[Durandal7]

Hello! Since I really like Blue Planet, I decided to tweak a few things here and there to make it better suit my tastes. Even if I made these for myself and some of them still need testing or to be polished, I still think it's cool to share them.

Huge thanks to:
The teams behind SCP, Knossos and Blue Planet, without which I wouldn't be here in the first place.
The teams behind PCS2 and VPMage for their amazing tools.
The Freespace wiki maintainers for their amazing work.
Nightmare for teaching me a lot in regards to cockpits, eyepoints, glowmaps, the two tools above and being there in general to provide suggestions.
0rph3u5 for teaching me how to hide damaged subsystems.
tcrayford for pointing out model issues with dock points.
General Battuta for pointing out that turrets ROF is tied to the ship pilot's AI.

I succesfully made .vp files out of these submods (thanks to Nightmare), however I couldn't figure out how to run them. I might upload them to Knossos, but Knossos requires a "required" package to be downloaded no matter what (I might make it empty though) + some of these sub-mods are not compatible with each other or they require to be loaded in a certain order. For now I'll just provide the loose files (some of these weigh just few KB).


Dockpoint Fix

Description: It seems to fix the Kentauroi docking problem with the support ship, however needs more testing. Let me know if it does work or not and which ships, to your knowledge, are affected by this bug and which are not. Thanks in advance!

How I did it: I called a support ship with a Kentauroi and noticed that it was having difficulties docking. I posted on the forum and tcrayford pointed out that the issue was in the model's dock points. I called a support ship with an Uhlan and an Uriel and noticed that the support ship had an easier time docking with these models. I used PCS2 that Nightmare suggested to me to look at the three models' docking points and noticed that the Uhlan and the Uriel had slightly different docking points scheme/pattern compared to the Kentauroi's. So I tried to match the same scheme/pattern with the Kentauroi.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15jP6u_cOATqsYTKEKriwwiQm80fgWhKF (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is not compatible with the Cockpit sub-mod (which already has this fix integrated). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods (if in the future it won't be compatible with the Durga Eyepoint Fix, I'll uptade accordingly). This is intended for upstream and for those who don't like cockpits. Oh and for beta-testers, to see if it actually works or if it is just my impression


Hide Subsystems

Description: Hides untargettable (animations, non-critical) subsystems from the damaged subsystems list in the HUD... by making them invulnerable. However the ship still takes damage as if the subsystem wasn't even there.

How I did it: I applied the "damage as hull" flag to the subsystems, but the subsystem was still taking damage. I asked in the forum and 0rph3u5 taught me that I also had to set the subsystems' %HP to 0 to make it invulnerable. Currently this is a "crude" sub-mod that hopefully will be polished (when I'll learn how to do that without having the animated part rotate double than intended): it's the whole bp-shp.tbm file (slightly modified) that overrides the original one instead of a more elegant lighter file with just the modifications.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LqQWDfPyfOaS8dyhdSLKadJ3brzebo3d (v2019.09.15)

Compatibility: To make this sub-mod compatible with Better Turrets, Better Turrets Dynamic, Cockpit, Countermeasures, Dynamic Linking, No Linking and Playable Capitals, you have to load the Hide Subsystems sub-mod after those (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with Durga Eyepoint Fix and Dockpoints fix.


Durga Eyepoint Fix

Description: Centers the Durga eyepoint (in the base mod it is a bit on the left).

How I did it: While making the Cockpit sub-mod, I noticed that the base Durga eyepoint was a bit on the left to mimic where the pilot would be in the model. Since the cockpit itself is centered (and one of the three seats is too), so should in my opinion be the player's eyepoint. I modified the base Durga model with PCS2 that Nightmare suggested to me.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1keCn2-iAXcOVc8MOLU9K0tZxn_Hm6JV6 (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is not compatible with the Cockpit sub-mod. It is compatible with all the other sub-mods (if in the future it won't be compatible with the Dockpoint Fix, I'll uptade accordingly). This is intended for upstream and for those who don't like cockpits (and also don't like off-center views).


Better Turrets

Description: Modifies the Uriel turret so that now switches between firing points (like the Vulcan does) instead of firing salvoes, and adjusts the rate of fire of the Uriel and Vajradhara turrets so that now they have the same ROF of a non-linked primary bank if the combination of AI profile and difficulty sets "$Friendly AI Fire Delay Scale:" or "$Hostile AI Fire Delay Scale:" to 1. I have to thank General Battuta for his knowledge on AI profiles and turrets. If you choose this instead of Better Turrets Dynamic (see below), there are high chances that you don't want to play with the Dynamic Linking sub-mod.

