now, i have been brainstorming ideas on how to make a ship that can break into 3 seperate combat vehicles, and then rejoin. now, it occurs to me that it could be done by making to invisible outfits that carry "fighers" one for each of the two seperate break-away parts of the ship. that way, you could command the two other parts like escorts, while flying the main section yourself. the question then is this: can you make it so that the original ship actually LOSES those other sections while they are out flying themselves? or would the ship have to still look like it is all there? (in case you were wondering what i wanted to use it for, i was planning on making the USS Jupiter, -Combat class- starship from star trek. the USS jupiter is supposed to be capable of combat seperation, and i thought that it really couldn't get much cooler that that if you could actually do that in combat)
(i will be more than willing to share the finished ship with other plug developers who want the same type of thing)

thanks
-Cunjo

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

Quote

Originally posted by Cunjo:
**(snip)
**

Search for Kauthor's Prometheus post (although Prometheus might not be listed explicitly, it was fairly recent - within the last month or two I believe). That might have the answers that you're looking for.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

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(This message has been edited by what_is_the_matrix (edited 02-08-2004).)

wow, promethius? that is practically the same ship class. maybe it will. thanks!

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

hmm, this MAY actually work! (the problem with the prometheus is that all three sections are visible when joined. -it has two warp nacelles on each of the lower sections, and the top of course is the scaucer-) the Jupiter however has only two nacelles, (on the middle section) and the middle completely obscures the bottom, even from an angle. so maybe if i set the ship so that it launches the botom section first, (from the main ship), and then launches the middle section, (also from the main ship) you won't notice that the ship didn't change? the AI should work correctly too. but would there maybe be a way to have the second section launch the third without it disowning you if it the middle is destroyed? (i am thinking along the lines of setting a rank to activate when the ship is purchased, that causes a government to lend free battle aid, and the lower section would belong to this government.) i don't see a problem with that seeing is how i only plan to make one of the ships in the game. i guess another question would be what kind of behavior to expect of the other two sections in terms of how the second section will decide to use the third... that part may be a bit of a problem.
also, any ideas on ways to force the ship to launch BOTH sections simultaniusly? i mean, if i had both the second and third sections set to be launched and controlled from the scaucer, is there a way to make sure that either you launch them both at once, or that you are forced to launch the bottom section first? (it would be just plain wierd to have the middle fly off, leaving the bottom still attached...)

any input would be nice.

i will be attempting a proof of concept, just to make sure that the AI and seperation sequence work properly. (i won't worry about graphics just yet)

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

oops, my bad...
the nacelles are on the BOTTOM section,
so that leaves out the option of releasing the bottom first, it looks like i either have to release them both at once, or find a way to properly launch the bottom section from the middle...

EDIT: heh, i may just have to design my own similar starship, with the warp nacelles on the middle section...

i may be out of ideas. i might just have to make do with slightly faulty graphics, BUT if anyone CAN help me with this, it would be VERY much appreciated!

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

(This message has been edited by Cunjo (edited 02-08-2004).)

The best solution it to make both sections launch at the same time, but there currently is no way to do it. I tried putting both middle and bottom bays in one outfit, but that didn't work. It would be nice if it could work as a submunition, but submunitioning doesn't work on carried ships. And you can't have more than one ship type in a bay. Your best bet is to just have your key carried ship be the combination of the middle and bottom and make the key carried of that ship the bottom section. Yes, if the middle is destroyed the bottom disowns you. But of all the other methods, this one has the smallest problem. By no means stop brainstorming, this is just what I concluded after spending several hours a while ago testing different things.

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Do the bottom and middle sections look the same or do/would they use different graphics?

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

different, the bottom section has matches the second, but it also has warp nacelles.
is there possibly a way to make them the same ship, but just use diferent graphics?

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

No, I don't think so. If I remember correctly, bays can only be set to launch one kind of ship. This ship has the same graphics no matter what. I think your best bet would be to change the graphics around (didn't you suggest this earlier?) so that the nacelles are on the top third (the one you control). This would allow the second and third sections to look the same and therefore be launched as the same ship from a simultaneous launch bay.

Other than that, I can't see any way to launch them at the same time, other than making them primary weapons.

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Yea, and you don't wanna do that all the time...it get too confusing...

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Quote

Originally posted by Cunjo:
**oops, my bad...
the nacelles are on the BOTTOM section,
so that leaves out the option of releasing the bottom first, it looks like i either have to release them both at once, or find a way to properly launch the bottom section from the middle...

