Xtended Universe

[paratrooper]

Continuation of last Topic which got too long to be usefull.

[hr]

Current Featurelist:
169 New Sectors. :o :o
Terran Sectors with Custom Planets.
Sohnen Sectors.
New Yaki System.
[hr]

Possibilites:
Parallel Universe.

[hr]

Screens:

Mercury
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Mercury.JPG)

Earth
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Earth.JPG)

Moon
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Moon.JPG)

Mars
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Mars.JPG)

View of Earth from Mars
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Earth_from_Mars.JPG)

Jupiter
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Jupiter.JPG)

Pluto
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Pluto.JPG)

[hr]

Downloads:

Excel Map
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/X3_map.xls)

Note to self: http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/legal.html
http://planetpixelemporium.com/planets.html

[paratrooper]

Currently the feature list for the Custom Universe is listed to the new sectors.

One Idea from Mox is the Paralell Universe Idea. After a bit of thought, This could be achieved by a BBS Mission which leads up to you receiving co-ordinates that lead to a hidden sector. The Player could be given the task of retrieving something from here. The sector that the Player arrives in, however, Contains some form of Wormhole (Custom Gate model?) That transports the Player into the other dimension, full of lots of Nasty Enemies etc. Only available to high ranking players.

[Stevio]

Sounds cool >:D

may i suggest updating the fist post with the latest download links pictures of all the completed planets etc.

[paratrooper]

I will. I need to find the screens i took first though.

[Jonus]

mmm i though that custom gates were not possible

btw it could be nice, but i doesn\'t think that, rpg speaking, the ancient would allow this

and... what kind of enemies the player would find there? weaker or powerful that standard x races (of course powerful)

so why those races shouldn\'t attack eg the argon? i think that this idea has many pros but also some serious cons

[Mox]

I also have a very ambitious id for the intro of the new universe.
The moment you activate it, you have to be taken to someting weird.
There you find a ship (a gift).
The moment you accept the ship and board it, you get dragged into a \'flashback\' battle sequence
between the Ancients and the Parralel Dimension universe.
The ship mindcontrol-shows you this to warn you.
Ive already cooked up a few id\'s on how exactly ancients should look.

[Stevio]

and... what kind of enemies the player would find there? weaker or powerful that standard x races (of course powerful)

so why those races shouldn\'t attack eg the argon? i think that this idea has many pros but also some serious cons


tbh in a alternate reality everything is different,
whether its a slight difference like if argon were at war with the boron
or a huge difference like if the Universe was pink and the xenon fired daisies at you

[Mokonzi]

That sounds a great idea Mox, and (thinking of some things) we are gonna need all the sectors names audible for the player. Gonna be awkward if you can\'t that you arrived at the sector you wanted.

[Mox]

The pros far outreach the cons ofcourse...every SF series featuring a alternative universe (voyager for example with species 482 or someting...the bests episodes of the the entire series imo...blasting away at the Borg).

Lets focus on what can be done, and not right away freeze at the impossibilities.
We\'ve gone beyond that already more then once.

[paratrooper]

As far as i know, Custom Gates Are Possible. I stumbled across something in the German Scripting und Modding forum and they had a screen of the warp part of a Gate, but no outer ring.

[Mox]

I\'m sure 4 new gates are possible since thats what is allowed on N/S/E/W.
But if you can actually ad more? perhaps a few...that would be nice.

[Jonus]

well, my problem is not a new custom gate, but have different kinds of gates

btw i imagine the ancients something between the asgard from sg1 and the aliens in indipendance day (of those mainly the ship design, the well known flying saucer)

maybe they could use some uber-eugenetically created soldier like alien\'s predators (but this would be needed if we can convert x3 into an fps :D)

[Syklon]

just from what sW has said i thin they are more ethereal beings, no bodies, just sorta, umm, i dunno, but i suppose the flashbalc could be before they transcended the physical world ???

[silentWitness]

The Ancients have gone beyond this universe... They are like the Profits in Ds9... Time and Space no longer have meaning to them... They weave the fabric of space time itself... sometimes it has unexpected consequences... The Ancients are 99.99999999%1000 sure what\'s going to happen...

As I said they can take empty space and make it come together to form a deathray and destroy the universe... but if they were feeling lazy they could simply collapse it upon itself...

These are beings of extreme power... but like the wormhole aliens they know that doing too much will cause greater problems than getting someone else to do it... Thus the Sohnen and the still caporal Allies of the Ancients...

