I have a query here:

I had an idea for a defense 'ship' that I wonder if will work:

A graphicless 0-acceleeration 0-top speed 0-urning 'ship' with a long-range, powerful beam turret or gun turret. It could be a planteary-based cannon... staying on the planet's graphic.

However, I haven't tried this and maybe the cannon will appear awa from the planet. Anyone tried this?

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Mazca

Moderator, EV Developer's Corner.
Roses are red
Violets are blue.
I'm schizophrenic
And so am I.

website: [www.jpw.op.nu

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Lovely idea, but I'm having the same misgivings about it as you are. I'll try it tonight and let you know if it works, but I don't hold out much hope :frown:.

~R~

Yeah, it won't work unless it's controlled by the poor immobile player.
Notice how in FH, the gun turrets appear all over the system. :frown:
Oh well, it was a good idea.
Still, maybe the planet's defense fleet could be these ships, defense ships appear on the planet do they not? Or possibly the defenses could be turned into mines... short range weapon with long blast radius and helpless ship.

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Kanddak
Furor Ad Infinitum

Sorry if it came out as something else, but I MEANT it as a defense fleet weapon... I know about the silly guns in FH

Mazca

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Mazca

Moderator, EV Developer's Corner.
Roses are red
Violets are blue.
I'm schizophrenic
And so am I.

website: [www.jpw.op.nu

](http://www.jpw.op.nu "External link")

Actually, the idea of a 'planetary' defense weapon is very old. The first one, as far as I know, was "Planetary Defenses", by Howard Lopez. It can be downloaded from ev.com

As far as I can see, it shouldn't be graphicless. If it was, it would be impossible to hit, and therefore impossible to destroy. That'd make planets impossible to dominate, and we wouldn't like that, now would we? Also, I think that EV would probably screw something up if a ship doesn't have a graphic. I guess an 8*8 pict would be your best shot.

Also, these things can't be used in system defense dudes. That causes them to float around mindlessly without being able to do anything, which, quite frequently, is pretty silly. I know, I've tried.

However, they should work as planetary defences - they stay put and shoot when people are around. If it has a long-range beam weapon, it would become fairly impossible to dodge though, which (yet again) is pretty unfair and unbalanced.

I suggest you download the 'Planetary Defenses' from EV Webpage and experiment with it.

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"I don't say yes or no, more like the other way around"

Ankh Starrunner, The Diamond Blaster

(This message has been edited by Ankh Starrunner (edited 02-06-2000).)

Well, I had a look through the bible at the weekend and can't really see a way to do it. What you can do is cause the defence platform to appear near the planet, by using the correct AI for the platform "ships", and this has been done in the B5 plug (it's probably the interceptor AI, but I didn't check), but I don't think there's a way to make them appear in a particular location. Additionally, the ships/platforms all appear within the hyper-limit for the system, so it only works if the planet you want them to orbit is roughly in the middle of the system.

Sorry I can't help further,

~R~

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You might try making an extremely fast ship that looks like a laser blast or a missle or some weapon. It would have zero turning abilities if you wanted it to fire bullets, or it could turn like a missle. Its one purpose is to exit the planet with a negative armor level which would make the ship automatically explode the second it leaves the planet. Give it the proper timing in detonation and blast radius, and presto!. Your planetary cannon can work!
(not with laser beams, but... whose to complain?)

I've been working with the idea in my head. It might work (tell me if it does).

Sincerely,
Zeta

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Sleep?! Oh yah... I did that last week!

No, the idea works quite well; take a look at planetary defenses. Personally, I would have made the defense thingies more powereful (for those who didn't try the plug, all the defense thing has are some laser and proton turrets), but it actually worked very well. The ship graphic was a crosshair showing where on the planet the base is (ships are launched from the planet, so they do appear, unlike rooster said (no offense ), on the planet.

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-Shade

(url="http://"http://www.crosswinds.net/~shadeofblue/")EV:O Revenge(/url)

"I hate you more than ever Milkman Dan."
-Katie, from RedMeat.

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion(/url)

Actually, if you don't like the idea of a beam turret because if you got anywhere within its range it would hit you, you could give the defense base a forward firing beam and have the base/ship be able to turn, but only slowly, so that you could sneak in and blast away for about a second before it could turn enough to blast you. It could also be a tractor beam to hold you in so you can't just fly away so easily, but I'm not sure that would work because I think the suction strength depends on the base/ship's engine power and we wouldn't want it to have an engine. But that wouldn't stop you from using the slow turning beam idea.

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-Shade

(url="http://"http://www.crosswinds.net/~shadeofblue/")EV:O Revenge(/url)

"I hate you more than ever Milkman Dan."
-Katie, from RedMeat.

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion(/url)

Well, if you wanted to add a tractor beam (can computer controlled ships use tractor beams?) to a ship that can't move, you could made the with high accelleration but a top speed of zero. That way, the tractor beam could work as well as you want it to, but the ship still couldn't budge.

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Bubbles

Nice point. I might expirement with that.

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-Shade

(url="http://"http://www.crosswinds.net/~shadeofblue/")EV:O Revenge(/url)

"I hate you more than ever Milkman Dan."
-Katie, from RedMeat.

(url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")The Onion(/url)