How I did it: I changed the Uriel turret flag "salvo mode" to "use multiple guns" and changed the Uriel ROF Multiplier from the original 3 to 9 (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF2Wu_QpjMo) and the Vajradhara ROF Multiplier from 1 to 5 (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSsmILLjBlM).

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o05SzhAyZ08hNsm7eaWv427EWis-ZAr_ (v2019.09.15.2)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is not compatible with the Better Turrets Dynamic sub-mod. It is compatible with the Hide Subsystem sub-mod only if the latter is loaded after the Better Turrets one (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.


Better Turrets Dynamic

Description: Modifies the Uriel and Vajradhara turrets so that now they switch between firing points (like the Vulcan does) instead of firing salvoes, and adjusts their rate of fire so that now they have the same ROF of a non-linked primary bank if the combination of AI profile and difficulty sets "$Friendly AI Fire Delay Scale:" or "$Hostile AI Fire Delay Scale:" to 1. I have to thank General Battuta for his knowledge on AI profiles and turrets. If you choose this instead of Better Turrets, there are high chances that you want to play with the Dynamic Linking sub-mod too.

How I did it: I changed the Uriel and Vajradhara turrets flag "salvo mode" to "use multiple guns" and changed the ROF Multiplier from the original 3 in the Uriel to 9 and for the Vajradhara from 1 to 10 (double from the above sub-mod in order to compensate the fact that the overall turret ROF is divided by the number of the turret's firing points when the "use multiple guns" flag is used).

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qG-6uXTWkpGr8FWVNMI0syT3zod7t1nI (v2019.09.15.2)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is not compatible with the Better Turrets sub-mod. It is compatible with the Hide Subsystem sub-mod only if the latter is loaded after the Better Turrets Dynamic one (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.


Cockpit

Description: Still in alpha. Allows cockpit view in the Uhlan, Kentauroi, Uriel, Ainsarii, Ainsarii#Dream, Durga and Lapith. The Kentauroi, Uriel, Ainsarii, Ainsarii#Dream and Lapith need more work. Be mindful of these flags:
-nospec (disable specular): amongst other things, will improve visibility through the canopy.
-noglow (disable glow maps): amongst other things, will switch the MFDs off.

How I did it: Nightmare helped me so much here already, but we might improve it more in the future.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m5Suy08DshjnxuURlQCfemanxXOOi80b (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is not compatible with the Dockpoint Fix (it already includes it) and Durga Eyepoint Fix (because the pilot is off-center) sub-mods. It is compatible with the Hide Subsystem sub-mod only if the latter is loaded after the Cockpit one (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.


Countermeasures

Description: Modifies the UEF fighters and bombers to use the new GTVA/TEI countermeasures. 'cause it looks cool.

How I did it: I modified the fighters countermeasure from UEF Fighter Flare to GTVA Fighter Flare and the bombers countermeasure from Bomber Flare to Aurora Flare.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-N2-rLa1KVJEIZ488H7BIGM-JWjmQqHP (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is compatible with Hide Subsystem only if the latter is loaded after the Countermeasures sub-mod (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.


Dynamic Linking

Description: Allows the primary bank to fire each gun point individually, in salvo mode or anything in between (like: 2 out of 4 or 6; or 3 out of 6) at player's discretion. You have to use the Cycle Primary Weapon Firing Rate key (inside the main hall and most menus go to Options, Control Config, Weapons, it's the last one). Firing from each gun point individually kills your alpha damage but increases your ROF while dealing the same DPS... basically it transforms the slow-firing Maul into a traking machine gun.

How I did it: I added the "dynamic primary linking" flag into all UEF fighters and bombers.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SQEIJJ_Ry6BvLWqCJJH6kN48-QTTgg7g (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is compatible with Hide Subsystem only if the latter is loaded after the Dynamic Linking sub-mod (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.


No Linking

Description: Disallows linking primary banks. I'm aware that it increases the overall DPS (see here and here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mBcfey-fwVvpAPxCU5v_DR8p9jYxXt2C), however I'm bad at traking nimble fighters and I'd much rather have higher ROF at a lower weapon energy consumption rate. This is just a preference of mine. I will not use the "$disable linked fire penalty:" option in the AI table.

How I did it: I added the "no primary linking" flag into all UEF fighters and bombers that didn't already have it.

Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZgVrOKAR_ncXBSvMiHrMKd_mFqZr7nV8 (v2019.09.14)

Compatibility: This sub-mod is compatible with Hide Subsystem only if the latter is loaded after the No Linking sub-mod (in the -mod flag in FSO). It is compatible with all the other sub-mods.