I think it would be great to go into a parallel universe to find the Xenon holding back some unimaginable menace... All this time they have been protecting everyone by taking out beacons that the Evil Aliens could lock on and jump into our universe... The same race that blew up the Khaak Homeworld... the same race that the Rebel Sohnen attempted to link to in order to cleanse the X universe and start a fresh...

After Killing even one of these Evil Alien ships... The Third CPU ship contacts you asking for you to contact the races of the Universe to kill off a Alien Mothership... A HUGE Battle with the X universe fighting together... After the Mothership is dead the Xenon accross the Universe Turn Friendly and trade ships appear... maybe Xenon stations dealing in goods used by the other races...

[Mokonzi]

There is a lot of potential in that idea SW. Only problem is that we might not end up with any baddies to play with...

[paratrooper]

I\'ve started planning out a Possible Layout. The Layout will be slightly similar to the current Universe, But with some major differences to gate paths and sector order. (I don\'t have room to make it too accurate to the current)

[paratrooper]

Total Sectors Planned for this Paralell Universe: 41

Just for info on the entire Xtended Universe:

Original No of Sectors in Game: 161
Total No of Sectors in Xtended map: 330, 169 New sectors
Total new sectors in XFP: 101

I\'d better get to work then ;D

[al_main]

the Xenon accross the Universe Turn Friendly and trade ships appear... maybe Xenon stations dealing in goods used by the other races...

No offense SW, but I never see this happening.

(For one Xenon rep is hardcoded at maximum enemy status)

But also (plotwise) the way I see the Xenon, even if they were secretly fighting this enemy race all the time, once that was gone they would probably percieve the main threat as removed and then concentrate back on the next threat again (The normal races) and continue to try to remove all threats.


Para:
Is the parallel universe going to be an alternative map? Or within the current map but off to the side? Maybe I just havent read this thread thoroughly enough? :D

[Mokonzi]

Unless we had it so that the Xenon remain hostile, except for those directly working with the good guys and player?

[paratrooper]

The Paralell Universe will be in the Standard map. It will be located a long way from the standard sectors in the Galaxy map. I\'ll upload the XLS map in a moment

[paratrooper]

Quick Question about the text file with the sector names in. Currently its all in 440001.xml. Do you want the relevant sections (Names and Descriptions) Seperated and uploaded?

[Mox]

We\'d all better get to work and with 3 times the teamsize if possible cause this is a massive task.
I wonder how to approach this best.
The parallel universe is a superb thing imo, but even without it a custom universe with attractive stuff is going to be a mammoth project.
We need to talk about this, currently there are id\'s but nothing more then that.
Dont interpret this as me having second thoughts, its a bowshot for an agenda on this so we know what to do and who will be going to do it.

[Godalmighty83]

new universe by 1.0?

i wonder where this is going to come together in the coming months....

[Syklon]

maybe should put the sectors there for the parallel universe but dont bother to populate them yet, can do that in a future release

[Mox]

No we can\'t.
Releasing a custom Universe is pretty much a one shot deal.

[Syklon]

you can\'t just leave the sectors there but unconnected? thought we talked about that at one point ???

[paratrooper]

So long as the sectors are there, and connected (They must be connected), we can leave them unpopulated. Just have empty sectors with no Jobs tied to them. The gate to a hidden Universe will be hidden way off in any sector, to the point where you would need telling where it is. But yes, once it is released, thats it. With regards to time, the visible galaxy won\'t take long at all. The hard part is the code for the Galaxy map to show the sectors.

The gate lines are almost impossible to add, not even Northstar knows how to do them. In the XFP the custom Galaxy map is set out in a perfect grid to make his lines work. I know how to work out proper lines, but i don\'t have a very effective method.

[Mox]

What good would it do to have 41 unpopulated sectors?
And to add to what I meant:

A Unpopulated empty sector doesnt equal a parralel universe in my book.

It will need different backgrounds, new suns, new planets, new nebula\'s.

Try adding in all those without a restart required.

I think we should not realease the universe until it is complete or at least largely complete.
Thats what I meant with talking about this so we know what can be done and what can\'t.

New planets and Nebula\'s are no problem...New Asteroid fields and Gates also.
New Stations are restricted to whats possible now (race limit), some will have to be added with scripting and such.

[al_main]

Actually everything can be added via script, except the nebulae and background.

