Modding Issues (New Enemy Ship)

[Song]

Hi. Just trying to code my first ever enemy ship mod.....a follow-on to the somewhat less-than-overpowered Ronin/C, which I have inventively called the Ronin/D....packing a larger hold, a faster engine (which has proved to be a mistake, and will be removed once I catch up with the damned thing), an Ice Shield and a new military "Cannon-pod" based off my SZ-70.....

In other words, it will probably be completely overpowered, but is a nice practice exercise.

It's still early days, and I haven't even tried to balance it.....but already there's an issue. I took the code from the charon leader Ronin/C and modified it to fit my needs. However, the new ships don't fire their NAMI launchers (which, yes, ARE installed. There are also 3d6 KM120s in the holds, which ARE showing up on the wrecks). What should I look for to find the problem?

[Song]

Fixed that. I'll keep the thread open for any other problems I have.

[Song]

The only problems I have now are balance ones....which are tricky, but exacerbated by the fact that my ice shield has such a wierd regen system. Means that at close range, 2 S3s can take it out in theory....but when you are dogfighting, it may take 5-6, where *all* the micro-missiles hit. Fun to fight, but by gods it makes it hard to balance.

Well, that and the fact that this thing rains KM120s and high-momentum shells on you....which I still need to test on armors other than light ithalium....

Anyone who's good at balance who might suggest tweaks, I'd quite like to have a look......the current version is very much a near endgame ship, but I'm not so good at this balance lark.

[Prophet]

Ships are harder to balance then equipment because the factors are sometimes abstract and non quantifiable.
Examples:
-Ships that run on shield down gain a little more difficulty rating.
-Some ships are more effective in swarms (dwarg, hornets) but laughable one on one.
-Some ships work best in mixed groups (barbarys+viking-IIs)

Some other factors to consider:
-How the player will encounter the ships (guarding a station, wandering, new encounter).
-What faction the ships belong to. This will affect what other factions may attack the ships.


This is what G.O.D. mod was made for!
Spawn your ship VS. an assortment of other ships.

[Song]

Ships are harder to balance then equipment because the factors are sometimes abstract and non quantifiable.
Examples:
-Ships that run on shield down gain a little more difficulty rating.
-Some ships are more effective in swarms (dwarg, hornets) but laughable one on one.
-Some ships work best in mixed groups (barbarys+viking-IIs)

Some other factors to consider:
-How the player will encounter the ships (guarding a station, wandering, new encounter).
-What faction the ships belong to. This will affect what other factions may attack the ships.


This is what G.O.D. mod was made for!
Spawn your ship VS. an assortment of other ships.

I have yet to get the head-to-head spawning right, sadly.

Currently I'm just balancing it VS Wolfen....I'll try it with the freighter later. I haven't even tried factions or encounters.

[Song]

This ship is amazing when it is against some enemies....and dies very quickly the rest of the time.

Ice Shield really is a fun thing to play with.....

ignoring shieldsdown will be top of my list of "Things to add before I consider releasing these things", otherwise really interesting and fun things happen with wingmen when you order them to attack after they run out of water for their shields.

Incidentally, while I'm here.....is it possible to set up a ship with two missile launchers, firing in a straight line sideways at the 90 & 270 degree points on the ship.....I'm thinking about experimenting with a larger ship that has heavy frontal weapons, and...ah.....discouragement for people following it (without removing frontal assault ability. And that means trackers (probably broadswords. God knows the game needs a better source of them) fired to the sides so they can arc back or forward. Annoyingly, I'm still REALLY unfamiliar with the coding of weapon configuration, and so have no idea exactly what lines to put in the coding...

......shame I have to stick to vanilla graphics.......this one will probably have to be based off the Aquila <_<

[Prophet]

That is a very interesting idea, I quickly tested it and it does work.
I made a new launcher that will fire two missiles laterally from the left and right sides simultaneously. The one draw back being that the launcher will produce 2 missile shots for each ammo. An exploit for a player weapon but no problem for an NPC weapon. You could remove extra ammo with some code in an <OnFireWeapon> event or just leave it as is.

To make this work, simply drop this code inside the launcher of your choice and voila, two missiles for the price of one!

Code: Select all

<Configuration aimTolerance="45">
	<Shot posAngle="90" posRadius="0" angle="90"/>
	<Shot posAngle="270" posRadius="0" angle="270"/>
</Configuration>

I placed this in a DM1500 missile rack and it was quite devastating. The missiles lose some range but deal with swarms MUCH better. If they were fragmenting AND homing missiles, it would be my new favorite weapon!

[Atarlost]

The AI will have a lot of trouble using a non-swiveling broadside weapon.

And I've done code for dual ammo weapons. I think it should work with launchers as is.

[Song]

The AI will have a lot of trouble using a non-swiveling broadside weapon.

And I've done code for dual ammo weapons. I think it should work with launchers as is.

I think I'll take the config stuff from prophet's code, and apply it to twin NAMI launchers......so that it doesn't have the dual ammo thing, but achieves the same thing. I can probably modify the corporate cruiser for the purpose.....

[Song]

Ok. I have it working as two launchers in the right place. But two problems are evident.

1. They're NOT firing sideways
2. The missiles aint tracking

Here's the device code for the twin launchers.

Code: Select all

<Device deviceID="&itNAMIMissileLauncher;"secondaryWeapon="true"
posAngle="90" posRadius="5" angle="90"/>
	<Device deviceID="&itNAMIMissileLauncher;"secondaryWeapon="true" posAngle="270" posRadius="5" angle="270"/>

Now.....I need to know what to add in, where to add it.....and possibly a way to fix it so the Stilletto test missiles actually, you know......track?

[Prophet]

ok, if you're going to use it that way try changing:

angle="90"

with

minFireArc="90" maxFireArc="90"

[Song]

ok, if you're going to use it that way try changing:

angle="90"

with

minFireArc="90" maxFireArc="90"

This appears to have worked for now

Interestingly, it doesn't fire if you're not in front of it......some day, I'll work on that.

However it is QUITE a fierce little ship at present.

[Song]

I've got something of an AI problem, and I'm not sure how to fix it.....the missiles only fire when you're in the 180 degree spread at the front. Ah well, it's still a neat little ship. I've swapped the SZ-70 it was packing for a semi-omni heavy slam cannon, to deter the player from getting close in behind or beside, where the missiles won't fire.

if anyone would like to lend a hand troubleshooting this problem with the AI, then just ask, and I can upload the current prototype Ronin/E Experimental Missileship to Xelerus. it's woefully overpowered, but I'm doing this as an experiment so that's OK.