Dockable Drayman and stuff.

http://spiritplumber.dynip.com/privr-10-hafh-1.1.zip

A word of explanation:

The various ships are once again available pending requirements, e.g. the drayman is available when joining the merchants' guild. Sorry for messing that up ^^;;;; for those who have no idea what that was about: Talons are available after doign Tayla's missions, and Demons are available when joining the mercenaries' guild. (If you don't want to go thru the trouble, just use my save game -- only, make sure to upgrade at least the drayman's radar). I made it so you can buy a stripped talon frame for very cheap because I figure it's the Priv equivalent of spending $300 on a wolksvagen bug.

The Drayman can be used as a temporary base station, if you are crafty -- here's how:

-Make sure you either have another ship other than the Drayman, or the Drayman contains a Demon or Talon.
-Get your Drayman where you want it and make sure you are stopped.
-Eject.
-Dock to your drayman.
-In the fleet menu, either transfer your other ship or buy a fighter -- it should cost zero, since it's coming from your stash.
-Get in your other ship, go do whatever.

The Drayman will still be where you left it until you save your game (or until it gets blown up). You can use it to refuel, accept new missions, and repair. DO NOT SAVE YOUR GAME FROM ANOTHER SYSTEM WHILE THE DRAYMAN IS OUTSIDE: YOU WILL LOSE THE BIG SHIP. From the look of it saving from the Drayman's computer is OK tho. However, you WILL lose active missions that would be lost on docking, like normal.

A funny thing is to get the maximum amount of cargo upgrades, fill your hold with Demons, and taking on combat missions. Now you know what it feels like to be a carrier captain.... or, just jump into one of your cargo wingmen and have at it. Going into Kilrathi controlled systems with your homemade carrier gets fun if you don't feel like waiting for these wonderful guys here to also remake WC2:SO ;)

-If you want to go back to piloting the Drayman without losing your other ship(s), dock to it, and transfer ships again -- there should be a "Pilot" under My Fleet. Transfer to that. Now just use the [ key to get back on your drayman.


Some notes:

(1) I put the Centurion under Starships/Hunter/Heavy because everyone speaks of it as a heavy fighter.

(2) I replaced the graphics for the Galaxy turrets with the "rear" turret for the simple reason that this prevents 2 lists of turrets from showing up in the buy menu, since there is no way to distinguish them, it gets annoying that sometimes you see a turret of a type you want but you can't buy it. Besides the Galaxy doesn't look bad with "tie fighter" style turrets. WC3 style turrets still exist on capships where appropriate.

(3)The Drayman uses the "ball" turrets since it's a buyable/upgradable ship....easier this way. I cannot seem to be able to get the turret limits right tho! :( Also, the Drayman you buy starts with turrets (which hold the wimpy hand laser weapon) for the simple reason that this way the player is aware of them, and so are would-be pirates. Also, this lets "normal" drayman ships have those turrets -- they don't change game mechanics a whole lot, but it's fun to be in a Demon and strafe a NPC owned Drayman and get a Star Wars moment from it as turret fire tries to get you and inevitably misses.

(4) To return a ship from ship stores that you took to fly to wingman/cargo status, simply dock with it, pick another ship (or a pilot) and sell that ship (for zero credits). It'll go back to ship stores. I tried it with a Demon, not sure what happens with non-tractorable ships....



I would also like to make some extra dock screens if I can -- what I think you should be able to dock at, overall, is:

*Bases, of course
*Merchant Draymen (not sure you should get missions from the computer, maybe have a couple of fixers aboard)
*Pirate Draymen (different cargo and mission choices than above)
*Your own Drayman (not sure you should have access to news and missions with this one...)
*Paradigms (only confed missions and fixers)
*Merchant Galaxies for trading cargo only, maybe?

I would also like to put more turrets on kamehks and paradigms.

Don't think docking to anything else makes sense (maybe Kamekhs, but... not sure the Kilrathi would let a human onboard one of their cap ships)
 
it would be awesome to have new docking graphics...
right now it looks for bases/drayman_pirates.py
if it can't find it it looks for bases/unit_pirates.py
if it can't find it, it looks for bases/drayman.py
if it can't find it, it looks for bases/unit.py
and thus it tries to find the file with the textures for the base you wish to dock at
feel free to add any more docking screens :)
 
Working on it now. I'm going to use existing graphics for now, but I'll make the layouts and names have some sense... what I would like to do is allow the player to dock with merchant Galaxy class ships (Tarsus-class ships don't have a dedicated airlock and Orion-class ships would be owned by security freaks, so they wouldn't allow docking), pirate Draymen which sometimes do appear, merchant Draymen, and Paradigms. The Galaxy screen will only allow for commodity trading while the others will have an actual concourse. Units to which you may conceivably dock but shouldn't (like the kilrathi capship) will give you a picture of a closed airlock.

I'll put this up in a bit after I'm done testing it.
 
the game currently doesn't allow you to dock with ships that have no docking ports (eg: galaxy, orion, talon, centurion, tarsus, stiletto, broadsword, ... )
 
Changes sound great. I think you should be able to dock with Kilrathi if your rating with them is high enough (Mine's 60).
 
I haven't figured out how to script things so that docking depends on rating... sounds sensible though.

