Ship and weapon velocity

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Ship and weapon velocity

Mr_Blastman
Cadet 4th Class
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Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:01 am

Post by Mr_Blastman » Sat Jul 01, 2017 11:36 pm

So one thing that has always bugged me with space shooters in general is the slow pace at which the spacecraft fly. Truth is, they'd be flying a lot faster. FreeSpace 2 has a few total conversion mods where the ships go pretty darn fast, say 300 - 500 meters per second. With my discovery of the Direct X 11 patch for XWA, and reshade support, I've been having a blast, and it got me thinking: Is there a way to modify how fast the ships and weapons go in XWA?

I say weapons because... if you simply mod the ships to go faster, the weapons will be fubar, so they need a velocity increase too.

Is this possible? Is it easy? If so, how do I do it?

I'd love to speed everything up by about three or four times their normal velocity and see what happens, although I would limit it to velocity only, and not rotation rates or maneuverability.

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JeremyaFr
XWAU Member
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Post by JeremyaFr » Sun Jul 02, 2017 10:34 am

Hello,

Ships and weapons speed are editable with MXvTED.
You can find it here:
darksaber.xwaupgrade.com -> File Archive -> Craft Editors

Ship editor:
mxvted_ship_speed.PNG
Weapon editor (under Editors menu):
mxvted_weapon_speed.PNG
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Kiarand
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Post by Kiarand » Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:41 pm

From my experiences the AI troubles at much higher speed. I tried to double everything so also weapon speed but then the AI started to act strangely, especially TIE-Fighters.
Because the weapon speed is doubled the laser will also reach further than before e.g. around 4 km now.
For some reason TIE-Fighter-Pilots were really afraid of being targeted already from so far, so they pulled back and kept flying evasive maneuver.
Also the AI doesn't seem to be able to hit targets so well anymore. However if you decide to give them a higher level like from veteran to ace they become incredibly good when it happens that you meet on a straight line. It's impossible to aim faster than the AI in these situations.
Last thing I noticed is that all small crafts like the A-Wing get so much better because at higher speed they are like impossible to hit.
If you want to do it well I think you need more than just doubling speed. However I don't want to discourage you. Just give it a try and maybe you'll find a setup you like :)

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Mark_Farlander
Rebel Alliance
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Post by Mark_Farlander » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:37 pm

Increasing fighter and weapon speed is an interesting experiment I did a few terrestrial years ago.
Kiarand wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:41 pm
From my experiences the AI troubles at much higher speed. I tried to double everything so also weapon speed but then the AI started to act strangely, especially TIE-Fighters.
Because the weapon speed is doubled the laser will also reach further than before e.g. around 4 km now.
The point is that in this way the weapon range gap between a fully charged laser and a half charged laser is increased too.
The AI always pretends to have a half charged laser when evaluating the distance where to start firing to the enemy fighter, regardless of its actual cannon energy level.
Kiarand wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:41 pm
However if you decide to give them a higher level like from veteran to ace they become incredibly good when it happens that you meet on a straight line. It's impossible to aim faster than the AI in these situations.
This is true, but when evaluating the distance where to start firing to the enemy fighter, it seems the AI doesn't take into account the craft approaching relative speed, which is merely the sum of the 2 speeds for non relativistic speeds (as far as I know in Star Wars crafts never fight in hyperspace).
These 2 mentioned facts give a huge advantage to players who are good at shooting from a high distance.

However, fighter battles at such high speeds usually resolve in no hull damage for both sides.
Kiarand wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:41 pm
Last thing I noticed is that all small crafts like the A-Wing get so much better because at higher speed they are like impossible to hit.
A-Wing Blue forever!
I don't judge tactics. The Battle is the best and only Judge.

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Mark_Farlander
Rebel Alliance
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Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:47 pm

Post by Mark_Farlander » Mon Mar 26, 2018 11:26 pm

I think a worth trying experiment could be a speed increase in the following way.

Weapon speed: All x2 (maybe even x3 for ISDII turbolasers)

Capital ships: their Canon speed
Imperial I and II Star Destroyers: 60 MGLT
MC80 Home One type Star Cruiser: 60 MGLT
CR90 Corellian corvette: 81 MGLT
EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate: 40 MGLT

Light Transports: their Canon speed (see the topic "Light Transports Overpowered")
Millennium Falcon: 75 MGLT

Alliance Starfighters: original speed +50%, so that they can fly without losing energy at the speed they could originally reach fully redirecting shield and cannon recharges to engines
Z-95 Headhunter: 150 MGLT
X-Wing T-65: 150 MGLT
Y-Wing BTL-A4: 120 MGLT
A-Wing RZ-1: 180 MGLT
B-Wing A/SF-01: 137 MGLT
Of course the same solution applied to all Imperial shielded starfighters too.

Imperial unshielded starfighters: any proposal? Maybe original speed +75% is a little excessive. It would mean TIE Interceptor faster than the A-Wing.

This is just an idea for a future mod/total conversion I'm planning to release.
I don't judge tactics. The Battle is the best and only Judge.

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