DCUG - Canceled

[BentonGrey]

Spoiler

Back!  Again!  Ha, I'm back in town, and back to work on the DCUG.  I've finished MiS#8, but it is very buggy, so while I'm working on that I'll also be trying to finish up the other two campaigns.  I'm hoping to finish up all three of these this week, and then I'll be working on odds and ends until the 10th.

AI Request:
I've actually got a request that I hope someone might help me with.  I have some concerns about the AI in the DCUG.  I've run most of the roster through the AI generator, (and that has improved their performance tenfold) it tends to create strategies that I don't like in characters like Superman and his ilk.  Instead of brawling like you would expect from the big blue, the AI keeps him in the air, using heatvision or superbreath, and generally flitting around wasting time instead of dealing out real damage.  I understand that characters like him obviously need custom AI (the same with shapeshifters, who tend to keep their first shapes), but I don't really have the time to do this myself.  I was wondering if anyone might be willing to adjust the AI for a few of my characters.  I've been looking into it, and it seems to be a fairly straightforward process.  I can provide the AI files that the generator...err...generated, and if someone would be willing to make some minor editing to encourage Superman, Black Adam, Wonder Woman, etc., to keep to the ground and duke it out, and to encourage Giganta to grow when she is facing tough enemies, that would make the final version DCUG a lot more complete.

TO DO:

   * Finish final "Mystery in Space" Mission
   * Test Mystery in Space all the way through
   * Do Base scenes for MiS
   * Fix Base scenes for MiS
   * Edit final mission for Batman
   * Do Base scenes for missions 4 and 7 for Batman
   * Edit Base scene for JLA mission 5
   * Test Batman all the way through
   * Test JLA all the way through
   * Test Base scenes in JLA
    * Add animportrait entries for the characters in JLA
    * Add animportrait entries for the characters in Batman
    * Add animportrait entries for the characters in MiS
   * Get skins for Ray Palmer, Carter Hall, and Barry Allen
   * Fix AI for brawlers/shapshifters
   * Set up comic covers for JLA
   * Set up comic covers for Batman (May not have time)
   * Set up comic covers for MiS (May not have time)
   * Collect comic portraits for the other half of the roster (May not have time)
   * Get voices for Blue Beetle, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, etc. (Probably won't have time)


Completion....99.9%?

If I come across anything else that needs doing, I'll add it

The DCUG will not be released.  Thank you all for your support.

[Blitzgott]

It's good to know you've come so far.

Looking forward to the final release.

[bearded]

drmike gave me an idea for heros or villians you might want to consider.  for powers that heroes are not likely to use, make the cost very high, so they are less likely to use them, only when their gauge is very high.  it seems counter intuitive, but it works.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I'd be willing to try to make some adjustments, although I won't be able to test them too extensively.  Still, it should be immediately obvious if the behavior is as intended.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the responses guys!  Thanks Blitzgott, I'm really sorta' amazed that I've managed to learn enough to get this far.  Anyway, that's a suggestion that I've heard before Bearded, and it does work, but it also has an effect on the player's experience when controlling those characters.  For example, say I want Superman to only use his heatvision our superbreath once in a while, so I jack up his energy cost.  Then when he is being player controlled, the player won't be able to use those abilities as he might need them.  I have done this for certain abilities, but because of the wonky energy system, I try and avoid it.  I hate that energy system SOOOO much....  

Awesome Cat!  Yeah, I really don't think that most of them will need major adjustments.  From the reading I've done about it, apparently they just need to be told to use their punch as their first resort, and their flying punch on flying characters.  I can either send you just the AI files, or we can wait until I release the thing, and you can download the whole shebang. 

[M25]

Getting the behaviour you want is a bit of an art, but for the flying bricks you can decrease the percentage chance to use their ranged powers or place conditions on their use.

TRanged('heat vision', pct=20),   lowers the chance to use the power, so others are more likely to be used.

TRanged('heat vision', subtype='flying'),  means use heat vision only on flying characters

And of course you can combine options:

TRanged('heat vision, pct=20, subtype='flying'),



For the shapeshifters, you need to decide when each form should be used, since the AI generator can't do that for you.

TShapeshift(subtype='flying', form='hawk'),  means turn into the 'hawk' form if the enemy I'm targeting is flying

TShapeshift(situation='swarmed', form='tank'), means turn into my 'tank' form if I'm being swarmed by enemies.

[Cyber Burn]

   I'm glad to see this almost done. I'm really looking forward to it's release.

"Get skins for Ray Palmer, Carter Hall, and Barry Allen"

I'm assuming you mean their civilian identities? Any specific mesh you want these on? Reference pics?

