Topic: Impoving the mod

Hello, this is my first post.
I've decided to write about FirstStrike because i want to live a real star wars experience before people get bored about the mod (from what i see looking at the numbers of players).

First (Strike) i would like to thanks and congratulate all the team of Firststrike for making this mod possible. This is a huge work and you can be proud of the result, i mean it. This is only R1 and i know that you are making more and more implements to the game (i can't wait for R5 to play on Hoth!).

I will go in 3 points (1-good things, 2-bad things, 3-suggestions) :

Good things :
-The music is very good, especially if you consider that it is all self made music !
-The space ships are very well designed.
-The Mos Espa map is beautiful.
-The stormtroopers looks very cool.
-More than all, the starwars spirit is there, and it's the major point of this mod, and maybe the harder point to achieve for a starwars game !

Bad things (without bad things you can't improve the game can you ?;)) :
- The look of the cockpit and the Hud look a bit ugly : the cockpit have poor textures and it's too much enlighted even flying toward the sun. The hud remains me about Amstrad games with his monocolor design.
- The weapons look ugly except for the blasters.
- The maps are strategically poor.
- The space look is poor (i know guys that you are fans of X-Wing alliance but the graphics today let you improve those old looks)

Suggestions :
- Give several objectives to both sides like in the ennemy territory : the team must complete an objective in order to advance furter in the map. For example in Escape from Hoth, the rebel alliance could have a limited number of transport ships that they must protect untill the Ion canon from hoth shoot at the stardestroyer in order to get a free way for the transports to pass. So let's say 7 minutes for the rebel to hold before advancing toward the hyperspace point (that they could reach now that the stardestroyer is incapacited by the shot of the Ion canon of Hoth). Anyway there is plenty of options to make an objectivemap more exciting !
- Make the combat space more dynamic, especially with the feeling of speed. You can for example add some dust points moving toward you when you are flying fast. Plus, the cockpit may move a bit simulating the cinetic action betwenn the machine and the human vision (like in battlefield vehicles)

I know that the future releases are looking toward making the game better, it is just my small contribution to it.

Thanks for reading and sorry for my english ! May the Force be with you;)

Re: Impoving the mod

i agree with you 100%

Join the Empire... or DIE
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u237/krazykyleIII/KK3.jpg

Re: Impoving the mod

Well you have very good english, I only noticed one misplaced word (remains should be remind).

I can agree that the cockpits are pretty bland, but in all honesty I would never care too much about it because I know I will be flying in nose cam mode 24/7 (unless its a TIE which has incredible view anyway). So unless they stick us in cockpit mode I dont mind ^_^.   (from a atmosphere feel I completely agree with you) Also HOTH blinds my HUD, its soo hard to figure out stuff when HOTH is behind them. I'm not sure if this is a design issue meant to give the Rebels a little bit more of a chance though....

Just asking about the space maps. Do you have your visiblilty draw distance at 90-100%? If you do then you should see really pretty stars and what not. I like your idea of dust clouds and stuff they should definately be added to allow a sense of speed which is absent in the vacum unless you're flying by a lancer or a carrack.

I really like multiple objectives for Hoth alot but I'm not sure they can do that or not... I think they could though ^_^. I can see the seven minutes as a way to get all transports together and kill the first wave of TIEs and Bombers (and kill the SD's turbolasers) out of range while the SD is operational, then once the ION cannon goes pew pew thats your cue to launch in a rush! I also think making the SD semi destrucable would be sweet. Like the sensor domes would be emiting a sensor bubble for the TIE pilots to see incoming ships, and if they dont protect them poof a couple Xwings make em blind. Or maybe they could also incorperate some bridge functionality? Where the SD could aid the TIEs only so long as its bridge wasn't killed?

Now lets get on about Strategy

The maps are very heavily based on strategy ^_^. I know Endor has it so you need to be hold the choke points (Ewok.... hehe I love it there... and the Fort base) Squad up, or make one and a good portion of the time your squad will listen to you.  Mos Espa has also nice strategies of, how do we assault the town? where do we devote our AT-ST? How do we kill that chicken walker!!!? and it has the nice addtion of; oh no they are caping jabba's palace... should we defend it or should we push to the ruins to stop them?

The weapons have a general consistency. Apart from the Shotties (which are ugly as all hell but thats more a design issue than modelling issue) I never thought they looked bad. smile I think the real problem is that most of the guns here have never been seen in a movie before so they have to go on comics, RPG manuals, and book covers.

Re: Impoving the mod

Arnid wrote:

- The space look is poor (i know guys that you are fans of X-Wing alliance but the graphics today let you improve those old looks)

The graphics today may let you improve on old looks, but the BF2142 engine prohibits using those looks. Its is not a flight/space simulator engine. The spacemaps are already bending it to the EXTREME.

Re: Impoving the mod

Thanks a lot for your comments Arnid. We appreciate the feedback. smile

Being the one who textured a lot of the cockpits, I know what you mean about them being bright. Although I believe ours to be some of the most detailed and accurate cockpits in any Star Wars mod and even most of the retail games, I could try to fix them up if you could provide some specific cockpits of concern. smile
The cockpit shakes is something I fought to get ingame. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time implementing it completely. This is something we plan on having within the next couple releases.

For Hoth space, there is dust particles that fly by, although you may not notice them if you have a very high resolution. Being sprite based, the dust will look bigger on lower resolutions than on higher resolutions. For some reason the dust isn't on Taloraan which is something that had slipped by us before we released. But I guarantee the the dust particles are present on the Hoth space map.
I'm not aware of any changes planned for the Hoth space map. As the rebels you already must destroy the large turbolasers on the side of the ISD and engage the TIE fighters/bombers and the Carrack (on 64p) to protect the transports. The Imps must protect the turbolasers, engage the rebel escorts and destroy the transports. This may not seem like much but it really does get very hectic when you get into the thick of it. We will take you suggestions into consideration, as we want to make the maps fun for everyone. smile

Some of our weapons are 2 years old. They were the first things made when the mod first started and is something we have been very active in fixing. We have the talented JayBiggS on the case and I have no doubt that he can get the rest of our weapons looking amazing.
As for the look of the space maps, I'm hoping that some upcoming maps will help change your mind. wink

http://www3.telus.net/public/ryanredd/rybotsig4.bmp

Re: Impoving the mod

Dark cockpits:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7470/sxwckpttrrg0.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9585/rleadercockpitio2.jpg

Check out my blog about how wonderful the internet is, called The Wonderful Internet.
http://thewonderfulinternet.com/

http://stats.fsmod.com/fssig.php?player=Canadiens1160

Re: Impoving the mod

HOLY CRAP. O_O

That looks awesome! big_smile

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