[aldo_14]

Ok, I've been working on a cloaked ship using subobjects, with some success.

However, I need to repair a phsyical subsystem so it becomes visible again - which is probably impossible  

So what i thought was, you could get a small fighter (well, actually a bomber is neeeded for this), and place a turret inside at the exact centre of it.  Sounds stupid, yeah?

But, then you create a new beam weapon with a large black/ v.dark blue warmup glow, which lasts for say 55 seconds, and an incredibly short beam.

So, when you press a button, the internal turret fires in the fighter.  This creates a large black sphere (the warmup) around the fighter for the warm-up time, making it look 'black' - cloaked.

So what do you think?  If this could work, you could create different beams with alternate warm-up glows for different colours of nebula, etc  

[Nico]

I don't think you can have alternative charging up glow. If you change one glow, you change all glows.

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venom2506
Member of the Robotech mod for FS2

and of Hidden Terror, the Shivan campaign

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by venom2506:
I don't think you can have alternative charging up glow. If you change one glow, you change all glows.

Yeha, but I'm pretty sure you can change the colour of it  

[zeta_leader]

vwry good idea, but here's this.  it would only be effctive in space missions.  in nebulas the large black spere would be very obvious.  if you made it transparent, the ship would be visible, too.  not sure how to go about this at all.

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Zeta Leader

death comes quickly to those who fail

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by zeta_leader:
vwry good idea, but here's this.  it would only be effctive in space missions.  in nebulas the large black spere would be very obvious.  if you made it transparent, the ship would be visible, too.  not sure how to go about this at all.

Well, here's the clever bit - you create multiple beam weapons with different warm-up colours - i.e. blue for use in a blue nebula.

Of, course this may not be exactly ideal, I've not tried it yet  

[KillMeNow]

hmmm it wouldn't work in the nebula cause it would be a solid colour - in even in space you have a prob cause black is transparent in effects - so it would have to be slightly off black which might be enough to make it visable even in space but maybe not - also when flying in front ofnebulas in tha back ground black does becomne rather obvious

[aldo_14]

Yeah.  I'm still trying to get the other method to work at the moment.

[Fattony]

You press button X and a big black sphere docks with ship Y thus rendering it invisible unless you got inside the sphere. You press button Z and the sphere un-docks making the ship visible again. You set the sphere to follow ship Y so its always on hand. Tada.

[Fattony]

If you want the ship to be targetable but not visible then set the sphere to be invisible and
when
has docked
ship-visible
sphere

and the reverse when undocked.


Cloaks don't work in nebulas. Too much light data for any field to calculate and compensate for.

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by Fattony:
You press button X and a big black sphere docks with ship Y thus rendering it invisible unless you got inside the sphere. You press button Z and the sphere un-docks making the ship visible again. You set the sphere to follow ship Y so its always on hand. Tada.

You know, that is a damn good idea.  Especially as you could use it for existing models by simply adding a dockpoint to the center.

Of course, there may be collision detection, visibility or firing problems in being within another object, but it's worth a shot.

[Snipes]

but then the ship would remain stationary, no? Has anyone ever docked a ship to a fighter and had it fly around? I dunno the effects of that...  Did they do it in fs1 with the dragon? I don't remember... Steak? Help?

[aldo_14]

 

Originally posted by Snipes:
but then the ship would remain stationary, no? Has anyone ever docked a ship to a fighter and had it fly around? I dunno the effects of that...  Did they do it in fs1 with the dragon? I don't remember... Steak? Help?

hmm... the support ship can't stay docked when you move.

[QXMX]

 

Originally posted by aldo_14:

Of course, there may be collision detection, visibility or firing problems in being within another object, but it's worth a shot.

You could flip the normals of the sphere.  As long as it's completely black, and then destroy it instead of undocking with no damage.  Then just recreate as necessary.

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Co-Creator, GroundZero
ICQ# 117983680

[morris13]

 

Originally posted by aldo_14:
hmm... the support ship can't stay docked when you move.

I'm not sure thats true... usually when the support ship is docked I can still move (slowly) and turn/shoot cannons as much as I want.

[Snipes]

yeah, but if you want to hunt down shivans while docked with something, it'll rip off, no?

[morris13]

usually it only undocks if I hit the afterburners.

[Snipes]

Oh, that's my prob, I use afterbuners as my primary thrusters...    Really, don't let the rolleyes fool you

[zeta_leader]

couldn't you change the flags around so that the fightr is read as a cargo transport, and the sphere as a cargo container?    I know this makes no sense in the game, but it would help on the stability of the sphere.  btw, even if the normals are filpped, you won't be able to shoot through.  so it will have a drawback, which is good.  you wouldn't want to have an all-powerful fighter that nothing could destroy (well, you would, but only if it was on your side   ).

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Zeta Leader

death comes quickly to those who fail