Mod Out LCX as Early Warship

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

As an example of the flexibility of the SE5 data format, I present to you a way to kill the gamey tactic of using light carriers as warships early on. This could also be used to make non-combatant ships (eg: mining hulls, transports, colony ships) non-combatant by not carrying many weapons, rather than just large to hit penalties that still allow the use of missiles.

First, you must add an ability to every single weapon. AI Tag ## abilities have stuck around, so I will use one of those. The following must be added to every weapon in Components.txt:

====================
Number Of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := AI Tag 01
Ability 1 Description :=
Ability 1 Scope := Space Object
Ability 1 Range Formula := 0
Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula := 0
Ability 1 Amount 2 Formula := 0
====================

You can do this in a flash by extracting the following Python script in your mod's Data folder and running it. It will create a "ComponentsTemp.txt" file with the extra ability appended to all weapons.

add_ability.zip

Next, we need to modify the light carrier hull in VehicleSizes.txt. This is an abbreviated portion of the light carrier entry:

====================
Number Of Requirements := 7
Requirements Evaluation Availability := 1, 2
Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement := 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Requirements Evaluation Allows Usage := TRUE
Requirement 1 Description := Empire must have at least tech level 1 in Light Hull Construction.
Requirement 1 Formula := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Light Hull Construction") >= (1 + ([%Level%] - 1))
Requirement 2 Description := Empire must have at least tech level 1 in Fighters.
Requirement 2 Formula := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Fighters") >= (1 + ([%Level%] - 1))
Requirement 3 Description := This vehicle must have 1 Bridge.
Requirement 3 Formula := (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Control Center") = 1) or (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Master Computer") >= 1)
Requirement 4 Description := This vehicle must have at least Life Support for 100 crew members.
Requirement 4 Formula := (Get_Design_Ability_Total("Life Support", 1) >= 100) or (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Master Computer") >= 1)
Requirement 5 Description := This vehicle must have at least Crew Quarters for 100 crew members.
Requirement 5 Formula := (Get_Design_Ability_Total("Crew Quarters", 1) >= 100) or (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Master Computer") >= 1)
Requirement 6 Description := This vehicle can only have a maximum of 12 movement.
Requirement 6 Formula := Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Movement Standard") <= 12
Requirement 7 Description := This vehicle must have at least 50% of its hull dedicated to Fighter Bays.
Requirement 7 Formula := Get_Design_Ability_Percentage_Of_Hull_Space("Units - Launch", "Fighter") >= 50
====================

Take a look at Req 6. This is how max engines are defined now, a limit on the ability. Since we gave all weapons the ability AI Tag 01, we can use a similar limit to limit the number of weapons. You could add this:

====================
Requirement 8 Description := This vehicle can only have a maximum of 3 weapon systems.
Requirement 8 Formula := Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("AI Tag 01") <= 3
====================

Of course, remember to increase the Num Reqs tag and add 8 to the allows placement, as so:

====================
Number Of Requirements := 8
Requirements Evaluation Availability := 1, 2
Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement := 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
====================

Voila! Now, light carriers can only have 3 weapons!

Alternatively, you could make the limit a percent of the hull space, by making Req 8 be this instead:

====================
Requirement 8 Description := This vehicle can have at most 10% of its hull dedicated to weapon systems.
Requirement 8 Formula := Get_Design_Ability_Percentage_Of_Hull_Space("AI Tag 01", 1) <= 10
====================

CaptainKwok · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject:

As I commented at Shrapnel - I wonder if there is a way to count weapon components without tagging them. That would be very useful and save on a lot of the labour required for this suggestion.

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

I did not see a formula for "weapon count," sadly. All I saw was what mounts use:

Requirement 1 Formula := Get_Component_Weapon_Type() = "Direct Fire"

Which is just a bool, not a count. Sad

Kana · Space Emperor Joined: Jan 15, 2005

Still this is good news...modding is going to produce mods only dreamed of for SEIV...

Xeriar · Space Emperor Joined: Sep 10, 2006

VehicleSizes is one of the locked files, stop mocking us with your Beta Testerness! >_>

Shektho · Space Emperor Joined: Aug 05, 2006

albi_joe · Space Emperor Joined: Mar 19, 2005 Location: USA

The way I am reading it, QNP would work the same. (<---Not a beta tester)

This just means you can do a limit on anything. Check VehicleSizes.txt for a full ship (this was abbreviated).

Fyron · Galactic Guru Joined: Aug 04, 2003 Location: CA, USA

There is still an engines per move for each hull, which is the real heart of QNP mechanics. The engine limit req can easily be deleted to allow unlimited engines on the hull (subject to total hull space of course). QNP is actually now better than in SE4, since ships have accelerations and turn rates in combat. It's not so quasi now. Wink

ekolis · Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 5:27 pm Post subject:

Are the accelerations and turn rates hardcoded to be directly proportional to the top speeds, though? Think of Mario Kart, where Bowser was the fastest, but he took forever to get up to speed Wink

Phoenix-D · Space Emperor Joined: Sep 17, 2006

No, there are seperate entries for each of:
-maximum speed
-turn rate
-acceleration
-deceleraton

for both space and ground combat. Each has an entry for maximum, minimum, and decrease per kT. (haven't figured out what the later DOES yet though).

Mithrandir · Space Emperor Joined: May 17, 2011