Shivan Faction Idea
Yeah, that's how I'm doing it for the stations. Well, originally I had a hull modifier of 1.6, but I'll probably get rid of that.
Anyway, I think bomber/tt scale is just going to have to be different for each ship. Small craft can be the same length as they are in FS2, because that puts them at roughly the same size as Alleg ships. Bombers, on the other hand vary a bit too much in size:
Seraphim (Bomber, Gunship): 52.2m - I have to scale this down by half to make the vertical dimension smaller than the tallest other bomber
Nephilim (Naval Bomber?): 34.1m - same problem
Shaitan (Strike Bomber): 20.4m - if you cut this in half, it's smaller than any scout or interceptor
Azrael (Troop Transport): 38.7m - a bit too tall unless scaled down, a bit small if cut in half
Nahema (Figbee): 26.1m - Much bigger than any other figbee, about right if cut in half
Taurvi (Stealth Bomber): 25.4m - Only a little too big.
Anyway, I think bomber/tt scale is just going to have to be different for each ship. Small craft can be the same length as they are in FS2, because that puts them at roughly the same size as Alleg ships. Bombers, on the other hand vary a bit too much in size:
Seraphim (Bomber, Gunship): 52.2m - I have to scale this down by half to make the vertical dimension smaller than the tallest other bomber
Nephilim (Naval Bomber?): 34.1m - same problem
Shaitan (Strike Bomber): 20.4m - if you cut this in half, it's smaller than any scout or interceptor
Azrael (Troop Transport): 38.7m - a bit too tall unless scaled down, a bit small if cut in half
Nahema (Figbee): 26.1m - Much bigger than any other figbee, about right if cut in half
Taurvi (Stealth Bomber): 25.4m - Only a little too big.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players
So I just finally noticed that mdledit will load %1_m.x if present, thus showing you the collision mesh, or at least, the one that would be created by default. Not at all useful for seeing what an existing CVH looks like. Anyway, it got me thinking about collision, scale, and so forth. Take, for example, the Azrael HTT:
This is the ship as it can be downloaded on the previous page. The big empty space that can still be hit with missiles or gunfire (yes, with the shields down) seems a bit excessive to me.
This is a simple MSPaint edit, to show how the collision mesh could be made much smaller. In this version, the fins aren't part of the collision mesh, meaning your bullets would go right through them. On such a small ship, this would hardly be noticeable. It would also mean that the ship is not as wide and tall for landing purposes, which either makes landing easier, or allows me the make the ship a little bigger. I'd probably go with whatever makes the collision mesh similar in size to that of other transports.
In this variant, I've used multiple meshes to create the collision model. I have to do that because each mesh must be convex. In this version, the fins can be hit, but the empty area between them cannot be hit. The downside is that both server and client CPUs have to do extra calculations. I'm not sure how big a deal this is, but it's my understanding that the best practice is not to use multiple meshes on anything smaller than a station, and even then to use as few as possible.
Not sure what the best choice is. The Mara fighter has a similar problem, because of its leg things.
This is the ship as it can be downloaded on the previous page. The big empty space that can still be hit with missiles or gunfire (yes, with the shields down) seems a bit excessive to me.
This is a simple MSPaint edit, to show how the collision mesh could be made much smaller. In this version, the fins aren't part of the collision mesh, meaning your bullets would go right through them. On such a small ship, this would hardly be noticeable. It would also mean that the ship is not as wide and tall for landing purposes, which either makes landing easier, or allows me the make the ship a little bigger. I'd probably go with whatever makes the collision mesh similar in size to that of other transports.
In this variant, I've used multiple meshes to create the collision model. I have to do that because each mesh must be convex. In this version, the fins can be hit, but the empty area between them cannot be hit. The downside is that both server and client CPUs have to do extra calculations. I'm not sure how big a deal this is, but it's my understanding that the best practice is not to use multiple meshes on anything smaller than a station, and even then to use as few as possible.
Not sure what the best choice is. The Mara fighter has a similar problem, because of its leg things.
Last edited by Compellor on Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players
Well, it seemed like no one cared, and I had got what I wanted out of it, which was a better understanding of the game. If someone really wants a model pack I could do that, though I dunno about the faction design, that was kinda dumb. No one wants to boost everywhere in every small ship and still be really slow. Booster mechanics don't translate well between the games regardless. I'd probably replace mini-AC towers with regular AC towers, and just let them have cheaper AC towers than other factions, and let them build 2 at a time like TF's SC towers. Complete lack of prox or plasgens is dumb, not sure which I'd give them, probably plasgens. Not sure how the thick shields/thin hull/interceptors-have-shields-instead-of-hull dynamic would work out. Capships were never well thought out.
Any job worth doing with a laser is worth doing with many, many lasers. -Khrima
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players
Beyond a shadow of a doubt if you don't watch them like a hawk they will stack their collective balls off - MrChaos on Alleg players