Universe at Mod Tools!

Posted by Duke on October 31, 2008

No it's not an overdue April fool joke. Or even a schoolboy practical joke. It's the real sha-bam and it's coming to you right now.

UNIVERSE AT WAR MOD TOOLS RELEASED!

Available in this package we have the brand spanking official:

Asset Viewer

The Asset Viewer allows you to view models, animations and particles as they would appear in the game. While viewing, you can tweak various lighting parameters to see how the asset holds up in various lighting conditions.

GUI Editor

The GUI editor, combined with the GUI Lua files enables you to completely reprogram the GUI. Every button, textfield, slider, window, dialog can be changed, removed or added to. The GUI Lua files contain the code that makes your creations in the GUI Editor come to life. With it, you can completely redesign every faction's interface, add buttons to control your special units, add new menus in the main menu, and so on. A GUI file (.BUI) is a hierarchy of UI elements such as buttons, lists, sliders, lines, quads, and so on, where each element has certain properties.

Lua Debugger

The Lua Debugger is an application that allows you to, as the name says, debug the Luas files as they are executed by the game. The program connects to the game and once connected, all debug output by Luas executed by the game are shown in the debugger. This tool is invaluable if a set of Lua files do not behave properly and you can't figure out why from just looking at the code.

Data Miner

The Data Miner offers modders the ability to extract various bits of information from the game's XML files. Use it to compare unit statistics or other properties. This will make balancing units in your mod a piece of cake.

So off you go! Toodle off over to FileFront and go pick it up.

Will this be the decisive breath that finally fills the balloon of community with activity and exuberance? That's up to you!

Download Link

Universe at War Map Pack 1.

Posted by Banshee on October 25, 2008

Hello everyone! We have a new file for the UAW fans out there. It's the first Universe at War Map Pack ever. Evania, Scud and proffitt from Petroglyph used their never ever released map editor that is stuck somewhere in the backgrounds of a random lab from Microsoft to create these maps. Check out Evania's words on it:






Download the Universe at War Map Pack and dig up this game from its grave!

EAWZone.com says goodbye.

Posted by Banshee on October 11, 2008

A month ago, we've got a warning from Lord of Gifts, webmaster of EAWZone, saying that he would no longer renew the EAWZone.com domain and discard his site, which he was no longer interested on working on it. The date that the domain will expire is October 11th, 2008. In short: today. So, we are sorry to inform that EAWZone is joining the ranks of the zombies. Nonetheless, we are prepared to this event already and you won't miss much from it, for a very simple reason: All the content from EAWZone was transferred to Petrolution, except for affiliates and news.


So, this is why, in a month that we said that we would barely get any news updates, our content has pratically doubled. So, what's new here? Here's the list:

-> 4 Tutorials (Saving in DDS Format, Using Custom Files, Adding a new Fighter Squadron and File Formats).
-> 4 Empire at War articles about the game and screenshots.
-> 4 old tools.
-> 2 Official Map Packs for both Empire at War and Forces of Corruption. Each map pack features 25 maps.
-> 9 Skirmish/Multiplayer maps for Empire at War submitted to the Map Making Contest in 2006.
-> 2 mods that modified the galatic map from EAW.
-> 23 community modifications, with some interesting mods among them like Stargate: Empire at War Beta 3. Note that we've also added lycan's UAW Expanded Edition Mod which wasn't hosted at EAWZone.


Anyway, it's quite a lot for a month. And remember, you can also submit your own content here, including maps and mods. All you need is a valid Revora account (which is totally free of charge, like any other community forum) and follow the instructions in the screen. If you have any problems, PM me. Have fun! And may EAWZone rest in peace. May the force be with you, Lord of Gifts, and in your future endeavours.




Update: The domain EAWZone.com is now for sale, however, EAWZone is still available HERE.

Fan Made Map Editor in the works? Mike.nl surprise us again!

Posted by Banshee on October 5, 2008

Over any year ago, when Universe at War was still under production, Phoenix Rising and few other community members were invited to visit Petroglyph Studios to learn more about UAW. Our lucky partner has returned so happy with what he's seen in his trip and wrote an article for us about it. Today I really can't blame him if the contents of his article contradicts with our current reality, but the fact is that he wrote what has been said by staff of the company, including words like this:






And today UAW modding scene is doomed. I would be very happy if we only had the 3 month lag that Empire at War had. We don't even have the Map Editor, UI Editor and Data Miner, among other tools that were promised to us so many times for us, even almost one year after the release of the game. And modding itself was only allowed after a couple of months due to Live restrictions.


Anyway, enough of whinning, if we can't rely on Petroglyph, we have to rely on the most dedicated hardcore fans like Mike.nl to, one day, have this kind of thing. And I'm almost sure Mike can release a map editor before Petroglyph. And why do I think that? Because he has recently announced at PetroGamers that he is really working hard on one map editor, which already has a nice interface. Take a look at these screenies:









Even if he finishes it in 2016, it will still be finished before Petroglyph. Write my words, go Mike!

Regarding future updates of this site.

Posted by Banshee on September 4, 2008

Hello everyone! An year ago, we hold a lot of hope on Universe at War to keep this place flowing. Unfortunately, UAW is not very modding friendly. Ok, it is better than Kane's Wrath at this moment, since we can actually edit the XML files, but it stops here. There is no map editor and no official modding tools at all. And without this kind of thing, it lacks replayability.

