The DCUG Back on Track!

BentonGrey · February 19, 2007, 02:38:38 PM

Howdy guys, I'm posting here to announce something that I've been working on for a while, to gauge intrest, and perhaps to enlist a few beta testers.

I love the characters and the world that DC has created, but I feel like the mass of writers after the silver age have mishandled the great creations of their predecessors. Do I think the Silver Age was what all comics should be? No, I think it was a time of campy, shallow stories, but I can't say that things have gotten a whole lot better since then. Anyroad, for a long time now I've been thinking, what would it be like if I could re-write DC history, guide the seminal characters from their beginnings to endings that they actually deserve. No Emerald Twilight for Hal, no musical coffins for deceased characters, one long, single-authored storyline.

This is a dream that is outside of my abilities for so many reasons its hard to even begin to list them, and I can't even think to accomplish it through FF because of the natural limitations of it being an interactive medium, you can't just produce one long cutscene. Anyroad, the point of all this is that, unless the editors at DC just happen to choose my name out of a phone book and say "here, run the company for us," I'm going to have to go with the next best thing. So, I've spent the last couple months putting together the DC Universe in Freedom Force: skins, meshes, herofiles, and my own voicepacks. I'm in the process of setting them all up as built-ins, with proper descriptions and powers. I'm doing this for myself, so that I can have my own version of the DCU to play with, but it occured to me that some of the community might enjoy it too.

Now, I'm not going to try and put EVERY DC character into this, partially because I don't have the time, and also because there are several that I simply don't like or won't have in my version of continuity. Ha, for example, you'll never see Nightwing in anything I produce ^_^ Still, does this sound like something that people would be interested in?

I'm still probably a month or two away from being able to release it, but I'm also interested in seeing if anyone would like to test it for me. With this many different characters, balance is a bit of a bugger, and I've been working on character accuracy over balance from the beginning.

Once I get this finished, I'm going to start working on EZScript adventures, and I'll probably release those from time to time to go along with it.

So, what do y'all think?

~~Alrighty guys, the moment we've all been waiting for, the DC Universe According to Grey is now available!~~

(You'd likely be better off waiting for the final version since it is almost done)

You can download the mod here:
dcug.freedomforceforever.com/DCUG.exe

And you can get the FX Pack with this link:
dcug.freedomforceforever.com/FX Pack.zip

Thanks to all the great artists and contributors who made this possible, 'cause all I did was put the pieces together.

A few notes about this release:

* This is a BETA, I've tested it as well as I can, but I know I've missed some things, please keep an eye out for them
* I'm open to all the feedback you can muster, I'd love to hear about it if you think Captain Atom needs to be more powerful, or if you feel like Green Arrow's explosive arrow does too much damage.
* The EZScript 'comics' included aren't quite done yet. I forgot to finalize the Question missions, and I should have an update of that available before too long, but they are actually completely playable
* Green Arrow on the other hand, wasn't actually meant to be included. I'll try and upload a fixed version soon.
* The Batman EZScript campaign I was working on was not included because it decided to break all of a sudden the night before. I'll fix it as quickly as I can.
* I just know I missed thanking someone in the readme, if you can think of anyone, PLEASE let me know.

If you enjoy the first Issues of JLA and The Question, look forward to more exciting adventures coming your way soon!

*This mod is FFvTTR only.

kkhohoho · February 19, 2007, 03:58:43 PM

Is this a mod, or a herofile package? :huh: Either way though, it sounds cool. I've beta tested several items, and I'd be glad to beta test this one.

catwhowalksbyhimself · February 19, 2007, 04:07:48 PM

It's a mod. They're being remade as built-ins.

Anyway, it's a good idea, especially using it as an EZ Script platform. Very nice.

If you need help looking at the characters and ballancing all their powers and such (but not necessarily to each other) I've had quite a bit of experience at that, thanks to LB.

BentonGrey · February 19, 2007, 04:31:19 PM

Thanks for the responses and the interest guys! Kkhohoho, alright, I'll let you know when I have a version ready for testing. Cat, I will deffinetly take you up on that offer!

kkhohoho · February 19, 2007, 04:32:59 PM

Thanks. :D

Dreaded Porcupine · February 19, 2007, 04:49:47 PM

This sounds cool. I'm assuming Barry Allen may be around like Hal. Don't tell me. I agree about the silver age but todays what I call the dark age of comics isn't much better.

