Topic: Hex Editing of Starfleet executables

[Corbomite]

The cloak chart is supposed to trump any ECM from any source. That needs to be confirmed.

Just to be clear, ECM is supposed to be effective during Fade Out to try to keep the tracking unit from retaining a lock on, but once you are cloaked all damage goes through the cloak chart.

As far as the range thing, it seems they might have only read the part about Tractor Beams negating the 5 hex range penalty and forgot to read the beginning of that section which tells you what the effects of a voided cloak are and that apply to everything listed in that section.

[TarMinyatur]

Tar,

Have you located how the AI allocates power to shield.

I don't know how the AI does anything. The stuff I've tested applies to all players, and thus the AI has no choice but to follow the same rules.

I could look for the shield efficiency as an array of floats...

Number of shields that are reinforced : multiplier
1 : 1.0  ; 100% efficient, but only applies to one shield
2 : 0.9
3 : 0.8
4 : 0.7
5 : 0.6
6 : 0.5  ; only 50% efficient, but applies to every shield     

Changing this wouldn't help the AI with energy management. One idea that might work is to write a mission script (let's call it MaulerFest.scr) that prohibits the AI from using shield reinforcement. The AI might be able to recharge its batteries, unless it flies around at 28 sniping with a few phasers. You also probably need a custom shiplist that exchanges warp power for impulse power on Mauler ships.

[TarMinyatur]

The cloak chart is supposed to trump any ECM from any source. That needs to be confirmed.

I suppose there could be a penalty for Erratic Maneuvers.

I am unable to easily test this in single-player mode. The AI seems programmed to not use ECM while cloaked...but I just fought a K7RB that used 2 ECM while cloaked -- so it's unpredictable.

I tried giving the Vulture a Stealth Bonus, but this didn't do anything vs direct-fire weapons. Range-1 Photons would always hit the tractored & cloaked Vulture despite its "stealth" of +2, +4, or +6.

I also gathered data on seeking-weapon damage in the same scenario. Out of 15 Plasma-F's, five of them did only 5 damage. What chart are they supposed to use, Corbomite?

Edit: I did some searching on this forum, and we already had this discussion 12 years ago. Dave Ferrell said all weapons are subject to the cloak chart. And "all" includes everything...except the ESG which is neither a direct-fire nor seeking weapon. He never said that an engaged tractor would grant any benefit other than the ability to launch seeking weapons.

We can modify OP's cloak chart. But the chart is working as Taldren intended. The problem, if there is one, is that the player who successfully anchors a cloaked ship is still highly penalized -- all weapons have a 33% chance of doing quarter damage and a 33% chance of doing half damage. Now if you anchor something with a D5D, all those Type-IV drones still hurt at 24, 12, or 6 points each, followed by a scatterpack threat. But if you anchor a King Eagle with a G-CC, your two Plasma-Gs might knock down a shield with good luck. With bad luck you do 10 points, which seems broken to me. Granted, the R-KE is a good ship and has a BPV advantage over the G-CC, but the CLF, CDD, and BC are not its counterparts. The closest would be the CA+, I suppose.

A protective cloak is good. It just seems too good a deal for a handful of ships in certain circumstances. But ordinary ships, like the R-BH, WE, and KR aren't dominating because of the latest cloak implementation in OP. Again, the usual suspects are oddballs like the KVL and maybe the WVL.

[Corbomite]

I also gathered data on seeking-weapon damage in the same scenario. Out of 15 Plasma-F's, five of them did only 5 damage. What chart are they supposed to use, Corbomite?

Edit: I did some searching on this forum, and we already had this discussion 12 years ago. Dave Ferrell said all weapons are subject to the cloak chart. And "all" includes everything...except the ESG which is neither a direct-fire nor seeking weapon. He never said that an engaged tractor would grant any benefit other than the ability to launch seeking weapons.

As it should be. All weapons use the same chart (except the ESG). ECM is the one where the charts are split. As I said, Tractor rules are complicated and intertwine with many systems. Dave was working alone and probably didn't have time or missed it. It'd be nice to get it in there, but that may be impractical with the tools you possess.


As far as the AI and batteries, you would need to raise (or place) them higher in the default power priorities to improve their performance; at least one higher than shields.

[TarMinyatur]

All weapons use the same chart (except the ESG). ECM is the one where the charts are split. As I said, Tractor rules are complicated and intertwine with many systems. Dave was working alone and probably didn't have time or missed it. It'd be nice to get it in there, but that may be impractical with the tools you possess.

