Thrawn's Revenge

Imperial Civil War [Empire at War] => Discussion, Suggestions & Feedback => Topic started by: StarLordX on December 09, 2014, 03:49:30 PM

Title: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: StarLordX on December 09, 2014, 03:49:30 PM
That would be an interesting feature. Sending your own ships and snubfighters on kamikaze collisions against the enemy during a space battle, though it may be too costly unless it's a last resort measure, since it depletes your unit count for every capital ship, corvette and frigate you deliberately crash against the enemy vessel or space station (fighters don't count, since they aren't part of said reinforcement count).
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: tlmiller on December 09, 2014, 04:26:44 PM
I'm not a member of the team and know almost nothing about modding, but from what I understand of how the engine keeps track of things, this wouldn't work.  From what I've gathered, Capital ships are on a different Z-axis from cruisers and frigates, which is why the game can allow them to fly over and under each other, while capital ships won't get close to each other.  So you could conceivably use a capital ship to ram another capital ship, you can't ram a capital ship with a frigate, etc.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: StarLordX on December 09, 2014, 04:58:02 PM
I'm not a member of the team and know almost nothing about modding, but from what I understand of how the engine keeps track of things, this wouldn't work.  From what I've gathered, Capital ships are on a different Z-axis from cruisers and frigates, which is why the game can allow them to fly over and under each other, while capital ships won't get close to each other.  So you could conceivably use a capital ship to ram another capital ship, you can't ram a capital ship with a frigate, etc.
Crashing a heavily damaged capital ship against an enemy capital ship could be acceptable, but keep the snubfighters in mind. Sometimes, when heavily damaged, said fighters would spin out of control, sometimes towards a friendly or enemy vessel, which could cause damage if they crash on the right spot (i.e. command bridge, shield generator, etc.).
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Pali on December 09, 2014, 05:39:40 PM
I somehow doubt the EaW engine would allow it, though I do like the idea.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: tlmiller on December 09, 2014, 05:41:53 PM
Crashing a heavily damaged capital ship against an enemy capital ship could be acceptable, but keep the snubfighters in mind. Sometimes, when heavily damaged, said fighters would spin out of control, sometimes towards a friendly or enemy vessel, which could cause damage if they crash on the right spot (i.e. command bridge, shield generator, etc.).

Again, different Z-axis from all other ships, while they can target across Z-axis, they cannot travel across them as a limitation of the games engine.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Corey on December 09, 2014, 07:11:27 PM
Z-layers are almost irrelevant to this; the game can barely keep track of collision detection for movement. There aren't any functions you can use within the game for collisions causing damage.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Lord Xizer on December 10, 2014, 02:57:00 AM
Would be interesting but don't think it could be implemented.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Pox on December 10, 2014, 05:06:49 AM
Vong invaders managed to implement it:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/yuuzhan-vong-expansion/videos/suuv-ban-dkrid-ram-ability-demonstration#imagebox

I know how to damage ships within a certain proximity, however I'd have to try out a lot of things to get the "ramming move" right. And I don't really feel like doing that, there's enough work for 2.2 already :P
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Lord Xizer on December 10, 2014, 11:08:58 AM
Vong invaders managed to implement it:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/yuuzhan-vong-expansion/videos/suuv-ban-dkrid-ram-ability-demonstration#imagebox

I know how to damage ships within a certain proximity, however I'd have to try out a lot of things to get the "ramming move" right. And I don't really feel like doing that, there's enough work for 2.2 already :P

I stand corrected and immediately have a desire to give this to the Yevetha
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Corey on December 10, 2014, 03:02:35 PM
My understanding of how they did that is that it's based on the radius, which means it would almost never look right and targetting would be sketchy.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Pox on December 11, 2014, 08:29:41 AM
Yeah I think so, too.
It also doesn't solve the z layer problem.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Lord Xizer on December 12, 2014, 01:19:17 AM
Yeah I think so, too.
It also doesn't solve the z layer problem.

So...it's some sort of Sorcery?
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Pox on December 12, 2014, 06:31:42 AM
So...it's some sort of Sorcery?

The ability probably uses either the Register_Prox or obj.Get_Distance(obj2) functions. So you will most likely only be able to hit objects within a certain radius(in a 3D environment that means r = sqrt(x²+y²+z²)) so it's basically the same as limiting the ability to certain ship classes. Unless you set the collision radius really high, which would look weird though.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Corey on December 12, 2014, 08:15:43 PM
So...it's some sort of Sorcery?

No, we're essentially saying it probably doesn't work super well in most cases.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: tlmiller on December 12, 2014, 09:20:28 PM
Besides, ramming is for idiots who can't win.  We're the empire, when the plot bunnies aren't around, we don't lose.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Lord Xizer on December 13, 2014, 05:23:47 AM
Besides, ramming is for idiots who can't win.  We're the empire, when the plot bunnies aren't around, we don't lose.
Tell that to Grand Admiral Grunger...
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: tlmiller on December 13, 2014, 12:21:38 PM
Tell that to Grand Admiral Grunger...

He didn't lose.  Was a tie...both died when he rammed the sphere...
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Vulcanus on December 13, 2014, 12:32:11 PM
He didn't lose.  Was a tie...both died when he rammed the sphere...

Somewhere in the Unknown Regions Thrawn must have facepalmed when he heard about that one.
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Pali on December 13, 2014, 04:48:49 PM
He didn't lose.  Was a tie...both died when he rammed the sphere...

From the NR's perspective, both Imperials lost and the NR gained.  Oh, you guys want to fight each other and lose some of your biggest, best ships in the process?  Go right ahead, we won't mind, we'll just wait here patiently for our turn while we convince another thousand planets to change sides...
Title: Re: Ship collisions (Kamikaze)
Post by: Mat8876 on December 13, 2014, 09:17:40 PM
From the NR's perspective, both Imperials lost and the NR gained.  Oh, you guys want to fight each other and lose some of your biggest, best ships in the process?  Go right ahead, we won't mind, we'll just wait here patiently for our turn while we convince another thousand planets to change sides...
Sounds like a plan.