Topic: SFB OP Mod '03b - New and Improved! (Read 10204 times)

Rod O'neal · « **Reply #20 on:** August 20, 2003, 09:44:01 pm »

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Sat ships are easily implemented. Model.size will show the correct size of the PF and a CnC rule will allow for what loadout can be carried.

Could you explain what you mean by "CnC rule"?

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The only wrench in the wheel is if the AI recalls PF's. CnC will prevent the Andromedan player from recalling PF's to repair/rearm (Andros dont have bays to do that do they?) but does the AI recall PF's? If they do, thats bad...

SatShips are full size starships and capable of rearming/repairing themselves. The motherships can help with repairs as well. Motherships have repair boxes just like PF tenders plus they can use their own repair systems, the equivalent of SFC's "magic screws", on SatShips at the expense of not having them for it's own repairs if needed.

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The only other problem is if the mother ship is destroyed, so are the sat ships... I dont know if this is how they worked in SFB, were they able to operate independently?

They can operate independently, to a certain extent. They don't have any supplies on board them, and strategically, Andro ships are too slow to make the long journeys. So they aren't designed for independent operations. The exceptions being those SatShips with displacement devices (DisDevs). The combination of DisDevs and The RTN (rapid transit network) gave the Andromedans the ability to move at an effective speed of warp 13!!! I know the theoretical universal speed limit is warp 10. DisDevs moved the ships out of regular space though (Maybe into subspace. Nobody knows for sure.). This gave them unlimited strategic mobility and is why their relatively small fleet could wreak so much havoc during the invasion. As far as ftrs/PFs blowing up when their carrier is destroyed. This is purely an SFC phenomenon. One of those, "Hand of Bethke" things.

Bonk · « **Reply #21 on:** August 21, 2003, 09:08:00 am »

Yes there are a few loadouts that must be controlled by a CnC (Command and Control rating) rule. For example a Fed CVA can load up 24 F-111s (double space fighters) which is totally illegal. (double spacing on fighters does not seem to work in SFC). Similarly, one can load an A-DEV with 4 A-DEVFs (again totally illegal) as I created a DEVF PF for the Andro starbase. (Though I have just noticed that cartel bases all use the neutral or orion base anyway.) A CnC rule for campaigns is one way to address this, it will be obvious if anyone breaks the rule in PvP but would be hard to enforce for players fighting AI only. (db would have to be inspected...)

I am curious what you mean by a ""fixed" SatShip complement", I have made the SatShips PFs, and all the PFs can be loaded on any tender. It seems in development though, I did notice a way to load a PF on a ship and not allow the player to change it, but it was not the desired result at the time and I forget how now.

Yes, SatShips can be recalled for repair. The major issues I see with this setup are that the SatShips are vulnerable to defensive plasma where they shouldn't be, (but they absorb and consume the enemies defensive plasma well, which is handy if allied fighters are present) and the SatShips are destroyed when the Mothership (tender) is destroyed. But this is as close as we can get. (I think...)

I have been playing the Andros in a single player custom conquest campaign and did ok in the starting A-ASP but when I bought an A-COQ and traded in the ASP I found the enemy AI drawn too much to handle. I haven't won a patrol (ED) yet. This is because the mothership's bpv includes the bpv of the default loadout, which is the bpv used in mission matching. I am thinking I will try loading all the motherships with the smallest SatShips (the player can load their desired (legal) loadout themselves), and reduce the mothership bpvs accordingly. As it is my A-COQ usually draws a gorn CVA, BBm and DNT, with another COQ and EXP as allies (which promptly suicide), which makes for a pretty much impossible patrol - pretty impressive looking though.

Missionmatching is the toughest problem with the Andros as far as I can see now, I think I can remedy the situation as described above (input is welcome) but it will take a bit of time and testing. I'm moving Friday and will be offline soon, but I want to get back to this as soon as I get reconnected.

Rod O'neal · « **Reply #22 on:** August 21, 2003, 07:14:09 pm »

I had to look at a shiplist that I had done with Andros to see how I did it myself (fixed loadouts). It's been a while since I messed with them.

What I did was to make them ff's and cl's instead of ftr's. (sm. and med. satships ff, lge. cl) They are, afterall, full size starships. When you put them in the hangers in your shiplist they work fine. If you try to change them out though, they can't be found by spacedock. They also show up in fleet control when they're done this way. This can be a problem if you have multiple motherships on your team with a lot of satships on board. If you follow standard Andromedan doctrine of no more than 2 ships w/disdevs in a scenario this is rarely a problem.

