Creating new kind of "battle"mine

from Sins Forums

Hey all, I have a little question for you.  I am trying to create a new kind of mine for my race, and I'm a little stuck...  Basically, its a heavy, frigate-sized mine that pops out of phase when an enemy is detected within its range, fires a quick pulse from a heavy laser cannon, and then explodes.  In more depth, I would like it to do these things;

1)  Be built from the frigate factory as a mobile, phase-capable frigate-esque ship (unarmed).

2)  Be capable of becoming one of two types of mines (a-la Advent mine transformation) - Pulsar, and Temporal.

3)  Have a cannon (ability or weapon) that automatically fires on the first enemy in range - One shot only.

4)  Have the mine detonate immediately after firing its cannon, as if the strain of using such a powerful weapon overloaded its systems.

To work the way I have been hoping it to, the mine MUST fire its weapon before exploding, and MUST explode after firing, whether or not there is an enemy in range of the explosion's AOE. 

The mine works fine constructed as a planetary module like the TEC mines, but then cannot move out of the gravity well.  If built as a frigate, it cannot use the ConvertFightersToMines ability, because it isnt a fighter in a squad, but if made a fighter, cannot Phase jump and cannot be built from a frigate factory.  I also cant get it to use a weapon in the way I want it to, so if anyone has any ideas on how to get any of the four criteria above to work, please post how-id be much obliged.  Thanks!

modding
4,220 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I'm not a modder, but what if you used a mine mesh or skin on a normal friget, gave it TEC's gauss rail gun with a huge reload time, and finally give the ship the Advent's martydom. This way it will look like a mine, have one shot, and then can blow up.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

hmm, well, several things-

2)- "Pulsar or Temporal"- explain this please.

the cannon being 1-shot only is irrelevant if the "mine" blows up right after firing the cannon. The mine blowing up will make the cannon be 1-shot only, by virtue of the mine itself blowing up.

Here's a basic rundown of what you need to due. With your starting ability.entity file, you will need to use the "ApplyTargettedBuffToSelf" instantactiontype. Use a target filter of your choice (the filter determines what the ability can shoot at). From there, your 1st buff, which we'll call buff1.entity in this discussion, you will have the buff do a couple things- first, it must apply a buff, using weapon effects to the target. Thus buff will do damage to the target.

From there, you have it apply a second buff to itself. This buff will contain either a. a damage value that exceeds the maximum health possible for the mine (and this must be after research as well, so something like 3-10x the frigate's hull health is good), or b. contain the buff action type "makedead". Make dead will automatically destroy the frigate.

The trick is making the second buff activate on a delay of a couple seconds, so that it looks like the cannon overloads the frigate.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Hmm, alright, Ill give that a try.  "Pulsar or Temporal"  is just the two types of mines.  I didnt bother to explain them because I have no trouble in figuring out how to make them work.  Pulsar mines are the ones that fire the heavy laser cannon upon activation, temporal mines fire a time flux around them that freezes affected enemies in a temporal distortion field.

Ok, well, lets say the sequence above works for making the mine shoot and detonate.  All I need now is a way to get a Phase capable frigate to morph into a mine, as the AbilityConvertFightersToMinesmodifier only works if the target is a fighter in the squad that the ability is being triggered on...

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

you really don't need to. Just have a toggleable ability that causes the frigate to apply the following boolModifiers to itself- "DisableLinearAcceleration", "DisableAngularAcceleration", and "CannotBeDamaged". These will make it immobile, as well as be untargetable by enemy ships.

For effects (making it look phased-out), use the "IsIllusionShip" boolModifier. Then change all scout mine-sweeping abilities to also target frigates.

The reason to change the scout abilities is because quite frankly make a frigate "morph" into a mine, which I take to mean you want a frigate to change into a mine, is impossible. The only "entity-switching" in the game is the convertfighterstomines modifier, as that turns a fighter entity into a mine entity.