Honor Harrington Mod Discussion

[Phoenix-D]

OK, mounts cannot effect engine speed.. time to think up another propulsion system.

EDIT: got it. This system won't be able to stop a DD from using an SD's nodes.. but I can probably just make the SD's nodes HUGE, so the DD can't really use them.

The 'one per vehicle' restriction works by component family, and it works even if the components are seperated by unrelated components.

So it'll look like:
Small Impeller Drive I-V
Small Beta Node Ring I-V
Impeller Drive I-V
Beta Node Ring I-V
Large Impeller Drive I-V
Large Beta Node Ring I-V
Capital Impeller Drive I-V
Captial Beta Node Ring I-V

The larger the system, the more speed you get, and the worse the supply usage is. And you won't be able to mount more than one Impeller Drive or Beta Node Ring, because they're all the same family. This will confuse the living hell out of the AI, but oh well.

Suggestions on names?

Phoenix-D

[ June 19, 2002, 21:18: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[Dead Meat]

Um I think I'm lost. I'm think that the Impeller Ring and Nodes (the drive) are 2 diffrent things. The Ring holds the Nodes right?

What about doing it this way.

Have you concidered using SJ Propulsion system (forget the name. Bigger ship = more engines needed for same movment). IMO this would work well concidering that, while all ships in HH are suppose to reach the same top speed, smaller ships are able to accelrate faster than bigger ships (its in the tech bible).

So propulsion would works like this.

Each ship has to have an Alpha and Beta Impeller Ring (required) that gives you a standard +1 movment point. The size could very depending on the size of the ship or not. I think thats what your getting at with the Small Impeller Node Ring, Imperller Node Ring and Larg Impeller Node Ring, right? If so you could simply name them; DD Impeller Rings, BC Impeller Rings, DN Impeller Rings and so on. While I don't know how to stop someone from using a DD ring on a DN you can make a minaiml size requirement so it can not fit on a smalle ship (which might be a good reason to just have them all the same size, but where the fun in that ). You could also think about having a Impeller Drive reasurch field which is seperate from the normal propulsion field.

Next the Nodes, which if I understand it right, will be like (and work like) normal SE4 engines, just change the name. You could either keep the same size for all the node regardless of the ship size or not. But I don't remember their being any diffrent sizes for DD nodes or DN nodes. I could be wrong, but if i remember correctly how fast a ship was able to accelrate related to not how big its nodes where but how they where placed on the Impeller Ring (you could only space them so close together, but you only had so much hull space to work with). Any of that make sense? My guess is that you would want Alpha and Beta Nodes in which case you might be able to have a requirment of equal number of Alpha and Beta Nodes on the ship. (But the only thing diffrent between Alpha and Beta Nodes is the name)

Thier would have to balance with price/size and how fast you want the ships to move. But I think it could work.

[Phoenix-D]

"Um I think I'm lost. I'm think that the Impeller Ring and Nodes (the drive) are 2 diffrent things. The Ring holds the Nodes right?"

Yes, but right now they're combined into one unit for the sake of simplicity.

"Have you concidered using SJ Propulsion system (forget the name. Bigger ship = more engines needed for same movment). IMO this would work well concidering that, while all ships in HH are suppose to reach the same top speed, smaller ships are able to accelrate faster than bigger ships (its in the tech bible)."

This results in higher top speeds with more engines; I'm not sure you can just slap more nodes in the HH system..you can make them more powerful but add more?

"ship has to have an Alpha and Beta Impeller Ring (required) that gives you a standard +1 movment point. The size could very depending on the size of the ship or not."

Can be varied depending on the NODE size, but not the ship size. SE4 doesn't go there.

"I think thats what your getting at with the Small Impeller Node Ring, Imperller Node Ring and Larg Impeller Node Ring, right? If so you could simply name them; DD Impeller Rings, BC Impeller Rings, DN Impeller Rings and so on. While I don't know how to stop someone from using a DD ring on a DN you can make a minaiml size requirement so it can not fit on a smalle ship (which might be a good reason to just have them all the same size, but where the fun in that )."

Can't restrict them based on ship sizes other than making them not fit; it's why I'm calling them small-Capital rather than DD-SD. It would look a little weird seeing a SD with a DD impeller drive..

"You could also think about having a Impeller Drive reasurch field which is seperate from the normal propulsion field."

The impeller drive field IS the propulsion field in this mod Well, I suppose there are reaction thrusters, but those are so limited I'm not going to bother moding them.

"Next the Nodes, which if I understand it right, will be like (and work like) normal SE4 engines, just change the name. You could either keep the same size for all the node regardless of the ship size or not. But I don't remember their being any diffrent sizes for DD nodes or DN nodes. I could be wrong, but if i remember correctly how fast a ship was able to accelrate related to not how big its nodes where but how they where placed on the Impeller Ring (you could only space them so close together, but you only had so much hull space to work with)."

It depends on the node's *power* IIRC; and I think you're right in that you can't just go slapping nodes wherever you want. Which is why the node ring idea; it doesn't feel right to me to just put in more impeller nodes for more speed. You could have a DN filled with nothing but alpha nodes that way.

"Any of that make sense? My guess is that you would want Alpha and Beta Nodes in which case you might be able to have a requirment of equal number of Alpha and Beta Nodes on the ship. (But the only thing diffrent between Alpha and Beta Nodes is the name)"

Can't be done- you can't require a ship to have anything other the Bridge, Life Support, Crew Quarters, Fighter Bays, Cargo Bays, or colony modules. The Alpha and Beta nodes are different according to Ashes of Victory's tech drawings- the betas are much smaller.

Not sure I follow your system though. If all the impeller drive unit did was provide one movement point.. why bother mounting it?

Phoenix-D

[RWittman]

I thought that the real limiting factor on acceleration was the inertial compensator. I'm thinking that most warships could push a much higher gee level, but the inertial compensator can only produce so much "compensation" else the crew turns to goo.

I remember that as nodes were damaged in combat, the ships speed would be reduced. I belive that you could lose a few nodes with no loss of acceleration, but after that it would have an impact.

[Phoenix-D]

Right, but try modeling that in SE4.. I haven't come up with a way yet. SE4 doesn't do acceleration, and the IC allows fast acceleration.

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

OK, it's going.. I have the propulsion system set up, and I'm working on getting the armor and sidewalls right.

The hardest part is the scale; I've already bumped the size of the smaller ships up a bit, but creating components to go in ships that range from 80 kt to 8000 kt is a pain!

Phoenix-D

[Phoenix-D]

Sidewalls are still being a pain in the butt.

Question: what's the amount of time you'd consider reasonable to make a high-tech SD? Right now I've got SDs that take upwards of half a decade to build (when filled with standard SE4 tech and my Impeller system)

Phoenix-D