Cybernetic Warfare Mod - ideas and planning

[PepprmintButler]

Why not use the Section 9 logo instead of the Laughing Man?

 

See HERE.

 

Also, some logos might be hard to see because they will be really small. You should test ingame how many details will be lost.

 

I'm using the laughing man because this "team" is supposed to be the Motoko Aramaki (not Kusanagi) more-or-less-clones from GitS2 Man/Machine Interface, which are enemies to section 9 if anything. Also the Laughing Man is just a cool logo.

 

I'm aware some may be unreadable on soldiers but I'm hoping they will be at least recognizable. The larger versions in the menus should not be much of a problem (plus using the Corporation name as first names help).

I'm starting in-game tests very soon.

[Roninberg]

It all hinges on the narrative for why regular humans can't fight aliens themselves (except for unique DLC characters, preferably), which I'm not completely set on yet.

 

(SPOILER ALERT) Remember on the last part of the game, we discover that the ethereals are looking for "the ultimate race" or something perhaps to succeed them and they thought that humans were said, ultimate race?

 

Obviously this implies that humanity has a massive pool of untapped potential, maybe some are just a "cut above the rest" it's not as silly as it sounds, really.

 

An example would be the muton and the muton elite, the muton elite is significantly stronger, smarter and faster than their less-gifted bretheren, yet underneath their armor you can see that there's very little difference in terms of physical appearance between muton and elite. this implies that the elites were edited by the ethereals just as much as the mutons(save for better weapons and armor). Clearly this shows a diversity between it's race in that some are just better than others naturally.

 

So in that mindset, perhaps in status quo, regular humans are simply too weak at their current state to fend off these aliens save for a few which can be considered as the "Muton elites of mankind" that have the physical and mental capacity to have a fighting chance(DLC chars).(sounds rough I know but it's something I whipped up in just 5 mins but I'll keep trying if it doesn't make the cut)

 

A. I don't think the necessary model swapping is technically possible, even less so for such central models as the operatives.

B. The outsider model would lack many of the necessary animations (weapon swapping, psi powers, and a lot more I assume)

C. There would be no operative customization whatsoever. I'm not a big fan of having all your soldiers looking exactly the same.

It'd be a really fun thing to do though so I'll keep the idea as a "maybe later" thing.

 

I see, but I think that if our modders/retexturizers figure out how to tackle the problem about model-swapping I think B and C could be solved just as easily. We could probably just make textures from scratch(perhaps based on the outsider or something new(like say the robots from total recall?)) In which we could allow customization and animations. At the very least as long as we make sure they don't look human I guess :P.

 

Thanks for reminding me of Crynet, I will add it in the list

 

Btw, There's also UFB(Total recall robots) and DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(Real Place))

 

Oh and P.S. Dunno if this has already been considered or possible at all but Robotic voices would be REALLY COOL, probably feasible if there's a way to replace voice files or something

Edited December 20, 2012 by Roninberg

[PepprmintButler]

Btw, There's also UFB(Total recall robots) and DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(Real Place))

 

Oh and P.S. Dunno if this has already been considered or possible at all but Robotic voices would be REALLY COOL, probably feasible if there's a way to replace voice files or something

 

Didn't think of Total Recall. Nice one, but I couldn't find any logo for UFB, do you know of any ?

DARPA was on my first list but their logo is ugly as hell so I cut it. Maybe I'll make another one and put them back in.

 

I'd really like robotic voices too. It would be fairly easy to put all soldier voices through an effect filter. The problem is, there is no way to put them back in - same problem as the models.

Hopefully we get a solution for that in the future, ideally for textures too (texmod is a bit awkward to use for the general public I think).

[Roninberg]

I just searched "United federation of Britain" and you should see it on the first few links. If not you can find it at the Images tab on google. Great search engine but other than that is SUUUUUUXXX.... xD

[PepprmintButler]

Thanks for the UFB, did not think of a full text search (silly me).

 

Corporations are now in semi-final state.

There is a bit less space than expected because Nigeria and South Africa use the same names, as well as Egypt and Saudi Arabia (not sure if there even are Saudi soldiers). Also there are three unused "spots" (last 2 + Hungary).

