Capabilities and Limitations of game engine?

from Sins Forums

I've wanted to create a mod, especially around a sci-fi series I've been working on for a couple of years now. I have not played the game yet, I've only seen videos, but Sins seems like a good engine. What are the Capabilities and limitations of the games engine, such as;

  1. Maximum and minimum size of ships/objects?
  2. Can kinetic weapons be made to behave relisticly, and to what scale?
  3. How large can the sustained beam of an energy weapon be, and what is it's maximum distance of effect?
  4. Can the effect be made to dissapate over a set distance?
  5. Can energy weapons be made that expand around a ship like a sphere but only damage enemy ships?
  6. What kinds of missles be used in game, if any? Such as cluster missles, large long range anti-ship missles, large missles with multiple warheads, etc.
  7. Can ships destroy planets and/or stars?
  8. How many turrets can a ship have, and of what sizes, and how many barrels per turret, if any?
  9. How many differant kinds of weapons can be used in game, by one ship, with differant animations and kinds of damage?
  10. Can weapons damage/kill a crew and leave a ship salvageable?
  11. Can ships be boarded and captured?
  12. Can Large ships carry smaller ships attached to their hull, such as a capitol ship carrying escorts.
  13. Can ships join and seperate?
  14. Can ships carry fuel tanks, weapons, etc which can be jettisoned?
  15. Can ships have large missle doors with opening animation, or even transform?
  16. Does the game support energy shields, and expanding those shields to protect other ships/objects?
  17. Can ships or stations refuel and rearm ships and fighters?
  18. Can ships firepower/range be limited by reactor/power output?
  19. Can a ships manuverability be limited by engines/reactor power?
  20. Can ships/objects be split into two or more parts by damage? Can they still be made to function, even in a limited scope?

Thanks to all who reply!

modding
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top


I've wanted to create a mod, especially around a sci-fi series I've been working on for a couple of years now. I have not played the game yet, I've only seen videos, but Sins seems like a good engine. What are the Capabilities and limitations of the games engine, such as;

Maximum and minimum size of ships/objects?
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You can have pretty much every size you want within reason, but if your ships are made really big they will have some issues travelling from one planet to another.

Can kinetic weapons be made to behave realisticly, and to what scale?
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No. They simply move in a straight line hitting or missing their target, then continue along the way (no longer being capable of hitting anything) and eventually disappearing. Missiles follow their targets.

How large can the sustained beam of an energy weapon be, and what is it's maximum distance of effect?
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It can be as large and efective as you tell it to be.

Can the effect be made to dissapate over a set distance?
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Not sure, I think it might be possible to have the visual dispers after a certain distance, but I doubt you can actually tie it in with damage so the beam does less damage after a certain distance.

Can energy weapons be made that expand around a ship like a sphere but only damage enemy ships?
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Yes

What kinds of missles be used in game, if any? Such as cluster missles, large long range anti-ship missles, large missles with multiple warheads, etc.
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Cluster missiles, large anti-capital missiles, medium missiles, small anti-strikecraft missiles, phase missiles, and you can combine stuff for other more interesting missile effects.

Can ships destroy planets and/or stars?
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No, best you can do is have a special ability on a ship that destroys all enemy presence on the planet with a single blast, but you can't actually destroy it.

How many turrets can a ship have, and of what sizes, and how many barrels per turret, if any?
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Its possible that there is a limit on weapon hardpoints per model, but I do not know the exact numbers.

How many differant kinds of weapons can be used in game, by one ship, with differant animations and kinds of damage?
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Not sure, but I think that is pretty much limitless. When you run out of hardpoints for weapons you can have the weaponfire come from the center of the ship.

Can weapons damage/kill a crew and leave a ship salvageable?
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Currently not as far as I'm aware of.

Can ships be boarded and captured?
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Yes, by modifying an existing ability. It will work either guaranteed or have a set chance of working.

Can Large ships carry smaller ships attached to their hull, such as a capitol ship carrying escorts.
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No.

Can ships join and seperate?
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No.

Can ships carry fuel tanks, weapons, etc which can be jettisoned?
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In a way, though it requires someclever merging & adapting of existing abilities. Fuel can be represented by the ships anti-matter. You could create one or more abilities that allows (additional) movement and (additional) weaponfire by expending some antimatter every x seconds. Certain other ships and stations can be given an ability to refuel the antimatter. Big downside of this system is that its basically improvised on the modders part, and so the AI does not take it well, and the AI is not moddable to know it needs to resupply its ships.

