Novus Universum Mod - We have moons!

from Sins Forums

Novus Universum Mod

This will be the main page of the Novus Universum mod I'm working on for SOGE. It has grown to the point that it is a full fledged mod in its own right and I think should be offered to the whole community.

It is a Planet mod. At this point it has over 140 planets, nearly 50 planet types, 7 planet sizes and the promise of a whole new universe for Sins. The planets are based off of the Star Wars Galaxy for the most part but can be adapted to any mod. I'd release it, but it is in a major overhaul right now.

And there is something that a lot of people have been waiting for... Moons. That's right this mod has moons. Just eye candy right now, but in the future I hope to mod planets around them. Stars and non-colonizable objects will also get a overhaul. Much will be added.

The inclusion of moons means something else for the game. Now it is possible to add eye-candy object around the planets. Space stations, shipyards, industry, roids, any thing you could want you can now add. i hope to include these into the planet mod. So if you have any structure models please share and they will pop up around your planets soon.

well as the mod gets closer to release i'll discribe some of the changes. resources have been reworked and expanded. this may mean that there will be too much resources but i'll mess with the gameplay file to bring it down if nessicary. these planets have tiny pops to massive population. 10 to 10000. some planets you cannot upgrade. some will loose you money. thus you have to think about which to colonize at a given time. the grav wells are huge. they can easily fit a few fleets in them though the smaller asteroid or dwarf ones can seem a bit small if you have alot of ships in them. planet upgrades can and do cost alot. this is intented. this is due to their size and shear amount in most cases. the planet health has been significantly upgraded. going from 15k to 120k it covers weak resource planets to massive fortress planets. if anyone has questions please ask.

 

http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac309/NovaCameron/ScreenShot_0.jpg

http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac309/NovaCameron/ScreenShot_1.jpg

MOONS! lol Well A moon, but it proves my point.

 

FULL: http://www.gamefront.com/files/20227224/Novus+Universum+1.2.rar
Comes with the speadsheet I made the planets from. Highly suggested  that you read it to familiarize your self with them.

 

TEASER: Novus Universum Mod Teaser

This will replace the textures, meshes, and entity files. If a mod doesn't change the entity files just pop it right in. Replaces Terran, Desert, Ice, Volcanic, and Gas Giant.

 

Features:

214 Colonizable Planets

82 Planet Types

8 Sizes (Asteroid, Moon, Dwarf, Normal, Large, Huge, Super, Giant)

37 Stars

Stars come in 8 classes/colors: O (Blue), B (Blue-White), A (Blueish White), F (White), G (Yellowish White), K (Orange Yellow), M (Orange Red), and L (Red; Brown Dwarf)

Star also come in 8 sizes: White/Brown Dwarf, Red Dwarf, Sub Dwarf, Dwarf, Main, Sub Giant, Giant, and Supergiant.

New Asteroids

Belt List: Solar belt, Inner belt, Outer belt, Comet Cloud

Redone Clouds and Storms (probably 7 total when done)

List: Gas Cloud, Ion Cloud, Dust Cloud, Positron Storm, Plasma Storm, Molecular Storm, Meteor Cloud

MOONS! They are just eye-candy but they look awesome

Planet Characteristics (yes these are the ONLY planet bonuses in the mod. The other ones are too small, odd, unrealistic, or just plain unnecessary.) If you have any ideas for them that I could add please share. ^^
Done

Ship building ability (I see no reason for any others. They get a bit too odd or outlandish)
Done.

I plan to have fun messing with particles so we'll see what I can do with those. They look promising.

Orbital Structures and Ships! Just eye-candy again but they can really add to the atmosphere. If you have any civilian models or orbital structure/satellite models please offer them. You will be credited and your model will appear around your planet.

Satellite planet and asteroid textures courtesy of NASA and the Celestia Database

Special Thanks to the SOGE Crew for betaing my planets. Particularly Lavo, Who has been a great help.

If you want to see the planets and more just go to www.swrebellion.com and sign up for the SOGE beta.

modding
724,304 views 312 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Coolio!

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome  :thumbsup: k1 . I was hoping you would release these for modders.

I have a few binary planet meshes I made if you want them. All you need to do is change the texture links in the mesh file to have different ones. See my post [Solved] Planet Texturing.

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

While binary planet meshes are cool. I think Moons are more flexable. I will eventually include binary planets but that will be almost last as I have to figure out moons first. Then I'll work on developing planets with attrabutes influenced but the moons.

Not to mention Stars and noncols i need to do.

And it's not a resource but a full mod. they have been balanced against eachother. Though I do warn that the cost are very high and planets do have the resources to upgrade these. vanilla ships and most mod ships will be cheap change compaired to these planets so I highly recommend an across the board ship price overhaul.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

What do you need to know about moons?

Noncols? Is that nuetral asteroids?

So can modders include your planets with credit?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

I need to know everything. lol how they spin, what I can and can't do with them. It took me awhile to find out all about planets and since moons are a completely different object in the game I need to figure them out to.

Ya, neutrals, storms and clouds. Those will be reworked, improved, and added.

