Topic: Convoy Raid mission

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

I'm on MSN right now if you want to grab it off me

[Commander Maxillius]

tried it with an F-BB in Klingon space and drew the 4 freighters and q-ship, plus a B10K and C10K as defenders with a Beast Raiders DN ally.  All of this on Captain difficulty mode.


18 minutes later it's over and I had 22 power left.  625 repair bill and 657 resupply. 


Prestige awarded: 300 standard prestige, 697 bonus


lost 285 for the mission.


The difficulty rating is high enough, and mission draws according to your ship, so if you've got a BCH or CA it should be quite doable.

[FPF-DieHard]

Ok, I made a few changes.

 I set the fWait to 3, in testing insingle player, it now seems to appear reasonably enough of the time, but not overwhelmingly (depends what the other missions are set to of course).

I've added warp back in, the ship will drop out of warp out at the beginning of the mission (including warping in sound effect) controlled by the script

I can live with this 

[Hexx]

Flew it twice (set difficulty to Admiral, but I'm not sure if it didn't default back-it didn't seem that tough)
Both times used BCP+, had C7 as ally.
Opposition (both times) was 2Kzin BCHs, 1 Qship, 4 freighters.

First time, killed the Q, capped 4 freighters (which did not SD) Flew off the map. Freighters killed by the two Mirak BCH's
(C7 went down about 2 minutes into mission) some 500 prestige (base + bonus) awarded.

Second time destroyed one BCH, capped the Q (which got killed) realized the freighters were getting away, chased down the freighters
capped one, blew one up, boarded a third just before the third and fourth freighters warped out. About 30 seconds later received captured message for the warped out freighter as well as had it appear in my fleet panel.
Went back and capped the last Kzin BCH before it killed the C7.
341 prestige base, some 850 as bonus.

Both missions took @12 minutes.

Possible (?) issues..

I'm assuming freighters are not supposed to SD anymore.
 This (I'm thinking) will make capping easier as you can use the marines on the freighters to aid you.
-Also the escorts will start to shoot at the freighters, which of course means they'r not shooting at you.
Don't know if bonus prestige is tied to freighter survival or not so don't know if this is an issue.

- starting points, in the "warp in" of the first I *think* I started about 40ish out from the convoy
-some weapons  won't have time to arm I don't think, second time started about 80 away so was normal.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Second time destroyed one BCH, capped the Q (which got killed) realized the frighters were getting away, chased down the frighters

Anyone else notice the reference to freighters as "frighters"?  That they should scare Hexx is understandable I guess?

<Snicker>

[Hexx]

I'm sure I have *no* idea what you're talking about.   

[el-Karnak]

Ok, I made a few changes.

 I set the fWait to 3, in testing insingle player, it now seems to appear reasonably enough of the time, but not overwhelmingly (depends what the other missions are set to of course).

I've added warp back in, the ship will drop out of warp out at the beginning of the mission (including warping in sound effect) controlled by the script

I can live with this 

Shipping Lane settings don't really work. It's immaterial if you put that setting in or not. The mission will still show up all over the map.

Convoys priority should be set to fWait = 4; otherwise, they'll start showing up as often as patrol missions which a lot of players have commented to me that they don't want that.

[Bonk]

Ran it single player on the SFB-OP mod, was tough, took 20 minutes - 'Slave Girls r Us' and 'Nip Home Deliveries' got away, I had to settle for 'Chocadiles Inc.' - didnt catch the name of the other freighter. Captured the Q ship to finish the mission. Failed the primary objective but got the secondary - 150 + 360 Bonus PP awarded. Mission log attached. Seemed to work fine and was fun. I'll let you know if I draw it on the server.

[Chris Jones]

Pretty Please? With a cherry on top, and cool whip. Warp in would be AWESOME. Please?

Originally I had the attacking team warping into the system at the start of the mission, however DieHard proclaimed he would not use such a mission in a campaign, so I removed that aspect.

[Bonk]

Ok, I made a few changes.

 I set the fWait to 3, in testing insingle player, it now seems to appear reasonably enough of the time, but not overwhelmingly (depends what the other missions are set to of course).

I've added warp back in, the ship will drop out of warp out at the beginning of the mission (including warping in sound effect) controlled by the script

I can live with this 

Shipping Lane settings don't really work. It's immaterial if you put that setting in or not. The mission will still show up all over the map.

Convoys priority should be set to fWait = 4; otherwise, they'll start showing up as often as patrol missions which a lot of players have commented to me that they don't want that.

Yes, but it still does not show up on the current SFB-OP mission list at an fWait of 3. With a bunch of Daves, some stock and most of your missions present. Login on SFB-OP and check the mission frequencies (even with up to 5 presented at once) - Missionlist attached...

It sure would be nice if we could set it up so we can get a nice random mix of all the scripts from various scripters.

[Bonk]

Pretty Please? With a cherry on top, and cool whip. Warp in would be AWESOME. Please?