[BentonGrey]

Glad you're looking forward to it CB!  I do mean their secret identities, but I already have someone making them.  It's just a matter of getting the finished product.

[BentonGrey]

Well IPS, I do think that I have done some balancing along those lines.  You can't just spam GL's most powerful attacks, and, as a matter of fact, in his level of the mod, you have to spend a great deal of time using your cheap attacks to keep your opponents off balance so that you can build up energy to actually hurt them.  It is similar for Superman.  It doesn't cost anything to punch someone, and it does tons of damage.  While heatvision is relatively cheap, you can only do it a few times until you're out of energy, plus, although it does good damage, if you REALLY want to put the hurt on someone, it is better to use the melee combo.  That being said, I am very aware of my own limitations in the way I approach FF2.  I haven't given enough attention to power costs, because the new power system just frustrates me to no end.  I will, of course, be very open to rebalancing in future expansions based on feedback from those who play the DCUG.  I hope that people will find the characters pretty well represented, though.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Because they are all meant to be able to be player controlled, I definitely thinking tweaking the AIs is a better solution in this case than playing around with energy costs.  The AI system allows it to be set up the way it needs to without doing that.

[bearded]

i would like to present the idea of the big history dcubg.  i've seen a touch of this mod before, and it is wonderful even in beta.  when it is released, i dream of the idea of a tight timeline.  an exact date for each mod made for it.  doesn't the dcubg present itself for this sort of thing?  what do ppl think if this concept?
a start would be an exact date for major events.  birthdates, big issues (killing joke, doomsday, jsa, etc.)
hey, benton, how many worlds are in your mod?  new earth?  golden age?  captain carrot?  earth 2, earth 3, what about new gods, and what about hyperion princess and owlman?
sorry for the exuberance, i've been anticipating this for a long time now.
thank you for all your work bg!!!

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Cat, that was what I was thinking.

Wow Bearded!  I had no clue you were so excited about this!  It certainly makes me feel better about my little project.  Anyway, to answer your questions:  I definitely have a timeline in mind for the mod, but I haven't put dates to it...I suppose the only real reason is that I hate to put an exact year on events, so that I can stretch believability a little.  If things aren't necessarily happening in 1990, or 2008, then maybe it isn't so unreasonable for Wildcat to still be semi-active AND have been active in the 50's.  I may revise that.  However, that doesn't mean that the events of the mod don't exist in very hard and fast temporal relationships to one another.  The first third of Aquaman's campaign will take place BEFORE he joins the League, Batman's takes place long after, etc., etc., and there will be events that tie in to different storylines and mods, when I get to them.  I have copious notes on the matter.  As far as the number of worlds, well, technically only three, but practically four.  I've got the standard, modern day earth with the JLA, etc., I've got the 4th World with the New Gods (although I don't have any stories that involve them directly yet), I've definitely got the antimatter universe and the CSA figure prominently in a few stories, but I've also got crossovers with the JSA.  The catch is that those are time travel stories.  To reduce the complexity of my continuity I've made the JSA strictly a thing of the past, the way it was originally.  They form up just before WWII, and then pretty much all retire in the late fifties thanks to the McCarthy hearings.  There is no Golden Age Hawkman, nor Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman in my mod, and Dr. Fate is either going to be very resistant to aging thanks to his magic, or a product of the modern age.  That cleans up tons of continuity problems, and I can still have crossovers thanks to time travel!  Ha, well, I suppose I had better stop while I'm ahead.  I can talk about this stuff endlessly.  If you want to hear more, just PM me, or drop me a line in the Shack.

[BentonGrey]

An update and a request today, friends.  First off, I finished writing the last Batman issue last night, so that is awesome!  Now...I'm FAIRLY certain all I have left to do is test, so wish me luck, 'cause I'm sure to find bugs left and right in all three campaigns.  Anyway, the request is for some info.  I need a certain helpless love interest to be inert and out of trouble during a mission.  What I'd LIKE is to just create an object mesh from the character mesh.  I know that I can edit the kf's to have the Fall animation as "Idle," but what else do I need to do for this to work properly?  I'm thinking "Dead Nick" here.

[Cyber Burn]

An update and a request today, friends.  First off, I finished writing the last Batman issue last night, so that is awesome!  Now...I'm FAIRLY certain all I have left to do is test, so wish me luck, 'cause I'm sure to find bugs left and right in all three campaigns.  Anyway, the request is for some info.  I need a certain helpless love interest to be inert and out of trouble during a mission.  What I'd LIKE is to just create an object mesh from the character mesh.  I know that I can edit the kf's to have the Fall animation as "Idle," but what else do I need to do for this to work properly?  I'm thinking "Dead Nick" here.

