Topic: OP+ corrections thread  (Read 70279 times)

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FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #360 on: May 23, 2003, 12:24:29 am »
well, that sucks.

Magnum357

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #361 on: May 23, 2003, 01:18:37 am »
I wonder, if a 3D modeler reduces the scale of the planet models, would that in effect reduce inside edge of the planet where it would do that?  I know how to use Milkshape, I could experiment this to see if it would work.

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #362 on: May 23, 2003, 01:22:47 am »
Note to self:

The Z-DD+ has an error. The "Shuttles Max" is supposed to be 2, but is marked as 1. "Shuttles Base" is 1, and is ok.
The Z-DD itself is fine with a "Shuttles Max" of 2.

Thanks Fluf.

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #363 on: May 23, 2003, 01:24:53 am »
Quote:

I wonder, if a 3D modeler reduces the scale of the planet models, would that in effect reduce inside edge of the planet where it would do that?  I know how to use Milkshape, I could experiment this to see if it would work.  




I guess the planet would have to be very very very small. I think the weapons are all 'mounted' in the dead-center of the model, and thus why they're marked as "360 degrees" weapons.
That really really really sucks.

- Luc

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #364 on: May 23, 2003, 05:34:56 am »
Note to self:

Encountered a L-DHDW2 LDR ship that had standard Lyran skin, not the black one. Will have to double-check that.

-- Luc

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #365 on: May 23, 2003, 06:03:15 am »
Anyways.. I'll keep using this thread for the duration of TechWars..
Once it's over, I'll be revisiting this data, and do all changes I find good..

.. after that, a version 2.2 of the shiplist will be released, and we can play with it some. I will probably start a new corrections thread at that point, for a clean slate.

-- Luc

jdmckinney

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #366 on: May 23, 2003, 07:00:45 am »
If you (or rather anyone doing a shiplist mod, since FS knows this) would like armed FRDs with impulse, but don't want them to move (because they will act like typical moronic AIs), just make sure they don't have a move cost. This is the default for FRDs already. The impulse is then essentially just additional power. I believe they are supposed to be able to move mainly so they can get from point A to point B, not so they could attack something, though that's exactly what they would do if they could.

Personally, I like the armed FRDs. I've tested them in play and enjoyed the extra dimension they add even if stationary. Defenders can use them to intercept drones, distract the enemy, and generally add more firepower to the field. Attackers have to be wary of them, but can attempt captures to even the odds.

The funny thing with the shipyard mission setup is armed FRDs, once captured, will fire at the other FRDs with any weapon that can reach that far -- if there are no closer enemies. They don't do much damage, though.

Other base types would be interesting, but perhaps hard to implement without missions specifically made for them. It would certainly be interesting to see PFs or fighters defending a planet. Since they'd be launched once and never recovered, anyway, they could be based on orbiting platforms.

Another idea I had but never got to work right was to have FRDs launch docked frigates as additional defenders. They can be given PFs or fighters, though.

The_Infiltrator

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #367 on: May 23, 2003, 07:22:14 am »
Now, something that you CAN do is give a planet a UI for a ship but the model of a planet. They then can fire all weapons normally, launch fighters, etc. It's just then the UI thinks it's a ship and tries to pull a death star. Giving it no power to move itself with doesn't fix the problem, as it then attempts to rotate itself to get weapons in arc, which is odd looking to say the least.

FireSoul

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #368 on: May 23, 2003, 07:30:39 am »
Quote:

If you (or rather anyone doing a shiplist mod, since FS knows this) would like armed FRDs with impulse, but don't want them to move (because they will act like typical moronic AIs), just make sure they don't have a move cost. This is the default for FRDs already. The impulse is then essentially just additional power. I believe they are supposed to be able to move mainly so they can get from point A to point B, not so they could attack something, though that's exactly what they would do if they could.

Personally, I like the armed FRDs. I've tested them in play and enjoyed the extra dimension they add even if stationary. Defenders can use them to intercept drones, distract the enemy, and generally add more firepower to the field. Attackers have to be wary of them, but can attempt captures to even the odds.

The funny thing with the shipyard mission setup is armed FRDs, once captured, will fire at the other FRDs with any weapon that can reach that far -- if there are no closer enemies. They don't do much damage, though.

Other base types would be interesting, but perhaps hard to implement without missions specifically made for them. It would certainly be interesting to see PFs or fighters defending a planet. Since they'd be launched once and never recovered, anyway, they could be based on orbiting platforms.

Another idea I had but never got to work right was to have FRDs launch docked frigates as additional defenders. They can be given PFs or fighters, though.  





Do you know of a shiplist with the equipped FRDs? It would save me time to just use someone else's work. Besides, god knows how many people use Mine.

FireSoul

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #369 on: May 23, 2003, 07:33:22 am »
Quote:

Now, something that you CAN do is give a planet a UI for a ship but the model of a planet. They then can fire all weapons normally, launch fighters, etc. It's just then the UI thinks it's a ship and tries to pull a death star. Giving it no power to move itself with doesn't fix the problem, as it then attempts to rotate itself to get weapons in arc, which is odd looking to say the least.  





It would indeed be interesting.. but would it work with the stock Taldren missions? That has to be a requirement.
Also, a problem, I don't think there would be collision if it's a ship or a base.

