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Freelancer: Evolutions 1.27

Here you can find news, get help and comment about all the Mods for Freelancer created by Pathfinder Studios, such as the ?Evolutions Mod?

Post Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:12 pm

ok, hehe, lv9-10 turrets on caps = cool, Im down with the capship damage too, thats not a prob, nor anything to do with their guns, I like the idea of main guns to kill big stuff (other caps) and littler turrets to take out fighters.

Hmm its true caps dont normally have shields but then they didnt have players behind them , I realize that attemping to take on a capship with my shielding method would be neigh impossible for most fighters on their own but thats where Im comming from with games like freespace, wing commander, heh, and x-wing. Im my experence it takes a special type of weapons to bring down something deserved of the name 'battleship' or 'cruiser' (or really CAPSHIP in general) and this way the torpedo could really come back and shine.

I dont know if we are in agreement or not on the tracking abilities of torps, in any case I dont really care weather they are or not; dumb-fire just means it will have to be launched closer to target which is all good. and I think I should retract my statment about its speed, your very right, that was way too fast. What I ment was something to catch the gunship (assuming it had crazy shields and required a torp) now here you have 2 options: you could just kill its tracking (if it has any) and make it dumb-fire so that its potential as a player killer is reduced, or slow the gunship to 80-90 and make the torp 90-100 respectivly and give it the turning of a CD or less so as to make it very hard to catch something going evasive (which a CS really shouldn't be able to do).
the heavy torpedo would work the same except I would lean toward the NO tracking option as we are talking about a big ship but the torps power should match. if you are going to keep the CapShip speed at ~50 this torp with no tracking should move at 60-70?
I would also limit the number of torps a launcher could carry to 4 for Light torps and 2 for Heavy torps. If nothing else the torpedo would atleast blow though the crazy shields and open the Capship up to attacks from guns (capships should not be able to take shield boosts and the battleships hull should probubly go down to ~200k (if given a shield) or less [and everything else respectivly, OR make the shield reactivation time longer, the idea being when they are UP it is safe, when they are down, they are down and it is very NOT safe).

as for the whole missile debaco I have no idea what their stats look like for editing, but basicly, imo, the should move slightly better than a light fighter and be faster. every sim I've played has made it possible to avoid missiles but nowhere is it easyer than in FL so if you can/have tweeked it up, awasome.

now as I see the purpose of the missile is that they are for bird dogging stuff and potentially catching those highly evacive craft (or atleast give them cause to worry [look at them, all smug in their doddgyness , the tubbyer stuff should be easy enough (and is) to get with guns, only reason why one might want a missile against these targets is to get though really thick shields or armor, so imo make 2 levels or missiles.
Lv 1-5, the lighter ones, would be dedicated to light and md fighters, lower damage but more likly to hit (but still more damage than they do currently, they will have to compete with what ~1500hp shields? so perhapse a lv1 would do 200-300 damage to shields (this is approximate and you can work out hull damage how ever you see fit, I was think maybe a 1:1.3 shield to hull damage ratio? I realy dont know.)
A Lv 7-8 would do around 1-2.5k (having to contend with 3-6k shields) but would be slower and less likly to hit a light/md fighter, I would also change the duration these missiles are in play; longer for lighter missiles shorter for heavyer ones). As with torpedos I would also limit the number of missiles per launcher to ~12 Lt and ~6 Hv.
Considering that one can have multipul launchers, understandibly it could get scary so i really dont want to be too definate about damage, but imo they should hit, they should hurt, they should be limited in number, and they should be priced on their lethality. I have nothing against a missiles that can kill a player in ~3 hits, im my mind thats really what they are for, to simply remove a target quickly and effectivly, this said there needs also to be a chance that you just launched 5k down the crapper, not because of any fault in the missile but because the other pilot was awake at the wheel and knew how to fly his ship, now if they're asleep then they deserve a 5k funeral, but just So long as the shooter has a limited number of shots, and that he has to pay for them. (please keep this in mind with the AI )

also, did you ever play Wing Commander 2? there was once a missile called the Mace.. it was designed to be an anti-SQUADRON missile. only 1 fighter carried it, and ofcourse it had only 1. now the fun part of this weapon was that it was dumb-fire (didnt track) so it had to be detonated by either impacting something or by getting shot. it had a huge radius and did a rediculas amount of damage (fighters within 3-5k or something died [it almost could easly wipe out a squad impact killed/mauled capships) a fun missile. a practical addition, probubly not .


