AvP Mod

[Goatfoam]

Okay, so, in order to keep my thoughts and running builds up to date, here is the official thread for my mod - Aliens vs Predator: Evolution.

I hope to include, initially at least, five "playable" empires, with some other neutrals to add spice. These playable empires will, of course, include the United Americas Allied Command, the Xenomorphs and Yautja themselves, the "elephant men" (whose actual name still eludes me) and human cultists.

Each race will have distinctive styles of play. For example, the aliens will reproduce like rabbits, have deadly intel, and evolve into new breeds through the use of research (think organic ships).

This sense of distinction will be furthered by highly race-specific tech, vehicle sizes, intel, components and facilities, and more flavour will be present in the form of events.

Probably doesn't sound like a whole lot of innovation, but this is my first mod. So far, I've mostly been working on the UAAC, and have added the following (some of these you'll recognise, I deleted everything else to start from scratch and avoid clutter):

Tech
Ship Construction
Mass Drivers
Particle Beams
Lasers
ASAT Missile
Nuclear Weapons
Fighters
Orbitals
Mines
Planetary Guns
Ground Troops

Vehicle Sizes
Light Fighter
Fighter
Heavy Fighter
Colony Ship
Civilian Freighter
Corporate Freighter
Military Freighter
Scout
Frigate
Corvette
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battle Cruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought
Light Carrier
Carrier
Heavy Carrier
Light Orbital Defence
Orbital Defence
Heavy Orbital Defence
Light Mine
Mine
Heavy Mine
Light Planetary Defence
Planetary Defence
Heavy Planetary Defence
USCM Squad
USCM Platoon
USCM Company

Components
Railguns
Particle Beams
Lasers
ASAT Missiles
Nukes

Not really a whole lot, but hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the UAAC tech, components, intel and facilities finished.

Comments/questions/advice/help/criticism?

[gregebowman]

Sounds good to me. Can't wait to see the finished product. Also can't wait to see the movie coming out later this year!

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Sounds good to me. Can't wait to see the finished product. Also can't wait to see the movie coming out later this year!

I ditto that. (Man does that comment ever show my age.)

[Goatfoam]

Cheers, man. Yeah, I'm quite looking forward to AvP, but I can't help but be a little pessimistic. The series went a little downhill since it deviated from the books and comics. Or at least ignored them.

More stuff is completed for the Marines, most of it standard with a few modifications:

Tech
Reactors, FTL Drives, Thrusters, Advanced Field Maneuvers, Dropships, Robotics, Synthetics, Sensors, Active Defence, Scanners, Medical Technology, Vehicle Control, Minerals Extraction, Organics Extraction, Radioactives Extraction, Repair, Colonization, Space Yards, Cargo, Computers, Armor, Applied Research, Applied Intelligence, Resupply, and Terraforming.

Components
Bridge, Life Support, Crew Quarters, Fusion Reactor, FTL Drive, Sublight Thrusters, Combat Thrusters, Tracking Systems, Combat Sensor Arrays, ECM, Long Range Scanners, Decoys, Jamming System, Mine Sweepers, Medical Bay, IR Sensors, Self Destruct, Satellite Bay, Robo Miners, Repair Bay, Colony, Aux. Control, Space Yard, Cargo Bay, Master Computer, Armor, Supply Storage, Fighter Bay, Mine Layer, Ship Synthetic, Science Team, Quarantine, Strike Team, Sentry Guns, Military Intelligence, Veteran Officer, Corporate Crew.

Facilities
Mining Complex, Hydroponics Complex, Refining Complex, Corporate Labs, USCM Command Post, Space Port, Landing Pad, Bank, Synthesis Vats, Dumping Grounds, Warehouse Facilities, Robotic Factories, Corporate Contracting, Basic Training Facility, Officer Training Facility, Hospital, Cable TV Network, Construction Yard, Atmosphere Processor.

It's, uh, yeah. It's proving to be a lot of work. I'm nowhere near done with the humans, and there's still the other races to do yet, each with their own tech trees, intel, facilities, ships and components.

[ June 11, 2004, 03:40: Message edited by: Goatfoam ]

[Goatfoam]

Didn't get an awful lot of stuff done today, and I'm working over the weekend. But I did do some work on the aliens tech and facilities, and here's what I've got so far.

Tech
The Alien Life Cycle
Secreted Resin
Hormonal Discharge
Hive Mind
Applied Evolution
Infiltration
Cystic Spores
Projectile Vomitting
Prey Control

Facilities
Queen Mother
Egg Chambers
Hive Expansion
Pheromone Dispensors
Pheromonial Miasma Cloud
Hive Mind
Drone Horde
Royal Guard Chambers
Cystic Drone Horde
Boneyard
Animal Herd
Bio-Genetic Pools

More to come.

