MASS EFFECT MOD [Released 1.00]

Please post here for questions and discussion about scenario, art and sound modding and the game editor for Distant Worlds.

Moderators: elliotg, Icemania

User avatar
Tyrador
Posts: 170
Joined: Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:37 pm

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Tyrador »

Kalthaniell, are you still active? I have a few nice ideas regarding Mass Effect mod in Shadows expansion!
Cruis.In
Posts: 202
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:31 pm

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Cruis.In »

havent heard from him in a bit, I hope he's ok....
User avatar
Erik Rutins
Posts: 39324
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2000 4:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA
Contact:

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Erik Rutins »

As far as I know he is ok, just very busy.
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


Image

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.
User avatar
Kalthaniell
Posts: 320
Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 12:47 pm

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Kalthaniell »

Indeed, I am. I had to put my modding aside for now, but I fully intend to get back on it in the future. Sorry guys for letting my mods slow down a bit but I haven't had a chance to do any maintenance on them. This should change in coming months.

Cheers :)
User avatar
Solarius Scorch
Posts: 180
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 6:55 pm
Location: Cracow, Poland
Contact:

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Solarius Scorch »

Kalthaniell,
In case you get back to modding, would you be interested in some character portraits for ME races? I've been playing around with them a little to add some variability.
Forever Future 1.7 for Call to Power - the biggest mod for the best Civilization-like game ever!
User avatar
Kalthaniell
Posts: 320
Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 12:47 pm

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Kalthaniell »

ORIGINAL: Solarius Scorch

Kalthaniell,
In case you get back to modding, would you be interested in some character portraits for ME races? I've been playing around with them a little to add some variability.

Sure, send them in. I guess I can upload them the next time I'll work on the ME mod. Not sure when this might be, though.
User avatar
Solarius Scorch
Posts: 180
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 6:55 pm
Location: Cracow, Poland
Contact:

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Solarius Scorch »

All right. I'll send them over when I have a bigger batch.
Forever Future 1.7 for Call to Power - the biggest mod for the best Civilization-like game ever!
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

Kalthaniell, sent you a pm.
User avatar
Solarius Scorch
Posts: 180
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 6:55 pm
Location: Cracow, Poland
Contact:

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Solarius Scorch »

Hello Kalthaniell, and everyone else,

Since you expressed interest in updating your mod to the Shadows level, I decided to lend you a hand and come up with names for the Mass Effect species. I don't doubt that you could do this yourself, but since I did it already (to enhance my gaming experience), I decided to share my results. Maybe it'll make your life easier, or perhaps at least someone else could use it? (That's why I'm putting it here instead of a PM.)
Please note that I'm not a huge expert on Mass Effect, but I did some research.


TURIAN
TroopName: Execution Squad. Basic name, unchanged.
TroopNameArmored: Armor Squad. Not very imaginative, but turians seem rather formal when it comes to military matters.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Reserve Squad. I imagine their militia is mostly composed of inactive, but still able soldiers.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Cabal Squad. They're (in)famous for their covert operations and shouldn't be left out, so where else to put them?

ASARI
TroopName: Huntress Unit. This is the basic, if not only, official asari formation, so it stays as the default troop choice, even though it's not much of a regular force.
TroopNameArmored: Mechanized Huntress Unit. While the original asari do not have armor forces, we can stretch it a little and imagine modified Huntress squads that use heavy vehicles for specialized tasks. After all, in Distant Worlds they do not have turians to protect their blue skins.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Militia. Even more militia-like than the huntress units.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Commando. I believe this is sort of canon.

GETH
TroopName: Trooper Unit. Basically the standard force Shepard fights at most occasions.
TroopNameArmored: Walker Unit. Named after the several four-legged designs of which some require a MAKO to take down. Anyway, they are as close to geth tanks as it gets.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Defender Unit. Very similar to the Trooper Unit, but possibly with a different tactical composition.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Hunter Unit. Named after one geth type which seemed the most appropriate.

QUARIAN
TroopName: Strike Group. It's not like the canon quarians have much in the way of land troops, so this original name seem as good as any other.
TroopNameArmored: Heavy Support Group. As above really. Yay, quarians on antigrav platforms.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Protection Group. Pretty standard name, maybe a tiny bit naive but the quarians seem so to me; I'm not sure why.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Marine Group. The only really canon name.

KROGAN
TroopName: Troop Formation. Because being cool about killing is considered good manners among krogans, regardless how much they like to fight.
TroopNameArmored: Heavy Troop Formation. Krogan tanks must be awesome.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Militia Formation. Otherwise known as The Unstoppable Charging Horde.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Commando Formation. It's far more killy than the name suggests.

VOLUS
TroopName: Droid Division. Consistent with your original name, and anyway actual volus soldiers would be rather pathetic.
TroopNameArmored: Heavy Weapon Platform Division. Expanding on the robotic troops idea.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Protector Division. Probably some badass, bulky droids.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Shadow Division. Mostly inspired by volusian spying networks and the Shadow Broker himself.

