**Tutorial** - Capital Ship Encounters

Fri Aug 26, 2005 1:39 pm by Thaddeus

From an example in the battleship encounters as covered here in this tutorial,
battleship_wall

[Formation
nickname = battleship_wall
pos = 0, 0, 0
pos = 400, 0, 0
pos = -400, 0, 0
pos = 0, 200, 0
pos = 400, 200, 0
pos = -400, 200, 0
pos = 400, 0, 0
pos = 400, 200, 0
pos = 0, -200, 0
pos = 400, -200, 0
pos = -400, -200, 0
pos = 400, -200, 0
pl_pos = 0, 0, 500

pl_pos is the position a player would take up in a single player encounter and does not count in a multiplayer environment.

In a formation ships are set out in the sysytem of pos = x, y, z

Looking at the front of the formation x = left-right, y = up-down, z = front-back, if you can see it, battleship_wall is a big flat upright square, there are no ships either to the front or back, they are arranged around a center position of pos = 0,0,0

If you do have gunboats or cruisers the size of Liberty dreadnoughts then these are probably the sizes you are look for, they are a bit spread out but are less likely to collide. In the end its all down to experimentation. I prefer delta/diamond formations myself, where the fighters are kept out of the way either fore n' aft and out on the wing

Positions are set in order of level, therfore the gunboats would take the first two positions, fighters the rest..

The 2nd problem could be down to your .cmp for your gunboats not being centralised. Use this tool to center it. Just import the cmp and then resave it with the button provided, backup first

simple as that, good luck dude

Edited by - Thaddeus on 8/26/2005 2:40:02 PM

Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:20 am by Artemas13

Thaddeus,

I used the tool you had suggested. the values for center were (roughly): -0.8 -0.9 -0.8

I changed them all to 0.000000

Before I tell you what happened, let me explain in better detail the original problem:

Using the Talarca by Asmotech, I have it assigned as shiptype "CRUISER"

When I added all the entries as suggested by this post, I will get two different formations appearing in game. I will describe their ship types and positions as seen from following behind the formation.

Formation 1:
fighter * fighter * talarca cruiser * fighter

Formation 2:
talarca cruiser * talarca cruiser * fighter * talarca cruiser

Now, in formation one, prior to changing the center orientation on the talarca, noone hit each other, but when turning, the fighter next to the cruiser on the outside edge of the turn flies a bit wonky, though does not hit anything. I can live with that.

In formation two, before changing centers, the two cruisers to the left are too close together and the large x-wing style tail fins overlap. When they turn in any direction they bump hulls. The fighter is centered between the flanking cruisers just fine, and the rightmost cruiser is fine. **After** changing the center, the leftmost cruisers still hit each other, and now the fighter hits the cruiser to its right as well during turns. So... I replaced the modified .CMP with the original.

In the capitalships_Hispania.ini I used the liberty template so as not to use gunboats. I left the capitalships_escorts.ini file as it was provided here.

I suppose the Talarca is just such a wide cruiser, especially with those tail fins, that I might need to increase the formation values for cruisers , cruiser_wall, and battleship_wall. I did try that once and it did not change anything, I may have been tweaking the wrong formation's values.

The only thing I can (and just now did) think of is that I need to enter the talarca for the encounters formation like the other cap ships were as directed here, instead of just going with the entries as is.

Suggestions?

EDIT: Tried that, didn't work. I also tried changing the Talarca to be read by the game and used as a battleship, that also did not work.
Nemo me impune lacessit. I think I just figured something out though... I think the game is assigning talarcas as escorts, then trying to make them fit into the fighter formation. Which would be why they ride so close to each other but give the lonely single fighter a wide berth.... the game is getting it backwards! The odd part is, why on earth the game would think they are fighters?

EDIT/UPDATE:

I solved the problem by making a custom fighter formation for the Hispanians to use. No more bumping!

[Formation
nickname = fighter_wall_hip
pos = 0, 0, 0
pos = 150, 0, 0
pos = -150, 0, 0
pos = 0, 150, 0
pos = 150, 150, 0
pos = -150, 150, 0
pos = 250, 0, 0
pos = 250, 150, 0
pos = 0, -150, 0
pos = 150, -150, 0
pos = -150, -150, 0
pos = 250, -150, 0
pl_pos = 0, 0, 200

This gave ample space for the Talarcas to manuever in, and was not so hugely spaced to be unrealistic. It just took the second pot of coffee to remember that out of the box is where I live, and I can think there too!

Edited by - artemas13 on 8/29/2005 12:07:24 PM

Edited by - artemas13 on 8/29/2005 10:37:04 PM

Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:49 pm by RimShot

hello Artemas13, i wrote something for your other post which (i assume) you deleted cause the problem has been solved already.

it might be helpful for others if i post it here anways ..
here`s an example to demonstarte the linkage of npcships, shipclasses, the encounter itself and faction_prop:

npcships.ini entry:
<pre>[NPCShipArch
nickname = xxx
etc, etc
npc_class = lawful, class_cruiser </pre>

shipclasses.ini entry:
<pre>[ShipClass
nickname = sc_cruisers
member = class_cruiser </pre>

encounter entry:
<pre>[EncounterFormation
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_cruisers
etc, etc
formation_by_class = cruisers
</pre>

faction_prop_entry:
<pre>[FactionProps
affiliation = xxx
etc, etc
formation = cruisers, formation </pre>

you can use anything instead of "cruiser" if you just keep the "sc_" name + "s" where they are needed.

there you go,
full control over the encounters

Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:12 pm by Artemas13

sweeeet.

thanks!

I deleted the other one when I realized I'd double posted on the same issue, which is rude and was entirely my bad.

Nemo me impune lacessit.

Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:59 am by Artemas13

Well, in trying to balance weapons and shields for my mod's npcs, I found out why the game was trying to use the Talarca as a fighter. I had accidentally put two entries in the npc_ships.ini for the Talarca, one as a fighter, the other as a CRUISER. Oops.

SO, I removed it, now EVERYTHING works! The Battleships I had added that never appeared are now in flight, and the talarcas escort it, as opposed to escorting a fighter. Now, back to tweaking loadouts and formation parameters.

We're one step closer, folks! Thank all of you again!

Nemo me impune lacessit.

Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:54 pm by zerochaos

THIS IS THE BEST MOD...so far...sorry for shouting but it has to be done. and thank you Nephilim for posting this. it's very simple to understand, THANK YOU!!
and now I've made it so that the entire liberity fleet (at lease it look like it) is near freeport 9

only the strongest will survive.

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