Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

Quoted from a different thread:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>[quote]Actually, the base combat movement is in Devnullmod. At least, that's where I got it. (read: highlight - Ctrl+C - Ctrl-V) And, yes, it uses the same ability as Afterburners. AFAIK, it works; however, MM has it hardcoded that sats can't move, so that doesn't work. (There is a similar component for sats in Devnullmod, though.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Ok. I thought about this and came up with an idea to gets sats to move. I am not sure if it would work though. Please look at what I have and tell me what you think.

Name := Mobile Satellite
Short Name := Mobile Satellite
Description := Small Satellite which can move during combat to attack or evade enemy ships
Code := FS
Bitmap Name := Satellite
Vehicle Type := Fighter
Tonnage := 80
Cost Minerals := 100
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Engines Per Move := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Satellites
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Combat Movement
Ability 1 Descr := Able to move one square per turn, during combat only.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 1
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := True
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := False
Requirement Min Life Support := 0
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 0
Requirement Uses Engines := False
Requirement Max Engines := 0
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 0
Launched from Ship := True
Launched from Planet := True


Basically I am fudging it. From the games perspective it's a 80KT fighter with no life support, no engines (hence no non-combat movement) and one sqaure per combat turn movement. But it uses the satellite bitmap.

Things I don't know...

What is "Code"? I left it FS cause I didnt' know if the game uses that to determine what type of unit it is.

How to deal with the bridge component. I considered reducing the tonnage to 70Kt and setting the bridge requirement to false. This could still be done, but is there some way to make this accept the Sattelite only components and not allow the fighter only components? Otherwise we could make a "mobile sat computer core" component and set it to be used on fighters. But then it will be up to the players to understand and take into consideration when they design their mobile sats (and regular fighters for that matter) in game. Doing it that way they could put fighter cockpits on their mobile sats, and MSCC's on their fighters and not have a problem. Is there a way to control that?

Also I left the tech reqiurement as level 1 satellites, but that chould probably be changed. Either to a higher level satellite tech, or some mobile sat tech that we would have to make up.

Geoschmo


[This message has been edited by geoschmo (edited 20 July 2001).]

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>But then it will be up to the players to understand and take into consideration when they design their mobile sats (and regular fighters for that matter) in game. Doing it that way they could put fighter cockpits on their mobile sats, and MSCC's on their fighters and not have a problem. Is there a way to control that?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>You could rename the components, and let races put people on sats, and computers on fighters.

ISTM, that sats vs fighters is equivalent to ships vs bases.
In this case, fighters could be one-crew member ships, and sats would be one-crew member bases. Both would have the option of being controlled by an AI instead of an Organic

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Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

In effect that is what I was thinking, but I hadn't worked out a good game explaination of it. Thanks.

Ideally there would be a way to keep the two seperate. But if not, it doesn't really affect game play. It's just a different picture/description.

So you think it would work otherwise? This my first attempt at ship/unit/component modding. My Trekmod was all just cosmetic changes. There is a LOT I don't know yet about this side of it.

Geo

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by geoschmo:
...but I hadn't worked out a good game explaination of it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thunderbird 5?

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

"THUNDERBIRDS, READY!"

ROFL

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

It will get loaded on carriers and used as though it were a fighter.

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

That's true.

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

Not only would these "mobile satellites" get loaded on carriers, that's the ONLY way you could deploy them from a ship. The standard satellite bays wouldn't be able to launch the mobile satellites...

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

Once you have discarded the distinction between sats and fighters, you could simply give both your components the ability to launch both vehicles equally.

Re: Modders. RE: Sats with Combat movement.
 

"Code" is the two letter abbreviation for the ship type: ES = Escort, FG = Frigate, etc. FS is the code for a small fighter. I don't know whether this info is used for anything other than informational displays, such as the combat summaries in the Log.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
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not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"