[Pegasus V]

I have three suggestions:

Increase collision damage;
Make stealth an option in FRED2;
Make an option to select a different support ship for a mission;
Make a sexp to cause the selected ship to make a kamikaze run for the target ship.

Increasing collision damage will make everything seem more realistic. It'll also make you fly more carefully, especially around capital ships, like you should.

It would be cool to be able to select a ship as a stealth ship in FRED2. This way we can do away with the red blip that keeps its presense when a ship is not visible to sensors. You could also switch on and off your stealth, which could have its own novalties for mission designers.

This is low priority, but it would be good if we could select a different support ship in a mission. It would work great for the FSPort group, so that you could still summon the old Centaur if selected in each mission, while the default could still be the Hygeia.

"Prepare for ramming speed!" Says Worf. Now wouldn't a Vasudan feel the same way? His ship is on fire, almost destroyed, almost dead. But he sets a collision course to the enemy ship to take out the enemy with him. I know you can do Kamikaze in FS2, but what if the ship wants to fight first, and when it gets to a certain hull damage, you could select a Sexp to make it go Kamikaze with the particular target.

There was another suggestion I had, but I forget .

[Hudzy]

I agree with all of those ideas. They should all be options though, like you said. I myself am having troubles with two Terran support ships in the ships table and unless someone can tell me a better way, I'm having to have two seperate tables where the only difference is the order of the suppor ship entries. I always though collision damage was too soft so changing that would be good too.

[DTP]

hmmm reminds me of a bug i have not looked at

when support ship is already in mission at mission start;

sometimes it will not undock the rearmed playership. but stick to it while player flies around

now guees what happens when the support ship detects an imminent collision with a capship.

it takes over control for some time while it moves away, and player cant do **** about it.

A freind of mine had to ram it off, quite difficult since the collision code often intervened.

but hey, i was laughing my you know what off, while watching it .

[Pegasus V]

Originally posted by DTP
now guees what happens when the support ship detects an imminent collision with a capship.

it takes over control for some time while it moves away, and player cant do **** about it.

You know, this might be a good idea. If you bump up the collision damage to critical levels (like it should), then this is quite dangerous. Have you ever noticed how many times you collide with other ships in FS2? Perhaps we should impliment something like what happens in Bridge Commander - The AI takes over the ship when a collision is imminent, just to evade you away from the collision. But it would have to be subtle. But this could be a good idea. It would be the ship's onboard-computer emergency anti-collision system.

[Galemp]

Like on my Dad's Jag ('02 X-Type, mmmm) it has a warning system, so as you back up towards something it goes Beep... Beep... Beep. Beep. Beep Beep BeepBeepbeepbepbpbBEEEEE at which point you crash. Similar to the missile lock on, perhaps. Just make sure you make the sound effect unobtrusive; I don't want shrill annoying beeps every time I hit the burners to launch my Helios.

[phreak]

we could have it filter ships and asteroids only

[KARMA]

you should also reduce the bumping after collisions

[Hudzy]

Originally posted by Pegasus V


You know, this might be a good idea. If you bump up the collision damage to critical levels (like it should), then this is quite dangerous. Have you ever noticed how many times you collide with other ships in FS2? Perhaps we should impliment something like what happens in Bridge Commander - The AI takes over the ship when a collision is imminent, just to evade you away from the collision. But it would have to be subtle. But this could be a good idea. It would be the ship's onboard-computer emergency anti-collision system.

There should also be an option to switch this off, just for people that like the full experience of avoiding things by themselves.

[KARMA]

Originally posted by Hudzy


There should also be an option to switch this off, just for people that like the full experience of avoiding things by themselves.

just make collisions very dangerous but not definitive (2 or three before exploding), and maybe a big alarm flashing when objects over a certain size are too near to the ship (maybe a parameter that consists of both distance and relative speeds would work better)

[penguin]

One thing to watch out for if you're increasing the collision damage: the AI fighters seem to bump into each other a lot.

It would suck if all your wingmen took each other out before they even managed to get a shot off...

[Galemp]

Distance+relative speed+size of ship=good.
There's a point there about the AI, though. We can't implement higher collision damage unless the AI itself is tweaked or we have 'pull away' enabled for the AI.

[Redfang]

Yes, collision damage should indeed be increased, even on insane it doesn't do enough.
 
When I was flying something like 10km/s, then it only made damage, though I don't remember if I even got destroyed.

[KARMA]

you got destroyed only if you hit something at very high speed, so when you engage boost and reach top speed,
probably collision damage is so low for that ai problem,
 since redoing the ai would take too long (i think it is a big point in many space sims, at least prophecy and tachyon have the same problems if i remember well) it would be easyer to don't give extra damages to ai fighters colliding, until extradamage is enabled with sexps

[EdrickV]

Increasing collision damage, if done at all, should be optional so people can play the original campaign and existing MODs without the potential for that screwing things up. (And not everyone will want higher collision damage.)

Stealth would be nice but might be a little tricky to impliment without some major redesign. (IIRC there's currently no room to add more ship flags as is, and increasing the amount of space for flags could break other stuff, especially networking.) It really depends on how you try to do it.

The support ship thing might not be too hard, but I'm not really sure.

The kamikaze ship SEXP shouldn't be very hard to do at all. I could probably do it myself except I wouldn't be able to compile FRED2 so couldn't test it.

[KARMA]

isn't possible to put damage for collision in tables? or maybe as a parameter to be set in fred with eventually other physic parameters while designing missions
so modders will be able decide their preferred  "physic settings" for their campaigns...in this way it will be just another possibility for modders and won't affect the rest of the game
(as i said in other threads i think that one of the main goals of the source code project should be to increase the modability)

[DTP_1]

collision damage values are determined by the mass of the ship, and it is hard-coded.(of-course that can be changed now)

So that a fighter with mass 1000 dont damage a ship with mass 100000000.

and it also dertermines who is getting pushed out of the way, on a intelligent level so that two equal massed ships just blocks each-other and not pushing.

[Pegasus V]

I suppose it wouldn't be a good idea to increase collision damage without completely changing the AI, hey? I suppose that's why decided to keep it like this.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Pegasus V
I have three suggestions:

Increase collision damage;
Make stealth an option in FRED2;

1)  that's very easy... it's just .TBL editing isn't it?

2)  can't you just select the 'invisible to sensors' or something like that in FRED 1/2?

[DTP]

Originally posted by Stealth



1)  that's very easy... it's just .TBL editing isn't it?

2)  can't you just select the 'invisible to sensors' or something like that in FRED 1/2?

1. i think he meant as an all out option for all ships, just like no shields check box

2. if memory serves me right; invisible is not quite stealth but you still get those flickering dots on the radar.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by DTP


1. i think he meant as an all out option for all ships, just like no shields check box

2. if memory serves me right; invisible is not quite stealth but you still get those flickering dots on the radar.

1.  Ok, i understand... it would be easier in FRED i'll agree

2.  Isn't it the exact same thing?  I mean, invisible on sensors still gives those flickering dots on radar, but aren't stealth ships the same?