[Snail]

I don't think it's possible right now.

If this gets put in the next SCP release (hint, hint ), I'm sure as hell using it. I've been wanting this for quite a long time now, but I realise it isn't possible at the current time. And I don't think multi would like a ship that is under control of more than one person.

[Bob-san]

I was actually thinking of problems without newtonian physics...

In FS2 Retail, you will always go towards your crosshairs. If you are bumped or hit, you will move, but it inflicts damage...

Is there a way to set it up so precisely so that there is no damage to the "turrets" (actually ships w/o engines or shields, etc) will be done if the "ships" that are built inside a bubble of a cap ship?

I was thinking that emplacing a specially made ship that is basically a bubble with a turret inside a bubble that keeps it from phasing outside the cap ship. This way, the pilot/gunner has control over the "turret" and another player can be the capship where he is emplaced in.

Still only thing I worry about is if the cap ship accelerates, what will happen to the hull of the turret-ship? Is there a way to make it immune to collision damage, but not collisions? I don't want collision indicator to be active the entire time either.

EDIT: I need the turrets to copy the movements exactly of the capship, while traveling in the same exact direction.

EDIT 2: Also, I'd need the ships to respawn at the same place on the capship in multi, but not the same spot in space. It has to spawn exactly X meters from the capship for it to act as a turret. In single, it would need to make the turret-ship respawn in place of another turret (that was just active).

[karajorma]

The respawn thing is completely impossible at the moment. You have no control over respawns in multi. It's something I plan to change post 3.6.9 because it's really pissing me off in a Beyond the Red Line mission I wrote.

[Bob-san]

Okay... what do you think of my idea? Is there a way to eliminate collision damage?

[Snail]

It should be easy enough. But how would you stop the gunner from turning 360 and shooting into the hull of the ship? That would be harder, IMO. And you would also have to stop the crashing noise when the collision happens, and stop the debris bits from flying off.

[Colonol Dekker]

Rather than attatch a sub-shp to an existing player entity, Is it possible to overwrite a turret ai code with a player control code?

[Snail]

Oh, wow, that may work.

[Bob-san]

Yeah, that might work. What I am worried about though is how to assign a player to the turret... You have to select your ship to be able to be in a mission... the problem I see is how do we code it to make the selected ship, say "Front Weaponry" (such as in a Leviathan cruiser) that would be the SGreen beam and some turrets. Another ship would be "Top Weaponry" that would control the rocket launcher and some other turrets.

I think it would be easier to code it by replacing the AI script with player control...

In other news, I figured out a way to play the entire FS2 campaign from Colossus. I used multiplayer and created my own server in-game. I used the AI scripts instead of player wingmen. Currently, I am nearly done with the campaign after playing a nebula mission to start from. I have gotten to the point that Capella is going to go supernova soon. The Colossus hull is down to 12% after engaging and destroying a Ravana destroyer, and has done minor damage on the Shivan Santhasa (spelling?) of about 15%. I destroyed the first SJ according to my stat log. I got Lt. JG in Multiplayer for destroying something-or-another earlier today... The Colossus was at like 72% when I left it after the first SJ was destroyed. It came back from some engagements at 54% and was disabled at the Blockade of Capella. It is now to 12% hull, with no hopes of survival (I have no Helios etc, so I can't disabled any beams on the SJ). I got it paused on MP mode...

[S-99]

i want to play as the colossus. That actually sounds really sweet playing the whole game as it. You should make a colossus package as a mod or something.

[Colonol Dekker]

Yeah, that might work. What I am worried about though is how to assign a player to the turret... You have to select your ship to be able to be in a mission... the problem I see is how do we code it to make the selected ship, say "Front Weaponry" (such as in a Leviathan cruiser) that would be the SGreen beam and some turrets. Another ship would be "Top Weaponry" that would control the rocket launcher and some other turrets.

I think it would be easier to code it by replacing the AI script with player control...

Now im no expert, In fact my Coding stretched out to renaming the buttio=ons in the launcher etc to swearwords...
Worst case scenario, you create a turret class which is playable, Add a dockpoint, Create a custom corvette (or whatever class) with a dockpoint replacing a turret.
The start the mission initally docked.

A Player-switch-ship sexp might be handy also....

Possible?

[S-99]

Reminds me of my superfighter idea. Just make fighters with dockpoints so they can dock with each other as many as three at most, and alpha one gets to fly the fighter cluster as one having full control. If you want something really reminiscent of what you said. There is the fighter docking with an arcadia effect.

[Bob-san]

I don't want to have them docked... it could work but I am worried about co-op missions where one dies, and respawns out of the chain.

Even if only SP, docking could be bad as one person in the chain could break the entire chain up. They all need to be one! One hull integrity, and as many as 8 laser turrets, flak guns, fighter beam, and a capship beam.