The poll for the UAW Level Editor has got more than 100 votes, however, Petroglyph shows no interest whatsoever on publishing their modding tools, which, according to some of them a while ago, they were sitting at Microsoft labs for testing.


And what's left for us? We can sit and do nothing. The site is opened, you can still post tutorials, you can post your maps, etc. But we'll hardly post any updates here because there is absolutely nothing to post. And their next project is some kind of online multiplayer RPG, which certainly won't be moddable at all.

So, we stop here until Petroglyph provides something, but stay tuned at Phoenix Rising mod for Forces of Corruption, which is still going strong.




Update: According to Evania-PG, Petroglyph wants to release the official Universe at War mod tools, but they require the approval from Microsoft and SEGA.

Vote for a hope of getting the UAW map editor!

Posted by Banshee on August 11, 2008

Hey everyone! Dispite all the rumours that we've been hearing for ages about the UAW modding tools being tested for centuries at Microsoft labs, we've never heard any official word on it. Honestly, we hardly know if we'll ever be able to use it. And even those modders who got to test it once are unable to download any beta version of it.

For this and many other reasons, our guru Kelathin has been supporting, blackmailing and even bribing all those who have any interesting on creating or playing custom made maps for Universe at War: Earth Assault to show Petroglyph their interest on the map editor for the game. After some heavy hard work, we've got 80 votes. And you can vote by visiting this topic. We, at Petrolution, do support this poll, since it is a nice way to show the developpers that it is worth to release a map editor in a near future, since there are people interested on it. Kelathin's objective is to get at least 100 votes, but the more, the better. However, please, do not cheat the system. They really must be sure that there are more than 100 real people who cares about it.


So, what are you waiting for? Vote NOW and help to save this comunity!

Petroglyph Forums were reformed!

Posted by Banshee on July 30, 2008

If you actually visit the Official Petroglyph Forums, you'll notice that they've reorganized the whole thing. A lot of forums were merged and the community section of Petroglyph, once made by our budy Mastermind is no longer online, with the old community page restored. There is no more modding forum for Universe at War, although last time we've heard from them, the official tools were being tested by Microsoft. The place to present their mods and tutorials forums are totally lost at the EAW/FOC Modding forums or beyond, being hard to find.

On a bright side, the forum structure is far more simple and it shouldn't be hard to get used with it. If you wanna look at the result with your own eyes, click in this link. Honestly, I prefer the old structure.

Games For Windows Live is.... FREE!

Posted by Banshee on July 26, 2008

According to Joystiq, a big gaming site, Microsoft has made the... unexpected. Now you don't need to pay a single cent for quick match, voice chat, among other features. The only paid content will be most of the downloads. Perharps, the online community of the game has some chance to grow, isn't it?






You can find more information about it by reading the original article at Joystiq.com.

Progress on the official UAW Modding Tools

Posted by Banshee on July 21, 2008

Hello folks. For those who are wondering if Petroglyph will ever release the so promised official modding tools for Universe At War, the rumours says that these tools are being tested by Microsoft. The words below were posted in the Petroglyph forums by SCC-PG some days ago. Since they don't throw us any news, we have to digg them up. This is the closest we may know about it.






While that quote isn't clear about anything, it is better than nothing. Other non-official sources also mentioned the mod kit being on Microsoft for testing. So, perharps, there is a light in the end of the tunnel, although it is hard to understand why Petroglyph is being so secretive about this. This silence is killing the community.

Just checking in...

Posted by Banshee on July 12, 2008

Hello everyone! We've been silent in the recent days,... weeks... ok! Months! The truth is that most of the Petroglyph community was invaded or attacked by Hierarchy and their Red machines and monsters. They have abducted our Master permanently to their home planet. He is now a slave managing those who mod their gibberish. They tried to abduct me temporarily as well, but their attempt failed. Apparently the costs to bring me to their gateway were beyond their budget. However, I can't say the same about my friend Sonic, from Petro-Gamers, who got to visit their home planet. But, what about Duke? He's getting too much interested on the Hierarchy's red garbage as well.

The rest of the community as also affected by these Hierarchy attacks or simply didn't got anything new from the silent Petroglyph Studios. According to Petroglyph, they are working on and whoever finds more about it will be executed. Anyway, here's the news we missed since...errr... our last news posted a long time ago, in a galaxy far away:


-> Mike.NL modding tools are now hosted at Petro-Gamers. He has also released a new version of the .ALO Viewer. The version 1.1 was released few days after the 1.0, which comes with the following features:





1.1 brings all that and a fix an orientation bug, which makes the viewer much more reliable.





-> Also on Mike.NL, he has released a very neat tool for all modders out there: The Alamo Object Importer. This should allow you to import all .ALO files at your 3Dsmax 6 or 8. Note that Dazzles are not supported yet by this tool. For dummies, this allows you to edit the 3D models that comes with the game... or even the ones from third party mods. But remember that, if you import something and modify it, you must have the permission from the author to do it and give him a proper credit. Do not make it pass as your own, since it is considered theft and it may ruin your reputation on any decent modding community.



-> And let's end this news with a very recent news. I mean, this was done few hours ago! Fantastic, for a site that wasn't updated for over a month. Anyway, our friend Mike.NL has justed updated the Animation Converter tool with a fix for a bug that prevented some users from loading files.