[Krelus]

I'm trying to do this very dramatic entrance with Stratcomm's GTFG Sparta, which, among other things, has a fighterbay and 12 docking points on the front. I want the Sparta to jump in and begin spewing fighters. More importantly, I want it to warp in with 12 fighters attached to its forward docking points, and then have them undock when the ship stops. Unfortunately, it seems that FRED does not want this to happen, and all I get is an amusing (but frustrating) starship convulsion. Confusingly, it also warps in coming out of the side of the subspace window and appears all at once, instead of gradually.

So, uh, help? 

EDIT: Furthermore, upon additional testing, it seems that the spasm is caused not by its arrival, but simply by being docked with the fighters.

[Goober5000]

http://scp.indiegames.us/mantis/view.php?id=1723

It's a known problem.  I haven't had time to look into it.

[karajorma]

What orders do the fighters have? The spasming might be relieved by giving them initial orders to play dead.

[Krelus]

What orders do the fighters have? The spasming might be relieved by giving them initial orders to play dead.

I was hoping the fix would be something as simple as that, but alas..

[blowfish]

Come to think of it, I've never seen anything warp in with something docked before.  Is this problem caused by the fact that they are fighters?  Does it work if they are switched to transports or something?

[Shade]

It can be relieved by ordering them to play dead, yeah. Though I've seen a few occasions where even they seem to cause problems even then.

[Krelus]

Play dead didn't work, but I just had an idea... Make them disabled until they undock. Could work.

EDIT: Stage 1 worked. She warped in straight and true with fighters attached. Actually getting them to undock did not, since fighters won't accept the ai-undock command. And, unfortunately, the Sparta is only capable of undocking from one fighter at a time. This may take some work.

[karajorma]

What are you going to try now? I ask cause I know I'm going to be having this problem with the Cylon Basestar (soon as we dockpoint it) so I'm very interested in how you solve this one.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I wasn't there at the time but I think TBP had big problems with this and never did come up with a solution. 

[Shade]

You can use objecttypes.tbl to allow the undock order for fighters.

[Edit] Attached a .tbm for doing just that.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Krelus]

You can use objecttypes.tbl to allow the undock order for fighters.

[Edit] Attached a .tbm for doing just that.

OK, now they won't attack anything after undocking. They'll just kinda... sit there.
DJLKSFHKJDJKFGJF *bangs head on keyboard*

EDIT: Nevermind, they will shoot at stuff, my testing method sucked hard.

[Droid803]

Fix their engines and tell them to attack something (or guard the Sparta?)
Or did you already do that?

[Krelus]

Fix their engines and tell them to attack something (or guard the Sparta?)
Or did you already do that?

Actually it seems like they become unable to accept new orders from SEXP's. Player orders still work.

And their engines are already fixed.

EDIT: OK, a whole slew of weird stuff started, so this might be unrelated. I'm thinking some part of the mission data got corrupted.

I'm going to try remaking the whole shebang and seeing if it works then... I'll keep y'all posted.

[Colonol Dekker]

If IPA couldn't solve it for the Raider carrier, i don't think it's possible 8(

[Krelus]

If IPA couldn't solve it for the Raider carrier, i don't think it's possible 8(

Yeah, I'm considering just going "f*** it," because for god's sake, the Sparta has a fighterbay. The thought of a frigate jumping in with its exterior bristling with fighters just made me feel warm and fuzzy, though.

It's so frustrating! If it absolutely didn't work at all, I'd be OK, but everything works except SEXP-assigned goals, for some incoherent reason. So close... 

Idea: Maybe what's going on is, since fighters were never intended to be able to undock in the first place, perhaps being told to do so screws up their ability to accept future SEXP-induced AI goals.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Don't know if this will work at all not alone for what you are trying but since you have the ship arrive OK with the fighters dock you could try to do a ship vanish for each fighter and pop in a new one at the same location.  Probably only work if the ship is stopped at the time. 

[Krelus]

Don't know if this will work at all not alone for what you are trying but since you have the ship arrive OK with the fighters dock you could try to do a ship vanish for each fighter and pop in a new one at the same location.  Probably only work if the ship is stopped at the time. 

That requires more SEXPs than I'm willing to sift through just for a half second event which most players would look at, go "Oh, that's neat, I guess" and promptly forget about.

Although, hell, if I plan on doing it only once, it could be worth it.

[starlord]

TBP could use this also for the raider battle wagon.

[Col. Fishguts]

You are thinking of the raider carrier. But as mentioned above, IPAndrews tried to accomplish this for a long time without success, so we would be as interested in a solution as everybody else

[Krelus]

As I said before, the one and only aspect of this which refuses to work is the fact that the fighters don't accept SEXP-given commands after undocking. I'm gonna try changing the fighter's AI profile once it undocks, and start it with no profile to begin with. It might kickstart the AI into doing what I want it to.