Trying to make ships never attack the player

@lnsu, on Mar 5 2008, 02:32 PM, said in Trying to make ships never attack the player:

Yes, but they switch targets faster.

What?
That's just a function of the fire rate.
And even if they did, they still hit the same target... but faster?

Have you ever seen a point defence beam in action? It literally flickers all over the place, switching from target to target extremely rapidly.

The real problem with this solution is that it means the player ship can't have any point defence weapons, or it will start attacking the offending ships as well.

@belthazar, on Mar 6 2008, 10:34 AM, said in Trying to make ships never attack the player:

Have you ever seen a point defence beam in action? It literally flickers all over the place, switching from target to target extremely rapidly.

The real problem with this solution is that it means the player ship can't have any point defence weapons, or it will start attacking the offending ships as well.

Yes.
It changes targets that quick because it kills them that quick. If the target is gone, then yes it flicks to a new target - the next closest one.
Now in the proposed scenario, the targets aren't going to be killed by the beam, and it will simply remain on the closest target.

So I tested giving the player a planet-type ship. (idea from that other thread)

The results are:
Enemies will not normally fire on you, but they will launch fighters.
If you're vulnerable to PD, the PD will fire at you, but it will pass right through.
Now the hostiles still chased me around the screen, so I don't think this this will help, but then again, I was the only target in my test.

Anyway, all you would have to do is detect what base type of ship the player is in, and swap him into it for the mission, then swap him back upon completion, or 1 day passes.

But you'll have to test if the AI will attack ships it can actually hit before focusing on you.

What about the player's custom outfitting?

@lnsu, on Mar 12 2008, 01:56 AM, said in Trying to make ships never attack the player:

What about the player's custom outfitting?

Cxxx

To elaborate, the Cxxx operator gives the player a new ship with his outfits but not the new ship's original outfits. Exxx gives you the new ship with his oufits AND the new ship's outfits while Hxxx gives you ONLY the new ship's outfits, plus any persistent outfits the player already had.

That said, I'd thought of something similar when Claimh posted his thread about his un-attackable ship, but I discarded the idea as unfeasible, because it would require too many different mďsn resources to ensure the payer was switched to the right ship, and then given his original ship back again. Maybe if the player was already forced to use a particular ship by the storyline...

Maybe the mission needs to be a side mission that requires the player to have a certain ship before the mission starts. Otherwise you would need one bit and one mission for every player-usable ship to properly switch the player back to his original ship.

Or you could make the ships the player needs to destroy be untargetable - advanced jamming systems or the like - and then (assuming they like the player to start with) they'll ignore any "stray" shots from the player that "just happen" to hit them.

I do remember that if there is a fleet/squadron of ships, they all follow one lead ship. If the lead ship is attacking a ship other than the player, then the player can fire on any of the ships except for the leader and they will not return fire. I haven't set this system up purposely before, but have observed it during gameplay, so I know that it's possible but don't know what exactly it requires; probably some flags in the govt or ship resources (exhibits swarming behavior, perhaps?).

Ok, I made an accidental discovery that relates to this thread.

How to make a targeted (or un-targeted) gun that won't aggro the AI.
Give the shot a blank (completely black) mask. Make the shot detonate with proximity. Since the shot has no mask, it can't actually hit the target. As long as it wasn't a guided munition, the AI doesn't know it's being shot at.

I am unsure if the blank mask is completely necessary, but it certianly ensures that a shot doesn't accidentally hit a ship for fast shots that out run their prox radius.