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Author Topic: Adding custom ships  (Read 229430 times)

Alex

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #105 on: May 24, 2011, 05:04:05 PM »

I'm working on a older-tech style 'torpedo boat' sort of ship, with a single heavy missile hardpoint and a small ballistic turret (for some kind of light defense system) - might add a small missile slot as well.
I have the basic template done, but I still need to smooth out the colors, and then pixelize it. (Trying david's way)

Aw, I was hoping for more ships when I clicked on this :) Looking forward to seeing it!

Another note on balance (which you're of course no obligated to follow, and isn't quite applicable anyway). Large slots generally mean increased range - so small, fast ships with large weapon slots can mean lots of kiting. This is probably least true for missiles as they tend to be more specialized, but say a frigate with a HIL would be a destroyer's worst nightmare. It would have to be rare/expensive/etc not to become too dominant.
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #106 on: May 24, 2011, 05:41:12 PM »

I have a rough version in-game, but the graphic is still not polished up yet.

I stuck a cyclone on it and kept the heavy mg from the hound which I copied its variant file from (probably going to size it down to a smaller gun later).

Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #107 on: May 24, 2011, 08:05:20 PM »

Here is the current version: I'm likely to continue refining it down the line:



This is the pike-class strike frigate... and it is a ... very interesting little ship.

It has a half-coverage frontal shield (which overloads VERY quickly), a rear facing ballistic turret slot with 330 degrees over coverage (here mounting a heavy mg), and a frontal missile hardpoint (here with a cyclone, which is the weapon it was designed for: on the hull-version of the sprite (no weapons) the hardpoint even happens to be shaped rather conveniently for a cyclone... that was actually just a coincidence O_o).

Because its a frigate, and is relatively fast compared to its targets, or even its own main weapons, which causes some interesting problems with firing. You can't simply strafe along and shoot. The Reaper torpedoes are so slow that this tactic will cause you to miss an Onslaught by a mile ( no really, I think in-game it does in fact come out to about a mile on average, at least with the AI shooting). You essentially have to run right up to it, fire, and then back away as quickly as possible (the two torpedoes you just fired WILL kill you if you are too close to your target: first will overload you if you have shields, and the other will fry you.) in order to guarantee a hit (and you only have 10 volleys, so you have to make them count). You're in luck if there are a lot of enemy ships around, in which case you could probably get away with blindly firing into them... given this is likely a large fleet battle.

The rear facing turret is a blessing and a curse. It wont be a terribly big help shooting projectiles coming in from alternating front sides, but it can shoot down trailing missiles quite effectively (which is nice given the utter lack of shield coverage to the back of the ship.

Piloted in skillful hands, this ship can put serious dents in larger ships (and can take out an onslaught on its own): piloted in inept hands however, it is about the most ineffective ship in existance.

Which is to say: the AI tends NOT to fare very well at all in piloting this ship.

Alex

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #108 on: May 24, 2011, 08:19:51 PM »

Very cool! I like it, some nice trade-offs and ship-specific tactics going on here.

About the AI - yeah, it's not good at firing torpedoes from faster-moving ships, to put it mildly. It's on the todo list, hopefully won't be that hard of a fix. The AI already has the concept of not firing some weapons if the relative lateral movement is too fast, but the way it's tuned isn't good enough for torpedoes. Will have to adjust it to take the approach/separation speed into account - that's the part that's screwing it up with faster-moving ships.
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #109 on: May 24, 2011, 08:35:59 PM »

Yeah, I enjoy doing these small light ships because you can give them highly dedicated roles and they will have their place, while the largest capships tend to be harder to make as extremely dedicated, while yet effective & useful.

Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #110 on: May 24, 2011, 09:15:05 PM »

Inspired by the conversions of the Tarsus & Buffalo freighters into combat ships, I decided to do one of the Atlas into a capship-class carrier: its going to be a far cry from an Astral, but it will have lots of light slots, more armor, even worse speed (because it trades the massive amount of cargo it was carrying for deckspace & armor), can service at least as many wings as the Astral, and will have a bit better flux stats.

I think I might also make another variant designed specifically for ranged support like the converted buffalo.

OC, they would not be as survivable as a military grade ship, but hey, they are better than nothing!

I'm making these for some missions I'd like to do in .34a :D

mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #111 on: May 24, 2011, 10:48:12 PM »

Lovely stuff Avan, looks great and sounds completely bonkers.
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"I'm doing it, I'm making them purple! No one can stop me!"

Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #112 on: May 24, 2011, 11:13:18 PM »

lol thanks X3

The refitted atlas carrier: (entirely frankened: mostly from the buffalo II) (sorry for butchering your ships david  ;) - lol)



It can take 4 wings, and is adorned with small slots mean specifically for pretty much light machine guns and a few PD lasers (given the ordinance point restrictions of this ship: it is afterall still a converted civilian ship and isn't going to be able to handle a ton of say, LR PD lasers.

It has 4 small missile hardpoints to the rear, meant for swarmers (or perhaps some atropos torp racks for defense against pesky larger ships that get too close), a small missile hardpoint to the left and a medium missile hardpoint to the right

Lastly, there are a pair of large turret mounts on the sides, though normally you won't be able to have large turrets there (plus this ship has a very low tolerance for things that output a lot of flux) due to OP restrictions, so normally there will be some medium turrets (likely flak or dual flak)

Tomorrow I'll get it in-game & operational as well.


-----------------

Also, here is the current base sprite for the pike frigate:

« Last Edit: May 24, 2011, 11:16:37 PM by Avan »
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #113 on: May 25, 2011, 10:17:05 AM »

I managed to have an AI controlled Atlas 2 blow itself up with its own atropos launchers during my last testing run. >.<

The sad thing was that the enemy was far out of range anyways, and so they never would have hit.


The Atlas 2 overloads very easily, has terrible shield coverage, and so pretty much has to rely entirely on its PD to keep it safe from torps and missiles, and it has to simply hide out of the action area, because it has essentially no ability to defend against direct fire weapons (Hull armor is still very thin, a bit thicker than before, but not very). It can take out one or two heavy ships that strays too close with the atropos launchers, but other than that it has to stay entirely out of the way.

I must say though that it flies gracefully like an eagle... piloting a blimp.

Alex

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #114 on: May 25, 2011, 11:10:01 AM »

*thumbs up*

Looks like an interesting ship. Very heavily armed, especially for a civilian ship converted into a carrier, but probably makes up for that by non-existent maneuverability and thin armor. I can see outfitting this thing with a bunch of railguns to make it a credible mid-range threat and a royal pain to get close to - assuming the OP limitations can be overcome with the right skills.


I managed to have an AI controlled Atlas 2 blow itself up with its own atropos launchers during my last testing run. >.<

The sad thing was that the enemy was far out of range anyways, and so they never would have hit.

Did it hit an asteroid? If so, known issue :)  It really shouldn't launch if the target is out of range, though - those things have an effective range of over 1500, which is actually pretty far...
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #115 on: May 25, 2011, 11:38:40 AM »

You could probably go with all mining lasers or no small energy turrets, and have all the ballistic ones with railguns.

Without all the small slots for point defenses, it would be ripped to shreds by bombers, missiles, and torpedoes in seconds: they are in fact there because it flies like a brick, with paper for armor. :D (This is in contrast to the Condor (also a combat-capable civilian ship modification to a light carrier), which flies decently, has shields that do more than protect you from stray wrecks and asteroids, and can run away, but doesn't have a huge amount of point defenses as it doesn't really need them.)
And the Atropos racks essentially are a 'spare life' for you, in that they give you a chance to survive say, a venture bearing down on your position. Of course, they are a single-use gambit, and once they are gone... Well, just hope you have some bombers handy.


As to the AI ship, it fired them behind it, and then turned around and accelerated, causing the torpedoes to fizzle out just as they passed over the bow.

Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #116 on: May 25, 2011, 10:45:41 PM »

Decided to do a quick alteration of the hammerhead... but I'm running into errors with the game not liking my CSV file. Attempting to debug this issue...

Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #117 on: May 26, 2011, 06:53:21 AM »

Ok, I guess googledocs just messed up something somewhere. I went back and revereted it, than changed it, and now it seems to work.

mendonca

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #118 on: May 26, 2011, 07:22:07 AM »

Just as a point of curiosity, I have been using Notepad++ for editing CSV files (as well as the java, json, ship, variant files etc.)

Not especially readable, but avoids any potential formatting muddling or whatever is going on.

Also: I see your new posts and keep expecting to see your new ships in action, before ultimately being disappointed  :)
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Avan

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Re: Adding in custom ships
« Reply #119 on: May 26, 2011, 07:56:44 AM »

Had to get them working first before I can get screens, no?

Anyways, here are pictures!

Here is the anvil gunship: (the one I was working on and then had the csv issues)


Here are screens of the last two ships in-game


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