[terran_emperor]

Well, the Node that the Victory Rammed looked to be 3-4 Victorys across - just a guess

[starlord]

Was that node the core of the killer? if so, what made it different from the others? I thought at some point I saw a spherical core inside.

[terran_emperor]

The node i was refering to  was a connector node - joint between 2 struts. The Core node looked to be about 6 Victories diameter

[cloneof]

Wait a minute, it is so huge actually that you could you know just make as a backround like hyperspace and have missions inside it...
That would be... scary.

[terran_emperor]

That point has already been made, but for Missions like A call to Arms you need some stucture

[starlord]

Well actually, given the complexity of the mission, i would replace a lot of parts (including the segment node (and the whole infiltration start to be precise)) by cutscenes (perhaps from call to arms itself if nothing legal forbids it). The only part I would make would be the blow up of the central core, which is 6 times victory sized, so it's not unmakeble. (this means we are deep inside and we can't see the segments anymore). In short, very much like this mission from the gundam MOD (http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=OygmDbTrrr8
), only set in a dark nebula and with several turrets (yet below 100 so we don't have problems). I think this should make the mission easier to design and should still prove very satisfactory.

[terran_emperor]

Eureaka!

 A Slight Solution - Import and Reskin the PVI Karnak from FS:P add in Several more Struts/Joints by adding in reskins of the Terran/Vasudan drydock from the port. The Critical node could be several That giant brown Cargo Container placed in a way that thy form an almost square shape, reskinned and Table Hacked and given Turrets.

This can either be one big model or Assembled by Each part in Fred.

2 Rules for this.

1) Missions with this model Always take place in a Black Nebula

2) The Model is always invisible to radar - flashing blip

[starlord]

It looks good: Is there any way to try it?

[terran_emperor]

Dunno. Havent tried it yet. Ill try to model it over the weekend

[starlord]

Otherwise, the only thing I see possible is to do what I said previously: Cheat and complete with animated scenes from "call to arms" at the point where you only have the inner core of the killer (in a dark nebula), which you go in, blow the center (much like that test mission I saw on youtube) then scenes again, battle outside the killer, supernova, you flee, the end!

I think it would still be very satisfying!

[Akalabeth Angel]

       What does a person need a structure planet killer for anyway? The player flies fighter craft, which in and of themselves wouldn't do a damn thing to the Shadow Cloud. In my opinion anyway, the Shadow Cloud from Into the Fire and A Call to Arms are two different beasts. Really, the League fleet in ItF is surrounded by the cloud and no one notices this huge structure framework?
       You can do the mission from ActA, just have the player flying around, doing very little while hordes of ships are blown up all around him and the Victory fires at some point out of sight and suddenly the player wins the mission. That's about how effective the player's going to be in that sort of scenario.

      A far more interesting scenario would have the player trying to stop the Drahk ships from releasing the plague while the EA fleet of doom goes and does their business. Because really, what would the player being doing in that scenario which would be of any use to anyone? Even if they're protecting the Victory or its sister ship, just have them flying close escort inside some black nebula. With the occasional slow moving missile to shoot down or some Drahk ships to itnercept or whatever.

[terran_emperor]

To Save us a f**K load of time in not have to render cutscenes or risk having our pants sued off us by using movie footage. Besides you cant have a "ramming Speed" sequence without having the actuall collision. It lacks the...sweetness.  I know...I;m a pyromaniac but still

[starlord]

Yeah: I see.

Perhaps your method can work more than mine.

[maje]

Actually, if you give the player specific goals to accomplish, it CAN make all the difference rather than "if you shoot, you're bound to hit a Drakh ship because there are so many of them."

[starlord]

How would you see the problem, then, maje?

[IPAndrews]

What he's trying to tell you is that a player in a small ship can have very little influence on an enormous albeit impressive looking battle. The correct name for this is "Battle of Endor syndrome". The antidote is to give the player an important but accomplishable task to perform as the huge battle unfolds around him. This makes for a mission which is both impressive looking and interesting / challenging to play.

[starlord]

Oh, so that's what the "battle of endor" syndrome is!

However, I would like to see if terran emperor's solution works under FRED. Keep me updated, will you?

[terran_emperor]

Well the Karnak idea seems to work so Far. Have altered subsytems...Currently trying to figure out how to merge 2 Pofs pr Cobs into a single model.

[-Norbert-]

Really, the League fleet in ItF is surrounded by the cloud and no one notices this huge structure framework?

1) They were all in a kind of Trance, seeing Sheridan and Delen talking to the "representatives" of the Vorlons and Shadows, which only ended once they were completely encased by the shadow planet killer.
2) The clouds strukture has to be able to open as far as the target planet is wide (correct word?) in order to completely encase it. Combine that with the poor visibility within the could and it's pretty clear why noone could see any structure parts.

And since the Victories had to fire into the cloud to learn of what the cloud was made up it's a good guess that the parts are protected by some kind of stealth technology.
And just because the Victories could detect them later doesn't mean the leage ships can. After all it's likely that they equiped the Victory class with the same sensor systems the Whitestar has, which is based, at least partly, on Vorlon technology, and thus far superiour to even minbari tech.

[Woolie Wool]

What he's trying to tell you is that a player in a small ship can have very little influence on an enormous albeit impressive looking battle. The correct name for this is "Battle of Endor syndrome". The antidote is to give the player an important but accomplishable task to perform as the huge battle unfolds around him. This makes for a mission which is both impressive looking and interesting / challenging to play.

How about putting him in a Whitestar, effectively making him one of the capships?