[T-Man]

Uploads to FS Mods being vetted, so Temporary download attached at bottom of post. Grab it before Steele's Ninjas do!

NOW UPDATED TO THIRD RELEASE (UPLOADED 08/04)

This little project started for a fan mission I may make in the near future, where I needed an AWACS to have some major protection without the player needing to stay close to it. I hit on the idea of having the vindicator make a cameo in the mission, but noticed the AI can't make use of the fighter-style forward guns if it's a cruiser AI (and giving the Custos-X fighter AI resulted in apparently drunken pilots). So I took the model and (partly as a 'get to know Blender' opportunity), had a shot at making it suitable for cruiser AI, which involved adding fixed untargetable turrets that recreate and replace the forward guns, alongside the usual turrets. Managed to get it working to the extent that it wouldn't hinder mission events (just cosmetic aspects left really), so thought I’d put up the WiP for any one who might have an interest or use for it. Just unpack the 7zip below (and later, from FSMods) into your Blueplanet2 folder and it should put everything (one model and two .tbms, one ship one weapon) in the right place and run without issue. It's not fantastic at the moment admittedly and it'd need a lot of in-mission SEXP guidance to make best use of it's guns; the AI on normal attack will tend to close and turn away from the target, preventing the cannons from firing. I'm also looking into some SEXPs for recreating the special effects seen in One Future and will be putting them up here in future releases.

Note this model is still a little WiP, but it should be working to an extent that it could be placed in a mission and then updated later without damaging anything. It does have a couple of noticeable quirks; it can fire it's Gattlers and Arquebus simultaneously, which the original could not, and at the moment you can't have UX Accelerator models in place of the Gattler ones  as to my knowledge cruisers can't use the gun model code (apologies for that, I may solve this by making a second model with UXs mounted and you can choose between them). Also, it does require a SEXP to guardian several subsystems, to keep the forward weapons from being easily destroyed; apologies again, I will implement an automated (but switch off-able for if wished) alternative to this ASAP (Need for SEXP negated in newest update; see below; UX was apparently an error in BP's release so shall ignore for now). You may also notice the Gattler muzzle flashes seem a little misaligned (though the guns themselves are set up right); this I’m working on and I’ll hopefully update soon with better aligned ones.

Finally, the Gattler barrels don't spin at the moment; I did actually manage to get them spinning for a short period when first firing (i kept the .tbm code semicoloned in the ship entry for those that want to have a look) but I don't think the large ship animation code is able to do the constant while-firing spinning needed (only rotations before and after firing, like opening and closing missile doors). I shall look into this and again, update with a newer model ASAP.

EDIT: Only forgot to mention the biggest damn issue of all; you'll quickly notice the back of it makes a repetitive noise for some odd reason. No idea what it is, but infinite kudos to anyone that can work it out (please...the noise...make it stop! ). (Fixed in latest release)

So yeah, appreciate this isn't that great as is, but hopefully it's a workable place holder for anyone that fancies an AI Vindicator, while i get my head around the rest of the process and fix all the flaws (which will hopefully be very soon).

Now go order it to bash some Tevs!



[attachment deleted by an evil time traveler]

[T-Man]

UPDATE: (2nd version removed from below; see newest release at bottom of first post).

Uploading a new version (going to add it here, since FSMods doesn't even seem to have my old upload yet, huh??? Pretty sure I had it right). Major change is the use of a custom armour entry, negating the need for the subsystem-guardian SEXP (the systems that needed it now have built-in invulnerability to all damage my default) so no more annoying SEXP. The gattler turrets have also been modified slightly to be one turret as opposed to two, so they seem to fire nigh-on identically to how they do on the original ship.

Also added as promised are example SEXPs for recreating the Shield boost, damage control, countermeasure and missile bank changing special abilities (credit should go to Battuta; I used his original One Future SEXPs to guide my development; they're scarily awesome), in both traditional SEXP form (as screenshots) and notepad format for those with the know-how for copy-and-pasting into the mission file. Triggering any of the first three is just a matter of having another event you have made modify the related Variable in your events (which the example SEXPs assume as named 'CXAIShieldBoost' 'CXAIDmgCtrl' 'CXAIFlares' respectively, all of which should have a default value of 0) to a particular number (stated in a packaged .doc file) that matches the timings of the abilities in One Future and will set off the ability for the correct amount of time. Test mission has been redone to suit (with adapted SEXP so you can trigger the abilities yourself for testing; they use the same key-commands as in one future). No afterburner at the moment sadly as i need to work out texture-replacement for the thruster array as part of simulating the afterburn use (AFAIK, the cruiser AI can't actually use afterburners).

Since I don't think they'd work correctly with every-time SEXP's sadly (they'd repeat at the speed of the computer rather than repeating by seconds), the method of using a ridiculously high repeat count (of 999,999,999 in my examples, as they were in One Future) is vital for each ability SEXP, to allow them to work to the correct timings for a seemingly infinite number of times (in this form, theoretically they can ran out eventually, but the mission would have to run for an exceptionally long time; I hope to replace the repeat count need in the future nonetheless). The secondary-switching however does not require this element and you can just swap their 'False' when elements to whatever you wish (or add the weapon swap elements to whatever SEXP you want them in.

These work just how they did in the mission (including the delay before the DC activating and countdown after the use of shield boost, which I've kept in my versions for those who wish to have chatter around the ability use) but have been cleared of the interface elements seen in the original SEXPs. I didn't massively clutter them with usage restrictions however (in fact in their current form the abilities can all work at once and even work multiple times at once, as I assumed the player would not be in direct control of the ship's abilities and thus the FREDer can simulate the one-at-a-time nature of the abilities easily and as they desire).

So yeah anyhow, hope this version is of slightly more use to anyone who tries it. More updates in the near future hopefully.
If you'll need me, I'll be looking for more ships to mount 'guardian armour' onto .

[Lt Manshield]

It's quite funny how the drunk Custos still managed to take the Raynor down by 6%, perhaps the UEF should spam Custoses

Also I think attachments to posts are autodeleted, so you might want to add a link to a fsmods upload later.

[T-Man]

It's quite funny how the drunk Custos still managed to take the Raynor down by 6%, perhaps the UEF should spam Custoses

Also I think attachments to posts are autodeleted, so you might want to add a link to a fsmods upload later.

Good grief I never replied to this, sorry about that! Aye a fleet of custos-X would be rather nasty (probably bankrupt them though ).

And yes FS Mods doesn't seem to be moderating my entries at the moment so I can't host anything on there. I may have missed a step or something to shall look into. Shall continue to post them here for now.

Third update (have added it to the original post to save people having to trawl through the posts; as before should overwrite earlier releases without issue). Finally sorted out the mystery noise (turned out the ship had self-assigned a gun firing noise as it's engine sound; now fixed to be the normal Custos' since Custos-X didn't have one). Also fixed an error I made on the missile turrets (forgot to tweak their FoV in the last iteration).

Enjoy. I feel she's starting to slowly get there.