MOD: Privateer 1.2 Parallel Universe 1.0

Forum for discussing various mods for the VS-engine based upon Privateer. (Please play nice now, and extinguish all flaming materials.
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Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

The merchant sits down on Speke, but as I said, that's no must. Plus, I never experimented with two campaign fixers in one bar... I'll try out if that'd be also possible.
micheal_andreas_stahl
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

z30 wrote:Took out ( as discussed in another thread) :

Kukhri
Galaxy GS (my preference here)
Noooooooo, You can't do that! :'(
z30 wrote:It's not balanced - no ship that size can carry that many turrets & go that fast. Let me rephrase that - no ship of that type can travel nearly as fast as a fighter.
I'm still working on my galaxyBS, which after reading this i'll most likly delete the files.
z30 wrote:You're going to hate me for this Solon but if Dilloh & I come to an agreement about a certain division of labor
Sigh. If only i could do something. Sigh Is the anything you guys need me for? Proof reading, checking files, testing? Sigh. School is geting in the way. Bugger school. What do you want me to do? Or am i no longer needed? Image
Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

MAS, as far as I know you owe me a script for your New Caledonia campaign :wink:
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Post by z30 »

micheal_andreas_stahl wrote:
z30 wrote:Took out ( as discussed in another thread) :

Kukhri
Galaxy GS (my preference here)
Noooooooo, You can't do that! :'(
z30 wrote:It's not balanced - no ship that size can carry that many turrets & go that fast. Let me rephrase that - no ship of that type can travel nearly as fast as a fighter.
I'm still working on my galaxyBS, which after reading this i'll most likly delete the files.
z30 wrote:You're going to hate me for this Solon but if Dilloh & I come to an agreement about a certain division of labor
Sigh. If only i could do something. Sigh Is the anything you guys need me for? Proof reading, checking files, testing? Sigh. School is geting in the way. Bugger school. What do you want me to do? Or am i no longer needed? Image

Got a new ship coming up - need all the testers I can get :)
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Post by Zool »

MAS wrote: Proof reading, checking files, testing?
Ditto for me too. :D I certainly can be of more help than I am now
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micheal_andreas_stahl
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Dilloh wrote:MAS, as far as I know you owe me a script for your New Caledonia campaign :wink:
Yeah, will e-mail bout that.
z30 wrote:Got a new ship coming up - need all the testers I can get
Good i'll test it.
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Base mod for PU mods (based on Dilloh's DSE patch)

Post by z30 »

Hello all, I've been working on a base mod for all those who want to build on Dilloh's PU1b6-DSE patch. Dilloh, you can use this for your missions I'm just tweaking the basics & adding a few twists :)

So far :

* have added Orthuberra's graphics upgrade for inventory items

* fixed the Tarsus VDU display so it doesn't scroll over the left side - mission objectives can now be seen on the monitor

* used Targ's fix of several fighter cockpits to apply the same sanity setup for their respective VDU's

* fixed missile turn rates. you're going to love the new HS mobility - it really goes after the target. Range reduced from 15k to 10k to make this a dedicated short range killer.

also adjusted the IMRec & FoF turn radius - I think the FoF is a bit underpowered and will try new values for it's damage potential. I should also mention that the DF missile should not be underestimated - at it's 3K speed it will hit something at short range (w/ excellent damage)

On the todo list :

* use Targ's fix of the DraymanCVL turrets, but will eliminate the large turrets for this PU base mod version

* take a look at setting up small turrets so that the Tarsus Mk2 can be rebalanced to only carry turrets with light guns

* port over Targ's autotracking turret capability. If turrets are more accurate you probably won't need that many of them anymore. These will probably be a new turret class, 1.5-2x more expensive than the current ones.

* setup a separate faction for Solon & Dilloh's militia missions. Sligor's Slammers will field upgraded Scimitars & Hornets (leaving the militia with the stock Gladius & Talons - this feels right to me)

Pissing off the general militia won't get the Slammers mad at you.

Also adding the WCU setup for Perry to this mod. In WCU there are two Paradigm destroyers standing guard over that space station.

Dillo - your Speke orbiting Drayman moves too fast to dock with using a Tarsus. There is a way of setting up the orbit in the universe.xml - will post the Perry code later.
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Post by targ collective »

[Points at Drayman fixes, cockpits and AT turrets]

I did that! (The Drayman with help from Chuck.) Now I feel all warm and fuzzy. :)

For light guns, really simple, add a new light turret class to the game and give the Tarsus a Turret_Light mountpoint.
Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

Dilloh, you can use this for your missions I'm just tweaking the basics & adding a few twists
Great, I've been waiting for a complete set of csvs where I can put in my final lines.
take a look at setting up small turrets so that the Tarsus Mk2 can be rebalanced to only carry turrets with light guns
Light turrets - great idea!
Pissing off the general militia won't get the Slammers mad at you.
And vice versa, I assume? Btw, the Sligor character is a merchant who will go to jail - but it is not clear how long, so go ahead :wink:
Also adding the WCU setup for Perry to this mod. In WCU there are two Paradigm destroyers standing guard over that space station.
I'll be excited to see that.
your Speke orbiting Drayman moves too fast to dock with using a Tarsus. There is a way of setting up the orbit in the universe.xml - will post the Perry code later.
No need for that - I can half its speed within the blink of an eye in the system file, but go ahead and post, I'm always in for learning something new. I speeded up Heimdall that fast so you can see that it is actually in orbit. Trust me - I experimented two days with those values... but I'm not attached to that speed.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

