Tarsus Mk2

[z30]

The updated files include :

* modified Broadsword variant, the Katana. this is a testbed for Drayman upgrade ideas. Katana has 1000 ton cargo hold, enough to carry one fighter or two Tarsus Mk2's.

It also has upgraded missile launchers, 4 missile mounts w/10 missiles each capable of handling light,medium & heavy missiles. I kept the 3 fixed Proton torpedo mounts but increased capacity to 5 each & added tractor capability.

There are 4 heavy gun mounts and lastly, speed has been upgraded to 400kph

* corrected default weapon values for Kukhri (Gladius variant) & Tarsus Mk2 to reflect weapon configs that work for me and not default values of originals

The Tarsus Mk2 is proving to be an effective cargo hold fighter. While pilot skill is obviously not ace/veteran level like the Gothri's, the nimbleness and added turret is enough to make it a distraction for opposing ships.

At 500 tons cargo hold volume, the Drayman can carry a max of ten escorts.

I'm still having difficulties tractoring in Kukhri using the Katana (using 3 tractor beams!) - could be form factors. No such difficulty with the Tarsus Mk2.

Kukhri cargo hold storage value set to 750 tons, to reflect it's smaller size vs. the Centurion (1000 tons).

[z30]

repeated message

[Gosshawk]

I think the volumes need to be standardized in the parts list. some thing like this maybe, othe wise, your looking at carrying 4 centurions or orions for every demon. i think the values should be higher than even my example, but i used your updated list for a base.

BTW, for the text with the tarsusmk2 in parts list, the spa at the end is spaces, and thats the last word aswell.

[Gosshawk]

This is the one i'm going with for now. Draymans still under development, hence the price

[z30]

This is the one i'm going with for now. Draymans still under development, hence the price

There must be something wrong with my forum settings, can't see any attachments. Could you repost the values as a forum message?

Edit: the attachments suddenly appeared - got the files will take a look at it. You're right some of the original values need standardization

I just saw an amazing thing fyi, I threw 3 Tarsus Mk2's at a Gothri. The Kilrathi ship destroyed one but sustained damage (front hull had deep red areas).

So I released another fresh TMk2, and they ganged up and destroyed the bogey

Considering my Drayman had another 6 escorts in reserve, that was a pretty good performance.

I suspect that the underwhelming effect most wingmen have on hostiles is partly due to the lackluster default weapon array in the units.csv for their particular ship.

The TMk2 in the updated files has 2 Meson guns, 1 Particle cannon turret and a full load of HS missiles. I remember Spirit saying that wingmen use the same AI so there must be something else ontop of pilot skill that is weakening the escorts.

Effective turrets also must play a part, there is a big difference in kind of damage a particle turret can do vs. laser ones.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

Ignoring all that happened since i last logged on, the sheets did not work. When i added the sheets my Demon was stripped of all its Components and there was no model for any craft.
Thanks anyway.

[z30]

I liked the fact that the new Talon cargo volume enabled me to pack 1 TMk2 & 2 Talons on the Katana. But the stock Talon is too fragile for close combat in it's current form.

Will be experimenting today on a revised Talon with the ff. modifications :

* 3 single missile launchers - middle gun mount will be converted to a missile mount

* level 2 shield, stock Talon actually has level 2 reactors but only level 1 shield tops

* dual gun mounts will be capable of mounting Particle cannons

No addition of jump drives or armor - I'd like to keep to the spirit of the Talon as a cheap, simple light fighter.

Will call it the Talon-S , S for Sparrowhawk in honor of Ursula K LeGuin's classic Earthsea trilogy which Hallmark mangled beyond recognition in their miniseries for TV.

[Gosshawk]

Sweet. I agree, keeping the armor the same is good. Talon is a light fighter through and through. The extra shields will help tho.