In SFB, what is the effective range to a cloaked ship that is tractored? I'm sure that the doubling penalty is removed because you've obtained a lock-on -- that's what allows you to launch plasma, drones, and suicide shuttles. But is the +5 range adjustment still in effect for direct-fire weapons?

If a cloaked ship is flashed (but not tractored), is the +5 range adjustment temporarily suspended?

[TarMinyatur]

Fixed the Mirak Hit&Run Pause button tonight. All races can toggle theirs via a new hotkey. The hotkey only works if the marine panel is already active. The pause button will not visually change to an "!" unless you refresh the marine panel. But it works -- press the hotkey and the raid occurs.

Psuedo Plasma can be fired via a new hotkey. The specific torpedo or torpedo group must be selected first.

A regular hotkey must be sacrificed however for each of them. Perhaps "Yellow Alert" and "Turn All Weapons Offline  ". These are not things I usually need to do in the heat of battle. The unexpected hotkeys aren't yet sticky though. They must be set each session, which isn't a big deal because its just a few keys. If you forget to do so, the game will load the default assignments for them, but it honors all your other key assignments.

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

Quick note:

In SFB, Erratic Maneuvering adds to a ship speed while it is cloaked, for lock-on purposes.  Since it (normally) costs 4 or 6 points of movement for EM (it's been a while, thinking it's six), you'd add 6 to the ship's speed while EM'ing.  Lock-on chances have two components: range and speed.  Also, if you HET while cloaked, add 5 to your speed for lock on purposes.

Any time a ship changes it's speed or the range bracket changes in such a way to improve the chance of lock-on, a new lock on roll is made.  And if I remember correctly, the doubling went away if you locked on.

Dunno how much of the above calculations went into SFC, but nonetheless I felt the need to share what I remembered about this.

[RazalYllib]

You peeps may require me to unearth the ruleset...IIRC, all voids of cloak required a lock on check or any change in speed etc, if you locked you could fire etc at true range though all fire was parsed through the cloaked table even if tractor lock was established

[Corbomite]

All weapons use the same chart (except the ESG). ECM is the one where the charts are split. As I said, Tractor rules are complicated and intertwine with many systems. Dave was working alone and probably didn't have time or missed it. It'd be nice to get it in there, but that may be impractical with the tools you possess.

In SFB, what is the effective range to a cloaked ship that is tractored? I'm sure that the doubling penalty is removed because you've obtained a lock-on -- that's what allows you to launch plasma, drones, and suicide shuttles. But is the +5 range adjustment still in effect for direct-fire weapons?

A Tractor completely voids the cloak, including the +5 range adjustment. In this case the damage will be calculated on the normal/ECM charts. Cloaked ships can still generate ECM, even though it doesn't help while cloaked, so the voided cloak would be ignored in favor of any EW shift. Cloaked ships cannot generate ECCM as that would require Active Fire Control. Since all the cloak penalties are still in effect for the cloaked ship, it can't use it. It may, however, allocate points to ECCM in anticipation of decloaking during that turn and get the benefit of it after Fade In completes.

If a cloaked ship is flashed (but not tractored), is the +5 range adjustment temporarily suspended?

No, only the range doubling is suspended for that impulse.

Fixed the Mirak Hit&Run Pause button tonight. All races can toggle theirs via a new hotkey. The hotkey only works if the marine panel is already active. The pause button will not visually change to an "!" unless you refresh the marine panel. But it works -- press the hotkey and the raid occurs.

Psuedo Plasma can be fired via a new hotkey. The specific torpedo or torpedo group must be selected first.

A regular hotkey must be sacrificed however for each of them. Perhaps "Yellow Alert" and "Turn All Weapons Offline  ". These are not things I usually need to do in the heat of battle. The unexpected hotkeys aren't yet sticky though. They must be set each session, which isn't a big deal because its just a few keys. If you forget to do so, the game will load the default assignments for them, but it honors all your other key assignments.

Yellow Alert yes, All Weapons Off, no. All Weapons Off is good for rope-a-doping and is better than Yellow Alert since it doesn't shut off your EW or Shield Reinforcement. I'd give up Orbit before I'd give up that one. Unfortunately, Green Alert is used in some campaign missions IIRC, so that's out. All the HET hotkeys except Random Angle and maybe 180° About could be used without much loss I think since they are on the MFD anyway.

Quick note:

In SFB, Erratic Maneuvering adds to a ship speed while it is cloaked, for lock-on purposes.  Since it (normally) costs 4 or 6 points of movement for EM (it's been a while, thinking it's six), you'd add 6 to the ship's speed while EM'ing.  Lock-on chances have two components: range and speed.  Also, if you HET while cloaked, add 5 to your speed for lock on purposes.

