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Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: SF-Junky on May 07, 2017, 09:21:20 am

Title: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: SF-Junky on May 07, 2017, 09:21:20 am
Oi!

I'm thinking of doubling all fighters' and bombers' velocities in my mod, 'cus I'm not happy and somehow have never been with how slow those things actually are. Even as a child I thought the only thing that is better in Starlancer compared to Freespace is that the fighters are faster (or at least feel faster).

What doy ou think? Is that a good idea? Or is it too much and I should rather make some total conversion, then? Feel free to take a broader approach to the question and say what you think about how far one can go modding.
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: AndrewofDoom on May 07, 2017, 11:46:26 am
Having higher speeds than standard FreeSpace isn't a problem, just look at Dimensional Eclipse (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=235.0) (totally not a shameless plug) or, if you want to go a lot older, there was the Velocity Mod for retail FS2. The problem isn't the speed itself, but the relatively decreasing play area the faster you go. There's a very specific range from the center that the game will just kill you outright if you go too far. It's there since floating point calculations would start breaking down beyond that distance.

Dimensional Eclipse's failed spiritual predecessor, Stellar Assault FSO had speeds of capping out at around 600 m/s. DE caps out at 350 or so (except for one fighter which goes up to 600 m/s). I will say that it would feel really, really weird for the FreeSpace universe to suddenly get drugged upon on some really strong speed.
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: 0rph3u5 on May 07, 2017, 01:23:10 pm
Have you tried the scaling options in Hud_Gauges.tbl (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Hud_gauges.tbl#.24Length_Unit_Multiplier:)? That way you could avoid confusion as ships would have the same speed and the same distances would appear in the HUD, while mechanically different.

I rather prefere the deliberate pace of Freespace - it is a good symbolic measure...
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: niffiwan on May 07, 2017, 04:54:15 pm
Note the AI doesn't handle fast speeds very well, there's too many hardcoded constants that govern stuff like how far away to break of an attack run.

Also, fast speeds make it harder to land hits with primaries, Dimensional Eclipse IIRC uses autoaim to compensate for this. You could also make weapons deadlier to reduce the TTK.
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: jr2 on May 07, 2017, 05:50:41 pm
Doesn't Fury AI handle higher speeds better or something?  I can't remember.  I think there were some AI profiles you could use that worked better with higher speeds, anyways.  Google site search is your friend.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hard-light.net%2Fforums+high+speed+ai+tables
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: Sushi on May 07, 2017, 08:36:38 pm
Oi!

I'm thinking of doubling all fighters' and bombers' velocities in my mod, 'cus I'm not happy and somehow have never been with how slow those things actually are. Even as a child I thought the only thing that is better in Starlancer compared to Freespace is that the fighters are faster (or at least feel faster).

What doy ou think? Is that a good idea? Or is it too much and I should rather make some total conversion, then? Feel free to take a broader approach to the question and say what you think about how far one can go modding.

My very first published mod was exactly this:

http://www.freespacemods.net/e107_plugins/download/download.php?view.168

It was originally hosted on homestead.com, which should give you some idea of its age. :) There's another thread discussing velocity mods here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85934.0).

It definitely changes the feeling, but IIRC all the main campaign missions still basically worked.

Doesn't Fury AI handle higher speeds better or something?  I can't remember.  I think there were some AI profiles you could use that worked better with higher speeds, anyways.  Google site search is your friend.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hard-light.net%2Fforums+high+speed+ai+tables

And yes, there are a number of bits of AI code that are sensitive to speed. Some of them are configurable now (see the link above), but I think there are still some which aren't.


Final comment: definitely check out some of the various existing mods / TCs that do have a "faster" feel to them.
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: SF-Junky on May 09, 2017, 10:15:52 am
Thanks for the replies. I'm defnitely going to check out that velocity mod. I've already played around a little with doubling the Apollo's max speed - I like the initial impression very much. Double speed is enough for my taste, I don't intent to go up to 600 m/s. ;)
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: krevett62 on May 09, 2017, 10:31:22 am
You may also consider increasing weapons and missiles speed otherwise secondary weapon become almost useless when fighters become faster
Title: Re: Fighter/bomber speeds or: How far can you go with modding
Post by: Mito [PL] on May 09, 2017, 04:53:23 pm
I think ship speeds were about doubled in Lighting Marshall campaign. Might be worth checking out.