzle together the mod beta with everything in it. i hope we can have some beta runs this weekend on a closed sever. the droieka needs balancing and we are ready to release it as OJP vehicle.

Are you going to allow skinners to make custom skins for this model? I'd love to take a crack at it :)

man ...

so many skinners and no one offers to help me :D

just because I ain't famous :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Pahricida
man ...

so many skinners and no one offers to help me :D

just because I ain't famous :rolleyes: Believe me, that's not the reason. LightNinja said the exact same thing and now...

ok, bad example...

Okay this model is GREAT!! I can't wait to add it to any map!! When is it done ...when is it done...when is it done???

Sorry I'm psyched!!:D

ok, we got everything together now. its time for the beta and balancing. we have to figure out firepower, fireing speed, shield and hitpoints, walking and rolling speed, weapon recharge and everything else. and this we can only do in MP ffa with lots of people playing.

so first, does somebody know were we could host this OJP droideka beta mod that would run for a day or two. i could host the mod but i cant for long time and my con is middle class.

everyone who would like to join the beta let me know. as soon we found a usable server, i will sent you the mod, how to use and setup and the IP and the password for the server. i hope we find some time where lots of you can join the game. we need to figure out whats the limit on this.

btw, we should use a good map to play it, one thats wide enought. i suggest 'SwoopFun V1.1' by Gigon. its a small file and it has vehicles already placed in it so we can see how they interact too. And one of the vehicles is my speeder bike :D
but i am open to suggestions.

we should test the mod for one or two days while we discuss it here. the focus is to find the right balance, so please take it serious, thanks.

Why won't you just send it by email?

I'll do beta testing if you like ;)

I would also love to beta test for you. You can send it to JediOutcastMovies@msn.com if you dont mind.

Please it would really be kool to test this out--I could use this to attack my DARTH MAUL model in progress...

can you let me know when you'll be on MSN to send it to me?

RJW_ca@hot mail.com

RJW_ca "OUT"

First you need to update your maul project lol.

i think most people didnt understand what i am asking for. i am not looking for beta testers check the droideka individualy for bugs. i am trying to find people for MP balancing. specialy someone how could host a droideka mod MP map for one or two days. if someone has a good con and is willing to run a JA droideka beta mod server, please let us know.

again, this is not bug hunting in first place, its about MP balancing. you know, those things you cant figure out in a solo FFA game. if you would like to host a game, let me know and i will start to sent out the mod to all who offerd thier help.

Hey Duncan - i PM'ed you about the droideka model.

If it's possible to make it a separate player model i'll try to set it up so that it's a selectable class, perhaps similar to what Renegade is doing for his mod. Then it won't have to be included on maps in order to be played.

The model looks great... =]

Has the model had spec textures applied to it yet, like manquesa suggested. Using certain MAX features will really help bring out the metal textures and bumps in the model. also, possible lighting effects could be used, that way the entire model wont be lit up if there is only one light source. Plus this weekend I am using my server for last minute testing on the asteroids project, but after that, I could host the Droideka for a few days for MP balancing.. (2mb download, roughly 200K upload connection). Great Model/Skin BTW.

Andy867, thanks for your offer to host a server, thats what i was looking for. and the droideka has no spec textures applied, if someone would linke to do that, he is very welcome cause i dont know much about shaders.

as it looks like we found a server, its time for everyone who would like to join the beta to make a step forward.... or just post here his mail or write me a mail. the files you need for the beta will be about 5 MB big, so make sure your email cant stand that.

everyone joinig the beta is welcome to make any suggestion or send me an imrproved veh file or shader or what ever. but for the beta on the server keep the droideka files unchanged.

Thanks, everyone is welcome.

Azymn,

I'm currently working on making the droideka (or any other vehicle) a selectable siege class. I'm doing this by spawning the vehicle at the same time as the player spawns, and then boarding them into it straight away.

...this means that - as far as the player is concerned - they spawned not as a normal player, but as the vehicle itself.

I've also stopped ejecting, being thrown out upon death etc. etc.

The whole thing is nearly done, and once the MBII demo is out (end of next month), I will be submitting this to the OJP.

