Ghostryder's Faction mod

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eyegore
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:13 pm
Location: Houston

Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by eyegore »

Pandora:First Contact's most obvious strength over other titles in my view is how the factions play. This then is the area I felt compelled to dabble with and try to add some spice.

This mod will replace the art and animations of the default factions as well as the 4 advisors and News Reporter.




Preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Us2bRJxI1A

Viewed best in full screen in HD. Note ingame size 320x180 so I expect some quality loss.

Image

Image

Readme:

Ghostryder's Faction mod

Installation:

The mod was compressed using winrar. Both .rar and .zip files are available for your preference. When you unzip the file if you keep the file structure
intact you could then drop the Data folder into c:\\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ProxyStudios\Pandora and you are done. This location is based on Windows 7.

Other locations if your using a different OS:

Windows XP:
“C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Proxy Studios\Pandora\”

Mac OS X:
“/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/Proxy Studios/Pandora/”

Linux:
“/home/<user>/.config/Proxy Studios/Pandora/”

To verify correct installion browse to the indicated location and open the Data folder.You should see 2 folders. "Cinematics" and "Video"

Inside the Cinematics folder you should see "clips" and inside of that "Factions".Inside of that should be the folders for each of the six factions.
Inside each should be 7 animation files in .mkv format for the expressions like friendly, Hostile and so forth.

Inside the Video folder should be a "texture" folder. And inside of that 3 folders called "Advisors" "Factions" and "Reports" and inside of each you should see
replacement .png for the advisors and factions.

Warning:
Do not install this to the game's directory on the C: drive (or wherever you have installed the game) as the launcher/updater will check the files
and put back the defaults or crash. All modded files must be in the user documents mentioned above.

Uninstalling
Simply delete the Data folder and all it's contents in the c:\\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ProxyStudios\Pandora. The game will then revert to using
the default files from the installation directory.

Mod information
The idea of the mod is to simply replace the game's default Factions with more human looking ones that furthur accent that factions ideological beliefs.
No other changes were made except to add the 4 advisors so the mod's art would be balanced with the factions. Some...or even a lot of the animations are
rough. At first glance I assumed the game played the animation file and stopped at the last frame. It appears in the game as such. In fact the game loops
the animation, so this results in visible head skips as the animation loops. Had I known this at the beginning I would have have kept head position centered but
as it is I animated them to appear lifelike. I edited them as best I could....several times over but without starting from scratch...something that
involves lots and lots of time..it is what it is.

Perhaps in the future when it bugs me enough and I have the free time...or if a future expansion adds more factions I'll redo the mod and animate them differently
or possible there may be a way to stop the animations on the last frame I've yet discovered.

There is some brief nudity with the Ecology faction animation while in the Neutral state. If young children are to play this game I leave it up to
the user to use or not use this mod. Or you could manually rename one of the other Ecology files...like 'Friendly.mkv' to 'neutral.mkv' and replace it.
You'd have to do this in another folder and copy them over of course as you cannot have the same name of a file within a folder.
My aim was to increase your immersion in the game. I made no other changes to the factions other than their art.


Changelog
Factions - initial release

Factions1.1
Changed the lighting of the Scientific faction so he appears less dark and more clear.
Redid the animations of the scientific faction so his head skips are less obvious.
Redid the expressions for the scientific faction to better suit the model.
Modeled and replaced the NewsReporter to fit with all the other models.

Note:
To update simply download the factions1.1 file and reinstall, overwriting the files when asked.
Also if you are using the beta version note that the mod will need to be installed into the 'Beta' folder found in the same location in the user directories
to appear in the game.


Permissions:

If you would like to use all or part of this mod in your own work you are free to do so. I am usually active on the Wargamer forums and am open to comments
good or bad on the mod or anything else really.

Play on!
Mark Eubank (Ghostryder)



updated version:
http://thewildwildestwest.com/Factions1.1.zip
http://thewildwildestwest.com/Factions1.1.rar
ACEofHeart
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:52 am

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by ACEofHeart »

Hi,

Thanks,Love the mod as I too thought the original look of factions were very lacking... :)

Only error I see is in the Economy adviser's portrait, it tends to over-run past the screen info box.. Did this in several resolutions I tried...
eyegore
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:13 pm
Location: Houston

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by eyegore »

Thanks for the feedback. I noticed that too. Somehow I did't resize his image correctly. I'll update the mod as I plan on redoing the science faction's animations as those are really bugging me now too.I'll post when the update is up- should be a couple days.
eyegore
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:13 pm
Location: Houston

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by eyegore »

Updated the mod. Redid the scientific faction and also replaced the default news reporter. Simply download and reinstall, overwriting when asked if you are using the older release.
ACEofHeart
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:52 am

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by ACEofHeart »

Nice work... Thanks for the quick response...
Finestra
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 7:51 pm

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by Finestra »

Thx for the nice work. I'll have a go at it.
brotherofbuff
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 4:53 am

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by brotherofbuff »

Has the new update interfere with this mod. I notice the update is not even compatible with my old saves. I tried to download this mod yesterday in the exact file it says to place in on windows 7 but it does no work. Thanks!
Chris Irwin
eyegore
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:13 pm
Location: Houston

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by eyegore »

Since this only replaces ingame images and faction movies an update should not effect the mod unless the update somehow changes how images and movies are shown.

The two likely errors is putting the files in the wrong area. remember...DO NOT PUT THEM WHERE THE GAME IS INSTALLED and if you opt in for the beta then there will be a seperate beta folder in c:\\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ProxyStudios\Pandora\Beta\Data...if not then c:\\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\ProxyStudios\Pandora\Data

recheck your file structure and your be fine.The reason both folder files need modded is the data for both the regular and beta game is kept seperate in case you want to leave the beta and go back to the default.
unsubstantiation
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:06 am

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by unsubstantiation »

Great Job!
beautifulacacia.com
fwyrl
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:24 am

RE: Ghostryder's Faction mod

Post by fwyrl »

I love this mod :)

2 Suggestions:

2) Make a censored version of the Tera Salvum for all the minors playing the game ;)

1) Maybe change the camera angle of the research adviser, the current one makes her look really weird.

Other than that, it's perfect! Grats of the modeling BTW, I've dabbled, so I know how much work and time goes into these things!
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