BATARIAN
TroopName: State Army. No name change. Fascist aliens are always fun!
TroopNameArmored: Artillery Detachment. Not a fancy name, but II WW enough. Also, Warhammer 40.000's Imperial Guard.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Homefront Unit. Properly patriotic.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Special Intervention Unit. A canon name.

SALARIAN
TroopName: Operation Group. If salarians had large, regular armed forces, this name would fit I think. After all, they're all about "peacekeeping operations" rather than "wars", like some countries here on Earth.
TroopNameArmored: Support Group. It supports Operation Groups, duh.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Emergency Group. I think it sounds cute.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Special Tasks Group. A canon name this time.

ELCORIAN
TroopName: Heavy Infantry Division. Used to be Tank Division, but it'd look weird. Still, it's pretty heavy infantry.
TroopNameArmored: Tanks Division. It was the original name before, but I had to move it here for consistency.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Heavy Militia. Because regular militia wouldn't be heavy enough.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Special Division. Don't ask how they perform special operations, just use your imagination!

HANAR
TroopName: Drell Strike Unit. It's not like the hanar would dirty their own tentacles, right?
TroopNameArmored: Automated Heavy Unit. I couldn't accept neither drells nor hanars as standard tank crews, so I went with "automated" units - whether they're actually unmanned or not is left up to you.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Drell Defenders. Of course.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Drell Assassins. Originally the default troop name, I moved it here for obvious reasons.

VORCHA
TroopName: Clan. Just like before.
TroopNameArmored: Riders Horde. This is the only concept I came up with when it comes to the vorcha, as they are hardly technologically inclined and they probably wouldn't like static warfare either. What exactly they are riding - motorbikes, hovertanks, dragons - is left up to the player's imagination.
TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Clan Youngsters. Yeah, the ones spending time throwing rocks at each other before they become strong enough to be real clan warriors.
TroopNameSpecialForces: Elite Horde. Some sort of formation composed of veterans who are smarter and more experienced than your average vorcha and use some elaborate guerilla tactics, which the vorcha can be very good at.

That's basically it. I can't say how valuable (if at all) these suggestions are, but it's up to you if you want to use them.
Forever Future 1.7 for Call to Power - the biggest mod for the best Civilization-like game ever!
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

A quick taste of some custom artwork I'm doing for my own personal shadows upgrade..

Image
Attachments
Asari.jpg
Asari.jpg (20.14 KiB) Viewed 181 times
Son_of_Orion
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 9:57 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Son_of_Orion »

Allow me to list my own suggestions for troop names. I know a lot about the MEverse, so I'm more familiar with the various military units each of the races have. Humans have distinct units, as well, so don't forget them! Check the wiki for information on the canon units.

HUMAN
TroopName: Frontier Division. These are the standard Alliance Marine units. Yes, this name is canon.

TroopNameArmored: Mako Brigade Combat Team. We all know and love the Mako. It's an IFV, though, not a proper Main Battle Tank, but we don't know of any MBTs in the Alliance, so they will have to do. Even so, they pack some impressive firepower, and the Alliance is a highly mobile fighting force, so it fits anyway.

TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Garrison Unit. Can't think of anything better. They're just that, garrisoned units. Remember the 212 from Mass Effect 1? Think that.

TroopNameSpecialForces: N7 Special Operations Group. This is a no-brainer. Could shorten the name to N7 Spec Ops Group or N7 SOG.

TURIAN
TroopName: Assault Legion. The turians are very reminiscent of the Roman Empire. I think their infantry units would be organized as legions rather than squads. Divisions work, too. Execution Squads, or "Hastatim", as they're officially called, are not regular infantry. They're more like, well, death squads.

TroopNameArmored: C77 Tyrus Combat Unit. The C77 Tyrus is a turian APC. It's canon, too, it's mentioned in a Cerberus Daily News post from July 2010. (See "Video of IED Explosion on Taetrus Garners Millions of Hits") An alternate vehicle to use is the Jiris IFV. (See "Ground Campaign Underway on Taetrus", June 2010)

TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Reserve Unit. Pretty much the same as what Solarius said.

TroopNameSpecialForces: Blackwatch Company. Turian Cabals are no joke, of course, but an alternative unit to use is Blackwatch. These guys are the finest soldiers in the turian military, and that's saying something, considering how militaristic the turians are. They're handpicked from units all across the Hierarchy, and are sent on clandestine operations where the safety of Palaven is at risk.

KROGAN
TroopName: Krogan Warband. I think this name fits the krogan infantry unit better. It fits with the way their society works, being broken up into clans and such.

TroopNameArmored: Tomkah Battalion. The Tomkah is a krogan IFV, very similar to the Mako. Come to think of it, there seems to be a total lack of actual tanks in Mass Effect.

TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Local Militia. Probably the guys guarding the camps and such. Can't think of anything better.

TroopNameSpecialForces: Battlemaster Company. Battlemasters are the most badass krogan out there. They're well-armed, tough as nails and worst of all, they're biotic. They equal ten normal troops in terms of sheer strength. Wrex is a battlemaster, and that should tell you just how deadly they are.

