[Mod] The 3xper1ment4l era BETA v0.29a (Mod Stopped)

[size=200](Mod development stopped until new announcement)[/size]

[size=200]The 3xper1ment4l era[/size]

[size=150]Introduction[/size]

A single galaxy, shattered by war…

The species fighting over the Graspaous Selttab galaxy barely remember what started this conflict five thousand years ago. The situation was in a stalemate and not even the appearance of new dangers helped in bringing a truce. All technology was homogenized and all resources for improvement were wasted in unsuccessful military campaigns. It’s hard to believe how a few events would affect every race participating in the war.

Sixteen years before the first attack from the Tribe, the Galactic Commerce Federation surprised everyone with the creation of the Buffalo King dreadnought. The power of this new ship quickly led to a technological race in creating bigger and better ships. The media called those years the Dreadnought era.

By the time the Tribe rising came, there were already a few dreadnoughts fully functional and many new technological improvements were under development. But the force of the Tribe fleet was strong enough to shake all four races. All funding for investigation was spent to improve the weak defenses of their planets, the prototypes had to be abandoned and the idea of improving the existing technology wouldn’t appear again for a long time.

That lost era was just the first of many events:

The activities of the Legios mercenaries.
The arrival of the Order crusade.
The creation of the Scavengers.
The overwhelming Swarm infestation.
The arrival of the eternal travellers known as Nomads.
The five year long battle for Taergracs.
The creation of the Union during the Uni-T war and the downfall of this utopian coalition.
The appearance of the rich zealots of His Voice.

Thanks to all these occurrences, the galaxy and its habitants were shaped to what it is now. They helped in the progression of the races and prepared them for the upcoming future. A future which has finally arrived.

Seven years ago, in the year 31202 after the Empire creation, the eight great races started a new technological race. But it wasn’t just one new ship this time. With the reveal of the existence of new technology to the media by a drunk Federation businessman, every race started sending new ships, modules and weapons to the battlefields. Anything new the races had been creating in the shadow was revealed within a few years. It was the start of the so-called 3xper1ment4l era.

At this time, every month appears new technology, each more destructive than the prior one. Massive new hulls are built and prototype weaponry is sent to the front lines. There are reports about noticeable changes in frontiers, planets being successfully conquered and entire fleets destroyed in a matter of minutes. The five thousand year war seems to be reaching an end, but…

Which side is winning?

None of them.

Lomajan, speech from the “Remembering the Dreadnought era” celebration in Phala.

[size=150]Features[/size]

Every original race of GSB has developed several new hulls, modules and weapons for themselves in order to be the one winning the war. These new modules are race specific and their stats are adapted to the specific strengths and weaknesses each race has. Apart of upgraded versions of existing modules, they have developed some “new” revolutionary modules. None of this new content is locked, the leaders of the races have been blinded by their own ambition and don’t care that inexperienced commanders use this dangerous technology.

Apart from the improvements in all races, The 3xper1ment4l era includes a series of chained scenarios with their own story. All the story is included in the download inside a .pdf file. This feature isn’t available in BETA
(Due to my lack in descriptive English vocabulary, the story is dialogue based; similar to the script of a theatre play or a film)

The following list summarizes the characteristics that the new content for each race will have.

Federation

They are capable of using most existing weaponry, but not any of the new weapons specific to other races.

Their modules have increased durability but are heavier than other races modules.
Auto-repair modules have slightly improved capabilities.
They have developed a new module called “Obsirion armour”. This special armour also grants additional durability to a ship.
Another new module is the “Cargo bay”. It isn’t really useful from a military point of view but it helps in distributing the incoming damage with its big durability.

Rebels

They have focused in developing ballistic weaponry (machine guns, Gatling guns, railguns, cannons) and improving their rocket and missile launchers.

Their modules have reduced power cost but require more crew than usual.
Crew modules are able to grant more crew.
They have developed a new module called “Turbo System”. This expensive special engine may seem useless at first sight but when it’s stacked with other engines the speed is greatly increased. (This may not be the final name for this module)

Empire

They have focused in beam, laser and plasma weaponry.
They’ve also been able to reproduce the convergence system from disruptor beams.