BentonGrey · February 19, 2007, 04:52:31 PM

Agreed DP, and I won't tell you if you don't want me too. Ha, it should have a good cast :D

yell0w_lantern · February 20, 2007, 02:02:17 PM

Sounds good.

quiet · February 20, 2007, 02:24:15 PM

I feel like I should punch myself in the face for not backing up my files properly, but I had ALOT of the big DC heroes (along with alot of marvel and some Image) created as built ins with complete personalized powers and and strings dats that I was going to release with the idea that it could be used as an easy FFX ezscript mod that could be picked up that had just about everything someone could use for mods, or if you were new to the game instantly have access to most of your favorite heroes. Unfortunately, my pc went into a "boot loop" (I just barely understand what that means, I guess it just keeps rebooting :blink:). We had the memory backed up professionally and they did a pretty good job, except just about the only thing that didn't make the backup was those hero, powers, and strings dat (I had about 200 done). So anyway here I am with nothing, but I would be up for helping out with rebuilding that hero data so I could contribute something more to the community than subpar skins.
One of the best things about the built-ins is once they are in, they are really easy to make changes to. the other thing is I really like the descriptions. I just think it adds to the game.
Secondly, I would suggest that attemps are made to get any data that has already been made from other mods to be included (if it is relevant, and with permission of course). No reason to re-invent the wheel.
The hard part would be to get everyone on the same page as to what the power levels would be for the characters. Everyone has their own opinions, of course.
Let me know what you need.

BentonGrey · February 20, 2007, 02:48:35 PM

Hey Quiet! It figures that I'm not the only one to have this idea, and I'd welcome your help. I'd love to share some of the work load with you, I just can't figure out how to do it. ;) If you have any ideas, I'll be open to it.

quiet · February 21, 2007, 03:27:01 AM

Well, I was thinking we could start off by making the basic ground rules here in the forums so that we could get feedback from interested an or experienced parties from the community, as well as recruit anybody that wanted to join in. Any specifics that needed to be fine tuned could be done via pm, email or again the forums. strings dats or custom attributes could be sent in notebook form easily through email.
once enough material was gathered to justify the need to start merging some dat files, we could set that up on a file sharing website to be consolidated. In order to keep everything moving in the right direction we should probably set our sights on any characters that are specific to the ezscript that you were working on, so as to not get bogged down with trying to get every character possible done before anything is released (I am talking about my own experience here, I even made Vibe as a built in. . . excessive!). If we keep everything "mission focused" we can slowly build a database that by virtue of merging dat files can easily be built upon, and you can have releases of your vision of the "DC as it should be" coming out in a timely fashion, which will keep interest. It actually sounds a bit like the DCAU in freedom force form!

BentonGrey · February 21, 2007, 08:06:53 AM

Ha, well, that's a bit of what I'm going for. Everyone knows that I love the Timmverse! Anyroad, I was thinking about this, and about your experience and offer of help. I'm making really good headway on the built-ins, but I haven't kept up with the power/character descriptions. I can't very well just send you my character and power .dats, as anything that you did would overwrite what I was doing when you sent it back, however, what if I sent you my strings.txt once I get the characters and powers finished? That way, you could start at the bottom, and I could start at the top. We could release an alpha for testing while we worked on the descriptions, and we could get them done twice as fast.

Let me know if you're interested in that.

As far as picking and choosing characters, well, I have sort of been doing that from the get-go. I've got a lot of ideas for different stories, and I've tried to make sure that I've included characters that could be part of those. I do, however, also have a good number of ancilliary characters, just for depth.

:EDIT: To all concerned: Okay guys, I've got a question for you. How should I handle meshes? I obviously can't host and release a 100+ meshes that aren't even mine on my little 'ol yahoo group, can I? So, should I simply include a list? I have several meshes that I'm going to hex the kf's on to provide more accurate representations of the characters, should I release those? Even if I DID want to release meshes, I'm using not a few kitbashed skins, so I certainly couldn't release those. Any ideas? I would hate for people to have to spend a whole bunch of time chasing down skins and meshes, but I don't really see an alternative.

