[NGTM-1R]

Considering that it would probably require a complete rewrite of the AI code to get computer-controlled fighters to make use of their new abilities, I don't think it's feasible.

IIRC they do, on higher difficulties, already know how to slide etc. According to the BSG mod folks (who had this figured out already), the FS AI is extremely deadly when given these abilities.

[Herra Tohtori]

One scripted HUD with forward/backward velocity indicator, horizontal speed indicator and lateral speed indicator, coupled with I-War-esque vector indicators.

Oh, and a possibility for limited fuel. I know it's no more Freespace, but I could see that very much fitting the BSG conversion and Babylon Project.

Oh, and... auto-targeting. The same way it's implemented in I-War, so that hitting small targets is not completely impossible...

[Prophet]

IIRC they do, on higher difficulties, already know how to slide etc. According to the BSG mod folks (who had this figured out already), the FS AI is extremely deadly when given these abilities.

AI has known how to slide since vanilla. But some say it sometimes gets little confused about it. Nothing new about that.

[Col. Fishguts]

Sliding AI Starfuries = nightmare fighter from hell

[Prophet]

Thats why they have aim assit in the series. And we should also have it...

[Nuke]

One scripted HUD with forward/backward velocity indicator, horizontal speed indicator and lateral speed indicator, coupled with I-War-esque vector indicators.

Oh, and a possibility for limited fuel. I know it's no more Freespace, but I could see that very much fitting the BSG conversion and Babylon Project.

Oh, and... auto-targeting. The same way it's implemented in I-War, so that hitting small targets is not completely impossible...

all you really need is the lindes, their length indicats the speed. if thats not enough just use a neumerical indicator which tells you how fast youre going alotn the inticated vector.

Thats why they have aim assit in the series. And we should also have it...

this feature has been requested sence day one of the scp and im suprised it hasnt been implemented. now that the code supports weapon normals, any chance in making them dynamic? the only table imput needed would be the cone of fire for each bank, could be done the same way as bank capacities. have a flag like $Dynamic Normal Cone: (10,20,25) after show primary.secondary models. alternatively is support for player triggered turrets, which would track targets normally, but requires a player triggerpull to fire. actually id like to see a general turret control interface anyway, for capship missions, which would allow mechwarrior-esc weapon grouping for the various turrets, the ability to control one directly, as a group, or delegate to ai.

[PotzUK]

An Elite/Frontier/First Encounters mod would be ace, if it could be pulled off

[Colonol Dekker]

FRONTIER MOD

Source guys work on a hydrogen powered hyper drive and realtime economy as well as a bulletin board and persisant galaxy code please

I'll be back by 17:00 GMT to DL it all.........

I'm still waiting since then...........

[karajorma]

An Elite/Frontier/First Encounters mod would be ace, if it could be pulled off

I'm too busy. What modding experience do you have


Seriously though most of the modders currently in the community are too busy. You could try stealing some from the Frontier/Elite community or you could start learning the skills you need yourself with some of the newer people who are currently attached. Colonol Dekker seems to have a lot of free time

[IPAndrews]

Actually I did the Elite mod. I converted and uvmapped all the ships. I just didn't do much with the finished article because neither player beams, nor non-linear campaigns worked back then. I could see if I can dig out what I did. It could be on any one of 30odd DVDs though so don't count on it. Seriously it takes about 30 minutes to uv map and convert an Elite ship so it wouldn't be difficult for someone to reproduce the work. Hell I use the Cobra Mk 1 as the example in my ship creation guide. The frontier mod is less fun to do. The game engine handled curves quite cleverly and as a result the ships had a lot of subtle curves which would have to be recreated using lots of polies. On the other hand if someone wants to have a crack at the Elite thing then I will offer as much helpful advice as I can.

[Nuke]

i wish i could be liberated from working so i would have more time to mod. this sucks.

[IPAndrews]

Quit.

[Colonol Dekker]

  I'm just free of "obligation" at work right now, Delegation is a1 soopah !

[Nuke]

Quit.

then how would i pay my net bill? no, i think il just be annoying as **** for the next few weeks and hope they fire me, then draw unemployment

[CaptJosh]

What? You mean you aren't already annoying as hell? If this ISN'T annoying, everyone, be afraid. Be VERY afraid...

[Nuke]

i dont try to be annoying, i try to be honest, people are very annoyed by honesty it seems.

[scratch]

Are there any mods out there that use strafing /gliding actually? I know that BTRL uses it, but it isn't out yet.

[Nuke]

ive set of nukemod ships to straif and slide and glide and whatnot.

[Backslash]

Limited fuel is easy, somewhat... just have a big afterburner tank and no recharge.  That's what WCSaga does.  ...course that's only afterburner, did you mean standard engines?

The vector indicators sound tricky.  I don't understand the scripting system yet but I suspect it won't be easy.  However I just had an inspiration of using similar code to the lead indicators... will see what can be done.  Won't be quick.

Aim assist would sure be nice but there's a lot involved.  Probably over my head but I'll take a look, someday.

Ok, I've updated the build on the first page with some new goodies:  a slide-when-pressed control, and this: when gliding, hold the full throttle key to automatically point in the direction of travel.  Hold the zero throttle key to automatically point in the opposite direction.  A bit hackish but very useful.  Oh, question on the slide-when-pressed control... when you push forward on the joystick, should it be sliding 'up', or 'down'; what do you prefer?

[Herra Tohtori]

Definitely forward = down, backwards = up. Just like the nose does when you pitch the craft. It's more intuitive IMO. But if you want more work, implement some kind of "invert-x-axis-when-gliding" system or something like that... might be more worky.

Limited fuel would definitely add realism and challenge, but it's not a priority, as most folks would probably use unlimited fuel option anyways... the direction indicator would be more important. I think it would be easiest to do that by meddling with motion debris. Make them have a colour and a trail and that's it. More sophisticated system would involve having the modified motion debris only visible when gliding, for example.

And of course, it would be good to know one's backward velocity, vertical velocity (left/right) and horizontal velocity (up/down) as well as forward velocity.


And for the future: implementation of aerodynamics for atmospheric missions, thank you very much. 

It shouldn't be too difficult, btw... We already have thrust, inertia and direction controls - what would be needed to upgrade the model to simple aerodynamic model is angular momentum (do we have that already?), lift and drag forces - and constant gravitational acceleration.

We don't need or even want absolutely physically accurate model, so it would suffice to have the drag and lift as invisible thrusters (or force vectors) that have variable strength.

Drag is almost directly derived from craft velocity and angle of attack and drag coefficient... AOA 0 gives the smallest drag, while negative or positive AOA's increase the drag. Drag is always pointing in the other way from air speed vector.

Lift is derived from air speed, angle of attack, and lift coefficient - it's easier to just assign a suitable value for ships rather than start counting values based on ships mass and lift area, air density and such...

If we want even more sophisticated system, it's possible to implement rough aerodynamic stability model by implementing more force vectors representing aerodynamic forces affecting different parts of the ship, like possible control surfaces and whatnot.

But first things first...


By the way - is Beyond the Red Line team going to implement retro-rocket thrusters for their spacecraft? Or in other words, a visible vector control system - or are they keeping the craft Freespaceishly miraculously self-turning?