Well this is wierd
 

So I've been meaning to try this for a while now -- using small fighters to mimic small Groups of defensive satelites.

I built some: cockpit, life support, rocket pods and meson bLasters. No engines, as long as they were launched, they would surround the planet and defend if anything came near.

So what happened when two battle cruiesrs and a battleship arrived at a planet?

First, they launched OK. Then they started moving http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif . To add another insult, they wouldn't fire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif . I mean, this isn't really a batch of bugs, since I'm trying to exploit the game's loopholes, but what gives?

[ September 23, 2002, 02:59: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Well, most likely they wouldn't fire because they had no supply. But as for why they were moving, I have no idea. You didn't put afterburners on them or something did you?

Geoschmo

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Nope, I tested it and confirmed it. They did not fire becuase of the lack of engines means no supply. And fighters with no engines get a base of one movement. This is not listed anywhere in the rules that I can see. Not sure if it's intended or a bug, but it's apparently not new. I never noticed it before, but I just tested it in 1.49 and it was there too. You can add one engine and they will move the same one speed but they will have some supply so they can fire in combat. Not sure if having them move though makes them not work for what you are trying to do with them.

Geoschmo

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Thanks Geo, moring coffee helped make that clear. Of course no engines means no supply.

There was no room for afterburners, I guess fighters just have a move of one.

I gotta get ready for work, but maybe I'll try engineless drones.

I'm sure some mod somewhere has supply storage for fighters

As for moving, well with no supply, they tried to escape. If they could move at speed of one, they'd be ordinary fighters. My goal was a halo of fighters that caused attacking ships to get hung up a distance from the planet. A dozen 5 fighter Groups acting like sattelites, but not all as one group.

Very slow interceptors might help, but I might as well use regular fighters

[ September 23, 2002, 11:09: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Well this is wierd
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh foo, the drone hull also has a movement of one, same result.

Weird, engineless ships have zero movement

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Ah well, I was just playing around. Once I tried to mod a space station hull to be tiny. I dunno 80 kt or so. Called it a defence pod. Several of those would circle a planet, esp. with a sattelite group, and a spaceysrd base.

But you know what, I just put it in the text file, and it didn't show up. Maybe an extra blank line or the wrong position or something.

I guess I'm not cut out to be a modder http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Instead of modding in a -1 movement engine, just give the hull a zero-engine requirement, and a movement ability of -1. Add a quantum reactor ability to that sat-fighter hull, and you've got a sattelite. Or supply storage if you want limited ammo.

If you throw all those abilities into the hull, you don't have to worry about people abusing your fighter-sat components.

Re: Well this is wierd
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">By giving the hull a zero engine requirement I assume you mean changin the "uses engines" to false? Does that actually prevent you from putting engines on it? I wasn't sure.

Giving the hull a QR ability would make them like sats, but unfortunatly these fighter/sats could be fleeted with, unlike regular sats. It could give you a cheap and easy method of supplying your fleet for long durations. Simply keep one in storage on one of the ships and launch it and fleet with it whenever supplies get low. If you like this idea though that's not a bad thing to mod in. Just thought I'd point it out in case anybody didn't think of it.

Geoschmo

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Actually, the fleeting-with-fighters-for-resupply exploit was corrected in the latest patch, IIRC.

Re: Well this is wierd
 

Really? Ok then. I knew the base fleet thing had been changed but didn't notice the fighter thing, I so rarely ever did that it didn't occur to me to test it.