Ya, they can. I know they will probably edit them but I would highly caution against it. I've balanced these out. plus the fact that there are 150+ planet entites editing them all will be a major pain. (I know making them was! lol)

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Why should moons be handled differently than planets? Moon should be just a small planet with moon mesh close to another bigger planet, sins does not have orbits.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Yes, and no. But... It does in a way. You know those little roids and dust clouds around the planet? I cracked the files that control them. Now I can have moons positioned around my planets at ANY distance, ANY sequence, ANY way you can possibly think of at will. Without having to mess with complex meshes. I just need to figure out how to control them. :D They are not planets or part of them. They are 'asteroids', or at least the game thinks they are.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Wow, this could be the best thing since Sins Plus. Quite possible much better. Props to you. :thumbsup:

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Pfft I left Sins plus in the dust a while back. :P

Unfortunatly, these planets don't exactly work with vanilla ships. But I can help put together a mod adjusting ship prices. :)

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

What you've done so far is mindblowing Nova, and I'm eargerly awaiting the next release. And kudos to you for taking the time to not only put all these in, but balance them as well!

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

TY Lavo. I'll make some low maintenance moons for you. Touch my roids and moons again and well... No REAL Moons for you! :grin:

http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac309/NovaCameron/ScreenShot_0.jpg

http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac309/NovaCameron/ScreenShot_1.jpg

 

I know since no one believes me that I made moons, here is proof! Ain't it grand?

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Wow... thats awesome. Something that disenchatned me about Sins Plus was that the planets added were... not as attractive as others I'd seen. But those screen shots are jaw dropping.

Do you have any idea of an ETA for this? :D 

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

It's relativly complete. I just need to add in a few more planets and add a few more textures, mess with stars, clounds, and moons... a few weeks? I dunno. It's done when it's done! :grin:

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

To show case the awesomeness and flexability of the game engine I give you these pics:

http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac309/NovaCameron/Scrn3.jpg More Moons! 3 this time.

The Imperial fleet has arrived. Yes those are ships. No I didn't build them. Yes they are 'moons'. And they are in the area of space because I told the game to put them there. :grin: It seems the randomness of the orientation is all in the game engine and can't be changed. But at least the ships aren't rotating, which I figured out... So who wants to model and texture structures? :thumbsup:

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

So essentially the resource asteroids (in addition to the planet) are remodeled and they display as moons?  Very cool looking. Release teh Mod!

Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

Gah! No! it not done! lol. Ya i figured out how to change the asteroid renderings so I can use normal models as asteroids. Not the asteroid planets, but the little roids you see in the belts. I'm using those. I have succeded where others have failed. :P So I can do anything with them. muhahahaha

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

Includeing build an industrial planet with offshoots of mechanical roids?  Satalites too?  Very nice :thumbsup:

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

Me? No, i can't do textures ro models. I can play with them but make new ones I leave that up to you guys. lol

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

Well I'll have to do that myself then ^_^

 

Is there any way to fix that orientation issue?  That may be the hardest thing to try to work around....

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

No. it's part of the engine. Then again it's space so it really doesn't matter. And you could never change the orientation of astro objects. Think of it as a feature. It will look more realistic and varied. Though side ways moons are odd, but not unheard of. Structures and other objects don't need a set orentation. And... I got you this so shush! :P

 

Besides it is by far the most customizable object by far. Stars we can just edit color, size, and texture. Planets: attributes, size, texture, color, roids, and roid templates. These templates can now have ANYTHING on them. be randomized and pop up in preset distances, hights, angles, and can be any object. Orientation is a small price to pay for this.

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Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top

So is there any limit to the number of different types of moons you can make? Also is there any limit to the size of these moons? It might be interesting to have the colonizable planet be a (real) moon that's orbitting a gas giant (represented in Sins as one of your moons) like Endor or Yavin.

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

Truly sir--you are a genius and all others should bow before you...well..before you and me.  They can bow to us.

We can put my Vasari statue on orbit around Vasari worlds now--muwahahahaha.

Can you also add stars and green clover?  I'm always after those ya know.

Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

Hehe you can and that's going to be last. No limit. As far as I know. Binaries, 'colonizable moons', and clusters here we come! I've thought of that and will be in here. I'm way ahead of you. :P I don't know how I'll balance it though.... I'll figure it out. If it is a mesh it can be a moon. Though I will be making my gas giants have realisticlly sized moons these won't have an effect on the planet's attributes. Unless you want insanly powerful planets and insanely priced upgrades.

 

Wait... actually... we can have a colonizable moon be the planet and have the gas giant as the moon! lol then it won't have any effect on the moon's attributes. And you do realize my 'normal' planet is 2.2x bigger and the planets are realistaclly scaled so they are  @%$# huge? Maps are going to need a major size increase to handle them already with moons... well even bigger. lol

Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top

For those who want some eyecandy...





















Gas Giants, linked due to size.

Planet type and size is in the filename/url. These are all from the current build. I'll post up an Ecumenopolis screen later.

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top

lol ty lavo. the meshes have been redone so the errors that are on them are gone now. they now have less streching so they look even better. i now have a complete set of planet/star meshes.