World War V mod?

[Gr.Viper]

Well, the FE engine is very flexible and open for editing.. why not take advantage of it?

 

'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.'

Albert Einstein

 

So, imagine World War V (yep, I'm a pessimist). General technology level is about the same as during The Great War, though some technical advances from later periods are occasionally available as artifacts - mainly separate components, mostly broken down.

The suggested goal of the mod is to create several terrains, new guns, and planes of different classes for both warring parties. Ground units also enter into it.. steam-powered land-train with derelict radar - maybe.

 

Setting.. adjust dates to 2500ish(rather optimistic).. loading screens with brief plane info.. can be done later.

 

Terrains... well, I don't know yet. But maybe more variety should be added to a single map - some high mountains on the edge, dense woods in other parts... barren waste with an airfield on the edge of a crater... a waterfall? Low priority yet.

 

Guns - mainly different calibers, manufacturers... just a decoration, really. Stock ones will do for a start.

 

Planes... that's the main part of the show. Think about Crimson Skies(but add creaking wood and fabric) and early aircraft engineering experiments. Think wild and crazy... Asymmetric, fragile.. I doesn't matter that a plane is too heavy or imbalanced. If it looks right(that is 'old and odd') it can be FM-ed to feel right. The AI must be able to fly it too. I suggest live combat testing with stock planes...

 

Extra features that might be needed but are not critical:

-Rocket boosters. Have no idea how to make them... burn in seconds, boost speed, use separate fuel source..

-Turning engine. For the extra heavy bombers this thing will be a nice replacement of a rudder. I saw some engine mod for Harrier jet - it might be a thing worth checking.

-Mirror bomb sight. I would be great if there was a possibility to, say, place the pilot/bombardier to the side of bomb bay and let the player see the area where the bombs might fall on a small screen in cockpit, as if it through sophisticated mirror system.

 

Here are some of my lame basic concepts. I CAN do better - want to redesign each of them already. I can even draw proper schemes and plans. Bring more planes if you have some pictures(drawings or photos). Or describe them

But we'll badly need someone to do 3D modeling. At least one plane for a start.

 

Just a fighter. Notice double prop. Proportions will be changed - it's just a general concept of an airframe.

 

Short range interceptor. Armed with side cannon, supplied with easy to reload cartridges - 2 shells in each. Look at the bomber below and you'll see why the cannon is needed.

 

Another fighter. Should use high-power engine from the look of it. And it's obviously prone to dive - maybe making the prop face a bit up will create an appearance of the problem fixed(FM can be fixed with CG shift to the back and some lift on the stabs).

 

A heavy bomber the way I see them in WWV. Big. Heavy. Armed. Lethal. Ugly. Bloated. And not at all maneuverable.

 

At the moment I suggest some aircraft design brainstorming, then making a trial model(wish, I could do it)... tuning it... combat testing... painting it..

 

Hope it will interest someone else apart from moderators(It is FE mod - not some off-topic!!! )

[jimcarrel]

Great idea, You made me think of "Mad Max". What a deal that would be.

 

Would be great if every one could throw together their own ride., 'course that is out of the question.

 

Not to steal your thread or turn it in another direction, but if we had a world where two or more groups were building their own "airships" to obtain and guard rare petrol dumps. Fantastic notion. grviper.

 

JimC.

[MJmorrow]

Gr. Viper-

That is one heck of an idea. I can only imagine the cool stuff this community would come up with using that future war idea.

-MJ

[Gr.Viper]

Sort of earlywar-ish box-like type of fighter

 

And a 'flying frame'

 

And another heavier-than-air contraption

Edited January 7, 2007 by Gr.Viper

[Krazykidd]

This is a great idea!!! i really think it is creative... I too like to think about different games or mods that (in my opinion) would be wonderful if they came to fruition.

[+TexMurphy]

Big Crimson Skies fan so Im loving this idea!! ;)

 

Tex

[Red Von Hammer]

I second that! Zeppelins w/hangars !! Always loved that idea from Air Power and Crimson Skies!

 

S!

 

 

RVH

[Gr.Viper]

I saw a discussion on how to make carrier zeppelin but there wasn't much progress..

[+TexMurphy]

Ive tried to request Zep carriers as I have a campaing in my head that I would want to do but it does require Zep carriers.

 

Setting would be caribean with England and France fighting each other and Privateer/Pirate/Merces flying from Zeps.

 

Privateer/Pirate/Merces would be flying German planes.

 

This would give a nice rehash of the planes and pit SPADs and Nieuports vs Camels and SE5As.

 

Tex

[Gr.Viper]

Does anyone know if game's AI is capable of canyon flight?

[Gr.Viper]

I do suck at 3D max, so it takes me quite a long time to get rid of unnecessary polys..

The model needs to be finished(tail, gear, some other details), then I'll turn it to face the right way, adjust pivots on control surfaces and the rest of the plane... UVW mapping is the thing I dread most

 

I do hope AI will be able to fly with front elevator Is there a way to tell them the thing is ought to be used in reverse? ReverseInput applies to player only I suppose...

[+TexMurphy]

Nice!!!!

 

Once the model is a bit more ready Id gladly help out with the FM...

 

Tex

[Gr.Viper]

Ok. I managed to export LOD and found out that I've forgot to adjust scale... A plane almost 200 meters high :biggrin:

I'll fix that, make all control surfaces move and then it's off to skinning and FM-ing.

[+TexMurphy]

dont forget to create the collsion surface stuff as well...

[Gr.Viper]

What's that? I thought collisions were handled via collision points defined in ini

[+TexMurphy]

Thats what I ment.. ;)

[Gr.Viper]

Heh... Ok, guys, I give up

What I've done so far obviously doesn't fly... control surfaces were seen to move the right way but is struck me just now that after updating component names in ini I forgot about updating parent component names for controls By the way the base FM_data was the one of Salmson

Not only it looks horrible but textures are also badly mapped. Actually what I've done are 2 texture files consisting of paint 'thingies' - the items of same colour all go onto the same colour region.

Yay, the glass is transparent, thick and firmly fixed onto the frame. Notice the ugly static prop

The only good thing about it - 16 planes cause absolutely no lag(at least on my machine) But who needs it Collision points are not set(sorry, Tex )

There is some space left for radiator grill right above the spinner. And two little ears at the sides of the nose... Though the scale still needs adjustment - but only after the cockpit is widened.

 

So here are both the lod and ini I used for shots. And the 3Ds max file in case someone feel adventurous.

Raven.rar

[JediMaster]

Those sketches look like something Da Vinci would've done if he'd lived longer and concentrated on heavier-than-air flight! :)

[promethius]

Hey GR. Viper,

 

I like the concept drawings and at least you figured out how to export the file to the game. I tried opening the .max file with version 5, 6, or 7 and no go. Which version are you using??

[Gr.Viper]

Oops.. My bad. I was using free test version of 3Ds Max 9..

 

Here's a 3ds export I did some time ago and forgot about

RavenLOD.rar

[promethius]

That works, now for play time. Thanks for the references and quick response. I Feel very adventurous now. I will give you heads up if somethings comes of it.

[promethius]

Gr. Viper-

 

Check your PM.

[promethius]

Did some tweaking and got the prop to spin, guns to shoot, and Ailerons in the front to somewhat work. Still working some more tweaking. It will take some time to tweak all the other animations. Maybe on the weekend, I will start the Texture.

 

Thanks Gr. Viper for a good start. Try it out, and see if you have any issues on your systems.

 

Raven.zip