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Imperial Courier V2.0

Discussion and information relevant to creating special missions, new ships, skins etc.

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Selezen
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Post by Selezen »

Yes - yes I have. I hope it's balanced enough to be a decent ship to come up against.
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Post by Cmdr. Maegil »

Great model, I'm going to use it on the Spartacus Brotherhood OXP I'm (slowly) doing!

<WARNING: THREADJACKING>
I've already c&p'd the camo texture you sent me and managed to apply it on the Courier. Now I'm trying to slap a couple of turrets on it to turn it into one of the Spartan squadron leader ships to use with a modified millitary fiasco AI.
Then I'll to do the same to a few other more common models to fill the ranks, randomly throwing some one squadron leader plus 4-6 ships on each squadron.

I'm aiming for a toned down renegade style. I know they'll be somewhat uber just by themselves, but the real challenge should come from their numbers and teamwork.
I still didn't got so far on the AI, but they should be quite inocuous if left alone - unless the player just happens to be carrying slaves. :x

:?: Still, I'd like a bit of input: How many do you think I should put in each squadron, and should I mix random ships or make their TO/E more uniform within each squadron (different squadrons appearing at every 20 jumps or so)?


:idea: Now, this is more than I can bite, but it'd be fun to see a whole battlegroup heading to a station and invading it... If I manage to do the already overly ambitious project I'm already aiming for, I might consider to expand on it.
You know those who, having been mugged and stabbed, fired, dog run over, house burned down, wife eloped with best friend, daughters becoming prostitutes and their countries invaded - still say that "all is well"?
I'm obviously not one of them.
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Post by TGHC »

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:
:idea: Now, this is more than I can bite, but it'd be fun to see a whole battlegroup heading to a station and invading it... If I manage to do the already overly ambitious project I'm already aiming for, I might consider to expand on it.
Have a look at LB's Assassins script, you'll find a couple of examples in there, check the readme it's very detailed and will tell you what each mission does etc.
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Post by Captain Hesperus »

TGHC wrote:
Have a look at LB's Assassins script, you'll find a couple of examples in there, check the readme it's very detailed and will tell you what each mission does etc.
LittleBear's Assassins script has become pretty iconic in terms of massive OXP actions!

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Post by TGHC »

Absolutely, groundbreaking stuff.
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Post by LittleBear »

Spartacus Brotherhood attacking and invading a system. Hmm Cool! :lol:

That'd be a good place for a text-adventure in the station! (as discussed by PM :wink: ).

Should be faily easy to do an AI for that. Giles's native trader AI has a GO_TO-STATION and dock bit in it. Start by grabbing that and C&P it into your AI. But instead of switching to DOCK_WITH_STATION write a little ATTACK_STATION state. Just use the state you have for Maegi attacking the slavers but charge the scanforShipwithRole form slaver to slaverstation. In the updates under all states have 'em look for police to attack or slavers. Make your Brothers offenders or fugtives (just set a bounty in shipdata) and then any police about will go for them.

That'll get all your Brothers flying towards the station, attacking it and any police or slavers they meet on the way. Giving ships custom roles so the version with the right AI only appear when you script them to is the easyist way to get battles and invasions going. You can just use like_ship. :wink:

So define some versions like this:-

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<key>brother-attack-ship</key>
  <dict>
	<key>like_ship</key>
	<string>[key of whatever your called your Brotherhood I.C!]</string>
        <key>bounty</key>
	<integer>150</integer>
	<key>ai_type</key>
	<string>brother-invaderAI.plist</string>
	<key>roles</key>
	<string>brother-attack-ship</string>
	</dict>
Bounty is the base value in Credits given for killing it. Any value over zero makes it at least an Offender and over 100 makes it a fugitive.

The like_ship makes the ship a clone in every way EXCEPT where you say different in the entry. So it would be dead easy to make some slavers by just like_shiping them to some native (or OXP if you liked) ships but giving them custom roles and AI. Could also add a <name> <string>Slaver Cobra Mk III</string> if you liked so the come up in the Target Box with this name. You've now got ships with custom roles that you can throw into the System when the mission is running. Can do that pretty easily with script like this:-

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{
					conditions = ( 
 						"galaxy_number equal 6",
						"planet_number equal 13",
 						"mission_assassins_war equal 1",
						"status_string equal STATUS_EXITING_WITCHSPACE" 
					); 
					do = ( "checkForShips: erebel", 
						{ conditions = ( "shipsFound_number lessthan 50" ); 
						do = ("addSystemShips: erebel 5 1.0"); 
						}, 
					); 
				},
That adds 5 ships with the role erebel next to the Station but only at the system stated by Planet Number and Galaxy number and only when the "war" variable is 1. Repeat with commanders to add slavers and ships with the role "police" (a native role if you use this one, ships of all the police types from the native game and an OXPs the player has installed appear). and you've got a battle going near the station. Repeat with comands that add them to the Space Lanes (Change the value in add system ships. 1.0 means near the station, 0.0 means near the w/s beacon. So a few 0.3s, 0.2, 0.7 etc will fill up the Space Lanes with battleing Brothers police and slavers.