IIRC HS are supposed to be able to be thrown of your tail with an 180 degree turn.
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Post by targ collective »

Planets are BIG. You shouldn't be able to see it orbit with a planet at that scale. The Speke vdu display shows Randrigor in orbit... You can see from your target computer the speed it moves at when stationary, anyway.
micheal_andreas_stahl
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

I can half its speed within the blink of an eye in the system file, but go ahead and post, I'm always in for learning something new. I speeded up Heimdall that fast so you can see that it is actually in orbit. Trust me - I experimented two days with those values... but I'm not attached to that speed.
Is Heimdall going at 120 kps?
Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

Heimdall currently has 600kps. Totally uncanon of course, but I made that so you actually see that it is in orbit and not think that it is an oridnary Drayman flying around. We'll revert that. Still, the speed doesn't matter - you can catch up in any ship by just stopping within the orbit and waiting until Heimdall catches you.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Wow. i nevver knew draymen could go that fast. :shock:
Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

No no, the ship doesn't go that fast by its own engines. It is in orbit, like a satellite.
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Post by micheal_andreas_stahl »

Oh, i see now.

Oh, why was the Kukhri taken out?
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Post by targ collective »

Now come on, Dilloh. At that speed it would have escape velocity and be three systems away by now! :P
Dilloh
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Post by Dilloh »

Considering the size of ships compared to planets, planets are either 1km in diameter or ships are 5000km long - so we don't need to break our heads over centrifugal effects as long as we have dwarfs and giants in space :lol:

The Kukhri, among with the Sparrowhawk, has turned out to be an unpopular variant. z30 plans to take the cutlass in, which is just fine for me. Too many variants make the game boring, like who would still fly a Gladius if there's a Kukhri?
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Post by targ collective »

Well, even given the unrealistic scales the orbit speed just looks wrong. Scale it to, oh, I don't know, one revolution a minute or so. Or maybe half the speed. The Speke widget shows Randrigor in orbit, after all - you could make it all but stationary, and players would still get the point.
z30
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new AI

Post by z30 »

I grafted the AI from the multiuser version of WCU into the basemod. This AI is much more sophisticated than the one PR currently uses. Surprisingly it seems to be working, but it needs to be tested to make sure standard missions remain doable.

I'm releasing an early version of the basemod in 2-3 days, the new AI can be accessed in medium difficulty mode.

Though the easy & hard modes are using the regular settings, I would like people to test (specially the easy) these modes nonetheless.
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Post by z30 »

micheal_andreas_stahl wrote:Oh, i see now.

Oh, why was the Kukhri taken out?
It just wasn't popular or unique enough to keep. Don't worry, we'll have other fighter bombers eventually.
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Post by targ collective »

A new and better AI is certainly a step forwards. Look forward to testing it.
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

I haven't seen the thing in question, but I have to agree with Targ in principle. If the orbiting object is as low and close to the planet as for the planet to occupy almost half your field of view, it should take at least 20 minutes to orbit full circle. If it's any further out, the rotation should not be noticeable at all.

Sizes of planets are one of those things I'd say to hell with canon, let's make them bigger. Spiritplumber did just that and then undid it because apparently the engine measures distance to the planet as distance to the center of it, so with big planets, if you adjusted the docking distance to be just right, for a smaller planet it was too far away. So she undid the planet resizing changes. But this "bug" should be easily fixable in the code.

But there was another problem with bigger planets: They became visible from other bases.

But then again, one might ask if Hector and Achilles aren't orbiting Hellen...

"Fixing" WC is not easy...
Last edited by chuck_starchaser on Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by targ collective »

That's a fine idea. I'm in full agreement with you there Chuck, in fact I'd vote for the full deal - SPEC and light-minute distances - but sadly that would be going too far.

On the physics though, you can barely feel inertia. This would be a real deviation from canon, but what about cutting acceleration by, say, half? It would make for more realistic space combat. The problem is, it's so unrealistic that drawing a line on how far realism goes is difficult... It would be nice, but a shock to newcomers expecting original Privateer gameplay.
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

Well, exactly; that's the whole problem. Actually, half the problem. Accelerations are ridiculous, like 10 or 20 G's, officially, for fighters. Then again, official figures and the magnitudes of things in-game are almost unrelated. Like kps (kilometers per second) are translated into METERS per second for game simulation purposes. So, any amount of acceleration gets you to max speed in no time.

There's basically no way to comprehensively fix everything that is wrong with WC without changing it completely --if not making it completely unplayable. We have to content ourselves with tweaking details here and there at best.
But orbital speed, I agree, could be made as low as possible. Not only is it more realistic, but it's also more canon, as there was no such thing as orbits in Privateer original.
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