Caduceus

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:12 pm

I need to send you a little something stand by.

Cmdr Wyvern wrote:
ClymAngus wrote:
Hey, snipe-ing is a viable tactic, but if we look in "The Dark Wheel" by Robert Holdstock, we see passages like this:

"She sailed under the belly of the leader with as much calm and cheek as you please. It belly-shot at them, and she rolled the Cobra so that she could side-strafe back. All along the Boa's under-belly, shards and sparks flew brightly where the shields were lowered around the laser housings."

"The Nemesis slid smoothly along its belly and again turned side on, strafing the sensitive underparts as it matched the giant's slow roll."

Broadsides are a well documented tactic as discussed in the original novel packaged with Elite. I've just designed a ship that specialises in this tactic, making it a hell of a lot easier to pull off successfully.

I see myself as facilitating an enhanced (yet still fundimentally true) cultural oolite/elite experience

It's the tactical equivalent of trying to compare a morgan with a ferrari. One has power the other has class but they're both still cars.
Fair 'nuff.

I could suggest replacing the middle turret gun of each battery with a side laser mount. Still withering at close ranges, and gives something to broadside attack with at longer ranges when the turrets are effectively useless.

Your call of course; feel free to ignore the suggestion.

(Though for some reason NPCs can't use side lasers worth a hoot.)

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Thu May 14, 2009 6:03 pm

After the kirin incident the caduceus (taking into account the hard fought lessons experienced in that bitter fight) improved itself. This new genetic and nanite code was systematically disseminated to the entire fleet of ships.

There are many improvements here over the original. Although I will be bump mapping it at some point and a third variant is still on the drawing board Caduceus_Psi.
Comparison shots;

http://www.crimsonforge.co.uk/cloister/neocaduceus.zip

pagroove · Post by **pagroove** » Thu May 14, 2009 7:13 pm

Cool man! Like the looks and glow.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Thu May 14, 2009 8:30 pm

Fab piccies of a fab looking ship, based on a splendid premise with a stunning back-story!

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:49 pm

We're not done yet, not by a long chalk; the fight is just beginning next couple of chapters of Kirin will be up tomorrow, and things are getting really really bad for the caduceus and the crew of the Therenback......

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:10 pm

After seeing my first Caduceus back in January (see page 5), I finally found my first one for sale last night (in Gal7)- a "Caduceus-Alpha" for 1.2mil.
Now after going back to a previous save file to complete the GalNavy special ops in Gal6 I jump later to Gal7 but in a different system & find another Caddy for sale, BUT this ones different, a "Caduceus-Omega" for 1.6mil.
Both described as basic models...
But when kitting them out the Omega will let me put a mil laser on the Port & Starboard fitting, the Alpha didn't let me have that option.
Question, are there different Caddy models out there?
What else is different?
How many models are there?
What are the specs of them all?

ClymAngus - Screet - Anyone ????

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:22 pm

Tivva wrote:
Question, are there different Caddy models out there?
What else is different?

The Omega has two additional turrets on top and bottom of the ship, which have much firepower.

However, flying the Omega, I typically end up using the side lasers and thus not use the two additional turrets. The additional laser mounts are very useful:
1) They help if you need to fight a big ship like the Leviathan from a long distance, as two lasers leave too much time for such ships to rebuild their energy.
2) In bigger fights, it often happens that a targeted ship becomes neutral again because someone else did shoot at it. In that case the side lasers do help very much as they cause the turrets to re-open fire again
3) The lasers also do help to shorten battles very much if the turrets are active anyway. This especially is useful for Thargoid Battleships and such, or Falcons which can shoot back with turrets on their own.

I must admit that I wasn't able to shoot smaller ships like Asps or Sidewinders with Sidelasers before flying a Caduceus...now it's something I regularly do.

IIRC the "original" Caduceus (old style) came with a "Hammer of Sorrow" variant which was much like the Omega, but had more missile slots.

The Omega also has a little higher cargo capacity compared to the Alpha version.

You can compare (and edit) their values in the shipdata.plist file of the oxp.

Screet

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:26 pm

Screet wrote:
Tivva wrote:
Question, are there different Caddy models out there?
What else is different?
The Omega has two additional turrets on top and bottom of the ship, which have much firepower.

