Tarsus Mk2

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:37 am

Anyone interested in a slightly upgraded tarsus, with a turret, higher level sheild and reactor limits? Fully functional and purchasable.

ijuin · Post by **ijuin** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:56 am

That would be neat. We're talking like level 3 shields and reactor and a rear turret?

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:00 am

Yep. Right now i've got is set at level 3 for both and a bottom turret. Works quite well without being to powerful. Ive got it in xcel format if anybody wants to add it to their own. Unless the devs have any issues with doing that.

I don't know how to put in a better pic, bmp wont show up and jpeg looks like this here

z30 · Post by **z30** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:12 am

Gosshawk wrote:Anyone interested in a slightly upgraded tarsus, with a turret, higher level sheild and reactor limits? Fully functional and purchasable.

Very , very interested. It would be a nice intermediate trading ship , a stepping stone to the Galaxy.

Thanks for putting the effort into this, my primary interest is trade and I've always been frustrated at the huge gap between the Tarsus Mk1 and the Gal.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:48 am

What do you think it should cost. Ive got it set at 40000 right now, which means you need about 80-100k to properly out fit it. I think that should be good enough. How do I post the file here?can I just doit throgh the attatchment thingy?

BTW, Ive also added the talon(40000) as ahunter light, The Demon(180000) as a hunter medium, moved the Centurian to hunter heavy, and the drayman(2000000) as a merchant light capship, all purchasble from the start. Talon still needs some work as people start hating you immidiately. And i'm going to start fidling with turrets on the drayman.

Cheers

z30 · Post by **z30** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:41 am

Gosshawk wrote:What do you think it should cost. Ive got it set at 40000 right now, which means you need about 80-100k to properly out fit it. I think that should be good enough. How do I post the file here?can I just doit throgh the attatchment thingy?

BTW, Ive also added the talon(40000) as ahunter light, The Demon(180000) as a hunter medium, moved the Centurian to hunter heavy, and the drayman(2000000) as a merchant light capship, all purchasble from the start. Talon still needs some work as people start hating you immidiately. And i'm going to start fidling with turrets on the drayman.

Cheers

40k is just about right, the original price for the Orion was 75k. Could you fiddle with the Orion rear turret and place it on the roof - that would justify it's PR price of 125k or so.

Centurion is definitely a heavy, I think you have to up the Drayman price because the Gothri is currently at 2.5 M. Starting price for a light capship should be at about 10x that..imho.

You can use the file attachment feature of the write message, to send the file i think. That or the private email feature of this forum.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:33 am

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

Asfar as the drayman goes. I think 2000000 is fair. Comparing it to the Gothri isn't quite a fair coparassion, as the price for that ship could reflect the fact that it would have to be on the black market to be available for purchass, IMO. Ive also got a turreted version with 4 turrets. but its just a sitting duck with teeth.

I'll fiddle with a top turret for the orion, might be fun that way.

Cheers

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:57 am

z30, hers the line to add for a top turret for your orion
{medium_blank;0;0.17;-0.05;0;0;1;0;1;0;180.0}

z30 · Post by **z30** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:52 am

Gosshawk wrote:z30, hers the line to add for a top turret for your orion
{medium_blank;0;0.17;-0.05;0;0;1;0;1;0;180.0}

Thank you, will try it out - i've been theorizing for quite some time that this would fix the Orion's inadequacy re: offensive power without duplicating the Galaxy turret config.

A new game with a pure trader line should be interesting :

Tarsus Mk1 --> Tarsus Mk2 --> Orion (w/top turret & expanded cargo hold) --> Galaxy

I'll peg the Orion at 125k & the Galaxy at 250k.

Considering how upgradable the Gal is & how powerful a gunship it makes with RF equipment it really should be more expensive than it currently is.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:16 pm

What I did was decrease the orions price to 80000 and set the price for a twin turreted(top and rear) with reduced cargo capacity(25) at 125000. I'll up my Galaxys price and insert a merchant orion as you theorised and try that out.

Cheers

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:38 pm

I've officially gone crazy. Galaxy gunship. Five turrets, Four Missile hardpionts, level 8 sheilds and reactors, Insreased speed, 20 cargo space. 500000 hunter heavy. See, CRAZY.