Would be a one shot script that would be tied to setup and told to run only once if it hadnt been ran before.

I\'d say finish the normal universe first and then sort the parallel part when thats finished. That way any testing can be done in the new universe too, hence testing that as we go along.

Also thought the only station restriction was on shipyards?

[Mox]

I seriously do not understand replies like yours Al.
As if it\'s a plan to write a script which will decorate 40 plus sectors from almost scratch?
I am sure its a possibility, but a realistic one? I dont think so, not unless you\'d plan a major intervention
in your agenda and social life to pull someting like that off.

[paratrooper]

the Excel plan of the Universe. Have a look at the Proposed Universe tab for an Idea of the Layout.
Please not, this is the only tab that is up to date.


Excel Map
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/X3_map.xls)

[al_main]

Is there a limit on the size of the universe?

If not I\'d suggest dropping the \"dark\" universe down a sector or two.
Especially so that atleast there are not \"touching\" sectors?

[paratrooper]

The limit is marked out by the Grey line around the map, so no. It is very difficult to try and get them in anywhere at all. I can, however, make the sectors appear to be a long way away on the Galaxy map. This is just a grid layout of sectors, mostly for me to use to get Co-ordinates from.

[al_main]

Ok, was wondering if that was an actual limit or just where you\'d marked out the edges of your universe.

Def make them look far away then, and preferably some up/down movement (as in north/south) so that they dont all look like they\'re in a line too!

[paratrooper]

My plan is to move them so far south, you can\'t see the standard Universe. I\'m hoping it will be a nice surprise when the player finally finds the hidden gate, goes through and Betty says \"Entering sector, Herrons Nebula.\" ;D It should make them think for a while.

[al_main]

lol, yeah.

Any idea what we are going to have in them yet?

Just a proper war ravaged alternative universe against an (as yet unknown) enemy?

Also I\'ll write a script that will keep them secret (no sattelite cheats, etc) untill the time is right!

[paratrooper]

I don\'t want it to be too war ravaged. There will have to be stations that can be docked at etc. How i\'m going to pull it off will require some thought.
Is there a way to stop players from jumping into certain sectors? This could be quite usefull. Stop players from jumping in and out of the Parallel universe. Once your in, the only way out is the gate that leads to the universe.

[Syklon]

this looks sweet y\'all

so from what i understand the planets surfaces are textures, so for the dark universe could we try importing them all into photoshop and try giving them a quick invert colors? would have to see how it looks for all the differant planets but it could definatly give things an alien look, make it obvious you aren\'t in kansas anymore ;D

[paratrooper]

Behold: Dark Earth:

Parallel Earth
(http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Sol_Screens/Earth_dark.JPG) ;D ;D ;D
I agree, new Planet textures could be good.

[Godalmighty83]

ugh. negative never works well.

i was thinking along the lines of a darker greyer atmosphere and a few more craters on the surface of continents. a sign that things havent been going well.

[Syklon]

could give the clouds a sorta redish tinge, oceans sorta greenish, craters might be bit more difficult, dunno, will leave it up to your discretion since you have the planet making experience

[Jonus]

mmm wouldn\'t a parallel universe create too much lag and objects to control on a slower pc? iw houldn\'t be better to add more objects to improve game atmosphere before do something like that?

btw i like the idea of a \"dark terran empire\", but my earth would be like... coruscant (star wars, with so many palaces and lights, all visible from sapce), and maybe with a mixed grey-white and red atmosphere (to simulate a nuclear winter and fallout)

[paratrooper]

The Dark universe shoudn\'t cause much Lag. The execution of the idea will just be extra sectors stuck on the bottom of the map, with some custom content. It will be no different than the current Terran sectors i\'ve added.

Update: Almost finished the Generic extra sector\'s. Hoping to get about 12 done today, and the last 12 tommorow. After that, all work is on Sohnen Sectors and the Paralell universe. I may also create a few more custom Planets.

[Unserene]

Looks good although I think it\'d be more accurate to have the Earth view from the Moon rather than Mars. If we were really that close to Mars we\'d probably be very dead ;)

[DarkWrath]

Guys , I must say , this project is gonna eat all our personal life so... What can I help you with?
Untill now it seems something that will take us a lot of time... I Dont think will make it for 0.9 or even the public release... But I must never underestimate Moxy.
All in one , it looks good , although there are some problems we must solve. Also , I agree with Moxy , we must get it all at a time.