However, flying the Omega, I typically end up using the side lasers and thus not use the two additional turrets. The additional laser mounts are very useful:
1) They help if you need to fight a big ship like the Leviathan from a long distance, as two lasers leave too much time for such ships to rebuild their energy.
2) In bigger fights, it often happens that a targeted ship becomes neutral again because someone else did shoot at it. In that case the side lasers do help very much as they cause the turrets to re-open fire again
3) The lasers also do help to shorten battles very much if the turrets are active anyway. This especially is useful for Thargoid Battleships and such, or Falcons which can shoot back with turrets on their own.

I must admit that I wasn't able to shoot smaller ships like Asps or Sidewinders with Sidelasers before flying a Caduceus...now it's something I regularly do.

IIRC the "original" Caduceus (old style) came with a "Hammer of Sorrow" variant which was much like the Omega, but had more missile slots.

The Omega also has a little higher cargo capacity compared to the Alpha version.

You can compare (and edit) their values in the shipdata.plist file of the oxp.

Screet

Oh Wow, I'm gonna enjoy this baby. I thought I'd missed it when I gave up the Alpha to go back for Kurtz. Now I'm gonna have some fun

ps Just noticed that "additional fuel cells" don't appear to work?

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:53 pm

Tivva wrote:
Oh Wow, I'm gonna enjoy this baby. I thought I'd missed it when I gave up the Alpha to go back for Kurtz. Now I'm gonna have some fun
ps Just noticed that "additional fuel cells" don't appear to work?

Hehe, I'm having much fun with my Omega and cannot imagine to exchange it for any other ship

If you're talking about the fuel key, I think it's locked via the Oolite code to prevent player ships from having insanely large fuel tanks, thus giving the ability to jump beyond the 7ly limit.

Should you ever require to fly into a large object, that would blow up ships with turrets, let's say, something immensely big in hyperspace (or to give those fuel stations a try) you need to remove the turrets temporarily from shipdata.plist and reload oolite with shift down. It's best to keep an original copy and put it back afterwards. I once was looking for that bug in the source, but it wasn't something obvious to me.

Interestingly, after writing that message, I was remembering my ships source and where I also saw other Caduceus' ships for sale and in flight: G7. Maybe the random generators have more luck in that galaxy...could be simple coincidence, though.

Screet

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:38 am

Screet wrote:
Tivva wrote:
ps Just noticed that "additional fuel cells" don't appear to work?

If you're talking about the fuel key, I think it's locked via the Oolite code to prevent player ships from having insanely large fuel tanks, thus giving the ability to jump beyond the 7ly limit.

Screet

I meant the 'extra fuel tank' available to buy from F3 'ship outfitting' option when docked at a main station.
It doesn't allow single jumps bigger than 7ly anymore than the fuel stations do...

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:17 am

The original cad, had a much bigger "hit area" it also had some issues with docking, targetting, asthetically it looked like the wings had been stuck on it and it had an ungainly (but accurate for it's cargo capacity) rear end.

The alpha and omega are the same model. The model itself has properly centred lasers, a smaller profile, destructable turrets, spinny engines and new texture.

The omega also changes colour when you power up the engines.

Cargo space has been reduced on the alpha to take into account the cleaned up model. The high cargo capacity to size ratio is justified by the ships ability to incorperate cargo into the structure of the craft. It is a bio-form after all.

Some people say it's over powered. I say if it screws your game balance then don't download it. I will be removing the original caduceus in due course as the neo is ment to be a replacement. I just wanted to give people time to access the old oxp if they wanted it.

A third varient is on the back burner for the moment that has reduced turrets, (2 per side) 4 weapon mounts a bio-shield sub-entity and a game breaking turn of speed.

anything else I can help with?

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:21 am

ClymAngus wrote:
anything else I can help with?

Add alien living ships to fight?

Screet

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:30 am

sorry dude, I'm finishing off the maps, doing a bump map for the caddy (as soon as 1.73 comes out or when I can get my head round a oolite scratch build. Then I think I might gently retire. Oolite was my way of dealing with the death of a close friend.

A maker has to make something, but when his chosen medium is tainted by death it's best to spend some time away from it making something else.

Audio Drama/comedy is calling me back, high time I finished up my obligations and got back to what I do best.

Doesn't mean I won't pop back, or stop playing or be unavalable for the odd texture.

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:23 am

Sorry to hear that you joined us in such sad circumstances.

Thank-you for your wonderful contributions while you've been here.

Is there anywhere I can see your RL(tm) work?

As a would-be writer myself - you can find my RL efforts here - were I pretend to be somebody called John Hoggard

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:24 am

I hope you don't mind - I had a play with your Screenies and produced an advert for YAH...