Tempest

[Tarquelne]

Originally posted by Hawkslayer:

[QB] Hey would you guys do a test for me, and jack the hover thrust up a TON and see what happens?

You can make the vehicle go a LOT faster. But it never felt like an aircraft. Just an air-hockey puck after a really good hit.

Raising the "nominal height" makes it float higher up.

(I don't have the game yet)

Silly person.

Lots of thrust, and powerful up thrust to get it into the low flying Aircraft/Helicopter range.

Neat idea. I was thinking yesterday that a heli-type unit would be a nice addition to the game.

Maybe use the jump-jet system that the infantry use? With more "juice" for sustained flight.

OTOH, I don't know how the game works. Maybe you can have the special function key toggle the "nominal height" or something.

See this thread for the model:

Looks good.

Imperial Grunt is a silly person, too: "low-flying NOE gunship ... like the Commanche without rotors. A Commanche without the rotors wouldn't fly at all.

Of the versions you mentioned I liked the scout/Ew with marker idea the best, followed by an ATGM version.

You might give the Bacchus' MG something good to shoot at.

[Chilibird]

Maybe up the nominal height, and then give it a powerful 'jump pack' to fly higher above the ground?

[Hawkslayer]

Looks good.

Imperial Grunt is a silly person, too: "low-flying NOE gunship ... like the Commanche without rotors. A Commanche without the rotors wouldn't fly at all.

Of the versions you mentioned I liked the scout/Ew with marker idea the best, followed by an ATGM version.

You might give the Bacchus' MG something good to shoot at.

My first version will be a 30mm-ish AP gun with a EW Jammer, and I'll go from there. Target Designation isn't available right now, so that's out. If the vehicle tends to be a better "hover in the distance and snipe" vehicle then an ATGM sounds good, but I picture it more of a fast moving "attack run" kind of vehicle, which would make it hard to lock on with the ATGM.

If it works out as a nice high-mobility vehicle then I'll probably work on an Ion version and mess with the damage values there to play around. IMO the present Ion weapon isn't scary enough, but it could be I'm just inexperienced with it. (or it could be different in Retail) I think 120mm guns should be one of the biggest hitters, but maybe I'll mess with a slower firing "laser" with enough "punch" to snipe at light vehicles weak parts.

[poesel]

Just for the record: outfitting vehicles with jump packs doesn't work...

Either the tag does only work for inf or the 'x' keys gets to braking/landing instead of to the jump pack routine.

Would have been funny, though!

[Tarquelne]

Originally posted by poesel71:

[QB] Just for the record: outfitting vehicles with jump packs doesn't work...

Either the tag does only work for inf or the 'x' keys gets to braking/landing instead of to the jump pack routine.

I flailed around a bit in the XML and tried that.

A tag mixing problem - inf. tag in a vehicle? The game didn't crash, but nothing happened.

I also tried raising the nominal height to 300. You're tossed into the air, then slowly turn-over and finally land HARD on your turret.

Doh.

Speaking of doh...

Imperial Grunt is a silly person, too:

My sometimes flaky connection flaked-out right when I was staring down Mr. Silly's 120mm tonight. Instant karma!

I would have been very frustrated if the scenario weren't about to end... and he hadn't already won.

[Hawkslayer]

Tarquelne, try adjusting the center of gravity so it's lower than the bottom of the vehicle, or even below the ground. Maybe it won't top over then. It may be cheating, but I'm sure they'd have some anti-tip over logic in their controller software.

How high did ya get?

[poesel]

The center of mass code is currently IMHO buggy. Lowering COM below he ground did not have the expected results when I fiddled around with the suspension.

Upping the Tempests nominal altitude to 300 does work but you have to very careful not to topple over. Flat terrain helps.

What might work at that height is to set the thrusters much further apart. Never tried but I doubt that we can make something helicopterish out of the hovers. Theres just no way to control height.

