[jr2]

A mouse generally doesn't work so well with games like this, IMO.  I mean, Freelancer managed to get it to work alright but otherwise you usually want to use a joystick for this genre of games (whether it be space-sim or a modern flight combat sim).  Or failing that, a console-like controller. 

Mouse script with button toggle? 

[Ryu Gemini]

It would require some creativity on the part of the modder, but with higher speed capital ships you open the possibility of a player being able to viably control one.

I recall you mentioning you hadn't played BP2. You should!

I have now.  Blue Planet and BP2 chapter one.  Very awesome.

...except, there was NO mission in the campaign from what I can tell where you actually control a capital ship.  Only this "gunship" thing which was basically a heavy fighter with an oversized railgun slung underneath it. 

Techroom has two other missions available:  a what-if-scenario major fleet conflict that drops me to about 2 fps, and a mission that seems like some kind of race track.  In both, you play as a fighter. 

Is the capital ship something that is being worked on in chapter 2 or something?  Or am I using an "outdated" variant of Chapter 1? 

Spoiler:

It ended after we jumped out, ended up adrift and falling towards the sun.  A friendly ship arrives in response to the distress signal, and mentions the only reason it actually came to rescue them was because of the player pilot being on board.  Cue credits, musical number, and showing off of various ships.  Followed by the "to be continued" whatnot.

Am I missing something here? 
.

[General Battuta]

Yep. Go to the campaign room, take a look at the campaign list. 

[Dragon]

Yes, R1 main campaign does not feature capship flying.
"The Blade Itself", an experimental side campaign, does.

[Vengence]

I've played that mission like 10x over and over again. There really should be a cap ship focused campaign some day. It was extremely fun if a bit confusing at first. Reading top text while trying to manage maneuvers and tactics is a bit hard. Granted I feel sorry for the AI, my maneuvering methods involve a lot of gliding to simultaneously lure in bombers into a gauntlet of fire while blasting a corvette at range. If they AI could do this then goodness space cap combat is gonna be quite invigorating  .

[-Sara-]

I think if you make your fighters go fast, they should be far less maneuverable to avoid everything flying around like drunk wasps. Also, that way you got to position yourself and probably strike larger ships in a fly-by like a present day bomber does, which can give for interesting choices of anti-fighter/bomber defenses on larger ships, provoking players to disarm the larger ships of opponent first. I guess it may end up being a bit like aerial battle.

[Kopachris]

I still wonder how well a Star Trek-like capital ship-ONLY setting would work out.  It would require some creativity on the part of the modder, but with higher speed capital ships you open the possibility of a player being able to viably control one.  By creativity, I mean ways of ensuring a player would fly a capital ship in a manner that is not just an oversized fighter (perhaps arranging turrets in a manner that requires the player broad-siding enemy ships to use those turrets on them, etc). 

You want Capital with high speed. And nevertheless you want a Star Trek-like Capital ship. Well, here your gift. All those capital move as fast as a fighter with a difference of 100 m/s. Just release the video because of this topic.

I imagine that playable capships and high speeds would be absolutely necessary for a good Star Trek mod.  Does the engine have any limits on the size of the playing field, though?  On Star Trek, you often hear them talking about being thousands of kilometers away from other ships while firing.  For that matter, if we were to do that, we'd need some sort of way to zoom in on targets, too.

[MetalDestroyer]

I still wonder how well a Star Trek-like capital ship-ONLY setting would work out.  It would require some creativity on the part of the modder, but with higher speed capital ships you open the possibility of a player being able to viably control one.  By creativity, I mean ways of ensuring a player would fly a capital ship in a manner that is not just an oversized fighter (perhaps arranging turrets in a manner that requires the player broad-siding enemy ships to use those turrets on them, etc). 

You want Capital with high speed. And nevertheless you want a Star Trek-like Capital ship. Well, here your gift. All those capital move as fast as a fighter with a difference of 100 m/s. Just release the video because of this topic.

I imagine that playable capships and high speeds would be absolutely necessary for a good Star Trek mod.  Does the engine have any limits on the size of the playing field, though?  On Star Trek, you often hear them talking about being thousands of kilometers away from other ships while firing.  For that matter, if we were to do that, we'd need some sort of way to zoom in on targets, too.

With LUA you can implement a zoom feature. IIRC, there is a script somewhere on this forum. I dunno if the autodestruction after X Km has been disabled. I remember with the retail, if I go to far my ship selfdestruct without reason.

[JGZinv]

This is probably the zoom script you are looking for... http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=70411.0

[Ryu Gemini]

I forget, does the Star Trek universe even HAVE fighters as a standard vessel? 

My knowledge of "non-standard" ships is limited to the old game Klingon Academy, in which the Federation has a modified shuttle with a torpedo tube installed, and one of the lesser-known races (that is only really usable in skirmish modes) focuses on carrier capital ships with lots of fighters. 

I really did love that game.  One of the enjoyable aspects was how destructible various ship parts were.  These show off the various aspects pretty well. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMkp8CSA05o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLXM4T9hKII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srAtXjhH9YQ

Clearly, the game's engine doesn't work as well as one might always like on the most recent operating systems, but oh well. 

I still loathe that mission where you have to chase a ship into the atmosphere of a gas giant, however.  Now THAT mission was a total pain of power allocation whatnot (the atmosphere of a gas giant tends to grate away at your hull and shields pretty quickly even at lower speeds).


If anyone were to do a total overhaul-style capital ship mod for Star Trek, Klingon Academy would be a good template to get ideas from. 

[lostllama]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srAtXjhH9YQ

Heh heh. Fly Bird of Prey, fly!

[jr2]

There were fighters.  You hear them mentioned a few times in ST:DS9 when attacking the Founder-led Cardassian fleet (with only a few appearances on-screen IIRC).  I believe ST:Enterprise had a few of them too when the Xindi attack Earth the second time in the episode "Zero Hour"