Mzuz · Post by **Mzuz** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:59 pm

I apologize for asking what may end up being a stupid question. Where do I purchase ships that are not from Privateer? I have only been able to find the normal ships plus the Drayman. I hear talk of people in Demons (freakin' awesome) and Stilettos and the like. Where do you ugys get these ships?

hehe....never mind, within about 3 minutes of asking this and then looking at other topics I found out. Sorry to bother you guys.

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:43 pm

Hi Mzuz, welcome on the board.

Check out this link. There is a section called "Ships to buy" with a number of links which will answer your question...

EDIT: Maybe this post shows that some guys never bother to read the whole post which they are going to replay to...

z30 · Post by **z30** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:24 am

Gosshawk wrote:What I did was decrease the orions price to 80000 and set the price for a twin turreted(top and rear) with reduced cargo capacity(25) at 125000. I'll up my Galaxys price and insert a merchant orion as you theorised and try that out.

Cheers

I modified your Tarsus Mk2 to be a light medium trader ship with max Engine/Reactor/Shield at level 2. Top cruising speed was upped to 300kph, max speed to 700.

Nearly have enough cash to buy it, I'm really looking forward to drive this creation

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:17 am

Good to hear z30. As I had it, it cruised at 330, and afterburner was 650. I also upped the mass slightly and lowered the cargo capacity to 75. Just curious, but why the downgrade to level 2 equipment?

Cheers

z30 · Post by **z30** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:15 am

Gosshawk wrote:Good to hear z30. As I had it, it cruised at 330, and afterburner was 650. I also upped the mass slightly and lowered the cargo capacity to 75. Just curious, but why the downgrade to level 2 equipment?

Cheers

For balance & spacing. The Galaxy in the main plot line has a level 3 reactor & engine because it's a heavy medium trade ship, the Mk2 fills the gap nicely between the Mk1 and the more expensive models.

The basic Tarsus design also embodies simplicity and lightness - none of the Privateer level 3 ships can be described this way. Level 3 reactors & engines need a lot of space which is why you won't find one in a Demon, Dralthi or a Gladius.

z30 · Post by **z30** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:22 pm

I've started the Sandoval/Tayla missions in the Mk2. It works great

It's both a trade ship and a fighter - got meson guns in the hull, a particle turret and level 2 eq all around. Handling is pretty nice and the firepower is nothing to sneeze at specially with 2 missile launchers full of HS.

Ship is a mix of the original Mk2 but with a cap of level 2 eq. Cruising speed is 330kph and afterburn of 725kph.

Nice escort ship, we were wondering a few months back if the Orion was botched attempt to provide an intermediate hunter/trade ship. The Mk2 works much,much better in that role - it won't be enough to take on the Ox3 mission but then it's not supposed to.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 3:23 am

Thats great z30.

I think the reason that the orion is such a failure is the way armor is added in this game. If you open your units.csv and look at the hull and armor colums compared to the other ships, you see that those values are higher than the other ships. However, the values for the .blank version, the version you buy, you see that the values are 0. I think this means that when you put the hull and armor upgrades onto it, that the values turn to the values of the hull or armor upgrades. What i think this means is that your armour value will be the same as that for any other base ship equiped with those upgrades rather than adding onto a base value. Meaning the orion has no more armor than the tarsus. If you change thoses 0's into actual values, the armor and sustained hull damage changes at the expense of not being able to upgrade the hull or armor. It's not all theory either. When i was making a turreted drayman I changed thoses values to 0 so that I could add armor and such, but I noticed that the armor values were lower than if I just left it alone and couldnt upgrade. Can anyone confirm.

Cheers

Edit: Hull has values and is upgraded as base value + upgrade value.

z30 · Post by **z30** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:17 am

Gosshawk wrote:Thats great z30.

I think the reason that the orion is such a failure is the way armor is added in this game. If you open your units.csv and look at the hull and armor colums compared to the other ships, you see that those values are higher than the other ships. However, the values for the .blank version, the version you buy, you see that the values are 0.

I've attached a CSV file (just rename it) that has my modified Tarsus Mk2 values - it also has the OrionMk2 which incorporates the upper turret & coordinates in your previous message. The rear and upper turret seem to switch places at times, making addition of the turrets problematic.

It's also restructured to carry a third gun in the hull, giving up that single missile launcher. The Reactor 5 capability will enable me to have 3 Ion guns in front without too much strain.

As an added twist I've reduced the top speed to match the Galaxy (reason for this later) ,cut the jump time from 10 to 7 secods and increased jump fuel capacity 2x.