 

http://i.imgur.com/XLn5F.jpg

 

 

 

Cyberdyne - model name : HAL9600-xx - you know that one (the model name is from the real-world Cyberdyne company in Japan)

Stark - Warmachine-xx - from Iron Man

US Navy - SaFFiR-xx - real-world humanoid robot firefighter contracted by Boston Dynamics

Crynet - Nanosuit-xx - from Crysis

Boston Dynamics - PETMAN-xx - Real-world robotics company, may change model name

Cybertronics - David-xx - from Spielberg's AI, not sure about model name

Graystone - Centurion-xx - from Battlestar Galactica / Caprica

Tyrell - Nexus-xx - from Blade Runner

PAL Technology - REEM-X-xx - Real-world robotics company

Momcorp - Bender-xx - from Futurama - meant as an "easter egg", should have low probability

Aperture - Atlas-xx and P-body-xx - from Portal (names from the robots in Portal2)

Waseda - Kobian-xx - Real-world University with a cutting-edge robotics department

Mr. Fusion - Delareon-xx - from Back to the Future 3 - "easter egg"

Lunar Industries - GERTY-xx - from the movie Moon

Aldebaran - Neo-xx - Real-world robotics company

Weyland-Yutani - Bishop-xx - from the Alien movies

Tri-Optimum - SHODAN-xx - from System Shock

EuroCorp - DART-xx - from Syndicate

OCP (Omni Consumer Products) - ED-214-xx - from Robocop

DARPA - Atlas-xx - real-world organization (robot contracted by Boston Dynamics)

Union Aerospace Company (UAC) - Doom-xx - from Doom

UFB (United federation of Britain) - Synth-xx - from Total Recall

Veridian Dynamics - Drone-xx - from the TV series Better Off Ted

Blue Sun - Assassin Bot xx - from the TV series Firefly

Torchwood - Cyberman-xx - from the TV series Doctor Who

Aramaki - Motoko-xx (01 to 11) - from the Ghost in the Shell universe (specifically GitS2: Man/Machine Interface)

SHIELD - Avenger-xx - from the Marvel universe

 

Edited December 20, 2012 by PepprmintButler

[Roninberg]

XD no problem man, let's just hope that the mod community can somehow solve the dilemmas regarding the models and voices or somehow find an alternative all-together. Really looking forward to this mod hehe :D

 

P.S. Although now that I think about it, I recall their was a similar problem regarding the UPK files where in they could go in and change stuff but they couldn't bring it back together. Maybe a similar solution could be applied to this scenario except for a different file type or something...

Edited December 20, 2012 by Roninberg

[PepprmintButler]

Alpha Progress update :

 

DefaultGameCore.ini modding : OK

.int and .ini content modding : OK

Texmodding of flags : WIP, testing

Customization options / soldier generator modding : WIP (thanks Drakous79)

CO and TK abilities modding : WIP

Alien abilities modding : TBD

Mod gender ratio : TBD

TK repair ability modding : TBD (not sure if possible)

 

Once all these tasks are complete I'll release an Alpha version for gameplay/balance testing. I hope some of you will be able to try it out and give your opinion on mechanics and balancing.

I have no clue on timing for the Alpha, and even less so for the Beta.

Please be patient :)

 

@Roninberg : with the scripts we were able to go around the limitations of UPK cooking because we can hexedit values directly into the UPKs. This method does not work for asset replacement (sounds, models, textures). I have heard nothing about any significant advances in that direction, even though some very good people worked hard on it, so I fear it's not going to be possible any time soon. I really hope I'm wrong though ^^

Thanks for your support !

[Roninberg]

Hehe, well in the event that you're not I suppose no one would really mind settling for something that at least doesn't look human. At least until firaxis starts to actually consider putting mod tools in the game.

 

Ooh, maybe we could use like the metallic color from the deco of the skel/carapace armor and use a similar color on texmod to apply said color on the rest of the armor as an improvised robot model? Not necessarily talking about switching the actual files but rather, simply using texmod and try to copy the hue of the metallic armor deco or sumtin. Just saying, could work.

 

And really bro, glad to help out in any way I can like I said really excited for this project.:D

[PepprmintButler]

Ooh, maybe we could use like the metallic color from the deco of the skel/carapace armor and use a similar color on texmod to apply said color on the rest of the armor as an improvised robot model? Not necessarily talking about switching the actual files but rather, simply using texmod and try to copy the hue of the metallic armor deco or sumtin. Just saying, could work.

That’s precisely what I was planning to do, especially with the basic Kevlar armor which looks the least robot-y, but also with the cloth parts of the Carapace and Skeleton.

It won't be in Alpha though, it will come later on (because mechanics must come first, and also because I'm terrible at art/design so I'll probably need to get some help on the matter)

[Drakous79]

An update from me. I would love to script the first mission team to Power rangers - violet, pink, red, yellow and black armor tint :) But as we cannot script, I'm going to make them all pink!

 

Restricted customization... done

New soldiers with helmet and armor tint ... almost done, testing

Armor deco for new soldiers ... not working so far