[KappaWing]

This new SEXP proposal came from a thread a short while ago. I think this is a great idea and would like to bring it to your attention. This is Trivial Psychic's (sp?) proposal for a SEXP that will reorient capital ships on their X,Y, and most importantly, their Z axis, Allowing them to roll like never before!

To make your sexp more flexible, perhaps something more like this:

AI-Reorient
-< name of ship >
-axis of movement (ship's x, y, and z axes)
-number of degrees (using negative degrees will cause the roll in the opposite direction)
Additional entries up to 3 pairs (1 pair for each axis) are possible, but a minimum of one axis and one degree entry are required.

example:

FS2-era, Orion class destroyer GTD McCarthur is engaging a pair of cruisers on its starboard flank. One is destroyed but a Moloch jumps in ahead of it. To bring its flank batteries to bear on the new target, the McCarthur must rotate about 80 to 90 degreed to port. Now, degrees would be measured starting clockwise, so 80 degrees to port would be 290 degrees. If you told the ship to rotate 290 degrees on its Y axis, it'd spin all the way around 290 degrees clockwise, but if you told it to rotate -80 degrees down the Y axis, it'd rotate 80 degrees counter-clockwise. The following event is used:

when
-has-arrived-delay
--SCv MOFO
--5
-AI-Reorient
--GTD McCarthur
--Y
---80

Now, if the Moloch was, say 50 degrees below the McCarthur's ZX plane, you might want to have the McCarthyr also adjust its Z axis orientation so that its firing straight at the corvette. The event would then look like this:

when
-has-arrived-delay
--SCv MOFO
--5
-AI-Reorient
--GTD McCarthur
--Y
---80
--z
--50 (that's positive, since a rotation down on the starboard side is a clockwise rotation)

How's that?

So, will we be seeing this new SEXP in a Fred build anytime soon?

[Goober5000]

Probably not in the next few months.

It's a great sexp to consider for the summer though.

[Trivial Psychic]

While we're discussing ship orientation, I was FREDding a mission where a Leviathan jumps in, proceeds to a certain waypoint straight ahead, then is supposed to come about and follow an orbital waypoint path around a jumpnode.  Now, all of these points are at the same elevation and the cruiser is never in a position to need to change this.  Unfortunately, when turning around to the next point, it seems intent to pitch the nose over and head to its waypoints unside down in relation to its previous orientation.  I would prefer that it uses its yaw controls ONLY to perform this maneuver.  What this comes down to is, I see in the ship status editor, a "disable banking" option.  Would it be possible to instead have 3 checkboxes, one to disable banking (as there is now), one to disable yawing, and one to disable pitching?  Obvioulsy, you'd never want all three checked, but it would allow tighter control over a vessel's behaviour, and prevent these awkward (sp?) results.  Granted, sexps to disable and enable this effect might be useful to accompany such an addition.