The DCUG Back on Track!

[BentonGrey]

Egad, sorry guys, I didn't mean to cause so many problems with the custom characters thing.  Here I thought I was being nice by moving them all into their own specific directory!  Sledge's recommendation sounds like a pretty good work around, and I'll try and do as Tommy suggested for my first update to the mod itself. 

Hey Volsung......I don't know what "Sammy" is......he just showed up one day, and I didn't want to delete him, because I figured he was a built in.  Ha, go figure.

Good idea about the .bak files Tommy....ughh......I really don't want to have to clean all of those out, but I really do need to.

Well, so far, no real errors!  Woo-hoo!

[Previsionary]

RE Sammy: That's actually from the base FFVTTR dat and has nothing to do with Benton Grey's mod. I don't remember what it was for or if it was even used, but it's always been there.

[tommyboy]

Yeah, Sammy is one of those things that keeps popping up and I keep deleting him (and Schmidt, too!) only to find them back next time I merge a dat file.
And I recommend Agent Ransack as an easy way to search for those .bak files. (Windows search function will also do it). Just search for "*.bak" in your custom_characters directory and you can then select and delete them all in one go.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome idea Tommy, thanks!  Is Sledge's workaround do-able for you?  I hope so, I'd hate to think that one of the major contributors for this mod won't even be able to play it! :P

[tommyboy]

Awesome idea Tommy, thanks!  Is Sledge's workaround do-able for you?  I hope so, I'd hate to think that one of the major contributors for this mod won't even be able to play it! :P

Even as we type I'm working my way through with the Editor manually changing objects.dat, whilst sporadically trying various half-baked ideas to mass-edit it somehow(and failing with those, so far).
I'll get to play it, and maybe make my altered objects.dat available for others like me who have non-standard install paths. Then they just have to copy the contents of "custom_characters" into "library\characters".

[BentonGrey]

That would actually be really helpful Tommy, sorry for all the effort you have to go to man.  I hope you find that it's worth it! :D

[justintyme2174]

I've installed the mod to the default directory and when I use the "Play DC Universe According to Grey" launcher for the game all I get is the regular campaign.   The icon appears to be pointing to the correct directory.  Anybody have any ideas?

[BentonGrey]

Remember Justintyme, this is not a regular campaign type of mod, this is just (for the moment) a collection of characters and meshes.  I've included a handful of EZScript missions which you can play through the Rumble Room.  They are labeled as comic issues, Question #1, etc.

[tommyboy]

Heres the ammended objects.dat (copy the contents of "custom_characters" to "library\characters" first)
http://www.momoshare.com/file.php?file=a2e5b91cf764a710a5f668fce34d0445
Benton,
I've played the "JLA" mission, and it's good fun.
You might want to think about the possibility of stringing all the scripts together, into an EZscript campaign Mod. I dont think it would take much more work (easy for me to say :rolleyes:).
Because they are currently Rumble missions, I could take 4 randomly picked heroes into the JLA Mission, rather than Jonn, first time out, which was a little odd.
You should be able to script the missions to spawn only the heroes you want (at least you can in EZscript campaign missions), rather than selecting them.
That way you could have hero-specific mission/stories, and "generic" ones where you could choose anyone.

Anyway, thanks again for what promises to be quite some fun.

[BentonGrey]

Well, here's what I'm thinking, and y'all can tell me if you like the idea or not:  I'm planning on doing a handful of short story arcs for various characters (Green Arrow, the Atom, Blue Beetle, etc.) plus full EZScript campaigns, release an issue or so at a time and eventually compiled for a few characters/teams (Batman, JLA, Aquaman, Hawkman).  That way, you'd have all the info for all the various missions, and you could swap out what campaign you wanted to play by renaming certain files.  Alternatively, I could just meld everything together into a 'comic run,' where you'd have one massive campaign, and you'd have to play through all of the issues.  So you'd play Question #1 and 2, then JLA#1, then Batman #1, then Green Arrow#1, etc, then the next round of #2's and 3's.

What do y'all think?

Ohh, and Tommy, I sorta' feel like it would be weird to play that first JLA mission with any other characters considering the story there, but you're always free to play these adventures however you like.  My plan for the first several JLA missions is to focus on the individual characters before they all come together.  I could re-title it Martian Manhunter #1 if y'all feel that is more appropriate.

[Juanjete]

good job Benton!!!
The objects.dat works fine to me, thank you tommyboy

[earl of bronze]

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

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!

I have a few questions if you don't mind.

1 How does this compare in terms of PC usage to the LSH mod? I ask because there mission 3 started off slow and eventually ground to a complete halt. If my PC cannot handle this I want to find out before dling it.

2 Is the FX pack required and will it affect the game if not using your mod? Again this is a PC performance issue.

Thanks for your time.

[Previsionary]

sir earl, i think you missed quite a few defining posts. This is not a "traditional" mod. It's more of an addon. It adds tons of meshes and skins as well as fx and herofiles for the player to use and play with. BG also did a few ezscript rumble room missions that you can play.

I would assume if any slowdowns occur 'in-game', then it may be pc related. If the old findings are true, after so many meshes/herofiles, the game may take longer to start, but that should be it. Also, the fx, i would assume, would affect the herofiles and not much else.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Prev, that pretty much covers it.  Thanks to the wonders of EZScript, you never have floods of meshes on the screen (the cause of slow downs in my own system) at one time in any of the missions I've created.  However, some of the later JLA missions will likely have larger casts.  You can pick and chose those as you like.  The FX pack will affect a large number of characters (all the archers, bat-family, and GL's among others) who's powers either won't work at all, or won't display properly.  However, it shouldn't do any more than take up a rather small bit of hard-drive space.

[CF Kane]

It could just be my system, but I'm getting a lot of blank FX powers. I tried using Batman in the rumble room and his batarangs were just magenta meshes with no skins. Is anyone else having this problem?

And I agree with the previous posts regarding the missions. You'll probably want to do them as straight up missions or else you'll end up playing the Question scenarios using Darkseid, or some other weird set-up.

[CF Kane]

Oh, and I noticed a few minor errors going through it: Green Arrow has Green Lantern's description, and Wonder Woman doesn't show up under either the "Campaign" character list or the "Hero" character list.

Still, it's only a beta. A great mod and I can't wait for the final.

[tommyboy]

I took the liberty of making the JLA (MManhunter) script into mission 1 in campaign mode.
It's actually pretty easy.
1. Identify the map folder used in the "missions" folder (in this case it was "martian caverns"). Copy and rename the copy of this folder to "01_jla_mars".
2. Open up the appropriate script in the "stories" folder (in this case "jla1.txt") with a text editor and save as "mission.txt" in the "missions\01_jla_mars" folder. (or just copy it in there and rename to mission.txt).
3. Open up the Editor and in the "campaign" tab press the "add" button. Select "01_jla_mars" and move it up the list of missions till its the top one. Select "1" as the number of heroes and "martian_manhunter" as the "required hero". Now save.
4.Go to the "Missions" tab in the Editor. Load up the "01_jla_mars" mission. Copy the "positional" marker "waking1_Hero1". Rename it to "hero1", make it a "character" rather than "positional", and select "martian_manhunter" from the drop down list. Save the map.
5. Now press the "Edit script" button for that map (or just open "mission.py" in the "01_jla_mars" mission folder with your text editor). Delete whatever the default stuff is and copy/paste instead the following:

Code Select Expand


#####################################################################################
#
# Module: Mission
# Author: m25
#
# Description: Create a text file called mission.txt and put your story
# in it.  It will then be used as the campaign mission for the folder it
# is in.
#
#
#####################################################################################

minimod_storyfile = 'mission'

import m25minimod
from m25minimod import *


#---------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Important Callbacks
#
#---------------------------------------------------------------------

def OnPostInit():
m25minimod.OnPostInit(campaign=1)

(the above cribbed from M25's "firelight Ezscript Mod)
Save "mission.py".

Now when you run the Mod and click on "start campaign", you'll go straight into the Mars mission, and can play through.
I've admittedly only done it for that one mission, but it works, so the principle is sound.
I'm pretty sure you can do the same for most if not all the other story missions (provided you know the map name, which I dont for some of them), and make it into a campaign.
All the stories are still available in the rumble room as they were before, because I didnt change any of the original files (the beauty of the "copy everything" school of Modding).
I hope you don't mind my butting in again Benton, but I just wanted to show you that you've done pretty much all the heavy lifting (ie the scripting, putting together the meshes+skins, building characters, map markers etc etc) for making a campaign.
Doing the above took about 10 minutes, and that included a bit of trial and error as I've never done it before.
Anyway, just thought I'd put it out there, and say that its a fun Mod to play, as well (even if you don't fiddle with it like me...). 

[BentonGrey]

It could just be my system, but I'm getting a lot of blank FX powers. I tried using Batman in the rumble room and his batarangs were just magenta meshes with no skins. Is anyone else having this problem?

Whoops!  I completely forgot a step with my FX Pack instructions!  I'll fix this right away.  Go look at all the files you dumped into art/library/fx/generic, and fish out one labeled '_textures.'  Go back up to art/library, and drop that folder into the fx folder.  Click 'yes to all,' and now everything should work fine.

Oh, and I noticed a few minor errors going through it: Green Arrow has Green Lantern's description, and Wonder Woman doesn't show up under either the "Campaign" character list or the "Hero" character list.

Still, it's only a beta. A great mod and I can't wait for the final.

Fixed and fixed.  Yep, I'm afraid there are gonna' be errors like that, I tried to test as much as I could, but there is just too much info there to get it all right!  Anyroad, y'all can expect an update sometime this month if everything goes well.