The added benefit of doing it this way is you get both ftr control and fleet control over them. If you launch them on defend me and select the inverted delta fleet formation, for example, they stay locked in a perfect echelon formation. At least they did before V25.4.10 or .12. I doubt that would change with those patches though. You can release them from fleet control and they respond as regular ftrs do. Or if you launch them to attack but keep them under fleet control they act like regular team ships. Other combinations of ftr/fleet control has different effects and creates different tactics. Pretty interesting, IMO.

The satships without disdevs set to special and they won't be drafted in fleet builds either, as they shouldn't be anyway. Exception is the cobra. It was used by the Andros independent of a mothership. So, leave that available.

These are just somethings that I had done. Since using them in SFC incorporates a whole lot of compromises anyway, they're fun to try different configurations to see which you prefer. The best that you can accomplish is to create ships/systems that has the "racial flavor" of Andromedans and hopefully require similar tactics to be successful when flying them.

Bonk · « **Reply #23 on:** August 21, 2003, 11:12:08 pm »

Ah, very interesting, thanks for the input. That seems like what I recall of a fixed loadout. What happens in a campaign when one is destroyed in mission, can it be replaced in supply? I dont think so, which would pose a problem but then I may be wrong. If they cannot be replaced then this solution is not much good to me as I would like to be able use them in a campaign. There are some real advantages to their behaviour as "fixed loadouts" though, that combination Fighter/Fleet control you describe sounds pretty cool. Good idea to restrict or set the satships to special, I'll look at that, or leave them as PFs only (but again I see mission matching issues...). I was playing a friend tonight and he complained about the excessive batteries (no PA panels anyway) and low cloak cost on the Andros (even as he was blowing one up...). I may look at reducing the number of batteries and increasing the cloak cost of the larger ships. I need to work down the BPVs for mission matching, that might be one way. I'm offline as of tonight but I'll be back soon!

CptCastrin · « **Reply #24 on:** October 06, 2003, 05:58:51 pm »

Any new word on this project?

Bonk · « **Reply #25 on:** October 07, 2003, 08:48:40 am »

I just got settled at my new job and got a new apartment, but haven't gotten back online yet. (Don't even have my computers set up...) I just checked the forums here and see there is a new patch for OP and additional Taldren models released! I have a little catching up to do... Once I get back online (within a few weeks) I will resume work on this project.

Bonk · « **Reply #26 on:** October 09, 2003, 03:16:05 pm »

Houston, we have a problem...

I cannot obtain internet service at my current location. My local ADSL provider (Aliant) has insufficient security on their customer accounts; one can obtain phone or internet service in someone else's name very easily. All you need is the victim's social insurance number and you can obtain services in their name from Aliant. This is of course entirely unacceptable so I will not deal with them, since they have not taken any measures to prevent fraud of this type.

My local cable provider (Eastlink) will only do installs (internet,cable or phone) Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. By incredible coincidence, this is exactly my work schedule. They will not install at any other time and share the same holidays as I, therefore no service from Eastlink for me.

That leaves dial-up, but as I cannot obtain a phone from Eastlink and will not get one from Aliant, that is out too!

There is one hope however, my worksite has a wireless LAN and I live within 1000m of the site. I may be able to get internet service at home using this, but will not have control over ports so may be unable to play anyway.

So, the bottom line is: I am offline indefinitely. If anyone wants to pick up where I left off, go right ahead, just post here to let us know.

Bonk · « **Reply #27 on:** October 17, 2003, 08:56:24 am »

It appears I have convinced my local cable ISP (Eastlink) to do an installation on Saturday, Yay!
So, I do intend to resume work on this project around Christmas, but if anyone is interested in
taking it up where I left off, the offer still stands. I should be back online soon.

Bonk · « **Reply #28 on:** October 26, 2003, 09:35:59 am »

Well the local cable contractor never showed up, what a drag. Talk about Denial of Service!

I have checked into satellite service and the cost is prohibitive, $3000 in equipment, $500-1000 setup, $150-200 monthly fee... Most will only provide a satellite modem with a usb connector as well, which requires the purchase of another computer to set up a gateway... all told it would cost me about $5000 dollars to get connected and then about $170 per month, that is just too much.

