Modding siege frigate behaviour

Why don't they behave like capships ?

from Sins Forums

Hello,

 

I'm trying to put together a mod for future 1.1, but I have problems with siege frigates behaviour.

When a siege frigate enter a gravity well it runs straight to the planet to bomb it, regardless of any other parameter.

If you bring some of them with a fleet to attack an ennemy planet, you probably won't have any of them left when the defenses are beaten and you trully need them.

Why don't they have the same attack rules as capships ?

Like, attack warships in the gravity well, and once they are down go for the planet . Then by giving them long range weapon they would stay out of harm and be alive when you need them to bomb the planet.

So far I havn't founf what control this behaviour, I tried to change the ship role in the data file without seeing any difference.

Has someone a clue on how to fix this issue ?

 

 

modding
5,085 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Hello again,

 

Although, no on responded maybe someone may be interested in an inelegant but effective solution.

On the siege frigate entity file I've set their default attack range from "gravity well" to "Local area" (except for pirates)

The result is siege frigate not heading directly to the planet and instead shooting ships in the vincinity, if there is none they just stop on the border of the gravity well.

With this setup when sending a fleet containing siege frigate they generally stay out of the fight until you order them to bomb the planet.

Cheers ;-)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I think we are all beginning to find out that the ship AI's are pretty much set in stone. In other words a ship flagged as a siege frigate will always behave like a siege frigate. What you can do to work around this is to not make the ship a "siege frigate". Flag it as a light, or heavy frigate. I made that same mistake with the Excelsior in my mod, and i still have yet to correct it. It behaves just as you describe. It will run straight to a planet to bomb it. Regardless of any other factor.

Look up these lines in the ships entity.

frigateRoleType "Siege"
statCountType "FrigateSiege"

Change them to this

frigateRoleType "Light"
statCountType "FrigateLight"

Worst that will happen is the game crashes, and if it does keep a backup of the old file handy.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I have already tried (v1.05) to change the role factor without any difference in game.

I can give it a second try to see if it reacts better under 1.095... plus I have to make sure the IA and pirates still uses them for planet bombing...

It's sad Ironclad did not give them the same behaviour as capitas ships...

Thanks for the head up Stress :)

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Sorry it didnt work for you. :(

It may also be the AI's targeting prioritys. If a frigate has planet bombs it may always use them 1st. I am just grasping at straws right now, because i cant think of anything else it could be.

If i knew what files the AI used i can probably fiddle around with it, and see for myself.