Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Mobius on February 15, 2009, 07:25:48 am

Title: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Mobius on February 15, 2009, 07:25:48 am
I noticed how the use of the fighterbay subsystems is greatly underestimated by the community.

With a simple modification to the table entry of a ship, the fighterbay would become a destroyable subsystem like the others. Using this formula...

and

  <normal arrival cue of a wing launched from the fighterbay>

 not
  is-subsystem-destroyed-delay
  <warship that houses the fighterbay>
  <fighterbay>
  0

...it'd be possible to fully integrate a realistic usage of fighterbays in custom campaigns. Canon evidences that fighterbays can be disabled - the Aquitaine and the Colossus are two valid and well know examples.

What do you think?
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Snail on February 15, 2009, 07:26:57 am
It's a well known trick actually, I believe lots of early campaigns/mods used it, but it went out of fashion.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Mobius on February 15, 2009, 07:30:49 am
No doubt it was used but it's not a well known trick or it would be used in modern releases.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Dilmah G on February 15, 2009, 07:41:47 am
I thought destroying the fighterbay worked anyway? (Basing this off hear-say)

T'would be an awesome addition to modern campaigns.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Snail on February 15, 2009, 07:45:44 am
I thought destroying the fighterbay worked anyway? (Basing this off hear-say)

T'would be an awesome addition to modern campaigns.
Honestly I think it's more of a gimmick now.

"Alpha 1, destroy subsystem X, destroy beam cannon Y, scan zapkiller Z"
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Mobius on February 15, 2009, 07:54:56 am
I thought destroying the fighterbay worked anyway? (Basing this off hear-say)

You can inflict no damage to fighterbays because of the table entry.

Quote from:  GTD Orion table entry
$Subsystem: fighterbay, 0, 0.0

Adding a value other than 0 (4 would be reasonable, giving the dimensions of the Orion's fighterbay) would make the fighterbay subsystem a destroyable one. Used in conjunction with the FRED trick I posted above it's possible to represent the effective disruption of any ship's launch capabilities.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Droid803 on February 15, 2009, 11:56:29 am
I'm pretty sure that certain ship's fighterbays are killable.
Notably the Sathanas's, making it so that if you sit in its fighter bay and lob helios in High Noon, you may fail the directive of killing the Basilisks because the second wing never arrives.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Mobius on February 15, 2009, 12:12:32 pm
Quote from:  SJ Sathanas table entry
$Subsystem: fighterbay, 6, 0.0

True...

But does the code prevent any craft from taking off if the fighterbay is disabled or it's just a SEXP triggered effect?

Just checked - Cancer's wing arrival cue in High Noon is "has-time-elapsed 23". No reference to the destruction of the fighterbay, which leads me to believe that it's a coding matter. Interesting.

At this point, modifying the arrival cue isn't necessary: a disabled fighterbay will not launch any spacecraft.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Dilmah G on February 16, 2009, 01:44:45 am
Soooo it does work?
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Bob-san on February 16, 2009, 01:49:54 am
If it gets used, you need to make sure it's not OVERused. Anyways--is it possible to make it destroyable with Helios or heavy beams?
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: ssmit132 on February 16, 2009, 01:59:58 am
Quote from:  GTD Orion table entry
$Subsystem: fighterbay, 0, 0.0

Adding a value other than 0 (4 would be reasonable, giving the dimensions of the Orion's fighterbay) would make the fighterbay subsystem a destroyable one. Used in conjunction with the FRED trick I posted above it's possible to represent the effective disruption of any ship's launch capabilities.
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Goober5000 on February 16, 2009, 02:00:27 am
1) if the fighterbay subsystem has a hitpoint value greater than 0, it's destroyable
2) if it's destroyable, destroying it will prevent fighters from launching until it's repaired again
Title: Re: Fighterbay Subsystem
Post by: Mobius on February 16, 2009, 05:37:42 pm
If it gets used, you need to make sure it's not OVERused. Anyways--is it possible to make it destroyable with Helios or heavy beams?

It'd be destroyable, like any other subsystem. The effect will not be that realistic because of the absolute absence of a debris submodel(well, standard subsystems like "navigation" and "weapons" don't have one, unlike radar dishes, solar panels, and so on).