[Goatfoam]

Another update. Been a busy couple of days so I haven't managed to get much done. So if anyone wants to help out, whether it's shipsets (I haven't got an artistic bone in my body), sounds, artwork or general legwork like I've been doing with the body of the mod, or just suggestions, advice or their two cents, that would be great.

Anyway, more stuff for the xenomorphs.

Tech
Alien Stealth, Organic Flight, Organic Propulsion, Sentience, Hybrids, Purebreeds, Alien Hive Structure, Organic Regeneration, Psychic Projection, Survival Instinct, Royal Jelly, Alien Metabolism, Alien Senses.

Ship Sizes
Hived Science Vessel, Hived Mining Vessel, Hived Destroyer, Hived Battleship, Alien Scouts, Alien Sentries, Alien Horde, Alien Incursion.

Components
Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption, Hive Compartments, Alien Drones, Alien Runners, Alien Warriors, Predaliens, Alien Horde, Pheromone Saturation, Light Chitin Layer, Medium Chitin Layer, Heavy Chitin Layer, Photosynthetic Carapace, Excretion Outlet, Dampening Resin, Praetorian, Young Queen, Queen, War Empress.

[Goatfoam]

Also, some notes on how the three main races (UAAC, Xenomorphs, and Yautja) will play. They will all have different styles of weaponry, defenses, movement point generation and power supplies, etc. so hopefully each one will be a completely different experience.

The UAAC will be the predominantly most "generic" play-wise, with a lot of the standard equipment types we see in the unmodded game. They'll be the most "Technologically Active" race, too, with plenty of research to keep them busy (some of which will only become available when they 'encounter' certain races -through use of ruins and events). The UAAC will probably make for the best "all-round" single-player experience, as they strive to update their technology to deal with new alien threats. There are also plans to include the Anglo-Japanese military, the French, the Russians and the Spanish Coalition once the five main races are sorted out - which will be the UAAC's main opponents.

The aliens will play very differently. Their main area of expertise will be Intel, with the ability to infiltrate colonies, impregnate the colonists, and then begin hiving the planet. Their ships will be quite specialised, since they have no technology to speak of, and tactics will consist mainly of boarding actions - the ships will be fairly damage-resistant to achieve these ends. They will also have the unique ability to completely enshroud their planets with pheromones and ultra-dense resins which will effectively render them invisible to most RADAR and conventional scanners. Diplomacy simply won't be an option with them, obviously, although once the Human Cultists are done, this will at least give them some support.

Predators will be the ultimate hunting machines. I'm toying with two ideas right now - either make them completely nomadic, or limit reproduction to such an extent that they'll never have a huge empire. Their ships, while small, will be powerful enough alone to take on several enemy vessels, with awesome weaponry, cloaking devices and even a form of shielding. Of course, their ship crews will be excellently trained too - both by shipboard and planetside facilities (Xenomorph 'farms', Alien Safari Parks, etc) and by the use of Intel missions.

Other general features of the mod will mean that glassing a planet will be very hard without ultra-high technology levels (which the elephant men will no doubt have access to once I start work on them), with a greater emphasis on ground combat. The concept is one of adding individual elements to each troop unit to increase hit points - grunts, sergeants, medics, etc. - and then adding weapons and equipment with various effects afterwards - pulse rifles, motion trackers, armor, etc.

[Ragnarok-X]

well im really excited about the Aliens aka Xenomorphs. Keep us informed about updates

What kind of weapons will the Aliens have ? Only boarding thingies or maybe some sort of organic weapons ?!

[Goatfoam]

Yeah, I think the aliens are going to have a pretty distinct flavour and should be a lot of fun to play for those of us with 'evil' leanings.

As for weaponry... They've got Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption and Alien Runners for their main weapons so far. Projectile acid is the most conventional weapon, doing medium damage over a fairly short range. The Acid Spray is a point defence weapon, again with short range, which will dissolve any missiles or fighters that run into it. The other three weapons are all really for aid in boarding attacks. The Pheromone Discharge increases enemy reload times, Psychic Disruption works like a tractor beam, and the Alien Runners are a precursor to any boarding action - they have a range of 1, and do damage to any security/boarding teams on the enemy ship, which will leave them open.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the boarding actions themselves, which I haven't got too far into looking at as yet. Once the aliens have boarded a ship (assuming it doesn't self-destruct), I really don't want them to have access to the technology - is there any way to force the alien player to strip the ship of components and replace it with hive sections at a space yard before they can use it?

[Ragnarok-X]

hm as far as i know, there is no way to achieve what you want. There are a few options, such as making a ship "uncontrolled" until the combat ends (so the capturer cannot move or fire until the combat is over). Maybe there is an option which will make will give no new tech if the ship is analyzed (maybe something about the tech tree, to make it impossible to further research the analyzed techs by restricting them to traits?)


anyway another question: im a bit confused by the races. You say Xenomorphs and Aliens. I guess the "Aliens" are the ones from the "Alien" movies, but what are Xenomorphs again ?!