Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Topic started by: Mobius on May 04, 2009, 02:41:59 pm

Title: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Mobius on May 04, 2009, 02:41:59 pm
Also if you say it doesn't compromise balance, then who's to say you would even notice? Back in BtRL we had a lua script where you could theoretically shoot down bullets. It never got added because no one would notice the effects.

[mobius]Where's this script? I'd really like to take a look at it and create a new FS Wiki article about it. Is it in possession of the Diaspora team, or maybe I should contact the BtRL team?

Thanks in advance.  :)[/mobius]
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Jangiri on May 04, 2009, 05:12:31 pm
that would be a really great addition to capship combat. given that basestars have no defense against the mass-drivers on colonial ships
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Mobius on May 04, 2009, 05:23:58 pm
[mobius]I'm afraid you won't see it in Diaspora. Axem said that they dropped the idea. :(

I consider it a nice option, that's why I'd like to make it public.[/mobius]
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Axem on May 04, 2009, 06:34:37 pm
The Basestars already have a defense against ballistics. It's called the object limit! Once reached, the Battlestars can't fire any more weapons. So the Basestars just need to get a volley of nukes off before that happens.

:nervous:

To answer your question, I don't know if it exists anymore. If I can recall, it had to do with the weapon collision hook and then setting their lifetime to be zero. However I'd place larger bets that two cylon nukes turn into a sperm whale and bowl of petunias before I see primary gun collision.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Jangiri on May 05, 2009, 12:00:01 pm
Basestars are flimsily build compared to battlestars (See Exodus pt2 and daybreak pt2) and in the show they use raiders as a shield to actually run into the bullets (See the miniseries) and if the games keeps to the show the battlestar can easily take out a basestar when it doesn't have a gazillion raiders. there could even be some missions that involve the job of raiders to actually just run into the bullets and have them explode before they hit the Basestar, then you could resurrect and do it again.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: David cgc on May 05, 2009, 01:14:33 pm
Well, we saw in "The Hub" that baseship missiles can be used to intercept incoming fire. It was only used against other cylon missiles, but it would probably be possible against a colonial shell. More difficult, since battlestar fire travels faster than cylon missiles, and are typically fired at closer range, giving the cylons less time to react, but they could do it.

The baseships' greatest defensive asset seems to be that their missiles have the longer range, and the battlestar has to devote most of its energy to defending itself from raider strikes, so the cylons can force a standoff outside the effective range of the battlestar's weapons.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Ace on May 05, 2009, 01:44:48 pm
The Basestars already have a defense against ballistics. It's called the object limit! Once reached, the Battlestars can't fire any more weapons. So the Basestars just need to get a volley of nukes off before that happens.

:nervous:


No... no... no... they just pass through the basestar at that point :p
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: StarSlayer on May 05, 2009, 01:53:42 pm
At a basic level I tend to view Colonial Battlestars to be an microcosm of a Second World War Carrier Battlegroup compared to the Baseship the reflects a modern CVBG.  If you crammed a bunch of Iowa battleships, Fletcher tin cans and Essex class carriers into a single warship you would get a Battlestar, a big all gun heavily armored bastard with an Air Wing.  The Baseship on the other hand is a meld of a Nimitz and its attendant Arleigh Burke Destroyers and Ticonderoga Aegis Cruisers.  The long range kill power of its missiles and Air Wing is extreme, however they aren't built with an entire years production worth of steel in them.  

In a battle a modern CVBG would cream a Essex battlegroup at long range, but if you could magically conjure the scenario where they were at gunfight range Iowas, Baltimores and Fletchers would rip the **** out of a their modern counterparts.  The same with Baseships verse Battlestars.  Its all about maximizing your strengths and minimizing your foes.'
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: newman on May 05, 2009, 03:59:00 pm
Good analogy there, couldn't have said it better myself.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Jangiri on May 05, 2009, 04:46:58 pm
all of that makes perfect sense and it was well said but then again this is space not the ocean. when you fire a bullet it just keeps going straight so there is technically no range
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: StarSlayer on May 05, 2009, 05:14:04 pm
all of that makes perfect sense and it was well said but then again this is space not the ocean. when you fire a bullet it just keeps going straight so there is technically no range

Ah but this is a TV show not space.  It certainly true that kinetic rounds in space would have extremely long range but in the Show Battlestars always go for close action while Baseships favor long range bombardment.  While BSG does a lot of things right it still isn't a Honor Harrington novel :D
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: IceFire on May 05, 2009, 06:13:15 pm
all of that makes perfect sense and it was well said but then again this is space not the ocean. when you fire a bullet it just keeps going straight so there is technically no range
Althought in space if you want to hit with that bullet at long range you better be a very good shot...whereas a guided missile can self correct its trajectory right down to the last moment in theory.  So a Cylon Basestar may still have the range advantage by being able to engage with accuracy at longer ranges or engage at shorter ranges with increased precision.  Its all explainable :)
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Jangiri on May 05, 2009, 08:00:03 pm
yeah. that makes more sense but just having a range limit doesn't when it comes to a zero gravity vacuum
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: IceFire on May 05, 2009, 11:17:33 pm
yeah. that makes more sense but just having a range limit doesn't when it comes to a zero gravity vacuum
Thats more of a game/game engine limitation thing.  Sounds like Diaspora will be pushing the game engine limits quite a bit.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Snagger on May 06, 2009, 02:42:02 am
yeah. that makes more sense but just having a range limit doesn't when it comes to a zero gravity vacuum
It's about effective range - the accuracy of your guns, and just as importantly, the accuracy of your prediction of your manouvering target's new position by the time you round has traversed the distance.  Guided, propelled missiles can counteract both problems.  Guns can't.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: H78 on May 07, 2009, 08:15:46 am
Missiles still have range- the propellant on the manouvering thrusters means that it would have to be fired at a distance that gives it sufficient leeway to manouver and not run out of fuel- unless the target is stationary..
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Wanderer on May 07, 2009, 11:14:14 am
i have code in wanderer branch which should enable - when properly abused - shooting down weapons (and also setting weapon hitpoints) and even allowing ai (turrets) to properly track and shoot down such objects (or not - depending on the settings).
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Deckard on May 07, 2009, 11:46:44 am
In the BSG world.. you got good reference on the matter.. IIRC, happened in Razor as Starbuck and her wingchick were both trying to get in the pod with those TOS raiders behind; and with all that flak being shoot from the Galatica exploding around and in front of 'em..

Other than that ... suspicious cheating! :P
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Rainman on May 07, 2009, 03:43:07 pm
Missiles still have range- the propellant on the manouvering thrusters means that it would have to be fired at a distance that gives it sufficient leeway to manouver and not run out of fuel- unless the target is stationary..

Then again, in space this range is huge. The missile will only need to propel itself forward in the general direction of the target once, and then cruise. When it gets closer, the changes in direction (and therefore fuel consumption) increases.

And I really like the Essex analogy, but the main thing is that you can't "jump" in right next to your target in the ocean. I immagined that if the FTL didn't exist, the cylons would have crushed the colonials using avoidance tactics. But now that the battlestars can just jump in right on top of the enemy it gives them a massive advantage.
Title: Re: Request: Special Script Availability
Post by: Felix 039 on May 14, 2009, 04:19:53 am
This is why battlestars have flak cannon  :lol: 

Something like this ->:beamz: