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!
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