Changing Motherships

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

We need more opponents in capital ships, especially those armed with GK Guns.

I fully agree and I think it's up to you. You should add some to your mod.

[Nanaki]

Adding bigships is easy enough... the problem is adding the escort fleet of fighters, I have honestly no idea where to begin. The original randomcontact script is specifically designed to handle only single squads, not multiple squads.

The only guide I have is the RealSW2 mod made originally for SW2. It has a fleet script already made, but the problem is that it would likely require extensive modifications to properly work with SW3, and as I said before, I am not that great with lua.

[Goblin Wizard]

I haven't analyzed spawning functions or your mod yet but "flight_group:Escort(ship);" function isn't enough? When you can spawn group of fighters this function should be enough to attach them to big ships. It's probably obvious to you but you can try analyzing functions contain this code. If i don't know what to do I always start with something like this.

[Nanaki]

It is a lot more complex than that, my work with the specials.script tought me that you also have to assign scripts to the escort fighters as well (everything in the game is scripted, from exiting a portal, to entering back into it, its all scripted). Just adding that line without adding anything else, for example, will just make the escort fighters float by the gate without dissapearing long after the capital ship it was escorting has already exited the system, because the randomcontacts script commands that was given to the capital ship, was not given to the escorting fighters.

The biggest problem comes when you have to randomize the fleets. When you spawn a fleet, its power will be randomized, when the script recieves that power, it has to take that power and translate it to every squad in the fleet, it also has to decide how many squads to assign to the capital ship in the fleet, and I think thats all just scratching the surface. Most of the SW2 Realmod fleet code consists of randomization, I believe.

Trader fleets get around this by assigning the capital ship and its escorting fighters to the same squad and I did the same thing with the Convoys. But I would rather, in this case, the capital ship and its fighter escorts be completely seperate squads.

[Nanaki]

Going back on topic, here is what I have come up with... This sort of necessitates Goblin Wizard's Mothership purchase script in order to work.

You initially start with a Mastiff, Mastiff mostly remains the same as it is now, with exception of losing a major caliber gun and gaining a slight boost to top speed. Using Goblin Wizard's script, I am thinking of adding these motherships as purchase choices:

Mastiff MK2 - Same as the Mastiff, except with an additional major caliber gun (bringing it back to two) and heavier armor/shields (1800 armor, 400 shields). Cheapest of all the motherships.

Military Transport - Basically, the same thing as Heretic's Base/Mercenary Mothership, armed with 4 turrets and 5 systems, 4000 armor and 200 shields. Tough and decent speed, but lacking major caliber guns.

Astarte - The same as it is now, the most expensive purchasable mothership.

A Lion MK1 will replace the Astarte in the optional Mothership mission. Will be armed with 6 turrets, 4 systems, no major caliber guns, 10000 Health, and 5000 shields.

[Goblin Wizard]

How expensive motherships should be? I think about something between 5KK and 20KK.

btw I removed buying motherships from maintenance stations. Now ms can be bought just anywhere in the space. Script can be attached to any object.
Max two more days and mod will be ready (at least working beta).

[Nanaki]

How expensive motherships should be?

The game's only hint is about 300K for an Astarte, and about 150K for a Mastiff... Obviously that is kind of low, but those numbers are what the game gives you.

Personally, I think it should start off as 250K for a Mastiff MK2, 500K for merc mothership, and 750K for an Astarte. In order to purchase the Lion Cruiser from the Mercenaries, you would have to pay 1.5 million (or, if you have the Intuition Perk, you can knock that down to 750K)

End-game motherships like the Manticore, Lion MK2, Lion MK3, Star Wolf, and Rhino are unbuyable.

Also, I am thinking about making GKGuns a little more important in Capital ship vs Capital ship combat, and doubling the range of all GKGuns (not GKTurrets). This will allow GKGuns to really put the hurt on an enemy capital ship at a considerable distance, and necessitate use of strong sensors or forward scouts in order to maximise the effectiveness of your Mothership.

Alongside this change, I may add 1 GKGun slot to the Merc mothership, the Lion MK1, and the Super Chimera. The Stone Arrow and Stalingrad already have GKGun equipped versions, and the Chimera is too light a ship to equip a GK Gun.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

The game's only hint is about 300K for an Astarte, and about 150K for a Mastiff... Obviously that is kind of low, but those numbers are what the game gives you.

Personally, I think it should start off as 250K for a Mastiff MK2, 500K for merc mothership, and 750K for an Astarte. In order to purchase the Lion Cruiser from the Mercenaries, you would have to pay 1.5 million (or, if you have the Intuition Perk, you can knock that down to 750K)

I think it's much too low. Comparing to a good fighters that can cost @500K mothership's price should be at least 10 times greater.

Also, I am thinking about making GKGuns a little more important in Capital ship vs Capital ship combat, and doubling the range of all GKGuns (not GKTurrets). This will allow GKGuns to really put the hurt on an enemy capital ship at a considerable distance, and necessitate use of strong sensors or forward scouts in order to maximise the effectiveness of your Mothership.

This will allow to blow up entire enemy fleets without being noticed. If something is out of their scanners it doesn't exist. AI is not smart enough to fly in the direction of incoming fire.

[Nanaki]

I think it's much too low. Comparing to a good fighters that can cost @500K mothership's price should be at least 10 times greater.

If motherships were really that expensive, nobody would ever buy them (nobody would even have the money to consider buying them, apart from power gamers), they would just use the money to buy state of the art fighters, guns, and systems instead, wait until the Astarte mission, and get whatever mothership comes out of that for free.

Remember that we are just talking about hull prices, not even including the cost of turrets, major caliber guns, and systems. Not to mention we are talking about ships that are mostly just modified transports (Mastiff, Mercenary mothership) or failed experiments (Astarte). The Lion MK1 is considered outdated at the start of the game, and is the only true warship available that early into the game.

My current pricing scheme idea is enough to impact someone's wallet, but cheap enough for someone to consider getting.

This will allow to blow up entire enemy fleets without being noticed. If something is out of their scanners it doesn't exist. AI is not smart enough to fly in the direction of incoming fire.

I do plan on giving handicaps to enemy capital ship fleets. Either with longer-range sensors, or with having sensor modules

[DanielTex]

A cool thing would be if you could have more pilots, like 8 or 9 pilots and the ability to buy a mothership at a space station.