Re: Capship Mod
 

Does the drone have supplies? Drones with 0 supplies are destroyed at the end/beginning of the turn. Note that drones do not have a "move to" order. You can order them to attack a warp point and they will warp through, or order them to attack a target and they will do so.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Ten units of supplies. I tried using "Attack" to get it to an adjacent square but it wouldn't work.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Check Settings.txt. Drones lose 200 supplies each turn.

Note that the drone will not be able to move at all if its engines require more supplies per sector than it has in storage.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Thanks. I'll change Settings. The engine did not use any supplies, to my knowledge. Perhaps I set it to 10, to limit the range to 1. Oh well.

(If I said these things twice, forgive me - I believe I had already posted it, but I can't see it now.)

Re: Capship Mod
 

dont drones destruct when out of supply?

Re: Capship and Realism Mod Construction
 

That's my intention. I'm creating an SLV - that's Single-use Launch Vehicle if you didn't know. In other words, a plain old space rocket. And those don't get used twice. So I used a drone for the SLV to assure its disappearance.

edit/add: And I'm using fighters as RLVs - Reusable Launch Vehicles, i.e. space shuttles. Ships will come later as solar sail craft, sleeper ships etc.

Btw, the idea for Realism was originally devised as a part of Capship. Perhaps later I'll combine the two - so you'll start out with Orbital SLVs and later fly COMCAs and perhaps even DCOMCAs between star systems.

edit 2: This means that I'll be working on two mods at a time now - though Realism will go faster. This means that playable/testable uploads will be few and far between. Do not expect any new versions of either mod anytime soon, unless I choose to upload a very preliminary version of Realism for a first look or problem finding.

Also note that BOTH mods require Image Mod Version 24c. Realism does not use 24c pics yet, but I think it will.

Re: Capship and Realism Mod Construction
 

Cool I can't wait. I'm trying to go for a level of realism in the Pointer Mod, but nowhere near that level of detail. I like the idea of the SLV as a Drone. How are you going to do sleeper ships?

Re: Capship Mod
 

I think ships with high LS and low CQ requirement, and at least 30% or so cargo storage, as I'm not plannning to go for shipboard cargo storage for quite some time, so I'll make a dummy storage comp with the name Cryo-Chamber or something. Sleeper ships will use lots of supplies, to run the cryo-chambers, but will have good speed.

And as for cargo transfer between systems, you ask, as there will be no cargo ships soon? Simple. RLVs. Store them on on-board bays on your solar sail ships or sleeper ships and use them to traverse the warp points.

edit: note: RLVs are fighters.

edit 2: I think I'm going to make solar sail ships smaller, cheaper, shorter-ranged ships that you can use for any number of reasons for almost any purpose. I think I'm going to make the big, expensive sleeper ships the only possibility for people to colonize new extrasolar planets. I think I will make an RLV module with a colony pod, but I'm going to make the required RLV so big that you can't carry it across warp points with solar sail ships or sleeper ships. Sleepers will be your only extrasolar colonizers.

Oh and I think that while sleeper ships use lots of supplies, they will also be able to store lots of them, and later on they will use less and less, and perhaps even get QR ability, for maximum operational range. They will still be big, slow moving juggernoughts.

Hmm..... methinks of massive campaigns where you dispatch massive slow fleets of sleeper warships to a destination and that the actual battle takes place years later? (Grebulon base on Rupert anyone?) Methinks solar sail ships and RLVs will rendezvous with the fleet while it is still in your territory to give it, say, fighters or support RLVs or support SLVs that were not ready when the fleet was dispatched? Methinks of solar sail interceptors, ready to swarm sleeper warships in large numbers as soon as you see them.....

Methinks a lot.

Methinks me would like to play this mod had it been already finished and created by someone else.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Methinks you need an Ansible

Re: Capship Mod
 

What is an Ansible? Is that some sort of experimental spacecraft or something?

Re: Capship Mod
 

In the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, the Ansible was a device used to communicate with a space fleet at FTL speed.

The fleet was slower than light and took many years to reach its destination, but Ender was able to command the fleet in real time when it finally did because of the Ansible.

Re: Capship Mod
 

I knew I knew that from somewhere!

Narf - Somehow, repeating words without trying.

Re: Capship Mod
 

I will not mod in Ansibles, as I'm trying to make this mod as realistic as possible - why else do you think its name is Realism - and you start with technologies we already have, and some of the first techs you discover are actually technologies we already utilize.

So, I'm sorry, no Ansibles.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Given that SE4 doesn't model communcations lag, you've got them whether you want it or not. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Capship Mod
 

Perhaps..... but I now think that no lag is GOOD, and that Ansibles are, well, bad, and that we should NOT go around wishing for them. I'm happy with the way the game is now - for the most part.

Re: Capship Mod
 

I just meant that if there was a time lag, or a way to simulate it, something like the Ansible would be cool to research later on in the game.

