Topic: The Upcoming OP Patch, Multi-Era Mods, thoughts (Read 10107 times)

Chris Jones · « **Reply #20 on:** June 29, 2003, 10:08:47 pm »

Perhaps this Multi-Era Mod idea could turn into GAW for OP?

SFB-TOS-TMP-TNG-Post Voyager all in one shiplist..

SFB and TOS would be Early Era
TMP is Mid Era
TNG - Late
Advanced - Post Voyager

With Tholians, Andromedans, Ferengi, The Maquis, etc.........

SghnDubh · « **Reply #21 on:** June 29, 2003, 11:40:16 pm »

This is one of those "BFO's" ---blinding flash of the obvious--that has serious merit. Will the stardates have to slow down, or will it be acceptable to take a Constitution into battle against a NegVar?

Chris Jones · « **Reply #22 on:** June 30, 2003, 05:58:09 am »

There's a certain fun factor here. That could a story of a skewed time line in which the NeghVar goes back in time. Perhaps several Constitutions vs. a NeghVar - or perhaps all of the ships over time that were named Enterprise in one scenario. For me anything like this is acceptable. In Advanced era the entire shiplist will be available.

SPQR Renegade001 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 30, 2003, 07:27:19 am »

KF, I for one would find Andros modded under the current game very pale when compared to their SFB brethren. The foundation of tactics vs them is something that we cannot re-create without proper PA panels. Displacement I could live without, but not those magic panels.

"Never fire at an Andromaden, if you can't cause more damage than he can dissipate. All you'll do is give him more power to kill you with."

FireSoul · « **Reply #24 on:** June 30, 2003, 07:47:09 am »

Quote:

KF, I for one would find Andros modded under the current game very pale when compared to their SFB brethren. The foundation of tactics vs them is something that we cannot re-create without proper PA panels. Displacement I could live without, but not those magic panels.

"Never fire at an Andromaden, if you can't cause more damage than he can dissipate. All you'll do is give him more power to kill you with."

I agree with Corbo, and the above. If it's not worth adding, then don't.

FireSoul · « **Reply #27 on:** June 30, 2003, 09:42:30 am »

you know.. I thought of a way that could simulate the PA panels via scripting.. but I wouldn't be able to detect the hemisphere of the andro being hit. Also, it wouldn't be able to handle EPTs and HBs well. .. any suggestions for the facing problem?

-- Luc

jdmckinney · « **Reply #29 on:** June 30, 2003, 11:03:26 am »

SFCX is definitely going to do an Operation Unity campaign on OP D2 in the near future. Andromedans and Tholians will be in it, and Castrin is working on the Tholians using PlasE instead of some webs. I've tested his first couple of ships out with the disruptor/snare combination, and they seem balanced and fun. Andros can approximate PAs in one way without scripting -- using extra batteries and APR to allow them to have significant shield reinforcement on very light shielding. When the reinforcement and base shields are down, the Andro is vulnerable until the shield regens.

Still, it would be a lot more interesting to have some scripts that have DisDev and PA effects built-in.

FireSoul · « **Reply #30 on:** June 30, 2003, 11:25:13 am »

I don't think I'll have time for any scripting for a good while..
.. I suggest that someone else picks up on the andro scripting idea.

so.. assuming a 360 degree PA panel, with 66% total capacity. (good idea)

- script mOnDamage for andro to first go through PA panel calculations. If panels are full, then proceed as normal damage. (Can this be done, BTW? Can the andro be made invulnerable for as long as panels are up?) Don't forget to script degradation.

- Give Androship droneracks, but a dronecontrol of *0*. The droneracks each represent a PA panel. At the destruction of a rack, the script should distribute the stored power and allocate extra damage if there's overflow. (can that be done?)

- another question: how would one simulate the power usage by a PA panel set on normal levels? .. what about high levels? The ship would have no shields, so no power would be spent there. Reduction of power from APRs/warp themselves?

- satellite ship transport emulation would be possible through scripting. A message could appear saying "A massive transporter signal is occuring. A small combat ship has been beamed into space." No recovery should appear unless the satship is assumed to be fully repaired before relaunch. Maybe carrier operations could be done here.

- anything else to add? The disdev can't be scripted unless the ship object is first destroyed, and a new object is created at a different location. That means it would be created straight from the shiplist and thus would be a new, different, and prestine ship. .. however if there's gotta be something in the storyline about the disdev, that could be arraged in the distance, previous to a fight.

so.. can scripters help out in filling the blanks here?