I might make a Colossus campaign if I figure out how to do it on such a large scale. I am more likely to simply make the campaign for SP and have the normal player-controlled Colossus with AI turrets. I want the capship turrets with aim control.

If I do that type of mission, I might see how different the blockade at Capella can be if you are the Colossus fighting the various CapShips. As a player I could probably take out at least three SJ's before dying.

I want to script the capship beams to be on a fire-and-forget type of clone, with a strait line of fire, instead of moving.

Any way to do that? I would even be happy with, for example, a Harpoon-type lock. Or, setting beams as primary, and having to manually aim them by moving the ship. I don't like the aiming part, but I want to make it as a missile-lock type of firing. That way, you could disable the forward beam cannons of a SJ before they all blast you. A Colossus could easily take out many SJ's one-by-one if they targeted and disabled select components of the ship before actually destroying it. Take out the forward beams. By the second firing of their beams, you have them down to as little as two beams to hit you with. A total of six beams hitting the Colossus if they disable the SJ beams gives the entire survival of the Colossus a new wind.

Anyways... has anyone figured out a way to save the Colossus in Capella? I am thinking of playing that mission again using EMP weaponry against the SJ's main beams. With any luck... the Colossus will survive, and the SJ will die. I wonder if programmed another SJ to jump in and engage.

[bizzybody]

Ah. You want something like a Freespace 2 version of B-17 Gunner: Air War Over Germany.

There was an olde online multiplayer game from the earliest days of public access to the internet where several people could take positions on the same WW2 bomber. Gunners, Pilot, Co-Pilot Navigator, Bombadier. It was 3D with low-poly, flat shaded models. ISTR players may also have been able to pilot fighters individually. (At the time, I never had a PC fast enough, it really needed a 486 or mucho fast 386, I had a 286.)

Another version of this concept was used in at least one tank battle game with different players taking the positions of Driver, Commander and Gunner. It could also be run with one person doing everything, but you were busier than a man with half of one leg in a buttkicking contest, and the "AI" for the unmanned positions really stunk. (That's what the magazine reviews said, never tried it myself.)

The main problem with this is getting enough people together at once to fully crew the ship! Then there's the problem of drop-outs. Someone's connection goes *poof* and you'll definately want fast automatic handover to the AI for that position.

[S-99]

Sounds sweet, you shouldn't make it like how the harpoons lock on. Just make it as simple as stilleto targetting. Target any part of the ship and when you shoot it goes there. The deimos flyable mission i tried a while was like that, just target the ship, turn your beams and pulverize. But the thing with the deimos was that it has slashing beams. So that means targetting on the colossus would need to be more specific, like subsystem and turret specific. Otherwise targetting a capship with a beam from the colossus wouldn't work. If you target a ship without anything specific like a subsystem or turret, where the hell is the non slashing beam supposed to know where you want to shoot the vessel. Nonslashing beams on the deimos flyable mission would make it even more powerful as the weapon would be a lot more specified than swiping a beam across a vessels hull.
On the dockable fighters thing, i would just imagine that it'd be like flying around with destroyables. You fly around with a lot more lasers and secondaries, but if one of the fighters in the chain gets destroyed(hopefully not a1), then you just continue to fly around with one less docked fighter. Or for balance sake, make it so that if one of the docked ships gets destroyed, it breaks the docking chain making your have to redock again.
Another thing that would be cool like bizzybody mentioning, is weaponry quadrants. Such as front, rear, bottom, left, right, and top weaponry on the colossus. Make an overwhelming colossus mission where ships appear all around the colossus, and the player has to switch between a bunch of the weapon quadrants of the colossus. Got a ship on your front...kill it, ships warps in on your rear, switch to rear view and weapons and kill that sucker on your ass...and so on. That'd be fun, and would truly make flying capships a unique experience since capships need to actually do that ****.

[Bob-san]

Actually in this thread I said different regions of weapons to different people. But nevermind that...

I want it to be more of a challenge to get a positive lock on your opponent. I cant just have a point-and-shoot system as I think it'll wreck the idea of captain-ing a capital ship... it'll be too easy to simply turn on weapons and let them at your current target.

I might just leave the work to the AI scripts for turrets and flak, and have a simple beam locking on target.

[S-99]

You're forgetting how very slow the terran beams are.  In the deimos flyable mission i could target whatever the hell i wanted with beams as long as it was a capital ship, but the main slashing beams when fired dealt a lot of damage, but took forever to recharge and fire again.

[Bob-san]

But still it's very little strategy in flying a huge capship to just move towards and target another capship. I want to link my beams to secondaries if at all possible.

I can't seem to get the cheats to work in Colossus. I have already figured out how to run single missions though... if you press "L" (I think taht's the key) it lets you open up any mission. I am having a problem with the Demios "WAR" mission, as it crashes about 2 minutes in with colossus.