modders and shipset creators - please read

[Andrés]

SJ I just realized what you mean. It’s more a question on how troops are launched than if smaller troops should be drop pods or the troopers themselves.
I believe you’re saying that troops are launched by the transport in space and have to land on the planet by their own means. So then it would be impossible for a single trooper unless it’s equipped with an extremely advanced space suit to land. A drop pod sounds better. What I don’t like is seeing pods in the ground combat window. Another question is how do troops are transferred again to the transport. Can they “jump” from the planet by themselves?
However it’s possible that troops aren’t literally “dropped” but reach the planet by other means. For example the transport can land on the planet and open the door to let troops walk away, some startrek-like beam, or invisible drop pods or shuttles. The same mean is probably also used for all other cargo transfers.
Then there would be no problem with infantry. Of course that 1 kt (1,000,000 kg) is completely out of scale for a single trooper, but the game just doesn’t allow to make a vehiclesize of 0.0001 kt or less. Imagine that each infantry represents a complete division + equipment.


On another note I like the idea of using more “neutral” names for new sizes. Do we agree to use LargeBaseShip, HeavyBaseShip, MassiveBaseShip as bitmap names for larger than baseship sizes? If so I’ll rename them (at least file names but not the name shown to players) next time I update my mod.
Oh and I believe that maximum allowed tonnage is 65535, more than 43 times larger than a baseship, so maybe we should consider the possibility of having more than 3 larger-than-baseship sizes.

Oh and the sizes I remembered from the email group (it used to be egroup but now it’s yahoogroup) were early drafts of Dave's Mod. Most of them are also in Devnullmod, but not all of them for example this smaller-than-escort Scout, so I though you’d like to take a look anyway.

quote:

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Tonnage
Scout 100*
Corvette 250*
Escort 150
Frigate 200
Destroyer 300
Light Cruiser 400
Cruiser 500
Battle Cruiser 600
Heavy Cruiser 750*
Battleship 800
Sub-Dreadnought 900*
Dreadnought 1000
Super-Dreadnought 1300*
Titan I don't really like the name for any of these three...Any better
ideas?
Mega-Titan also any better ideas for sizes? I don't like going above the
baseship size
Colossus for these
Baseship 1500
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Courier (transport) 200*
Small Transport 300
Medium Transport 600
Large Transport 900
Mega Transport 1000
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Escort Carrier 500*
Light Carrier 800
Medium Carrier 1000
Heavy Carrier 1200
Mega Carrier 1500*
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Light Colony Ship Any special reason to have different sized colony ships?
Colony Ship
Heavy Colony Ship
Mega Colony Ship
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Space Station 500
Battlestation 1500
Starbase 2500
Star Fortress 2000*
Doom Star 3000*
Ultra Station 4000* This should take FOREVER to build

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Small Fighter 15
Medium Fighter 20
Heavy Fighter 25

Light Bomber 30*
Medium Bomber 40*
Heavy Bomber 50*

For the bombers, I would probably do decreasing number of maximum engines,
so that the heavy bomber is SLOW

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Light Troop 10
Medium Troop 15
Heavy Troop 20
Hover Tank 35*
Heavy Tank 50*


Anything followed by an * is my ideas; otherwise, its official game stuff
from SE4

For graphics for new ships, I am terrible at bitmaps, so I doubt I could do
other graphics, especcially for new things like bombers and tanks, where it
would really be good, but I can easily do the data files, and will do so in
the next couple of days.

If anyone has any suggestions, send them my way

Dave

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