-- Luc

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #370 on: May 23, 2003, 08:02:23 am »
idea: what if I used a BaseStation UI of some sort, to be able to see the FRD's weapons?

idea: should I enter FRDs with the fighter / PF upgrades over time? Yeah, I should.. just like bases.
problem: most missions are hardcoded to use the most basic FRDs..
  ie, taken from ShipYard assault code:
Code:

   std::string shipyard = "";
   eRace race = mGetRace();
   switch ( race )
   {
   case kFederation:   shipyard = "F-FRD";      break;
   case kKlingon:   shipyard = "K-FRD";      break;
   case kRomulan:   shipyard = "R-FRD";      break;
   case kLyran:      shipyard = "L-FRD";      break;
   case kGorn:      shipyard = "G-FRD";      break;
   case kHydran:   shipyard = "H-FRD";      break;
   case kISC:      shipyard = "I-FRD";      break;
   case kMirak:      shipyard = "Z-FRD";      break;
   default:      shipyard = "O-FRD";      break;
   }



In other words, only the basic "FRD"s are used in the standard missions.. .. which makes sense because they're entered as "SPECIAL" in the shiplist. Bleh.
.. adding the other FRDs isn't a problem, but nothing would use them unless scripted for it.. and thus that would only work with custom shiplists with the extra FRDs..   .. double bleh.




idea: should I enter DEFSATs? It would be amusing..  .. maybe use "BOX" for the model.  .. I like the idea already.
DEFSATs are usually destroyed on 24 points of damage, no matter the internals. This could be simulated with armor.
ie: DEFSAT has 6 weapon boxes. They would count as 6. There would be ..say.. 2 excess damage hits, and 16 armor hits.
They would have no DAMCON, SENSOR, etc. hits... unless it's absolutely necessary. Then I would simply put  the minimum of "1" in the proper fields.

idea: maybe create planets that recieve upgrades (as ground bases)? .. it wouldn't work all the time, but some planets could launch fighters I suppose. PFs for others.. let me check the ground bases SSDs...  hmmm...  .. small ground fighter base: 6 fighters (4)..   medium: 12 fighters (8)..  Interesting.  ..
problem: how would people/scripts account the BPV used for the use of these bases?
problem: How many such bases should be used per planet? 1?
 

jdmckinney

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #371 on: May 23, 2003, 10:22:51 am »
I have armed FRDs in the SFCX shiplist-in-progress. They are based on the SFB SSDs, but I don't recall if I made any alterations. They use a base UI.

I'll upload a .txt file (zipped) with JUST the armed FRDs so you can quickly access them from my webspace.

jdmckinney

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #372 on: May 23, 2003, 10:49:28 am »
After looking through the FRDs I had, there are two versions of each empire FRD. One has fighters or INTs, the other does not. Some may not have either, but be duplicates of the first version. I don't think we finished work on these, but at least they will get you started. I do remember the Lyran ones with INTs seemed to work just fine.

Also, I think I did plas-D/plas-F combos on the plasma race FRDs because there are no offensive plas-D in SFC. I think they should have had 2 of those, but I decided on a closest approximation of 1 D and 1 F.

I'll PM you the link.

About the FRDs being called in scripts -- I would suggest the shiplist assign the simplest armed FRDs to the FRD spot (therefore getting called in all missions), and perhaps use FRDx (for whatever designation you want) to do alternate FRDs that a revised shipyard script could take into account. That's probably more a question for you scripters. One problem with the missions themselves are that you (almost?) never get your own race's FRD to defend (or your enemy's own FRD to attack). It sure would be nice if that could be fixed.

NuclearWessels

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #373 on: May 23, 2003, 11:35:01 am »
Quote:

 One problem with the missions themselves are that you (almost?) never get your own race's FRD to defend (or your enemy's own FRD to attack). It sure would be nice if that could be fixed.  




Getting your own FRD to defend is easily fixed - I should have a recompiled version along with a bunch of other fixes in the next hour or two.  Getting the right enemy FRD is more of a pain in the rump, but I'll see what I can do.

dave
 

jdmckinney

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #374 on: May 23, 2003, 11:59:43 am »
Actually, Dave, I don't know if I've played a NW shipyard mission, so I don't know if it was already better at picking FRDs. I was thinking of the stock missions when I made that blanket statement.

As usual, we are all in your (NW & FS) debt.

NuclearWessels

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #375 on: May 23, 2003, 01:35:41 pm »
Oh man I'm glad you said that!

Just spend about 10 minutes staring at the current code going ... "That should have worked!?!?"  

<whew>

dave
 

The_Infiltrator

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #376 on: May 23, 2003, 06:17:31 pm »
Quote:


It would indeed be interesting.. but would it work with the stock Taldren missions? That has to be a requirement.
Also, a problem, I don't think there would be collision if it's a ship or a base.

-- Luc  




I'm sorry, I don't know/remember. The testing that revealed these problems was done long ago, about a year back IIRC. Nuclearwessels could probabally look at it and give you an answer that is correct.

FireSoul

  • Guest
Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #377 on: May 23, 2003, 07:18:13 pm »
I'm thinking that replacing the FRDs with weapon-equipped FRDs might be a mistake: the stock scripts would be unbalanced, in favour of the FRDs' side.

However, nothing stops me from adding extra FRDs to the shiplist if anyone wants to work on them.
-- Luc

The_Infiltrator

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #378 on: May 23, 2003, 08:55:08 pm »
The weapon suite on a FRD is quite light, as long as you don't add fighter or PF modules. It's good for self defence and not much else. I doubt it would be a problem, even FRD's with missile racks. Just ensure that the racks fire slow missiles and no problems.

FireSoul

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Re: OP+ corrections thread
« Reply #379 on: May 23, 2003, 10:09:46 pm »
good point, although the Rommie FRD will be able to cloak, not that that will save it.