I think the smallest fighter should have a volume of at least 300, as the galaxy's cargo can be expanded to 250. I think light fighters at 1000, medium at 2000, heavy at 3000 and up. either that or decrease the cargo holds on the drayman and paradigm. Right now i've got the DCV at 10000, sameas the default paradigm. Wich means 10 light fighters, or comination of fighters adding to 10000. What do you think?

Also, I'm going to try to fix the Paradigm. I think its a problem with the turrets hitting the ship thats doing all the damage.

Cheers

[z30]

Sweet. I agree, keeping the armor the same is good. Talon is a light fighter through and through. The extra shields will help tho.

I think the smallest fighter should have a volume of at least 300, as the galaxy's cargo can be expanded to 250. I think light fighters at 1000, medium at 2000, heavy at 3000 and up. either that or decrease the cargo holds on the drayman and paradigm. Right now i've got the DCV at 10000, sameas the default paradigm. Wich means 10 light fighters, or comination of fighters adding to 10000. What do you think?

Also, I'm going to try to fix the Paradigm. I think its a problem with the turrets hitting the ship thats doing all the damage.

Cheers

Ouch - the Galaxy with two fusion turrets, two hull fusion guns AND a fighter ? Agree 100%, let's bump it to 300.

Seems ok :

Light Fighters 300 - 1000
Medium Fighters 1000-2000
Heavy Fighters 2000-3000

Since merchant ships are typically heavier than fighters in an equivalent class they would be :

Light Merchanters 500 - 1500 (Tarsus being at 500, TMk2 at 750)
Medium Merchanters 1500 - 2500
Heavy Merchanters 2500 - 4000 (?)

7500-10k cargo hold seems fine for the DCV, we can play around this range and see how it goes.

[Gosshawk]

Agreed. I'll work on the DCV throughout the week and post it on the weekend.

Cheers

[z30]

Finally got (most) of it right.

The Talon S , to which can be added :

ECM1
Shields 2
Reactor 2
3 HS
2 Particle cannons (or any mix of Light/Medium guns)
Afterburner

Option for Hull & Armor upgrades blocked out. Even without adding Radar the ship already has one equipped - it's like the level 2 Hunter radar with *very* narrow cone for locking

300 cargo volume space. Will put it through it's paces tomorrow - my csv files got corrupted by Excel alas..will have to rebuild.

[Gosshawk]

The reason for the radar showing up is that you have values there. It's supposed to be FALSE,0,FALSE,0,0,0,0, From colum BP-BV. That wil give you no radar by default. and all the template ships are TRUE,2,TRUE,2.00E+38,180,180,180. Also, you have the cloak tag on. And the repair droid tag. Plus the template ships eqipment should be {shield_4_Level2;;}{reactor_level_2;;}{mult_general_upgrade;;}{add_general_upgrade;;}. And the weapon coordinates arent showing up completly. did you download the file yourself to double check that it's complete. If it is, then maybe theres something going on in compression. The updated units file didnt have any issues with this, So mabye we're doing somthing wrong when we send single files. the updated files you uploaded came as two files. maybe we've got to maintain sending two files at the same time?

Anyways, great work.

Cheers


Edit: as a test, i saved the original tarsusmk2 ExcellCVS file as an excell 4.0 worksheet, and it cut off the description at spa, and the weapon hardpoints coordinates. Could be anothe explenation as to whats happening. But then I saved it as an excell 97-2003 & 5.0 workbook, and it went fine. Strange.

[z30]

The reason for the radar showing up is that you have values there. It's supposed to be FALSE,0,FALSE,0,0,0,0, From colum BP-BV. That wil give you no radar by default. and all the template ships are TRUE,2,TRUE,2.00E+38,180,180,180. Also, you have the cloak tag on. And the repair droid tag. Plus the template ships eqipment should be {shield_4_Level2;;}{reactor_level_2;;}{mult_general_upgrade;;}{add_general_upgrade;;}. And the weapon coordinates arent showing up completly. did you download the file yourself to double check that it's complete. If it is, then maybe theres something going on in compression. The updated units file didnt have any issues with this, So mabye we're doing somthing wrong when we send single files. the updated files you uploaded came as two files. maybe we've got to maintain sending two files at the same time?

