Random Equipment Version 2!

[Periculi]

Yes, I think it would be a nice part of a corporate factions mod.

Corporations that are all sub factions of the Conglomerate ( allied to Corp and CW) could have their initial relations drawn from random rolls- who among them is friend and foe- these competing factions develop little tech jumps to out do each other, and it is seen in new ships that they produce from stations (evolving configs over time)

The corps could get scored by placement number- how many of who per system, as the game goes along this number begins to represent the strength of a corp, and could adjust it's tech jumps and make stronger ship configs faster.

In this sense, a system could level like the player does- Eridani, perhaps, could grow into a higher level system over time, with ships getting spawned that had appropriate configs for the newer level of development.

[Betelgeuse]

I was thinking even ships that already exist get there upgraded too (you may want to be so far from the player so the player doesn't see) that way the player can't run ahead and lock in equipment and go back and not have to worry about equipment getting harder.
(what is goes with and making these things balanced isn't my job )

[digdug]

we can pass unvUNID and sysGetLevel in the gobals and don't store anything in the ship, just call the global function that check the ship and apply appropriate level weaponry.

also if you know the name of the ship, you can put ad-hoc weapons and shields using filters on the itmCreateRandom like
(itmCreateRandom "w +Cannon;" "ucv-- -----")

(itmCreateRandom "w -m; +Makayev;" "----- uc---")

of course to use at best this system we ned a lot more modifiers in the weapons.

[Betelgeuse]

doing it by name would add tons of switch statements, would be huge and unwieldy.

You can use attributes and that would allow you to use sysfindobject to get all the things of a same group. You would have to overwrite ships still but then you would have ready made groups whenever you wanted to change weapons.

[Betelgeuse]

sorry for the double post but just thought of something that would help. Put the global code in a separate xml file than the ships so when a new version comes out you don't have to change that file you just have to make a new ship file.

[Periculi]

I have uploaded the 'mostly complete' version 2 to Xelerus, and included a shield module with the new weapons method. Enjoy!

Please check the first post for more details.

[digdug]

Yuppie !

I'm going to test it right now !

[Faust]

on testing I found the following things:
1: in killing 37 ships, only 6 left wreckage
2: very stiff early game, the enemy has better weapons and in some cases better shields than you
3:the variation makes the game oh so much more fun
4: when used in conjunction with the weapon mod, I had 3 Homal fighters spawn (kukiris?) 1 had a double kinetic, but the other 2 had some weapon that caused their shields to periodicly take damage whe they tried to fire. I will sent you the save game today.



(I was the fifth to download the mod)

[digdug]

but the other 2 had some weapon that caused their shields to periodicly take damage whe they tried to fire. I will sent you the save game today.

eheh, laser weapon and solon shield...


BTW Faust is right, the first couple of systems are very difficult.

[Periculi]

Thanks for the review, Faust.

1. I didn't make any changes to the ship leavesWreck attributes, you must have run afoul the goddess of probability.

2 & 3 - well, good.

4. This mod is intended specifically for use with the weapons extended mod. I can see that the shield issue should be addressed, and probably some fine tuning on the selections. If you look in the globals you will see that I left the potentials wide open- it should definitely get some better filtering, for the next version.

As for the starting systems difficulty, refer to emoticon at top of post.

[Faust]

yep. i had them both on. played some more last night. those two poor himals never got off a shot. It wasn't a solon, because I killed them with my only availible weapon, a purble fastfire laser. also, Periculi, I cannot send you thee file, as I cannot contact you outside the forum.

[Silentdances]

I've been using your mods, and I came across a weapon no station was able to install. no idea what it was, only that it was 500mw. I was wondering if the station levels were random enough that this could happen.

[digdug]

The only 500MW weapon I know it's the level 10 Ares plasma cannon, and it's NotForSale, so it shouldn't pop up in any station.




SPOILER:
Level 10 weapons can be installed by a ringer shipyard.

[Betelgeuse]

NotForSale weapons can be at stations just not sold at stations.

[Silentdances]

I purchased it at a ringer shipyard, the 500mw caught my eye, and I just had to try it out