Edited by - Abacus on 21-12-2003 23:32:38

Edited by - Abacus on 21-12-2003 23:40:54

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:16 am

Bugs:
-the Phantom model does not show up when docked, its just a bunch of equipment floating in mid air. its also kinda crazy that there are 2 ships that can take dual thrusters and that this one's speed is 90.. scary.

-the Raven's info lists it as having 50 cargo space when it really has 15.

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:50 am

aye, thankyou. Good points, think your forgetting one thing though too! lol.

If you launch a torp whilst travelling forwards, it includes your speed onto its own...........so it goes bloody fast really

Same with missiles, thrust or just under normal and its charging ahead like nobodies buisness. Its only if your sat still that probs would occur!

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 1:34 am

- I can play this MoD for real!
- I have to wait an hour for it to download. Damn crappy 56k modem, I want broadband...

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 11:42 am

heh, I actually hadnt considered that, point taken, but it only helps in the one direction the projectial is fired, which can easly work just as much against a guided torp as it does for it (low turning and speed means it should have a hard time killing that inertia effectivly) as for the unguided hv's since you only have 2 and they are ment for big stuff that cant exactly dodge anyway, well I guess then the ball is really in the launcher's court and if he takes it to speed then, well, ow, the big guy is gonna loose some shields for a bit.

But since the attacker only has 2 of these Hv torps ...

(Lt ones would be for gunships and prision liners or something along those lines, lighter shields than those of batt's and cruisers but with nearly instantanious regeneration so as to require a torpedo attack to bring them down, and again, once down they would also be stuck with a longish wait)

... there lies the prob, since these torps, to a battleship, wont kill it in less than 4-5, and the attacker HAS to use one to take out the shields so their options are then as follows..
A: have friends with more torps ( =death to big ship and rightly so),
B: use your remaining torp to inflict as much damage as possible while the shield is down (throwing everything you got at it, literally), or
C: hold off and pound with guns and missiles and when the shield comes back up, shoot it down again with your last hv torp.

following this pattern of play I think I would also cut down the number of nano's a capship had down signifigantly, 100 would make a battleship impossible to kill for anything less than a small fleet of hv fighters (because of shields and the torpedo limit) so probubly only 10-20 nanos (I havent measured how much they repair, you should be able to repair your capship abit but not put half your ship back together especially considering the lengths required to take it down.)

geezz, why are these always so long?

Edited by - Abacus on 22-12-2003 11:51:51

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 12:00 pm

Ooo something else.. if you really want to give people a hard time with hv torpedos give the torps LOTS of splash damage (like bombs from freespace) but stil require impact to detonate. Since they have a shorter lifespan than lighter torps it will make it an interesting trade off, stay away from the blast and potentially miss, or fly it in freespace style and face the potentially massive splash damage.

Post Mon Dec 22, 2003 5:57 pm

Well, i just slowed down the missiles (heavy ones anyways) just now, and also the torps aren't doing too bad. Why? Well, just like the increased speed makes fighters appear to turn quicker, so do missiles when travelling faster as well. IN fact, the cannonballs were tracking TOO good, they had a 100% hit rate. I was wading through the enemy too easily. Of course, the cost of one of those keeps everything from getting to carried away..........

Same for torps so far. However, i have turned down the speed of ships slightly, and adjusted some handlings to stop LF being almost TOO darned good. They were a tad bit manouverable. I thought that presented a better challenge, but perhaps others wouldn't.

