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Bay Doors

The general place to discuss MOD''ing Freelancer!

Post Fri Dec 03, 2004 12:51 pm

Bay Doors

I was wondering if there was a way to make the cargo bay doors on models open without actually having to dump something out. The reason I was asking is I was thinking if this was possible you could make a model to use as a troop transport..like you open the doors ur buddies fly in and the doors close. Then the big ship takes the beating and when you get to ur destination they can come out unharmed. I have virtually no modeling skills but I've downloaded gmax and I'm trying (things still look like boxes with the general form of a ship) but if this was possible maybe someone else could make a ship like this?

Post Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:17 pm

The Freelancer game engine is sadly not capable of supporting what you wish, sorry.

Post Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:36 pm

Let me clarify...I'm not talking dockable/flyable base first off. I've read many posts about that so I've heard its not possible. What I mean is a ship model that is largely hollow inside..in essence a large cargo bay. Kinda like if you fly into a station's docking bay behind an npc the door closes and ur stuck inside. I've went to cruise inside the bay before and after awhile bouncing around can kill you but not really quickly. I was wondering if you could make a ships cargo bay like that. The other players aren't docked...they are just inside the big ship. Then the big ship can fly and pull the little ones along inside...lot of bouncing around off the back of the ship but thats ok. If you would have to buy a commodity to dump into space to make the bays open and all that fine. If you understood right off what I was talking about sorry but just making sure.

Post Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:05 pm

Problem is that the ships inside would make the larger ship bounce around too, so it would be unable to hold a steady course. It might be possible, but I doubt you could make doors that actually opened and closed on command. Also it would damage your hull, and their shields. It's a nice idea tho...

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Post Sat Dec 04, 2004 3:43 am

It could only be done by making normal BayDoors. Jettison something, and they open shortly. But that would not be very pretty.

Post Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:10 am

Actually... you could probably do custom BayDoors. I'm sure it can be done in the same way that we've learned how to do other things with moving parts, like custom Weapons.

That said... the problem isn't getting the doors to open... it's building a SUR file that would be "concave". There are such SUR files- the dockable objects all have areas that are concave. If you don't have a SUR file that has a "hollow area", then ships attempting to "enter" the transport will impact the object... and rebound.

But we do not (currently) have the tools to build new SURs. So... what you're talking about doing, while vaguely possible... would be a royal pain. It'd involve hand-hacking a SUR file (which involves a lot of prayer, sweat and hex-editing)... and you'd have to build an animated Bay Door as part of the ship (which, as I said above, is probably possible, but nobody's done one yet). So... if you want to try to achieve this... we're all interested in how it comes out, and we'll try to help with some advice. But you're exploring territory that nobody's ever entered... and returned alive

Post Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:01 pm

is there a editor that can open the freelancers ship files and see what there doors do then just replicate it?

Post Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:30 pm

Perhaps modify one of the flying station mods, or just a stock FL Battleship. Then configure the dock to be a cargo bay door? If you can fly inside of docks on stations, then what you ask should theoretically be possible, though I don't know if you would recieve radiation damage. As for the bouncing problem, just enter cruise inside the ship, or use the utterly useless formation manuever.

Post Sun Dec 05, 2004 2:34 am

@Loso:

No, there isn't one single utility that does everything that's important with ships. You have to use multiple tools and look at code to understand what's going on. Sorry, but it's complicated, and likely to remain that way.

@JDawg:

That's just about the spiffiest way to do that, I agree... just use a Battleship with closing Bay Doors... and then make the Docking Sphere tiny, and stick the DockMount farther into the "hull", so that people never actually "dock" with it. That might even work...

Post Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:35 am

One thing you could try is making a new formation setup for a new type of carrier vessel. The carrier would be a giant shield ship with several concave "bays" in it's side or bottom. The formation points would have to match up with these bays so the ships wouldn't bounce around too much. You could set up patrols with the shieldship and this formation and players could "form up" with the ship while they make their run into enemy territory. Just an idea.

Post Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:15 am

Did someone delete my post? I made one about 19 hours ago on this thread.

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Post Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:57 am

@Louva-Deus:
to my knowledge, formations don`t work for playerships ..

if: player in formation with another player, the auto pilot will just try to stay close to it

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