Cloaked ships can't use EM. They may use it during Fade In/Fade Out. They must cease using it before the Fade Out is complete and before the roll to retain a Lock On is performed.

The formula to retain a Lock On is:

P = S - (EW adjustment) - RF + SF - 4

where:

P = Probability of retaining Lock On
S =  Sensor ratring of the ship trying to Lock On
EW = Electronic warfare adjustment
RF = Range adjustment factor (different chart)
SF = Speed adjustment factor (different chart)


The formula to reaquire a Lock On, or gain a Lock On to a ship entering the senario cloaked is:

P = S - (EW) - RF + SF - 10

But only a scout or scout assisted ship that was very close to a fast moving cloaked ship even has a chance of making that roll.

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

You are likely correct as far as the more recent rules are concerned.  There was a lot of addenda (errata was considered too strong a word) back in the early SFB days, and I remember swapping out pages on multiple occasions in my Commander's and Captain's Edition binders.   The EM thing may have been one of those things that changed during the addenda days, possibly more than once...

Our focus r.e. the lock-on roll was using T-Bombs and such to 'expose' a cloaked ship, and then trying to retain the lock on, at which point things like speed and proximity became a very big deal.  There are other ways to 'flash' a cloaked ship as well.  I'd be curious as to what Taldren was able to bring across to SFC r.e. the anti-cloak tactics.  It sounds like Tractors aren't a 100% translation.  Taldren may have had their reasons for this, there are a few things that I think SFC did right when they diverged from the rules a bit.  Hex/turn based games don't always translate well into real time with no hexes.

BTW, I've also played the miniature rules for SFC, and I actually prefered it over hexes.  Other than the long-ass games of course, but those happened regardless of which version you played (hex vs. hex-less).

I jumped on board SFB when the first boxed edition was released.  I missed out on the pocket edition, but I did buy the 'pocket format' expansions.  Can't remember what the big change was between those editions and the Commander's edition, which I think involved the Hyrans or something... and if I remember right the Andros were throttled back a bit between the pocket expansions and the Commander's edition.

It's been a LOOOOONG time since I've stuck my nose in an SFB rulebook though.  SFC cured that tendency...  I don't think I've even looked inside an SFB rulebook since SFC1 came out.  My rules are buried in storage elsewhere currently, and aren't readily accessable to me.

Federation and Empire is another story.  I was following that on the ADB boards for a while, although I stopped following that game as well a couple of years back.  There's a part of me that still prefers the Federation Space game, although F&E was an interesting game as well that our group played a few times (don't think we finished that game very often though, people would get busy or whatever) although I did play through quasi solitaire a few times to brush up on my tactics.  World War I in space is the term I've often heard used in my circle about F&E...

[TarMinyatur]

A Tractor completely voids the cloak, including the +5 range adjustment. In this case the damage will be calculated on the normal/ECM charts. Cloaked ships can still generate ECM, even though it doesn't help while cloaked, so the voided cloak would be ignored in favor of any EW shift.

If a cloaked ship is flashed (but not tractored), is the +5 range adjustment temporarily suspended?

No, only the range doubling is suspended for that impulse.

Thanks. This is the information I needed.

All Weapons Off is good for rope-a-doping and is better than Yellow Alert since it doesn't shut off your EW or Shield Reinforcement. I'd give up Orbit before I'd give up that one. Unfortunately, Green Alert is used in some campaign missions IIRC, so that's out. All the HET hotkeys except Random Angle and maybe 180° About could be used without much loss I think since they are on the MFD anyway.

Orbit actually works around planets. I thought I'd surely crash into the planet, but it does a good job of maintaining a certain altitude of about 10, as Adam mentioned.

How about the hotkey for "Swap Displays"? I've never used that one. And do we truly need a hotkey for "Self-destruction"? It takes less time than Zero, Zero,Destruct...Zero.

[Corbomite]

Orbit works around anything. I've used it to orbit moving ships. I've also used the Self Destruct hotkey, though not often. If you are trying to time your explosion to happen on top of  another unit, it comes in handy.

[Corbomite]

A Tractor completely voids the cloak, including the +5 range adjustment. In this case the damage will be calculated on the normal/ECM charts. Cloaked ships can still generate ECM, even though it doesn't help while cloaked, so the voided cloak would be ignored in favor of any EW shift.

This is in error. I reread the entire section and no matter what the status of the cloaked ship you are supposed to roll on the Fire Adjustment Chart for damage adjustment and ignore the ECM shift. A tractor lock on the cloaked ship gives the tractoring ship the true range for firing purposes, but damage still has a chance to be reduced. My earlier chart showing different damage values for different conditions is wrong. I can't even remember where I got that information.

