[Omniscaper]

I'm attempting to scale down all the trek models so they all can be piloted like fighters. I'm aware that the AI for fighter ain't exactly top notch, but the fight is much more fast paced.

So far I shrunk the Galaxy and the Vorcha cruiser to the size of a Medusa bomber. They also have at most 5 AI turret controlled weapons. I put gun points of course so you can have manual forward fighter beams or pulse weapons.

My problem:

Its actually funny. When these Mini-Me starships start shooting each other, they knock each other around with each blast. I can't even aim because my ship keeps spinning like crazy when it gets hit.

Attempted solutions:

I've tried to match the POFs' mass with a cruiser sized vessel.
I've lowered the mass and damage of all the beam weapons I've made for Trek. (could some one explain mass to me)

All attemps failed to resolve this issue.


Does FSO base Beam impact strength by size ratio?

[Deepblue]

[Singh]

not really. Reduce the mass of the weapons to 0.1 or 0.2 in the .tbls. Anything higher than >1 will cause this problem.

[Omniscaper]

Nope. Tried that already. I did notice that Modelview has the "moment of inertia" settings that PCS doesn't. Unfortunately, any model created by Styxx's 3dsmax plugin refuses to be modified by Modelview. It smply crashes on save.

[Bobboau]

try opening and saveing in PCS then try model view

[Omniscaper]

Tried that already. I have the latest version of Modelview as well.

[Getter Robo G]

That's what you get for such blasphemy!

  (Joking!)

   "Sir the Klingons are telling us to surrender!"

   "Really? Tell Mini-Chang to kiss my ass, IF he can reach that high!"

[Omniscaper]

Blasphemy??? Against what? Truespace? The pathetic excuse for a 3d program?

[StratComm]

I just tried Aurora too, it fails on loading a MAX generated model as well.  Of course, said model also happens to crash the game, so it's hardly a suprise that it doesn't work.  I'm trying to get one that was converted without anything but the most basic heirarchy information, to see if it's model related or if it's something else.

[Solatar]

in the Flags section, add like "no_beam_whack" I think it is. I had this same problem with making a beam version of the ML-16 Laser. I'm pretty sure it's in the newer SCP builds.

[StratComm]

That said, we still need to get the moment of inertia thing straightened out.  It's that last setting that makes a ship complete, and if it isn't set it becomes obvious pretty quickly.  Either the MAX plugin needs to calculate it manually, or something needs the ability to edit them that can also edit everything else.

[aldo_14]

So far, AFAIK noone has figured out MOI.  I remember digging about in the code when it was first released, trying to figure out how to set it.... but to be honest I didn't know enough about the structure to find anything concrete.  My impression was that it was being used as a multiplier for a very large number, IIRC.

[StratComm]

No one knows what it does but everyone knows what happens when it's left blank, especially on fighters.  You get the bouncy-ship-of-doom, exactly as Omni is describing.  If memory serves, CoW got some flack when it was released because the fighters in it suffered from a lack of decent MOI data.  I usually just copy it from another ship of similar size myself, since that is more than enough to stabilize the ship in-game.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by StratComm
No one knows what it does but everyone knows what happens when it's left blank, especially on fighters.  You get the bouncy-ship-of-doom, exactly as Omni is describing.  If memory serves, CoW got some flack when it was released because the fighters in it suffered from a lack of decent MOI data.  I usually just copy it from another ship of similar size myself, since that is more than enough to stabilize the ship in-game.

Actually, all the MOI (and center point and mass) data in CoW was copied from similar ships, or at least the closest ships I could find.

[StratComm]

Really?  I must be thinking of a different release.  No offense intended by that of course, aldo