[jdjtcagle]

How do I kamikazi my ship?

I have a transport and I want it to run into a Science cruiser and they both blow up... I can't find any tutorial or anything
Any help?

Bah, stupid title, my studdering is quite visible

[redsniper]

isn't there a kamikaze chechbox in FRED?

[jdjtcagle]

RS:
Yep, I tell the transport to kamikazi after the Checkpoints  are done, but it just sits there...

[Axem]

I found the kamikaze box doesn't work that well, it only gives off that much damage in the box if anything touches it. I got it to work using sexps. Set your transport to attack whatever you want to die, then use the kamikaze sexp, and it will try to ram it and give off the damage you told it too in the sexp. But when it does ram, it just bounces off sometimes, so set-vaporize might make it look a bit better.

[Trivial Psychic]

Assuming you're using FSO, tell it to attack the Science Cruiser, then use the kamakazi sexp to tell that ship to ram the ship its assigned to attack.  The problem with this is it requires the 2 ships to be on oppisite teams.  If this is supposed to be some kind of accident, then this method won't work.  Your other option is to have the transport depart through the Science cruiser's docking bay, then have it and the science cruiser delf-destruct when the transport gets within a certain distance of its docking bay (or just the ship itself if you're using FS_Retail).

Later!

[jdjtcagle]

I'll have try #2, thanks!!!

[jdjtcagle]

Ok, I want to set the "when" "Distance Subsystem" but it won't let me click it yet...

[Black Wolf]

You'll want a Greater than or Less than symbol in there first.

[Trivial Psychic]

Be advised, that my No.2 method will have some slight problems.  If you wait to destruct both ships (or even just the transport since it'd be illogical for the Science Cruiser to blow up first) too late, the speed of the transport will cause it to bounce off the hull and then explode, which won't look right.  You can avoid that by causing the transport to explode earlier, but then it will seem to start blowing up before it makes contact with the science cruiser.  One solution does come to mind, however its somewhat complicated and definitely requires SCP.  First, using the associated sexp, give the transport with a "vaporize" flag.  That will cause it to desintigrate rather than go through the standard death-roll.  This will eliminate any bounce, since there won't be time.  Now, this will IIRC, remove the explosion of the transport, but there is a sexp to give an explosion at a specific location, which can be timed to the vaporization of the transport, followed by the subsequent death-roll and destruction of the science cruiser.  This will require you to know exactly where the science cruiser will be at the time of the explosion.  If you have it stop at a waypoint prior to the impact, remember that ships may take a bit of space to decelerate after reaching the waypoint, so trial and error will be needed to get the location correct.

I told you it was complicated.

Later!

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
This will require you to know exactly where the science cruiser will be at the time of the explosion.

Not quite. FSO includes a bunch of SEXPs that allow you to get the position of any ship. Simply use the get-object-x, y and z as the location requirements for the explosion-effect SEXP (i.e the first the entries).

With that exception you've got some pretty solid FREDding their TP

[CainFortea]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
.... If you have it stop at a waypoint prior to the impact, remember that ships may take a bit of space to decelerate after reaching the waypoint, so trial and error will be needed to get the location correct.

I told you it was complicated.

Later!

As far as the deceleration before impact issue is concerned, you could make an additional ships.tbl entry that is the same as the ship you are using as a flying bomb, change the name to something you'll recognize, and change the "damp" number to 0.  This will make it start and stop on a dime.  Makes that part easier.  Or so I theorize, never having actually tried this myself.

[Trivial Psychic]

Originally posted by karajorma


Not quite. FSO includes a bunch of SEXPs that allow you to get the position of any ship. Simply use the get-object-x, y and z as the location requirements for the explosion-effect SEXP (i.e the first the entries).

With that exception you've got some pretty solid FREDding their TP

Ya, I forgot about those.  I guess I never realy understood how those worked, so I don't factor them into any solutions in my mind.  Thanks for the vote of confidence though.  And I came up with all that without even touching FRED.  I'm also testing a way to simulate a ship making multiple warps per mission, without using a second model.  Inferno uses a method of having 2 models, one of which has an undisplayable character in its name, which allows the HUD to show it as if it were the same ship.  My system, while complicated, gets around the problem of transfering dammage data from one model to another, by eliminating the 2nd model.  The only different thing it requires is a very simple table mod.

Later!

[jdjtcagle]

Got it working, much thanks

[Trivial Psychic]

Which system did you use?

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic


Ya, I forgot about those.  I guess I never realy understood how those worked, so I don't factor them into any solutions in my mind.  Thanks for the vote of confidence though.  And I came up with all that without even touching FRED.  I'm also testing a way to simulate a ship making multiple warps per mission, without using a second model.  Inferno uses a method of having 2 models, one of which has an undisplayable character in its name, which allows the HUD to show it as if it were the same ship.  My system, while complicated, gets around the problem of transfering dammage data from one model to another, by eliminating the 2nd model.  The only different thing it requires is a very simple table mod.

Later!

I'm interested in hearing how you're doing this

As for the get-object-x etc SEXP's they are pretty easy to use. Like the disatance SEXP they return a number so you can use them in any SEXP that wants a number (like < or  > ).  

I reckon it would probably take you less than a minute to figure out how they work

[jdjtcagle]

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
Which system did you use?

1st, couldn't get the other to work

But, 2 came in hand in more wasy in ine

[Trivial Psychic]

Originally posted by karajorma

I'm interested in hearing how you're doing this

First, this will look somewhat bad with an REALY big ships, especially if they're long.  You also need to add a stealth line into the ships table file.  Here's the sequence:  first, tell the ship to warp out, with sexps, not in the ship's departure cue.  Then, a few seconds later (before it reaches warp velocity), clear its orders, activate the stealth flag, use the warp effect generator to open a portal in its path and then use the sexp to change the ship's location to somewhere else in the mission field, so far away that it can't be seen.  You should also give it a protect flag (so no one will try to go after it) and tell it to play dead.  Then, when you want it to reappear, activate another warp effect just outside the area where you expect the player to be, so that the warp effect typically faces the player, move the ship just behind the portal, give it another ai-warp command, and again abort it and deactivate the stealth flag, timed as it emerges from the vortex and decelerates from jump speed.  Then give it whatever attack or waypoint orders you need.  

This can be repeated however many times you need, but it could concievably eat up events.  It also requires of trial and error to get distances and timings right.  Also, this is mostly theory ATM, but I have managed to simulate the initial warpout sequence.

Later!

[karajorma]

That's along the lines of what I was thinking you'd be doing.