Originally I had the attacking team warping into the system at the start of the mission, however DieHard proclaimed he would not use such a mission in a campaign, so I removed that aspect.

Its back in, just tested it, pretty snazzy... look out for it on the SFB-OP or UAW server or test it in single player to get a look at it.

[el-Karnak]

Ok, I made a few changes.

 I set the fWait to 3, in testing insingle player, it now seems to appear reasonably enough of the time, but not overwhelmingly (depends what the other missions are set to of course).

I've added warp back in, the ship will drop out of warp out at the beginning of the mission (including warping in sound effect) controlled by the script

I can live with this 

Shipping Lane settings don't really work. It's immaterial if you put that setting in or not. The mission will still show up all over the map.

Convoys priority should be set to fWait = 4; otherwise, they'll start showing up as often as patrol missions which a lot of players have commented to me that they don't want that.

Yes, but it still does not show up on the current SFB-OP mission list at an fWait of 3. With a bunch of Daves, some stock and most of your missions present. Login on SFB-OP and check the mission frequencies (even with up to 5 presented at once) - Missionlist attached...

It sure would be nice if we could set it up so we can get a nice random mix of all the scripts from various scripters.

Priority Scheme:

Planet Missions:  1
Base Missions:    2
Fleet/Squadron Actions:  2
Shipyard Missions:  2
Special Planet/Base Missions like Dockyard Raids, etc.:  2
Patrols:             3
Stock Missions:   3
Convoys:           4
Ambushes:        4

Most powerful map setting flags are kEnemySpace, kHomeSpace, kAlliedSpace in conjuction with the kAnyHex terrain type flag. Anything else will get run over by these flags. For example, even though Patrols are set a Priority 3 they still inordinately show up 50% of the time on Planet/Base Hexes.  Although, the fact that hte dyna mission list are top-heavy on patrol missions, and that usrally players are moving onto a planet/base hex from an empty space hexe give the patrols an extra pull advantage.

 I once had Convoys set to come up on planet/base hexes only with radius 4.  NW had his convoys set at 4, kAnyHex, and they totally swamped the EEK convoys on SS2. So, I had to set the EEK convoys to kAnyHex with priority 4 so they had a chance of coming up.

BTW, make sure missions don't dbl-fighter bug. A lot a players AND Die #$#! Hard don't like that. 

[Hexx]

Actually just tried a Lyran BBT with B10K ally.
Fought 2 Kzin BB's and one Gorn FQL.
FQL was capped, BB's were destroyed.
Never saw any regular freighters
Primary Mission was failed ( 150pp)
Secondary Passed (900 bonus)

[Dizzy]

Ok, I made a few changes.

 I set the fWait to 3, in testing insingle player, it now seems to appear reasonably enough of the time, but not overwhelmingly (depends what the other missions are set to of course).

I've added warp back in, the ship will drop out of warp out at the beginning of the mission (including warping in sound effect) controlled by the script

I can live with this 

Shipping Lane settings don't really work. It's immaterial if you put that setting in or not. The mission will still show up all over the map.

Convoys priority should be set to fWait = 4; otherwise, they'll start showing up as often as patrol missions which a lot of players have commented to me that they don't want that.

Yes, but it still does not show up on the current SFB-OP mission list at an fWait of 3. With a bunch of Daves, some stock and most of your missions present. Login on SFB-OP and check the mission frequencies (even with up to 5 presented at once) - Missionlist attached...

It sure would be nice if we could set it up so we can get a nice random mix of all the scripts from various scripters.

Priority Scheme:

Planet Missions:  1
Base Missions:    2
Fleet/Squadron Actions:  2
Shipyard Missions:  2
Special Planet/Base Missions like Dockyard Raids, etc.:  2
Patrols:             3
Stock Missions:   3
Convoys:           4
Ambushes:        4

Most powerful map setting flags are kEnemySpace, kHomeSpace, kAlliedSpace in conjuction with the kAnyHex terrain type flag. Anything else will get run over by these flags. For example, even though Patrols are set a Priority 3 they still inordinately show up 50% of the time on Planet/Base Hexes.  Although, the fact that hte dyna mission list are top-heavy on patrol missions, and that usrally players are moving onto a planet/base hex from an empty space hexe give the patrols an extra pull advantage.

 I once had Convoys set to come up on planet/base hexes only with radius 4.  NW had his convoys set at 4, kAnyHex, and they totally swamped the EEK convoys on SS2. So, I had to set the EEK convoys to kAnyHex with priority 4 so they had a chance of coming up.

BTW, make sure missions don't dbl-fighter bug. A lot a players AND Die #$#! Hard don't like that. 

[/size]

I still want control where the mission appears. I dont want THIS type mission left up to the scripter as to what hex if any it shows up in.

