Tactical Sky Wars (better than BONES)

Tactical Sky Wars is a serverside teamwork-based vehicle mod in which you take part in shooting down other vehicles. Whether this is done by a fully loaded Havoc with chainguns and missile launchers, or by flying with a Shrike or Valkyrie is up to you.

Vehicles range from a flying scout hoverbike to fighters with guns and seeking missiles, to teamwork vehicles which boost the output damage of each player in the vehicle by a specific amount. You and your team choose how to go about the objective.

This mod is based off Classic, and as such, features enhancements brought by that mod. This will be a simplistic mod, mostly all modifications will be done to the vehicles themselves (ex. Shrike has 2 weapons instead of 1). This is the first release of the mod, and as such it is in beta status. Balance and gameplay changes are abound, but your input is valuable as well! If you would like to play, host, or contribute to this mod, see the links below.

All information regarding this mod can be found on the following links:

Download available on the Wiki below:
Mod Wiki and Information: http://wiki.radiantage.com/index.php?title=Tactical_Sky_Wars
Forums: http://goonhaven.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=10

Here's a YouTube containing some sample action from Tactical Sky Wars:



Coming soon: TSW 0.9 - Modular Vehicles!
http://bhall.radiantage.com/img/TSWModScreen1.jpg
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Comments

  • Why not just play TAC? ;) (other than the maps aren't server side only)
  • The goal for this mod is a bit different than it is for TAC. If anything, i'd say it's kind of a middle ground between TAC and GTW, where there are both single passenger and multi passenger vehicles can both fight. Except there's no spawn beacon and you can't build bases, it's all vehicle combat.
  • This is the mod run by Goons Vehicles TSW! Want to know more about this mod?
    http://wiki.radiantage.com/index.php?title=Tactical_Sky_Wars has up-to-date information about every vehicle!
  • 0.8.4b Changelog
    * $Host::TSWGroundDamageFactor - removed
    * $Host::TSWGroundKills - true to enable instant killing while touching the ground and escape pack, false to disable (default off)
    * Allowed pilot auto-teleporting to all vehicles
    * Blaster Shotgun energy cost increased significantly
    * Hawk duo fighter weapon switch bug fixed

    What does this mean? Ground damage is now optional, not required, meaning grounds are walkable again. Play TSW how you want, where you want!
  • nice! Those are some of the number one fixes I would have had in mind. I'm not into the idea of playing with ground damage disabled, since it only serves to detract focus from the vehicles and teamwork - but It'll be cool to play some maps that were originally too ground-spawnish before.

    Also, did you give cappers the ability to fly vehicles without losing the flag again, or is that just for the shrikes that automatically spawn on the carrier map?

    Here's hoping we can do another pickup soon. I love this and want to find time to play more of it.
  • I'd rather keep the focus on aerial combat, but for compatibility's sake... this had to be done. Server hosts that wish to keep this option on still can.
  • edited May 2009
    Technology Preview from 0.9:

    http://bhall.radiantage.com/img/TSWModScreen1.jpg

    Coming soon: The ability to configure your vehicle... Primary AND Secondary weapons, armor types, shields, and modules.
  • I can't wait!
  • I'm also thinking of doing Thundersword hull turret changes and weapon mounts for them, have a basic pri/sec weapon... thoughts?
  • Looks a lot like the old Aerial Dogfight mode in BonesMod. It used to have a decent sized community around it. There's still one server that's running the mod. I'd suggest checking it out.
  • This is more advanced than Bones.
  • Download for TSW v0.8.4 - temporary until the site comes back online
  • Seriously?
  • Hybrid a few points for you.

    The models look great, you don't have a whole lot to work with when you make server side mods, yet keen managed to pull it off.
    The auto locking rockets aren't the easiest to use either, when you and your opponent are moving fast getting the lock isn't the easiest. On top of that all pilots can throw out 3 flares so even if you do get the lock it might not hit. The Valkyrie which has the missiles has no shields either so the time you spend getting that lock you will probably take some heat and could get killed.
    They are adjusted, some have weaker or stronger shields, just fly them around a bit more and you may see that they are different. More changes are bound to be made though.

