"Use properly"? If I was a little more sure what you meant, I could give it some thought.

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Basicly, a cruise missile (CSM) is a systemwide weapon. But I couldn't get the AI ships to recognise it as such.
AI ships won't open fire on an enemy vessel until it is in range.
For example consider 2 ships, an AI missile cruiser at planet A and a player's capital ship orbiting planet B on the far side of a scenario map. The problem is to get the AI ship on one side of the scenario map to decide that a suitable vessel (carrier, HVD) at the other side of the scenario map is "within range" of its cruise missile and launch against it.
The best I could get was the Long Range Strategic Missile System on the Aud asteroid base in War Part 1.

I've worked with CSMs which are missile objects and ship objects. In both cases the range problem beat me. My aim was to create a weapon similar to the Cardassian Dreadnought missile from Star Trek, ie a CSM which can defend itself. On average the CSM used in War Part 2 has a 50 to 60 percent success rate in hitting its target on the first pass, so no problem there. But the AI ships treat it as a ship, launched from a mother ship (if it is a ship type of object) or a short range missile (if it is a projectile type object).

In effect the CSM I have in use in the War Plug is pretty much a kamikaze cruiser!!

Any suggestions would be welcome.

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

In general, you probably wouldn't have many ships with CSMs, perhaps one or two. You also wouldn't want them firing at random targets that just happen to be in range. Here's an idea on the solution:

- Capital ships get Flags --C- (or something unique like that).

- CSM-carrying ships get Hard Targets for --C- (matching pattern) and Hostile.

- The CSM weapon creates a Cruise missile, using Inherit Dest, and reflexively adds age equal to the reload time of the CSM. Another ship-specific version of it first Alters BaseType to Version B (see below), then fires.

- CSM-carrying ships have two versions - one where first CSM weapon is used, and one where the second is. Version B (normal CSM) has an age slightly greater than the reload of the CSM, and an Expire action that converts it into version A.

- Version B ships have an arrive action of Fire Special while Target Other. (Maximum Arrive range)

So, for ships controlled by a player, simply target the ship at an enemy, and it will start using the CSMs. It's up to the player to choose a good target, but this ensures that the CSMs won't be randomly firing at Zerbilites or something.

Computer-controlled ships will also use it intelligently. They'll automatically try to target the ship at a hostile capship, and once they have, they'll fire at it.

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

So I was about to post: "Wow some really old people are back", until I realized how freaking old this topic is. Man, I was stupid back then.

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Life sucks, get a helmet.
Diablo 2: *PyroHC *Pyro444
Warcraft III: PyroTheDragon

Old, but still mostly relevant...

... and supported by its original poster, now there's quality for you

Thanks for the assist Pallas, I'll apply your suggestions over the weekend. It'll be an excuse for some wargames...

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

I wish I'd had the sense to name the topic something else, but I deal

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Hmmm, I must have made an error.
It didn't work.
I did manage to create a ship that vanishes after it fires the missile though.....

.... not terribly practical!
Perhaps I'll find a ues for it sometime.

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Let's see, I may have made a mistake with the weapons:

CSMWEAP1:
Create 1 CSM inherit dest
Alter BaseType VERSIONB retain ammo reflexive

CSMWEAP2:
Create 1 CSM inherit dest
Alter Age by 20 (or the reload time) reflexive

If you had put the CSMWEAP2 on VERSIONA, then you would be keeping the type constant, while giving it a positive age without an expire action. The ship wopuld quickly expire, but would not have an expire action - this could be your problem.

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

....I'm back....
Cool, you got some WACK ideas here... Lemme give ya some of mine.

A permanent stealth field : A ship's icon is a small, green/red triangle or whatever. Make its size 0. Pretty simple...

Mine Layer : A ship capable of laying mines. Not very original. But I can set a limit on how many mines can be set at one time. When a mine is laid, ChangeScore by 1. When a mine expires/explodes, ChangeScore by -1. Set a condition so that when the counter = n , the mine wep is disabled.

Ship respawning : Yep, there is such thing. Just restore it to full health, and relocate the ship. You may add a short delay. I've never tried it... but taking risks are a part of life. :rolleyes:

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.com")EVula's Lair - Visit or perish!(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Blood Eagle:
A permanent stealth field: A ship's icon is a small, green/red triangle or whatever. Make its size 0. Pretty simple...

But it's not really cloaked. Cloaking, in general, needs an overhaul, at least in my opinion. While effective in general strategy, it has no real influence on combat, and I think it should. The basis behind my general overhaul follows - assume that CLOAKER refers to any cloakable ship, and PROJECTL refers to any projectile fired by a weapon:

CLOAKER|A (Ship)
...
Special: CLOAK
Expire: Alter BaseType to CLOAKER|B

CLOAKER|B (Ship)
...
Flags: AB-D
Special: DECLOAK
Expire: Alter BaseType to CLOAKER|A
Period: 2
Activate: Create 8 SHADOW dist range 64

S GHOST (Object)
Hated
Age: 2
Sprite: Invisible

CLOAK (Device)
Activate:
Alter Cloak reflexive
Die Expire reflexive

DECLOAK (Device)
Activate:
Alter Cloak reflexive
Die Expire reflexive

PROJECTL (Object)
...
Collide: Die Expire on Flags AB-D

Your "permanent cloak" could be implemented by:

1. Making the cloaked version the standard (i.e. the one a planet builds)
2. Removing the "CLOAK" and "DECLOAK" devices from the CLOAKER|A/B
3. Implementing CLOAK's activate as part of the CLOAKER|B's Expire

To explain what the code above would actually do... essentially, it creates 8 "sensor ghosts" within a 128x128 square around the cloaked ships. It decreases the accuracy of computer-controlled ships, which means that cloaking is actually useful against them.