My only remaining option is tapping into someone else's network, but since I wouldn't control the gateway that wouldn't be much use to me and would probably land me in court anyway.

I guess I'm just not meant to play SFC online anymore, I must have angered the SFC Gods somehow... Single player isn't so bad I guess, I'm getting to explore other aspects of the game.

It irks me, but what can I do? The mod is not complete and restores stock files for 2.5.4.12 instead of the latest patch, since it came out after I went offline.

Best wishes all, hopefully I can move back to civilization eventually and get back online, but that will be a few years at least, hopefully the game will last that long... or maybe there will be a GAW by the time I get back...

Klingon Fanatic · « **Reply #29 on:** October 26, 2003, 09:52:44 am »

Well the easiest thing to do then would be to MAKE the mod burn it on CD and Mail it to somebody who can host it, e.g., STMODDIRECTORY or SFU.

Don't give up on this community, somebody will find a way to help I'm sure.

Qapla!

KF

Bonk · « **Reply #30 on:** February 12, 2004, 04:07:27 am »

OK, I have the Andros working on the D2 server now!

It was a silly mistake (FYA), I also restricted the battle tugs and monitors.

To login the test server if you so desire, download the mod here: SFB Mod v0.3b, if you don't already have it. Then install it followed by the: SFB OP 03b - D2 development update. That's all.

The second link to the development update will remain current with the test server, if you get a file error on login, download and install the latest D2 development update from the link above... resets will be frequent but for the rare pleasure of playing on this shiplist...

seriously, I could use some more feedback at this point on the shiplist structure and D2 play. (stock map, missions and alliances to test on)

I can get down to some serious testing on it now, already made a number of major tweaks. I'm looking toward a new complete version to post on Fileplanet soon.

There is a webmap in the works for the server - (still not fully updated to op yet but will be soon I hope...)

note: to login as one of the custom cartel slots use the following guide:

F-   Federation
K-   Klingon
R-   Romulan
Z-   Kzinti
L-   Lyran
G-   Gorn
H-   Hydran
I-   ISC
C-   LDR (Camboro)
A-   Andromedan (Prime)
W-   WYN (WyldeFire)
X-   Orion (Orion)
Y-   Tholian/Neo-Tholian (Korgath)
B-   BeastRaiders (Juggernaught, Space Dragon)

S-   Syndicate (Non-Player Ftr donor)
T-   TigerHeart (Non-Player PF donor)

...I've been busy waiting for RDSL...

Kestrel · « **Reply #31 on:** February 12, 2004, 11:09:59 am »

The link does not appear to be working.

Bonk · « **Reply #32 on:** February 12, 2004, 11:49:18 am »

Which link? All three appear fine at the time of this post. (installer, update and webmap...)

jimmi7769 · « **Reply #33 on:** February 12, 2004, 01:46:30 pm »

Very cool, works like a charm. Tried out the Tholians and the Andromedans.

DH123 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 12, 2004, 02:28:32 pm »

Cool, more stuff for me to steal!!!

Bonk · « **Reply #36 on:** February 15, 2004, 08:58:38 pm »

To login to the SFB-OP-TEST the following install sequence is now required:
1) SFB Mod v0.3b
2) SFB OP 03b - D2 development update
3) Latest EEK 2.1 mission pack

Many improvements, much smoothness...

Snazzy new compatible webmap too: SFB-OP-TEST Webmap

Karnak · « **Reply #37 on:** February 17, 2004, 09:31:19 am »

It's really cool to fly Tholian again (from SG3) and the new Andros. Great work all!!

Maxillius · « **Reply #38 on:** February 18, 2004, 02:53:36 pm »

any chance you could get anyone else to host your mod, like, perhaps, NOT LAMESPY?

There is no way there are 350 people d/ling your mod, let alone 350 people on 3 servers, and I don't feel like waiting an hour only to be bumped when I'm 2nd in line.

News:

Topic: SFB OP Mod '03b - New and Improved! (Read 10204 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Rod O'neal

Bonk

Rod O'neal

Bonk

CptCastrin

Bonk

Bonk

Bonk

Bonk

Klingon Fanatic

Bonk

Kestrel

Bonk

jimmi7769

DH123

Bonk

Bonk

Karnak

Maxillius

Bonk

Topic: SFB OP Mod '03b - New and Improved! (Read 10204 times)