[Rogueagle]

Wow, most impressive stuff here. O0 (And Unserene is very right. Earth is far too close on that shot. But looks nice). Only thing is A) wouldn\'t Earth have terraformed Mars, Venus, moons of Jupiter, etc. by now? They did create an entire species they now as the Terraformers...capable of making all the worlds in the x-universe all nice and inhabitable....i figure they would have taken care of Mars and Venus, and especially the Moon by now.

Also, what would be really amazing is if you could see massive human constructions from space on Eath (i realize the ring station is prolly impossible). I mean like just stuff like perhaps a bridge from Florida to Cuba connecting all the islands. Artificial islands. big projects that can be stuck onto the texture for the planet? Just so you can easily tell Earth has been inhabited by a very advanced species not shy about huge projects.

A suggestion for a story basis for the Dark Universe (i gather this hasn\'t been finalized yet, if it has, just ignore this) would be for Earth to reassert control over the Xenon, or perhaps release a brand new AI self-replicating fleet - this time with the express purpose of using it as a weapon...and a few hundred years more advanced.

[Mox]

I still think we should talk about this.
What are we going to do, whats the plan?
With a single scripter, I don\'t see anything major happening anytime soon, unless we are prepared
to throw quality control overboard and just dump a set of new graphics content into our map.
Some would be thrilled.
Then Firelance releases and it will all have been a complete waiste of time because we can never
compete against a team of 9 scripters with obj. hackers, cycrow and a base template dating back to early X2 on top of this.
My point is, in the end you reach a status quo to the ammount of new ships, stations, graphics.
(and even considering this alone, I for one won\'t make a entire new Universe package too, it would kill me).
A New universe is more then 100 new sectors, it should come with additional content or it will loose its momentum fast (for default gameplay the current univese is more then big enough imo).
I love the plans, I love the screenshots, still I can\'t get rid of this feeling in the back of my head stating
this can be both a good thing and a bad thing simultaniously and we might overplay our hand at this
and loose on all fronts in the process.
Thoughts, feedback appriciated.

[Syklon]

i think we need to revert back to the original plan of this being merely a bonus for our fans who won\'t get the new maps like XFP or Firelance will have, as it is the mod has been built on save-game compatibility and I don\'t think we can abandon that. I think we should stick to adding additional sectors which are compatible with the current jobs, offering some new sectors, expecially for the races that are getting more fleshed out by us (xenon, yaki, terran, sohnen). Unless we have atleast 2 more scripters fall out of the sky i think that\'s the only choice we can make, we hardly have the man power to produce one mod, so we can hardly go and start producing a second (which is what this was beginning to sound like)

Basically it should add everything possible that para can do (new planets, sectors, etc.) but it should not be in any way dependant on the addition of scripts or anything like that, so no plot or anything outside of what will also work to be added to the main mod, bad as it seems for mox and i to be killing off some of the ideas in this thread, we merely do not have the resources

[al_main]

I partially agree, and hence why I said that para should finish the original universe first.

But once that is done there is no harm in having the extra sectors there waiting for if/when we do get round to wanting to use them.

[Rogueagle]

Save game compatibility is indeed really nice. And to be honest, 100s of New Sectors aren\'t neccessary. Plenty of space out there, for me at least.

Nothing against Firelance or XFP, but the reason i\'m really drawn to this mod is because A) It fits...nothing so ridiculous as a Star Destroyer fighting the Enterprise with AHEPTS or something and B) its all really high quality. XFP seems to have a bit of the quantity thing going for sure, but that doesn\'t cut it for me.

Limited sector aditions are good, i think. Obviously not the hundreds planned if the requisite content is not present, but theres a certain...emotional connection...with things like Earth (pride), finding the space of a 50 million year old AI (wonder), etc. that has a lot of potential (and covers something that X3 kinda neglected...the entire emotional thing. I think the homeworld games, for example, show what i mean.)

As i understand it from reading earlier bits of the thread, their wouldn\'t be any content not found in an xtended game without the xtra maps, so its just nice extra space.

[Mox]

That will do then...a bunch of nice new extra sectors with more fabs and more possibilities for battles is also very welcome for most. And If we were to make a couple of new stations for the races (Shipyards being high on the list) it would not be a waiste of time indeed.

