Yeah! That would be great!
What format you have them in?

That looks fantastic :D

I really like the message log screen, as you say, it increases immersion and is efficient in use of screen space. I wonder if it would be useful to have some kind of toggle (like a preference option or a button press?) to switch between the message log and the current mission goals?

I always found that the mission timer counting down to zero was one aspect of X-Wing that was mildly annoying, where there was an arbitrary time limit that caused a mission to fail for seemingly no reason (and did not necessarily make sense in the context of the missions), and of course is one of the things that was changed in TIE Fighter.
That said, even if there as an option to ignore the pre-set mission time limit, still having the timer display, but counting upwards, is a great feature since it puts the message logs in context (as you pointed out) and also allows for mission planning (if I know that a flight group will arrive 3 minutes after mission start, for example).

Thanks.

I was thinking on reusing that screen for showing all the different secondary panels in X-Wing. In particular the message log (that didn't exist in X-Wing), the goal list (didn't exist either), the damage log and the mission map. By pressing L, G, D or M, that screen would change between modes without halting the game.

The cockpit is in Blender's own format, but I can export it to any format you'd like.

The reticules are done in a vector graphics program called InkScape. So I can save them in any format in any resolution.

Regarding the mission's time limit: What would you think about a setting to turn it on or off?

Regarding cockpits, some prople have ripped the cockpits from games like "Rogue Leader" and the latest "Battlefront"... maybe those are a good starting point for the interiors:
https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1339877&p=49365264&viewfull=1#post49365264

The Battlefront interiors look nicer and cleaner, but they aren't full 360 degrees cockpits, as the game won't let you look around: , [url=https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1339877&p=48484246&viewfull=1#post48484246]TIE Fighter.

In the DOS Collector's CD-ROM, at least, the timer didn't do anything for TOD missions. You could continue hunting Star Destroyers as long as you wanted.

If the timer ran out in a historic mission, though, your ship would hyper out immediately.

I can't recall what happened if the timer ran out when replaying a TOD mission in the simulator. I'll have to test that. And possibly the original version's behavior.

The countdown timer does make sense for the Proving Grounds, of course.

We would need to extensively modify those cockpits to make room for the game's instruments. The cockpits in Battlefront replicate the ones from the movies, where the instruments were... well... basically cosmetic.
But it could be a starting point, yes.

I never thought on this. I have been playing the Collector's CD-ROM version for decades.
Did the behavior of the timer change between the different editions of X-Wing?
As you say, in TOD mission, the timer reaches 0:00 and stays there without any consequence. It becomes a pointless instrument in the dashboard, so I suppose we should make it count up, instead of down.
I understood that the timer in the Historical Missions was there as a challenge. Like "This mision was done in 6 minutes, can you do the same?".
We could keep it like that, or alternatively replace that with a "Bonus Goal: Complete mission in under X minutes".

I tested with the GOG 1993 edition, and the behavior in the TOD missions is the same as the Collector's CD-ROM. So no change between editions.

I also tested playing TOD missions as Historical Missions. The behavior is the same as if you play it in the TOD. (I didn't bother to test the 1993 version's TOD as Historical Missions. At this point, even if it did differ in behavior, I doubt it would really matter to anyone.) I'd prefer that. (If it were an option, I'd pick the "count up" one.) At most, it tells you roughly how long the mission "should" last. It can either be an option, or for those who want to win the "classic" way, they just know they have to beat that bonus timer, as well. If it were an option, I'd always choose the version that uses it as a bonus goal.

Hello!

I just wanted to show my support and extend my sincere thanks to Azrapse and all his collaborators, wishing you all god speed and good luck!

I have just finished Tour III of X-Wing CD Edition (1994) and I do believe one of the game's weakness is how poorly the difficulty factor was implemented throughout the game. There are some extremely difficult, very frustrating missions and some that are a walk in the park.

Once the state of the project is advanced enough to allow for discussing this matter, I'd love to give you my opinion and provide feedback.

Thanks again!

Hi, thanks for the good wishes. :)
Definitely, the difficulty in X-Wing is very very uneven. You have walk-in-the-park missions next to truly hairpulling ones.
I don't think it is a bad thing to have hard missions that require more tries to complete than other. Just like if they were a story with high action/low action moments, I believe you need peaks of high difficulty alternating with valleys with low difficulty, both to keep the player interested but at the same time, to avoid overwhelming him or her too much.

However, one big problem of X-Wing is that all its Tour of Duty missions are served sequentially, even when they often jump between different story arcs.
Sometimes there is a mission in a story arc that represents a climatic moment, and the mission itself is harder to represent this. But then if the player gets stuck in this mission, he is stuck in the whole Tour of Duty, even when there would be other story arcs that are awaiting with simpler missions, locked behind that roadblock.

