Ya, I have it set to autocast once damage exceeds 10%. Technically you aren't taking any damage while you still have shields so no reason to engage the frontal shields ability.

The nephilim's main thing is allegiance which it gets bumps for as it moves along the culture path. They will also get other side improvements from developing the culture path. I'm also looking at giving them tax rate increases versus trade increases and moving around when trade is available.

Probably the missing null points... I'll check it out.

I did see the frigate fire a few times in my first battle but after that when I fleeted it with my battleship nothing happened. Don't know what it was... but no doubt there is something buggy happening there. Also nice on the autocast feature to only use it during stages where the shields are getting to critical I like that a lot because it has your ships conserve anti-matter for other needed skills instead of wasting it when it isn't needed. Haven't gotten very far into the game because of that frigate issue. So far that's as best as I can give you except trying out the Plague race. I also suggest you check out the Share your Sins model thread... I got a shiny new ship plopped up there

Alright, reporting back on the basic attack frigate. Outside of being fleeted they fire, when in fleet though they don't fire. Hope that narrows the search down for that bug.

Edit: okay I narrowed it down some more, the frigate when you load a saved game don't fire after you save your game and then load it... :? this is a very strange thing to happen. Not sure about newly spawned ships but current ones already in the game. After you save and then load the saved game it happens.

Nephilim scouts shield mesh doesn't fit the model actually a lot of the shield meshes don't fit the models... yet I know that's something you'll have to work on later Yeah I finally pryed myself away from the Star Trek mod for now. Noticed you reduced the reflection of the hulls and I must say I like it now. xD

I also spotted some missing polys on the models, the basic front line cannon fodder frigate's nose section has a missing poly and you can see straight through the model and see the space background. I thought I saw it also on the starbase model. Game is acting up and not allowing me to take screenshots for some reason

haha, glad you pulled away for a bit. I was playing a bit of MP as well as stargate and had downloaded Star Trek so I understand.

Yep, I toned down the reflection quite a bit. I'm using a slightly different style for the data channel so our models are a lot brighter which I like, consequently they don't need to be as reflective.

Shield meshes will actually come pretty soon after we get all the core ship models in. They are actually the easiest things to mod in Sins which is a plus.

I see the missing polys on the Light Frigate now too. I found a similar issue on the carrier and fixed it up. I'll have to open the scene for this one and see what is going on. Hadn't seen any on the starbase yet but I'll keep and I out. It had to go through a massive polygon reduction. I was afraid it was a little much. The model you see is a respectable 10-11k on triangles leaving some room to add extra details or turrets down the road.

yeah, lol I wouldn't have gone so high poly on it, that was my fault really on the Starbase but you did say you had a program that allowed you to cut back the polys on very high poly count models. The thing you want to retain the most of the model is the shape

right on the starbase, yes there are some missing poly's I see them on the 8 main spikes sticking out on the bottom and top parts. I believe you know what I'm talking about

Okay, another thing I noticed after loading a saved game, the Starbase is doing the same thing as the basic attack frigate was doing before. It isn't attacking, no weapons are shooting and it isn't doing damage to any enemy ships that are in firing range. This is the Nephilim Starbase mind you

Hopefully the issue related to lack of null points for weapons on the starbase.

Mmm, I see well knowing you things will be fixed soon enough :p

So here is the latest status for the private alpha build.

I have all the Nephilim capital ship models with basic textures and all necessary mesh points.

I have most of the Nephilim frigate models with basic textures and all necessary mesh points (the LF may still be outdated, will check that when I get home). The incomplete frigates include the colony, flak, utility, and starbase constructor. I don't have a good model for the flak right now. I also need one more model for the utility or starbase constructor. The one I have would work well for either and I may finish another I've been working on unless you have an idea. Another option is to place the starbase constructor on an existing frigate with a higher deploy cost to conserve on models needed. Thoughts?

Questions:
Do we want a anti-module unit? I'm leaning towards no, these units will already be pretty strong. Maybe an upgrade that turns the siege units into an anti-module unit for late game cleanup?
Do we want mines? I'm not a fan of mines personally, but would entertain the idea especially if they had interesting abilities.

I would stay away from the starbases for now too. I need to finish wiring them up to their research trees and abilities. I also still need to add the necessary mesh points to the Nephilim Starbase.

Nephilim orbital cannon and modules will be next on the list after we confirm the ships are all working as intended.

