The MOD/MAP Idea thread

[giftheck]

It's better to do the tech for a mod first then the artwork, right?

On another note I may still make an accuracy mod for SWBF1 alongside or after I finish Uprising for SWBF2.

[Teancum]

I am not sure if this idea has been thrown around before but has anyone considered doing a mod based off the Indiana Jones Books or movies? It would make sense if it could not be done because of copyright reasons or there really is no certain location that can be made into a map since the books and films seem to not be focused on one particular place for a very long time. I was just curious, again if this has been mentioned or attempted.

As a staff member, I'll just say that a mod featuring Indiana Jones would be acceptable. Others were right in that back then we were much more strict about political statements, and the World War II mod that featured nazis was offensive to multiple users (I got several messages in my PMs). As long as Indy would always defeat the nazi party I think nobody would be offended.

My question though is why do an Indy mod in this engine? It's not exactly suited to making Indiana Jones fun. Indy doesn't command an army, you can't realistically do a whip, etc.

[Marth8880]

It's better to do the tech for a mod first then the artwork, right?

Without a doubt. This applies to games as a whole, too. You create a working prototype featuring rough ideas of the tech while keeping all art in greyblock/placeholder form only, then you flesh out the tech in alpha and start working on art, then you polish the tech in beta while continuing to polish/work on art, and then everything is (hopefully) finished in release.

[MikeTheBeast55]

My question though is why do an Indy mod in this engine? It's not exactly suited to making Indiana Jones fun. Indy doesn't command an army, you can't realistically do a whip, etc.

You do make really good points. I was just curious to see if an Indiana Jones Mod was possible or not but now I know it could be if someone wanted to do one. Metalcore Rancor's Avatar: Sozin's Comet mod was definitely different to me since it was the use of "bending" instead of guns. I think the closest someone can get to an Indiana Jones whip would probably be using a claw-type weapon which you shoot and it attaches and you swing over the opening in the ground. I believe this was used in one of Maveritchell's Rebel Ops Missions.

[CdtFox]

Someone ever read this book? "Darth Bane the path of destruction"



Actually this is my favorite star wars novel...(I really love the siths.. you will think I'm crazy ).
For those who have it, you should remember that 30% of the book's content takes place on a planet named "Ruusan" with spaces battles & grounds ones.
The world istself is very well described and I think it will be really nice if someone want to make a map based on this?? Like it's described a forest/Jungle (with some endors trees but a little more light -green...I suppose) on one side of the map and carverns, rocks on the other side...Good Idea?



Here, some aliens/species living on Ruusan the "Bouncer":

[Teancum]

Ruusan is also where the Valley of the Jedi is, a location featured prominently in Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. If you haven't played that game, you should. Ruusan is an awesome place. I'd love to see a Valley of the Jedi-type map.

[commanderawesome]

I really love the siths.. you will think I'm crazy

Not really, a lot of people like the Sith.

Also, love the idea. That era and planet don't get anywhere near enough love.

[MikeTheBeast55]

The world itself is very well described and I think it will be really nice if someone want to make a map based on this?? Like it's described a forest/Jungle (with some endors trees but a little more light -green...I suppose) on one side of the map and carverns, rocks on the other side...Good Idea?

I do not think Ruusan was a map anyone with the exception of one modder who made Ruusan: Frost Valley for a mapping contest years ago really made into a map for Battlefront 2. If someone were to take the time and make the map and sides look like those pictures, then this could be a really good map.

[Kingpin]

...(I really love the siths.. you will think I'm crazy ).

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=30328
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_fcL31fBQ4

[Oswald1928]

So, I have an idea for a first map and I was wondering if you guys could give some feedback on the rough concepts - How hard it would be to make (being my first map), how fun it would be to play/if it is designed well, what would work and what wouldn't, etc. This is still a very rough concept, mind you, but I'd like to try and get this to be as good as possible.

It's called Mustafar: Remnants. It would be like a mix between Hoth and Mustafar, with some Kashyyyk elements thrown in. It's kinda hard to explain it more from there, so I'll let my rough map do the rest of the talking:
http://imgur.com/WT3BKQx

It would be structured similarly to Hoth - Except, the bunkers would be main entrances to the base and the "back door"/long way around entrance would be hidden off. Similar to Mustafar in looks and the base in the back, and similar to the high "houses" (villas? whatever the big brown things are) up top. One team would start in the base and have to work down, while another would have to start at the bottom (at the CP beside the bridge) and have to work up. Stock side because I have no idea how to balance lol.

[CdtFox]

...(I really love the siths.. you will think I'm crazy ).

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=30328
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_fcL31fBQ4

That's why your mod is in my top 10!

I do not think Ruusan was a map anyone with the exception of one modder who made Ruusan: Frost Valley for a mapping contest years ago really made into a map for Battlefront 2. If someone were to take the time and make the map and sides look like those pictures, then this could be a really good map.

I didn't know someone made a Ruusan map...I should play it!!

[giftheck]

Out of curiosity, has anybody ever rebuilt a level's sound effects from scratch? Given how sound memory is used in both games, if I want a lot of sounds in my mod, I'm wondering if this is the best way to do things.

[Marth8880]

Out of curiosity, has anybody ever rebuilt a level's sound effects from scratch?