Can ships or stations refuel and rearm ships and fighters?
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Yes, though in the case of fighters you would have to make their health slowly decay to represent their remaining flighttime, with the stations/ships restoring their health slightly.

Can ships have large missle doors with opening animation, or even transform?
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Not really, but I guess its possibly to implement if you improvise, using the same technique of the B5 Omega cruiser with the rotating mid-section. Will take alot of work though, and I'm not sure if it can be tied in to activate when missiles fire.

Does the game support energy shields, and expanding those shields to protect other ships/objects?
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Yes.

Can ships firepower/range be limited by reactor/power output?
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Well, you can completely control the speed, maneuvrability, hull strength, armor, shieldpower and anti-matter supply of every ship you mod. So yes you could make certain things tied in with one another, and have ships with a less powerful reactor have less shield strength, weaponrange or maximum speed. I do not think you can make ships diminish in power as their antimatter reserves dwindle however.

Can a ships manuverability be limited by engines/reactor power?
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See above.

Can ships/objects be split into two or more parts by damage? Can they still be made to function, even in a limited scope?
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Not that I'm aware of no.

 

Thanks to all who reply!
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Hope this helps.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

How many turrets can a ship have, and of what sizes, and how many barrels per turret, if any?

Its possible that there is a limit on weapon hardpoints per model, but I do not know the exact numbers.
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The "official" word is 10 firing points per weapon so 30 total, however modders have been able to go above 10 without side effects. It may be 30 global spread out however among all weapons, or it just might be a bit higher than 30.

How many differant kinds of weapons can be used in game, by one ship, with differant animations and kinds of damage?

Not sure, but I think that is pretty much limitless. When you run out of hardpoints for weapons you can have the weaponfire come from the center of the ship.
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A ship can use up to 3 actual weapons. You can create abilities that behave relatively close to a weapon, and there are 5 ability slots per ship.

Can ships have large missle doors with opening animation, or even transform?

Not really, but I guess its possibly to implement if you improvise, using the same technique of the B5 Omega cruiser with the rotating mid-section. Will take alot of work though, and I'm not sure if it can be tied in to activate when missiles fire.
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Entrenchment added the ability to change visual appearance of ships and buildings with research. You can't do it with an ability to "transform" at will, but say you research to unlock a missile weapon (also added in Entrenchment, unlocking weapons with research) your ship can grow missile racks.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Well thank you for the replies so far.

Most of my ships use cluster missle bays protected by armored missle doors. so poop

The battleships also usually have large particle accelerator cannons, twin barrel gauss turrets, twin barrel energy weapon turrets, pulsed energy turrets for fighters, as well as carrying their escorts.

Hmm, can two or four smaller ships be grouped with a larger ship, like the fighters are?

 

Here is an example of one of my designs that I have uploaded already. It is an automated fleet, with all of the ships attached to it for transport, since they don't have the best FTL drives themselves, or shielding. This cuts down on the size of the smaller ships, such as the cannon/artillery ships.

Omicron Fleet

 

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting RazealKresh, reply 3


Hmm, can two or four smaller ships be grouped with a larger ship, like the fighters are?

 

Here is an example of one of my designs that I have uploaded already. It is an automated fleet, with all of the ships attached to it for transport, since they don't have the best FTL drives themselves, or shielding. This cuts down on the size of the smaller ships, such as the cannon/artillery ships.
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Physically, no. However, you should be able to have a passive ability on the little ships that disables their phase jumps, and the big ship can have an aura around it that enables them.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
How many turrets can a ship have, and of what sizes, and how many barrels per turret, if any?

Its possible that there is a limit on weapon hardpoints per model, but I do not know the exact numbers.

The "official" word is 10 firing points per weapon so 30 total, however modders have been able to go above 10 without side effects. It may be 30 global spread out however among all weapons, or it just might be a bit higher than 30.

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From the modding section of the Entrenchment beta 2 change log

Max weapon points increased from 10 to 20
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Not sure if it has been increased for regular SINS.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Oh, I missed that one :P

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

H, thanks again all!

Now, can structures be built around stars, like the skeletal structure of a dyson sphere?

 

Also, where might I find people interested in working on this mod? :w00t:  

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

I think someone was working on a dyson sphere? In any case, starbases in Entrenchment can be put around stars, so if whatever you want to build there can be done with a modified starbase entity it should work.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Is there a site or some threads that will tell me what I need to make ships and such in the game, and how to texture and whatever else, and then import them.

 

I've played around in wings 3D a bit, but that's the limit of my 3D modeling experiance.