Re: Capship Mod
 

It can take a slow ship MONTHS to traverse a solar system, but small, super-fast probes could easily reach those ships in time, so there'd be no lag game-technically speaking..... and there's no way to simulate it.

Re: Capship Mod
 

IT LIVES!

Anyway, can someone link me to a download of this mod? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Capship Mod
 

Hello?

Re: Capship Mod
 

Realism is NOT playable, and I've given up on it for now. The main reasons why you would build the early SLVs and RLVs is completely negated by the game code. If SEV allows you to mod the amount of units a planet can launch, I will restart it, but if not it's dead.

As for Capship, the latest version is a few pages back (0.801). Am currently working on the armor system, though I may think I've gone a little too far..... as it is you can have really strong armor by the time you can build Battle Destroyers (or earlier). Am thinking about giving all shield gens shield regen ability to allow for a tradeoff; armor is EXTREMELY tough but you will get through, and shields regenerate themselves.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Meh, no AI... Ah well, at least I can design some uberships http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Capship Mod
 

What the heck is wrong with your mod? I keep getting index out of bounds errors!

Re: Capship Mod
 

Index out of WHAT?!?!? If you mean the message with all the tech level names when you start up it's OK, that's just the AI playing up.....

OOH I know..... you're not using the Imagemod, are you? You need Component pack with my pics and Facility pack.

One thing about the comps tho..... I couldn't include Comps.bmp, so you'll have to scale down the imgs yourself unfortunately..... But the two sniper rifles don't look good when I scaled the down, so I've included the touched-up scaled-down versions of them IIRC.

Re: Capship Mod
 

When I try to create my empire, I get a List index out of bounds (-1) error. I have the image mod...

Re: Capship Mod
 

eeeeerm..... I have NO IDEA what could be causing that.

The "restricted trait" record entries in RacialTraits don't work, do thay? If they do, well then, it's probably that, I'd say. You can't have Bronze and Iron Age Technology at the same time. (Bronze age technology? Greeks in space!)

Re: Capship Mod
 

Happens with a blank empire with just names at the top.

Re: Capship Mod
 

I have NO IDEA what could be causing it Joint Chief..... I will have a planet of programmers look at it when we've annihilated the filthy, inferior B&G.

Re: Capship Mod
 

Already eliminated. Now look into it!

Re: Capship Mod
 

There are still RD clones making unreasonable demands and blowing themselves up, and not until we've tracked down and murdered every last one of the B&G patrons, the war will not be over.

Re: Capship Mod
 

DO IT NOW!

Re: Capship and Realism Mod Construction
 

They've got at least one high-capacity cloning facility somewhere. Need to track down and destroy it.

Really, I have NO IDEA what the problem is. It's never occured to me before.

Re: Capship and Realism Mod Construction
 

*****IMPORTANT UPDATE*****

Realism is down the drain for now. I'm putting it on hold, as the main reasons for building orbital SLVs and RLVs is negated by the fact that a planet can launch 1k units per turn.

Capship is going well, I've got an excessive amount of armor and even now you can research it with low tech..... gotta make higher-tech armor..... but I'm putting the armor on hold for now. Going to redo fighter combat.

Quick overview:

I took some inspiration from SJ's CB Mod and the Galactic Conquest mod, and now I'm making fighters (to be called "attack craft" from now on) designed to perform specific roles. The first fighter you can build, the Interceptor, is designed to intercept and destroy enemy attack craft. To accomplish this, it is fast and has offense/defense bonuses, but it is very small. Space superiority fighters are slower, more defensive fighters (but they can also be used offensively, they're just slower than Interceptors) that can carry heavy anti-attack craft weaponry. Bombers are the only attack craft truly capable of taking on warships and capital warships, as they are very large and can sport large amounts of armor and heavy weaponry. However, they are very slow. Fighterbombers are attack craft designed to form the middle road between space superiority fighters and bombers, being faster than bombers and larger than SS fighters.

You will also have specialized craft such as Assault Bombers, Strike Bombers and Heavy Bombers (more to come). Assault bombers are faster and smaller bombers, and they're designed to carry anti-attack craft support weaponry (think turrets and such. Like the WWII Heavy Strategic Bombers) while Strike Bombers are fast craft designed to carry less weaponry but gain speed and offense/defense bonuses. Heavy Bombers are just what the name implies, large, lumbering assault craft capable of carrying massive loads of anti-ship weaponry.

As for the armor, perhaps I'll finish it after the release of 1.00. I don't know whether or not I'll EVER truly finish it. It's gone out of hand, too much armor with too little tech requirements.

More updates to come.

Re: Capship Mod
 

.....does anybody know if you can have "area-of-effect" warheads? I mean adding damage at range 2 as well, so that if you ram an enemy ship any ships directly adjacent to it will be damaged as well.

Re: Capship Mod
 

No, that's not possible.

Re: Capship Mod
 

I highly reccommend NOT forcing the user into choosing pre-made interceptor/superiority/bomber fighters.