Using Bit31 would be more effective, but it might be more dangerous :shifty:
Need to try that some time.

Quote

Mine Layer: A ship capable of laying mines. Not very original. But I can set a limit on how many mines can be set at one time. When a mine is laid, ChangeScore by 1. When a mine expires/explodes, ChangeScore by -1. Set a condition so that when the counter = n , the mine wep is disabled.

Except that that way imposes a global limit, rather than a per-ship limit. Even better would be the ability to let each minelayer have only a single mine in operation at any given time. I think that would be done along the lines of the following:

MINELAYR|A (Ship)
...
Special: LAY MINE

MINELAYR|B (Ship)
...
Special: DISABLED

LAY MINE (Device)
Activate:
Alter Special to MINELAYR|B reflexive
Nil target reflexive
Create MINE inherit dest reflexive

DISABLED (Device)
Placeholder - no action

MINE (Object)
Special: PROXDTCT
Sprite should have a red light on it.

MINE ACT (Object)
Age: 10
Expire: Create damaging explosion
Arrive Distance: Maximum
Arrive: Alter BaseType to MINELAYR|A
Sprite should have a green light on it.

PROXDTCT (Device)
Range: 32
Activate: Alter BaseType to MINE ACT reflexive

Now, you could specify a higher per-ship limit by chaining together Expire actions, but this explanation is lengthy enough already. What it does (I think) is set up the mine's target to be the minelayer. Once the mine activates, it switches the minelayer back to active mode in order to lay another mine.

Quote

Ship respawning: Yep, there is such thing. Just restore it to full health, and relocate the ship. You may add a short delay. I've never tried it... but taking risks are a part of life.:rolleyes:

With "Doesn't Die When Destroyed", it should work, yes.

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Hmm, missile still didn't work, but I have an idea...

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Make a ship that's sprite is a black circle. Make it do damage and stun on impact with other ships. Set them in hunting packs and give em a fast warp drive and let em run. I did this once using a black circle that darkk provided(yes, my computer graphics skills are that nonexistent.) and it makes for an interesting fight, you have to watch for where the stars dissapear.

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A regretted past and a hopeless future.
Diablo 2: *PyroHC *Pyro444
Warcraft III: PyroTheDragon

(This message has been edited by Pyro (edited 02-05-2003).)

On a different note, if you are bored and want something to do:
Make a weapon that shoots lasers really really fast. Make these lasers change direction every tick, so they create a circle pattern if you fire them while standing still. Now for the fun part: warp around and fire em. You can make cool designs that look like old spyrographs(sp?).

------------------
A regretted past and a hopeless future.
Diablo 2: *PyroHC *Pyro444
Warcraft III: PyroTheDragon

Spyrograph....
....now there's a name i've not heard in a long time....

It's a bit 70's isn't it!

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Quote

Originally posted by Slug:
**No. And after a short time, they expire.
It would not be possible to have a storage bay, even it would target only friendly fighters and take -1 ammo pieces. it would need 2 free weapon slots (the launching bay and the "pickup bay") also, you cannot have a weapon that when fired, creates more ammunition for a different weapon.

**

Quiet, idiot, you obviously have no clue what the hell you're talking about!
All you have to do is make it so fighters themselves expire at the same rate the "carrier bay" reloads.
For example, say you have a bay or (originally) 12 fighters. The time it takes for 6 fighters to reload will be the same amount of time it takes for an individual fighter to expire.
Thus carriers can become more than just mobile firing platforms.

I don't know if it counts your expired fighters as killed, though. I think not, but it's been a while since I used my buggier-than-a-diseased-corpse version of Hera.

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See I'm the king of the swingers, the Jungle V.I.P.,
But I've reached the top and had to stop,
And that's what's
botherin' me.

Hmmm, just what kind of feindish experiments have you been carrying out on your copy of Hera then Dr Slu, er Limax...?
Are we talking mutant versions here...

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Quote

Originally posted by Limax:
I don't know if it counts your expired fighters as killed, though. I think not, but it's been a while since I used my buggier-than-a-diseased-corpse version of Hera.

(/B)

Heh, I've been looking for a copy of Hear that works that well for sometime now.

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Ares and EV:Nova plugin writer and all around helpful guy...

Hera gets a lot of complaints, and in all honesty, I don't think it's Hera's fault. Hera is no less stable than the average utility (generally doesn't crash, but can), and it enters in data perfectly, as far as I can tell.

The problems everyone blames on Hera are really Ares's fault - even if a lot of options are available, only the factory objects were given a thorough testing. The only real claim I think anyone can make against Hera is its difficulty of use; anything else should be directed to Ares.

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"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."

Quote

Originally posted by Pallas Athene:
**Hera gets a lot of complaints, and in all honesty, I don't think it's Hera's fault. Hera is no less stable than the average utility (generally doesn't crash, but can), and it enters in data perfectly, as far as I can tell.

The problems everyone blames on Hera are really Ares's fault - even if a lot of options are available, only the factory objects were given a thorough testing. The only real claim I think anyone can make against Hera is its difficulty of use; anything else should be directed to Ares.

**

Heh. What about it deleting all my sting entries? Thats hera's fault... Other than that I would agree with you.

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Ares and EV:Nova plugin writer and all around helpful guy...

Jumpgates

Create 2 objects, set them so they can collide but not occupy space, make one for use at the "top" of the system and one for the "bottom", give the top one a collide action of alter absolute location and fill in the numbers, do the same for the bottom one and give it the negitive numbers of the top. Remember that in the Hera map down is positive Y and up is negtive Y. There now you have great working jumpgates... Add sounds or other actions as required.

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Ares and EV:Nova plugin writer and all around helpful guy...