Capship Mod

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

They've got at least one high-capacity cloning facility somewhere. Need to track down and destroy it.

Really, I have NO IDEA what the problem is. It's never occured to me before.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

*****IMPORTANT UPDATE*****

Realism is down the drain for now. I'm putting it on hold, as the main reasons for building orbital SLVs and RLVs is negated by the fact that a planet can launch 1k units per turn.

Capship is going well, I've got an excessive amount of armor and even now you can research it with low tech..... gotta make higher-tech armor..... but I'm putting the armor on hold for now. Going to redo fighter combat.

Quick overview:

I took some inspiration from SJ's CB Mod and the Galactic Conquest mod, and now I'm making fighters (to be called "attack craft" from now on) designed to perform specific roles. The first fighter you can build, the Interceptor, is designed to intercept and destroy enemy attack craft. To accomplish this, it is fast and has offense/defense bonuses, but it is very small. Space superiority fighters are slower, more defensive fighters (but they can also be used offensively, they're just slower than Interceptors) that can carry heavy anti-attack craft weaponry. Bombers are the only attack craft truly capable of taking on warships and capital warships, as they are very large and can sport large amounts of armor and heavy weaponry. However, they are very slow. Fighterbombers are attack craft designed to form the middle road between space superiority fighters and bombers, being faster than bombers and larger than SS fighters.

You will also have specialized craft such as Assault Bombers, Strike Bombers and Heavy Bombers (more to come). Assault bombers are faster and smaller bombers, and they're designed to carry anti-attack craft support weaponry (think turrets and such. Like the WWII Heavy Strategic Bombers) while Strike Bombers are fast craft designed to carry less weaponry but gain speed and offense/defense bonuses. Heavy Bombers are just what the name implies, large, lumbering assault craft capable of carrying massive loads of anti-ship weaponry.

As for the armor, perhaps I'll finish it after the release of 1.00. I don't know whether or not I'll EVER truly finish it. It's gone out of hand, too much armor with too little tech requirements.

More updates to come.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

.....does anybody know if you can have "area-of-effect" warheads? I mean adding damage at range 2 as well, so that if you ram an enemy ship any ships directly adjacent to it will be damaged as well.

[capnq]

Strategia_In_Ultima said:
.....does anybody know if you can have "area-of-effect" warheads? I mean adding damage at range 2 as well, so that if you ram an enemy ship any ships directly adjacent to it will be damaged as well.

No, that's not possible.

[Suicide Junkie]

I highly reccommend NOT forcing the user into choosing pre-made interceptor/superiority/bomber fighters.

Let the component stats speak for themselves, and let the I/S/B/other classifications fall naturally.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

You're not strictly enforced to do it, you can place masses of Interceptor weapons on bombers, what I meant is that heavier anti-attack craft weaponry and anti-ship weaponry gets increasingly larger, and the I/S/B is mainly just a means of defining the max level of weaponry you can place on the craft. Interceptors can be built/launched in swarms, are very fast but cannot wield heavy anti-AC weaponry, they're mainly limited to swarming enemy S/Bs and mainly harassing them, superiority fighters can carry swarms of Interceptor weapons but they can also carry some heavier, longer-ranged anti-AC weapons, but they are slower - designed to fulfill a more defensive role, escorting warships and bombers and protecting them from enemy interceptor/superiority attack. Bombers are simply the minimum size ACs that can carry anti-ship weapons, but you can also cram Heavy Bombers with Interceptor weapons and thereby spread out your to-hit chances against ACs. Normal PD can only target seekers, and modded PD will be a threat to ACs but if you put enough armor on them they'll be able to hold their own against ships with PD. Bombers will thus be a pretty serious threat for smaller warships, and can be an effective support when attacking capital warships, but since PD will be less effective against them, you'll need interceptors and superiority fighters to take out enemy bombers before they can cause serious damage/interference to your fleet.