Price is 100k , storyline follows :

===========

Tired of unreliable hunter escorts and the Confed's inability to adequately protect trade convoys, the Merchant Guild searched aggressively for alternative solutions.

The unexpected success of the Galaxy as a merchanter gunship turned the Guild's attention to developing lower cost versions. Their efforts to turn the venerable Tarsus into an cheap, adequate gunship produced the Tarsus Mk2 - a light medium variant with upper gun turret, higher shield and speed to match the Galaxy's.

With positive reports coming in from merchant convoys, Guild scientists turned their attention to developing an intermediate gunship. They reverse engineered the hunter Orion vessel, adding an upper turret and converting the missile launcher into a third hull gun.

Pushing the endurance facet of the OrionMk2 to it's limit, jump fuel capacity was increased to twice normal capacity. There are also rumors that the new ship's jump time has somehow been reduced.

The opportunity to test the Guild's new creation came when pirate forces established a hidden base in the Pentonville system. A combined force of TarsusMk2's, Galaxies and the new Orions attacked and destroyed this outpost , wiping out all opposing ships.

Confed military analysts are reportedly concerned about the Merchant Guild's growing combat capability. Increased tensions between the Mercenary and the Merchant guild are also becoming an issue, with merchanters accusing many Mercenary guild members of secretly working with Pirate forces.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 4:44 am

Very cool

I like where your going with these added ships. Kinda extends the univers a little. Plus more options. Have you played around with the armor values? I'm kind thinking of just filling in thoses values so there is a difference between the armor of the ships. wont be able to upgrade, but who doesn't buy get the top armor anyways.

Myself i've been plowing around in my Galaxy Gunship. Had about 700000
or so credits so i bought it. started with level 1 reactor and shields and twin lasers. Was very hairy at the beginning using mainly missiles. but managed to upgade her to where all five turrets are tachyons and level 5 reactor+shields. Sweet. Not a total killing machine tho. The extrea three turrets are limited to the foward 180 arc. Keeps i fair for thoses not in my sights

Cheers

z30 · Post by **z30** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:42 pm

Gosshawk wrote:Very cool

I like where your going with these added ships. Kinda extends the univers a little. Plus more options. Have you played around with the armor values? I'm kind thinking of just filling in thoses values so there is a difference between the armor of the ships. wont be able to upgrade, but who doesn't buy get the top armor anyways.

Making the Isometal armor & hull upgrade in the RF campaign available from the start should fix the armor issues across all ships. The upgrade seems to scale, tried it on the Gladius then on the Galaxy and though both ships benefited the Galaxy was definitely the much tougher ship.

But I'm not sure how to go about it

Gosshawk wrote:
Myself i've been plowing around in my Galaxy Gunship. Had about 700000
or so credits so i bought it. started with level 1 reactor and shields and twin lasers. Was very hairy at the beginning using mainly missiles. but managed to upgade her to where all five turrets are tachyons and level 5 reactor+shields. Sweet. Not a total killing machine tho. The extrea three turrets are limited to the foward 180 arc. Keeps i fair for thoses not in my sights

Cheers

The Fusion cannons which become available after the main campaign greatly increase the Gal's killing power - even with just two turrets. 3 Fusion guns with AT should be deadly on the Orion Mk2, the power requirement for such a hard hitting gun are so low that level 5 shields shouldn't be a problem.

The Galaxy remains my favorite among all the ships, the Tarsus Mk2 is a close second for being such a versatile & effective craft for it's class.

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:33 pm

Nice work guys!

Why don't you post your mods in here and give a short explanation... you know... how did you come up with the idea, what's new, how to install... basicly the same stuff you did here but there it won't get lost as soon as the thread gets older and we'll have all mods in one place.

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:55 am

SS, would it better in an excel format, or a different format?

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:55 am

Dunno...

Is it possible to upload zip files? I can't remember. If it is, just make a zip file with your changes. Just take care that all the folders are right, so the people can simply copy it over their installation...

Gosshawk · Post by **Gosshawk** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:16 pm

All I did with the tarsusmk2 was copy the lines from units.csv and masterpartslist into a new excell with some notes and compress with winrar. but that method requires both a basic understanding of editing those files in the first place, and a spreadsheet program. z30, did you use a speadsheet program to open the file, or some other method to incorperate the changes? Maybe if we come up with a difinitive compilation, we can just release a modified units and parts file.
Opinions.

Cheers

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