Drones - Page 2

Zanthis · #11 February 3rd, 2001, 12:35 AM

I hope they aren't doing something like Starfire. They don't need to. With just a few minor things you could make that type of drone very easily:

Add an ability that allows passage through WPs. Put this ability on an component for fighters with "Destroyed after use" and you get a one-shot drone. With one or two other abilities, you could give them limited life spans.

What I want is to design my own missiles. I don't care if they are actual cargo or you just pick which designs are fired each turn (you are assumed to have unlimited of each design so long as your supplies hold out).

BTW, I never noticed, can you still fire when your ship runs out of supplies?

jimbob55 · #12 February 3rd, 2001, 02:07 AM

Point taken.
I'll stop hypothesising all over the place and have done some faffing and this is the best i can think of:

New ship type: One way tripper. A very cheap hull size 100Kt requires Bridge, life support, crew quarters and has max 1 engine.

Probe engine: 70Kt generates 1 move, or can act as emergency pod to produce however many moves you want. I made it 9.

So with these 2 items you can produce a VERY slow ship with no weapons which can do a burst of 9 moves in one turn and become a floating derelict / outpost. It could store 100 supply points + use 10 per move if you like (although it will still move 1 every turn after it's out of supplies...)
I have tested it and it works.

The size of the engine reduces the chances of it being fitted to regular hulls (even for the emergency move allowance) and if you build a battlecruiser with just probe engines and a repair bay, well fine....it's an expensive thing to maintain. You could build a one shot minesweeper with 1 drone engine and a bunch of minesweeping comps...
It would be possible to restrict all but one ship type from having a component, but it would involve editing every shiptype record and adding :
Requirement Drone engine - Cannot have. (haven't tested this bit yet)
I tried mounting engines and emergency supply pods on a satellite, but there is no movement allowed for satellites in the interface. If you look at specific sats it says '4/4 moves' but the move button is disabled. :-(

The other posibility would be to fit a normal size engine to a fighter, I'll try that later just to see if it will allow the fighter to warp. (probably not).

[This message has been edited by jimbob55 (edited 03 February 2001).]

[This message has been edited by jimbob55 (edited 03 February 2001).]

Tomgs · #13 February 3rd, 2001, 02:08 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Zanthis:
BTW, I never noticed, can you still fire when your ship runs out of supplies?

Yes but you will have only one movement and your shield drop.

DirectorTsaarx · #14 February 5th, 2001, 10:12 PM

But (IIRC) these effects (no shields, etc.) don't occur until the current combat ends (if you run out of supplies during a combat).

Nitram Draw · #15 February 5th, 2001, 11:01 PM

Speaking of supplies, I have noticed that I don't use supplies when I fire weapons. I thought this was suppose to be the case. Is it a bug or am I misunderstanding this?

Tomgs · #16 February 6th, 2001, 12:01 AM

Its a widespread bug. Stellar manipulation components also are supposed to use supplies and they don't either. Engines seem to be about the only things that do use supplies at the moment.

Sinapus · #17 February 6th, 2001, 12:39 AM

Check the supplies used. One time I used Crew Insurrection and ended up w/ a dreadnought with WMGIIIs on board. Since I was too far away to get to any sort of ship that had solar collectors/etc. and get it to my empire, I decided to use it to bLast as much as I could before it ran out.

Essentially, I started with over a 1000 supplies on the ship. After the first battle, I was very low on supplies since I fired the WMGs in that battle and they have a high supply rating. I also didn't move too many sectors to make that attack so it wasn't engine use. Things like depleted uranium cannons and such have very low supply Ratings so maybe it's just not as noticeable?

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"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Baron Munchausen · #18 February 6th, 2001, 01:37 AM

When I have watched supply usage in combat, I have noticed that firing of weapons is NOT debited when actually in combat but AFTER combat there is a noticable drop in your supply levels. Since it's a bit much to count HOW MANY shots are fired by which weapons I don't know if this drop is perfectly accurate. So, yes weapons do use supplies but as noted you do not "hit the wall" in combat and suddenly start to suffer the effects of running out of supply while in combat. You enter combat 'supplied' or 'unsupplied' and your status doesn't change until after combat.

Stellar Manipulations don't seem to use supplies as documented. Never have as far as I can tell.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 05 February 2001).]

Marty Ward · #19 February 6th, 2001, 01:46 AM

How does the quantum reactor effect the use of supplies in combat? It says it give unlimited supplies for movement but doesn't mention combat. Will you eventually need to resupply?

Daynarr · #20 February 6th, 2001, 02:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
When I have watched supply usage in combat, I have noticed that firing of weapons is NOT debited when actually in combat but AFTER combat there is a noticable drop in your supply levels. Since it's a bit much to count HOW MANY shots are fired by which weapons I don't know if this drop is perfectly accurate. So, yes weapons do use supplies but as noted you do not "hit the wall" in combat and suddenly start to suffer the effects of running out of supply while in combat. You enter combat 'supplied' or 'unsupplied' and your status doesn't change until after combat.

Stellar Manipulations don't seem to use supplies as documented. Never have as far as I can tell.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 05 February 2001).]

I don't think you are right here. When I was making a new weapon component, I gave it a high power usage. The ships with full supply at the start of the combat would use all supplies before round 15 and would start crawling on combat map at speed 1. The shields would remain, though.
I have tried this in combat simulator, not in game but I don't think there would be any difference.