[Mod] Extra fighter modules - Released!

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Modding
1

I plan to add several fighter modules today, and I’m going to list them here for my convenience and for you to discuss in the meantime.

Here are the ideas I have so far:

  • The federation will get a fighter-scale decoy launcher, firing a standard although somewhat shorter ranged anti-ship decoy. This is planned to synchronize well with fighter torpedo mounts, be useful in tying up enemy missile defenses for the fleet at large, and generally improve the range of options available to federation fighters without giving them a characteristic weapon.(Done - also updated the cruiser decoy missile, because its range -sucked-)

  • The rebels, as they seem to specialize in plasma weaponry, will be getting a plasma bomb. This short ranged, semi-rapid firing weapon will be very effective on ships, but it will also be very heavy, and not grant many hp to the bombers carrying it making them ungainly and vulnerable against good anti-fighter cover. That said, a squad of these attacking a frigate should kill it in one pass, and will probably seriously damage any but the most heavily armoured cruiser. Since the range will be short, they will mostly ignore shields. (Done - these slaughter frigates, and one squadron of bombers can kill an undefended cruiser in roughly five passes).

  • The empire, a high technology race, will be the only race to cram a beam laser down onto a fighter chassis, although it will be rather heavy and extremely expensive. The upside is that this weapon will be possibly the best anti-fighter weapon available, very fast tracking, moderate damage, and enough armour penetration to hurt frigates if the enemy runs out of fighters. It will be very lacklustre at piercing shields. (Done!)

  • The alliance with their emphasis on biotechnology will be getting a fighter scaled lightning gun, rapid firing, but extremely short ranged, and liable to bounce against any armoured ship. It will be effective for fighter-killing, but not as long ranged as the beam laser. The main use of this weapon will be shredding cruisers and frigates which have lost their armour, or punishing any ship silly enough to take shields but no armour.(done)

I will also be adjusting several global modules which fit onto fighters, and adding some extra:

  • An anti-fighter missile launcher mounted on a fighter scale - since I can’t do burst fire or limited ammo, I will compensate by making these fire slower than a frigate or cruiser AFML. However, they will have a long range and excellent tracking, making them the best alpha-strike weapon to put on a bunch of escorting interceptors. (Done… although I’m not 100% happy with them yet.)

  • I will also be adjusting frigate AFMLs, to ensure that they hit even the speediest of fighter, and cause serious damage to all but the most heavily armoured. In short, they will be much more effective than any beam based anti-fighter defense, and longer ranged as well… but, they and the fighter-scale variant above will suffer a fatal flaw. (Done - they’re not quite as always-hit as I had wanted, but I DID make them one hit, one kill, on most fighters)

  • Fighters will be given a chaff/jam module. I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to implement this yet, but I -think- it will be a resprited point-defense cannon, with an invisible beam and the burst-sprite being a puff of something shiny. In practice, the range will be really, really short, but mounting this system (and remember, it’s a system slot not a hardpoint slot) will let a fighter ignore one opposing anti-fighter missile launcher. It won’t be particularly heavy or particularly expensive, but it won’t be tough either. This should make fighter defense, as well as fighter armament, an exercise in strategic choice rather than simplistic best-weapon-many-mounts. (Done - my spriting isn’t great, and I don’t have Cliffski’s cool particle engine to draw on, but it does the job.)

  • Finally, I’ll be adjusting the weight of the fighter torpedo and target painter, so that the target painter is lighter than the torpedo, and they’re both lighter than they are currently. I currently think they’re both too heavy to be reasonably used, especially the target painter.(Done)

2

I’ve had massive problems with getting short ranged beams on fighters to actually do damge. :frowning: Good luck, though, sounds good!

3

you need MORE tracking speed. Seriously, I’m beginning to think that the game uses both range AND the combined speed of the shooter and target, as I had to put the tracking speed up to 7.5 before I got good results. On the other hand, I have now got good results! :slight_smile: (some range also helps.)

They shred enemy fighters, but not without taking some losses, and it took them a while.

4

Tracking speed is not the only answer… I can’t get anti-fighter missiles to hit with a 100% chance, even with a tspeed of 100000 or so. Nevermind, I can still make it work, but the hit chance calculations appear to be quite obtuse :slight_smile:

5

Just an extra post to bump this, as it’s ready. Attempting to attach to this post.

It should be okay if you just unzip it into the main folder…

As with any mod, if everything breaks and demons devour your consequence as a direct result of using this, it’s totally not my fault ^_^. Challenges you post using these things will also not work for others unless they have the mod.

Please post any bugs you find, and have fun!
fightermod.zip (33.8 KB)

6

Haven’t played it yet, but I looked through the assets and it looks pretty interesting. I can’t figure out where you’re using your nifty little flak burst art asset, though? And what changes did you make to torpedoes and target painters?

Looking forward to trying the fighter on fighter antifighter missile, though!

7

the flak burst thing is a stopgap to give the fighter decoys a visual image, so that you can tell they’re working. I’m not particularly happy with it, to be honest, as I couldn’t use any tricks to get it animated, so it’s just a flash for a quartersecond or so. It serves its purpose by making the module’s effect visible though.

If you zoom in on a fighter being attacked by missiles, you’ll see it working.

As for the target painters and torpedoes, I just made them lighter. 25 weight is nigh-impossible to shift on any of the current fighter hulls, it drops below the critical 1 speed. Anything below that tends to start looking like a tiny frigate in terms of speed and maneuverability, as well as what weapons will hit it. I’ve seen dual-torpedo fighters (50 weight total! speed of around 0.2-0.3) taken out by capital ship beam lasers -_-.

I made the target painter 17, the torpedo 18, and then the rebel plasma bombs 20 - with the bombs, you can get a bomber hull up to around 1.2 speed if it’s just engines and stuff, or, just under 1 if you pack on the defenses. Makes them vulnerable, but slow speed does tend to mean more time over target, so I was happy with that.

There’s a bit of balancing left to do - currently they’re roughly where I want them, at least in respect to each other, but they might still need tweaking to put them in the right weight and power and cost categories compared to the rest of the fighter weapons.