I think trying to make the droideka work (properly) actually as a player model is going to be quite a bit of work. Since it already works as a vehicle, seems a better idea to just keep it as a vehicle - and it also makes this a very open ended feature. Any 'balanced' vehicle can be used as a siege class - which opens up a whole load of possibilities.. :)

Anyway - just wanted to let you know what I am working on so that we don't end up doing the same work twice...

btw - good to see your still around :)

Originally posted by Duncan_10158
Andy867, thanks for your offer to host a server, thats what i was looking for. and the droideka has no spec textures applied, if someone would linke to do that, he is very welcome cause i dont know much about shaders.

as it looks like we found a server, its time for everyone who would like to join the beta to make a step forward.... or just post here his mail or write me a mail. the files you need for the beta will be about 5 MB big, so make sure your email cant stand that.
Thanks, everyone is welcome.

Well I can help Beta test, host the server (no more than 6 people though), and make some spec textures for it.

UPDATE: OK, the server is up and running and Duncan should be emailing the selected beta testers shortly with the IP and all the necessary items. Look forward to seeing you all in-game

The server is up now!
its time for your to let me know your mail, if you want to join the droideka beta test server! :confused:

come on, please. everyone is welcome to help testing the droideka vehicle model and mod. just let me know and and give me your mail and i will send you a mail with where to get all the needed files and IP and password for the server.

you can post you email here

join the droideka beta! Thanks.
special thanks to Andy867 for hosting the server.

JediMoves.com would like to take part

seks03, thanks. JediMoves.com is very very welcome.
and if you, seks03, would like to join yourself too, just drop a mail

AND

Originally posted by myself :rolleyes:
The server is up now!
its time for your to let me know your mail, if you want to join the droideka beta test server! :confused:

come on, please. everyone is welcome to help testing the droideka vehicle model and mod. just let me know and and give me your mail and i will send you a mail with where to get all the needed files and IP and password for the server.

you can post you email here

join the droideka beta! Thanks.
special thanks to Andy867 for hosting the server.

Yea Ive got the email, thanks again to let me have a part in this. Ill try to come this evening, I dont really have much time this morning.

just got finished testing the droideka out, it worked great, the only problem with it was if you were trying to shot someone infront of you the camera view would move you in back of the droideka so that you couldnt see the target. But again other then that the droideka is amazing. The texture really looks sweet.

Hey Duncann I was wondering if you were going to release the code so other mods can use the droideka? like our JediMoves JA+ mod

And what is it that the mod does for the model, does it control the rolling?

Thanks again Duncan for letting me take part in testing the vehicle

Umm I have tested it out and the only main problem I see with it is when people run over you, it just automatically destories the droid. You may wanna look into that. Other then that it was awesome.

seks03, the mod is needed for lot of things to make the droideka work correct. like showing the fold in/out animations, the hole shield things to be able absorb damage and visible/invisible in different stances, not shooting while in roll mode and other things. you can try to spawn the droideka without the mod and you will see the difference.

the Mod is coded by RenegadeOfPhunk for the 'Open Jedi Project'. in this mod are more things then just the droideka support. the OJP code is open source as much as i know, so everyone can use the droideka and the OJP mod code for his mods, maps or whatever.


ok, now to the droideka balancing beta itself, as i got feedback from different places:

1. the ram-damage seems to be to high, if you drive with the droideka over another player or vehicle it destroys it imediatly. there should be a damage but it shouldnt be a simple kill.

2. the shields are regenerating to fast. to destroy a droideka like it is now, its not that importent how many damage you do but how fast. with a rocketlancher its difficult, cause it has a low firing rate and the droideka is regenerating most of the damage. i suggest to lower the regen rate but to rise the shield hitpoints instead.

3. at close range the crosshair is coverd by the top part of the droideka. to rise the crosshair a bit should solve this problem.

4. while rolling down a higher step or falling down somewhere in roll mode, the droideka stops to turn forward in the air. could be solved by adding an in_air_animation.


you are free to comment or add more things, every suggestion is welcome. did you think the droidekas firepower is ok, isnt is to weak against a saber attack? the aiming is abit difficult, but does the firepower correct this drawback? my question is just, is an droideka against a Jedi an even match?

come on testers, give us some feedback, thanks :D

All the stuff that you want to change from this feedback can be altered without any code changes. Most changes will be in the droideka.veh file.