-- Luc

jdmckinney · « **Reply #31 on:** June 30, 2003, 11:52:03 am »

One possible scripted DisDev effect would be to have an AI Andro, fully loaded and ready for combat, displace itself from across the map to the player's spawn location before the player had enough time to charge everything. It would give an AI Andro a free shot, and make a few captains wet their uniforms.

FireSoul · « **Reply #32 on:** June 30, 2003, 11:54:47 am »

heh .. you forget the max range for a disdev..

12 is it, for an andro itself?

FireSoul · « **Reply #34 on:** June 30, 2003, 12:09:01 pm »

Additional thoughts:

1- PA Module: Can do. Add it to equations in script. Make script decide when to dump it in space... .. and maybe even reacquire it if handy.
2- Temporal Elevator: no can do. Can't make weapons just stop in space.

3- Maulers: uhh.. .. that's a hard one, because the panels are hooked to the mauler itself. A script doesn't know which specific weapon was fired, so can't increase the damage caused based on contents of panel. (correct me if I'm wrong)

Another idea would be to control the maximum number of batteries based on batteries on the ship, and charged panels. Unfortunately, I don't think a rise in number of batteries would make them charged. (The ship would have the total of both batteries and panel's power as batteries in shiplist and would start with some damage to that system when created.)

BTW,
Additional damage: tShipInfo::mDamageRandomInternals( int numHits ) --- additional damage doable.

Tumulorum Fossor · « **Reply #39 on:** June 30, 2003, 08:20:46 pm »

My general comments, for what it's worth:

FireSoul: I agree with NOT making the OP+ shiplist overly ambitious. Better to keep it focussed and done well rather than expand out to unsupported races and do half-a$$ed versions of them (due to the limitations of the SFC2OP engine). Now, if someone ELSE comes up with a way to translate the Tholian specific weapons and the Andromedan specific weapons, consistent with SFB style, then I think it would be reasonable to revise the scope of the OP+ shiplist to incorporate those races. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. So keeping the shiplist up-to-date, bug-free, and as balanced as possible given SFCOP's limitations with the currently available races is ENOUGH work, thank you very much.

ChrisJones: The MultiEra Mod is a GREAT idea!
The "Early=TOS/SFB; Middle=Movies; Late=TNG; Advanced=Everything else" makes incredible sense. But since it is cutting across ParamountFilm/ParamountTelevision/ComputerGames/SFB/IndyModeller sources, I think we agree that it is beyond the scope of FireSoul's semi-official OP+ patch, so I don't think it should formally be part of that mod...
...but I DO think it should be an UNOFFICIAL MOD TO OP+ (preferably okayed by FireSoul).
Why? Lots of reasons:
(1) It'll help galvanize more support for Orion Pirates over EAW (which is the direction the SFC community is headed ANYWAYS, but it'll help accelerate the tranisition).
(2) It'll help galvanize more support for the OP+ shiplist, which is based on the SFB standards which seems to be serving SFC's longevity, so it's good for SFC fans even if they've never played a turn of SFB in their lives (vis-a-vis's SFC3's problems and SFC2OP's XShip2 problems when they strayed too far from the SFB path-of-enlightenment

).
(3) There are more ships, MANY more ships, that can accommodate more worthy models (as well as more VARIANTS of the same models).
(4) I assume that for any project to get FireSoul's Unofficial Blessing, it would have to adhere to SFB standards regarding HULL TYPE. In other words, not just ANY model can be assigned to just ANY ship due to rules regarding identical HULL CLASSES, which has implications in the computer game in making actual visual identification of ships more part of the game (am I making sense here?). In other words, I COULD make every drone cruiser in the game use a THOLIAN model, if I wanted, such that regardless of my Tactical Intelligence or Probes or range to enemy ship, I'd be able to identify drone ships immediately. A FireSoul Approved OP+ Shiplist Mod would allow for variation in the models but minimize the cheese effect of such a ploy, for people who play by the honor system but still want an interesting selection of eye candy.

So that would put more constraints in place in assigning ship models (paying attention to hull classes and making sure those restrictions as dictated by SFB standards are maintained), but serve to make the game MORE SFB like, while still offering visual variety.

One last thing: I think the race assignments you were suggesting, Chris, were great!

I would ask you to not forget MONSTERS. If we could work in a few of them here or there, that would be cool, too.

Thanks,

-Tumulorum Fossor

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Topic: The Upcoming OP Patch, Multi-Era Mods, thoughts (Read 10107 times)