Please, let me explain myself with TOD 1 as an example:
1. Destroy Imperial Convoy
2. ID Reconnaissance Mission
3. Fly Point During Evacuation
4. Protect Medical Frigate
5. Ambush Imperial Supply Convoy
6. Raid for R2 Units
7. Recover Stolen X-wings
8. Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff
9. Diplomatic Summit at Sullust
10. Rescue Sullustan Leader
11. Capture Staff from Cygnus
12. Recover Explosive Warhead

This TOD is called "A New Ally", and one of the story arcs in indeed the search for new allies for the Alliance. However it is also about the efforts to evacuate of the Rebel base in Brigia, "steal" war material from the Empire to supply the rebel cause, as well as the planning for sabotaging of a star destroyer.
If the player gets stuck in one of these missions, he gets stuck in all 4 story arcs. Instead we could reorganize the missions in 4 parallel arcs with the player being able to jump to whatever arc at any moment if he has got stuck in one of them.

"The War Effort"
1. Destroy Imperial Convoy
2. Raid for R2 Units
3. Recover Stolen X-wings

"The Battle for Brigia"
1. ID Reconnaissance Mission
2. Fly Point During Evacuation
3. Protect Medical Frigate

"A New Ally"
1. Rescue Sullustan Tech Staff
2. Diplomatic Summit at Sullust
3. Rescue Sullustan Leader

"Attack on the Invincible"
1. Ambush Imperial Supply Convoy
2. Capture Staff from Cygnus
3. Recover Explosive Warhead

Completing the 4 arcs completes the Tour of Duty 1, but the player is free to complete them in any order, with the only strict order to be the one of missions in the same arc.

While this doesn't deal with the difficulty within missions, it does at least solve the problems with roadblocks, that were one of the main causes that led players to drop a particular TOD or the whole game.

I remember being stuck in TOD 1 Rescue Sullustan Leader for months, completing TOD2 and TOD3, before going back to TOD1 months later to be able to complete it.
TIE Fighter learned from this and made its "Battles" much shorter (having from 4 to 6 missions each), and quite independent from each other (although some battles would unlock first after you completed a particular previous battle).

Hello!

Well, dividing the Tour in different story arcs might be a good idea but hardly something I would consider a priority.

The mission you were stuck at is one of the 3-4 missions that really made me frustrated. At more than one time I did consider putting an end to it because really, the game was not fun anymore.

About the difficulty in general, my opinion is this (and I realize it differs from yours): there should not really be "peaks" and lows" but rather a sustained peak if you choose high difficulty or a sustained low if you choose easy.

The problem with X-Wing is that it did not allow for customizing the difficulty. You are at the total mercy of the developers. And while some games were very well balanced in this sense and could be enjoyed on the preset difficulty level, this is not true for X-Wing.

My preference when it comes to difficulty would be to check if the difficulty for each single mission is appropriate (and with appropriate I mean not a walk in the park and not a hair pulling matter). If it is not, then rebalance the odds somehow... More or less waves of enemies, change the enemy type (if viable), provide more allies (if viable) and so on...

Again, god speed and good luck with this great, commendable project!

The only control on the difficulty that the played might have had in X-Wing was to assign Top Ace pilots to the friendly squadrons, before mission starts. That was only possible in the DOS versions, though. And many missions didn't really have friendlies around.

What you propose was what how it was done in TIE Fighter and later games. The problem is that the designers had that in mind when creating the different missions, and they would specify in which difficulty setting would a flightgroup appear or not.
X-Wing missions don't have that setting, so we would need to implement difficulty settings in a more global way.
One possibility would be to reduce the enemy AI skill by one level in Easy, and increase it in Hard.
Another way would be to add the Request Reinforcements command globally, and let the player summon some generic (or random) flightgroup that appears and escorts the player.
We could also have a feature that notes down how many times a player has attempted and failed a mission. Then after 3 or 4 tries, we enable a button to skip the mission. XWA did something similar to this.

Another week, another progress update.
This week has gone mostly on the combat system.
I spent a great amount of time studying how what the OPT files contained in the X-Wing series from XvT and on. Even when XWVM still doesn't read OPTs, I think it could be quite possible. For now I will go on with the XWAU models, though.
- Models are now divided in different components (cockpits, wings, engines, hull). These components could be targeted from "TIE Fighter" and on, not in "X-Wing". I have added them, however, because they have other use: to blow up.
When a ship is destroyed, instead of vanishing, now it blows up with some explosions and some componets break off after some instants and explode after a while.
I know it sounds trivial, but it was not. I have had to cut the models in pieces and assign them behaviors (on explosion, go straight or break off). This information is contained in the OPTs, along with the model geometry and all the rest. This makes me think that I should spend some weeks implementing an OPT reader, so that we get all this information from the game files, instead of having to define it ourselves by hand.
There are only 18 different ships in "X-Wing", but still...

- FekLeyrTarg has been so kind to provide me some high resolution targeting reticles for all rebel craft plus the TIE Fighter. I have added the reticle to the Y-Wing in the game, so now you can be more accurate.

- Along with the ship component thingie, I have also added hardpoints. Hardpoints define places in the model that are used for some gameplay mechanic, like laser cannons, ion cannos, warhead launchers... But also for turrets, cockpits, docking positions and more. Again, this can be found in the OPT files from XvT and on, but in "X-Wing" and "TIE Fighter" this was stored in the game executable or in BFlight.OVL. Again, this is something that could benefit from an OPT reader.

And the screenshot of the week. Here you can see some TIE Fighers blowing up.
In the future, when I implement readers for the other game data files, I could add an option to use the original explosion sprites if the player wants a more retro style.