I just might switch to OpenOffice for the CSV editing. Someone already warned me earlier that Excel has a nasty habit of butchering CSV files once in a while.

Have attached the corrected Talon S zip file in the previous message. I missed an entry, if you don't have a "sparrowhawk" row in the units.csv then no wingmen appear. This is probably the row on which computer generated ships in general are based on.

I used the add_general_upgrade_no_armor in the sparrowhawk.template entry (added multi upgrade as well). This was what the talon.template used - I think isometal will be an option though.

Didn't tamper with the default radar settings, what I'm afraid of is that the wingmen will be blind if the false switch is on.

[z30]

Added the jump drive to the ships you get from the planet/station market. Being able to send the Sparrowhawk through a jump point to attack hostile ships on the other side is important - specially for the current Drayman.

I usually keep the TMk2's in reserve for emergencies.

[z30]

Placing the Sparrowhawk or the Kukhri in the Militia faction prevents certain equipment to become available.

Also, stuff like the afterburner isn't on the list in some backwater worlds - this and other basic but important stuff will be hardwired into both variants.

This should enable me to place these two ships in the Militia faction without problems.

[Gosshawk]

I've placed the Drayman CVL as a militia light capship. Will require adding entries at the bases where they can be purchased. So far it's meeting expectations. It can take on light and medium fighters with relative ease, and some heavy ships, but has a hell of a time against broadswords. Go figure a bomber gives its designed prey a beating . Still testing, and then put it all together with instructions. A long list of modifications went into this one. Hopefully I wont miss anything.

z30, heres the MPL I have so far. let me know if the volumes work for you. With this setup, the CVL will carry 4 talons and 4 kukhri fighters. This is the deffault loadout so far. When you get the sparrowhawk finished, that should replace the talons as they all came out about the same time. I'm still going to add the gladius, paradigm, and the confed craft later.

Cheers

[ijuin]

4 and 4 sounds like a good loadout--enough to have a decent squadron, but not a "true" carrier or destroyer.

[z30]

4 and 4 sounds like a good loadout--enough to have a decent squadron, but not a "true" carrier or destroyer.

I agree Can't wait to field test the improved Drayman myself.

Great job Goss, I'll take a good look at your copy of your master parts list too so I can apply the hold volume standards across the board.

[z30]

z30, heres the MPL I have so far. let me know if the volumes work for you. With this setup, the CVL will carry 4 talons and 4 kukhri fighters. This is the deffault loadout so far. When you get the sparrowhawk finished, that should replace the talons as they all came out about the same time. I'm still going to add the gladius, paradigm, and the confed craft later.

Cheers

I took a good look at the revised valued and they're excellent. I agree with the increase of the TMk2's cargo hold volume from 500 to 1500. Given it's effectiveness as a wingman this was needed to keep the variety alive, otherwise people would carry nothing but this craft.

I'll port my ship descriptions over and repost the MPL. I should be finished with the Sparrowhawk/Kukhri revisions this weekend.

The Sparrowhawk is more than a match for the Talon fyi, funny what level 2 shields, ecm1 and two particle cannons can do

[Edit - I've attached the MPL file with descriptions added. Sparrowhawk entry also there]

[z30]

Attached is the lastest versions of my units & master parts CSV files in Excel format. Also included is the faction_ships python module.

Changes are :

* adopted Gosshawks price ,weight & volume for the MPL
* Sparrowhawk & Kukhri now correctly under Militia faction
* Wingmen generation changed so that any place that offers Merchant wingmen will include the Sparrowhawk & Kukhri as possible ships

* Sparrowhawk upgrade options fixed (though jump drive and ecm still aren't option - this is standard as per original program)

* Sparrowhawk & Kukhri as wingmen carry the upgraded weapons & shields
* Tarsus Mk2 default turret downgraded from Particle to Laser

* Sparrowhawk weapon config switched back to 3 gun mounts & 2 missile mounts. Missile launchers now carry a max of 2 missiles per.