I actually like the inverted Earth ;D

[paratrooper]

I\'ve decided to Remove a large number of the Sohnen sectors from the custom map. There are too many currently to use effectivly, so i\'m setting up two or three only. This will make it more possible to acctually add jobs to.

[Mox]

Great work Para, plz also do the same for any greater nr then a few of the alternative space/paralel dimension sectors too. That way we can focus on making this a great Galaxy without too much resource
haevy issues we would have to custom tailor without them resulting in great bonuses.
Did you ever get around to a planet with rings? If not I will look into that later today.

[paratrooper]

I had a look, but i don\'t know much about modelling so i got nowhere.

[Mokonzi]

How you getting on with this Para? Need any help?

[paratrooper]

Not too bad. I\'ve reached a nice landmark, i\'ve added the 1000th object to 00749.bod (galaxy map file), meaning i\'ve written 302 objects over 1361 lines :o.

[Mokonzi]

Hmmm. A lot of hard work gone into it. Well done Para, and remember to ask if you need help.

[paratrooper]

I've just found a very good site that not only includes textures for Planets in the Sol system, but also Extrasolar textures, ie Galaxies, nubulea etc.

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/legal.html

We could use some of these to make the universe look more alive.I've had a look at the legal, and from what i can tell, its free to use for non-commersial use.

[al_main]

Its def possible to add galaxies / pulsars, etc in the background as XFP have managed it on there map.

They also added extra suns so their suns are sometimes bigger, and different to just a bright pin-prick light source in the background.

I'd advise checking out how they've done it as it might give you some ideas. Then use what you can from that website! O0

[paratrooper]

From what i've read on there site, they just create a Plane with a texture slapped on it. Not too difficult. Even i should be able to manage it. :)

[paratrooper]

I added in the Planet saturn earlier and everything seemed to be fine, until i used Visual enhancment goggles on it:

Normal view
http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Saturn/Saturn_1.JPG

With Vis goggles:
http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Saturn/Saturn_2.JPG

Zoomed in further:
http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Saturn/Saturn_3.JPG

WHat is this? i cloned the Planet from a moon, but then changed the texture from the moon texture to saturn. No other planets do this.

[paratrooper]

Managed to sort this problem out with DarkWrath.

[Mokonzi]

Surprised me at first that Saturn didn't have moons...

[paratrooper]

Saturn has 56 confirmed satellites, not including the rings.

[Mokonzi]

Sorry, that post was wrong.

I meant:

Surprised me that Saturn was a moon without rings

Don't ask me how that didn't come out right! :lol:

[paratrooper]

I cloned it from a moon for simpicity. If i didn't, it would take ages to remive the cloud layer, and it wouldn't look good. I'm working on the rings. I did think about making the rings a seperate object. I'llsee if that works.

[Mokonzi]

Sounds good. Did you get my PM about the map guy?

[paratrooper]

Just got it. I'll have a look. I can't right away as i'm doing something.

Is anyone any good a images? i have a texture for saturn's rings, it's currently a strip, but i need it in a circle.

[Mokonzi]

I can't really help (not at home anyway) but you could try asking Zurechial for some help. I think he's on MSN at the moment.

[paratrooper]

How many sectors for the BSG part of the Universe?

[Mox]

Not too many Para; I'd say -if possible-

-Caprica
-Ragnar depot sector (not sure on the Green nebula as it would engulf the entire sector as opposed to the partial nebula featured in the mini-series)
-2 Sectors with some Asteroids (for mining missions and such)
-1 Empty as possible sector (nice background, good lighting..no planets..a single gate..)

That will do.

[enenra]

Wow, Pics look amazing!

But is there any chance that the BSG-part will be in a seperate map? I want the new sectors, but not a mixture with BSG :(

[Mox]

If its possible to make the entire BSG experience AL-Plugin driven, then sure, the need for dedicated BSG sectors can be considered futile.
I would favor this approach too.

[paratrooper]

The BSG sectors could be added and then not connected to the rest of the Universe. The script would just drop you in, and take you out of the sectors at the end.

I should have no problem adding those sectors in.

[paratrooper]

Small update on Progress. I've completed another 12 sectors in game. This leaves me to do new Kha'ak sectors, Sohnen sectors, Parallel Universe and BSG sectors.

The standard extra sectors for the main races are practically finished.

[Mokonzi]

Anyway I can help with that Para?

[Mox]

Development Library topic made.
This topic is only to be used for discussion from now on.
File linking prohibited and will be removed when spotted.

