ToxicFrog

quote:Originally posted by Bandus: :simply points to the correct forum: Whoops, didn't notice that forum there. Can I move my own thread, or do only Mods have that ability?

I usually play something on one of the other boxes (or the PS2), or browse the web. And of course I'm always reading. The real risk is the cats. I can hear the klaxons from the next room, but I can't hear the cat scuttling my ship.

quote:Originally posted by LostInSpace: quote:Originally posted by Thermidor: I don't really have a problem with the physics model in use, other than the fact that ships can stop on a dime (I imagine all of my crew are smashed to a pulp from deceleration and are instantly cloned by the ships computer). Ummmm, Inertia dampers are employed. In that case, how come colliding with another ship results in such massive damage? My guess is that the flight subsystems don't have "warning" like they do when you order a deceleration, and can't kick in the dampener fast enough to completely protect the ship, but do bring it online in time to prevent complete destruction of both vessels. As for Newtonian physics in general, I agree that there's no point using them unless they actually add to the game, and in this case I think they would detract from it...but it would be nice to have ships differentiated by acceleration, rather than maximum speed. Maybe it's something to do with particle shielding being more efficient with a smaller hull area or something.

The Ground Control soundtrack fits nicely. One thing I'm wondering about, though - how did you change the in-game music? I've been running Winamp in the background, but I've been looking for a way to change the ingame so that I can control it while playing. The problem is that if I add more files it doesn't notice them, and if I replace the existing ones it won't play them.

Having upgraded my computer, I reinstalled BCM (now that I have enough space) and returned to playing it. This time, though, I looked around a bit and found the Assets.ini. I've been fiddling around with it a bit, and my ultimate goal is to have carriers that can field a lot (16+) of fighters. Thanks largely to the comments in the header, I've been able to play around with the Firestorm and give it 16 fighters, but I've run into a problem with the pilots. It seems that you can't have more than one instance of a special NPC class (pilots or bridge crew) per ship, and multiple declarations are discarded. Since there are only 8 fighter pilot classes, it won't let me have more than 8 pilots - which kinda removes the point from having more than 8 fighters. I have yet to try this with AI carriers, but I suspect that I will have no better results. So, I've got some questions. Hopefully, someone who's more experienced than I at modding BCM can answer them. -Is there any way to get it to create multiple pilots of the same class? -If not, can new pilot classes be created? -Failing that, can other crew be commanded to pilot the fighters effectively? One thing I though of (but haven't had time to try yet) was to increase the maximum number of pilots, but not the initial number, and clone a few once in the game. I have no idea if that's even possible, though, since I've never used the cloning system before.

Aah. Thanks for clarifying that.

Yesterday, I created a thread in BCM/G General Discussions asking about uses of the -cheat flag in 1.08. That thread has now vanished. I don't think it's been deleted, as I have received no notification of such either by mail or on the forum (and I don't see why it would be deleted in the first place). The really weird part is that a search for it finds the thread, but then tells me it doesn't exist. Can anyone clarify this? Was it simply deleted and I wasn't told? Or is this some sort of bug? (If you want to try repeating the search from scratch, use words 'cheat', user #4131)

Well, I can recieve files of pretty much any size... Are you sure you won't say what you're using?

I've done that before...what if sounds like is a nonperfect landing that leaves your CC 'sliding' around and taking damage. I've also found that trying to launch support craft at 0 altitude tends to send them into the ground at Mach 3, with predictable results.

Neat! This looks extremely cool, more 'worn'...the original textures look more like what these things would be right out of the hangar, rather than after a few months of getting gutted by suicide fighters (grrr...). Can't wait for the full package. may I ask what software you are using for this?

If you mean assigning waypoints to individual marines, I can't do that. Tacops only lets me predefine waypoints for vehicles and support craft. If that's not what you meant, please clarify.

The manual states (p33) that you can assign waypoints for a team deployed by transporter to carry out, but doesn't state how. When I'm in tacops, though, there's no option to do that under either transporter or waypoints. It gets really tedious assigning orders to all 10 marines deployed by transporter, but it seems that's all I can do... So, is this errata/disabled or am I simply not looking in the right place?

Oddly enough, I got a defective Resnig at some point - he was actually competent. During one battle, of 15 boarders, 6 were captured and 9 killed, with only minor injuries on my side. Note that this was with marines with AI ranging from 5 to 11 - not the sharpest knives in the drawer. The 1.0.08RC32 patch wiped out those saves, though, and the Resnig I have now is just as incompetent as usual. My favorite way of killing him is to have him hold the targeting beacon for my OTS launches.

OK, apparently I suffered a minor neural meltdown and got the Firestorm HJ stats confused with those of the Aestrom. Nova: did I ever say "hyperdrive speed"? I understand how the hyperdrive behaves, I just assumed that it displayed 999999... in every hyperjump regardless of the ship's current velocity. I also assumed that it accelerated massively and then flew at a constant speed until a few seconds before unhyping. Clearly I should stop posting while only partly awake. However, this still doesn't answer the main thrust of my question: should ships under hyperdrive be killable? I don't remember seeing this before RC32, but on the other hand, it's not in the VCF and I hardly ever see ships making "short" jumps. It could well be that while making long jumps ships move too fast to be accurately fired upon. In any case, I've seen three AI ships destroyed by ODS fire whiel in hyperspace, and I've been hit with a missile myself while jumping. Is this a feature that I haven't noticed until now, or a bug? The manual implies that ships cannot be harmed while in hyperspace, but doesn't say it outright...

