Galaxy Wars Development Screenshots

[Moxus]

I'd say some mumbo jumbo about bumping topics that were four months old, and a month stagnant, but I s'pose it won't really do me a whole lot of good.

Let's just keep going. Where were we?

-=Moxus=-

[Sparky]

I'm wondering how to incorporate the script, ie. where to start.
I want to sort of blend the story lines between Marathon and Halo. How many of you are familiar with the plot lines in all these games: Marathon 1, 2, Infinity, Eternal, Halo 1, 2, 3 and Reach?
I'm familiar with the story lines in all the Marathon games and Halo 1 and 2. But I don't know about 3 and Reach; maybe someone could fill me in, Reader's Digest style.


Also, what do you all think about making the single-player version a collab? It's a huge project, or I plan it to be, and there will be a great deal to work on.
If I break it down, I get:

General:
- projectiles
- special effects
- AI behavior
- bipeds and rigging (this is a secret)
- skinning
- storyline development
- voice acting
- environmental sounds and ambience
- vehicles
- vehicle teleportation (using Samuco's application)

Outdoor Space Environments:
- level / environment design
- stellar objects, like asteroids and planets
- machines
- space stations
- spaceships

Indoor Space Environments:
- level / environment design
- scenery
- machines
- vehicles

Outdoor Planetary / Halo Environments:
- skies
- terrain design

Indoor Planetary / Halo Environments:
- underground level design
- indoor level layout design (blue prints)


This might seem confusing, but it's basically just me making all the levels / environments, and other collab members making blue prints for each environment, according to how they envision each place based upon its script.

Thoughts?

[Sven]

I think galaxy wars deserves it's own forum. It is just that epic.

[kiddten]

why? it's just another mod, albeit a large one.

[2310]

What do you mean by Reader's Digest style? I know the storyline of Halo 3, and Reach isn't out yet - I usually watch all the cutscenes of a Halo game to understand it's storyline.

[Sparky]

Reader's Digest = short and to the point

[Devious]

Sparky, can you make the rocket pod and chain-gun, as seen in Halo 3 for this mod. Its quite simple to do with CE, as all you need to do is to make each weapon into a vehicle make its speed slower then normal walking speed, and its animations walking animations.

This would add an interesting anti-vehicle aspect to the mod.

[2310]

After the Forerunner Keyship exits Slipspace over Earth, John-117 jumps with a piece of the keyship and uses it to crash-land on Earth. He is knocked unconscious and is recovered by Johnson and the Arbiter with some marines. John is then informed of the new alliance with the Elites.

After fighting through tons of Covies, they arrive at Crow's Nest (a UNSC base), where he is informed of Lord Hood's plan to make a hole in the Covie defenses surrounding the Ark (Portal) to allow them to perform an airstrike on it. The Prophet of Truth interrupts them, telling them that Earth is doomed. Covies attack the base and John destroys the base with a bomb.

He then regroups with some surviving Marines and heads to Voi to begin the attack on the Covie anti-air defenses. The attack is successful but Truth manages to activate the Portal, after which all Covie ships enter the portal.
A Flood ship then exits Slipspace, followed shortly by a fleet of Elite ships. The UNSC is told that Cortana is on the Flood ship and John fights in to rescue her. It turns out to be just a message telling them that the other side of the Portal is the solution to the Flood, and that a Flood army and Gravemind would be heading to Earth. After a debate on the message, Lord Hood chooses to stay at Earth while the Elites, John, and Miranda Keyes' ship heads through the Portal.

They eventually find the Control Room using the Ark's Cartographer but as they are deactivating the barriers of the Control Room, the Flood-infested High Charity arrives over the Ark. Johnson is taken prisoner by the Covies and brought to the Control Room. Miranda crashes a Pelican into the Control room dual-wielding a shotgun and a pistol. While hesitating on whether to kill herself and Johnson to prevent either of them from being used to activate the Halos, she is killed by Truth with a Spiker.

Johnson is then used to initiate the activation of all Halos. John and the Arbiter arrive at the entrance to the Control Room and ally with the Flood to stop Truth. After killing all the Covies guarding the Control Room, the Arbiter kills Truth with his energy sword. They escape and see a replacment Halo being built.

John then heads to the crashed High Charity to retrieve Cortana to allow them to fire the Halo with Cortana's Activation Index from the first Halo. Johnson, the Arbiter, and John fly to the new Halo, and attempt to fire it with Cortana's Index but 343 Guity Spark kills Johnson before he can do so. John kills 343 with Johnson's Spartan Laser and activates the Ring with Cortana. John and the Arbiter use Johnson's Warthog to escape back to the frigate Forward Unto Dawn and escape the Halo. As they pass through, the Portal collapses and only the half of the ship that the Arbiter is in makes it back to Earth.

