modding questions
 

How to mod these ideas?? I spent more than 2 weeks on that:

1. orbit bomber - A ship that may help the undergoing ground combat. That means, the forward observing troops report enemy position, and this ship be the supporting artillery.

2. system guarding ships - No wraping, low upkeep system ship. I tried to use 400kt fighter to simulate but the possible target of all weapons become a mess ( Torpedo cannot hit system ship, for example ).

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My remote mining drones worked perfectly

Re: modding questions
 

I don't think #1 is possible. Sorry. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif The only way to really help is to fire on the planet to remove weapons platforms before landing troops--your troop transports tend to have a longer lifespan when not under fire. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

For #2, you could mod your 400kt fighters, then mod all weapons to fire on fighters (the latest patch made that a lot easier), then add a defensive bonus to regular fighters (to keep weapons like massive-mounted IBs from mowing down thousands of fighters at a time). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Since fighters already are cannon fodder, the extra defensive bonus wouldn't hurt. There (unfortunately) isn't any way to implement true system ships--it was planned from the beginning, judging by the data files, but never made it in. There's always SEV, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: modding questions
 

Quite a few weapons can actually target fighters, such as the APB, which deals a fair amount of damage per kt per turn. (If memory serves right, it comes second of the regular weapons, after the Ripper Beam) If you planned on making such big fighters, you may want to give them the full-sized ECM and CS as well, since their fighter counterparts are only half as efficient as the ship ones. (And possibly an additional defensive bonus, since unlike "proper" ships it wouldn't get any ship training bonus)

As for your first query, the best you would get is an artillery troop (or bomber, the name will not change much), able to deal a fair amount of damage, but with a penalty of some sort. However, range and fire rate do *not* matter in ground battle, so you will need to tweak these bombers with the regular weapons. The SJ mod gives your troops a much higher damage resistance, making the artillery a powerful weapon, but not resistant at all.