[Tarquelne]

I got survey-the-kingdoms-of-the-world-at-my-feet high.

I wasn't paying close attention because I was mainly watching the thing slooowly tip. It was pretty high, though.

Holding my breath seemed to help.

What might work at that height is to set the thrusters much further apart.

I may try that...

Theres just no way to control height.

... as I was planing on using "X" and killing the engines to control height. Yeah!

Old tech, maybe, that attempts to send you into orbit whenever you turn it on, so you go into an uncontrolled fall to stay down. I know I can't think of a better use for anti-gravity.

EDIT:

Tried it. The fall is actually OK. However, unit pops back to the nominal height too quickly.

[ December 07, 2006, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Tarquelne ]

[Imperial Grunt]

Originally posted by Hawkslayer:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />

Looks good.

Imperial Grunt is a silly person, too: "low-flying NOE gunship ... like the Commanche without rotors. A Commanche without the rotors wouldn't fly at all.

Of the versions you mentioned I liked the scout/Ew with marker idea the best, followed by an ATGM version.

You might give the Bacchus' MG something good to shoot at.

My first version will be a 30mm-ish AP gun with a EW Jammer, and I'll go from there. Target Designation isn't available right now, so that's out. If the vehicle tends to be a better "hover in the distance and snipe" vehicle then an ATGM sounds good, but I picture it more of a fast moving "attack run" kind of vehicle, which would make it hard to lock on with the ATGM.

If it works out as a nice high-mobility vehicle then I'll probably work on an Ion version and mess with the damage values there to play around. IMO the present Ion weapon isn't scary enough, but it could be I'm just inexperienced with it. (or it could be different in Retail) I think 120mm guns should be one of the biggest hitters, but maybe I'll mess with a slower firing "laser" with enough "punch" to snipe at light vehicles weak parts. </font>

[Tarquelne]

What I meant was a Commanche-like gunship that uses AM engines to hover and fly instead of rotors.

I'm trying... I'm trying... but I can't find a plausible way to misinterpret that. And my standards are pretty low, too. The " " was supposed to show I was kidding. Not just happy but with an annoying eye condition.

But it's looking like we may not be able to get closer to what H. is thinking than a faster, lighter hover-vehicle than the Ariel.

A small, fast, lightly armored unit with a 30mm gun and a fairly high "nominal height" still might be interesting though. Maybe it could kill the engine to hide behind a hill on the ground. It could pop-up to fire, then kill the engine to hide again.

I can see how that'd be better than just backing away in some circumstances... maybe rare ones, though.

DT's XML files make it much easier to modify than most games, but the engine isn't as flexible as I'd hoped. Not yet, at least. I'm surprised H.'s concept and IG's heavy infantry don't seem doable.

[Hawkslayer]

You guys should really read my Air Units thread in the DT Mod forum, I didn't mean to hijack this one.. but whatever. I do have more thoughts and ideas on how it'll work over there I believe.

Yeah I don't expect "flying" control using the hover mode.. just a very high hover with X landing capability. I'll definitely up the top speed to be more of a "flyer".

If you follow the Star Wars tech, there are Swoops (forms of Speeder Bikes) that can high high atmospheric altitudes.. so it'd be kinda like that.. but no altitude control except for creative use of X.

I agree that a "pop up" technique could be good use of the vehicle I'm working on.. especially since it'll be Jammed.

Thanks for trying stuff out to help out! If you wanna try to figure out the tipping over problem, I'l be most appreciative.

I'm planning on getting the game for Christmas, but I'm wanting it earlier, so we'll see.

[Hawkslayer]

Alternatively, I'm looking at the Viper ship and learning to fly it.. I actually grappled an enemy bot and tossed it across the map.. which was fun.. but that was my only success in like 6 ships =)

It's soo sluggish to turn and manuver, I'm curious on how that flight model will work on a smaller mass ship. It's so cumbersome I can see people shooting them down easily.