[General Battuta]

Did you test the turret ROF changes in combination with altering the ship's pilot AI class? Turret rate of fire on ships is tied to the ship's pilot AI.

[Nightmare]

 

Personally I'd reserve Knossos for completed mods (in the sense of campaigns) - even though there are good independent mods like Galemps Railgun Bombers and terrible campaigns (no list.); rather than a number of small mods.

I think many people would appreciate having the cockpit feature restored. BTW if you've played Darius Solaris you could see them in action too with a few features that weren't part of the original mods (perhaps with more tables, but I'm not sure)

[Durandal7]

Did you test the turret ROF changes in combination with altering the ship's pilot AI class? Turret rate of fire on ships is tied to the ship's pilot AI.

Thank goodness you didn't say "how does the Vajradhara find the energy to sustain another two banks of Rapiers?"! I mean, thanks for the heads up! Now I'll have to spawn a balls of steele (or whatever, don't know which AI has the highest turret ROF) Uriel and Vajradhara and tune their turrets ROF accordingly (since I tested on the default Captain AI). I intended it for the player ship, but I guess it's possible to change the turret's AI? I'll check this too.

Personally I'd reserve Knossos for completed mods (in the sense of campaigns) - even though there are good independent mods like Galemps Railgun Bombers and terrible campaigns (no list.); rather than a number of small mods.

I think many people would appreciate having the cockpit feature restored. BTW if you've played Darius Solaris you could see them in action too with a few features that weren't part of the original mods (perhaps with more tables, but I'm not sure)

Yeah, I'll leave Knossos out for now. In the beginning I only wanted cockpits back, then I took an interest and made a few others ^^ I fully intend on dissecting that Solaris cockpit package!

[General Battuta]

The player's turret ROF is set by the player's pilot AI class, which is present even though the player isn't AI-controlled. In BP missions where you might have a turret, this is cranked up so that your turret will shoot fast. Adjusting turret ROF on the mod side is therefore probably not necessary.

Turret AI classes have no effect on the game unless some modding is done. BP doesn't use them (yet).

[Durandal7]

Updated 3 sub-mods to version 2019.09.15:

• Hide Subsystems: I just changed the name of the file to emphasize the fact that it is not an extension of the bp-shp table, it is the bp-shp table (until the day I'll lear how to properly do it without it doing the animation with double the amptitude)
• Added credits to General Battuta for:
  
  • Better Turrets: Now modifies only the Uriel; it changes the flag "salvo mode" to "use multiple guns" and it changes the ROF Multiplier from 3 to 2 (in order to compensate the fact that the overall turret ROF is divided by the number of the turret's firing points when the "use multiple guns" flag is used)
  • Better Turrets Dynamic: both the Uriel and Vajradhara turrets now "use multiple guns" and have their ROF Multiplier set to 2

Updated the description of the No Linking sub-mod.


And speaking of AI-related ROF, here is a list of AI that can be given to a player so that his/her turret(s) will fire at the intended ROF, regardless of difficulty level: BP2-Lieutenant, BP2-Captain, BP2-Major, BP2-Colonel, BP2-General, Little Devil, Hot Swarm 1 and Fedayeen.
I have no definitive proof, but turrets might be affected by $accuracy, $AI In Range Time:, $Primary Ammo Burst Multiplier: and $Max Aim Update Delay:.

EDIT 1: forgot to check BP missions, give me a few minutes.
M14: BP2-Colonel
M15: BP2-Colonel

EDIT 2: using an Uriel BP2-Colonel and multiplier 1 (for salvo fire) or 2 (for use multiple guns) still results in a lower ROF... could there be another factor at play? I'll do it the old fashioned way and check recordings frame-by-frame. Will update with the newer values when I'm done.

EDIT 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF2Wu_QpjMo (basically the Uriel's turret needs a ROF multiplier of 4.5 for salvo or 9 for use multiple guns to have the same ROF as a primary non-linked bank)

EDIT 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSsmILLjBlM (basicslly the Vajradhara's turrets need a ROF multiplier of 5 for salvo or 10 for use multiple guns to have the same ROF as a primary non-linked bank)

[Durandal7]

Updated Better Turrets and Better Turrets Dynamic to version 2019.09.15.2. Now they work 100% correct with a BP2-Colonel AI at Reality difficulty level. So, the player's turrets ROF should be the same if "$Friendly AI Fire Delay Scale:" in the AI table is 1 (see post directly above).