EDIT: heh, i may just have to design my own similar starship, with the warp nacelles on the middle section...

i may be out of ideas. i might just have to make do with slightly faulty graphics, BUT if anyone CAN help me with this, it would be VERY much appreciated!
**

Oh my GOD! That's an ugly ship. It's like the ugly Yeager kitbash. I personally dislike kitbashes of this sort because it's bashing two different ships that are two completely different scales, but are somehow mated. The Maquis raider (which is the aft section) isn't nearly that large, so it's unrealistic as well. But if you like it and want to play as it, that's your choice. My suggestion to make life easier for you is to put the nacelles on the middle section and basically hide the bottom section so that when you launch it, there's no change in graphics. You then put the saucer on its own bay, and you therefore have three ships, but only one's visible on separation.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

(url="http://"http://htf.mondominishows.com/valentine/main.asp?seed=7375&serial;=214877")The funniest valentine I've ever gotten.(/url)

ok, well here is the new idea, they will both release from the scaucer section, and the third section will be effectively hidden while carried, so now i just have to figure out a way of preventing the player from releasing the middle section first.

any ideas?

(please exuse the crappy drawing, i sent all of 5 minutes on MS paint doing it)
http://img13.photobu...s_Modified2.bmp

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

(This message has been edited by Cunjo (edited 02-08-2004).)

(This message has been edited by Cunjo (edited 02-08-2004).)

I just have a question as to the concept of this ship:

How do you get the weapons to work correctly? How do you guarantee grant all of these weapons to the player when the ships are connected but not grant them when the ship is separated?

Just use the current loadout as an example: 5 phaser banks, 2 quantum torpedo bays and 250 quantum torpedoes and 1 Chronoton Torpedo bay and 30 chronton torpedoes.

How do you make it so that when joined, you have acess to all 5 banks, 3 bays and 280 torpedoes? The only solution I can think of is to make it so that each section mounts a separate type. The bottom mounts the Chronotons, the middle mounts the quantums and the top mounts the phasers. Simply give each ammunition for these "multi-vector assault bays" a weapons modification. This leaves the problem of resrtriction. The muti-vector assault mode makes the ship WEAKER.

So tell me, how do you fix this problem? Limiting the player to only a certain amount of weapons isn't a good idea. In real life, the Jupiter would probably have a torpedo bay and a phaser on each, with 2 extras on the main. It's just not realistic to say "all chronotons are on the lower one".

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Quote

Originally posted by Zzap212:
**I just have a question as to the concept of this ship:

How do you get the weapons to work correctly? How do you guarantee grant all of these weapons to the player when the ships are connected but not grant them when the ship is separated?

Just use the current loadout as an example: 5 phaser banks, 2 quantum torpedo bays and 250 quantum torpedoes and 1 Chronoton Torpedo bay and 30 chronton torpedoes.

How do you make it so that when joined, you have acess to all 5 banks, 3 bays and 280 torpedoes? The only solution I can think of is to make it so that each section mounts a separate type. The bottom mounts the Chronotons, the middle mounts the quantums and the top mounts the phasers. Simply give each ammunition for these "multi-vector assault bays" a weapons modification. This leaves the problem of resrtriction. The muti-vector assault mode makes the ship WEAKER.

So tell me, how do you fix this problem? Limiting the player to only a certain amount of weapons isn't a good idea. In real life, the Jupiter would probably have a torpedo bay and a phaser on each, with 2 extras on the main. It's just not realistic to say "all chronotons are on the lower one".

**

you don't, you make do, (probably give the main section about half of the total, firepower and the other sections a quarter each, then up the power of everythin by 30% or so.) it might be weaker than usual when joined, but it will be more than effective when seperated. there is no way to balance it out.

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

Well that doesn't sound like a very realistic and plugin worthy solution.

No offense.

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

i am aware of that, i am still trying to come up with a way of makin certian weapons availabe for use only when you have the key-carried ship.

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

What exactly does the Key-Carried field do? It does a piss-poor job of explaining it in the Nova Bible. Basically, it says is can be used for "cool effect".

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

it makes you ship look/behave a certian way when carrying a certian ship.

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.

I told you the back looked like the maque raider... And the front looks like the intrepid, and the dish looks like the sovergns. But for the record, it may be ugly as hell. But combat ships are designed for combat, not the coolest ship awards. So you've gotta make allowances.

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Prime...Awacins

i alredy said that this was sketched up in like 5 minutes. it was to show how the seperation would work, NOT how it was supposed to look, i want it to actually look more like the Yeager when it is joined together, the only real difference will be that the nacelles will angle up. (and of course that it will seperate)

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A warrior can shape himself to suit anything in the universe.
A master can shape the universe to suit himself.