To reduce the damage done when ramming, reduce the 'mass' parameter. (Currently at 10)

To reduce the overall shield value, reduce 'shields' (currently 100)

To adjust how fast the shields recharge, adjust the 'shieldRechargeMS' value. (Currently 1000).
Unfortunately, I can't actually remember which way you need to adjust it up or down! lol (I can't remember if that time means how long before a shield section is recharged, or whether that's how long the sheild comes back to full...)

Just experiment with it a bit -I haven't really got time at the moment to investigate that...


lol - just realised that both those possibilities mean you definetely want to increase that value to slow the shield regen!!



The crosshair thing I assume can be fixed by adjusting the camera position a bit. (I hope anyway, cos I think actually adjusting the crosshair position itself would definetley require code changes, and I'm not so sure that woudl be the best idea anyway...)

I actually purposefully stopped the roll when in the air! heh. I did it because I thought it looked a bit wierd rolling in the air - plus the scrapping sound is linked to the roll animation, so I thought it best to not have that going while your not actually scraping against anything :)

..but in anycase, you can adjust the animation used without any code changes. Just adjust the BOTH_INAIR1 anim.

...check here (http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120582) for full details of my implementation...

Renegade

Thanks Phunk,
with the hints you gave me, i think i can figure out how to edit the files. and experiment is my second name ;)

and your not-roll-in-air reason is good. i gone try it out, perhaps with a slower frame rate so it doesnt roll that fast in air. and without sound. i will see.

Do you need sounds cause I got some for the destroyer droids

Originally posted by DarkLord60
Do you need sounds cause I got some for the destroyer droids

for the droideka we have all sounds, thanks.

Yea speaking of sounds...they sound great. Did you get them from the Episode 1 game for the PC?

Yea speaking of sounds...they sound great. Did you get them from the Episode 1 game for the PC?

...nope - sampled directly from Ep I - with a bit of editing in SoundForge :)

Oh cool, I just figured that you got it through the game that came out in 1999, I think. There was a sound pack out from that game awhile back. Any way good job on the sounds, they sound great.

Those sounds in the TPM game are from the movie though. LucasArts has access to LucasFilm sound Archives.

Yes i know that. I was just impling that there were Droideka's in the game and would be a good place to get sounds for it. But he doesnt need sounds now.

Looks awesome Duncan cant wait to u release it.
i cant view those last pictures u posted, and i really want to see how the model is coming along, so could u find a way to fix this?

:x-wing:

you can check out the beta test pictures on my site. theres 8 of them

Yeah on one of them I'm the Insane guy trying to hurt that Droideka with my tiny blaster :D

Nah seriously the model is great!

And excpept that animation bug when the Droideka is in air I didn't notice any major flaws on it.

Nice Job again!

seks03,

Quote from your site:


We will be putting support for the model in of own JediMoves JA+ mod since you need a mod to have this model work right.


It would have been decent of you to at least mention the OJP in this news post, since - after all - this is where JA+ would be getting the droideka code from. (i.e. my code :D)

You kind of make it sound like JA+ would be adding support for the droideka through it's own efforts...

i tried to change the things i wrote in the post above but i got problems with two things.

i wanted to lower the shield regenaration, so i raised the value for the regenerating time. its for how long it takes to regen one of this shield counter, not the hole shield. but the problem is any setting higher then 1000 has no effect. i sett it to 10000, so it would take about 50 sec to regen the hole shield, but its still takes about 5 sec like its sett to 1000. is it possible that 1000 is the max?

the second thing, the 'mass' parameter seems to have no effect on the damage done when ramming. i lowered it, even sett it to zero, but its still an instant kill. isnt the ramming damage part of the walker code we based the droideka off? or should i sett the 'mass' below zero? it looks like there is no damage parameter, but every ramming is a sertain kill.


i also saw a bug the last time i tested it, i think its a part of the OJP basic mod. suddenly the view gets in the middle of the player model in third person view. also the saber cant be used anymore. after a respawn the view is ok again, but one of these defence balls is flying around me. its strange i never took or used that ball and it doesnt dissappear any more.

hmmm - well it looks like the stuff that Raven stated in it's template.veh file isn't actually true / working - at least for the walker class.