John is thought to be dead but is actually stranded in an unknown area in space, and the Arbiter attends a memorial service by Lord Hood in honor for those who died in the war. Lord Hood thanks the Arbiter for helping John but says he can't forgive the Elites for what they did in the war. The Elites then return their homeworld.

On the remnants of the Forward Unto Dawn, John places Cortana in a holotank and enters cryosleep. They are last shown drifting towards an unidentified planet with lots of Forerunner markings on it.

Any questions?

P.S. The above assumes you know all about the other Halo Trilogy games.

[Sparky]

I was thinking about this a lot more, and I realized that I won't need to make this map with CE alone. I can do this primarily with our current Mac modding tools. But some of the scripted events may be easier to accomplish with actual scripting, which would mean using CE or Zeus. Since Zeus isn't done yet... I may need to reorganize my schedule, here.

Single Player maps are typically scripted extraordinarily. I have ideas for alternatives to scripting in many cases, such as with AI movement. But I really don't know which way to head, here... are there any strong opinions?

[Sparky]

I need a main Galaxy Wars logo for the Halo ui.map map file. I'm done with most of the other changes to the UI. Whoever submits a logo that I choose to use, I'll send them the Galaxy Wars UI map to test Thanks in advance for the help!

The logo should fit as a replacement for the main Halo logo bitmap in ui.map:
ui\shell\main_menu\halo_logo (1024x256)

All it needs to say is "Galaxy Wars". I know we have some amazing artists here (much better than me), like G[v]N and Seafire, so I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with!

EDIT: Here's my attempt:

[kiddten]

I need the default UI logo to work with, if you please.

[Sparky]

You should already have it.

And nevermind, I think I'll stick with what I have now, as far as the logo is concerned.

BUT... there is more work to be done! If someone can figure this out, I'd be greatful [EDIT: grateful ] - I'm working with the default ui.map file, so use the default images.

Here's what I have so far:
- added my name to the credits (sorry, Gearbox executive producers )
- new main menu theme music
- changed some text stuff appropriately

Here's what I'm planning to do on my own:
- add a mock space battle in the background, complete with explosions and weapons fire

Now I need help spicing up the whole thing. I'm gonna leave this bit to you guys:
- a firey background appearance for mouse-hover text, like the words are on fire... or something else cool
- new graphics where possible, revamp the entire thing

If you decide to help, here is the beta, and I warn you to only use Eschaton 0.8.1 when rebuilding, not 0.8.2 or any other version.

This is not an official release!

[Noodle]

All it needs to say is "Galaxy Wars". I know we have some amazing artists here (much better than me), like G[v]N and Seafire, so I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all come up with!

EDIT: Here's my attempt:

Since when was I "amazing"? I thought I was "alright" at best...

But uh, that's a pretty sick logo if you added maybe a better font. I'll work on something tonight, I have to go to school now. So later.

[Sparky]

I can work with this logo, but I appreciate improvements. I'm moving on to other changes, like these:

Here's what I'm planning to do on my own:
- add a mock space battle in the background, complete with explosions and weapons fire

Now I need help spicing up the whole thing. I'm gonna leave this bit to you guys:
- a firey background appearance for mouse-hover text, like the words are on fire... or something else cool
- new graphics where possible, revamp the entire thing

If you decide to help, here is the beta, and I warn you to only use Eschaton 0.8.1 when rebuilding, not 0.8.2 or any other version.

[Sparky]

Just to let you know, I finished writing the plot as it unfolds as you play through the mod.

There are at least 8 different environments with different theme songs, and this will all be in one multiplayer map. There will only be one respawn point, and it's all the way back at the beginning of the plotline... heh. So don't die, or else you just might need to do a new game. My suggestion is to lock the game room or limit it to only a few players, because the vehicles involved will take time to respawn and have limited seating. You might want to have it coop - that is, multiplayer all on the same team - for backup when combatting the covenant forces. I might include a gametype that avoids teamplay issues and makes more things possible... but whatever.

Included files:

ui.map
bloodgulch.map
gametype

Credit for the music goes to Killer Tracks

Also, I will not need to make this mod with Zeus. I was able to weave it so that it would be possible to make with Halo CE and to play with Halo Demo. If Zeus is taking a long time or I decide that it is not ready to wield the epicness of Galaxy Wars, then I will get started on Galaxy Wars using Halo CE. Nevertheless, some ideas I have could benefit from Halo 2 content.

I would share the plot with you all, but it's rather detailed and I don't want to spoil anything, except to say that it uses 8 different sound tracks, several sfx sounds and interweaves the Halo storyline with another space universe from a popular TV show. There will be different installments, assuming that you win or fail certain key plot points. I'll provide more details related to the plot when the first mod is released. I estimate release ... if after Zeus ... sometime early next year. If before Zeus, then maybe in December. I plan to get a decent version of Zeus out by the end of this year, if all goes according to plan.