offer help in modding in return for information?

[Ruggy]

Hi everybody,

First, please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this. I've been looking around a lot, and it seems there are modders here.

I am looking to get started doing some modding for ST:EF2 or maybe other q3-based games, but I'm having great difficulty finding specific information about using tools and how to find my way around the quake 3 engine and how it puts everything together.

I'd like to offer my services to anyone doing some mods who can use some help, in return for a bit of personalized tutorial-like assistance now and then. I'm a computer science major currently going through a master's degree, and I have a lot of theoretical knowledge, a little bit of practical coding experience, and a moderate amount of gaming experience. If someone tried to teach me how to mod, what I'd really need to know is stuff like which files go where, what API exists for the scripting facilities offered by the quake 3 engine, and other relatively high-level information that I just can't find. I'm sure I would be a quick study under the right tutelage. And in return, I'd love to contribute some maps, or mod/story/puzzle ideas or some scripting work.

I know everybody's busy with life/school/work/family and everything, so I totally understand if no one has time to reply or take me up on this request.

Finally, if this turns out to be the wrong place to make this kind of request, but people know where I should ask, please let me know!

Thanks a million to everyone who reads this!

[Chriss]

First you should know that EF2 has a heavily improved Quake3 Engine variant. Ritual Entertainment has improved the Texture Rendering, Sound System, Models Polygon limit for models, brought in the tiki system, for easy editing of Models and also a new c++ similar (or php similar) script language.
More informations about the scripting language and every else Übertools related can be found in the link below, a few features have changed or no longer supported, but they are anyway not really needed.
http://ritualistic.com/games/ef2/gdkdocs/content/allclasses_g.html


A full list of the features which have added to Ritual Übertools for Quake3 Engine can be found at www.ritualistic.com, there is also a Forum.
http://www.ritualistic.com/content.php/games/uber/features.php

Alternativly you cann still ask questions in the file front forums:
http://forums.filefront.com/star-trek-elite-force-series-73

Quake3 and Elite Force II are very different, Quake3 does not support this scripting language ef2 has, and Quake3 scripts are not working in multiplayer. Elite Force II is extremely modding friendly and offers a very powerful scripting language which works with a few limitations also in Multiplayer.

A list of unstable commands I've detected so far:

//crashes GAME-SV on Linux servers
.setobjectiveshow();

//crashes GAME-SV on Linux servers
.loadobjectives();

//crash on win & Linux Sv the Game-SV
waitforDialog();

//Ensure there is 'wait(<float>);' within, else sv can crash on map restart
while()
{...}

//Win SV using String as value and Linux is using Entity. ALTERNATIVE: .follow(e,e);
.watch( entity/string);

//crash if no int is given, function does anyway not work correct
getIntFromString();

//crash when they can't fine a player to follow
//Teammates (AI/STATE)
Behavior GroupFollow ( 256 , 320 )
//use instead
Behavior CloseInOnPlayer ( "run" , 256 )

//Chrash dedicated sv if noone is on the server
cinematic();

//Chrash (maybe) dedicated sv if no one is on the server
.endCinematic( FALSE )

//Chrash the server when the entity does not exist
trigger( "$entity" );
//Use instead
if(doesEntityExist($entity)){trigger( "$entity" );}

//Freezes the game some times
.physics_on();
.physics_off();

If you are interested into quake3 engine it self you should stick to the OpenArena Team: http://openarena.ws


I've been working on many ef2 projects in the past, but I'm not willing to continue, you are to late. I'm only continuing the co-op mod and the shuttleV2s project, to their logical end.
I won't spend much time for modding any more, I've been screaming for help long enugfh.

If you wish you can help out at the Co-Op Mod which is Script based, the shuttleV2s project does not need any help.

Download the Co-Op Mod latest version: http://www.darkmatter-clan.com/dzcp/downloads/index.php?action=download&id=34

Download the ShuttleV2s latest version: http://www.darkmatter-clan.com/dzcp/downloads/index.php?action=download&id=29

[Ruggy]

Thank you so much Chriss. The links you provided are very helpful.

I'm really sorry to hear that you're done with mod dev'ing for EF2 due to having too little help. I'm ready to put in a lot of time into it at this point in my life! But I guess Yoda was about to move on to the afterlife when Luke showed up for his training with a mind to be serious about it haha.

Well, if anyone else needs help, I would be happy to contribute wherever I can, to give myself something concrete to use as a training platform. Else, I can just go through the tutorials and documents a bit at a time and eventually perhaps come up with my own mod.

Just in case anyone is interested, I'm hoping to learn to do mods so that I can develop mods where non-combat gameplay comes to the forefront. Examples of this could be playing as a starfleet engineer trying to regulate plasma energy distribution systems in real-time (using both pre-defined macros and manual oversight and control), or a scientist on an away mission trying to collect relevant information to solve a puzzle (and here I don't just mean pointing a tricorder at a highlighted device). I'm talking about real cause-and-effect control over mini-simulations where some parts are out of sight or move too fast to handle just by point-and-click type of interaction. Gun-shooting is fun but definitely old, and most importantly, not all that is possible (though relatively easy to implement). I'm actually making a hard mental push to achieve (or find!!) games that involve solid (and realistic) puzzle-solving or content creation where a phaser isn't always just a tool for destruction!

Thanks!

[Chriss]

If you are planning to spend a lot time in this, letz say about a half year and maybe longer, then we can talk about creating a rpg mod for ef2.
There you can learn the most about modding.

I won't mod so much, but I can answer you almost all questions and do some of the difficult ai programming stuff. So if you are really planing to go in to this very deeply then you can start a rpg mod and I'll be your exclusive Consultant and Master Luke!

I was under the impression that STV EF is open source and now free for download and play, but it isn't. So EF2 is still the best choise. Elite Force II is the best candidate for a Star Trek RPG out there! There is no better game, unless it is open source and you have a big crew working on it.


I dono how serious you are about this. If you are going to start a RPG Mod would you also plan to have a site and a support forum for this?
(the darkMatter Clan is offering free hosting with a own subdomain for such projects)

[Ruggy]

I am definitely serious about doing this. I can devote many hours to this for the next month, and then for the next 6 or 7 months, maybe 12 to 20 hours per week. I am definitely interested in talking about a ST:EF2 rpg.

To be able to contribute, I need is to get up to the point where I know enough to be able to use the API docs to progress by myself.

Where and how do I start?

I am going to start with the stuff I have found here:

http://www.ritualistic.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=18

Do you hang around any IRC channels or use different chat methods?

I will report on my progress here.

Thanks.

[Chriss]

We have Teamspeak, for aural communications, requires a Headset (if you want to speak).
And I have Yahoo,ICQ,MSN and AIM.

I've create a Thread "How to make a RPG-Mod for EF2".