..acutally, maybe they assumed the walker class wouldn't need to use the mass parameter -as they assumed walking vehicles would never be moving fast enough to warrant it.

I don't see why they wouldn't get the shieldRegen parameter working right though :/

...oh well - I'll try and take a look at both of these this weekend. Hopefully it shoudln't be a massive deal to sort...


That last bug sounds wierd as hell! I'm positive it doesn't have anything to do with my code...! I'd ask Razor if he knows anything about that...

The seekers appear when the cheats are enabled (which is obviously needed to spawn the different vehicles). We have the same problem in Asteroids. If anything, you could raise the armor up on the droideka, or perhaps null out the mass. But I am not sure about the ShieldRegen. I just noticed that the droideka's toughness is set to zero, which might explain why it cant take a direct impact hit.. try increasing it to like 10.. Also try kicking down the shield strength, which help to control the recharge.. An A-wing, which is by far stronger than a droideka is noted for only having shield strength of 200, whereas the droideka is set for having 400 shield strength. Try lowering it to like 100 (which is more realistic, since the Y-wing has a shield strength of about 600)

RenegadeOfPhunk - Were thinking of adding support, its not certain. and beside if we do use it you'll get credit for the code. that is used.

the OJP code is open source as much as i know, so everyone can use the droideka and the OJP mod code for his mods, maps or whatever.

isnt this code open source?

(thats weird, I tried using the droid deka with my mod and it worked perfect. looks like i dont have to add support after all)

Originally posted by Andy867
An A-wing, which is by far stronger than a droideka is noted for only having shield strength of 200, whereas the droideka is set for having 400 shield strength. Try lowering it to like 100 (which is more realistic, since the Y-wing has a shield strength of about 600)
compared to an A-wing the droideka should have a shield strength of 100, but then it would have the same shield strength like a player starts with. with a large shield battery a player can have up to 200 shield strength, the same as an A-wing. you see, i think we cant compare ground vehicles to flyable vehicles. the atst for ex. has an armor of 1500 and toughness of 75, so it has an effectiv armor of 6000, compared to a playermodel it can take 60 times more damage. i thought the droideka should have a strong shield and weaker armor, after the testing i even rised the shield strenght to 500 and the armor is now 200. the shield strength is somehow linked to the shield regen rate, if we lower it we might even have to rise the shield strenght again. i just think, cause the droideka is very slow when shooting and the shield is only active when standing still, it should be able to stand the direct fire for a few seconds. with shield strength 100 the droideka is destroyed with 4 to 5 shoots. i would like to rise that count to about 16 to 20. but the droideka is vulnerable without shields, there are 3 to 4 shoots ehought.

Originally posted by seks03
[B]thats weird, I tried using the droid deka with my mod and it worked perfect. looks like i dont have to add support after all[B]
it worked perfect? the droideka workes without the mod, but not like it should. for example its possible to shoot while rolling, the fould in/out animations are skiped, the shield has no effect dont give any protction, its not possible to turn when standing and the guns are not liked together to two and two.

and open source doesnt mean you dont have to give any credits ;)
to be honest i think we should share more of our work, here are to many people just thinking for them selfs. why cant we make the open source realy open? here is to much 'do ut des'!

Yea you all should be more openly with your work with each other. As they say two heads are better then one......well alot of head are better then one!

do you remember the shield, used by admiral fyyar in jedi outcast?
i think that this would be great for the droideka - especialy cause of the effects when you hit it.
i dont know anything about editing but maybe you are able to implemet this thing for your great model

Duncan ---> Even with that Large Shield Battery, that extra 100 shields eventually ticks down to zero, leaving a person at 100 shields(assuming they havent been hit yet). And if you make the shields reflect most energy blasts, like how the space vehicles do (can repulse almost everything except the concussion rifle, the rocket launcher and like thermal grenades.