LinkUp

[00Davo]

LinkUp takes place seven years after the events of Darwinia. The Darwinians have been exploring the Internet for quite a while now. One day, a sudden outbreak of the Virus floods Launchpad! Dr. Sepulveda immediately closes off all trunkports and external connections, securing the rest of Darwinia and containing the Virus. Before activating the new antivirus system to disinfect the Launchpad, he spots a mysterious device...

It's heavily WIP, and not really very playable yet. Still, you may find it interesting.

LinkUp v0.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?d22dzzkamy2

[hitm4n]

Its very cool to see a new mod come out, do you plan to finish it ?

One thing to note though, its HUGE ! 4.35mb Rared ? There should either be a whole load of new models or music included ? Or maybe you included a lot of the Darwinia base files that you maybe didn't need to.

Well, d/loading it now to include it in the ModList site. I hope maybe you can shrink it down or i won't be able to host it. Can anyone else offer advice on this mod ?

[xander]

Its very cool to see a new mod come out, do you plan to finish it ?

One thing to note though, its HUGE ! 4.35mb Rared ? There should either be a whole load of new models or music included ? Or maybe you included a lot of the Darwinia base files that you maybe didn't need to.

Well, d/loading it now to include it in the ModList site. I hope maybe you can shrink it down or i won't be able to host it. Can anyone else offer advice on this mod ?

Most of the extra bulk comes from including the files necessary to get a rocket system working (.ogg files, and shape files). These elements are not included in the Mac version of Darwinia, nor in pre-1.5 versions of Darwinia for Windows or Linux (as I recall). Thus, they need to be there for compatibility. Otherwise, there are a bunch of backup files -- i.e. game.txt~ , but these don't account for much space, and they should compress very well. The problem is the Rocket files, methinks...

xander

Other Comments: The SafeArea in Firewall is really too small, and too hard to get DGs herded into. I would suggest making it a bit bigger. The problem is that Trunkports have a "no-go" zone, into which DGs cannot go. This is the same with all buildings -- there is a circle around the building into which DGs just can't get. Your SafeArea is small enough that DGs can't easily get into it. Increasing the size of the SafeArea to 50 gets the job done.

And that is all I have time for today...

[hitm4n]

Now that i have it downloaded it does seem to be all the sound files making up 4.5mb of the whole archive. I have a rule for my site and that is no mod over 2md is included as a local download. So... for the mods that are over 2mb i will still list them but use a link to the authors site. I really don't want to hotlink to Mediafire though. Any chance of having it securely hosted ?

[00Davo]

Its very cool to see a new mod come out, do you plan to finish it ?

Yes. I plan to finish it. I plan to make it a proper level-by-level campaign. I may even plan to put a branch in.

Most of the extra bulk comes from including the files necessary to get a rocket system working (.ogg files, and shape files). These elements are not included in the Mac version of Darwinia, nor in pre-1.5 versions of Darwinia for Windows or Linux (as I recall). Thus, they need to be there for compatibility. Otherwise, there are a bunch of backup files -- i.e. game.txt~ , but these don't account for much space, and they should compress very well. The problem is the Rocket files, methinks...

Indeed. I sat staring at those stupid files for ages. Is there any other way to get the rocket going? I suspect the icons folder isn't necessary (it seems to be full of stuff for the XBLA version, such as A button icons), but I think the rest is required. By the way, the latest version of Darwinia for Linux is 1.4.0b9. There's no 1.5 for Linux yet, either.

Other Comments: The SafeArea in Firewall is really too small, and too hard to get DGs herded into. I would suggest making it a bit bigger. The problem is that Trunkports have a "no-go" zone, into which DGs cannot go. This is the same with all buildings -- there is a circle around the building into which DGs just can't get. Your SafeArea is small enough that DGs can't easily get into it. Increasing the size of the SafeArea to 50 gets the job done.

Really? I'll fix that next... Thanks for your assistance!

EDIT:

I really don't want to hotlink to Mediafire though. Any chance of having it securely hosted ?

Unfortunately, I don't have any hosting available, unless Google Sites is more secure than Mediafire.

[xander]

Most of the extra bulk comes from including the files necessary to get a rocket system working (.ogg files, and shape files). These elements are not included in the Mac version of Darwinia, nor in pre-1.5 versions of Darwinia for Windows or Linux (as I recall). Thus, they need to be there for compatibility. Otherwise, there are a bunch of backup files -- i.e. game.txt~ , but these don't account for much space, and they should compress very well. The problem is the Rocket files, methinks...

Indeed. I sat staring at those stupid files for ages. Is there any other way to get the rocket going? I suspect the icons folder isn't necessary (it seems to be full of stuff for the XBLA version, such as A button icons), but I think the rest is required. By the way, the latest version of Darwinia for Linux is 1.4.0b9. There's no 1.5 for Linux yet, either.

As far as I know, the files are necessary for the rocket. Not all platforms have all of those files. However, anything for the Games for Windows version (i.e. the XBox controller icons and the shaders) are not necessary to include.

xander

[00Davo]

As far as I know, the files are necessary for the rocket. Not all platforms have all of those files. However, anything for the Games for Windows version (i.e. the XBox controller icons and the shaders) are not necessary to include.

The sounds are clearly the main bulk of the mod's size, being the only part measured in MB. Are there any unnecessary sounds out of that list? I think only some of them are actual rocket sounds.

Hang on. Insurrection had the rocket too... How did you cut down on file size, xander?

[xander]

As far as I know, the files are necessary for the rocket. Not all platforms have all of those files. However, anything for the Games for Windows version (i.e. the XBox controller icons and the shaders) are not necessary to include.

The sounds are clearly the main bulk of the mod's size, being the only part measured in MB. Are there any unnecessary sounds out of that list? I think only some of them are actual rocket sounds.

Hang on. Insurrection had the rocket too... How did you cut down on file size, xander?

Um... I didn't?

Insurrection weighs in at 4.8 MB. ;)

xander

[hitm4n]

compare files in insurrection to your own to get a "rocket sounds only" list ?

[Greendingbat]

[quote]compare files in insurrection to your own to get a "rocket sounds only" list ?[\quote]
Thats a good idea
im dling this mod now, i'll give you any feed back i come up with

[The GoldFish]

could just put in tiny little empty ogg files named to match. Would be much smaller then, but not quite so soundallyawesome.

[00Davo]

Hang on. Insurrection had the rocket too... How did you cut down on file size, xander?

Um... I didn't?

Insurrection weighs in at 4.8 MB.

*checks Insurrection file size* *facepalm*

Could I provide a separate download of the sound files, perhaps?

[00Davo]

Went through the sound files, randomly deleting and testing. I've cut the size down; I think all those other sounds were spares. It's now just about 2MB in size.

LinkUp v0.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?d22dzzkamy2

[xander]

Went through the sound files, randomly deleting and testing. I've cut the size down; I think all those other sounds were spares. It's now just about 2MB in size.

LinkUp v0.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?d22dzzkamy2

You are running the Windows version of Darwinia, right? Then those sounds are not needed for you. However, Mac (and, as I recall, Linux) users do not have Demo2, thus no rocket, thus we don't have those sounds on our systems. If you want your mod to work with Mac and Linux boxen, then you need to leave the rocket sounds in there.

xander

[hitm4n]

I've downloaded this again and now its a size i can host. The site runs from my personal webspace, so i don't want things getting out of hand, and thats why i imposed my own rule.

I'll hold off adding it right away in case this mod now doesn't work for certain os'es.

Maybe some linux/mac/win people need to try it ?