Consider this, since I do not want it appearing in Base hexes, then it would seem that under the Artifex 'Base Tab' using either of these terrain types: 'Listening Post' or 'Weapons Platform' could be added together with 'shipping Lane' to allow for greater specificity where the mission shows. If those two combined dont cut it, then we can add in another terrain type like 'Asteroid Base1, 2 or 3' Since I do not want the mission showing on a Planet hex, then this terrain type would suit me fine under the Artifex 'Planet Tab'.

Bottom line is that there are certain 10 DV hexes on my map that are begging for a good convoy raid mission to show. As a map maker and server designer, I'd like the tools available to me so I can get this type mission to show up where I want it to.

[Capt_Bearslayer_XC]

Question for the scripters....

Can a mission be set up to only show up on certain ECON leveled hexes?

IE only shows up on hexes with econs above 20?

If so, we could set up 'shipping lanes' by raising the econ level of certain hexes.

Hence creating 'shipping lanes' where the convoy raids could show up.

Possible or not?  Or is this another SQL thing?

[el-Karnak]

I still want control where the mission appears. I dont want THIS type mission left up to the scripter as to what hex if any it shows up in.

Consider this, since I do not want it appearing in Base hexes, then it would seem that under the Artifex 'Base Tab' using either of these terrain types: 'Listening Post' or 'Weapons Platform' could be added together with 'shipping Lane' to allow for greater specificity where the mission shows. If those two combined dont cut it, then we can add in another terrain type like 'Asteroid Base1, 2 or 3' Since I do not want the mission showing on a Planet hex, then this terrain type would suit me fine under the Artifex 'Planet Tab'.

Bottom line is that there are certain 10 DV hexes on my map that are begging for a good convoy raid mission to show. As a map maker and server designer, I'd like the tools available to me so I can get this type mission to show up where I want it to.

Here are the possible terrain settings:

kTerrainShift            = 0,
   kAsteroidHex            = 1 << 0,
   kNebulaHex               = 1 << 1,
   kBlackHoleHex            = 1 << 2,
   kShippingLaneHex         = 1 << 3,
   kDustCloudsHex            = 1 << 4,
   kEmptySpaceHex            = 1 << 5,
   kAnyTerrainHex            = kAsteroidHex | kNebulaHex | kBlackHoleHex | kShippingLaneHex | kDustCloudsHex | kEmptySpaceHex,      

   kBaseShift               = 6,
   kBaseStationHex            = 1 << 6,
   kBattleStationHex         = 1 << 7,
   kStarbaseHex            = 1 << 8,
   kBaseWeaponsPlatformHex      = 1 << 9,
   kBaseListeningPostHex      = 1 << 10,
   kAnyBaseHex               = kBaseStationHex | kBattleStationHex | kStarbaseHex | kBaseWeaponsPlatformHex | kBaseListeningPostHex,

   kPlanetShift            = 11,
   kHomeworldHex            = 1 << 11,
   kCoreworldHex            = 1 << 12,
   kAsteroidBaseHex         = 1 << 13,
   kColonyHex               = 1 << 14,
   kAnyPlanetHex            = kHomeworldHex | kCoreworldHex | kAsteroidBaseHex | kColonyHex,


Determining whether some of them actually work like the kHomeworldHex, kBaseStationHex, kAnyTerrainHex, et al. or don't work like kShippingLaneHex will take a tedious trial and error process to figure out.

Retiring from scripting is the smartest move of 2004 pour moi. Just look at all the free time I have now. *snicker*

[Dizzy]

Open artifex and see what a map maker has to work with, but you dont really need to. All three mission scripters have tested my 'Map Seeding' and all three have written scripts that prove it works.

I just need to know what terrain priorities setup the missions so the server chooses it based on what I seed the map with.

[FireSoul]

Tracey,

I'm holding off on adding your script to OP Enhancement until you get a smoother version.. probably will include it in OP Enhancement v3.0 when OP + is updated again.. Hope that this is OK

Im hoping you wait on that and FS waits on the Planet fix.

Nah. I won't be waiting. If you have something good before I release, then I'll look at it. Keep in mind that that would force me to add actual models to the no-models pack.. and I don't like that.

.... *thinks* ....

I think I prefer to see the planets used for a while before adding them in.

[Dizzy]

It is of no consequence to me if you wait, there's no rush. If I can get it done, then it will be easy enough to use a bat file to overwrite all the planet mods for whenever this needs to be used on a dyna. Size isnt an issue, as all the planets are 1.1MB's zipped. I have pioneered your work before, so hopefully I can leave you with a finished product when SG4 concludes. I still dunno how it fits into your shiplist tho. this is more like a general patch fix than any shiplist issue.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Thanks for the feedback everyone who has played the mission and posted comments. Something pointed out to me by DieHard was to consider mission times between races, he suggests that droners would fly this mission faster than plasma races. Another thing to consider is the difficulty of the mission, it is sounding like it might be too easy, should I add in another freighter?