The Hitman · February 21, 2007, 08:26:56 AM

This idea sounds great, BG. Is it for FF or FFvTR? If it's for FF, I could help out a bit.

I agree that the use of a list of meshes would work well, unless someone has some web space that could just temporarily host all the meshes in one spot... barring permission from the mesh creators, of course.

quiet · February 21, 2007, 09:57:42 AM

I was under the impression that dat files would be too large to send via email but I compressed my characters dat and it went fine. If you send me your charcters/powers dat and I put on additional characters and powers, you can just merge your characters/powers dat on top of them and you will keep any characters that I had put on.
About how many charcters do you have already?
As for meshes and skins you could just present this just like any other mod. Just give credit to the creators. You would not be able to get around the kit bashing unless you got permission from anybody's stuff you used. Probably not worth the effort. I would just use skins already created for charcters, and save what ever you have for personal use.

joemama · February 21, 2007, 10:26:02 AM

Benton,

Just read this post and I think it's a great idea. I've been doing similar...only with kitbashed skins and Frankensteins that can never see the light of day. I'm also doing it with EZ Script in mind.

I'd love to check it out when you're done.

JM

PS--I've been de-nazifying/usaing/ussring the default game textures (and now, with nifskope, hexes) for some time now. Let me know if you'd like to include them in your release....sort of a total conversion pack or something like that?

BentonGrey · February 21, 2007, 11:01:47 AM

Well, Quiet, I've got somewhere around 165, give or take a few. Those are just my hf's that I've ported into the .dats, so there will probably be around 10-15 more on top of that. One or two of those are multiples of the same characer (I.E. Aquaman underwater), but for the most part, that's pretty accurate. So, we've got Batman villains, flash villains, GL villains, Hawkman villains, some general JLA villains, Superman villains, GL's, JLU, TT, various henchmen (not included in the number estimate), and a few supporting characters like Harvey Bullock.

I am NOT including Golden Age characters like the JSA (Mr. Terrific, Hourman, etc.), nor future characters like the Legion, at least not at the moment. I do have HF's for a large part of the legion, but I just don't particularly care for them, so I don't really want to spend the effort in doing them. If someone else wants them bad enough to do them, I'll include them in the final release, but otherwise, don't get your hopes up.

As far as sending you my .dats, well, I'd like to get a bit further along before I did that, there's so many little things I've got to finish first.

On the mesh question: I would never release my kitbashed skins, it's simply not done.

JM: Howdy man, I'm glad you're excited about it. Tell me a bit more about these new textures, I've been really itching for something to represent Gotham, and some darker textures would really help with that, plus the de-nazifying would be great for adding a bit more variety and accuracy.

Shazam · February 21, 2007, 12:00:03 PM

You know if you guy's have YIM you could get together in conferences and discuss ideas and such. I remember some really good conferences in YIM with other FR members. A few good ideas came up. Those were the days, lol. I have built in characters, powers, descriptions etc for all my original creations, better than standard hero files. I never had much time to test peoples mods (sorry prem) but I have had time to test hero files. If you need any testing done feel free to give me a shout.

catwhowalksbyhimself · February 21, 2007, 01:01:41 PM

Having a list of meshes to download later is not good for any mod. Trust me, that was done with Custom Force X, and it wasn't pretty.

If there only was someone on this forum who generously gives webspace to anyone who wants to host anything FF-related. Someone with a feline avatar, perhaps?

BentonGrey · February 21, 2007, 01:53:29 PM

Haha, I appreicate that Cat....it looks like I'll have to go through my mesh archives and pick out any that have kitbashed skins.....

catwhowalksbyhimself · February 21, 2007, 02:19:51 PM

Some of the artists may even be nice enough to give you permission to use them, if you ask nicely.

Still, there's plenty of skins for many of these characters, so I don't imagine it's a real emergency.

joemama · February 21, 2007, 06:42:05 PM

Benton,

Sorry, man, I didn't go that far. All I did was alpha or paste out the identifying marks. For example, I skoped out the banner on the Nazi War Factory and put "flammable" symbols on fuel barrels.

I must confess that I worked for speed, so I do need to clean up a few of them. Bottom line is that it's nothing too major, just a time saver if you haven't done it already.

