Highliner Mod - 1.04b - PBW Observations & Patch

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Loser:
I don't believe Units can use the Boarding Party Component.

I'm going to do some combat simulator tests right out of the starting gate to confirm this one way or the other.

And I don't know if the Allegiance Converter works on them, either.

Another combat test to perform.

Also, if I recall correctly, nothing will Ram a conventional Fighter in Strategic Combat. I could be wrong on that, but I'm pretty conventional Ships will not Ram conventional Fighters. I don't think conventional Fighters will Ram other conventional Fighters either.

That's probably true. And in the case of my mod, even more so - how the heck can a 5000kton Highliner ram a 100kton Rider that doesn't want to be rammed? You might as well try to ram my dad's fishing boat with the USS Wisconsin. Now, Suicide Riders ramming Highliners and Planets... well, I think (and hope) you're going to be seeing a *lot* of that. (BTW, no Drones in this Mod. Suicide Riders totally take over that niche.)

In addition to seeing this mod in action, I look forward to hearing your report or what did, and did not, work for Units. A boundary-pushing mod like this is likely to pin down a whole lot of SE IV mod limitations.

Well, it's certainly been an education for me...

Even if these limitations have be discovered before, you'd have them all right here, in one place. Please let us know what you are unable to use on your over-sized Units.

Whatever the results are will get posted here on this thread.

[cybersol]

I hope you wade your way through all the limitations because this mod is a great idea. I too really loved the whole idea of the massive jumpships hold a dozen or so dropships in the battletech universe.

It would be really cool if you could make a component that would need to be charged before you could use a warp point. If you gave it a 10 turn recharge rate, then you could really simulate the battletech jump ships. "Um, ok we are here, but the enemy has overwhelming force. We need to leave but we have to wait a year? Were are dead meat." Simulating the realistic dropship movement of constant acceleration followed by constant deceleration would be harder.

[Fyron]

And I don't know if the Allegiance Converter works on them, either.

Allegience Subverters will work on units if you change the targeting type to be able to target units.

I also think that fighters get their mother ship's bonuses, right? (Another reason to make Highliners expensive and valuable.)

They do not gain the carrier's bonuses.

Again, one of my pet peeves I've been dying to set right. What's the point of having a remote mining ship that costs more to maintain than what it brings in?

Not all planets and asteroids have things of value to mine.

Don't get your hopes set too high. I reduced the stacking limit for Units to make this less nuclear.

How exactly did you go about this? You can launch everything in cargo at once from a planet, so you can easily get 1000 fighter/drone stacks.

Can Units cloak?
Can Units sweep Mines?
Can conventional Fighters launch Seekers?

Yes, but ISTR some issues with cloaking units, though I do not recall the specifics. Maybe. Yes.

quote:
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Originally posted by Loser:
I don't believe Units can use the Boarding Party Component.
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I'm going to do some combat simulator tests right out of the starting gate to confirm this one way or the other.

Units can not participate in any boarding activities, period. Only ships and bases can do so.

[ June 13, 2003, 21:27: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Allegience Subverters will work on units if you change the targeting type to be able to target units.

Already did that.

Not all planets and asteroids have things of value to mine.

Granting that, I still found that mining even the richest asteroid fields with a remote-miner equipped Freighter was not worth the effort. Besides, I like the idea of cheap exploitation of resources.

How exactly did you go about this? You can launch everything in cargo at once from a planet, so you can easily get 1000 fighter/drone stacks.

Isn't that what the "Combat Fighter Group Amount" lines in the Settings and Strageiges files does?

Yes, but ISTR some issues with cloaking units, though I do not recall the specifics. Maybe. Yes.

We finds out, yes we does, my preciousssss...

Units can not participate in any boarding activities, period. Only ships and bases can do so.

Well, I'm going to put in a really big post in the SEV request forum after this is done, I can tell you...

[Phoenix-D]

Units can cloak. The problem, as of the Last time I tested it, is they STAY cloaked, and won't uncloak.

[General Woundwort]

Weeeellll, shoot! Just going over the thread from front to back , here's everything that won't work in units...

Colony Components - This is a pain, but an increase in the components' size requirements and staying with Highliners fits in the Mod's general theme anyways, so no big deal.

Cargo - A major pain. No troop transport Riders, no Mine/Satellite/etc Layers, etc.; but given the logical [program-code wise] problems of a unit 'in cargo' carrying cargo, understandable.

Boarding Party Component - This sucks big time. And given the consistent idea of Boarding Pods in SciFi - the ones in B5 come to mind immediately - almost inconceivable. This goes to the SEV Request thread at once.

Well, as a great Air Force pilot has said, we haven't come this far to just drop this thing in the drink! So, the (albeit imperfect) interim solution I have in mind is this - a "workhorse" Highliner that has the docking bay requirement dropped to 25%. It will only come in the smallest size (1000ktons) and be intended for the sorts of things I wanted specialized Riders to do, but am barred from doing so by the program code.

So drop the percentages for the data files back a few points while I rework these latest glitches, and keep your fingers crossed...

EDIT - and now Phoenix comes with the bad news that cloaking is buggy too.
Well, in that case, I may just totally drop that tech line and simply beef up the ECM/ECCM limb of the tech tree.

[ June 14, 2003, 02:21: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[General Woundwort]

(climbs back out of the datafile salt mines, wipes brow)

OK, here's how it stands.

Cargo, cloak, boarding parties, and colony tech have been ruled "right out" for units. So, here is what I have my Riders ("fighters") able to carry at this moment...

- Scanner Jammer (in armor)
- Medical Bays
- Mine Sweepers
- Remote Miners
- Armor, Shields, & Weapons of all sorts not Banned above
- ECM
- ECCM
- Ship Control
- Life Support
- Crew Quarters

The Last batch of changes, plus the results of some research I did in other threads re: AI design, has put me back a bit in my status report...

CURRENT STATUS

Data files - 99% completed (pending proofread)

AI/race files - 0% (basically starting from scratch)

Image files - 100% (This at least seems foolproof )

Mod Readme - updated on a few points, most importantly with an acknowledgement of the aid and advice given on this thread.

(wipes hands, trudges back into the saltmines)

EDIT - link to old Version of Mod Readme removed, go upthread for latest Version

[ June 21, 2003, 02:55: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]