Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: T-Man on September 04, 2010, 09:19:22 am

Title: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: T-Man on September 04, 2010, 09:19:22 am
Would it be possible to code in additional behaviours for support ships? At the moment, when you call them in they remain within the area they were called in, the result being that they can end up a huge distance away from allied fighters (especially in escort missions; the Agincourt escort mission in BP is a good example), which not only causes delays as it toddles over to you but also takes up your wingman as they fly over to the support ship and then back again. While a solution at the moment is to tell it to depart and call another in, i was curious as to whether more complex behaviours could be introduced instead to help the AIs in situations where the player is too busy to co-ordinate the support ships.

For example, could there be an automatic logic behaviour that looks for freindly fighters and hostile units, and then works out the optiumun location to be as close to as many freindlies as it can without going too near enemies? Or perhaps a FRED ability to assign a "rally" location or object that support ships will try to stay near (something similar can be done in SEXP using "add goal - stay near", but i think that would only work with support ships put into the mission, not ones summoned in during gameplay).

I usually would not bother requesting stuff like this, but with all the amazing scripting i've been seeing i thought i'd at least see is those in the know thought it achiveable.

Thanks
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Qent on September 04, 2010, 09:57:55 am
I thought there were at one point "Stay near me" and "Keep safe distance" commands that the player could give support ships. But now there's only "Depart." Where did those go? Or did I imagine them?
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: T-Man on September 04, 2010, 10:13:25 am
I thought there were at one point "Stay near me" and "Keep safe distance" commands that the player could give support ships. But now there's only "Depart." Where did those go? Or did I imagine them?

I vaguely remember those aswell. I do wonder where they went; they would be great. Could also have a command like "follow my target" maybe.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Aardwolf on September 04, 2010, 06:42:53 pm
They can be given through SEXP orders, but not by the player, it seems.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: General Battuta on September 04, 2010, 06:45:06 pm
I saw them in-game very recently. I don't think they've gone anywhere...
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Parias on September 04, 2010, 08:42:36 pm
Yeah, I could have absolutely sworn I've seen this in the past in the support ship's comm menu - regardless, I just booted up a random mission in the game, and only the standard 3 options (Rearm, Abort, Depart) are present. Surely we weren't both hallucinating?
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Trivial Psychic on September 04, 2010, 11:04:42 pm
How about doing some editing to the support ship class in objecttypes.tbl, allowing the order "form on my wing" to be given (or can that be done with objecttypes.tbl?).  That way, you could just give that order and have the support ship try to stay with you until someone calls for a rearm, or you clear its orders with an abort command.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Goober5000 on September 05, 2010, 12:01:26 am
I thought there were at one point "Stay near me" and "Keep safe distance" commands that the player could give support ships. But now there's only "Depart." Where did those go? Or did I imagine them?
It's possible to add these to the comm menu via objecttypes.tbl.  This was turned on by default in the code for a short period, but it broke compatibility with things, so it was turned off again by default.
Title: Re: Feature Concept: "Rally point" behaviour for Support ships.
Post by: Mobius on September 05, 2010, 10:30:21 am
I'm actually looking for an option that allows campaign designers to decide how close to the player (or wingmen) support ships should be jumping in. I'd also like to see more than one support ship at the same time. :)