[Mod] Starburn Defensive Drones

[ThePrivateer]

Starburn Defensive Drones
Get it now on Xelerus
This mod is now finished.

Old thread/post ->

My new mod, as discussed on IRC and in asam3's new item thread : http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=866

It's still in development, and allows the player to launch lightweight, underpowered drones to protect the player.

You can buy a box at most commonwealth or weapons dealers in the early systems or use the included "beta testing" playership to automatically get 2 boxes.

I'll update as I go along, please post and comment if you have ideas/bugs.

[Ttech]

Yeah underpowered, only a prototype lamplighter so it won't be able to stop the Icorym well.

But seriously, its a great idea, going to try it to use it soon.

[ThePrivateer]

Yeah underpowered, only a prototype lamplighter so it won't be able to stop the Icorym well.

But seriously, its a great idea, going to try it to use it soon.

Lamplighter? They're using a basic laser cannon...?

In any case, the idea is to have these Drones that the player can call upon to protect him. There is just a batch of tweaking to do, and I need to decide how to implement some form of Kamikaze-style attack on the nearest enemy when they are almost destroyed (thinking of giving them really weak shield and when <OnShieldDestroyed>, getting them to fly to enemy and destroy themselves.

I was happy with the graphic I chose, as the standard auton looked too powerful, so this image (a basic strelka missile) looks more apt to a light drone.

[ThePrivateer]

Updated to fix a bug involving the cargo crate not consuming itself.

So, I'm happy enough with the drones as they are now; I'm going to invest in some more high-level versions of them, but I have a problem.

The drones have a basic shield (3 HP) and a one-piece armour (~5 HP). when their shield goes down, the drone will fly away to recharge. How do I stop this happening and how do I then tell the drone to fly to a random enemy and self destruct?

I am using sdw195's Kamikaze-class auton as a base, if that helps. I assume <OnShieldsDown> needs to then trigger some kind of script to choose a random enemy, fly to it and then trigger the <OrderSelfDestruct> that Sdw195 had.

Any help would be welcome.

[PM]

Check out the Phobos in the Ares* xml. They have ignoreShieldsDown in the AI settings. I think that causes them to continue fighting even after shields are down. (I have not tested this myself.) You could try that on your drones.

[sdw195]

Updated to fix a bug involving the cargo crate not consuming itself.

So, I'm happy enough with the drones as they are now; I'm going to invest in some more high-level versions of them, but I have a problem.

The drones have a basic shield (3 HP) and a one-piece armour (~5 HP). when their shield goes down, the drone will fly away to recharge. How do I stop this happening and how do I then tell the drone to fly to a random enemy and self destruct?

I am using sdw195's Kamikaze-class auton as a base, if that helps. I assume <OnShieldsDown> needs to then trigger some kind of script to choose a random enemy, fly to it and then trigger the <OrderSelfDestruct> that Sdw195 had.

Any help would be welcome.

try <ondamage> to fire the <OrderSelfDestruct> event

[ThePrivateer]

Check out the Phobos in the Ares* xml. They have ignoreShieldsDown in the AI settings. I think that causes them to continue fighting even after shields are down. (I have not tested this myself.) You could try that on your drones.

That sounds right - I have never seen an Ares flee, so I'll give that a shot.

try <ondamage> to fire the <OrderSelfDestruct> event

OnDamage - is that for when Armour gets damaged? (which means shields MUST be down?)

[ThePrivateer]

OK, ignoreShieldsDown works wonderfully! Thanks for that!

So now I'll work on getting self destruct to work...but how do I get the drones to pick a random enemy? Any help here please, as the kamikaze coding is based upon havign the player select a target for the auton to use...I need this to be automatically decided <OnDamaged>.

[blizgerg]

Get a list of enemies nearby and use the random function which returns one random item from a list.

[ThePrivateer]

Get a list of enemies nearby and use the random function which returns one random item from a list.

Ummm sounds good, but I have zero scripting ability.

Care to help me on this? I'll stick you in the credits if you can provide a nice script.

(or else, can you point me to Xelerus/function list, or a source XML that shows this?)

[alterecco]

The wiki is your friend in a case like this (along with xelerus)

http://wiki.neurohack.com/transcendence ... hip_orders

use something like the following in the OnDamaged event:

Code: Select all

(shpOrder gSource 'attackNearestEnemy)

You will probably need more code than this, but it should get you started.

[ThePrivateer]

The wiki is your friend in a case like this (along with xelerus)

http://wiki.neurohack.com/transcendence ... hip_orders

use something like the following in the OnDamaged event:

Code: Select all

(shpOrder gSource 'attackNearestEnemy)

You will probably need more code than this, but it should get you started.

Thank you, I feel so stoopid for missing that.
The wiki does look helpful. Thanks!

[ThePrivateer]

OK, so I am now working again on Drones and plan to change a few things.

First off, the name is getting changed to avoid confusion with PM's Playership Drones mod.

The new name is : Starburn Defensive Drones

There will not be any kamikaze-like death functions, as sdw195 already has that (and I failed to program that in).

Instead, the Starburns will come in a few level varieties, from basic Level I-II, all the way up to Level X drones.

Autons usually are far too expensive in the early system and you aren't even guaranteed to get a good auton, so Starburn will fix this by adding cheap, light little drones to protect you against the baddies in the first systems. Also, they will help out tremendously in the Battle Arena.

So sit tight and I'll update you when it's all done! Any comments please post here!

[alterecco]

Sounds like a fun mods ThePrivateer. I would also suggest you change the topic of the post. That would make it even less confusing. If you need help with that let me know and I can do it for you.

[ThePrivateer]

Sounds like a fun mods ThePrivateer. I would also suggest you change the topic of the post. That would make it even less confusing. If you need help with that let me know and I can do it for you.

This mod is now finished and wrapped up!

I'll edit it to say as much.