Self-destroying ships(w/o damage!) invisible shots, and more new i

Self-Destroying ships..
I need a ship to kill itself, and then 'escape' into another ship... the key, is damage would be hard to explain in-game... I guess I could make the damage super low, and the shields even lower... but a ship with 5 shield points might not work....
I may have solved my own problem. Of course, for another issue, I need the same effect.

invisible weapons...
Do invisible sprites work with weapons, or will they not hit without any sprite? I suppose I could use a 1 pixel image, but I need it truly invisible if possible.

Can a mission take away an outfit and then grant a different one?
Stupid question. I've never implemented it... but I now that I think about it, Im sure its possible... right?
The process is to allow the player to purchase Bonds-
They cost (for example) 10,000 credits. As soon as they're purchased, they can only be sold for like 1000 credits.... but when (for example) 90 days have gone by, they're worth 18,000 credits. They take no space, and stay with you when you change ships.
I was planning on just making it an outfit that can't be sold, called "Savings Bond". In your inventory, it shows up as "Immature Savings Bond", and activates a cron on purchase. after 90days, the cron activated a self-aborting mission that takes away the "Immature Savings Bond" And grants "Matured Savings Bond" which is nearly identical, but is worth much more (and can be sold for approx 18,000) and can be sold anywhere.... Or I could just make the self-aborting mission grant the payout... shrug which do you think would be better? I say let the player cash it. (that way pirates can't steal your money)
Does anyone else have an easier way?

Also, how annoying are liscenses? Im thinking of making pilot licenses like Commercial Pilots License (for cargo freighters), Private Pilots Liscense (for ships like the Shuttles and Passenger Transport), and Business Liscense (to unlock the commodity exchange!)

Also, playing around with idea about forcing the player to play a version of Strict Play in my TC.... by giving every ship an escape pod and auto-eject...unsellable... Annoying, or clever?

Also, I perfected how to get the balance between fighters, capitals, intercepters, etc. but its a secret.

You don't need a mission, I think. Just have the crön Dxxx Gyyy OnEnd.

Besides, Szzz'ing is notoriously unreliable, because the player might already have 16 active missions.

@-redchigh-, on Mar 21 2008, 02:02 AM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Self-Destroying ships..
I need a ship to kill itself, and then 'escape' into another ship... the key, is damage would be hard to explain in-game... I guess I could make the damage super low, and the shields even lower... but a ship with 5 shield points might not work....

Can you provide more info on what you're trying to accomplish?
There are a number of ways to kill a ship.
Also, while escape ships work, I have found that the AI doesn't use them 100% of the time. Seems more like 50%

@-redchigh-, on Mar 21 2008, 02:02 AM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

invisible weapons...
Do invisible sprites work with weapons, or will they not hit without any sprite? I suppose I could use a 1 pixel image, but I need it truly invisible if possible.

You make the sprite small and black. It is the mask that contains the area that hits.
If there is no "hit" area in the mask, it can't hit anything. So, you can make the sprite look "invisible" against most backgrounds, though you will see it if the weapon crosses over planets and such. A mask with 1 white pixel, with a black sprite is probably the best recommendation.
EDIT: you might be able to achieve true invisibility with the beamwidth field. A positive value causes a shot to fade out about one second before count ends. I haven't tested this, so I don't know if it can still hit. Also, you might experiment with translucent shots - black might mean 100% transparency.

@-redchigh-, on Mar 21 2008, 02:02 AM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Also, playing around with idea about forcing the player to play a version of Strict Play in my TC.... by giving every ship an escape pod and auto-eject...unsellable... Annoying, or clever?

That doesn't force the player to play strict. If you lose your primary ship, you just re-load the pilot file and you are back at the last planet you landed on.

@-redchigh-, on Mar 21 2008, 02:02 AM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Also, I perfected how to get the balance between fighters, capitals, intercepters, etc. but its a secret.

I'm interested to know what your idea of balance is. There are many theories and many universes. What's yours?

This post has been edited by Desprez : 21 March 2008 - 12:01 AM

@desprez, on Mar 20 2008, 11:37 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Can you provide more info on what you're trying to accomplish?
There are a number of ways to kill a ship.
Also, while escape ships work, I have found that the AI doesn't use them 100% of the time. Seems more like 50%

I was trying to get Guys idea he gave me here=
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php...76&hl=drone

@desprez, on Mar 20 2008, 11:37 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

That doesn't force the player to play strict. If you lose your primary ship, you just re-load the pilot file and you are back at the last planet you landed on.

remember, the original escape pod would automatically deliver you to a planet, landing you automatically...You'd still have about 60 seconds to hit escape to reload the game though...

@desprez, on Mar 20 2008, 11:37 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

I'm interested to know what your idea of balance is. There are many theories and many universes. What's yours?

