Is it possible, using a plug, to change the way weapons work a bit, so that instead of having turrets and guns you have small, medium, and large weapons slots? Small missile launchers, rockets, and small guns would be light weapons. Medium blasters, FPCs, and small turrets be medium weapons. All large turrets, torpedo launchers, large missiles, perhaps the biorelay laser, etc. would be large weapons.

I hesitate to suggest a work-around where missile launchers and the like are set up to take gun slots and things, because only having two separate categories would make it tougher to balance things out than having three or more.

Just an idea I had.

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-= SS =-
Magnificat Anima
Please, point out my faults, so that I may correct them

Quote

Originally posted by GutlessWonder:
**Is it possible, using a plug, to change the way weapons work a bit, so that instead of having turrets and guns you have small, medium, and large weapons slots? Small missile launchers, rockets, and small guns would be light weapons. Medium blasters, FPCs, and small turrets be medium weapons. All large turrets, torpedo launchers, large missiles, perhaps the biorelay laser, etc. would be large weapons.

I hesitate to suggest a work-around where missile launchers and the like are set up to take gun slots and things, because only having two separate categories would make it tougher to balance things out than having three or more.

Just an idea I had.

**

To have them be specific slots would be an engine change which would never happen. What you could do is assign single digit masses to small weapons, double digit masses to medium weapons, and triple digit masses to large weapons, and then give all small ship single digit space, double to medium, etc. Maybe flag the small weapons as guns and medium+large weapons as turrets, but that's about all you could manage.

Matrix

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Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
** <snip>**

yeah..I had just always wondered at the legitimacy of putting weapons like CPL's on ships like the Mod E starbridge or even the Thunderhead. Weapons that 'require ships to be built around them' probably shouldn't be able to be mounted in fighers, lol.

What you suggested would probably work, albeit requiring a lot of thought to get things balanced correctly. For me the whole thing has to wait anyways, at least until a plug-in editor is released for Windows. So many ideas, no way to make them fruitful...yet.

Edited to add a bit, and then again to correct my grammar.
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-= SS =-
Magnificat Anima
Please, point out my faults, so that I may correct them

(This message has been edited by GutlessWonder (edited 08-22-2003).)

(This message has been edited by GutlessWonder (edited 08-22-2003).)

You could use the Contibute/Require bits to implement something like this. Just have each ship type contribute certain bits indicating what weapon types that can be mounted on that frame and then the various weapon type would require those bits.

(Edit: By the way, this would probably be better over on the Developer's Corner forum. I think I'll move it.)

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(This message has been edited by Slagblah (edited 08-22-2003).)

Actually, there are AT LEAST two ways to do this, and Sephil Saga does both.

First way: use invisible token outfits. Use the Gxxx and Dxxx bits to control. Viola, you have as many levels of weapon slots as you want.

Second Way: only allows two levels of slots, but rename guns and turrets. SS uses Firmpoints and Hardpoints- so don't go there. This one only works for TC's, though. The other COULD be built into an expansion plug.

Hope that helps.

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

many thanks, to both of you.

I have another question now, related to this idea of changing the way ships equip weapons. In the ship info box, when purchasing a ship or hiring escorts, is it possible to add information to be displayed in the box, or is this information automatically generated by the engine from the data?

I.e., if I had three weapons classes, the info box would display what classes of weapons the ship would be allowed to have, in addition to how many guns, turrets, etc. would be allowed. I know this is possible to include in the descriptions of all the ships, but I'm curious if I can modify the Ship Info box itself.

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-= SS =-
Magnificat Anima
Please, point out my faults, so that I may correct them

EDIT:Arrgh sorry! didnt know what you ment! i actually dont know if u can...

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(This message has been edited by Lord Tekk (edited 08-23-2003).)

(This message has been edited by Lord Tekk (edited 08-23-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by GutlessWonder: **

I have another question now, related to this idea of changing the way ships equip weapons. In the ship info box, when purchasing a ship or hiring escorts, is it possible to add information to be displayed in the box, or is this information automatically generated by the engine from the data?

I.e., if I had three weapons classes, the info box would display what classes of weapons the ship would be allowed to have, in addition to how many guns, turrets, etc. would be allowed. I know this is possible to include in the descriptions of all the ships, but I'm curious if I can modify the Ship Info box itself.

**

Nope- you have to mention your new strategy in the description section. The firmpoint and hardpoint system works fine, but if you use the token strategy, you'll have to mention something like "3 Small Slots, 2 Medium Slots, 1 Big Slot". I recommend consistency here- just as an example, all the ships and outfits in SS have something like this at the end of their description:

Details: Winchester Light Massdriver
Ammunition: Railgun Slugs
Weight: 6 tons
REQUIRES A FIRMPOINT

or

Details: BRUTEForce Heavy-Ion Turbine
Thrust: 1000 m/kg
Energy Consuption: 47.6 MW

or even

Details: Hanashi Combine 500MW Reactor
Energy Output: 500 MW
Reserve Capacitor: 1000 MF
Fuel Requirements: Bulk HW
Weight: 800 tons

All this info is specific to SS and not normally supported by the engine. The layout is consistent throughout- and every type of outfit is consistent with all others of the same type.

PS- for anyone interested, it lists weight because we drew a distinction between Size/Bulk and weight.

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Masamune:
**

First way: use invisible token outfits. Use the Gxxx and Dxxx bits to control. Viola, you have as many levels of weapon slots as you want.

**

Out of interest.. for SS, using the invisible token outfits, did you have a set number pre-installed (like 3 firmpoint outfits) into every ship with a contribute bit set, and every outfit that required a firmpoint has that bit set in require and uses D<firmpoint outfit> when bought and G<firmpoint outfit> when sold? That's the way I can see to do it.

Cheers

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Quote

Originally posted by Sean Sabbage:
**Out of interest.. for SS, using the invisible token outfits, did you have a set number pre-installed (like 3 firmpoint outfits) into every ship with a contribute bit set, and every outfit that required a firmpoint has that bit set in require and uses D <firmpoint outfit> when bought and G<firmpoint outfit> when sold? That's the way I can see to do it.
**

Yup- except for the require bits. SS actually uses the require bits and the "only show with require bits met" flag to implement a sorting system, due to the huge number of available outfits.

Actually, for more detail- with weapons there are only two levels, using the guns and turrets. The invisible token outfits actually are used to control all the ship components (engines, reactors, v, c and e-shields, etc).

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~Charlie
Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)