A Mod Concept from an Aspiring Modder - Is This Out of My Re

Mon Jun 09, 2003 7:38 pm by Cynicism Inc.

I've been looking at a lot of recent mods, in particular Rebalance 1.4b, and have liked a lot of the new components that have been added. I've been particularly intrigued by different powerplants, and think it would be really cool to have weapon classes depend on powerplants instead of hardpoints. I would also want make those powerplants, as well as other bits of equipment, take up space in the cargohold. In theory, if this works, it would be possible to mount a lvl10 weap on a starflyer, though the hold would not be big enough to contain much else if it carried a powerplant large enough to power the weap. I believe I've seen some tutorials for this sort of thing around, and some aspects of this have already shown up in the Frostworks and FLREbalance mods, so I don't think I'm proposing anything groundbreaking.

However, I haven't really modded anything since TIE Fighter, and my attempt to make a working Nomad battleship from a tutorial took all day and I still couldn't dock the thing. Is this concept too ambitious for someone like myself, or has it already been done and I missed it? Do any of those great modders have tips (other than searching the forums, which I will do - and have done) for someone trying to get started?

Thanks.

Mon Jun 09, 2003 8:56 pm by Victor

That should be possible... sort of

All items in the game can have volume, and that volume uses up cargo space. But there's a catch, the game will still let you load up on equipment even if you have no cargo space left, you just won't be able to carry any cargo. I think they also take up their space even when not mounted, but it's been a while since I messed around with it.

You can either change all of the weapons in the game to use the hp_gun_special_1 hardpoint (not to hard using the replace tool in most text editors) or you can give all ships the ability to use up to class 10 guns. Changing the weapons is probably easier in the long run but changing the ships will allow you to still spot a "good" weapon quickly by it's weapon class.

The "power" rating alone is actually enough to do some cool balancing with. In my mod, all light fighters and freighters can use up to class 7 guns and all heavy fighters and very heavy fighters can use up to class 10. I balanced out all of the "house" fighters so the Rheinland ships are no longer better than the Liberty fighters for example, they're just different. And, I went in and edited all of the shields so they use power to regenerate (equal to their regen rate). So now you can have a defender flying around loaded down with class 10 guns and a class 10 shield, but it uses up so much power that if you're not careful your shield won't regenerate, and that would be bad. Anyway, before I get too far off the subject, I wasn't able to do exactly what you wanted but with my method you choose your ship based upon it's speed, manuverability, armor and power rating rather than what size gun it can carry. It works out well in MP, we finally get a little variety in the fighters out there, not just a bunch of Titans, Eagles and Sabers.

You can also adjust the power used by cruising and the thrusters (afterburners) with similar effects as what I descibed with the shields. So if you're one of those people that just holds the trigger down, you wouldn't be able to use your thrusters, go into cruise mode, or keep your shields up. All combined it really adds to the depth of combat.

Edited by - Victor on 09-06-2003 21:57:04

Edited by - Victor on 09-06-2003 21:57:50

Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:55 pm by Zazz

not sure, you might be able to do it, but you might also need the source code...which we dont have

probaly too advanced for an 'Aspiring Modder'

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