What do you mean exactly? Like create each sound effect from scratch, like, without simply sourcing it from the original sound?

[giftheck]

Out of curiosity, has anybody ever rebuilt a level's sound effects from scratch?

What do you mean exactly? Like create each sound effect from scratch, like, without simply sourcing it from the original sound?

No, I mean rebuilding the sound LVL files. It would be the only way of outright replacing certain sound effects, am I right?

[booperdoo]

Hotline miami

[DasLlama]

Is anyone working on any of the planets from The Force Awakens yet? I know there's some stuff for Jakku, but what about Takadona, D'Qar, Hosnian Prime, Starkiller Base, or Ahch-To?

[MikeTheBeast55]

Is anyone working on any of the planets from The Force Awakens yet?

I am pretty sure there are some modders working on some planets. It is going to be challenging nevertheless. It would be nice to see a couple new planets being portrayed.

[RevanSithLord]

Ruusan is also where the Valley of the Jedi is, a location featured prominently in Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. If you haven't played that game, you should. Ruusan is an awesome place. I'd love to see a Valley of the Jedi-type map.

I have to concur with this post. DF1 and DF2 really were a big part of my childhood. One of my best friends would hang out with me as we played it. I would definitely love a Ruusan VotJ map!

I'm planning on doing several maps based on the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight featured locale. I made a pretty comprehensive list on SWBFCustom of all the maps I'm going to attempt (and may even try a hand at a revisit of a familiar map AQT made awhile back. ) Hopefully will bring several DF related things into BF2 someday...

[Battlefronter]

Somebody should make a Naboo map where Obiwan and Darth Maul fought at.

[giftheck]

Somebody should make a Naboo map where Obiwan and Darth Maul fought at.

Like this? http://www.gametoast.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=12228 The link there is dead but I got this link: http://www.gamewatcher.com/mods/star-wa ... eed-hangar

Just a thought: I noticed the rules don't mention anything about exe modding (though I think they used to). Now, obviously it's actually against the T&C of the mod tools and the game to do so. This is just me doing some out-loud thinking here, in particular towards the first game given its age. I have no intention of ever doing anything like a no-CD patch for the game, but it would be nice if I could up the model memory pools to work better on newer machines. I found out from psych0fred the basics of how the whole system in both games works (BF2 has the addition of the portal system to aid it - this is why the SWBFEA models I experimented with worked there but they don't work the same way in the first game) and from the looks of things, the game has 32MB of model memory, with a 'lower limit' of 16MB. Once the models get to 16MB, we start getting the game changing to low-res versions. I'd love to boost both to something more useable with the first game IE 96MB with a 80MB lower limit. I'd also love to hack some extra animation banks in - not full combo support or anything, but a few extra banks for things like the Wampa, or dual pistols, or custom dualsaber anims.

Just a few thoughts. I don't have any special insight and I certainly don't have much in the way of expertise in this area beyond looking at SPTest to see where things might be.

Another thought is how SWBFEA-inspired modes would be implemented:

Hidden/Spoiler:

Supremacy: This would be a bit tricky: you would require a big map with five command posts - two friendly, two enemy and one neutral. You'd have to script in a 'fall back' procedure if a team loses a command post and a 'press ahead' procedure if they capture one, with all five captured resulting in instant victory. You would have a 10 minute timer that resets with each command post capture. If the timer runs out, the team with the most control points wins.

Walker Assault: Timers and triggers. Basically, the triggers would activate when the AT-AT crosses certain parts of the field and this would initiate the 'attack phase', which is defined by a timer. The value of that timer all depends on how many 'tickets' are acquired before the AT-AT crosses the trigger: 30 seconds with an active uplink will add a 'ticket' to the clock (worth 20 seconds). The AT-ATs would obviously be on autopilot (though I don't know if you can have an autopiloted AT-AT yet still man the guns). At the end, if there is an AT-AT standing at the third trigger once the timer reaches 0, then the Empire wins. If the AT-AT is taken down before then, then the Rebels win.

Fighter Squadron: I understand one can spawn instantly in a vehicle but I don't know much about that. I would suggest instead that you pick a fighter from a capital ship like you do in space battles. There's a minute on the clock before a random transport (Rebel or Imperial) makes a run for it with 30 seconds on the clock. Much like assault this match is a race to rack up points, to 200.

Blast: Easy enough, it's just a TDM mode with 100 kills before a team wins.

Droid Run: One might consider this a variation of Conquest mode with command posts being replaced by droids without the ability to spawn at them.

Drop Zone: Another possible variation of Conquest with drop pods that deposit health/ammo/stamina/rage pickups. I haven't got a huge amount to say to this only having briefly played this mode so I don't know the ins and outs of how this might work.

Heroes Vs Villains: TDM with heroes, first team to kill the enemy heroes wins. Sounds easy enough to make

Hero Hunt: Like Drop Zone, I haven't played this mode properly to get a feel of how this might work. I'm going to hazard a guess that you'd have it so that there's a script which automatically spawns the player that last killed the hero as the hero in their place.

Cargo: This is just 2Flag CTF with cargo boxes instead of flags. It's probably the easiest to do.

Survival: Wave mode, been done in this game before.

Turning Point: Pretty much Supremacy, just without the ability to recapture lost command posts.