Weapons firing multiple ammo?

Gage_Stryker

I was wondering if it is possible in the Nova engine to have a single weapon that requires multiple types of ammo to fire (or, if a runaround can be done).

Basically, what I want to be able to do is force the player to have to pay to rearm his fighters. So when a fighter is fired (launched), it would use one ammo for the ship, as usual, but would also use eight missile ammo and two rocket ammo to launch it (assuming the ship was oufitted with a missile and rocket laucnher and eight and two ammo for each).

We're dealing with a universe where missiles are expensive, and being able to basically get unlimited ones for your fighters would really skew things.

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Gage Stryker
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Happily jump-proofed since 2001!
" I envy people who have faith in a supreme being. Death usually doesn't scare them." - Vast Deathmaster

ArcAngel Counterstrike

I dont realy think there is a way to make it use multiple ammos, even a complicated run around to get a "look-alike" effect.
What you could do so save balance is fighter only weapons. mini versions of missiles that you could see a battleship/carrier haveing plenty of ammo for its fighters. Yet too small to be of use for itself. so you dont think much about the infinite missile problem. (of course they will just be useful enough not to make fighters useless) So a battleship would use fighter sized missiles, yet the fighters missiles will be about 1/3 1/2 the size/power.

Oh, just thought of a possible workaround for a look-alike effect. Its kinda odd.
When you buy a fighter bay, you need to by a ammo depot to make the bay function. After so many days, mabe a month or two. A cron kills the depot and you have to buy a new one.
"(one large fee) with this large weapon cache your fighters be fit to fly for the next three months"
"(smaller fee) with this small weapon cache your fighters be fit to fly for one month"
etc.

Oh, Or a invisible rank you gain with a bay that sucks so much credits a day to keep your fighters going. Not sure of a way to make zero credits stop the funtion of your bay, or even a way to make a rank activate anything if it sucked all your money.

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(This message has been edited by ArcAngel Counterstrike (edited 07-03-2003).)

(This message has been edited by ArcAngel Counterstrike (edited 07-04-2003).)

Gage_Stryker

Quote

Originally posted by ArcAngel Counterstrike:
**
Oh, just thought of a possible workaround for a look-alike effect. Its kinda odd.
When you buy a fighter bay, you need to by a ammo depot to make the bay function. After so many days, mabe a month or two. A cron kills the depot and you have to buy a new one. "(one large fee) and your fighters be fit to fly for the next three months" etc.

Oh, Or a invisible rank you gain with a bay that sucks so much credits a day to keep your fighters going. Not sure of a way to make zero credits stop the funtion of your bay, or even a way to make a rank activate anything if it sucked all your money.
**

I've thought of some stuff like that, and it looks like we will be implementing something similar. That adresses outfitting ships in the long term just fine, but not in a battle type sitation. Since NCBs are evaluated every time you land on a planet, they would be of no use in a combat situation.

I've been wracking my brain and have come THIS close to a viable workaround, but nothing yet. As far as I can tell, the closest I've got is to make a fighter bay that has a max ammo of one, and then create an "ammo depot" outfit of type 27 that allows you to carry more fighters and wears out after a certian number of days. That way, you'd have to maintain this number, or you'd lose your fighters themselves, like you lose escorts when they desert to lack of pay. This still doesn't solve the problem of regaining ammo when in battle, but it's probably the best we can do.

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Gage Stryker
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Happily jump-proofed since 2001!
" I envy people who have faith in a supreme being. Death usually doesn't scare them." - Vast Deathmaster

Jules

On a related note, I was wondering whether a weapon could fire multiple types of ammo? Essentially what I am looking for is a missile rack that can fire two or three different types of missiles - unguided, simple guidance systems, smart guidance systems. What I was planning for my TC is that the fighters are equipped with a standard rack that can hold these different missiles - kin of like todays fightr jets.

Can it be done?

ewan

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STraven

I have an idea for this thing.

What you could do is an outfit (called the missile launcher) which grant three missile launchers when you buy it (the launchers can't be sold or bought, and are the real functionnal part of the thing), and remove them when you sell the original outfit.
I did it for another weapon, and it work perfectly.
(mine is a weapon which can work on three energy usage level: low, medium, and high power use)