Their modules require more power in order to work and are more expensive but their crew requirements have been lowered thanks to the development of advanced AIs.
Their power cores are improved.
Shields have improved capabilities.
They have developed a new module called “Solar panel”. This weak armour grants a few protection and reduces the power consumption of your modules.
Another new module is the “Shield cluster”. This special shield may seem worse than regular shields but it’s strength is heavily improved when it’s stacked with other shields.

Alliance

They have improved their lighting and fusion weaponry and also developed a few new regular weapons.

Their modules need more crew but their weight is lowered.
They have developed a new module called “Shell”. This organic armour is able to improve its damage absorbing capabilities when stacked with other armours.

Tribe

They have improved their kinetic weaponry and developed flak cannons to get rid of those pesky fighters.

They have lighter & with less power consumption modules but require a lot more crew than usual.
They are unable to build shields or armours for their ships.
Their auto-repair modules are slightly improved. (I’m serious here :P)

Order

They have dedicated to “bless” all their new warheads and cannons with the magic of radiation to improve their devastating effects.

Their modules are heavier and more expensive but they have improved capabilities.
They have developed a new module called “Divine aura”. This new shield has heavily improved regeneration. The Order claims the one true god blessed their ships, but rumours say they ripped-off His Voice’s technology.

Swarm

Their modules need lots of crew but barely need power to work.
They have big crew modules available.
They have developed a new module called “Target enhancement grid”. This special target booster increases the accuracy when stacked with similar modules.

Nomads

They have developed a new module called “Ethereal engine”. This expensive special engine is virtually indestructible.

[size=150]Download BETA v0.29a[/size]

Filefront: http://www.filefront.com/17506195/3xper1ment4l%20beta0.29a.rar

Mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?jo6wrho8ggdrz68

Mac version of the mod is being worked on. Just converting sprites to png shouldn’t take me that long… ¬¬

Installation instructions are inside the readme included in the compressed file.
WARNING It’s highly recommended to erase previous versions of this mod and ship designs created in older versions.

Have a look at the changelog included to know what’s new with the latest updates.

The actual version has the following (v0.29a):

  • 5 new hulls for the Federation.
  • 23 new modules for the Federation.
  • 7 new hulls for Rebels.
  • 5 new modules for Rebels.
  • 5 new hulls for the Empire.
  • 2 new modules for the Empire
  • 2 new hulls for the Alliance.
  • 1 new module for the Alliance.

Coming in next version (v0.32):

  • The almighty Rebel Fimbulvetr dreadnought hull.
  • The Alliance Dragonfly destroyer hull.
  • The Alliance Lobster cruiser hull.
  • The invincible Alliance Placodermi dreadnought hull.
  • Destroyer modules for the Federation.
  • Covette modules for Rebels
  • Some new modules for all races

[size=150]Pictures[/size]
(Right click to see full image)

Notes:
All the content in this post is subject to change and doesn’t show the finished mod.
The creator of this mod lacks in English skills due to not being a native English speaker, any grammar & spelling errors should be reported fast :wink:
All the historical events & lore from this mod are fan-made & completely unrelated to the original game.

Credit for many of the sprites goes to Eich who released them for everyone so we could use them in any mod :wink:

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4669

Feel free to post your feedback or anything you would want to see in this mod :smiley:

per your grammar request:

All the content in this post is subject to change

If there isn’t much news on my part on this mod it is because


good luck on your exams though! Finals can be tough :slight_smile:

it’s not currently possible.

Yay one cookie for you sir. You’ve unlocked the “first screen of any of my ships” award :wink:
The story you are going to introduce sounds interesting. How are you going to present it? Unfortunatly Cliff did not implement some kind of “Briefing” button (yet), so it may be somekind difficult!?

Thanks Drewoid, fixed the errors now.

“Good” to know it’s not possible, then I’ll just add survivals vs Alliance and Rebels.

We’ll for now I think I’ll just put a short story in the mod description in this post, like how Archduke Astro did so with his famous dreadnoughts. Unfortunately, I don’t know how I would present it in-game. I hope Cliff thinks in adding a story in his campaign mode or at least an option to add it.