The faction ships program goes into your {Privateer directory}/modules subdir.

What has changed is that the wingmen generation for the Merchant faction will now produce : Sparrowhawk, Kukhris, Tarsus Mk2's & Orion mk2's

I removed the Galaxy as an option since this is a luxury merchanter vessel, it's very unlikely something this expensive will be rented out as escorts.

There is a much greater chance you'll get the TMk2 or Sparrowhawk vs. OrionMk2/Kukhri

Goss, the variants in the units.csv file are at the very end. Please see if the Sparrowhawk & Kukhri are still decent carrier fighters with your upgraded Drayman.

There is still a problem with the Tarsus Mk2 as wingmen, the turret isn't included when the ships are generated. This problem doesn't exist when you buy them off the commodity market to be part of your cargo.

[z30]

I've corrected the missing turret issue on the TMk2 when rented as wingmen from the mission computer. Ditto for the OrionMk2 turrets in the same situation.

I'm also adjusted the Orion Mk2 weapon configuration to have two missile launchers in the hull & 1 heavy gun mount. Considering the turret placement issues I've been encountering, a possible solution may be just to have the top turret.

Will experiment with having a fixed rear turret (meson or laser). So far the adjustments are making it possible to fly the upgraded Orion with just reactor 3 & shield 3 in place.

More tomorrow

[Edit : I've cut the wingmen mission price to 1/3. This plus the better equipment they have should make it more attractive to bring one. Still figuring out how to make the price display correctly on the mission computer ]

[jeffn]

Here's the TarsusMk2 file. Its in exel. compressed in .rar. all you have to do is copy the first 3 lines into your units.csv, then copy the single line into master parts list. Enjoy

What file is the Master Parts List?

[z30]

Here's the TarsusMk2 file. Its in exel. compressed in .rar. all you have to do is copy the first 3 lines into your units.csv, then copy the single line into master parts list. Enjoy

What file is the Master Parts List?

It's the file in your main Privateer directory, master_parts_list.csv

You'll also have to alter the units/units.csv - this contains the ship configurations.

Safest is to just backup these files, then copy the updated versions. Note the caveats though in my next post.

[z30]

I reset the game (changes were conflicting & causing confusion with some saved games) and found out the random ship generation in the Privateer universe was controlled by the same code that produced wingmen in the faction_ship module.

Had to alter the ship ratio's so that the original versions of the Galaxy & other vessels would still fly and be seen :

-------------

fighters = (("stiletto","stiletto","gladius","gladius","kukhri","broadsword",), #confed
("dralthi","dralthi","gothri",), #kilrathi
("steltek_fighter",), #nephilim
("tarsus","tarsus","tarsus","tarsusMk2","tarsusMk2","galaxy","orion","orionMk2",), #merchant
("talon",), #retro
("talon","talon","talon","talon","talon",), #pirates
("demon","demon","demon","orion","orion","centurion",), #hunter
("sparrowhawk","kukhri",), #militia
("salthi","salthi.particle"), #unknown
("tarsus","gladius","talon","talon","talon","drayman",),#landreich
("tarsus","gladius","talon","talon","talon","drayman",),#border_worlds
("stiletto",), #firekkan
("stiletto",), #AWACS
-------------

This produced a better "feel", specially for the merchanters. Still testing, will post a complete set of updated MPL,units , faction ships & wingmen files later.

[micheal_andreas_stahl]

I am having trouble with the Tarsus Mk2. I have done averything in the sheet you first posted, and i cannot add guns or turruts. also only the left engines work. i can fly ok but it does not look that good. i have not tried the Orion Mk2 yet.