R-Type ships

[The_Lost_Marauder]

I've searched around the forums but there was nothing related to. So I ask if anyone ever thought about creating R-Type ships for X³ Reunion.
I know it's kind a problem configuring the "Force Orb" but those ships could fly without it as well, and some of them were powerful enough to kick a lot of enemies.

R-Type Ship base model (R9):
[ external image ]

Here some more pictures with models (URL used due to big size of pictures):
http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2008/ ... achsen.jpg

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/reviews/ps ... inal-6.jpg

At this site (which I've discoverd 30secs ago!) you can find all 101 ships available in the game: http://www.slateman.net/rtype/rtypefinal/tree/

[The_Lost_Marauder]

It seems that almost none of you has ever seen this game.
Looking around I found this pic:
http://www.irem.co.jp/official/rfinal/w ... ll_02s.jpg

Wouldn't you like to see it as Police Force of Argon or Terran race?

[alt3rn1ty]

Was this a Playstation spin-off from the old arcade games?, I remember R-Type II very well in the arcade version (Sideways scrolling shoot-em-up with parallax scrolling/weapon power ups/orbital shields/and the orb weapon which could be launched ahead or behind and retracted - end of every level had a boss), it had the 'just one more go' addictiveness. Never seen R-Type Final though. Did this go 3 Dimensional?

As for inclusion - Personally not sure, I think I would go with a no vote. I have modded X3R with XTM because all additions to the game fit well, and add more story without being a mash-up of for instance adding Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica... they are just well out of place/odd for me. Although I have played such mods, DeadlyDa's was very good but much prefer XTM for additional content that doesn't clash.

I think the orb weapon would be an overpowered/game un-balancing thing in X3 - Launch it ahead to a fixed distance, its invincible and runs down the shields/hull of anything it touches fast to destruction. Although the effect of that could be tweaked I suppose.

EDIT: Just found it on YouTube, sort of pseudo 3D but still a sideways scroller.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv5lqpA4c4
Hmm, methinks I missed out on the PSII era lol, although I did dabble with my eldest daughters PS1, Wipeout linked up with a neighbours machine was brilliant.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

Yes, you remember the game correctly, although R-Type Final was for PS2. And it still is a scroll-up game in 2D, but 3D elements have been added in game so sometimes you see your ship "turning" left or right and the scene changes accordingly.

About the pod I haven't decided yet if including it or not, because, like you say, it's something which doesn't fit well in X universe.
Sure thing, instead of being unbreakable you "just" give it a 10GJ shield so if you have a lot of firepower you can still blow it up.
Also, I absolutely don't know how to force it being attached to your ship and being released/returned without messing everything up (theorically you should be damaged too when hitting it according to X gameplay - see mid air collisions with your ships)...

Another question is the weaponry of the ships: in old R-Type games there was only the basic cannon which could shoot fast or being loaded for a more powerful single attack.
In R-TF things have changed: if the basic fire remains the same, the loaded attack changes from one ship to another: the RX-10 has a blast cannon (something like the FLAK in X³ but with wider range and power), the R-11B has a beam, the R-9DH has a photon steady belt which covers a great part of the screen, the R-9Sk2 has a huge flamethrower and the R-13B has a super thunder which strikes enemies several times.
And I could continue for a long time! >_<
So yes, it's a damn problem (although some of them can be easily solved).

A third consideration is needed for the ships themselves: in game, from first R-Type to Final, a single enemy hit is enough to kill you, but for the X Universe it's something not so good. So what shield should they receive?
And what about speed/rudder? In first games you had always the same speed, but in later games you could adjust it, and IIRC there were 4 or 5 rudder/speed levels.

I'm open to any suggestion

[alt3rn1ty]

Although I have very little scripting experience or even time to get so involved, I think the pod could be treated as a separate ship, with a docked position and possibly an extended docked position with a docking path like stations have without the lights?, but then also it would have to have delayed lining up manoeuvres as you yaw/pitch bringing it back into position ahead of the ship (no doubt someone will be along to verify the idea is do-able or not soon enough).

Shield on the pod would work well I think. Docking the whole thing with pod in close may cause problems if it touches the station though.

Ship size, probably Nova or Eclipse size for speed/shield/manoeuverability.

Weapons - lol good luck with that one but I think your right in that a close approximation out of in game weapons could be achieved. But any forward firing weapons would have to be carefully used so as not to hit the deployed pod if it was not indestructible and used shields.

[The_Lost_Marauder]

Although I have very little scripting experience or even time to get so involved, I think the pod could be treated as a separate ship, with a docked position and possibly an extended docked position with a docking path like stations have without the lights?, but then also it would have to have delayed lining up manoeuvres as you yaw/pitch bringing it back into position ahead of the ship (no doubt someone will be along to verify the idea is do-able or not soon enough).

The idea of docking is really interesting, but then I wonder if it can be hit by enemy fire or not... because if it is not, the pod becomes quite useless when linked to the ship. Also, each pod features (theorically) a specific fire [I probably forgot to mention it before, but if you remember even in first R-Type games there were Red, Blue and Yellow Orbs which upgraded the Pod and each one had a specific firing mode].
The big problem is making the ship dockable at stations...

Ship size, probably Nova or Eclipse size for speed/shield/manoeuverability.

Mmm... I was thinking to give each ship 25MJ or 50MJ for shield because in RT they're very weak and they should somehow be the same in X universe.
For speed/rudder on the contrary I'd use some M4 values (kinda like a Buster), while for cargo bay I'd say M type with 200 slots around (consider that a Flak is 50S)

Weapons - lol good luck with that one but I think your right in that a close approximation out of in game weapons could be achieved. But any forward firing weapons would have to be carefully used so as not to hit the deployed pod if it was not indestructible and used shields.

For beam weapons Kyon Emitters can be used, or even Turret Weapons as well. The flamethrower could be created for X³TC and the explosive cannon can be made with a FLAK. As for the thunderbolt... mmm... the Ion Disruptor is not so bad, but it's range should be 3x.
In X³RXTM there is a ship named "Swordfish" which features a "Ion Explosion", but I've never seen it. How is it like?
For missiles I was thinking: Mosquito, Silkworm (or something similar) and Firestorm Torpedoes (or something similar). Nothing more.
The only thing which I can't figure out so far is the normal charged shot of the R-9A because IIRC X³R doesn't have anything like that.

Race = Terran (at least for regular ships)

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I'm so glad someone is interested in this!