Wow, a website update!
- Thread starter Eder
- Start date
Starkey
Avenging Rooster
I´ll just step aside and let Concordia´s BigGun™ do the job, just like I did in ole´WC2. 
Nice job, Eder!!
BTW, have you made up your mind about capship-capship battles? I remember you were thinking on making them scripted events only, because there was no way of making it work on the Vision engine.
Finally, will you display the ships´s default weapons / payloads on the homepage? It would be great to know how did you balance them all for the game, specially the capships.
Nice job, Eder!! BTW, have you made up your mind about capship-capship battles? I remember you were thinking on making them scripted events only, because there was no way of making it work on the Vision engine.
Finally, will you display the ships´s default weapons / payloads on the homepage? It would be great to know how did you balance them all for the game, specially the capships.
Eder
Mr. Standoff
ThanksStarkey said:I´ll just step aside and let Concordia´s BigGun™ do the job, just like I did in ole´WC2.
There's not much to make my mind up about. They have to be scripted, because there's no way of making it work on the Vision engine.Starkey said:
Nope, that would take a while, and I want the website to get in the way as little as possible. I already regret having put up the pages with ship details.Starkey said:
PopsiclePete
Mission programmer
The problem with capship battles is that capship AI cannot target individual capship components, so they can't kill each other...Starkey said:
There would be a way to make capship battles work, but we've already discussed it before and Eder ruled against it
It should be possible to make capships with a single component : the hull. This would have bring back the old WC2 style of killing a capship (shoot your torpedoe from whatever angle you want) and would have allowed capships to effectively kill each other by arming them with guns tagged as "can harm capships".
Eder
Mr. Standoff
And just to sum up the contents of the previous discussions Pierre linked to... 
Here are a few of the problems with making capships be one single hull component:
- Most of our capships are over the 1200 triangles per component limit, so they'd have to lose detail somehow.
- We'd also not be able to use auto landings and takeoffs like we use for the Lionheart, for example, since there would be no hangar or launcher components.
- The player wouldn't be able to make capships stop moving by destroying their engines, since they'd have no engines.
- Finally, and more importantly IMHO, damage would look stupid: one minute the capship has no damage at all, the next time you hit it with one torpedo and the entire thing gets destroyed textures (that'd also mean extra work, cause I'd have to make destroyed textures for the entire hull)... I mean, honestly, how would we properly simulate all that crazy spanking confed took in the Battle of Terra if we can't have ships which are half-dead or 1/3rd-dead?
The best alternative I managed to come up with is a mix of WC2 and WCP styles. Ships still have components, and still take more than one torpedo to destroy... however, there is no "undamageable" component.
For example, instead of two engines and a bridge, a ship would have a single component for both engines, one for the bridge, and one for the rest of the hull - all three of which are destroyable, so now it still takes three torpedoes to go down, but there's no longer an area that is immune to torpedo damage/AI capship gunfire.
The main advantage of this method is that capships can damage other capships by shooting in their opponent's general direction - they're sure to hit something that is damageable, but we'd still rely on fighters and bombers to destroy whatever components the capships aren't hitting.
The disadvantages: some ships would still have to lose detail, since the number of components would be kept constant; capships would never be able to destroy other capships on their own, since they'd always shoot at the same component (even after it was destroyed, which would look stupid); I'd have to re-convert most of our capships, which would take an unearthly amount of time; I'd still need more damaged textures (for the hulls), which would take more time; and finally, some damage would look stupid - you'd hit the Concordia's left forward pylon, and the whole hull would go up in flames, leaving only the bridge and engines untouched.
I'm using this second method on some of our smaller/simpler capships. The Ralatha and Fralthra are half bridge and half engines, so you can hit them anywhere. I'm also going to try to do the same on the Exeter: two engine blocks, and the rest is considered bridge.
Here are a few of the problems with making capships be one single hull component:
- Most of our capships are over the 1200 triangles per component limit, so they'd have to lose detail somehow.
- We'd also not be able to use auto landings and takeoffs like we use for the Lionheart, for example, since there would be no hangar or launcher components.
- The player wouldn't be able to make capships stop moving by destroying their engines, since they'd have no engines.
- Finally, and more importantly IMHO, damage would look stupid: one minute the capship has no damage at all, the next time you hit it with one torpedo and the entire thing gets destroyed textures (that'd also mean extra work, cause I'd have to make destroyed textures for the entire hull)... I mean, honestly, how would we properly simulate all that crazy spanking confed took in the Battle of Terra if we can't have ships which are half-dead or 1/3rd-dead?
The best alternative I managed to come up with is a mix of WC2 and WCP styles. Ships still have components, and still take more than one torpedo to destroy... however, there is no "undamageable" component.
For example, instead of two engines and a bridge, a ship would have a single component for both engines, one for the bridge, and one for the rest of the hull - all three of which are destroyable, so now it still takes three torpedoes to go down, but there's no longer an area that is immune to torpedo damage/AI capship gunfire.
The main advantage of this method is that capships can damage other capships by shooting in their opponent's general direction - they're sure to hit something that is damageable, but we'd still rely on fighters and bombers to destroy whatever components the capships aren't hitting.
The disadvantages: some ships would still have to lose detail, since the number of components would be kept constant; capships would never be able to destroy other capships on their own, since they'd always shoot at the same component (even after it was destroyed, which would look stupid); I'd have to re-convert most of our capships, which would take an unearthly amount of time; I'd still need more damaged textures (for the hulls), which would take more time; and finally, some damage would look stupid - you'd hit the Concordia's left forward pylon, and the whole hull would go up in flames, leaving only the bridge and engines untouched.
I'm using this second method on some of our smaller/simpler capships. The Ralatha and Fralthra are half bridge and half engines, so you can hit them anywhere. I'm also going to try to do the same on the Exeter: two engine blocks, and the rest is considered bridge.