[Mokonzi]

Sure thing Mox! Absolutely won't file link! :lol:

[Ravenholme CP42]

On the topic of Terran sectors, digging around in the Argonpedia, I found out that the gate that Nathan lured the Xenon through was supposed to lead to Alpha Centauri. That adds another branch of expansion, get out of the Sol system into the Alpha Centauri one, perhaps introduce a new alien race there?

(I'd be willing to put my head together with someone to create a new alien race or two)

[enenra]

Alpha Centauri = Brennan's Triumph ;)

[Ravenholme CP42]

It is? Wooooops.

[paratrooper]

I do have plans though regarding the gate from Earth to Brennan's Triumph.

[Mokonzi]

You heard the crazy decision to declassify Pluto as a Planet?

Means that Ceres, I think, is classed in the same category as Pluto. Room for one more sector?...

[Mox]

A status update, combined with a rough estimate on how much work is still needed vs agenda-time allowed for would also be most welcome.
I have the feeling (even since the beginning of this) it's not considered a "real' part of the mod, which is a shame.
Better comms from both ends would help.

[Mokonzi]

This is gonna be what makes stage 2 of the mod so impressive. Please, please let us know if you need any help Para.

[Ravenholme CP42]

I, for one, would be willing to help you Para, if you need a written desc. of a sector, I'd be more than willing to do one.

[Syklon]

i'm sure if any of our modellers wants a break from ships some nice galaxy objects like blackholes, giant derelicts, and anything else they can think up would be appreciated

[paratrooper]

Sector names and descriptions would help alot. 3D models could also be good. I'll also need a hand with some start scripts to run with it. I can make basic ones, ie start with a ships in sector x, set starting credits and noteriority, but thats it.

Just a note if anyone creates anything such as distant galaxies, the model needs to be huge.

[Mox]

We have time, we can't release this till 2.0 is out anyway (not that it would have mattered.)

[enenra]

An idea:

For X2 i builded a large new map (over 50 new Sectors as I remember). There a main feature were MUCH uncolonised Sectors that belonged to no race. They were the paths to the few colonised sectors.

I think it would be cool to create here something similiar. Would be helpful for a pirate. Why? - to transport freight, the freighters would build (don't know if it's the right word for that :oops: ) convoys. The pirate could then attack them and get much more freight. So the races develop new ships - long range Freighters - with a big Cargo, well armed and with an escort.
*dreams* :D

[Mox]

How is this coming along Para?
Its been a long while since any updates were filed so I was just wondering
if your intentions are still focused on having the custom universe at least somewhat rdy for release around ES 2.0 release.

[paratrooper]

Its still coming along. I'm starting A2 now so i have a lot of work from school at the moment. I aim to have finished adding the new sectors ASAP, so then i can concentrate on filling them.

[paratrooper]

I will be uploading the Universe with completed Terran sectors for you all to have a look at and provide feedback on later today. There are some problems that need to be found as well. Also, Venus shows up as Blue in game????

[Mokonzi]

It is only yellow in our system because of the sun. Would make sense if the sun isn't yellow...

Look forward to seeing it again Para. Thanks for your hardwork.

[DarkWrath]

I second that! Can't wait to see them too , I know you've worked more than a lot for this.

[paratrooper]

i'll see if i can compile everything for tonight, but it will probably be tommorow now. My 30 day trial of 3DS Max has run out. I can sort this by installing it on another computer.

[paratrooper]

I've found out why. The autodesk servers are down until 25th September, so i won't have the universe ready until after then. Sorry for that.

[Mokonzi]

No worries Para. It's only one day a way! Will let us test the latest 0.6c release when it comes out.

[paratrooper]

Still not sorted. I have no idea why, but i'll have a look at the weekend. I'm going away for a few days so i won't have time.

[Mokonzi]

Ok. Have a good time away mate. See you when you get back.

[paratrooper]

I should have this sorted by later today. Sorry for the wait.

[Stevio]

Do you need " Help " with 3ds max ^-^

if you do drop by on MSN :wink:

[paratrooper]

Just to let everyone know i am still working on getting the Universe together and ready for testing. My current aim is to complete the 00749.bod file. I have been working on this file since the beggining of April, and i'm starting to get fed up with it. Once i finish, i should start doing more work again.

[Mox]

Good call on the feeling fed up...wrap it up and lets move on.