[AngleWyrm]

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

You're not strictly enforced to do it, you can place masses of Interceptor weapons on bombers, what I meant is that heavier anti-attack craft weaponry and anti-ship weaponry gets increasingly larger, and the I/S/B is mainly just a means of defining the max level of weaponry you can place on the craft. Interceptors can be built/launched in swarms, are very fast but cannot wield heavy anti-AC weaponry, they're mainly limited to swarming enemy S/Bs and mainly harassing them, superiority fighters can carry swarms of Interceptor weapons but they can also carry some heavier, longer-ranged anti-AC weapons, but they are slower - designed to fulfill a more defensive role, escorting warships and bombers and protecting them from enemy interceptor/superiority attack. Bombers are simply the minimum size ACs that can carry anti-ship weapons, but you can also cram Heavy Bombers with Interceptor weapons and thereby spread out your to-hit chances against ACs. Normal PD can only target seekers, and modded PD will be a threat to ACs but if you put enough armor on them they'll be able to hold their own against ships with PD. Bombers will thus be a pretty serious threat for smaller warships, and can be an effective support when attacking capital warships, but since PD will be less effective against them, you'll need interceptors and superiority fighters to take out enemy bombers before they can cause serious damage/interference to your fleet.

-----TRANSLATING-----

Players aren't meant to stick by the rules strictly. The general division between interceptors, space superiority fighters and bombers isn't meant to keep players from putting Interceptor weaponry on Bombers.

To put it this way:

Interceptor weaponry is an assortment of light short-ranged anti-attack craft weaponry. This, combined with the facts that Interceptors are really really fast and that they cannot carry space superiority weapons, makes that Interceptors are quite limited fighters, as they cannot hold their own against equal numbers of SSFs, however they are very cheap and can be built and launched in swarms, making them effective ways to swarm enemy SSFs and bombers encroaching on your fleet, or simply to distract enemy defenders to provide cover for Bombers approaching the enemy fleet.

SSFs (space superiority fighters) are larger, slower attack craft designed to fill a more defensive role. They are more expensive than Interceptors and therefore cannot be launched in similar numbers, but still SSFs are invaluable if the enemy makes use of a lot of Bombers. SSFs can carry heavier weapons than the Interceptors but still cannot use anti-ship weaponry. SSF weapons have a longer range and a higher damage than Interceptor weaponry, but interceptors can use their speed and offense/defense bonuses to their advantage.

Bombers are very large, lumbering craft, sometimes even slower than a fast warship. They are the only attack craft capable of wielding anti-ship weapons, and this makes them a powerful enemy. Even more so, because Bomber anti-ship weapons pack quite a punch. However, since Bombers are such huge craft (especially compared to Interceptors), they can also carry a lot of Interceptor or SSF weaponry. A screen of Bombers carrying a mix of Interceptor and SSF weaponry can be a very powerful defense against enemy Bombers, but be wary that they are pretty expensive and quite slow, and therefore Interceptors can easily deal with the Bomber screen - they dart in range, fire their weapons, then flee again so the bombers cannot return fire.

All in all, I'm trying to make fighters play an important role in campaigns, as Bombers have the potential to be even more dangerous to enemy ships than a Light Cruiser, simply because they are harder to hit and their weapons are proportionally stronger. As I said, most of my inspiration came from SJ's Carrier Battles Mod.

-----/TRANSLATION-----

This is what you meant with the empty post, right? You couldn't make heads or tails of my rant?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I've put Capship on relative hold for a while, if I work on it now it's gonna be small things. I've simply got too many things queued up (no this is not a joke or the result of JOMT Syndrome) simultaneously now. I've got Fighters to do, Armor is very much work in progress, I've got several (ok, a lot of) weapons on paper which I need to make into bits and bytes - it's simply too much for now.

However, I am starting work on a new mod. The "Missile Mod". It is, as its name implies, a mod which focuses on missiles. I've removed all stock weapons except PD, and I'm going to create lots and lots of missiles. They're gonna be the only weapons available, except for weak PD and perhaps some direct-fire support weapons. I'm going to port over the Capship ground combat system, so that can be considered completed.

In Missile Mod games, combat is going to be a long hard struggle. It can be easy to outrun the slower, heavier missiles, however the enemy can do the same with your missiles. On top of that, there are fast long-ranged missiles which are plainly impossible to outrun. If you want to damage the enemy, you'll have to come closer than you might want. Nobody is going to leave Missile Mod combat undamaged.

[Ron_Lugge]

My reply got et. I thought I mentioned that I treid to create a similar mod, but found it beyond my skills 'cause I suck at modding.

Anyway, I'm highly interested in the missilemod.