   I'd probably throw this into the requests forum or the skopers forum, maybe someone there could figure this out. On the other hand, I'm really stoked about the CSA, I can't tell you enough how much I'm anticipating this.

[yell0w_lantern]

Is it a mesh with an available max file? If so, it can be exported as an object in the pose you want.

[detourne_me]

IPS has also included the "sleep" animation into a number of his older female_basic keyframe sets if that helps... i think his fire and ice sets had hat animation.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the responses guys!  The mesh in question is Gni's Female_elf.  I will post in the request section, I suppose.  I really don't know how to accomplish what I want.  Perhaps with a combination of skoping and scripting?

[yell0w_lantern]

female_elf, huh? No max file for that one, unfortunately. Otherwise, all that would have to be done is open up the file in Max, move the time slider to a suitable pose then delete the physique modifier and export as an object.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks YL.  I suppose that I've found something that will work.  I've just got to do it. 

On another note, Mystery in Space is now fully tested, and everything works!  Woo-hoo!

On another 'nother note, JLA is now fully tested!  That leaves just one to go, and some odds and ends.

[BentonGrey]

So....TECHNICALLY, it looks like I lied about releasing on the 10th, but I am ALMOST done, and I'm going to stay up until I finish it.  So, it will be done tonight, but maybe not until around 4:00A.M.  Not technically the 10th, but I hope y'all will forgive me.  The bugs in the JLA campaign just about beat me.

[kkhohoho]

So....TECHNICALLY, it looks like I liked about releasing on the 10th, but I am ALMOST done, and I'm going to stay up until I finish it.  So, it will be done tonight, but maybe not until around 4:00A.M.  Not technically the 10th, but I hope y'all will forgive me.  The bugs in the JLA campaign just about beat me.

*Remembers that Benton said it would be done on January 10th.*

*Remembers that Benton didn't say it would be done on January 10th of this year. *

Thanks for all the hard work you've done on this Benton. I'm (almost ) sure we all appreciate it.

[laughing paradox]

Take your time, man! Make sure it's all set right.. can't wait to get my grubby mitts on this mod, though!

[GogglesPizanno]

ITS A TRAP!!!

[BentonGrey]

Anyone know what files I need to use the simple choice plugin?

[Epimethee]

It's installed with FFX 3.2 or later. (Program Files/Irrational Games/Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich/ffx3true/Missions/Scripts/ffxplugins/active/m25enc_simplechoice

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Ep!  Well....I worked on the darn thing until 6:00 A.M. (I kid you not) and it still isn't done.  I got tired, made mistakes, and then had to fix them.  All I've got to do is add the captions for the campaign and put the thing in an installer, but I'm busy today, so it may take a while.  Sorry guys, but it's coming.

[Gremlin]

For shame, Benton. I am sorely disappointed.

;P

[BentonGrey]

Urrgghh...more errors.  Alright, I'm going to keep working on this, and it will be out sometimes this week.  Other than that, who knows.

:EDIT: An update, for anyone interested.  NOTHING was working, and I mean nothing.  When I tried to load the mission I'd just added, I got a black screen and I couldn't even get to the desktop.  It was really bad news.  So, I checked the script.log, and had a nasty shock.  The game couldn't find ANY of its resources.  Nothing had a complex attribute, everything was all kinds of crazy.  So, I try and run FFX, and it won't find my mod folder...just won't find it.  I start poking through the folder, wondering what could have happened (and quickly losing my mind), and what should I discover?  At 6:00 in the morning, when I had made a few mistakes, I had made a rather horrific one.  I had tried to trim the fat of the mod, removing anything I didn't need, including excess folders in the missions directory...and I had apparently deleted the Scripts folder.  Now, I could always replace that with the a new one from a fresh FFX3 install, but I'd lose YEARS of work on customizing characters, etc.  Thankfully, I just started using AVG Backup, and after a little fiddling, I was able to restore everything that I needed.  Thank the Lord, 'cause I think I lost about a year off my life!  So, I'm back to work tweaking things, but in much smaller doses.

:EDIT:  Since I'm fighting with a base screen and captions, I've got a little extra time.  How do I go about setting up comic covers for missions in an EZScript campaign?

[BentonGrey]

*Knocks on wood very cautiously*  It's done!  I'm going to give it a few hours to see if anything that I forgot to do pops into my head, but as near as I can tell, the DCUG is well and truly done!  I will start it uploading soon, and I will post again when it is ready for download.  Thank you all for you interest!

[Courtnall6]

Sweet! I'm looking forward to it.