Manipulating shields, shield recharge, and weapon inaccuracies.
(I made a way to make fighters not charge straight towards you.... the formation will break before getting in range, and they will strafe you from different sides)

@-redchigh-, on Mar 21 2008, 10:44 AM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

I was trying to get Guys idea he gave me here=
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php...76&hl=drone
remember, the original escape pod would automatically deliver you to a planet, landing you automatically...You'd still have about 60 seconds to hit escape to reload the game though...
Manipulating shields, shield recharge, and weapon inaccuracies.
(I made a way to make fighters not charge straight towards you.... the formation will break before getting in range, and they will strafe you from different sides)

1)Carried ships flagged 'escape ships' don't take you to a planet. They put you in an ordinary ship.

2. Guy's idea seems pretty straight forward, what's the problem?
   Do the escape ships go rogue or something? Be aware that they won't launch 100% of the time.
   Make sure the self destructing weapon actually fires a shot, and that it has a sprite.
   Make sure the ammo type of the self-destructing weapon is -999, and give it a carried ship that is to be the drone. (you don't need the bay, just the ship)

In regards to invisible shots, I tested black translucent shots. They are completely invisible and work great.

Also, reading that thread, there might be a another way to go about the problem of the AI launching fighters too soon.
If the fighter escort type is 'freighter' they get launched, but the AI keeps them in formation. Unfortunately, I think they'll only use PD weaps when in formation.

EDIT: Here' another idea for the drones if the fighter thing ends up to be unworkable.
Make it a missile that subs when it gets close. This sub gets 0 speed and has a short life. Upon detonation it ionizes in a large blast radius and recursively subs into itself.
It's not a tractor beam, but the ionization might prove immobilizing enough.

As far as balance, I meant how do you see the fighters balance compared to capitol ships. I'm assuming they aren't supposed to be equal. Should they be able to take one on? Maybe with the right ordinance? Not at all?
I'm guessing the breaking formation is the 'prefer standoff attacks' and/or 'swarming'. I'm also thinking this is very dependent on range an maneuverability to work properly.

This post has been edited by Desprez : 21 March 2008 - 07:34 AM

I did some experiments with escape ships a while back.

The conclusions were: In order to launch an escape ship, the player must have a unit of ammo, but does not need the weapon (and, if you want to prevent the player from using it as a normal fighter bay, the player must not have the weapon). A computer ship must have both ammo and the weapon for that type of fighter bay; you can use the "AI does not use this weapon" flag to prevent it from launching the fighter early.

Then, just make the ship so that on purchase or on capture removes the weapon but not the ammo, and you've got a ship with a built in escape ship that is only usable as an escape ship.

There may, of course, be other ways of generating the same behavior, and it is possible that the engine mechanics have changed since I did my tests...

Since the other parts of your question are being addressed, I'll chip in on this:

@-redchigh-, on Mar 20 2008, 10:02 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Also, how annoying are liscenses? Im thinking of making pilot licenses like Commercial Pilots License (for cargo freighters), Private Pilots Liscense (for ships like the Shuttles and Passenger Transport), and Business Liscense (to unlock the commodity exchange!)

It should be assumed that the player has the necessary Licenses for anything that they start the game with.
If you start your players with a Shuttle, say, and they don't already have the Private Pilots License, then how did they get the Shuttle?

As for the Business License, I don't know how you could accomplish that, but would advise against it nonetheless.
The commodity exchange is one of the primary ways a beginning player makes money. If the player starts with the money to buy the License, that's one of the first things they'll buy, and forget about it forever. If the player doesn't start with the money for that, then you'll Need to supply a mission, through the BBS or the like, that Does pay them enough. If there's no other way for the player to raise money, then they'll never be able to get it.

Further, unless all the nations in your story are on the same page regarding Economics, it doesn't make sense that the lack of a License in a single nation could preclude the player from doing business in all other nations.

It might make more sense to put a License restriction on certain BBS Missions, like ferrying passengers.
Making sure that chartered flights are safe for their citizens might interest some of the governments in your story. If the player has a tendency to dump people into space in mid-flight, then the License can be revoked (OnAbort Dxxx Byyy), and the player will need to jump through hoops to get it renewed.

@wyvern, on Mar 21 2008, 05:06 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

A computer ship must have both ammo and the weapon for that type of fighter bay

Are you sure about this? I thought the AI didn't need it, but I could be mistaken.

@wyvern, on Mar 21 2008, 05:06 PM, said in Need help implementing a few things...:

Then, just make the ship so that on purchase or on capture removes the weapon but not the ammo, and you've got a ship with a built in escape ship that is only usable as an escape ship.

Just remember that this won't work if the escape ship is to also have an escape ship. OnPurchase and OnCapture fields don't evaluate if you get a ship by using it as an escape ship.
Alternately, you can keep the launcher and flag it only fireable if KeyCarried is present, and make sure KeyCarried is never present.