Honor Harrington Mod Discussion

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Phoenix-Dfrom Microdrone thread)
HH mod uses it. See that thread for the major issues.

The problems are you can't target the drones manually in tactical (they attack always using their strategy), a lot of drones will actually get in each others way, you can't set a fire rate of below 1 per turn, and they will always outrange any other weapon.

Phoenix-D

Phoenix,

Why Direct Fire warheads instead of contact ones? Is this something that fits with the HH universe, or a workaround for some problem you came across trying to implement the missle drones.

What do you mean by "the Drones get in each others way"? I can see a hundred drones with direct fire weapons milling about could be a problem, since they dont' stack like fighters. Is that what you mean? I wonder if maybe my first question has the answer for the second. If you change the warheads back to ramming warheads don't you eliminate the problem of them getting in each others way?

Your other three problems stated in your post aren't really problems for the mod I am considering.

The store 50,000 drones and launch them at the first fleet that attacks would be a problem. However, it would actually be a problem for attacker and defender as well, since once launched the drones cannot be recovered a simple single ship probing defenses would clear out any stockpile of drone missles and these two things would cancel each other out and make the defenders less likely to attempt this tactic, don't you think?

Geoschmo

[ August 09, 2002, 20:15: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[sachmo]

If you want to use them, I uploaded some design name files under the mods section from the honorverse. Just to reiterate, I make no claims on their completeness, but you might be able to use them as a starting place when you are ready. Or, you can just throw them in your game!

[Phoenix-D]

"Why Direct Fire warheads instead of contact ones? Is this something that fits with the HH universe, or a workaround for some problem you came across trying to implement the missle drones."

Ramming is not affected by ECM; HH universe missiles are very much affected by ECM. So the contact warheads are range-1 single shot. The HH books also have a weapon called the laser-head missile; it's a bomb-driven laser mounted on a missile. Missile flies to within 40k kilometers, denonates the bomb which fires the laser at the target.. it's also supposed to destroy the missile, but I can't make SE4 do that.

"What do you mean by "the Drones get in each others way"? I can see a hundred drones with direct fire weapons milling about could be a problem, since they dont' stack like fighters. Is that what you mean? I wonder if maybe my first question has the answer for the second. If you change the warheads back to ramming warheads don't you eliminate the problem of them getting in each others way?"

No, you don't. The HH universe also has ships firing *obscene* numbers of missiles to saturate the enemy point defense. I've cut that down by at least a factor of 10, but in a major fleet battle there will STILL be hundreds of drones flying around; even before they get to the target they get in each other's way because they can't stack. I suppose I could use fighters for the missiles instead of drones, but then I wouldn't be able to do another component, that is light attack craft.

"Your other three problems stated in your post aren't really problems for the mod I am considering."

Good..

"The store 50,000 drones and launch them at the first fleet that attacks would be a problem. However, it would actually be a problem for attacker and defender as well, since once launched the drones cannot be recovered a simple single ship probing defenses would clear out any stockpile of drone missles and these two things would cancel each other out and make the defenders less likely to attempt this tactic, don't you think?"

Perhaps. We'll have to see I guess..

Phoenix-D

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Ramming is not affected by ECM; HH universe missiles are very much affected by ECM. So the contact warheads are range-1 single shot.

Ah, that makes sense then. I am not trying to make missles suceptable to ECM, but I am going to be giving them ECM components themselves to protect them from PDC some, so contact warheads should work fine for me.

I suppose I could use fighters for the missiles instead of drones,

Hmmm, well that doesn't work for me cause then they can be recovered after combat, and I don't want that. I guess I will have to trust that with the contact warheads they don't get too much in each others way on the way to ramming their targets. Too bad drones can't stack though.

Geoschmo

[Mind Elemental]

Uhm. Maybe have drones take up an obscene amount of space, and have the amount of storage offered by missile storage greatly increased? (Of course, that means you could then use missile storage to haul troops. O_o; No such thing as a free lunch...)

How will missile pods be modelled?

[Mind Elemental]

How are missile pods going to be implemented?

[Phoenix-D]

As of now I don't know.

Phoenix-D

[AJC]

Drone launcher with its own cargo space? Make it take up less space than it actually holds - call it a missile pod?

[Phoenix-D]

Eh, maybe. The problem is that doesn't really accuratly represent the pods. Right now the missile tubes hold 1 shot each. If I make a "missile pod" that is, say, the size of 4 missiles but holds and shoots 5, people will use *just* the pods, and fire multiple missiles out of the "pod".

Phoenix-D

[AJC]

unfortunately its probably impossible to simulate the books perfectly.

If limiting number of components on a ship is working correctly that would help , then you could restrict its use as far as how many can be on a ship and make them cheaper than normal launchers. Several different components could be created limiting the size of ship that they can be on. Each pod component holding a few more missiles(drones) to simulate numerous pods on bigger ships.

how about component destroyed on use? maybe this would encourage using more than just the pods, set the value for the number of missile(drones) being launched at maximum number when fired. I.e. 5. Repairing the Pod could be considered part of rearming them. they should take up little space and be cheap however.

Another thought is find a way using the new mounts capabilities coming in patch 2 and do a combination of abilities and mounts.

[ August 14, 2002, 00:13: Message edited by: AJC ]