Registered: Feb 2004
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Battle for sector 83 mission (shadow Dancing) is now ready for download.

Visit : http://b5.madaboutgames.com/46052.html


Enjoy!!

Last edited by madaboutgames on 04-15-2004 at 06:17 PM

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Registered: Mar 2001
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I like it. Damn, those Shadow Ships are tough.

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Registered: Jun 2002
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well, they are one of the first ones you know.

You try beating an alien race that has been in space for millions of years, while you have only been in space say 200-400yrs.

Technically, you would get slaughtered, but John Sheridan is one hell of a good tactician.

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And if I remember right, it was said that they lost 5 ships for every shadow they destroyed.

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quote:

---

And if I remember right, it was said that they lost 5 ships for every shadow they destroyed.

---

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Registered: May 2003
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I'm with Vorlone on this one.

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The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

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quote:

---

Originally posted by Vorlone
I could swear that it was said that they only lost 2 ships for every shadow ship they distroyed!

---

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Thats right, for every shadow ship destroyed, the ISA lost 2.

It was their first organised multi race offensive against the shadows. If they didnt work out that telepaths could disable the shadow vessels, then it probably would have been a 5 to 1 loss ratio, if not more.

Understanding is a 3 edged sword!!!

Last edited by madaboutgames on 04-24-2004 at 09:43 AM

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Registered: May 2003
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TEEPS... WHAT A COOL IDEA!!!

OK, how's this? In order to account for the ability of telepaths to jam Shadow vessels, make a beam weapon with no textures, no beam glow, no sounds, and give it a massive leech effect on the target's energy reserves, and have it on a turret within the hull. It could even be scripted in by mission designers so it would be locked most of of the time. Then use beam-fire (say 20 seconds default duration) on the TEEP cannon in conjunction with beam-fire of other main cannons on the ship, targetted at the Shadow vessel, as though they are firing when the Shadow vessel is being jammed.

Am I going to far with this idea?

Later!

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The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

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Sounds a good idea if could be properly integrated. I was going to use another way but it would have taken up too much time. As in the mission the cargo on most cruisers and heavy ships are telepaths. I was going to do a series of scripts which when a cruiser with telepaths was destroyed then one of the shadow vessels would fire a beam, the more cruisers with teeps taken out, the more the shadow beams would fire making them more active. This would have taken too much time, and may have caused problems if the ship they where going to fire the beam at had already been destroyed. Thankfully the AI on the shadow vessels works just right, they only fire every now and again and sometimes hang there for a short while.

Another thing to consider is that one of the turrets would be taken up, since the battlecrabs only have 2 turrets, energy mines and beam - then one would have to be sacrificed for this purpose.
Good Idea though, never thought of that one myself.
.

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Registered: Feb 2001
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Capital ships are not affected by energy draining weapons if I remember correctly. That is because they do not have primary weapons but turrets.

It's easier just to give Shadow ships play dead order at certain time.

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Last edited by Mr. Fury on 04-25-2004 at 11:28 AM

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How about using the "electronics" flag from the FS1 D-Missile, which will temporarily stop any ship in its tracks, and prevent it from firing its weapons. I'm not sure if such a flag can be applied to beams, but its worth a shot... if you'll pardon the pun.

Later!

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The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

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Again...the D-Missile had only limited effects on a target vessel.

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3 fred questions that have been bugging me for a while.

How can i give a certain ship a certain order (eg.play dead) at a certain time?

Is there a way I can set up an event if 2 ships (player or ai) come within a specified distance from each other?

How can I set up an event that is based on a ships hull damage? eg. if a ships hull reaches 20 then an event can be scripted.



If anyone can help great

http://b5.madaboutgames.com

Last edited by madaboutgames on 04-29-2004 at 12:09 PM

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Registered: Jul 2002
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the first one I think you use
has time elapsed
--ai ad order
----play dead

I think that answers the first one

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Question 1:

The SEXPs you're looking for are "add-goal" and "ai-play-dead." For example, if you wanted Joe Tanker to stop whatever it was doing and play dead 55 seconds into the mission, you'd set up an event like this:

"Event Name"
when
has-time-elapsed
55
add-goal
Joe Tanker
ai-play-dead
89

Obviously, you can replace "has-time-elapsed" with whatever you please. If you wanted Joe Tanker to pay dead when a new ship warped in, you'd have a "has-arrived-delay" with the appropriate ship name, for instance.



Question 2:

The SEXPs you're looking for here are "<" (the less than symbol) and "distance." The "<" can be found under the "Logical" SEXP submenu and "distance" under the "Status" SEXP menu. Set up an event like this:

"Event Name"
when
<
distance
Ship 1
Ship 2
3000
do-nothing

The above event will become true when Ship 1 comes within 3000 meters of Ship 2. When you put in the "<" SEXP, you should get two values accompanying it which are zeros. To get the "distance" SEXP, right click on the first one (the top one) and go to "Replace Operator" on the pop-up menu, then "Status" and you'll find the SEXP you're looking for. As before, if you want something to happen when Ship 1 and Ship 2 get within 3000 meters (or whatever value you want there) to become true, you can replace do-nothing with another SEXP. If you used beam-free-all, for example, you could free the beams on a ship when Ship 1 and Ship 2 were within 3000 meters of each other.



Quesion 3:

For this event you'll end up using the same "<" less than symbol as before. Only this time, instead of using "distance", you'll use the "hits-left" SEXP, also from the same "Status" menu. The event is structured somewhat similarly as the last one, with a few key differences.

"Event Name"
when
<
hits-left
Joe Tanker
20
beam-free-all
Joe Tanker

Again, once you use the "<" less than SEXP, right click on the top zero it'll have as one of its values and replace it with the "hits-left" SEXP. In the example above, Joe Tanker will have its beams enabled once its hull integrity is less than 20. As always, any value can be substitued for 20, another SEXP for "beam-free-all", another ship name for Joe Tanker, etc, etc, etc....

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Thanks Slasher and everyone

I can finally make a few of the missions Ive planned perfictly!!

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You may want to have a look at my FREDing FAQ page if those things caused you problems. I've got a few more questions answered there.

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/fred2.html]click me[/URL]

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

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I have the correct fs 2 open and fred but still unable to play mission it comes up unable to open file any ideas

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Unless I'm mistaken this mission may require on of the ship packs from another thread. Have you downloaded that?

If you have can you give us a bit more detail about the error message.

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/intro.html]Karajorma's Freespace FAQ [/URL] (now with added GE goodness)

Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

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