Some Ship Setup Questions

Moonhead

StarTrader wrote:
Yes this is fine.

I did a similar thing myself, but using 2 classes for each ship type (i.e. fighter can take class 1 and class 2), but your idea is better I think - then it makes sense to spread the weapon power and price within each class.

Make each more powerful weapon much more expensive than the lower one.

Thanks for the feedback and for the advice. Yes I had that (the pricing) in mind.

I once decided that I should ‘find’ a formula for FL’s weapons, considering damage (both hull and shield) refire rate, velocity, range etc. which would render a price for a given gun (progressively, so that a heavier shot would cost relatively more than a lighter - the price for having a heavier gun). I came up with something, but it implied I would have to redesign the entire FL armory! Still, I’d think that would be ideal. But limited time and laziness will probably have me ending up with some inspired guesses for the guns’ prices.

Moonhead

Ok next issue (I’m thinking ahead - haven’t done the gun classes yet)

From StarTrader’s excellent tutorial:

always ensure that your ship’s type parameter is type = FIGHTER or type = FREIGHTER. Anything else (type = CAPITAL / CAPITOL / GUNSHIP / GUNBOAT / CRUISER) will make it roll in the opposite direction

I would say that this might cause some problems for cap ship encounters / formations, in which, if my memory serves me right, it is necessary to distinguish between the types of ships - if you wanna use them, that is. Like when you want to have a Bretonian battleship escorted by gunboats, you can’t have them all be fighter types.

So, how to overcome this? Should I simply make both a playable and a NPC copy separately of each cap ship archetype? Or is there a way to modify (or hack) the game
so that it uses the handling behavior of FIGHTERS or FREIGHTERS for all the ship types, so that I could still use e.g. type = GUNBOAT without making it unhandabke?

StarTrader

That is not done in this way. The type = fighter / freighter in shiparch.ini is for handling only. Trust me.

The ship type for encounters is requested in the encounter that we name in a system zone, for example area_assault.ini :-

[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters<– here
pilot_job = assault_leader_job
make_class = wanderer
ship_by_class = 2, 3, sc_fighters, -1<– and here
pilot_job = assault_job
make_class = wanderer
formation_by_class = fighters

The above calls for (min=1, max=1) of type = sc_fighters whose pilot is set for assault_leader_job
plus (min=2, max=3) of type = sc_fighters,1 rank lower, whose pilot is set for assault_job

(See pilot_population.ini for pilot_job types)…

In shipclasses.ini we find:-

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_fighters<– this ship type class
member = fighter
member = elite_fighter
member = class_fighter<– includes this ship class
…

And in npcships.ini we define all the ships a faction can use, according to type and difficulty, here is the Liberty Police Liberty Fighter (Patriot):-

[NPCShipArch]
nickname = li_p_li_fighter_d1-2 <– for Rank 1 and 2
loadout = li_p_li_fighter_loadout01
level = d2
ship_archetype = li_fighter<– can allocate a different ship here for these ranks
pilot = pilot_police_med
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = lawful, class_fighter, d1, d2 <– here is our ship class for this ship

[NPCShipArch]
nickname = li_p_li_fighter_d3<– for Rank 3 only
loadout = li_p_li_fighter_loadout01
level = d3
ship_archetype = li_fighter
pilot = pilot_police_hard
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = lawful, class_fighter, d3 <– and for this one

[NPCShipArch]
nickname = li_p_li_fighter_d4-19<– and for Ranks 4 to 19
loadout = li_p_li_fighter_loadout01
level = d4
ship_archetype = li_fighter
pilot = pilot_police_ace
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = lawful, class_fighter, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, d10, d11, d12, d13, d14, d15, d16, d17, d18, d19 <– and for this ship too

We can equally specify fighter for the above ships instead of class_fighter but the writers chose “class_fighter”.

These ships are selected for the faction in faction_prop.ini :-

[FactionProps]
affiliation = li_p_grp<– faction
legality = lawful
nickname_plurality = singular
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_faction_li_p
jump_preference = jumpgate
npc_ship = li_p_li_fighter_d1-2 <– Rank 1 and 2
npc_ship = li_p_li_fighter_d3 <– Rank 3
npc_ship = li_p_li_fighter_d4-19 <– Ranks 4-19
npc_ship = li_p_ge_armored_d2
npc_ship = li_p_ge_armored_d3
npc_ship = li_p_ge_armored_d4

Remember the Rank is the difficulty you set in the "encounter = " in your system zone.

OK?

Moonhead

Thanks again for an excellent tutorial!

I guess I must have confused the type = line in ShipArch.ini with the state_graph = line in NPCShips.ini

I happily found the relevant files in a 2004/2005 mod project, in which I did have some succesful cap ship encounters. More luck than knowledge I guess, and possible copied from forum tutorials.

I see that, in the NPCShips.ini, I have classified the Liberty Dreadnought as a CRUISER… I also remember I did this because it wouldn’t work otherwise (CAPSHIP or whatever default there is). Weird, because I had it in a formation with some (real) cruisers, escorting it on both sides… And the only distinction I can see is the level. But we can’t have ships of differing levels in one encounter, can we? So, I must work it thru to see how I did it back then… Or try my luck again and copy the whole thing into my present mod and hunt down errors afterwards, but that migth be the road to disaster.

Anyway, your reply is saved to my INFO folder so I can take it to work, where internet is thin and distant, like sunlight on Sedna. I hope everything is quiet, so I can look into all this while being paid