Re: Drones!!
 

I'm not a modder, but how about if you take the stats for the Escort, make it smaller in size, weight, etc, its movement and range would be less because of less space available, then use it as a drone, it would have warp capability the same as any ship, but would be restricted from what it could carry, possibly increase number of engines and speed. This wouldn't be a hard code change just a reduction in all the fields of what is already there. I think SJ did something like this in his pirate mod to redesign some of his ships. Could this be possible, smaller typ ship used as a drone. Could put maybe computer core only on it or something to that effect??

just some ideas mac

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mac5732:
I'm not a modder, but how about if you take the stats for the Escort, make it smaller in size, weight, etc, its movement and range would be less because of less space available, then use it as a drone, it would have warp capability the same as any ship, but would be restricted from what it could carry, possibly increase number of engines and speed. This wouldn't be a hard code change just a reduction in all the fields of what is already there. I think SJ did something like this in his pirate mod to redesign some of his ships. Could this be possible, smaller typ ship used as a drone. Could put maybe computer core only on it or something to that effect??

just some ideas mac<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

that's exactly what i'm talking about, one of my first "drones" was just a copy of the Escort but smaller. But the movement and range will be the same as any other ship, each engine will still only use 10 suplies and store 500, so you always get 50 range.

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
I just added drones to my VehicleSize.txt file today. The game loads fine. Haven't bothered to research the tech and build any since they can't be launched. If it were only possible to launch them... http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 19 September 2001).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yes, if it were only possible, all we humans really need is a "Launch Drone" ability. But unfortunately the AI probably won't be able to work with drones http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Kadste, instead of setting the requirement to 0, try changing the "Requires Life Support" to false.

Phoenix-D<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

won't work, i tried that, but i think it is hardcoded that any ship size needs Bridge, Life Support and Crew Quarters to get max. movement.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kadste:
I have tried to set Requirement Min Life Support and Requirement Min Crew Quarters to zero. But, this resulted in a max movement of two. The only way that I could get around it was to give my "drone" the Ship Life Support and Ship Crew Quarters Abilities. I also gave my drone the Ship Bridge, Extra Movement Generation and Combat Movement Abilities to solve my problem with drone movement. On my drones you can only choose one component, the warhead. This also solved a problem with placing unwanted components on drones.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

i just gave my drone the Master Computer ability.
And how did you manage to only put warheads on drones ?

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Just change the Life Support/Crew Quarters requirement on your 'drones' to '0' and see if that doesn't remove the problem. Then you can just make a "drone computer core" like the one for satellites to handle the bridge requirements.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

but if a drone is a ship size, then a "normal ship" can also use this component, maybe Kadste has found a way around this.

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by LemmyM:
that's exactly what i'm talking about, one of my first "drones" was just a copy of the Escort but smaller. But the movement and range will be the same as any other ship, each engine will still only use 10 suplies and store 500, so you always get 50 range.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And you could refuel them, they wouldn't be destroyed after a certain time and you would have to pay maintenance for them. So even if you call them drones, they are just small ships.
Similar if you use fighters to create drones: they won't be able to warp and will not be destroyed after a certain time. So they remain fighters.
To get real drones you require hard coded changes, therefore we must wait for MM to create them for us.

Re: Drones!!
 

The game states Drones, therefore, I know this is a dumb non-modder question, but in the data, txt, etc files is there a listing or catagory for drones? if so is there any type of set up for them where a little tweaking would enable their use??? I would think that if some type of file is in the set up for drones then there must be something in these files that is missing in order to get them to work. Has Richard ever said anything on the drone issue? Could we ask him to mention this to Aaron? or is the drones issue a major code addition? I'm just a dumb non-modder, But someday, when I have time I hope to start modding and then maybe i'll understand more what can and can't be done in mods. please excuse my sometimes dumb questions or ideas. I mean well...

just some ideas mac

Re: Drones!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mac5732:
The game states Drones, therefore, I know this is a dumb non-modder question, but in the data, txt, etc files is there a listing or catagory for drones? if so is there any type of set up for them where a little tweaking would enable their use??? I would think that if some type of file is in the set up for drones then there must be something in these files that is missing in order to get them to work. Has Richard ever said anything on the drone issue? Could we ask him to mention this to Aaron? or is the drones issue a major code addition? I'm just a dumb non-modder, But someday, when I have time I hope to start modding and then maybe i'll understand more what can and can't be done in mods. please excuse my sometimes dumb questions or ideas. I mean well...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, the controls for drones are already in the game. You could add them to the VehicleSize.txt and the Techareas.txt files, but there is no ability to launch them in the game, so even if you researched and built them nothing can put them in space for actual missions. Until MM solves some problems with the 'logic' that controls them, they will not be enabled.

Personally, I'd be very happy if they were just available as "cruise missiles" so you could fire off long-range attacks between planets or even between systems. I suppose that allowing only this would require stripping out existing code, though, and that's more work for MM, especially when the time comes to try to implement the extra functions again. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 20 September 2001).]

Re: Drones!!
 

It is kind of like the additional planet types. ALL the pictures are there but they are not used.
There are a number of things that never got added to the game but them in the files.

Re: Drones!!
 

Just thought about drones. Can you make mobile mines? This would work for cruise missiles.