Rankor -- how do I set the hull damage to -1? Could you tell me which file and which object I should edit? Sorry, this is probably a very simplistic question, but I don't have any experience with this. Anyway, thanks for volunteering to try it out.

007 -- questions of your loadout aside, how certain is your memory about the unity killshot? We've heard a lot of "pretty sure," but nobody to my knowledge is on record confirming that they're *absolutely positive* that this is possible, and my *extensive* experiments make it look exceedingly unlikely. Can you be the first to confirm this? (Please note that it is possible to score (at least) 25 battleship kills without the Unity.)

Take it from me, breslin.It's possible. Iv'e done it. unmodded game. You are all forgetting that you have the ability to fire weapons with the number keys. when you fire from the mouse, all your weapons start at once. this still leaves timing gaps. you can "spread out" your fire rate by pressing the number keys one at a time and holding, resulting in a very unsynchronous fire pattern. also using the thruster increases shot speed. thrust and fire at the battleship, preferrable when it's already low. your shots will hit at 800 speed, and high refire weapons helps. I have heard a rumor that whoever does the most damage in the least time gets the kill, but not sure.

Beware pirates bearing gifts!

@ Breslin,
Find the Equipment file, then the weapon_equip.ini
All in that file you'll see all sorts of weapons.
Take for instance the beam weapon mod..
it sets the hull_damage =
and
the energy_damage =

Those .ini files is what you alter to increase the damage output a weapon can do.
the hull_damage = -1 figure is basically "instant death" to anything it hits as long as it isn't invincible (such as planets, stations and stars) a Star being something I'm trying to make destructable in only one system.

Here is an entry from the weapon_equp.ini:

<span style="text-decoration: underline">Explosion</span> <-closed brackets
nickname = missile01_mark01_rtc_explosion
effect = li_missile02_impact
lifetime = 0.000000, 0.000000
process = disappear
strength = 100
radius = 16
<span style="text-decoration: underline">hull_damage = 486</span> <-- See this? if you change this to -1, that's instant kill.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">energy_damage = 0</span> <--Change this to -1 also.
impulse = 0

(If you happen to change the strength and radius to larger values, you can make it capable of taking our several ships at a time...I did this with the sunslayer torpedo "torpedo_mark02" . Believe me, when I launch that thing...I have to RUN! )

HOWEVER!!!
Make sure the weapon you do this to is a weapon you can mount on your ship and preferably is uncommon to the npc's loadouts. Otherwise, they'll use it on you too!


Edited by - Rankor on 5/9/2007 5:49:40 PM

Excuse my followup post if you will.
I just ran through the initial story line up to Leeds.
I should have had the Unity Kill, but I did not.
I concentrated specifically on the ship with missles and guns, but still even with the hull down to 0, it didn't go boom until Walker got involved with the Cruiser.
It seems you're right about not getting the kill.

@Conzul: Thanks for claiming the kill. I'd still like to confirm it, but I really don't know how. Thanks also for trying the suggestion of offset-firing -- but given this loadout...

Mule
guns:
1: Scorpion -- 699/4
2: Barrager Mk I -- 600/8.33
3 and 4: any two of these three:
- Brave Mk I -- 650/4
- Dragoon Type 1 -- 700/3.03
- Pyros Type 1 -- 600/4
turrets:
5: Justice Turret Mk I -- 700/8.33
6: <irrelevant: doesn't fire forwards>
7: Gunslinger Turret Mk I -- 750/8.33
8: Dragoon Turret Type 1 -- 701/4

... which gun would you offset-fire? I mean, I've already arranged the loadout so that no two projectiles will hit the Unity at the same time. I don't know how many internal cycles the game makes per second, but I'm already exceeding the maximum framerate. If you add in the Beam mod, it's more still.

Hmm... come to think of it, maybe the secret to the Unity kill is to do it on a really slow computer, so there's fewer internal cycles per second. Well it's something to try anyway.

@Rankor: Thanks for explaining the editing stuff. I'll give it a whirl.

We have established that the triggers act funny around that story incident. I should point out to you that I made the Unity killshot AFTER Walker came along.

Edit: Also, once Walker appears out of nowhere, there is the objective which says: "Destroy the Battleship Unity". It doesn't say "Help destroy the Battleship Unity", so I assume you are meant to be able to destroy it.

Beware pirates bearing gifts!

Edited by - Conzul on 5/26/2007 1:25:16 PM

Actually, from what I've noticed..Walker is near the Trade Lane that takes you to Detroit Munitions. Except that he's in the "Red" until his wing is within range of you, then he turns green. (I think this was deliberate in the missions.ini to ensure the npc's would ignore him until he's within range of the Unity)

According to the game scripts, the Unity is invulnerable up to and even past the "Act_LightFuse" script action that destroys the ship. Basically, the LightFuse is issued at the same time as the start of the Unity's "abandon ship" message, but the invulnerability isn't unlocked until the completion of that last message.

I suppose it's possible that Act_LightFuse and the death animation isn't directly coupled to the statistic of the actual battleship death and who killed it. But based on breslin's test results and what I've seen in the scripts, I suspect that it's more likely that the individuals claiming the Unity kill have either experienced an odd game quirk, or a mistaken memory (with no offense intended to such individuals).