[paratrooper]

If someone has some spare time could they complete some planets for me. The textures are in the following file, along with the template.

http://www.freewebs.com/paratrooper_89/Planet%5Ffiles.7z

instructions:
1. import moon_large_browncrater.bod into max.
2. open Material editor
3. Select sm 1 (X material)
4. Scroll down to X3 Properties and change the t_detailTexture to the new texture name.
5. Go into maps and into the diffuse colour
6. Change the bitmap to the planet texture.
7. Convert to editable mesh.
8. Apply a UVW map, alignment Y, and alter length until it is the same size as the planet.
9. Export

If someone could do this i would be gratefull. I can add the T Planets string myself. I'm still working through 00749.bod.

[Mokonzi]

Uploaded a new format for the XLS sector map (helping Para with it).

http://dev.thexuniverse.com/X3_map.xls

Please comment on how you feel about it's formatting.

New sectors are outlined in purple, existing in black. Gates are shown using a dotted line.

If everyone's happy or reasonably happy with it, I'll continue updating, as well as creating sector names for the new sectors.

Para's informed me that the universe is nearing completion, so it looks like there are options for custom starts in this universe as well!

Yay!

[Stevio]

i'd suggest to do it like this (not nesscerrally colours i just slapped it together)
otherwise gates are not always clearly stated

http://dev.thexuniverse.com/universe-layout.xls

[al_main]

From these two I'd say that stevios appears to be slightly easier to read and follow.

[Mokonzi]

Yeah, I totally agree and I'm in the middle of trying to redo the whole map in a similar format. Only problem I'm getting is that the shading on the backgrounds is giving me some jip. Will have a play around and see what I can do.

[paratrooper]

Xtended Universe Galaxy Files


This is the first upload of the Xtended Universe. It includes;
TSpecial.txt (Ship Wrecks)
TPlanets.txt
00749.bod
Planets DDS
Planet BODs
Galaxy map

There are some bugs that i know about.
Some gate lines aren't set up correctly.
Some problems created by failed exports in certain sectors.
When i've fixed these i will upload any changes.
Download: Galaxy.7z (http://downloads.thexuniverse.com/Galaxy/Xtended_Galaxy.7z)

[Mokonzi]

Sounds good Para. Will look forward to seeing them merged into the mod asap.

[DarkWrath]

GOing to take a shower and then I'm back to merging. I will finish it this night.

[Aragon Speed]

After a bit of testing, I can confirm that the custom uni works fine if you move it to the x3_universe_v13_patch.xml instead of it’s current position of x3_universe_v200_patch.xml, which gives us x3_universe_v131_patch.xml and x3_universe_v200_patch.xml free to use for our own patches if we want.

[Mox]

Promising first step but test not complete.
What you have to do now is start a game, run a bunch then save.
Then add some changes to a patch xml, for example move a planet, ad a station, a freebie ship, change a gates position.
Then merge the patch xml in the mod and load your save, see if the changes come into the game.

This is the only way to make sure the patches are read multiple times.
Right now I wouldnt be suprised if the patches are all read at once, but cause there are no incremental changes in them, they are simply ignored and subsequent changes would be ignored too cause the game has allready flagged the patches as merged.

[Aragon Speed]

Without testing I can answer the above points due to the amount of work I have already done using these files :wink: .

1. Anything added in a patch will show in the universe without any problem. This is because the X3.exe reads all patches every time (This is how the es patches are compatible with save games). We have fooled it by leaving the orig uni xml and the 13 and 131 patch files blank (Or 131 and 200 if they are reconfigured as stated above), but they must still be there for the main exe to read.

2. If you want to move anything in the universe you will have to do it in our first fake patch file (v13 in the new set-up), due to the way the patches work. They (at this moment in time) are only designed to add new items to the universe. So if you want to add a new gate there would be no problem using a patch for this as it is a new item. If you moved a gate and had it in a patch it would read the gate from the 13 patch file and then the moved version from the 131 file (for example) and assume it's a new gate and show them both. (This is what caused the 'two sets of stations' problem with Moko's first attempt at patching the custom uni, the orig uni file and our custom uni both had the stations in (Which is why I had to blank the orig uni file to get this to work as it does now)).

[Mox]

Thats a nice piece of intell, needs to be tested hands-on nevertheless but it's good to read ;-)

[Aragon Speed]

Ok m8, will do. Can someone else plze test this as well for backup.