That's odd...it appears to have returned to normal. Perhaps I had the old version of RC32...

Working sound on an SBLive! It's a miracle! Apart from that, there doesn't seem to be much visibly different. But...has the hyperdrive been modified? The hyper transit time for the Firestorm appears to have been increased to 180s, and rather than hyping to 999999... m/s it accelerates smoothly until the midpoint, at which point it decelerates at the same rate. The worrying part is that ships (mine and the AI's) can now be locked on to with missiles and damaged while in hyperspace. Is this a permanent change, or am I the victim of some very weird bug? On the other hand, I did get to scrag an enemy Firestorm while it was still about 10s away from phasing in...it looked extremely cool.

Hmm...I was able to find my character name and ship name in cleartext, but BCM refused to acknowledge them after I altered them. Oh well, I need to make a new character for 1.0.08RC32 anyway I've said it before, but not here, so I'll say it again: This game is uber.

OK, last question before I go off and die some more: Can you rename your ship after you start, or do you need to create a new character? There doesn't seem to be a playmod option for it, and hex editing the save files broke them - probably a checksum failure or something of the kind.

Time to wake up the RE... "Hey! Lanix! I want you to figure out how to modify a Hyperdyne l/g package for mounting on a Starchild!" Now this is going to nag at me for months...it doesn't detract from the game at all, but unexplained phenomena just bug the proverbial hell out of me.

Mine is a tribute to Citadel Station, from System Shock. I would have used the Rickenbacker, but I wanted something more original (and I now see that it is taken...Ullman, have you played the original?). It should come as no surprise that I've replaced the default Mother AI with SHODAN. I have a few other names. Apart from the GCV Twilight, they tend to be references to System Shock, Thief, and CJ Cherryh's Compact Space books (and I see another fan...Joel, have you read The Pride Of Chanur? I think it's even better than Faded Sun). BTW, Dragon Lady: I like the ship names, especially Black Revenge. Wish I'd thought of that one

For me, it would probably be the time that I took out another Firestorm, but two of its Ravens escaped. I thought that they had fled, but they ambushed my ship as I approached the jump point. They launched their missiles as I emerged from hyperspace and then rammed my ship. They were both destroyed, but my Firestorm was so crippled that there was no choice but to self-destruct.

--Crash Landing For my first command, I decided to try a Sunflash and raid some TER/INS bases on Earth. I duly establish planetfall and begin flybys of a handy base, raking it with IOD, PTA and missile fire. Somehow, they must have slipped a missile past my shields. The sound of the reactor going into emergency shutdown was heard across the ship. My other systems, however, were undamaged. With the solar panels providing sufficient power, I decided to continue. Another few minutes passed uneventfully. I'm not sure if they hit me with another missile when I dropped the ECM to launch my own, or if I went a bit too low to fire my IOD, but...I crashed. The Sunflash tore a burning swath across the base, and finally came to rest on the edge of it. I spent a while listening to the damage reports as I staggered from the wreckage of the bridge. Even with out ship crippled and death imminent, however, we still managed to get out the bubbly to celebrate the fact that Resnig hadn't gotten off the bridge in time. I was unable to access Logistics to assses the damage, but I could tell that it was severe. I left the ship to take a look just in time to see a few missiles arcing towards it. I activated my jetpack, but was too late...the blast destroyed most of what was left of the base. Needless to say, I didn't clear the blast zone in time. At some point I'll get around to posting the story of how a pair of Ravens gutted my Firestorm.

Sorry, I should have clarified what I said. I have read the manual and appendix, but I probably shouldn't have written my question while half asleep. What I meant to say is: "Why is it that a Hyperdyne can aquire a target at 85km while a Starchild needs to be within 55km, despite the fact that the Starchild (presumably) has fewer things to interfere with it (atmosphere, gravity)?" My personal theory is that the guys who load the missiles are removing the advanced guidance/lock packages and selling them on the side

quote:You must be confusing missile lock range with burn time.Possibly...the appendix lists "Maximum Launch Range", and that is what I go by. Even if that's just aquiry range, though, how is it that I can lock onto a building 85km away, through driving rain and using groundscanner radar, while a Starchild can only aquire targets at 55km, even using a sensor system that detects everything within a light year and with no weather, gravity, or atmosphere to interfere. I'm not really objecting, I just want to know the rationale behind this structure.

OK, I've been a long-time BC3K'er, but I only just got BCM a few weeks ago, and I already have some questions. First of all (and I apologize if this has already been asked), how do intruders board your CC? Do they spacewalk over, or use the transporter? And if it's the latter, why can't you send marines to board enemy ships? Also, concerning the physics, do the ships carry some sort of inertial dampener? Otherwise, the ship should accellerate as long as the engines are on and keep moving when they are off (except in atmosphere, of course). An ID seems necessary to keep my crew from becoming paste when my CC pulls an accelleration of 8 km/s, but I don't see why it should limit the ship's top speed. And lastly, why do STS missiles have shorter ranges than ATS/STA? Typically (for space engagements), ship velocities are in tens of km/s, weapon ranges in thousands of km, and missile ranges in tens or hundreds of thousands. Even assuming smaller numbers, however, a space-based missile should have a MUCH longer range than a panet-based missile of the same weight - either that, or we can assume that the engines have been massively stripped down and thus it should carry an insanely more lethal payload. If the engines are stripped to give it the same range in space AND the payload is the same, then it should be smaller and thus you should be able to cram more than one into a launch tube. Closing to 75-50km before you can launch effectively is knife-fight range for a space engagement.