Let the component stats speak for themselves, and let the I/S/B/other classifications fall naturally.

Re: Capship Mod
 

You're not strictly enforced to do it, you can place masses of Interceptor weapons on bombers, what I meant is that heavier anti-attack craft weaponry and anti-ship weaponry gets increasingly larger, and the I/S/B is mainly just a means of defining the max level of weaponry you can place on the craft. Interceptors can be built/launched in swarms, are very fast but cannot wield heavy anti-AC weaponry, they're mainly limited to swarming enemy S/Bs and mainly harassing them, superiority fighters can carry swarms of Interceptor weapons but they can also carry some heavier, longer-ranged anti-AC weapons, but they are slower - designed to fulfill a more defensive role, escorting warships and bombers and protecting them from enemy interceptor/superiority attack. Bombers are simply the minimum size ACs that can carry anti-ship weapons, but you can also cram Heavy Bombers with Interceptor weapons and thereby spread out your to-hit chances against ACs. Normal PD can only target seekers, and modded PD will be a threat to ACs but if you put enough armor on them they'll be able to hold their own against ships with PD. Bombers will thus be a pretty serious threat for smaller warships, and can be an effective support when attacking capital warships, but since PD will be less effective against them, you'll need interceptors and superiority fighters to take out enemy bombers before they can cause serious damage/interference to your fleet.

Re: Capship and Realism Mod Construction
 

Re: Capship Mod
 

-----TRANSLATING-----

Players aren't meant to stick by the rules strictly. The general division between interceptors, space superiority fighters and bombers isn't meant to keep players from putting Interceptor weaponry on Bombers.

To put it this way:

Interceptor weaponry is an assortment of light short-ranged anti-attack craft weaponry. This, combined with the facts that Interceptors are really really fast and that they cannot carry space superiority weapons, makes that Interceptors are quite limited fighters, as they cannot hold their own against equal numbers of SSFs, however they are very cheap and can be built and launched in swarms, making them effective ways to swarm enemy SSFs and bombers encroaching on your fleet, or simply to distract enemy defenders to provide cover for Bombers approaching the enemy fleet.

SSFs (space superiority fighters) are larger, slower attack craft designed to fill a more defensive role. They are more expensive than Interceptors and therefore cannot be launched in similar numbers, but still SSFs are invaluable if the enemy makes use of a lot of Bombers. SSFs can carry heavier weapons than the Interceptors but still cannot use anti-ship weaponry. SSF weapons have a longer range and a higher damage than Interceptor weaponry, but interceptors can use their speed and offense/defense bonuses to their advantage.

Bombers are very large, lumbering craft, sometimes even slower than a fast warship. They are the only attack craft capable of wielding anti-ship weapons, and this makes them a powerful enemy. Even more so, because Bomber anti-ship weapons pack quite a punch. However, since Bombers are such huge craft (especially compared to Interceptors), they can also carry a lot of Interceptor or SSF weaponry. A screen of Bombers carrying a mix of Interceptor and SSF weaponry can be a very powerful defense against enemy Bombers, but be wary that they are pretty expensive and quite slow, and therefore Interceptors can easily deal with the Bomber screen - they dart in range, fire their weapons, then flee again so the bombers cannot return fire.

All in all, I'm trying to make fighters play an important role in campaigns, as Bombers have the potential to be even more dangerous to enemy ships than a Light Cruiser, simply because they are harder to hit and their weapons are proportionally stronger. As I said, most of my inspiration came from SJ's Carrier Battles Mod.

-----/TRANSLATION-----

This is what you meant with the empty post, right? You couldn't make heads or tails of my rant?

Re: Capship Mod
 

I've put Capship on relative hold for a while, if I work on it now it's gonna be small things. I've simply got too many things queued up (no this is not a joke or the result of JOMT Syndrome) simultaneously now. I've got Fighters to do, Armor is very much work in progress, I've got several (ok, a lot of) weapons on paper which I need to make into bits and bytes - it's simply too much for now.

However, I am starting work on a new mod. The "Missile Mod". It is, as its name implies, a mod which focuses on missiles. I've removed all stock weapons except PD, and I'm going to create lots and lots of missiles. They're gonna be the only weapons available, except for weak PD and perhaps some direct-fire support weapons. I'm going to port over the Capship ground combat system, so that can be considered completed.

In Missile Mod games, combat is going to be a long hard struggle. It can be easy to outrun the slower, heavier missiles, however the enemy can do the same with your missiles. On top of that, there are fast long-ranged missiles which are plainly impossible to outrun. If you want to damage the enemy, you'll have to come closer than you might want. Nobody is going to leave Missile Mod combat undamaged.

Re: Capship Mod
 

My reply got et. I thought I mentioned that I treid to create a similar mod, but found it beyond my skills 'cause I suck at modding.

Anyway, I'm highly interested in the missilemod.