For DF weapons, the effective range is used to determine the probability of a hit. This doesn't allow weapons to violate their myopic zones, however.

For phasers, fusion beams and TR beams you use the effective range to determine the damage by the weapon, then adjust on the Fire Adjustment Chart.

For disruptors, plasma bolts, hellbores, PPD's, armed probes and photons you use the true range to determine damage, then adjust on the Fire Adjustment Chart.

For maulers you use the true range only for all aspects and you don't use the Fire Adjustment Chart. Instead there is a 50% chance to do full damage and a 50% chance to miss entirely. This roll is adjusted up or down by the ECM shift. This is assuming the mauler has a Lock On.

Seeking weapons are adjusted by the Fire Adjustment Chart, assuming the weapon has retained its Lock On.

[TarMinyatur]

Corbomite, I appreciate your research...

I can see why SFB players refer to the Fire Adjustment Chart as the "Misery Chart". Gorn captains must get frustrated when each Plasma-S does a paltry 7 damage after getting punished by an EPT-R to successfully anchor an evasive Romulan ship. Whacking the target with 4 Suicide Shuttles could yield just 20 total damage with bad luck.

I'm checking out CE's cloak now. I like what I see. It isn't as strong as OP's cloak but it is useful. If a Plasma Torp strikes a cloaked ship it never does full damage.

Rough estimate until I find the code:
33% chance of half damage
33% chance of quarter damage  (7 for Plas-S, 12 for Plas-R)
16% chance of approx 1/20 damage  (1 point for Plas-S, 2 points for Plas-R)
16% chance of zero damage

I suspect the damage potential is being divided by two every time a Plasma Torpedo fails some unknown tracking test. (Edit: Nope. Never does 1/8 or 1/16.)

Missiles seem to be removed if they fail a single tracking test. Only fast missiles have a good chance of hitting a flashed cloaker. They never strike for full damage. Their damage distribution is similar to that of Plasma.

If you do flash & tractor a cloaker, the cloak offers no noticable protection. (It may deactivate automatically.)

[TarMinyatur]

Side note, I  think I  will try to locate the Plasmas shotgun variables, 2x, 3x and 5x.

Found them tonight in CE. Op should be similar.
Once you find the Plasma Warhead data array, there should be 4 external references...

.rdata:00A5FC0C aPlasWarhead    db 32h                  ; DATA XREF: isPseudo+1Er
.rdata:00A5FC0C                                         ; getPlasWarhd+11r ...
.rdata:00A5FC0C                                         ; 50 Plasma-R
.rdata:00A5FC0D                 db  1Eh                 ; 30 Plasma-S
.rdata:00A5FC0E                 db  14h                 ; 20 Plasma-G
.rdata:00A5FC0F                 db  14h                 ; 20 Plasma-F
.rdata:00A5FC10                 db  14h                 ; 20 Plasma-I
.rdata:00A5FC11                 db  0Ah                 ; 10 Plasma-D
.rdata:00A5FC12                 db    0                 ; 0 PPT?

The fourth reference leads to a function that branches to a 5, 3, 2, and 1, which are modifiable immediate integers.

[TarMinyatur]

Fixed the Mirak Hit&Run Pause button tonight. All races can toggle theirs via a new hotkey. The hotkey only works if the marine panel is already active. The pause button will not visually change to an "!" unless you refresh the marine panel. But it works -- press the hotkey and the raid occurs.

Psuedo Plasma can be fired via a new hotkey. The specific torpedo or torpedo group must be selected first.

A regular hotkey must be sacrificed however for each of them. Perhaps "Yellow Alert" and "Turn All Weapons Offline  ". These are not things I usually need to do in the heat of battle. The unexpected hotkeys aren't yet sticky though. They must be set each session, which isn't a big deal because its just a few keys. If you forget to do so, the game will load the default assignments for them, but it honors all your other key assignments.

The new hotkeys are now sticky. I needed to reassign the defaults.

Swap Display = Launch selected Pseudo Plasma
HET Left = Toggle for Hit & Run raids
HET Right = Shuttle Conversion Panel

I've updated aaStrings.txt to display the correct names on the Hot Key assignment menu. The ability to use these new keys is a pleasure.

[TarMinyatur]

Any idea what this chart is?

0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2
0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3
0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

Is it for boarding party combat?

[Corbomite]

Is there any context at all?

[Corbomite]

Any idea what this chart is?

0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2
0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3
0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5
1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

Is it for boarding party combat?

Yes. Did you want it explained?

[Corbomite]

What's the formula for losing marines when being damaged?

One Boarding Party for every 10 internals after ignoring the first forty internals.