Am hoping to get back to the Plague race soon. Was able to make some neat progress on the light frigate and heavy cruiser in between all this.

Mmmm... the siege units tend to be very well... paper thin in defense and don't they usually go RIGHT after the planet? as for the flak, utility and starbase constructor I'll see what I can do.

Personally I never use mines myself, I always found it to be rather tedious to maintain them and another thing is most of the time pirate ships invading or enemy fleets invading tend to shoot them down before they even have a chance to do the damage they are intended to do. Also another fact I don't like about mines is you get enough of them they impact the games ram usage which slows the game down considerably when it comes to mid to late games. I nix the mines, though... here is a thought for a ship ability, have one of the combat utility ships spawn a homing mine during a fight or a few mines, maybe 2 or 3, be a good way to counter an enemy capital fleet if you have nothing else available in the grav well at the time the enemy fleet invades.

going back to the siege unit, maybe giving them a bit more health hull and shield wise would help a bit, maybe a bit more armor too, though again the issue pops up with them going directly for the planet instead of the structures/modules around the planet.

Starbases, I can understand not wanting to do them right away, but just make sure they have the null points for weapons that way they are usable at least, Can't really test the effectiveness if they don't fire again after I load a saved game. It's confusing to find there abilities but once I know which ones are which I got no problem.

About the last model I send you, the incomplete one, I can send the complete one but that's if your gonna use it, of course I also gave you a candidate super weapon model which you are free to add on too and make it more mean looking or as the Nephilim canon shape, make it more angelic like, tries to sort of duplicate that kind of look with the rings though it didn't come out quite like I wanted, I just could figure out how to do it exactly.

and for now I'm out of ideas

I can't really disagree on the mines at all. They just aren't very fun in my opinion. Now I've got some thoughts on the Plague race that might work as a mine

They would act more like the pirates siege frigates and attack the planet until it is destroyed then go after the structures. Of course a human could micro them to the task.

I'm hoping to attach the starbase soon or inbetween waiting for other items to progress. At a minimum I could add in the points to atleast make the model servicable in game.

Check out the latest build. I did a little smoothing on this guy and put it is as the Nephilim Capital Support ship. I think it looks pretty cool.

Any thoughts on that deploying a mobile mine ability to a ship, I know the Vasari have this ability cause this was an added one to one of their units, it doesn't have to be many mines, 2 or 3 that home in on a target and does a good deal of damage. thinking about it though... maybe it would be smart to create the ability for a capital ship, especially if we're both concerned about bogging the game down Glad you were able to fit that new ship in, also this is a small question on my part, do you plan to use all the engine points on the models I've given you? I noticed you installed engine exhaust trails on some of the smaller engine points then the larger ones.

Also a small request, though I'm not sure you'll agree with it but I don't like stationary fights, I like the dynamic fighting of ships flying around and duking it out, take the Star Trek mod for example all the ships are moving, even the cap ships, though the ships in the Star Trek mod have 360 degree firing arcs which I thought wasn't possible in this game but it seems it is. Maybe looking into the Dynamic movement and 360 degree firing arcs would be a good thing to add to make it more unique and dynamic and make fights more challenging and exciting. I know sins doesn't rely on accuracy for hits (I wish it did) it's just I don't like the whole stationary fighting thing when it's space we're talking about, anyone in there right mind WOULDN'T sit still in a fight unless they had the huge amount of armor and shields to take a full on barrage of punishment, but even then a stationary target is a sitting duck asking to be shot by a sniper or artillery round.

I know this from experience playing EVE, when your in a fight even though it is slow paced combat you never, never sit still, 1. your a sitting duck, 2. your an easy target for ships that can cripple your ability to fight. 3. being able to move and analyze the situation and the fight to later come to a realization that you are outmatched and outgunned, since your moving your able to retreat to a better position, and lastly, 4. It's easier to hit a stationary target then it is to hit a moving target, when your ship is moving it takes less damage to shields and hull/armor because instead of a direct hit you have glancing hits.

I think this will fit the plague theme more than the Nephilim. I'm pretty much thinking the Nephilim won't have mines at this point unless some ability surfaces that makes them fit better. Just having exploding mines isn't enough, there needs to be some context to it and I'm just not seeing it for Nephilim at this point. Maybe some toxic substance ejected from a Plague capital ship would make sense and give it a cool secondary affect too (not sure what that is yet).

