Hieronymos wrote:Apricotslice, saw yr post in another thread mentioning yr 'M6 Merchant Cruiser' script. The creation of a ship of this capacity and power is something I'd been hoping would be created within the DDRS mod, which I'm rather partial to. And with 20,000 cargo, merchant "cruiser" seems an apt description. Does the script give all M6's 20k cargo?
No, as al_main said, you need to mod to get the changes in the ship. But with the x3 editor its very easy to do once you understand what your doing.
The other thing to bear in mind is that once you change an exisitng ship in the game, every ship of that model will have the changes. So in my game, taking an assasination mission against an Argon target, flying an M6 with M6 escorts is going to be very very very difficult to complete. A Mammoth will be easy in comparison, the target simple but the escorts will be killers.
Idealy, you create a new ship, insert it into a shipyard, and buy it normally, but at this point, I dont have the scripting ability to do that.
And you mentioned 3Gj shielding. Does the script bump M6 shielding up to 3Gj, or is that just yr own personal variant?
My personal variant. It also carrys PBE's and PPC's. I like the BPE's, they area lethal gun with a slightly longer range.
And DO yr M6 UT's defend themselves like normal M6's?
I dont know yet. I only have 1 at UT level, and it simply hasnt been attacked yet ! I dont know if this is sheer luck, or the fact that no-one would dream of shooting at it.
If I wanted to use this script, but reduce M6 cargo space to a more modest 8k, how would I do it?....(Frankly, 20k seems a bit much, in play-balancing terms..)
I mainly put that much in, because I collect a lot of loot, and couldnt be bothered hassleing around with freighters. Besides, when you look at the actual size of the ship, 1500 cargo means that 50% of the volume of the ship is empty space. imo.
The mod is easy to do when you know how. I wish I knew how to get a new ship into the game. Then I'd do a mod which people could use.
And would the script conflict with the DDRS, which has 2 new M6 classes (and adds 2x 125Mj shields to almost all M6 types)???
Combining mods is something being discussed in scripting and modding forum at the moment.
I have actually been able to combine several mods, but only where they are not large. The DDRS mod is huge in comparison to most (I havent looked at the mod itself), so anything else would need to be added into that. It is possible, but needs a lot of care to ensure you dont inadvertently lose something critical, because one file over rides another.
An idea to complement yr 'M6 Merchant Cruiser' script would be to expand the script to enable an M6 UT the option to specialize trade in just high-end products, like high-tech and weapons--which seems consistent with the overall concept of the script, a specialty 'sherman tank' UT. Obviously, the Game programs AI traders as specialty traders--Tech, Weapons, 'Heavy Lifter", etc. Is that hard-coded?
I suspect it is, but honestly wouldnt know. One of the Script Masters wouldnt need to answer that one, as UT behaviour is all scripted, but I'm not sure about the NPC traders.
Ideally, I'd love to see either a mod or an Egosoft upgrade offer a dedicated "Merchant Cruiser" ship, which I see as something that would be slightly inferior in OOS combat capabilities to an M6--i.e. less manoeverable, speed around 110 m/s, fewer + weaker forward guns--but with 3 or so double turrets, and perhaps somewhat stronger shields--like 1Gj, and around 8k cargo. With a price tag in the M6 range.
Its likely to be a mod. The likelihood of egosoft adding more ships to this game is remote. I guess there is the posibility that they may sign off on some of the mods and release an upgrade pack containing mods, but who really knows ?
The multi gun turrents are already in the M6 upgrade mod. So if you took that ship, in whatever M6 you prefered, and modified it, then it would be what you want in your game. Thats the easiest way, but it does change every ship in the game the same way, so you need to accept that consequence.
If you want to try that, send me an email with a spec for which ship you want modded, and all the changes you would prefer. Remind me to use the M6 upgrade as a base, so you get the extra turrent guns. I'll email you back the mod files in a zip. If you like it, I'll add it to the M6 extension zip for anyone.