QUARIAN
TroopName: Migrant Fleet Marines. The Quarian Marines are the Flotilla's main line of defense on the ground.

TroopNameArmored: Heavy Support Group. What Solarius said, the Quarians can't support heavy armor, let alone produce it.

TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Migrant Fleet Militia. Well, the quarians don't really have much going for them after the marines, so don't count on these guys. :P

TroopNameSpecialForces: Infiltrator Unit. Closest I can get to an actual Quarian special forces unit in canon. (It's from ME3 multiplayer.)

ELCOR
TroopName: Heavy Infantry Division. Can't argue with that, the elcor are walking tanks.

TroopNameArmored: Siege Unit. The elcor are already walking tanks, you can't go much farther than that.

TroopNamePlanetaryDefense: Heavy Militia. What Solarius said.

TroopNameSpecialForces: Special Weapons Unit. Since the elcor regularly make use of heavy weapons, one could imagine them sticking particularly powerful and experimental gear on whatever special ops units they have, if they even exist. I'd say that these elcor are particularly adept at wreaking havoc behind enemy lines, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake before the enemy can even react to them. This isn't canon, of course, but hey, it's a fun thought.

Well, that's all I've got. What do you think?
User avatar
Solarius Scorch
Posts: 180
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 6:55 pm
Location: Cracow, Poland
Contact:

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Solarius Scorch »

I think your ideas are sound and generally cool - it shows your experience with the universe! I'll certainly use them.
Forever Future 1.7 for Call to Power - the biggest mod for the best Civilization-like game ever!
Son_of_Orion
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 9:57 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by Son_of_Orion »

Thanks. :) Anything to help, this is a pretty sweet mod.
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

Guys, I've been hoping to hear from Kalthaniell, but he's been away for a few days it seems. I've been doing some work on my own and I'd like to give you some art I've been working on. Kalthaniell, feel free to use this if you upgrade your mod to Shadows, or check my PM and get back to me.

The attached file is a complete collection of unique troop icons for all 13 races.

EDIT: ok I think I have it right this time!
Attachments
troopImages.zip
(387.35 KiB) Downloaded 44 times
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

I'm sorry if I'm missing anything obvious, but is the base mod missing flag files? I checked the addons as well and they don't appear to be there, yet some of the race files call for flags that are outside the normal bounds of what is available.

Edit: The race files say flags must be 0-38, yet there are 40 flags in the default game folder. Still, I'm getting an error that I believe is related to flags... hmm

Edit 2: The default race files also call for flags and colors that are out of bounds. Well, here's the error I'm getting, for what it's worth:

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentOutOfRangeException()
at DistantWorlds.Types.Galaxy.GenerateEmpireFlag(Color mainColor, Color secondaryColor, Int32 flagStyle, List`1 flagShapes, Bitmap& smallFlagPicture, Bitmap& largeFlagPicture)
at DistantWorlds.Start.IYv5Y9xCQb(Object , DrawItemEventArgs )
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnDrawItem(DrawItemEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WmReflectDrawItem(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Edit 3: Solved my own problem, and I can happily say:

I have upgraded this mod to shadows!

Kalthaniell, please let me know if you want a look at what I've done. This is your mod, I won't upload my changes without your permission. I also need to balance the designtemplates for the new races and see if your addon graphics and audio mods are compatible, but thats it!
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

With Kalthaniell's permission, I am uploading my shadows compatible version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8t0wknqwynl7 ... hadows.zip

This is the main mod file, and is fully compatible with shadows.

-race specific troop icons
-rebalanced race research priorities
-numerous fixes and adjustments

designtemplates exist for each new race, but I haven't yet modified the templates to match with each race's specific research priorities.
SpeedyGonzales
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:41 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by SpeedyGonzales »

Can I play in this mod with original Distant Worlds races?
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

Yes, although the reapers will replace the shakturi. Feel free to play around with the customization files to turn the reapers into their own race if you want though.
SpeedyGonzales
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:41 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by SpeedyGonzales »

This mod will work with latest patch (1.9.0.6)?
dostillevi
Posts: 323
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31 am

RE: MASS EFFECT MOD [wip]

Post by dostillevi »

Yes, I'll keep it updated. The latest few patches haven't affected the mod at all, and you can update the game without worrying that anything in this mod will be overwritten since the mod is entirely in the customization folder.

If this is your first time with modding the game, be sure to put the folder "Mass Effect Mod 2.0 Shadows" into the customization folder, and then load it from within the game by changing "theme." to it.

The mod is fully compatible and works just fine with Shadows, although the designtemplates are still generic and not specific to the new races. I'm working on that now, but from my experience races will tech up according to their tech priorities, and once they have a few levels into the appropriate techs, they'll add those techs to their ships regardless of what the designtemplates files say. I'm going to take some time and see how the races balance as well before releasing another update.

Edit: I should probably start a new thread so I can maintain the front post with the most recent version of the mod. Right now the one you want to download is linked a few posts above this one.
Post Reply

Return to “Design and Modding”