Umm... The answer is Yes!   The models will get iterated over multiple times, hopefully making an improvement each time this occurs. This first pass I simply wanted to have some exhaust trails so the ships didn't look like floating blocks I'd say at this point our models look good compared to some other mods, but we have a lot of room for improvements.

Did the original dynamic movement mod ever get completed for the base races? I'm not opposed to it as maybe a stack-able version of the mod for those that like dynamic movement, but I haven't done any work in that regard. I think there were a lot of issues that even the Star Trek team had to fix to keep frigates from flying outside of the gravity well due to weapon ranges and other such stuff. Maybe we could research it and make some of the ships use dynamic movement as an add-on. Need to get the core mod closer to finished first though before I'll have time to look at that.

Yeah, two mods that are large that I know that use dynamic movement is the Distant Stars mod and of course the other mod I've already said. Easiest way to get use of the mod is to ask one of the teams how they did it or instructions in how to do it with the least mistakes as possible, and yes I agree with the add-on thought, not everyone who will play this mod will like using dynamic movement, but at least the option will be on the table for them. But this is for the future, correct you are that we need to get the base of the mod down and planted firmly to the ground before we can elevate it to a higher status

Ok, new build has been promoted. Mainly factory and main view icons for the existing ships (That was a lot of work!). Hope you like how they turned out. I still have most of the frigates unlocked but will probably put back in the prereqs in the next build.

I can't figure out why the light frigate has a missing polygon. I may have to rebuild the model from the original source and see if it happens again

Life drain should work better now too. I tweaked the necessary hull loss percentage to help it activate sooner.

right, I do hope you know which area of the ship the polygon that is missing is, cause as you know I can't get the game to take screenshots for some reason... I'm a bit on a half glass empty thought that I'll get little to not response from support part of the forum besides other members. I've even done a search on the forums for possible solutions into the matter and it seems to happen a lot though I don't see from what I read a plausible way to fix it.

Yep, I see the missing polygon too. The model looks good in XSI and 3dcoat but just won't show in the game. It won't be too difficult to redo from scratch and re-import. I'll work on it with the other models that are pending.

Another way to take screen shots is to go into window'd mode and use alt+shift+[print screen]. This is a useful way to take screenshots from any windows application.

Don't forget the missing poly on the Starbase, I'm sure you've noticed it cause it sticks out like a sore thumb. I'll try getting some alpha shots of Nepilim owning enemy ships out I'm sure people are dying and wondering what's all the buzz about this mod. I absolutely love that fact that you incorporated my Radiance Mk 2 model, that's a complete surprise to me I love even more the awesome missile spam the long range frigates can do... lol reminds me of playing Darkspace and playing as ICC since they are the missile spam faction

Okay Zombie I noticed something rather funny but completely wrong, ships fly STRAIGHT through the Starbase instead of flying around it   lmao...

Edit:

While I'm on the subject of the Starbase and any defensive structure, Starbase should cover a larger area, I think currently it only covers about 1/5 or 1/6 the gravity well, It should really cover a 1/4 or at least 1/3 the gravity well. Defensive platforms I think should also cover more area maybe a 30% to 50% boost, though it would be for balancing purposes to keep it within a acceptable range so it doesn't unbalance the playing field. I know you still haven't gotten the range factor out of diplomacy vanilla yet, though I though I'd just toss these out and let you know even if you have already thought of it and have plans

Edit... again:

Okay... Starbase weapon null points aren't fixed apparently

Thats an interesting thought. Lets add it to the back burner as something to play with later.

OMG, lol. Okay, check now. I haven't fixed the missing polygon, but you have weapon points and researchable stuff that makes more sense. It's not complete and I doubt the abilities work right (need to test those), but you can add weapons, hull, etc...

I checked the existing starbase today and it appeared to do the same thing... Straight through the Advent starbase They seemed to go around other structures, but straight through the starbase. Not sure what is happening there.

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

THEY'RE BACKWARDS!

not again...

I shall fix your acid streams as I make a muzzle effects...

sorry sorry sorry

@Syneptus Thanks a lot. TBH I couldn't make up my mind if it was backwards or not

I really appreciate you adding some custom touches to the particle effects. Thanks again.

Some screenies...

Poor sova doesn't stand a chance!

Thought this shot just looked nice.