Tommy!  Very cool, don't worry about 'butting-in,' that is precisely why I made this 'mod,' so that people could use it as a spring board.  I'm just glad you like my work enough to spend this much time on it!  So, I assume then that you'd like me to set it up with all of my issues in the campaign mode?  Or do you just want SOMETHING there?  I'm sorry, I'm probably just not understanding you properly, but if I can get some feedback on this, I'll be happy to adjust the next version accordingly.  So, does the community want it to look like: JLA1, Q1, GA1, Bat1, Q2, etc., or do y'all want just the JLA missions, just the Bat missions, just the Q mission in interchangable campaigns?

[tommyboy]

If it were me, I'd throw them all in, in whatever order seems appropriate.
If you include savedgames, people could easily skip any missions they didn't feel like.

[kkhohoho]

If it were me, I'd throw them all in, in whatever order seems appropriate.
If you include savedgames, people could easily skip any missions they didn't feel like.

I agree with Tommy. Also, having a custom campaign as Tommy described would make this mod more then just an add-on with rumble room missions, though it is very good as is.

[CF Kane]

It could just be my system, but I'm getting a lot of blank FX powers. I tried using Batman in the rumble room and his batarangs were just magenta meshes with no skins. Is anyone else having this problem?

Whoops!  I completely forgot a step with my FX Pack instructions!  I'll fix this right away.  Go look at all the files you dumped into art/library/fx/generic, and fish out one labeled '_textures.'  Go back up to art/library, and drop that folder into the fx folder.  Click 'yes to all,' and now everything should work fine.

Oh, and I noticed a few minor errors going through it: Green Arrow has Green Lantern's description, and Wonder Woman doesn't show up under either the "Campaign" character list or the "Hero" character list.

Still, it's only a beta. A great mod and I can't wait for the final.

Fixed and fixed.  Yep, I'm afraid there are gonna' be errors like that, I tried to test as much as I could, but there is just too much info there to get it all right!  Anyroad, y'all can expect an update sometime this month if everything goes well.

Sure thing. I'll keep an eye out if I see anything else like that again.

Oh, and thanks for using my Metal Men skins. I'm really honored.  :D

[BentonGrey]

Alright guys, I'm happy to oblige.  As soon as I get those Batman missions fixed, I'll work up a campaign structure of all of them, plus a few new surprises. ^_^

CF, thanks man!  Well, they're great skins, and I rather like the Metal Men, so it was absolutely my pleasure!

[CF Kane]

Question: how come The Penguin can fly?

[BentonGrey]

Ahh, well, that is a matter of mesh limitations.  I originally designed him to work with Ink's mesh, but became increasingly unsatisfied with his proportions (although the mesh and animations are great).  It had a flying animation using the Penguin's umbrella.  That was right out of the comics, so I gave him flier.  I discovered the mesh that I'm using now, which has no similar animation, but I feel that it still fits the Penguin's character to be able to fly.  I'm hoping that another mesh (or perhaps skope) will one day be available, but I feel like it's not a big enough issue to bother people with a request.  Do you have a problem with him being able to fly?  I feel like he's much better equiped to fight Bats when Bruce can't lay a hand on him too easily.

[CF Kane]

Well, seeing the Penguin fly with his current animation--the standard face-forward Superman style flight--just seems a bit odd. If it was skoped to use the umbrella as you described it the flying might work but out of context it doesn't jive with the character. But that could just be me of course.

[BentonGrey]

Does anyone else feel this way?  If so, perhaps I should reconsider.

Also, don't be shy about giving feedback, I'd really love to hear y'alls opinions.  I know lots of you have downloaded it so far, so let me know what you think!  If you really think I hit a character right, tell me, or if you feel I really butchered somebody, tell me that too!

[kkhohoho]

Does anyone else feel this way?  If so, perhaps I should reconsider.

Keep him that way.  Character accuracy is important, but so is character balance.

[Mystik]

yea balancing is great and all, but i think the flying just takes away from the character (he's flying around like superman <_< ) I'd probably give him jumper, and private army* to make him little bit formidable



*maybe you could find/get skins of the female bodyguards from the TAS

[BentonGrey]

Hmm, what if I gave him limited flying, or something to that effect?  To simulate his umbrella-copter?  Which female bodyguards are you thinking of?  Also, I've rather tried to avoid giving any of my villains private army because of the complexity involved in using them in mods along with that.

Speaking of Batman's corner of the world, I've got good news.  Issue one through four of the Bat-mod are back in working order!  Green Arrow issue 1 is just about set, it just needs a little more tweaking.  I'm going to double check everything, do a little editing, and try and put together an Atom#1.  Then I'll put together a bunch of base screens and campaign-ify everything up.  DCUG 1.1 should be available......ohh......sometime next week or the week after, depending on how my classwork goes.

[earl of bronze]

Do I need to dl version one first? If not I will just wait for version 1.1.

Thanks to everyone for answering my questions earlier.