Introduction and Background
Welcome to the XWA Atmospheric Expansion page! This project is intended to be an expansion of X-wing Alliance to add long-awaited game play in both planetary and moon envronments. Surface and sky OPT files will be used to create these environmnents. Included will be several new building, city, and atmospheric/ground vehicle OPTs for your blasting pleasure. All missions in this shipset will involve planetary or moon settings. However, the multi-region capability of the XWA engine will be utilized to allow battles to take place in both deep space and in terrestrial environments within individual missions. This should be the most dynamic XWA gaming experience yet. With the dedicated staff members already involved with the project, we hope to have this done in a reasonable amount of time.
Basic Story Line
While the exact story of this shipset is still in the planning stages, there are some basics that can be revealed here. The player will generally fly for Rogue Squadron as Luke Skywalker but may fly as other characters depending on certain scenarios. It is not known for sure at this time, but the Battle of Yavin missions may be included to start off the shipset during ANH times. Otherwise, the shipset will probably start off with the evacuation of Yavin IV shortly after the Battle of Yavin. There will also be some sort of "Evacuation of Hoth" along with other "historical" missions such as the "Battle for Calamari". The rest of the missions will be "fictional" generic Rebel vs. Imperial conflicts not being part of the official Star Wars story line.
Installation and Release Schedule
This shipset will not be released in parts like the Ashgard Campaign; it will be released only when it is complete but there will be potential for further upgrading or add-ons. Depending on size, the shipset will be in XMOD format either in part or in whole. To use XMOD files, you will have to download the X-wing Install System (XIS) from Defiant's Flying Temple.
Atmospheric Expansion Demo
Here you can download a demo of the Atmospheric Expansion. You will fly with Rogue Squadron in four missions in moon surface environments. Experience four different moonscapes as you battle Imperial forces in reconnaissance, heavy ground strike, and hit and fade missions. Stunning landscapes have been produced with textures derived from NASA images of real moons and planets. The landscapes are modeled after the planets Mercury and Mars and Jupiter's moons Callisto and Europa.
Download
Moon surface OPT by Flavid
Moon surface textures by Abolisher
Missions by Abolisher
Note: These missions may or may not appear in the final shipset in their original form. Also be advised that some users have trouble with the moon surface OPT disappearing at certain angles in the game. For some people, reducing the resolution to 640 x 480 has solved the problem. For others, decreasing the moon surface OPT size resolved the issue. However, reducing the OPT size messes up the waypoints in the missions and makes them unusable. At this time, there are NO plans to create a version of the shipset with smaller surfaces.