About the docking port: I noticed :( not sure how to add the docking port, I did try a bunch of stuff but to no avail. If there is a way to add it... I did make some different docking screens though. Please just redownload the file at its previously posted location.

http://spiritplumber.dynip.com/privr-10-hafh-1.1.zip

Changes are:

*Savegames saved inside your capship appear to work, at least in-system.

*Multiple docking concourses for
-your drayman
-your paradigm if you ever get one
-pirate drayman
-paradigm
-merchant drayman
-anything else gives you a "no access to airlock" screen (e.g. you try
to dock with a kamekh)

Not a lot of difference looks wise, except that for example, a pirate drayman will give you "Black Market" instead of "Commodity Exchange", feature the pirate base bar, and the pirate base music, and not have any guild offices.

* Made sure that the turrets on NPC draymen are mainly just for show


Also, I know that the pilot entries in units.csv and masterlist.csv look weird. This prevents the "keep selling pilots" and "lose your other ship if you eject and dock to your capship" bugs.
 
You have to ask hellcatv on that one. I am ready to mirror it, but it's really hellcat's call on it. I'm just the girl who fiddlef*cks with stuff around here ^^,
 
Updated my patchy thingy again, available as usual at

http://spiritplumber.dynip.com/privr009_hafh.1.1.zip
http://spiritplumber.dynip.com/privr-10-hafh-1.1.zip

depending on which version you have. What it does is this: since it IS possible for you, although it's extremely unlikey, to get your hands/paws on capital ships and kilrathi fighters, I made sure that the playable version of them is a little nerfed -- once you finish the game and buy yourself a Paradigm plus a fighter complement, it IS possible to, say, go pick fights with kamekhs, but it doesn't mean you have a death ship. By the same token, if you find the (***spoiler deleted***) which lets you get a hold of a dralthi, you get the option of either bagging it, or flying it. Either way it doesn't do all the aiming for you anymore ;). Also, you DO get a docking screen when flying your khamekh, but you don't get a concourse like you would on the Paradigm since you wouldn't have a bartender, merchant guild liaison etc. on a stolen kilrathi cruiser. Also, pirate bases correctly sell you talons (either as a cargo escort or as a flyable ship) once the Tayla mission is complete. Also, the bit with the Salthis is fixed. Very occasionally you will get a Salthi when visiting the (****), but never the steltek version.

Also, try flying the steltek fighter! It now carries the Insane Steltek Tractor/Repulsor Beam (if you completed the game you know what I am talking about). A fun thing to do is pushing ships against bases.... (The AI will not use this).

You can no longer dock at a hostile khamek -- well you CAN, but you can't do a thing at the docking screen.

Also, all turret-capable ships have at least plinking turrets, for looks. On this respect, look at two hostile Draymen flying by each other and exchanging volleys like two galleons...

In this respect, I'd like to add eyecandy turrets to bases (so that you get potshots if you land on a hostile base, just because they must make you land by convention it doesn't mean they want you to) and maybe little satellites around them. I would also like to add a non-game-significant "tug" ship (maybe the eject pod from version .9?) that runs around outside bases in a few instances, call it maintenance or whatnot. Stuff like this.... just for looks and to make the game a bit more immersive, basically.


NOTE: When I say "eyecandy turret" I mean a turret which does about 1/4th of the damage of a single laser gun. It doesn't make a lot of difference, but it looks pretty.
 
BTW, I had an idea. If flying Tayla's missions gives you access to Talons (since she works with pirates), why not have Goodin's missions give you access to Confed craft (Stiletto, Broadsword, etc.)? Since you've done the Confederation such a great service, this could be a way for them to show their appreciation ;) It would also add a few more playable craft.
 
Maybe there should be consideration for creating and releasing changes available as official or unofficial mods, such as "Weapon Speed Mod", or "Dockable Cap Ship Mod".

Privateer Remake would be what it was seemingly initially meant to be; a remake of the original Privateer/RF as close in content and features as can be made, but with updated graphics.

Privateer Revisited/Reloaded/Redone/Mods/Universe would be modifications that incorporate any new features, such as those discussed here, without limitations imposed by the Privateer purist gamer.

I would like to see a game as similar to the original as can be made, but like the fun the modifications can create. Freelancer is a good example of a space sim game that was enjoyable with and without mods.
 
What I personally am out to do is do beta testing for "extreme" situations to make sure the game can swallow them. I'm also trying to put in stuff that would have conceivably been in the original game if there was time/space for it (same as the kilrathy **** ****.... )

The weapon speed mod was just to replicate what I saw on my install of the priv game -- I am running the two in parallel lately to spot anything that should/could be different, and my feeling was that the guns were too slow (to the point of it being unplayable).

Everything else is mostly cosmetics -- having only 1 type of turret and tying its availability to what guns are available at that base, for example. Makes no sense that I can buy takyon guns only at Perry but takyon guns everywhere. The capship thing just sorta happened ^^;

Sorry if I am being any trouble. I'll write one more revision then stop. Sorry Hellcat I didn't mean to be obnoxious.
 
we enjoy your mods spirit :) keep doing them :)

that's exactly what people are saying....
make the mod, just don't integrate it in the final build
 
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