From the shipyards of the Federation, my latest creation: the first dreadnought hull for the game! Designated the “Buffalo King,” this beast of a hull will let you test-drive your desire to madly stampede across the plains instead of munching on grass in the meadows. This hull design should go a long way towards keeping the player community happy until the game developer releases official dreadnought hulls for our enjoyment. I expect that we won’t have long to wait!
OK mates, here’s the necessary bits; commentary to follow. Save this file as “Federation Buffalo King Cruiser.txt” and drop it into your game’s GSB/data/hulls/federation folder. The Buffalo King uses the same graphic as the standard Fed. Buffalo cruiser hull.
"name" attribute corrected; kudos to Tavar for the tip!
10/23/2009: speedboost of 25% removed on account of font changes made to hull info screen; kudos to kurisu for the tip!
[code][config]
classname = cruiser
name = Federation Buffalo Cruiser King hull
guiname = Federation Buffalo King Cruiser hull
sprite = Federation Buffalo Cruiser.dds
damagetexture = Federation Buffalo Cruiser_damaged.dds
hulktexture = Federation Buffalo Cruiser_hulk.dds
width = 250
height = 250
powerproduced = 104
cost = 520
racename = federation
[bonuses]
0 = ARMOURBOOST,0.45
1 = INTEGRITYBOOST,0.50
2 = SHIELDBOOST,0.40
[runninglights]
0 = 102.50,2.00,200.00,2.00,1
1 = 64.00,75.00,200.00,2.00,1
2 = 63.00,224.00,200.00,2.00,1
3 = 62.00,113.00,200.00,2.00,1
4 = 153.50,1.00,200.00,2.00,0
5 = 192.00,76.00,200.00,2.00,0
6 = 194.00,112.00,200.00,2.00,0
7 = 192.00,224.00,200.00,2.00,0
[engineglows]
0 = 73,252,24,40,STANDARD
1 = 183,252,24,40,STANDARD
2 = 128,274,24,40,STANDARD
[targets]
0 = 116.50,84.50,0,1,109.50,78.00,123.50,91.00,
1 = 99.50,186.00,1,1,88.00,172.00,111.00,200.00,SHIP_EMMITER_THIN,(damage_sprite_sparks-99.50-186.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-97.00-190.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-101.00-190.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-97.00-184.00),(damage_sprite_smoke-99.00-186.00),
2 = 157.50,112.00,1,1,149.00,102.00,166.00,122.00,SHIP_EMMITER_THIN,(damage_sprite_sparks-157.50-112.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-158.00-111.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-157.00-115.00),
3 = 154.00,185.50,1,1,142.00,170.00,166.00,201.00,SHIP_EMMITER_LARGE,(damage_sprite_sparks-154.00-185.50),(damage_sprite_sparks-151.00-179.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-157.00-180.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-156.00-188.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-158.00-191.00),
4 = 129.00,151.00,0,1,120.00,142.00,138.00,160.00,(damage_sprite_sparks-129.00-151.00),
5 = 87.50,47.00,0,1,75.50,38.00,92.00,53.50,
6 = 133.00,114.00,0,1,125.00,102.00,141.00,126.00,(damage_sprite_sparks-133.00-114.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-133.00-113.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-133.00-116.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-136.00-120.00),(damage_sprite_smoke-133.00-116.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-129.00-124.00),
7 = 71.00,165.00,0,1,60.00,154.00,87.00,227.00,
8 = 142.50,91.00,0,1,134.50,82.00,149.50,98.50,
9 = 125.75,5.50,0,1,119.00,1.50,132.50,9.50,
10 = 139.25,38.00,0,1,128.50,31.00,150.00,45.00,
11 = 85.75,131.50,0,1,80.50,123.50,91.00,139.50,
12 = 157.50,32.00,0,1,151.00,25.50,164.00,38.50,
13 = 187.50,164.50,0,1,170.00,150.50,194.50,227.00,
14 = 111.00,25.00,1,1,102.00,11.00,120.00,39.00,SHIP_EMMITER_THIN,(damage_sprite_sparks-111.00-25.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-112.00-25.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-114.00-29.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-113.00-33.00),
15 = 161.50,56.00,1,1,147.00,47.00,176.00,65.00,SHIP_EMMITER_LARGE,(damage_sprite_sparks-161.50-56.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-158.00-57.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-164.00-56.00),(damage_sprite_smoke-166.00-57.00),
16 = 101.50,106.50,0,1,87.00,95.00,116.00,118.00,(damage_sprite_sparks-101.50-106.50),(damage_sprite_sparks-98.00-103.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-104.00-102.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-98.00-109.00),(damage_sprite_sparks-90.00-103.00),
17 = 103.50,133.75,0,1,98.50,128.00,108.50,139.50,
18 = 90.50,61.00,0,1,78.50,53.50,102.50,68.50,
[slots]
0 = 128.00,39.00,TURRET
1 = 128.00,66.00,TURRET
2 = 96.00,71.00,TURRET
3 = 160.00,71.00,TURRET
4 = 114.00,101.00,STANDARD
5 = 128.00,128.00,TURRET
6 = 99.00,46.00,STANDARD
7 = 157.00,46.00,STANDARD
8 = 85.00,101.00,STANDARD
9 = 171.00,101.00,STANDARD
10 = 73.00,176.00,STANDARD
11 = 183.00,176.00,STANDARD
12 = 128.00,199.00,STANDARD
13 = 99.00,186.00,TURRET,(93.00-178.00),(108.00-172.00)
14 = 157.00,186.00,TURRET,(163.00-178.00),(148.00-172.00)
15 = 128.00,153.00,STANDARD
16 = 128.00,229.00,STANDARD
17 = 128.00,11.00,STANDARD
18 = 73.00,206.00,STANDARD
19 = 183.00,206.00,STANDARD
20 = 104.00,23.00,STANDARD
21 = 152.00,23.00,STANDARD
23 = 143.00,101.00,STANDARD
24 = 80.00,128.00,TURRET
25 = 104.00,128.00,TURRET
26 = 152.00,128.00,TURRET
27 = 176.00,128.00,TURRET
[explosions]
0 = 0,128,63,EXP_FRIGATE
1 = 120,87,69,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
2 = 130,127,175,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
3 = 170,181,213,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
4 = 200,78,189,EXP_FRIGATEBREAKUP
5 = 210,0,0,EXP_STARTBREAKUP
6 = 270,128,128,EXP_CRUISERDEBRIS
7 = 300,68,186,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
8 = 310,75,213,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
9 = 337,176,170,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
10 = 340,131,19,EXP_DESTRUCTION_PLACED
11 = 600,128,128,EXP_FRIGATEBREAKUP
12 = 600,128,128,EXP_PLUMES
13 = 600,128,128,EXP_BLASTGLARE
14 = 600,128,128,EXP_ANGLED_DEBRIS
[hulks]
0 = 134,292,246,468,(emit-198-380-hulk_emmiter),(emit-176-420-hulk_emmiter),
1 = 262,283,389,466,(emit-302-360-hulk_emmiter),(emit-299-339-hulk_emmiter),(emit-319-348-hulk_emmiter),(emit-317-381-hulk_emmiter),(emit-374-327-hulk_emmiter),(emit-335-353-hulk_smoke_emmiter),
2 = 129,2,397,279,(emit-185-124-hulk_emmiter),(emit-228-55-hulk_emmiter),(emit-228-55-hulk_emmiter),(emit-319-111-hulk_emmiter),(emit-313-163-hulk_emmiter),(emit-336-166-hulk_emmiter),(emit-213-193-hulk_emmiter),(emit-230-187-hulk_emmiter),(emit-268-232-hulk_emmiter),(emit-192-249-hulk_emmiter),(emit-211-248-hulk_emmiter),(emit-233-249-hulk_emmiter),(emit-296-248-hulk_emmiter),(emit-313-222-hulk_emmiter),(emit-288-138-hulk_emmiter),(emit-193-213-hulk_smoke_emmiter),(emit-309-248-hulk_smoke_emmiter),(emit-330-114-hulk_smoke_emmiter),[/code]
Time to talk about what the Buffalo King hull is, and is not…
Even within this simulation game, my hull is, itself, a nested simulation. Calling this a “dreadnought” (thank you, Admiral Jackie Fisher ) is a sort of mental shorthand for a “simulated battleship”. In this case, it’s more than a cruiser (waaaay more) but perhaps less than a battleship. Let me explain:
Based upon the Federation’s famous “Buffalo”-class cruiser hull, the 'King is the fastest method I could whip up in my microscopic leisure time to extrapolate the performance envelope of a ship built within a true dreadnought-sized hull while not having to wait for the actual hull structure itself from the game developer. I hope that makes sense, and likewise hope that nobody feels cheated by this. Of course it isn’t a “real” battleship – that has to wait until either myself or one of the other intrepid modders creates a larger hull + graphic from scratch, or for GSB’s creator to do the same thing officially. In the meantime, the Buffalo King can let us experiment in a big way!
For those who just think of this as a Federation cruiser with nothing more than “a few extra bits bolted on,” please read further…
The most controversial aspects of my hull are the bonuses inherent to it. Again, for want of enough time to craft a far bigger ship with waaaaay more internal space, I took a conceptural shortcut. The 'King sports the ready-to-go equivalent of two reinforced type-II power cores as part of the “background”. Nonexistent module spaces in which I would have normally plunked down shield generators, engines and more ultraheavy armor layers are also simulated via the bonuses. Those “force multipliers” are actually very powerful indeed. They abstract the performance of vital machinery in a way that takes up no module-space, while letting the player leap ahead with the concrete and truly gratuitous business of cramming the hull full of weaponry!
When true dreadnought hulls arrive officially (and I feel confident that they will), I’d be relieved to actually fill empty modules on such a unit with the appropriate equipment that my hull’s bonuses simulate. The means that allow the Buffalo King to do a dreadnought-sized job with but a cruiser-sized hull are rather like wearing “beer goggles”…please drive responsibly! (lol)
Even after official DNs are available for GSB, the Buffalo King could still have a legitimate role to play. Consider it as a combat laboratory for advanced-tech versions of regular equipment, meant to be tested under the rigours of actual combat under the unpredicatable stresses of real conditions. It occupies a ship-equivalent niche lower than a battleship but much higher than a cruiser. Hopefully the careful use of performance bonuses will guide ship modders in weird new directions that will benefit all of us.
Two main points concerning my hull: I welcome any & all comments (pro or con), and whatever you do…have fun with it! This beast is the best combat vessel there is. From the Violet Abyss to the Stygian Abyss, there is no finer warship. Yes, I’m already thinking of new battles for this hull to participate in; detailed histories which I have not yet written for the game, but one day will write.