[bizzybody]

What'd be nifty is to be able to have the game target several enemies at once then allow the pilot to choose which of them to engage.

Present day fighter weapons systems can target many more things than the mumber of missles available onboard. Then it's up to the pilot or WSO (in two seat aircraft) to select what he wants to blow to tiny bits. The ordnance computer can then engage as many targets at once as there are missiles available.

'Course such maximum attack scenarios rarely happen, mainly due to there not having been any conflicts with that many enemy fighters available to shoot at since such sophisticated systems were developed.

It'd still be cool in the game! Assign the ordnance computer to use your missles as required while you, the pilot, do evasive manuvers and fire the guns- with instant override of the ordnance computer as simple as hitting the missile button to launch at your current gun target.

[FlareBaffled]

That sort of multi-targetting would be good...but that would be down to the SCP people to implement! I can only work with what the game is capable of

It certainly is ironic that games based on futuristic space combat provide far less sophisticated avionics than current fighter jets. Probably would make for a boring game if you could just pull up a list of targets and engage them all by a menu click......In real life, killing them before they kill you is the ABSOLUTE priority, and anything that makes it quicker is good. For a game, though, you want more of a challenge. Real life pilots don't have the opportunity to re-fly the mission

[Wanderer]

Actually i would like too see fighter/bomber turrets to be able to target other than the targeted ship, perhaps via subsys flags or something, just to make the bomber defense turrets actually defend the bomber during bombing runs.

[FlareBaffled]

Ideally, you would want them to be switchable between 'fixed' targetting, and 'free' defence mode. That way you would have them all swivelling round to focus on the targetted object, or free to pick their own target ...presumably the nearest 'hostile' object, and blast away at that.

Something for the SCP crew to think about! It would make a lot of new things possible and give some real flexibility to weapon usage.

[Scooby_Doo]

I highly agree.. as of right now bomber turrets aren't useful at all.  They should give priority to hostile fighters first then hostile capships.

[Getter Robo G]

Just to mention in Macross VO, if there are 12 targets and you have 24 missiles, they each get 2 missiles fired at them when you shoot... Personally I'd find it a bit overwhelming in some situations

[bizzybody]

A major difference between videogames and reality when it comes to fighter operations is the amount of time an individual ship can commit to battle. While an F-16 can take quite a while to fly to and from the fight, the total duration of its fighting ability is measured in minutes- based on the number of rounds it carries for the Vulcan cannon and that gun's firing rate. Duration for other ordnance is measured in seconds- once it's launched or dropped, that's all there is, gotta hightail it back home to the carrier or airbase.

In a heavy fight, any present day one or two seat fighting aircraft would be hard pressed to extend its combat duration to five minutes total shooting time. Planes like the A-10 do a bit better by filling a large part of the plane with ammunition, or like the C-130 gunships- use a bigger plane to carry more ammo. (And more guns!)

In contrast, a game like Freespace offers the pilot unlimited 'bullets' and easy topping off of missiles or bombs anywhere a safe spot to stop can be found. Combat time can be extended to hours, or until you get a cramp in your joystick wrist.

[Dysko]

Uh... I thought that the A-10 could only do 30-15 seconds of continuous fire (1400 rounds with a ROF 2100-4200 rounds per minute)... [/boring nitpicking]
*runs*

[FlareBaffled]

Enters 'planegeek mode' .....

The A10 uses an standard Avenger GAU-8 cannon. The GAU-8 itself weighs 281 kg (620 lb), but the complete weapon, with feed system and drum, weighs 1,830 kg (4,029 lb) with a maximum ammunition load. It measures 19 ft ½ in (5.81 m) from the muzzle to the rearmost point of the ammunition system, and the ammunition drum alone is 34.5 in (86 cm) in diameter and 71.5 in (1.82 m) long. (Spick, 2000, p. 44). The magazine can hold 1,350 rounds, although 1,174 is the more normal load-out. Muzzle velocity with armor-piercing incendiary (API) ammunition is 3,250 ft/s (990 m/s), almost the same as the substantially lighter M61 Vulcan's 20mm round.

The standard ammunition mixture for anti-armor use is a four-to-one mix of PGU-14/B Armor-Piercing Incendiary (API), with a projectile weight of about 15.0 oz (425 grams or 6,560 grains) and PGU-13/B High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) rounds, with a projectile weight of about 12.7 oz (360 grams). The PGU-14/B round incorporates a depleted uranium penetrator. The Avenger is lethal against tanks and any other armored vehicle. The use of the depleted-uranium round is controversial, with some reports linking its use to health problems among both survivors of DUP attacks and servicemen involved in the loading and handling of the rounds. Residual DU in soil (and thus water-tables) has also been implicated in a sharp spike in birth defects observed in certain areas of Iraq immediately after the Gulf War.

