[0rph3u5]

Once again a little problem I'm unable to find a solution for: (from my FS Port Campaign in the making - status 70%)
Scenario is a convoy raid on shivan convoy during the great war; a wing of hercs and a wing of seths (both wings are armed with avangers, interceptors and Phoenix Vs) are to destroy the four asmodeus freighters present before they reach a demon destroyer. Once each of the freighters is destroyed and it's cargo pod has survived a poseidon is supposed to warp in and pick up the cargo. Once two cargo pods have been secured the second phase of the mission will begin...

Now the greast problem is to keep the container (they have the "protected ship"-flag on them) of each asmodeus alive during the fire-fight and when the freighter goes down without eliminating the challange to the player....

Possible Solution which has already been discarded:
- "ship-guardian"/"ship-invurnable" for all containers; would solve the problem that the container dies during the explosion when granted on the destruction of the freighter. if granted earlier the challange of having to keep alive at leat 2 containers would be gone
- special-hits for the containers; wouldn't solve the problem... the containers would be destroyed by the fighters attacking the convoy anyway (most likely the P5s detonation and stray shots causing the entire damage to the container)

Possible solution near being discarded:
- setting up a sexp which picks two containers and makes them "ship-guardian" (using when-argument and stuff); challange-thing again... beating the first part of the mission should not be too easy - also the containers are likely to end up with 1% hull left and since they are supposed to be in the escort list.... (guess the rest)
- removing P5s of the fighters; logic and stroy conflict with that

Additional info:
- the fighter wings are starting on the side of the asmodeus which has both dock ports empty
- htere are supposed to be 8-12 shivan-escorts (Manticores and Scorpions) and shivan-reinforcements wings from the demon

any creative solution? any sexp which could help?

[BlueFlames]

That's a rough one, since the AI doesn't consider what is between it and its target, when on the attack.  Your wingmen are always going to be perfectly willing to shoot through the cargo pods to get to the freighter, if that's the angle they're approaching at.  You might consider having your wingmen tasked with dealing with the fighter escort (set to ignore the freighters), while Alpha 1 is tasked exclusively with destroying the Asmodeuses.  Alternatively, you're left making the containers invulnerable after a certain threshold and hoping that the player perceives a challenge, even if one isn't present.

[edit]Leave it to me to miss the obvious solution....  Have the terran and vasudan wings launch their attack from below the convoy, or rotate the convoy ships, such that the friendly wings are approaching their underbellies.  From that angle, they should hit the freighters without the cargo pods being in the way.[/edit]

[Nuclear1]

Now the greast problem is to keep the container (they have the "protected ship"-flag on them) of each asmodeus alive during the fire-fight and when the freighter goes down without eliminating the challange to the player....

--when
---is-destroyed-delay
----Asmodeus 1
----0
---ship-guardian-threshold
----Cargo 1
----(some hit points)

This makes it so the cargo isn't invulnerable during the attack, but when the freighter goes down, the cargo is protected from the explosion.  IIRC though, guardian protects against being destroyed by weapons, not shockwaves or blasts, so maybe you'll want to use ship-invulnerable instead of guardian-threshold.

[0rph3u5]

with some help of one of my FREDing apprentices a solution was found... but thanks for the help

[karajorma]

What did you do in the end?

[0rph3u5]

it is not fully fleshed out yet but I simply raised the max hitpoints of the containers...
currently the hits are up to 4800 instead standard 1200 of the SAC 5 - this allows them to survive the blast of the destruction at ca. 50-70%
now I'm going to lower the hitpoints a bit again to keep up the challange (maybe 3000 or 2400)

simple but effective...

[TrashMan]

That's one approach and what I would probably do too....

You could allways have a SEXP like this:

When
<
 hits left
--freighter1
--2%
-
ship-invulnerable
-cargo1



and a linked event that goes like this
when
is-destroyed-delay
- freighter1
-5 seconds
-
Ship-vulnerable
-cargo1