Version: 1.14
Date: 31.10.2006
Scripter: moggy2
Overview:
The Fleet Support Ship Software is a software upgrade that provides 4 commands that allow ships to perform a support role to your fleet of ships, be they fighters, freighters or capital class ships. The software is available, for a reasonable price, from Argon and Boron Equipment Docks.
The commands provided are powerful tools that can be used in a multitude of fashions, yet are simple to use. They are however, designed with particular purposes in mind and as such are limited to the classes of ships they work with. Currently, the Fleet Support Ship Software works with M5, M4 and small freighter class ships.
Some of the commands require the Transporter Device for proper functioning. It is for this reason the software upgrade can also be purchased at the Goner Temple, along with the Transporter Device. The purchase of a Jumpdrive is also recomended. The software will make use of it for longer journeys if it is installed and enough energy is available.
Command: Resupply ship:
This command requires a Transporter Device
This command is for delivering specific quantities of wares and upgrades to a target ship. The ship will look for the best place to buy the wares locally, purchase the correct quantity and deliver it to the target ship. If the quantity is greater than the capacity of its cargobay it will make several journeys to buy the wares and deliver them to the target ship.
Typical uses of this command include resupplying a ship with Energy Cells for their Jumpdrive, delivering a replacement for an upgrade that got destroyed in battle, delivering weapons and shields to a newly bough Carrier or Destroyer.
Note that the Resupply commands can only check the prices for wares if you have property in the same sector as the station selling the wares. If the resupply commands cannot check for the best prices in the surrounding sectors then they will default to the nearest supply.
3 Arguments: ware to fetch; quantity; target ship
Command: Resupply group:
This command requires a Transporter Device
This command is similar to the Resupply ship command but can resupply every ship in the fleet or convoy with the same quantity of the ware.
An important difference to note with this command over the Resupply ship command is that when it resupplies a ship it first checks to see how much the target is carrying and deducts that from the amount to be transfered to that ship. The result being that the quantity specified for this command is the amount the target ships will end up with, even if they were carrying some to begin with. For the Resupply ship command the quantity specified is the actual amount transfered.
This difference is to allow a fleet to be rearmed and resupplied after a battle where the different ships are likely to have used differing amounts of missiles and ammunition. You can of course use this command on a single ship if you wish to make use of this feature when delivering to lone ships.
Note that the Resupply commands can only check the prices for wares if you have property in the same sector as the station selling the wares. If the resupply commands cannot check for the best prices in the surrounding sectors then they will default to the nearest supply.
3 Arguments: ware to fetch; quantity; any ship in the fleet
Command: Drop Freight:
This command has a number of different functions depending on what it is exactly you ask it to drop. For most wares it will simply fly to the position and eject all of that ware from its cargobay. You'll find it floating in a canister near the ship, and can be picked up by any ship using the standard collect ware command.
Dropping Satellites
If you select a Navigation Satellite or Advanced Navigation Satellite to be dropped then this command will go into Satellite Network Mainenance mode. It will fly to the position specified and deply the satellite, then it will randomly pick a neighbouring sector to fly to and, if there isn't already one there, place a satellite in that sector as well. If the ship runs out of satellites then it will attempt to buy more and continue. The satellites are always placed in the same position, the position you specified, in each sector.
The command avoids placing more than one satellite in the same place in each sector. You can, however, place more than one satellite in the same sector as long as they are more than 20km apart. Using 2 ships to drop satellites in different places in sectors can be a good idea in certain parts of the Universe.
The type of satellite bought is dependant on the type selected when starting of the command. If you selected an Advanced Satellite to start the command then all satellites dropped will be Advanced Satellites, and the ship will only attempt to buy advanced satellites.
If you wish to limit the satellite deployment to a specific races sector you can adjust the Friend/Foe settings for the ship. It will only go into sectors that are owned by friendly races. It will not enter or deploy satellites in sectors owned by races marked as enemy. So to prevent satellites being placed in Pirate sectors all you have to do is to set Pirates to enemy in the ship's Friend/Foe settings.
There is one time when you may find your satellite deployment ship in enemy sectors. This is when it's enroute to buy more satellites and the direct route to the station selling them takes the ship through enemy space. This is the same problem that UT's suffer from and is caused by the standard navigation libraries that all ships make use of.
Dropping Squash Mines
If you select a Squash Mine to be dropped, the commands will enter Create Minefield mode. In this mode the ship will place 8 Squash mines within 2km² of the target position. If the ship doesn't have enough Squash Mines it will attempt to purchase them first.
Once the Squash Mines have been placed the ship will contact you and ask you to activate the mine field. At this point you can run the command again until you have mined the desired area, or you can activate the mine field by comm'ing one of the mines and selecting "activate all mines".
Dropping Lasertowers
If you select a Lasertower to be dropped, the ship will deploy the Lasertower at the specified coordinates.
Command: Retrieve Deployed Item:
This command is for collecting items such as Lasertowers, Navigation Relay Satellites, Drones, and Squash mines, which are deployed rather than dropped. Simply select the item you wish to collect and the ship will collect it.
If there are several similar items within 10km of the target item you select, then the ship will attempt to collect all of them. This allows you to quickly and simply collect a group of Fighter Drones, or dismantle a Squash Minefield. Don't forget to deactivate the minefield first!
Tips:
- A TS with a large cargobay, equiped with FSUP, Jumpdrive, and Transporter Device makes an excellent fuel tanker for refueling your fleet. Using the Manual Trade Command's "Best Buy" command to fill up on Energy Cells beforehand is often a good idea.
- Discoverer's make excellent Satellite network deploying ships. They are fast and can carry satellites which are M sized.
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