Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 03:04:56 AM

Title: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 03:04:56 AM

So today while testing some weapons, I learnt what happens if you make an MIRV-type missile projectile call itself within the MIRV behaviourSpec.


(http://i.imgur.com/co6pZ5Q.gif)


Enjoy your day!
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Weltall on February 26, 2017, 03:14:25 AM
Hahahahahaha. Omg this is very amusing XD
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Gothars on February 26, 2017, 03:29:42 AM
Ha! This reminds me so much of my Battleship Forever days, were I build drones that spawned other drones until my CPU went to its knees. That actually made for a really great challenge when you used them as enemies and gave yourself a super strong ship to try to keep the population down.

That again reminds me of Stanislav Lem's Niezwyci??ony (The Invincible), a classic sci-fi novel just about this kind of battle.

Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Alex on February 26, 2017, 11:47:16 AM
That again reminds me of Stanislav Lem's Niezwyci??ony (The Invincible), a classic sci-fi novel just about this kind of battle.

Man, I love that book. There's a part of my brain that's permanently dedicated to designing a game around that setting.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 01:42:02 PM
Hehe, glad to make some peoples' days. ;)
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: DatonKallandor on February 26, 2017, 01:53:59 PM
I once made a carrier that used carriers as strikecraft. It did not end well.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Gothars on February 26, 2017, 02:01:47 PM
That again reminds me of Stanislav Lem's Niezwyci??ony (The Invincible), a classic sci-fi novel just about this kind of battle.

Man, I love that book. There's a part of my brain that's permanently dedicated to designing a game around that setting.

Your fleet approaches Regis III.

This arid planet features a breathable atmosphere composed of seventy-eight per cent Nitrogen, sixteen per cent oxygen, four per cent methane and two per cent argon.
Most of the surface is eroded, with desserts and canyons covering wide stretches of land. Scans indicate that the dry land is completely devoid of both animal and plant life. While in the vast oceans are filled with algae and primitive, fish-like organisms, these life forms seem to avoid the shore lines for a unknown reason.  

In several thousand locations across the surfaces unidentified structures are clustered together. These are possibly ruins or the remains of gigantic machines. Their origin cannot be ascertained, but their age seems to surpass the duration of human presence in the Sector.


Would you like to send a landing party to investigate further?









Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 02:05:26 PM
O.o Perhaps we are toying with powers far greater than we should...
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: King Alfonzo on February 26, 2017, 05:09:30 PM
Ha! This reminds me so much of my Battleship Forever days, were I build drones that spawned other drones until my CPU went to its knees.

The Neutrino Schwarm fighter wing does this in a limited fashion; with each little drone having four drones with a little PD weapon. 20 tiny, speedy, hard to hit drones that can make mincemeat of just about anything from missiles to frigates, to even cruisers with bad PD defence. Have multiple of these, combined with theEND phase carrier, and you have synthesized one of the most annoying fleets in existance.

Speaking of Battleship Forever, why hasn't anyone added the Boss Theme to the game yet.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Voyager I on February 26, 2017, 06:21:55 PM
RIP all the friendly frigates in that cloud when the missiles all run out of fuel.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 06:42:55 PM
RIP all the friendly frigates in that cloud when the missiles all run out of fuel.

XD There is nothing more annoying than being hit by a friendly missile that runs out of fuel just as it passes over your ship. This would be like that, but a thousand times worse.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Wyvern on February 26, 2017, 08:47:12 PM
I do remember, back in Escape Velocity, playing a modded game where a certain ship used -itself- as a launched fighter, spawning copies and copies of copies until you hit the limit of ships in system.  Because of that limit it was beatable, though; you just had to disable every one of them before you blew any of them up.  Simple, right?
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 26, 2017, 09:00:20 PM
I do remember, back in Escape Velocity, playing a modded game where a certain ship used -itself- as a launched fighter, spawning copies and copies of copies until you hit the limit of ships in system.  Because of that limit it was beatable, though; you just had to disable every one of them before you blew any of them up.  Simple, right?

Haha, sounds like the stuff of nightmares alright!
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Doogie on February 26, 2017, 09:14:51 PM
Ha! This reminds me so much of my Battleship Forever days, were I build drones that spawned other drones until my CPU went to its knees.