    Last point, this is an early version of the mod, it hasn't even hit 1.0 yet. Many many changes are going to be made before it will reach your definition of "balance". Although the vehicles aren't perfectly balanced think of what will happen when you get the new vehicle module system. No pic, sorry but the site with it is dead temporarily. To sum it up though you configure your vehicle with weapons and extras you want from a wide selection BEFORE you even order it. This will probably end up changing a lot of the mod with some vehicles while being underpowered in some areas may end up making up for what it lacks with weapons unique to it.
  • Man I wish I had a pic of it but it is quite cool. All you do is press F1 and pick the weapons you want for the vehicle you want. Takes very little time and can easily be done during either respawn delay or pre-game warmup time. You don't even need to step in the invo.

    It just looks like a list of the vehicles with available weapons underneath. You click the weapons you want, they are highlighted so when you buy the vehicle the highlighted weapons will already be mounted.

    I don't have anything against bones, I do like it. I did not realize that was bothering you. Remember this is a early version and changes will happen. Balance will be found eventually. The auto locking rockets aren't the easiest to use either with both vehicles moving fast as opposed to you standing still, and the slightly longer lock time they have makes them more suited to a first strike, killing base assets, and large vehicles. And every pilot/passenger has 3 flares to top it off, just press the healthkit key to convert a beacon to a flare.
  • Wow Tactical Sky Wars sorry to say it sucks compared to Bones or TAC which still has players that get together on Friday nights. I've never seen players on the TSW server even when they're fight night is to be.
  • edited May 2009
    Well, a few facts:

    [#] Shifter is client-side, TSW is serverside. I designed that quad-winged shrike that was in Shifter because it was originally in Mechina, and if you go to the page you'll see that.
    [#] http://www.planettribes.com/syrinx/mechina/image018.html
    [#] http://www.planettribes.com/syrinx/mechina/image021.html
    [#] Before you complain about "balance" in TSW, you should actually play it. Yes, the Valkyrie has locking missiles... it also has no shields, all vehicles comes with flares, and you're limited to 4 missiles maximum. I'd say that's pretty balanced for a locking missile system.
    [#] BONES has all these havocs that fly like shrikes, and have 4 automatic firing turrets. Where's the skill there? You just fly a havoc and sit back while the turrets shoot everything else out of the sky. Only shrike anyone ever uses is one that shoots mortar rockets anyway.
    [#] On top of all of that, you're stuck buying pre-made vehicles with only 1 weapon, and there's like 382974928743 of them. TSW has a variety of vehicles that are (currently) configurable in some way, and 3 of the Shrike hulls have two weapons you can switch between. Also, TSW has Teamwork vehicles, and manned Havocs with changeable turret barrels on them, and in 0.9, you can configure everything about your vehicles, down to the guns you have and turrets you have as if you were making an inventory preset.
    I have, after much badgering, tried BONES and I was not impressed. I am confident that the more people who see TSW, they will eventually like it and play it by comparison. Unless Necrobones himself comes back to continue work on it, it's essentially a dead mod, and will be swept away by newer, more innovative products.

    Also, I'm not competing against TAC, I actually play TAC when I have free time and a pickup is going on. Saying it sucks because you've never seen people there is retarded, as I've rarely seen people in a BONES server, yet that is not my basis for calling TSW better.
  • Time to organize regular pickups. With the traffic on this thread we may have decent number of people. Could also ask a few Meltdown2 regulars to come, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you make a thread over there and I'm sure a few will come.

    I'm thinking Thursday nights since not a lot of other pickups happen then and TSW won't have to compete with TAC or BONES.
  • Lets schedule a pick game sometime this week because I really want to see what you think is so great about TSW. I'm mean if its better than BONES or TAC I'm all for it. I say we get a game together that doesn't conflict with TAC or BONES fight nights(does BONES still have a Fight Night?) that way we can give you feed back on what we like and don't like that way your MOD will pick up some players. If you announce the fight night here I'm sure You'll get a lot of players because we all want to try it out with a good amount of players on the server. I mean I'm one of the "regulars" at TAC night and when there is 3v3 team I can still have fun with them, but if we get a good 5v5 or higher game it really makes a difference so Post a fight night and I'm sure you'll get players wanting to try out your MOD, if they like it they'll return if they don't like it, you're going to see lots of negative posts here after the pick game giving you more reasons to improve your MOD.
  • Well Keen tried that before but only me and one other person came.

    Maybe it was because of either bad luck or the fact that the post was a mile long with any relevant information at the bottom of it :-\

    And what I am talking about are regular fight nights. Thursday or maybe even Sunday starting at around 8PM (GMT -5) could work. Those nights don't have the largest amount of mod game nights I think.
  • I'm always down for a pickup whether it is TAC (which I haven't played in a really long time cuz I am too lazy to DL and install haha), TSW, Bones, MD2, Classic, or whatever now that my finals are over. When you guys announce it I may even get a couple other guys I know in a game or two.
  • I'm always down for a pickup whether it is TAC (which I haven't played in a really long time cuz I am too lazy to DL and install haha)
    Man I'm pretty lazy myself but installing tac takes like a minute once you have it downloaded already, downloading it might take 5mins max on dsl depending what connection you have. You have the download and click on your mouse about 4 times and you already have it installed.
    Laziness is not an excuse......
  • Laziness is not an excuse......
    Yes, it is. ;)
  • I know I've seen that before, I think on the GH forums.

    Once this gets up we could look into regular pickups, there is interest, just lack of organization I think.
  • edited May 2009
    I'm always down for a pickup whether it is TAC (which I haven't played in a really long time cuz I am too lazy to DL and install haha)
    Man I'm pretty lazy myself but installing tac takes like a minute once you have it downloaded already, downloading it might take 5mins max on dsl depending what connection you have. You have the download and click on your mouse about 4 times and you already have it installed.
    Laziness is not an excuse......

    From personal experience. Players don't like downloading extras for mods. They want to install T2 and play games. If you have to download something they'd rather play other games vs yours therefore limiting your player base. Anything that limits player count IMO sucks. That being said, I'd bet that shifter would have a much larger player base if the mod was entirely server side like TSW. Course TSW will eventually steal all the shifter players if shifter can't make the game server side cuz people will get bored downloading stuff and having to keep their files updated. My money is on TSW going further than shifter though.
  • I don't see tsw going anywhere...until you guys can get organized. And it looks like there are conflicting ideas floating around on how it should be done.
  • There's only one person working on TSW, and that's me. I know where I'm going with it. Where are you getting that idea from?
  • Mr. Keen, your split personalities and multiple aliases may have him confused.
    I think we need a diagram explaining your different identities to resolve this issue.
  • edited June 2009
    The long awaited v0.9.0 is finally here for release!

    Download link:
    http://radiantage.com/downloads/TSW-090b-060509.rar

    Changes from Tactical Sky Wars v0.8.4 to v0.9.0

    Complete Changes:
    * New Vehicle Configuration screen - Most vehicles can be configured in this manner by pressing F2
    * Fixed bug where you couldn't change weapons while in a non-turret seat
    * Fixed bug where Mortar turrets would rapid fire
    * Annihilator limited to a minimum of 6 players connected
    * Lightning shield strength increased from 200 GeV to 350 GeV, seperate shield capacitor removed
    * Nightshade shield capacitor removed, shield increased to 600 GeV
    * Skyranger Pod Carrier removed temporarily - will re-implement with better concept later
    * MadCat explosive yield lowered; should no longer 1-shot any vehicle
    * Reload limits have been placed on ammo weapons, this limit defaults to 4

    Partially Complete Changes:
    * Finding bugs

    Planned Changes:
    * Vehicle Configuration Screen now supports configuring Thundersword-hull underbelly turrets
    * Team Damage off disables damage taken from friendly fire on vehicles
    * Vehicle In-Flight status bar, help bar, Mod Hud integration to enable/disable features
    * Missile Launcher dumbfire changed into altfire mode
    * Some kind of ejection seat system for pilots
    * Proper death messages for all vehicle weapons
    * Plasma death fire effects
    * Fix double vehicle spawning

    Ideas under consideration
    * Kills done within 30m of another vehicle also share as if they were a part of the vehicle crew (escort points)
    * Nearby explosions affect projectiles (ex. flak mortars blowing missiles/discs/mortars out of the sky, if this is possible)
    * Red/Green deploy sensor on damage/hit
    * Support vehicle that cloaks and sensor jams everyone in a specific radius (Wolfhound ECM Support Cruiser)
    * Repair field, invulnerability/damage bonus field for home base or gen proximity?
    * Retaliator is now able to use Tank weapon barrels
    * You can now teleport players from other vehicles
    * Flying MPB - Can lock targets, turret automatically locks onto target, your fire button controls it's firing
    * Charge Laser turret, variable fire time based on how long trigger was held down for charging (1-10 seconds for 100% charge)
    * Allow turret barrels to replace Tank main gun?
    * MPB Turret deploys immediately, can drive around with turret up
    * Double points for shooting down a vehicle carrying a flag
    * Double points while killing in a vehicle that has the flag
    * Retaliator, Annihilator, Manta: Pressing Mine while in a control position will allow you to take control/stop controlling a turret
    * Vehicle pads are invulnerable, but still require base power to work?
    * Pilot missile launcher for Bomber/Manta/Retaliator, uses pilot's missile ammo
    * Thundersword hulls with 1 weapon
    * Thundersword hull belly turret reconfiguration
    * Beowulf weapons:
    + Star Hammer - Slow moving, pulse detonation drive (does damage passing/approaching a target), high damage, short range, long reload time (5 sec, 10 ammo, 15 sec reload)
    + Comet Cannon - Fast travelling ball of explosive energy, similar to plasma cannon but faster, long reload time (4 sec), uses a lot of energy
    * [SL] Laser Array - Pulse Laser cannons, short range (100-150m) low damage but instant hit, fast fire rate

    Module rundown

    Weapons - Legend: S Shrike, L Lightning, V Valkyrie, H Hawk Duo, T TurboCat

    Primary Weapons:
    * [SLVHT] Turbo Chaingun - High-speed chainguns, 300 ammo, 5 sec reload time
    * [SLV] EM Pulse Cannon - Does a lot of damage to shields (400%) but low damage to armor (25%)
    * [T] Turbo Disc Launcher - Turbo Discs that don't do a lot of damage, 25 ammo, 15 sec reload time
    * [ST] Shrike Blaster - Same as shrike
    * [SHV] Pulse Wave Torpedo - slow moving, short range rocket-propelled mortars (4 ammo, 5 sec reload time)
    * [SHL] Blaster Shotgun - Fires a 6-spread of shrike blasters, uses a lot of energy
    * [LHV] Plasma Cannon - Same as Hawk Duo main guns
    * [H] Reaver Blaster array - same as on Lightning
    * [SH] Fireball Launcher - Similar to infantry version but more powerful, 150 ammo, 8 sec reload time
    * [H] AutoCannon - Same as turret version
    * [VT] Eclipse Blasters - same as on valkyrie

    Secondary Weapons:
    * [SL] Spike Array - Spike cannons, 100 ammo, 15 sec reload time
    * [SL] Reaver Blaster array - same as on Lightning
    * [SL] Reverse Reaver Blaster array - Shoots backwards in 3rd person
    * [SL] Flak AA - Flak AA cannons, same range, high energy usage
    * [SL] Fireball Launcher - Similar to infantry version but more powerful, 150 ammo, 8 sec reload time
    * [SL] AutoCannon - Same as turret version
    * [V] Streak - 4 Missiles, 50% payload, 200% travel speed
    * [V] Puma - 4 Missiles, same as valkyrie standard
    * [V] Hammer - 4 Missiles, 200% payload, 50% travel speed
    * [V] Thunderbolt - 4 Missiles, does EM damage (400% shield, 25% armor)

    Armor Plating:
    * Standard Tritanium Armor Plating
    * Gravitron Nanomatrix Armor Plating (-50% mass, half armor)
    * Polarized Durasteel Armor Plating (50% mass, double armor)
    * blasTech Labs Reactive Armor Plating (50% mass, invulnerable to explosives, will glow white/blue when hit)

    Shields:
    * None (Double recharge rate, some vehicles have this module forced by default [Valkyrie])
    * Standard Proton Shield Matrix
    * Shield->Engine converter (sacrifices shields for 50% more engine power)
    * Shield->Weapon converter (sacrifices shields for 50% more weapon damage)
    * Plasma Dampening Field (-30% recharge rate, prevents heat locking if shields > 20%)
    * Repulsor Shield Matrix (Extends the vehicle's shields outwards, reflecting all shots fired at it back at the attackers, increasing stability. -50% shield strength)
    * Multispectral Defense Unimatrix (-25% engine power, -25% weapon damage, +50% shield bonus)

    Modules:
    * Automatic Repair System - Slow vehicle self-repair (coats vehicle in red), repairs 10% per cycle (10 sec)
    * Siege Mode - Upon activation, this will freeze the vehicle in the air, lower shields, increase damage done by 100%, must not be moving and takes 8 seconds to deploy and undeploy which will leave you out of control
    * Jump Drive - Purges your energy to instantly teleport you (based on available energy) several meters ahead of your current position
    * Inventory module - Allows players per-slot to buy their currently selected inventory favorite as if they were at an inventory station by pressing the Mine key
    * Ammo Cache - Increases available reloads on ammo weapons from 4 to 8
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