Well - have nearly finished constructing the new system as well - its very close to being done, at which point the mod will be re-released. Unfort still no version number change, but that don't matter to much really. However, people WILL need the next update as otherwise you will crash trying to join servers!

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 2:44 am

sounds like you got the missile thing down pat, though Im still kinda curious as to what your final plan is for capships. light fighters in the mod were a little crazy so tweeking them abit shouldnt kill them too much. all in all I think the balance between the fighter classes is way better than it was (I mean in ver 1.0 the progression was logical, bigger is better, end of story, but now there really is a place for the light/medium fighter which is awasome) Its fun to feel torn between the extreme manouverability of the Lt/Md fighters, the hv is very much now the jack-of-all-trades, master of none, and the vhf completes the sprectum with raw durability and brutality.

If I may make a suggestion regarding some of the added craft, the phantom and the slipstream I think should really fall into the hv fighter catagory rather than the vhf, the slipstream, and Im loath to say this because I love it so much, really has too much going for it as it stands. That said I dont know how I would change it. The phantom already feels like a hv fighter with its armor deficiency and its 90 speed but with 4lv7 and 4lv8 guns and dual thrusters its not so much an anti-capship strike craft as just plain scary. What might be more interesting is either a medium fighter with 8 gun mounts, or a heavy fighter with 2+ torpedo mounts and 4Lv~7-8 guns.
As for the dual thruster idea, by name the slipstream should probubly hold the sole rights to this and be balanced accordingly (agreeably, with a top speed of 70 it has a harder time wrestling with fighters than if it was at 90 or more but a 10k hull is a little extreme for something that can whip in and out of combat in a few seconds, I also dont think I need to mention what a lv3 hull upgrade does for it.)
But anyways, some ideas, mostly personal preferences that Im sure others will rightfully disagree with, its all good.

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:41 am

Ahh!!!

I'm sorry but I really am going crazy.

The slowing ships down with thrust and "normal" speed I think is a bit much. I know I'm really not that important, but I think it's good to have light fighters and med. fighters go faster than the heavy and vh fighters. But I really am use to the standard thrust speed and "normal" speed.

I recommend putting the very heavy fighters speed up back to the game's default and increasing the "lower" ships.

If you don't like my idea, that's cool , but after playing virtually NO multiplayer EVER using this mod (except for before this post), I'm really use to the standard speeds.

See ya.

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 8:25 am

There is still a speed difference in fighters, its just that LF don't go twice the speed of VHF anymore. They are now actually shootable by the VHF as before, a titan had real difficulty even TRACKING the things

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 9:08 am

Check-out my upload... firebase shipack.... and you will see the real power of the phantom and slipstream(now know as the black specter)... also included my two new ships... the Raven Claw and The Death Scythe.

BTW

Slipstream/Black Specter is a heavy having a 2 level 10 weap
phantom is really in a vhf class it has one torpedo only mount and one torpedo/cruise disruptor combo mount and it supports 4 level 10 weapons and 4 level 9 weapons.

Sorry about this announcement in your thread chip, just can't help it....

All I do for LOVE

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 11:22 am

Post Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:25 pm

ok, so now the phantom is basicly a VERY VERY scary mega bomber... thats, well, scary

Edited by - Abacus on 23-12-2003 19:26:07

Post Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:09 am

I have a little problem in SP
in the mission where you go with Juni and Walker to help Research Station Willard, that is attacked by ""Rheinland pirates""... the 3 cruisers take all the ships and GShips veeeery quickly... When all are spatial dust, Walker inits the dialog that must let you dock on the station, but this no happened.... 3 RhBombers appears and you have to eliminate them.... but when you eliminate them..... doesn´t happen anything, the mission isn´t completed (think that is a script bug... 1-enter combat 2-bombers appears 3-all are killed.... not 1-3-2)...
Can you make an OpenSP or say which OpenSP works fine with your GOOOOOD work ?

Post Wed Dec 24, 2003 1:06 am

yeah - will do, unfort for now i have to shoot off home for a week! dammit!

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