Huh, I don't remember you from back in the heyday of BSF. Ah well, the nostalgia factor is real.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: NightKev on February 27, 2017, 03:02:28 PM
Most of the surface is eroded, with desserts and canyons covering wide stretches of land.
Why yes, I would like to explore the desserts of this planet.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Alex on February 27, 2017, 03:06:39 PM
Your fleet approaches Regis III.
Spoiler
This arid planet features a breathable atmosphere composed of seventy-eight per cent Nitrogen, sixteen per cent oxygen, four per cent methane and two per cent argon.
Most of the surface is eroded, with desserts and canyons covering wide stretches of land. Scans indicate that the dry land is completely devoid of both animal and plant life. While in the vast oceans are filled with algae and primitive, fish-like organisms, these life forms seem to avoid the shore lines for a unknown reason.  

In several thousand locations across the surfaces unidentified structures are clustered together. These are possibly ruins or the remains of gigantic machines. Their origin cannot be ascertained, but their age seems to surpass the duration of human presence in the Sector.


Would you like to send a landing party to investigate further?
[close]

*thumbs up* Kind of tempted to make that an easter egg now.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 27, 2017, 03:09:50 PM
*thumbs up* Kind of tempted to make that an easter egg now.

Haha, I'd freak the hell out if I stumbled upon this in-game.  :o
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Gothars on February 28, 2017, 12:26:41 PM
*thumbs up* Kind of tempted to make that an easter egg now.

Mission accomplished ;)
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: NightfallGemini on February 28, 2017, 05:53:39 PM
Panetti's Replicating Missiles!

Is there a way to terminate the replication? Could be an interesting script for an energy weapon similar to the Neutrino Photon Torpedoes.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on February 28, 2017, 08:30:20 PM
Is there a way to terminate the replication? Could be an interesting script for an energy weapon similar to the Neutrino Photon Torpedoes.

Honestly, I have no idea. Probably not within the base game. The only reason they'll stop "replicating" in this case is when there are no enemy ships in their range. Still, I agree it would be an awesome mechanic.

You could do it with a bunch of repeated MIRV projectile files, so each one splits into the next and so forth, rather than splitting into itself, until the last one is just a projectile, but it'd seriously clutter up your projectile folder.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: RandomnessInc on March 01, 2017, 11:04:45 AM
Now imagine this, with the apocalypse MIRV from imperium DX
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Schwartz on March 01, 2017, 12:34:50 PM
This is giving me Exigency flashbacks.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Midnight Kitsune on March 01, 2017, 01:25:06 PM
Now imagine this, with the apocalypse MIRV from imperium DX
What, like an Apoc MIRV that spits out TITANs?
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Deshara on March 01, 2017, 07:12:48 PM
If there's ever going to be any sort of atmospheric terrain in-combat (fighting in low orbit), I would %1,000 want a single planet mod that makes an encounter with an organic "space station" that fires one of these, long-range, slow maneuvering and slow firing, with extremely low projectile health whose conflagration has to be fought through and destroyed.
"As your fleet approaches the object, a warning light you have never seen active lights up. "Von Neumen Self-Replicating R-Selector detected. Red Alert. Red Alert," says your console, and without input from the pilot the flight computer sets a head-on course for the object and begins arming weapons systems."
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on March 01, 2017, 07:16:07 PM
"As your fleet approaches the object, a warning light you have never seen active lights up. "Von Neumen Self-Replicating R-Selector detected. Red Alert. Red Alert," says your console, and without input from the pilot the flight computer sets a head-on course for the object and begins arming weapons systems."

I'd poop myself.  :o
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: RandomnessInc on March 02, 2017, 07:28:15 PM
Now imagine this, with the apocalypse MIRV from imperium DX
What, like an Apoc MIRV that spits out TITANs?

yes...

(evilness intensifies)
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: jn_xyp on March 21, 2017, 11:29:39 PM
You need some nuclear weapon to end all of this ;D
Or a super powerful point defense weapon
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on March 22, 2017, 02:03:35 AM
You need some nuclear weapon to end all of this ;D

Allow me to direct you to the Interstellar Imperium mod, including the Olympus-class Launcher and its Titan Planetbreaker Missile.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8007.0

(Think I got the names right: I'm one of those people who just watches mod stuff on YouTube instead of playing it)
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Midnight Kitsune on March 22, 2017, 03:32:08 AM
You need some nuclear weapon to end all of this ;D

Allow me to direct you to the Interstellar Imperium mod, including the Olympus-class Launcher and its Titan Planetbreaker Missile.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8007.0

(Think I got the names right: I'm one of those people who just watches mod stuff on YouTube instead of playing it)
I just noticed, why do you still have the full screen white flashes enabled? Don't you find those annoying?
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: SafariJohn on March 22, 2017, 07:03:11 AM
why do you still have the full screen white flashes enabled? Don't you find those annoying?

For me, the only annoying thing about them is that they are in front of the UI.

