7 replies to this topic

[Sûlherokhh]

It's so annoying that Starships are able to go Full Stop without decelerating.

• It's unrealistic and looks stupid.
• It forces following ships of the same size using the same plane to intersect with the stopped ship in impossible ways.
• The SIMPLE_SPACE_LOCOMOTOR forces the ship to go Full Stop when deliberately attacking a target within range.

I tried several venues to fix it. One failure was to use land based locomotors that don't have the problem. Another one was to use the obsolete STARSHIP_LOCOMOTOR, but apart from the incomplete implementation and the completely different look, the AI doesn't use it and so it's futile to even try. The last failed attempt was to use some of the land movement based xml tags that limit movement, or unused tags i found in swfoc.exe, for example:

<Space_Full_Stop_Command>no</Space_Full_Stop_Command>

Did anyone else try to fix this mod-unrelated issue?

 

[Fregge]

There're special tags for acceleration and deceleration.

I have no files to look into right now but if I remember correctly, it is something like "OverrideAcceleration" and "OverrideDeceleration" together with something "Thrust" related.

If my memory doesn't fool me, the Millenium Faclon has all the necessary tags in its code. You just need to adjust them for other ships. Don't be surprised if the numbers have to get really small, like 0.01 or even smaller.

Works for all ships but fighters within a squadron...

 

BR, Fregge

[Sûlherokhh]

I'll have another look, but as far as i know, Millenium Falcon uses a FIGHTER_LOCOMOTOR, while the problems arise only with ships using a SIMPLE_SPACE_LOCOMOTOR. In addition, the weaponry of small ships have a comparably short range, and the FULL-STOP following an ATTACK order only happens with targets already within weapon's range.

[Fregge]

or unused tags i found in swfoc.exe, for example:

<Space_Full_Stop_Command>no</Space_Full_Stop_Command>

It may be unused, but it's not without a function. In original EaW, ships weren't allowed to completely stop. After they reached their ordered destination, they slowly drifted further on.

As I said, I'm currently unable to look into the files, but either this tag is the switch for that mechanism (when found in GameConstants) or it is a tag for an individual unit to exclude it from that mechanism. Then of course it would be without function, if the drift is already turned off.

 

Regarding the special tags I mentioned above, as I said, it should work for all ships regardless of their locomotor. Also, the fighter_locomotor is generelly not suitable for single ships. The behavior and maneuverability should then be determined by the according tags (turn, roll and lift, as I recall).

 

BR, Fregge

[Sûlherokhh]

 

...

As I said, I'm currently unable to look into the files, but either this tag is the switch for that mechanism (when found in GameConstants) or it is a tag for an individual unit to exclude it from that mechanism. Then of course it would be without function, if the drift is already turned off.

 

Regarding the special tags I mentioned above, as I said, it should work for all ships regardless of their locomotor. Also, the fighter_locomotor is generelly not suitable for single ships. The behavior and maneuverability should then be determined by the according tags (turn, roll and lift, as I recall).

 

BR, Fregge

 

Tag doesn't have any discernable effect neither used inside the object, nor as a gameconstant switch.

 

I know all about the special tags for movement. The only thing they don't do is prevent a full stop for objects using a SIMPLE_SPACE_LOCOMOTOR. I even tried using land-based locomotors for starcraft, with unusable results, just because i would like to have some repulsorlift-like drifting of ships. It looks so beautiful how Freerunners and T4B's behave when sliding to a halt or accelerating (even sideways) after receiving a MOVE command. It should be like this for starships as well.

 

If we could define space maps as land maps and make the engine still use them for space battles it would be awesome.

 

It makes me vomit not being able to adjust the hardcoded functions. :(

 

Sûl.

[Fregge]

It seems, that regarding the immediate stop when giving an attack order for a target already in range, you're right.

Except for that situation, you can adjust the acceleration with <OverrideAcceleration> and the deceleration with <OverrideDeceleration>.

 

Since I looked that up too:

<Space_Full_Stop_Command> is the exception for the individual unit, when <ShouldUseSpaceIdleMovement> is set to "true" within the GameConstants.xml.

 

BR, Fregge

[Sûlherokhh]

I tried setting <ShouldUseSpaceIdleMovement> to "true", without the desired effect (although there was drifting, depending on the other settings), so i set it back to "false", and that was before i tried setting <Space_Full_Stop_Command> to "false".

I never tried both at the same time.

 

Let's have a look!

 

Thx. Sûl.

[Sûlherokhh]

Cockroaches. Nothing can fix the stupid locomotor. I even tried placing a ship in various containers squad/squadron-style, to make you have to command the container and not the ship (or, as i assume, the EAW-implemented container for it, with all it's failings), so as to avoid the full stop issue. But both squad and squadron members use team-member locomotors, that battleships seem to have a hard time to use.

 

Anyway, one of these days i'll try again with some strange idea.

 

Thanks for the help.

Sûl.