Thanks for the cookie :smiley:

Don’t be so sure. :smiley:


Yep, those are Tutorial Frigates and Fighters helping the Swarm take out the Rebels.
It’s not a mod but a simple glitch.
As for scenarios, you can add ships from any race. Simply type the design name of the ship you want to use in the deployment file as usual.
I’ve only tested it in survival though.

…oh yeah! now I get it. the files in the “Deployment” folder for the scenario/survival, right? nice workaround! :slight_smile:

for a multi-race survival, I’d say it would be very interesting if the player was limited to a particular faction. So if every race is a wave but Fed, the player is limited to Fed. (avoids the “civil war” effect. But would be interesting in and of itself imho to have a scenario be race specific.

Great! As long as it works for survival is fine, but I imagine it works for every scenario then :smiley:

Yes, that would be interesting, but for now there’s no way to restrict scenarios to a single race modifying only scenario txt files. When I end coding all the new hulls (gonna take some time for it though) I’ll add a survival where everything in the game attacks you :smiley:

I’ve just uploaded the BETA version of this mod (all federation hulls are done) and tidied up the main post. It’s a beta so I don’t know if the hulls are op or completely suck. I’ll see if I can drop a version with more modules and solving any problems people found soon.

Any feedback will be apreciated :smiley:

Great work man! ^^ You even integrated all damaged areas! I thought like, well just throw em in, they will add as many as they want. :wink:
Also nice idea concerning the Whale Dreadnought. I’m refering to the runninglights you added along the black stripes. Well played ^^ Looks really nice. I thought about to erase the black holes during the creation, but good I was too lazy in the end because it looks really cool.
Keep your good work up, I’m eager to see the other races :wink:

Thanks Eich :D, when I saw those holes the first I did was filling them with running lights randomly and, luckily, I got a pretty good effect :smiley:
About the damaged area I would feel guilty if I left any of them unused and also the damge is more random when small ships are being destroyed :wink:

I’ve just put a little update fixing stuff I forgot to do yesterday, next update will feature some rebel hulls :smiley:

Well… I was unable to do much lately so I can’t drop anything stable about the rebel hulls. I’m busy with exams and other stuff so I’ll leave the mod in stand by until the 10th of june :frowning:

Don’t worry guys, I’ll be back in a few weeks :smiley:

any news on this mod? I look forward to the rebel ships.

Agree — quality of the federation ships are very nice.

Anxiously await further development in this mod. Keep it up!

New stuff is coming, I only need some time and inspiration to keep working on it.
If things go well I could release the Rebel hulls on Tuesday with other stuff I’ve done.

Do you use the new ship editor from Cliff? I have no time for modding right now, so I just want to know if it’s helpfull to you… especially because you programm every damage sprite :wink: When you have finished the 4 core races I will release the addon sprites I think ^^ I don’t want to interrupt your workflow :wink:

PS: I’m really looking forward to see the rebel ships flying… Maybe I will work over the federation sprites again when I have time for it… there are some things which look not right to me, like missing nozzles and stuff… What do you think about it? If you can think of anything which has to be changed name it and I will fix it when the time comes…

Did things go well?

[size=150]Rebels have finally arrived! :D[/size]
As I added in the first post, I recommend to erase the old version of the mod. I changed the name of the modules so you won’t have duplicate versions of fighter solar panels or other modules then.

Before starting to work with Empire hulls I will add moar modules for Federation and some for Rebels.
I won’t put another date for the next update because I want to upload first a slice of that modding manual I’m working (I want to help any new modder that comes to this forum and I hope that manual will help a lot).

I’m used to typing coordinates & all that because I use AutoCAD from time to time. I feel like I control better things this way so I only use Cliff’s editor to check if I incorrectly set any coordinate around there or I forgot a smoke emmiter in the hulk that was in the damaged model. Also, sometimes, my hand doesn’t want to stand still during much time so it frustrates me when I don’t place stuff where I exactly want (I’m a really nervous person it’s not any illness that thing).

About the fed ships I’ve only noticed that more or less the holes used in different damaged sprites are the same (but they are in different spots among the different hulls). That doesn’t annoy me and it isn’t noticed at all with all the smoke and sparks I’m adding around :D, there’s no need to change that :wink:

You’ve got the sprites for the dlc races done already? Well, I will need to rework that crappy story I had then. The more time I spend trying to write something decent for it I think it will be better :smiley: