Lost Dragons - Total Modification Alpha

[HorribleGoat 1473]

-LOST DRAGONS-
ARMA III Total Modification
 

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When the War finally ended the galaxy was in ruins and mankind struggled to survive in the cold depths of space. Many worlds were lost, many wonders of technology forgotten, scattered all across the galaxy when the spacelane network collapsed plunging the great nations of men into chaos. For decades we were lost.

In 2235 Unity-Project successfully re-established some of the old space network bringing together hundreds of worlds and launched out a great effort to reclaim what once was lost.. For a moment men rejoiced together in peace but it was not to last as new rediscoveries soon sparked up secret arms race between the surviving nations.

The race back to the stars began as fortune hunters set out into the void to seek out glory and fame.

In Lost Dragons you take up the role of a member of a fortune hunter company racing to find one of the most powerful Old World relics, the mighty Dragon class warship hidden on a long lost world of New Eden. Unfortunately you are not alone as others have found their way here too and it is up to your skill and cunning to ensure you emerge victorious from the battle. There is no turning back now - Dropship ETA 1 minute.

Welcome to the treasure hunt.





Lost Dragons is a multiplayer total modification aiming to bring out a new thrilling gamemode for Arma3.

Our concept is futuristic objective based team warfare with randomly generated map elements to ensure every game is a unique experience with completely new set of units, weapons, structures and terrain.

+LoDR Features a 20x20 square kilometer map with unique post war/ long deserted atmosphere with unique randomgeneration element that ensures every game is different from the others. Explore the ruined cities, military bases, hidden laboratories and fallen warships to find the location of your prize.

+Complete set of new units and vehicles, from your basic gear to powerful war relics scattered around the battlefield.
+ We aim to create 2 sides of the Old war conflict that once waged war on New Eden, a civilian side to represent the long gone population of New Eden and also 2 corporate salvage companies that are now arriving on the planet.
+ Vehicles from personal transports to huge battleships, with tanks, planes, vtols, walkers and more in between.

+Powerful new weapons to lay waste upon your rivals and claim the victory
+ Both corporates will have their own starting equipment and there will be a great number of weapons and equipment to be reclaimed from the old battlefield

+Challenging main victory goal with multiple ways to win.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mission details:

(Subject to change)

+World of New Eden is covered with lush Jungle (as Arma allows it) and the abandoned cities will be partly reclaimed by nature as well as ruined by battle.
+Terrain will consist of fixed elements and a great number of randomized elements that will make every game different. (objectives, key buildings/ locations, weapons, vehicles, spawnpoints, AI-enemies)

+Max team sizes will be decided through testing

+Player takes control of a small AI squad, but main gameplay focues on team PvP spiced up with some Independet AI combat.

+AI characters will be portrayed as cyborg/robot drones and the area will have roaming abandoned AI combat drones and possibly wildlife elements lurking in the shadows.
+Supporting drone units will have quite bad aim and are there to act as drivers, pilots and firesupport. (crappy aimbot module installed)

+Players will have access to their respective teams basic gear throughout the game and may alter their loadout.
+Starting equipment selection in a pre-start menu and respawn loadout customization.
+More exotic and powerful weapons may be scavenged from various locations but beware the limited ammosupply on these weapons.

+Players begin the game from a randomized dropzone with HQ-vehicle, supply vehicles and a few light transports. (This is no military operation)
+Light combat vehicles, light armored transports, recon vehicles and personal transports are available throughout the game. (Droid pickup / aerodrop)
+More powerful vehicles may be reclaimed from the battlefield. (military bases, battlelines, supply caches)
+Scavenged vehicle may be damaged or low on ammo and can be repaired and rearmed in designated locations.

+Main objective is to find and activate the last of the mighty Dragon class Warship:

+Dragon is an autonomous weapons platform capable of immense destruction and cannot be controlled without a command module
-> First objective is to find and begin the restoration of a Warrior class Battleship that acts as the command unit and can access the Dragon (2-4 Warriors in good enough shape will be present on the map)
+Once found the Warrior will act as a forward base and must be defended.

+The Dragon is hidden somewhere in the area and the location can be found through simple exploration or by gathering Intel from various objectives
-> Intelpoints come available by time as the HQ vehicle scans the area and compiles recovered data.
-> By gathering intel you narrow down the area the Dragon is "hidden" on the map
-> Due to its immense size the Dragon will be randomly located in one of the six "ARK" bunker facilites and intel gathering will narrow down which one and also grant you access codes to get in more safely.
+ It will be possible to hack your way in, but it will be hard, slow and dangerous. The ARKs will have sophisticated security measures and you might even wake the Dragon from its slumber if you fumble.

+Once operational the Warrior battleship must be flown (yes flying battleships) to the Dragons Location and they both need to be defended during docking procedures and while the Dragon powers up.
-> Both sides have access to Warriors and may interfere with the docking procedures or even steal the Dragon if they manage to down the other Warrior or board the Dragon.
+Note that these are very powerful vehicles and will need full team effort to manage full operational status and also taking one down is not an easy job.
-> Once the Dragon is awakened there is still a change for the opposing team to sway the race as the round will end when the Dragon completes its powerup sequence and becomes fully operational.
+By attacking certain weakspots with enough power the sequence may be interrupted and if the winning team is held off long enough the Dragon may be stolen even in its awakened state.


New factions are as follows:

WesT/Blufor:

Hastur Corp : Salvage corporation (Player faction in "Treasure Hunt" gamemode)

East/Opfor:

Blackbird Salvage INC. : Salvage corporation (Player faction in "Treasure Hunt" gamemode)

Independet:

"Old War attacker name placeholder" : Old War Attacker faction

Civilian:

"Old War Defender name placeholder" : Old War Defender Faction

"New Eden Civilians": Old War Civilians

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Downloads:
Very old release version:
Version 0.1.99 Download
New one worked on as fast as we can!

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You may find us at:


MODDB - LOST DRAGONS

and

Make Arma Not War - Contest
Your support is always appreciated!


For most up to date news, follow us at MODDB

        







 

more pictures from early development:

 

Ingame shot

Test render 1

Test render 2

Test render 3

WIP Map

OpFor AR-42 WIP1

OpFor AR-42 WIP2

AR-42 Ingame WIP

Test render of a jungle tree

Tree Ingame!

AR-42 Redesign A

AR-42 Redesign B

Armored Transport Vehicle WIP 1

WIP Flyer Sneak Peek 1

WIP Flyer Sneak Peek 2

WIP Walker Sneak Peek 1

WIP Walker Sneak Peek 2

Walker Leg Design Test - video

New Bluefor Corporation armored explorator suit

Opfor armored suit SneakyPeek

Opfor Dropship 2 3 4

Opfor Recon Vehicle interior WIP

Map Revisited V 6

New Fern bush foliage and first shot of the map ingame

Dragon Sneak Peek 01

WIP Objective Asset 01

HK-4002 Hacking Tool WIP

Armored Recon Vehicle 1 2 3 4

Alpha footage of the Hacking Tool in action

Aegis Close Defence System

Blufor Corporation Drone WIP
 

Original alpha release post:
 

 

Greetings!

We are happy to announce that Lost Dragons has reached first Alpha release!

Showcased features include:

+Our new command line interfaced hacking system that is based on a very versatile functions and scripts that will be used all around our mod

+First sneakpeek to some of our new vehicles and characters (multi-barrel-multi-turreted 220m long flying battleship for example)

+Fisrt WIP release of our new 20kmx20km map, the Necropolis (First enviroment & atmosphere demonstration. All new ground textures and plant life)


There are two tutorial missions which are meant for hacking interface practice and testing, one for singleplayer and one for multiplayer.

The multiplayer "gamemode": Hacking contest bids players agains each other in a free-for-all live weapons exercise on Stratis Island just to show that the interface system is totally independent and will eventually be available for the community to be used anywhere you want.

Readme file inside the package gives a bit more indepth explanation about the many functions and scripts build to power up our features and we would very much like your input early on in our mod development!

Download link HERE

For more info check out our entry in the MANW contest and our ModDB page and our MANW Forum page



We would very much appreciate you testing out the hacking interface and feedback on your first impressions, was it easy/hard to use etc. Note that it is intended to be a bit slow and perhaps even hard to use for the first time as in the final gamemode, the "Treasure Hunt" you really need to protect the hacking player in order to complete your objective. So it is meant to be a team effort really.

Happy hacking!

HorribleGoat & Rest of the dev team

[xidarkreaper 12]

Great job on making it to alpha!

[HorribleGoat 1473]

For the interested I've planned on hosting a couple of testruns tomorrow for the "Hacking Contest" tutorial mission so give a shout what time would be good and I'll make it happen. (We're on GMT/UTM+3 (summertime) timezone so please take that into account with your suggestions)

Great job on making it to alpha!

Thanks and tell your friends too! ;D

[ante185 2]

huh, that'd would be something to keep tabs on. will you post about that in this thread? i mean lets have some subscription efficiency here!

edit: could you provide another mirror? mod DB is having a cough. sorry they sorted their shit out.

Edited September 7, 2014 by ante185

[PenguinInATuxedo 18]

DLing now, Looks cool.

Please post server IP in this forum when you need people to come play, I'm in Australia but I will try.

[HorribleGoat 1473]

huh, that'd would be something to keep tabs on. will you post about that in this thread? i mean lets have some subscription efficiency here!

edit: could you provide another mirror? mod DB is having a cough. sorry they sorted their shit out.

Great that you got ModDB to play! They sometimes got quite strain on the DL servers.

I started the main thread over at the Make Arma Not War sub-forum and I will keep that as the main post thread for now.

Gotta start thinking about migrating over here to the Discussion page though as the MANW is closing soon and it would be silly to keep posting there afterwards I think. Besides it seems people do browse this side more often.

DLing now, Looks cool.

Please post server IP in this forum when you need people to come play, I'm in Australia but I will try.

Will do that!

[HorribleGoat 1473]

We'll be testing out both dedicated and regular servers this evening! Put in Lost Dragons into your server filter and our servers should pop up.

Dedicated server has some issues that will be rooted out but normal mission seems to work like a charm! Feel free to pop in!

Edited September 7, 2014 by HorribleGoat

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Lost Dragons alpha 1

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account (HorribleGoat) on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

** Note:

since this is a project on which more people are working we will contact you in the future to discuss how you want this to be setup on Armaholic.

[kecharles28 197]

New mod v0.1 alpha available at withSIX. Download now by clicking:

[HorribleGoat 1473]

Foxhound! Thanks a million! We were wondering what caused such a peak in our page visitor numbers! We are honored to be released on Armaholic and withSIX.

Thank you both!

[Guest]

Your welcome!

Hotfix frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Lost Dragons alpha 0.1.1

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account (HorribleGoat) on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

** Note:

since this is a project on which more people are working we will contact you in the future to discuss how you want this to be setup on Armaholic.

[drakedaeron 13]

Your mod is promising!

I find your vehicles beautiful, in spite of the lack of sound for cars and the big tank.

It's a good alpha ! The battleship is terrifying, on the other hand it has a really bizarre behavior when it is the IA which pilots it, it turns on itself to rise in height!

But it's an Alpha ! You can fix this bugs !

I find the appearance of the characters very original !

Good courage !

[HorribleGoat 1473]

The battleship is terrifying, on the other hand it has a really bizarre behavior when it is the IA which pilots it, it turns on itself to rise in height!

Thank you!

Yeah the pilot does not know what to do with it :D Never has. Might be because of the size or more likely because the flight model is untweaked. It is somewhat close to how we would like it to fly (heavy and cumbersome), but might be that helicopter simulation just wont cut it and we'll go back to the VTOL enabled plane. That had quite a lot of trouble back then, but I've got a couple of ideas on how to make it work.

In anycase it is not meant to be flown by AI in our gamemode, but It would of course make it more complete if it could.

[deltagamer 612]

This looks really good, reminds me of battlefield 2142. Keep up the great work!

[drakedaeron 13]

Yeah, I think that the model of flight of helicopters would very well be to adapt to your battleship.

Especially with regard to artillery place under the battleship.

[quiet_man 8]

I like it

the island is nice. I assume you will work on the buildings :)

so just as a side note: I found it irritating that they collapse to ground level. I suggest to keep some building at least half or even higher standing when being "destroyed".

[HorribleGoat 1473]

Thanks quiet_man!

Yes the buildings are just placeholders to work out proper layout and get a feel of the building masses and dimensions. They will eventually have proper interiors and destroyable parts.

[HorribleGoat 1473]

Little video to commemorate our 100+ supporters!

More at our MANW contest page

[HorribleGoat 1473]

Muahhahhaaa Walker took its first animated steps today! Now just have to fix the animation to the right action... :D But still its really really awesome! The long hours are paying off.

UPDATE

Our little project takes one step forward as the firs walker animations are in game! This is an epic victory since it has taken a great deal to familiarize myself with arma rtm animation and to find proper tools to create a new custom skeleton and animate it to my liking.

But now the time has come and my quest is complete. ONWARDS TO GLORY! :D

Walker Walks - ModDB Video

(youtube video is still uploading so those in a hurry check out the ModDB link!)

Edited October 9, 2014 by HorribleGoat
WALKER WALKS! Video Link update

[woore 10]

I have to ask: any plans for exos?)))

Great mod, HorribleGoat, it's wonderful to see such high-quality sci-fi tactical shooter! Keep it up! Do you work on 2 mods at the same time?

p.s.: is that possible to stabilize walker turrets?

[HorribleGoat 1473]

I have to ask: any plans for exos?)))

Great mod, HorribleGoat, it's wonderful to see such high-quality sci-fi tactical shooter! Keep it up! Do you work on 2 mods at the same time?

p.s.: is that possible to stabilize walker turrets?

Thanks woore we are glad to hear you like the concept! Yes we do work on two projects although some of the work especially with the scripts and functions can be shared with both.

If by exos you mean almost man sized exosuits like for example in Aliens we have toyed with the idea and would really like to make them! Only downfall is that they would require great deal of work because they would need even bigger humanoid like animation package than the walker legs. But yes when time allows it. Basically anything in anyway larger than regular human requires new set of animations and they take long time to make. Some scavengable battle armors might be a bit bulkier at least what we've tried out the default animation set is quite unforgiving with anything too large.

The turret axis stabilization is a bit tricky one due to the way the walker is created and unfortunately does not work in multiplayer right now. We will ask if Bohemia has any advice on the matter, but it might be that the walking will affect the aiming a bit. I do have couple of ways to bypass this problem in mind, but they are quite experimental methods. It is currently disabled but we will most definitely try since it works in singleplayer!

[woore 10]

If by exos you mean almost man sized exosuits like for example in Aliens we have toyed with the idea and would really like to make them! Only downfall is that they would require great deal of work because they would need even bigger humanoid like animation package than the walker legs. But yes when time allows it. Basically anything in anyway larger than regular human requires new set of animations and they take long time to make. Some scavengable battle armors might be a bit bulkier at least what we've tried out the default animation set is quite unforgiving with anything too large.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! So, I wish you good luck with it, since I'm partially realize how tricky the animation work is. BTW, if you need some inspiration with design and exosuit concepts, take a look at Section 8, these and these

The turret axis stabilization is a bit tricky one due to the way the walker is created and unfortunately does not work in multiplayer right now. We will ask if Bohemia has any advice on the matter, but it might be that the walking will affect the aiming a bit. I do have couple of ways to bypass this problem in mind, but they are quite experimental methods. It is currently disabled but we will most definitely try since it works in singleplayer!

Hm, did you take a look at UAV gunner camera? It is stabilized in different way, than tank/heli cannons, could it be a solution? Also, would it help if you define the whole upper hull as a turret?

Ah, one more: what anti-air devices are planned?

Edited December 30, 2014 by woore

[HorribleGoat 1473]

The main problem is that the legs and turret are separate objects with different classes. The legs are custom man class so that we are be able to utilize the RTM animations and the "walking" units behaviour with the terrain as it is quite different from vehicles. The torso is a tank class object attached to the legs with the power of "attach to" scripting and this is where the problem lies. When in multiplayer the attached object behaves almost perfectly but the the turret axis stabilization lags a bit behind when the legs move. In single player this problem has not occurred but since it happens in multiplayer, it is unusable at this time and has been disabled for now.

I have not checked the UAV camera but I if it has some different mechanism I must check it out.

Other solution I've had in mind is to script our own turret stabilization system for the walkers that would adjust the turret angles automagically, but we'll see how it goes. I personally think that the slight bounce on the guns is a rather good "negative" quirk with the walkers and might actually be good for gameplay balance although it is not very consistent with the high end technology level.

It is certainly something we will keep working on while more walker units make it in the mod. We did come up with quite nice concept for humanoid shaped battle walkers today and Im really eager to try it out. They do will have some pretty nifty features.

AA units are going to be plenty. We do have numerous land vehicles planned out from more conventional tank and car types to hover tanks and many types of walkers. Probably most chassis will have some sort of AA variant armed with missiles or machine guns or even railguns or lasers type beam weapons. Also many different man portable launchers and heavy weapons will be available in due time that can bring down at least lighter aircrafts. I do want to mention though that most vehicles will be in quite bad shape or low on ammo and/or fuel to make the players evaluate their tactical worth and choose carefully what they use.

And thanks for the pic links :D I've collected around 3Gb of concept material and have actually seen those and picked my favourites from them some time ago. We do try to find our own design style with all the models but there are some really really cool design out there that sometimes heavily affect our work too, we just hope not too much. Sometimes we've wondered how on earth some concepts have never been used in any production since they are so amazing.

[HorribleGoat 1473]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

(little late but nevertheless.. )

2014 Saw the beginning of our grand endeavour with Lost Dragons and I think we've had a pretty good start.

It has been hard and challenging but even more rewarding to create something new like this and we are

determined to continue on a steady pace onwards. 2015 begins with a new update of version 0.1.99.

There are still some bugs with the latest features we are looking solutions for and new units are for concept

testing and they lack polishing and some functionality. Nevertheless They are pretty fun to mess around with

and hopefully you enjoy trying them out too! (Do note that no balancing has yet been done!)

We would like to thank you all for your support and interest! It really has helped us to push forward.

Lets see just how far Lost Dragons can go!





ModDB News link



ModDB Download link

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Lost Dragons v0.1.99

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account (HorribleGoat) on Armaholic.

This means soon you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

** Note:

since this is a project on which more people are working we will contact you in the future to discuss how you want this to be setup on Armaholic.