When you want the mission to happen (say after a News broadcast warning that the Brotherhood are attacking System X), then in script set a mission variable eg:-

Code: Select all

set: mission__Maegi_brotherinvasion 1",
If the player goes to the system before the Invasion it'll just be a normal system (as Maegi_brotherinvasion is not 1 none of your mods will be made). Once its happed then your script adds them if the player at the system you've named with PN and GN.

Also have a

Code: Select all

"setSpecificPlanetInfo: 6=13=station=slaverstation",
This will replace the normal station with a clone with the role slaverstation at the time of the invasion. Just likeship a normal station like this:-

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<key>slaverstation</key>
  <dict>
	<key>like_ship</key>
	<string>dodecahedron-station</string>
	<key>roles</key>
	<string>slaverstation rotating-station station(0.0001)</string>
	<key>name</key>
	<string>Slaver Outpost Dodecahedron Station</string>		
	</dict>
Your Brothers have been added near the station, which now has the role slaverstation so they will attack it. To make a text-adventure trigger when the player docks (hey he's docked at a station where the Brothehood and GalCop are fighting for control - could be nasty!), you'd add as a condition to displaying any missiontext that "Maegi_brotherinvasion equal 1" and that "dockedStationName_string equal Slaver Outpost Dodecahedron Station". The only way the player could be at this Station would be if the Invasion had started, so your text-adventure would only start at the right time. EG:-

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{ 
							conditions = ("dockedStationName_string equal Rebel Outpost", "mission_assassins equal assassins_STAGE11missile"); 
							do = ( 
								"setMissionImage: room0.PNG",
								"setMissionMusic: none",
								setGuiToMissionScreen, 
								"addMissionText: room0",
								"set: mission_assassins assassins_zero",
								"setMissionChoices: room_zero_zeroa" 
							); 
						},
Sorry about the High-Jack, but this would be one cool OXP - Battle of Rocky Fields in game! - and should be do-able. Maybe script to have Sparticous type events at some of the systems on the fringes of Galaxy 8. We know that by the time of FFE GalCop has collapsed. So perhaps at the time of Oolite, a few systems on the edge of GalCop Space are starting to get Imperial ideas..... :wink:
OXPS : The Assassins Guild, Asteroid Storm, The Bank of the Black Monks, Random Hits, The Galactic Almanac, Renegade Pirates can be downloaded from the Elite Wiki here.
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Post by Selezen »

Yes, it does sound cool - now please start a new topic to discuss it!!!

:cry:
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Post by drew »

Awesome. Looks far better than the original!

Got to be my favourite ship by far.

Cheers,

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Post by LittleBear »

Sorry, back on topic.

Really like the new laser positions. Pin point on the front laser. The Beam looks wide and fearsome as well! You really feel you are flying some state of the art Imperial killing machine. :twisted:
OXPS : The Assassins Guild, Asteroid Storm, The Bank of the Black Monks, Random Hits, The Galactic Almanac, Renegade Pirates can be downloaded from the Elite Wiki here.
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Post by LittleBear »

Small Bug (unless its a feature :wink: ).

Can't fit an Energy Bomb to the new version. I'm assuming this is because the Energy Bomb isn't included in the available equipment list in shipyard.plist.

Unless this is deliberate to balance this ship out?
OXPS : The Assassins Guild, Asteroid Storm, The Bank of the Black Monks, Random Hits, The Galactic Almanac, Renegade Pirates can be downloaded from the Elite Wiki here.
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Post by Selezen »

It's deliberate. It's to make it a little less uber. If you want to change it, edit your shipyard file! Customised!
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Post by Commander McLane »

Just back from vacation and downloaded the finished version. Still awful (as it was before), and great idea to have a second NPC!

Please allow me two remarks:

- I still think the NPC-ICs (both of them) should have a fuel injector. Both of them would definitely have the chance to have one. In my private version I inserted

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		<key>has_fuel_injection</key>
		<real>1</real>
at the proper place. But it could be a value below 1 as well.

- I am glad you used the weapon_position, view_positions and external_views I proposed. :D But may I say that the readme is a bit unspecific at that point?
readme wrote:
Thanks to the Oolite community for their help bringing this ship to life, including help with the viewpoints and laser positions.
As one of our greatest modders put it in another thread:
Selezen wrote:
I'd like to see my name listed somewhere too...just because I like seeing my name on things - hence the unfortunate graffiti incident a few years back...
Just two humble remarks. Thank you for considering them.


I love this ship! :lol: I'm going to conquer the Ooniverse in it! :twisted:
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Post by Selezen »

It's unspecific because I can't remember everyone's name!

You're right though - I should add those I can remember...
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Post by Commander McLane »

Selezen wrote:
It's unspecific because I can't remember everyone's name!
:) Well, reading though this thread again there was nobody else involved with view and weapons positions...
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Post by Selezen »

I didn't just mean views and weapons - several kind forum-goers have contributed to different areas of the OXP since I started it.

I've added your credit to the wiki - hope that's sufficient.
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