[General Battuta]

Support ship swarms. There's a loophole in the code that can be exploited with some clever FREDding.

It's beautiful to see a while wing of gunships being rearmed in rapid succession.

[TopAce]

The add-ship SEXP?

[General Battuta]

The add-ship SEXP?

Ship-create is the start, yeah, but then you have to get them to respond to rearm calls, which requires a bit of an unhappy kludge.

[TopAce]

I thought any ship that had the "support" flag can be called. That's why Enter the Dragon needed a special table entry for the support ship.

[General Battuta]

I thought any ship that had the "support" flag can be called. That's why Enter the Dragon needed a special table entry for the support ship.

The thing is that the game only allows one support ship per team to be the REAL support ship, meaning it is the ship that will respond to all rearm calls. Every other support ship present will just float around.

[Scourge of Ages]

Support ship swarms. There's a loophole in the code that can be exploited with some clever FREDding.

It's beautiful to see a while wing of gunships being rearmed in rapid succession.

Nice work! 
I may be requiring this in short order, please share the secret

[General Battuta]

It's not so much a secret as a kludgy little kludge. You'll need to use some nested when-arguments to ship-create new support ships when the 'regular' support ships arrive. Give those ship-created ships orders to guard the 'real' support ship and they'll follow it around. As soon as the first support ship docks with a target, they'll abruptly start accepting any pending orders.

[Goober5000]

The thing is that the game only allows one support ship per team to be the REAL support ship, meaning it is the ship that will respond to all rearm calls. Every other support ship present will just float around.

Huh.  I thought the game was specifically coded to rearm from the nearest support ship.

EDIT: And the thread title is misleading.  I thought you'd be posting a list.

[General Battuta]

The thing is that the game only allows one support ship per team to be the REAL support ship, meaning it is the ship that will respond to all rearm calls. Every other support ship present will just float around.

Huh.  I thought the game was specifically coded to rearm from the nearest support ship.

Oh, I believe it is, but only one ship at a time will accept calls. So if you call for a support ship, then the nearest support ship becomes THE REAL SUPPORT SHIP, and any further calls from your wingmen get added to that support ship's queue instead of being distributed amongst other nearby support ships.

Or, put more clearly, only one support ship will accept calls at a time, though exactly which support ship this is could change.

[Snail]

EDIT: And the thread title is misleading.  I thought you'd be posting a list.

This is probably a thread for GENERAL BATTUTA's messings-around in FRED. I anticipate that it will be updated in a blog-like fashion.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, I can always post more wacky stuff.

People keep telling me to do a FRED cookbook to document the more nutty stuff we pulled off in War in Heaven. I would like to.

[karajorma]

I'd suggest a tutorial in the same manner as the ones Cetanu and I posted.

[General Battuta]

I'd suggest a tutorial in the same manner as the ones Cetanu and I posted.

I doubt I have anything nearly as useful to say as you guys did, but I could give it a shot. Fury deserves credit for teaching me a lot of the engine behavior too.

[Iss Mneur]

The thing is that the game only allows one support ship per team to be the REAL support ship, meaning it is the ship that will respond to all rearm calls. Every other support ship present will just float around.

Huh.  I thought the game was specifically coded to rearm from the nearest support ship.

It is.

Technical explanation follows:
FSO recognizes MAX_SUPPORT_SHIPS_PER_TEAM support ships for each team.  A support ship (any ship with the "support" flag), is considered valid if it is not dying, departing, ordered to warp out, or actively repairing/rearming.

Where the problem comes in is MAX_SUPPORT_SHIPS_PER_TEAM is set to 1.  This means that no others are even considered because once the code finds one, it figures it is done.  Because the search is done starting with the first object, it also means that you get the same ship.

Why battua's solution works (most of the time) is that a large factor for an AI to determine when to call the support ship is if a support ship is present in the mission, and IIRC if the player is actively being repaired.

[General Battuta]

Why battua's solution works (most of the time) is that a large factor for an AI to determine when to call the support ship is if a support ship is present in the mission, and IIRC if the player is actively being repaired.

I believe what IssMneur is saying here is that if a support ship is conducting rearm/repair, it's not considered to be a support ship present in the mission, and so calls will temporarily go to another support ship, leaving you with two active support ships.

[Mobius]

People keep telling me to do a FRED cookbook to document the more nutty stuff we pulled off in War in Heaven. I would like to.

I'd rather see one Cookbook where all FREDders can contribute by adding their own tricks/methods. I for one have quite a few things to show.

[General Battuta]

People keep telling me to do a FRED cookbook to document the more nutty stuff we pulled off in War in Heaven. I would like to.

I'd rather see one Cookbook where all FREDders can contribute by adding their own tricks/methods. I for one have quite a few things to show.

I think I've said before I've always wanted you to do that. I can edit stuff into a single post.

[Mobius]

Sure, but I prefer to add content to an existing thread rather than creating the thread myself... at least until I release one or more campaigns.

[Sushi]

People keep telling me to do a FRED cookbook to document the more nutty stuff we pulled off in War in Heaven. I would like to.

I'd rather see one Cookbook where all FREDders can contribute by adding their own tricks/methods. I for one have quite a few things to show.

I think I've said before I've always wanted you to do that. I can edit stuff into a single post.

Why not put it on the wiki instead, so it's more accessible for adding topics & comments?

[Mobius]

My Wiki account is banned, so no. Would have been nice to add tricks to the wiki (pretty much like scripts), post the links here and then discuss them.