A big part of why I enjoy them is because they remind me of the nukes from Empire Earth. For very big explosions, a giant white flash combined with the screen shaking is very satisfying.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Midnight Kitsune on March 22, 2017, 12:07:26 PM
why do you still have the full screen white flashes enabled? Don't you find those annoying?

For me, the only annoying thing about them is that they are in front of the UI.

A big part of why I enjoy them is because they remind me of the nukes from Empire Earth. For very big explosions, a giant white flash combined with the screen shaking is very satisfying.
Yeah, in front of the UI is bad (but I can see why they are since it would look weird with the UI there), along with slowing down the game and lasting way too long on craptops
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Takion Kasukedo on March 22, 2017, 12:59:44 PM
This is giving me Exigency flashbacks.

Do you mean the Kestros MIRV or something like that?
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Midnight Kitsune on March 22, 2017, 01:15:02 PM
This is giving me Exigency flashbacks.

Do you mean the Kestros MIRV or something like that?
Most likely.
Also, for those that didn't already know, Exigency is BACK!
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on March 22, 2017, 02:53:28 PM
I just noticed, why do you still have the full screen white flashes enabled? Don't you find those annoying?

Honestly? No, I really like them. 8) Sure they cover the UI, but only for a second.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: RandomnessInc on April 10, 2017, 06:27:44 AM
Can you do this but with a swarm of homing annihilators?
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Ranakastrasz on April 10, 2017, 12:19:22 PM
Heh. Why not non-homing annihilators? Epic expanding shotgun-like effect.

If missiles are destroyed by weapon fire, do they split? if not, then flak oughta work here. Like really well.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: SCC on April 10, 2017, 02:11:11 PM
If missiles are destroyed by weapon fire, do they split?
If you look closely, you will notice *MLG voice off*, that first (second possibly too, I can't check that) MIRV gets destroyed by PDs and doesn't do anything.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on April 10, 2017, 02:31:55 PM
If missiles are destroyed by weapon fire, do they split?
If you look closely, you will notice *MLG voice off*, that first (second possibly too, I can't check that) MIRV gets destroyed by PDs and doesn't do anything.

Yeah, you can't pre-trigger an MIRV to split by shooting it. XD That's one of the reasons I launched three at once - I'd actually tested it a few times, and just one or two would be eaten by the Conquest's PD. Three was enough to start that chain reaction of evil.  ;D
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: RecklessPrudence on April 27, 2017, 02:45:46 AM
Couldn't you limit it with a counter variable set for each initial projectile fired, that only lets its descendants replicate for like three generations? You'd have to be careful, so that it doesn't reset the counter every time it calls itself, maybe with a boolean that is a necessary variable to call it, and if the boolean is set to 'true' (which it is only on the firing from the launcher) it initialises the counter, and if it's set to 'false' (which is how you have it call itself), it merely increments it, until it reaches the preset limit, and doesn't call itself anymore? It'd be more complex than that to do true generation tracking, of course, but if you didn't want to do generation tracking, you could have it for a total limit of self-replication which is equal to three full generations, so that if there's only ever one survivor from a generation it can go for quite some time.

If you did want to do generation tracking... you'd have to do it on a per-drone level, where each drone 'knows' how many drones its 'line' goes, so it'd pretty much have to be an array or a matrix, and every time you call the drone function, you pass it what generation drone is spawning it? If each drone splits into five, and you only want at most three generations, you'd only need an array of size sixteen (one for the initial drone), and each time you replicate you store which generation the drone is. Any time a drone attempts to self-replicate and is at the generation limit, nothing happens, because of your if statement that only allows you to get to the replication call when under the generation limit.

Would that work? I haven't done a programming course in about four years, even though it's my major - personal issues put Uni on hold - so it might need some tweaking.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on April 27, 2017, 02:57:04 AM
... Jeezus. Umm, not with my level of coding, and as far as I know not with Starsector's current foundation for projectiles.  :-[ I don't think you can pass information between an MIRV projectile and it's warhead projectile.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: Darloth on April 27, 2017, 05:39:24 AM
You can do generation tracking with some copy-pasting.

If MirvGen1 launches MirvGen2s which are just a copy-paste of MirvGen1 except for the name...

and then Gen2s launch Gen3s, which don't launch anything, voila, instant three level mirv with identical stats.

And a little file bloat, but eh.
Title: Re: The Never-ending MIRV a.k.a "Today I learnt..."
Post by: AxleMC131 on April 27, 2017, 03:06:35 PM
Oh, you can easily do it with half a dozen separate projectiles, sure. Where each one is an MIRV who's warhead is the next successive projectile. The issue I have with that is that it clutters up file folders, which I find confusing and irritating.  :-\ Still, if you want to do that, you can.