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Hi there!
This is my first time writing one of these, so it might be a little awkward, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
In case you don't know me, I'm Cola (aka Calamitous, and about a dozen other various names, but I'll stick with Cola for these), the lead developer for Skies Restored. It's been my absolute pleasure to develop this mod and release it to such warm and positive response. It really does make me feel happy that people are enjoying the fruits of my year-long labor of passion.
I've decided to start documenting the development process for certain parts of the mod, including what I'm working on, and what you might potentially see in future updates. This can be anything from prototype files that are imminent for release, or brainstormed concepts that will end up never being able to work, period, let alone see the light of day. That's just how development goes, sometimes - you have to cast aside infeasible dreams, no matter how lofty.
Therefore, I ask that you please do not take anything seen here as a given or absolute certainty. Sometimes, I will need to discard ideas that simply are not possible, just like Project Aces did. It may be unfortunate, but it's a consequence of our dreams being loftier than reality.
Additionally, I would like to note that this log (and future logs) are liable to contain spoilers. This is, therefore, your official spoiler warning. If you are playing through Ace Combat 7 for the first time and wish to do a blind playthrough, you have been warned!
Without further ado, then, let's get to it!
Glasir Unit (SP Mission 02 - Optional KYE File?)
Perhaps one of the more famous pieces of cut content from SP Mission 02 (likely due to Keystone's Cut Combat 7 book, or EOM's Enhanced Gunplay mod) is the Glasir Unit, a elite unit of Erusean XSAMs who would snipe you from the forest.
Long Caster dialogue pertaining to Glasir Unit
Currently, their bytecode is disabled in the final mission, and they will therefore never spawn in-game. While this can be bypassed by setting "ActivateOnMissionStart" to true, like Enhanced Gunplay does, it isn't truly activating Glasir, as they were meant to spawn in a scripted event and respawn at set intervals, with voice lines playing.
I have been experimenting with SP02's bytecode and have managed to reactivate Glasir's dialogue lines by appending them to another radio group. They work perfectly and even call out where they're aiming their surface-to-air missile fire, with spawn-in lines from Long Caster and Huxian. However, the XSAM actors themselves do not spawn when the lines are triggered, and I suspect this part will be much trickier. For the moment, however, I consider even getting the dialogue working a major win.
If I do manage to get Glasir working, then you can expect it to be featured as an optional file for Know Your Enemy & Cut Content Restored. I have high hopes, but we'll just have to see how it all pans out.
New Telops in Certain Cutscenes
The term telop is used in Japan (テロップ, Teroppu) to indicate text superimposed on a screen, such as captions, subtitles, or scrolling tickers.
In Ace Combat 7, the term "telop" is used to internally refer to the squadron intros (Mage, Spare, Strider, Independent) that play at the beginning of Missions 1, 5, 11, 20, and SP Mission 01. It is also used to refer to the "PROJECT ACES PRESENTS" text at the start of SP Mission 01, and the "THE SKY IS CONNECTED,
How does this pertain to Restored, exactly? Well, I've been experimenting with the concept of adding new telops (i.e. new squadron intros) to the major enemies of the game, a la Ace Combat Zero or Ace Combat 3D/AHL. While this has been an idea of mine for a while, it ultimately took a back seat to the more important and less technically challenging parts of Restored, like Cut Content Restored or Improved Localization.
These are in the style of AC7 and would be fully animated in the manner of the original squadron intros if properly implemented.
I would personally be interested in adding the following telops in an optional UIC file (or set of files), if it does turn out to be possible:
- Arsenal Bird Liberty (M3)
- Mihaly (M7)
- ADFX-10 (M10)
- Arsenal Bird Liberty (M12)
- Mimic Squadron (SP01)
- Mimic Squadron (SP02)
- Alicorn (SP03)
- Sol Squadron (M15)
- Mihaly (M18)
- Arsenal Bird Justice (M19)
- Hugin and Munin (M19)
Myself and Cherry's Delight (aka Cherry, aka MommyOneeChan) have been working together in an attempt to reverse engineer the bytecode and be able to add telops to other cutscenes. Currently, we are very early in the brainstorming and research stage, so it may be a while before this comes to fruition, if it even is indeed possible. That being said, I'm optimistic about our chances, and I think it would be an absolutely fantastic and worthwhile addition to Restored if we can manage to figure it out.
Those are the two main things I'm currently working on as major additions to the mod. If it's even possible, I may also look into the cut mechanic of Mimic Squadron dragging the SLUAVs toward the player in phase 2 of Anchorhead Raid, but for now, I'd like to focus on these two possibilities.
Aside from this section of development, I will of course continue to support the Skies Restored project with frequent updates to fix any pressing issues or errors, and to continually support new add-on aircraft and mods of a similar nature.
Remember, if you would like to help out with Restored, perhaps by helping to translate it into another language or by sharing any suggestions you have with me, you are always welcome to talk to me in the r/AceCombat or Get Home, Be Home, Stay Home Discord servers. Please report any bugs via the NexusMods bug reports tab, as I check it frequently.
Thank you for all of your support. It's truly inspiring and gives me the strength to keep going with development. I'd like to give a big, big thank you to everyone who is playing Restored on YouTube, streaming it on Twitch, engaging with it via the Nexus comments, et cetera. You're helping spread my dream to a wider audience, and for that, I couldn't be more grateful. You know who you are, and I'm indebted to you. This project has been a big part of my life for the past year, and its success has been truly gratifying, to know that people are enjoying my passion project.
With that, I conclude Development Log #1. I don't plan to upload these on any regular schedule (rather, I will simply upload them whenever I have something interesting to post), but I hope to be posting again soon with a major breakthrough.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for enjoying Skies Restored.
-- Cola
Release. Recover. Resolve. Rebirth. The sky is now connected.
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