A very important innovation in the design of the GAU-8/A shells is the use of aluminium alloy cases in place of the traditional steel or brass. This alone adds 30% to ammunition capacity for a given weight. The shells also have plastic driving bands to improve barrel life. They are imposing to examine and handle, measuring 11.4 in (290 mm) in length and weighing 1.53 lb (694 g) or more. (Spick, 2000, p. 44).

Originally, the Avenger's rate of fire was switchable between 1,800 rounds per minute (RPM) and 4,200 RPM. In later modifications, the 4,200 RPM rate of fire was deleted and replaced with a slightly lower 3900 RPM. Also the low rate of fire (1800 RPM) was deleted as being tactically inferior to a high rate of fire - it is better to ensure a first-time kill by using a high rate of fire, rather than having to make a risky second pass just to put a sufficient number of rounds on the target [1]. In practice, the cannon is limited to one and two-second bursts to avoid overheating and conserve ammunition; barrel life is also a factor, since the USAF has specified a minimum 21,000-round life for each set of barrels. It is also said that this is to deal with the substantial deceleration of the plane that results from firing .

The GAU-8/A ammunition is linkless, reducing weight and avoiding a great deal of potential for jamming. The feed system is double-ended: the spent casings are not ejected from the aircraft (which takes a great deal of force if the possibility of severe airframe damage is to be eliminated) but are cycled back into the ammunition drum. The feed system is based on that developed for later M61 installations, but uses more advanced design techniques and materials throughout, to save weight.

Anyway.... can we slide this topic slightly back towards Homewolrd should have some pics up later of the Defenders...and I have started work on the Taiidan light fighter ships.

[FlareBaffled]

First off... here is a distant view of some action. Taiidan and Kushan light craft in combat. Taiidan trails should be a lot more orangey... and the Kushan ones are now a more correct white colour!


And this...

Is the heavy defender. The light defender is also done, and this does not have the third belly gun. On the heavy defender, the lower gun is player operated and fixed. On both craft, the left and right wing guns are turrets with a 30 degree FOV. Seems to work quite well overall.

Now..I need to finish off the texture map for the Heavy Interceptor, and get stuck into the Taiidan craft!

[FlareBaffled]

The heavy interceptor is done....and that completes the player flyables for the Kushan side.

[FlareBaffled]

Apart from forgetting to build the Kushan Bomber.... work is now 100% Taiidan this weekend!

[elorran]

Very nice.  I certainly look forward to playing around with these ships and what ever campaigns you may come up with for them

[Unknown Target]

I do like that Taiidan Scout. Will you be using the default Yellow/Red color scheme?
(I'm not a huge fan of that white/black scheme used for the Kushan though - could  you at least dirty it up, add some paint nicks, etc?)

[FlareBaffled]

I never played Homeworld with Taiidan craft painted any other colour! Yellow and red are the planned colour schemes for the Taiidan. The Kushan ones will not be staying black and white either. The textures I have on them are the 'blanks' that I will do the colour schemes on top of. The Taiidan ones will start out the same way. It lets me do the detail and get the panel lines on. Then I add the colour, and finally I 'weather' and dirty them a bit. I was going to leave the Kushan on their default colourschemes... but I might also find something that will contrast nicely with the Taiidan scheme.

I must admit, though, I find the Taiidan light craft a lot easier to model. The designs are somehow more.... pleasing! Mind you...the Kushan Corvettes are nicer than the Taiidan equivalents!

[FlareBaffled]

Just a small update! I have been playing about with turrets to get the correctly orientated turrets I need, and that has been taking up most of my modding time. I have, however, got started on the texture for the Taiidan Scout.... not looking too bad so far!



EDIT: Mapping all finished. and the cockpit done. She is ready to go in game!

[FlareBaffled]

[Grawr]

This looks great! I hope you do make the corvette's flyable... minelayers included; I loved the Kushan design. Always loved the feel of flying a corvette in IWar(2), and the missions you could do with these would be fantastic... Given their size and presumably slower handling, some missions involving steering through a debris or otherwise obstacle-filled field, while maximizing your gunners targets, would be fun. Flying through a field of hulks even as the surviving capital ships duke it out, or flying at full speed through an asteroid field laying mines under a timelimit (to surprise a smuggler, for instance).

As far as mission entries go, do you plan on using the docked-to-jumping-supply-frigate method for smaller insertions/extractions?

I could just see this really hitting it off with the MP community, as many of the frigates are singular enough in purpose to be feasibly player controlled; assault frigates have their powerful fixed forward guns, and the ion cannon frigates would be interesting to play as...

[G0atmaster]

hey, those tidanii ships looke so real, I could almost swear you've got some developers from Relic working with you.

[Turey]

hey, those tidanii ships looke so real, I could almost swear you've got some developers from Relic working with you.

Certainly would explain how he's pumping them out so fast.