I know I saw a Gotham City Map somewhere....FXforce.com maybe?

JM

BentonGrey · February 21, 2007, 07:29:29 PM

Thanks Joe, that would still be useful. Yes, there is a Gotham map...I'm simply trying to put off doing the map conversion thing as long as possible....the last time I tried, I screwed it up and completely fouled up my FF2 installation.

FLASH_22798 · February 21, 2007, 11:34:56 PM

Hey Benton, is this for :ff: or :ffvstr:?

Pretty much all the work I've done is for :ff:, but you're welcome to anything I have, Skin, Hex, or NifSkope created.

I normally don't check the mods thread, but this topic picqued my interest. This sounds pretty cool. Between family, school, work and other issues, (had knee surgery yesterday), I've been pretty busy, but like I said, anything I have is yours.

BentonGrey · February 22, 2007, 07:04:13 AM

Hey Flash, I'm glad you're interested, and I'm afraid that this is only for FF2 because of the really wonderful new toys that the FFX gang have provided for us. I really appreciate your offer of your work, thanks!

I'm sorry to hear about your knee surgery, I know that can be pretty tough. How are you holding up?

Okay guys, I'm posting this here, and in requests:

I've been working on hexing Robin from Tommy's Batman_bike_tv, and I've got him pretty well. However, as you can see by the kitbashed skin, I need something to put on the mesh before I can include him in Grey's DCU.

http://www.inaneasylum.org/users/bentongrey/Default/robin_bike.jpg
http://www.inaneasylum.org/users/bentongrey/Default/robin_bike2.jpg
http://www.inaneasylum.org/users/bentongrey/Default/robin_bike3.jpg

FLASH_22798 · February 22, 2007, 02:04:53 PM

For the most part, surgery went alright, the only bad part is being laid up.

QuoteHey Flash, I'm glad you're interested, and I'm afraid that this is only for FF2 because of the really wonderful new toys that the FFX gang have provided for us. I really appreciate your offer of your work, thanks!

As long as you can convert my stuff from FF1 to FF2, I'll hook you up whenever I have the free time, not a problem.

BentonGrey · February 22, 2007, 05:48:42 PM

Hey Flash, glad to hear everything went well, but I know what you mean about being laid up. I had a bit of surgery last january, and it about killed me being an invalid for the week or two I had to stay in the house.

I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to do some requests for me, it'll be a huge help. As a matter of fact, if you're willing, we might talk about finding a way to replace one or two of my kitbashes with something more permanent. Between your help, and Unko volunteering for several things, I may not have to worry about this after all!

On another note, any people who feel like talking shop, want to toss ideas back and forth, or simply would like to keep tabs on how this project is progressing, shoot be a PM with your AIM ID. I only use it sparingly, but while I'm working on VPs or inputing characters, I usually have it on.

BentonGrey · February 23, 2007, 03:54:41 PM

Okay guys, just thought that I'd post an update for those who are curious:

First off, I've been putting off finishing a hand full of voicepacks, and I think I'll stop wasting time and do those tonight. As far as characters being built-in, here's where we stand:

I have finished: Batman villains, flash villains, GL villains, Hawkman villains, and some of the general DC characters. What is left?

General JLA villains, Superman villains, GL's, JLU, TT (and their villains), various henchmen, and a few supporting characters.

I'd say I'm roughly....half way done, maybe better.

I might finish this weekend, but we have a couple parties to go to and such, so I may not. However, testers, if you could be ready to start testing the characters and powers (NOT the descriptions yet, they'll be added while you're testing) by the beginning of next week, that'd be awesome. That means make sure you have a clean, working install of FF2....and...ugh...some free time ;)

Cat, if you'll send me a PM on how I should pack everything up and how I might go about uploading it to your site, that'd be awesome.

catwhowalksbyhimself · February 23, 2007, 03:59:11 PM

Send it to me by yousendit.com or similar service and I'll grab and upload it for you.

If you don't have my email, it's my username @ yahoo.com

BentonGrey · February 23, 2007, 04:04:43 PM

Thanks Cat, I'll check that service out.

Mystik · February 23, 2007, 10:26:19 PM

I wanna help, any fx or props that you need?