I'm not sure if you can give powerplants shield classes instead. I think i tried it beforeand it didn't work. I think i just didn't know where to mount on to as its internal.
You could do it by using shield generators and modifying their abilities. It might look wierd having the abilities negative in the shield screen, but i can't think of another way.

Negative-regen shields are fine for providing the energy regen of your ship, but the energy capacity is determined by the actual powerplant. So, if it turns out that you are unable to assign particular hardpoint types to your powerplants, you may want to set up your balance system such that only energy regen really matters, not capacity. Alternately, if you absolutely must differentiate between a few classes of powerplants, you might want to restrict them by setting how much cargo space they take up. Internally-mounted equipment will take up an amount of cargo space equal to whatever you set the volume = value to, so by adjusting powerplant volumes and ship cargo spaces you could accomplish what you want. However, there are some consequences that you would have to deal with, such as requiring some means of discouraging people from using smaller powerplants to take advantage of increased cargo space (unless that is acceptable, of course).

I guess what I had in mind is kind of impossible. Thanks for the replies.

Well, only thing I'd suggest is use a hardpoint, and limit it that way, no-one will see the hardpoint I guess so you should just be able to do that.

Or limit by reputation needed to buy.

Kind of like the HP way, you could:

Put some hardpoint (HpCloak is good, most ships already have one) on each ship, and add that hp to the ship's code as a shield hp, and in the shield link, so it would look like this:

shield_link = blah blah blah, HpCloak01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_1, blah, HpCloak01

and then that would limit the class of shield you could have, thereby allowing you to limit the negative-regen shields on diff't classes of ships, by only putting the Cloak hp on a specific shield class, and then making each regenerator that class.
You would have something like this on say, an HF:

shield_link = blah blah blah, HpShield01, HpCloak01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_6, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_5, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_4, HpShield01, HpCloak01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_3, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_2, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_shield_special_1, HpShield01

Then I believe only a class 4 shield could be mounted on it, or in your case, a class 4 regenerator.

Hope this helps!

-Xen()morph

@ Xen()morph:

What a coincidence! A few days ago I tried what you just described above, except for engines -- and it didn't work. At best I had the engine show up as both external and internal equipment, but after changing it (EDIT - I mean, in-game, by buying a new engine or unmount it and mount it again) was just internal.

Maybe by creating a .cmp for engines (and edit it in theUTF editor), it would be possible to add engines to a hp? I am too lazy / too limited in my time to try that out...

I was trying to assign classes to engines, for the same reason Gotcha wants to do it with powerplants, but failed, and (like Dev suggests for powerplants) decided that cargo space might sort of be a solution... Now I'm reading this thread I am wondering if indeed the powerplant is the real problem (overpowered ships suck indeed)... well maybe it's the best to just make those an integral part of the hull then.

Largely unrelated (but I found it during my trying the above) I stumbled upon a {RepairDroid} entry, which seemed to be planned besides the {RepairKit} (nanobots) and {ShieldBattery} (shieldbats). You can create one (using nanobots as a template) which can be internally mounted (though the player can buy more until his cargo is full) but I have no idea to add functionality to them...


Edited by - Moonhead on 6/23/2006 2:13:49 PM

Well, as far as I know, what I described only works for shields... i.e. regenerators, capacitors, normal shields, etc. There is something weird about the way engines work. I'm not sure, as I've never really messed with engines...

EDIT: Where'd you find the RepairDroid entry? Sounds like an interesting part of the game that was left out...

Cheers,

Xen()morph

Edited by - Xen()morph on 6/24/2006 10:16:01 AM

Both Common.dll and Freelancer.exe contain entries (both RepairDroids and repair_droids occur, I'm not sure which one in which file). There are also some references in a voice.ini file.

Would indeed be cool if it could be put to working, but I would have no idea how to... The working of shieldbats and nanobots is nowhere in an ini file, so it's only for those smart enough to actually know how to edit the code. I don't have high hopes for this, but who knwos... For now, its possible to buy and mount one functionless peace of internal equipment

As for what the repair droids should have been doing... I'm not sure but believe nanobots only fix the hull, maybe the repairdroids would do what you usually can do when you land on a base, but then in-flight... Btw mext to the icons for bots & bats (in the hud), there seems to be free space for another similar icon.

You know, repair droids could have been an attempt to have a way to heal friendly ships, for example, you activate them, and they repair a targeted station or ship. This would allow for some interesting types of missions, such as repair the station before it is destroyed or something.

Anyway, thx for the info

Cheers,

Xen()morph