Mission Script - Stealth/Recon

A forum for the discussion and development of programs to assist working on or playing with the Vegastrike engine and data sets.
Post Reply
pheonixstorm
Elite
Elite
Posts: 1567
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:03 am

Mission Script - Stealth/Recon

Post by pheonixstorm »

A few ideas mentioned (mostly by Chuck) called for recon or some type of stealth, notably for blockade running. Heres the question: Does the engine currently have a way to keep a players ship from being detected by scanners? Not a cloak as seen on Star Trek or other shows where a ship goes invisible, just more like modern stealth tech. I know jamming equipment could be one option (and leave both parties flying blind maybe?) or some other tech such as radar absorbing material (though MAD techs might still pick up the offending ship)

Bombing runs could use jammers to hit a battlegroup though ecm could eliminate part of it or just make a target lock take longer (since jamming pretty much telegraphs your intentions).

Scout/Recon missions could use some type of stealth tech to keep the pilot from getting spotted. Lets face it.. spy planes for the most part are really undergunned (if they have weapon mounts at all) and need that extra layer of defense from getting clobbered.

Blockade missions... well a blockade runner will want speed, stealth, and jamming ability. Even if they know hes coming they still wont find em on scanners.

So, whats possible and what can we or should we add in? (if neither is in atm)
Because of YOU Arbiter, MY kids? can't get enough gas. OR NIPPLE! How does that mkae you feeeel? ~ Halo
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Re: Mission Script - Stealth/Recon

Post by klauss »

I don't think there's support for that, but I don't think it would be hard to code either.

We could add a trac ticket for that.
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
chuck_starchaser
Elite
Elite
Posts: 8014
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:03 am
Location: Montreal
Contact:

Re: Mission Script - Stealth/Recon

Post by chuck_starchaser »

pheonixstorm wrote:A few ideas mentioned (mostly by Chuck) called for recon or some type of stealth, notably for blockade running. Heres the question: Does the engine currently have a way to keep a players ship from being detected by scanners? Not a cloak as seen on Star Trek or other shows where a ship goes invisible, just more like modern stealth tech. I know jamming equipment could be one option (and leave both parties flying blind maybe?) or some other tech such as radar absorbing material (though MAD techs might still pick up the offending ship)
We don't have it but it's been a starred item in the TODO lists for a long time.
Bombing runs could use jammers to hit a battlegroup though ecm could eliminate part of it or just make a target lock take longer (since jamming pretty much telegraphs your intentions).
Exactly!
Scout/Recon missions could use some type of stealth tech to keep the pilot from getting spotted. Lets face it.. spy planes for the most part are really undergunned (if they have weapon mounts at all) and need that extra layer of defense from getting clobbered.
I'd love to have ships that are space equivalents to the U2, the F117, the B2, and F22 (which also uses stealth technologies), and, unrelatedly, E-2, E-4, EA6-B, etceteras.
Blockade missions... well a blockade runner will want speed, stealth, and jamming ability. Even if they know hes coming they still wont find em on scanners.

So, whats possible and what can we or should we add in? (if neither is in atm)
Well, on the code side we need to add a lot of features, such as electromagnetic profiles, which I believe Klauss has code he wrote for it a long time ago; and maybe Errol could help with making tools that automate the generation of profiles from mesh data. The idea is that each ship would have emissive patterns and reflective patterns at different frequencies; and sensors also would have various patterns, from wide to narrow beams with different sensitivities. And we'd need a code-side solution for shadowing by planets, asteroids, etceteras.
Given we're there, the next step is search patterns: If you have a mission to stealthily approach and bomb a target, presumably there will be ships flying around to protect the target, and their pattern should be specifiable in the mission scripting language.
Then, as the player, if you hide long enough to observe the flight pattern, you can time your bombing run to happen when the guards are furthest from your approach vector.
klauss
Elite
Elite
Posts: 7243
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:40 pm
Location: LS87, Buenos Aires, República Argentina

Re: Mission Script - Stealth/Recon

Post by klauss »

I can extract the EM profile code from my old project and plug it in somewhere - not integrate it into the AI or the game, but have it there, for review and eventual integration.

What I was talking about earlier, though, was far easier: just a "stealth factor" column in the CSV. It would do wonders to gameplay and be really simple to code.

But I like integrating the EM profiles, I had a lot of "fun" features planned for radars. Radar choices and radar operations would be really involved and fun - I learned of the possibilities of a realistically modelled radar from Falcon III, the flight simulator with the most accurate radar model I've ever seen.

And, since I read a lot about radars for school, I guess I could write the details and let people contribute ideas ;)
Oíd mortales, el grito sagrado...
Call me "Menes, lord of Cats"
Wing Commander Universe
Post Reply