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It has come to my attention that it may be possible that the Trade Federation Battleships (the Lucrehulk Ring ships) hangars were quite possibly intended for docking. Earlier today I was playing on a recent mod map: EP2 Geonosis XL, which incorporated space action and land action which included Ring Ship in the sky. I was using an ARC- 170 and I was just flying around the large ship when I noticed that I considerable slowed down near the hangar area of the Core ship's rings. Also, I could not fire any of my weapons either. This only happens when a space craft in BFII is in the process of landing in a hangar e.g. docking with a cap ship. I came to the conclusion that maybe it was possible that Pandemic intended for the Lucrehulk battleships to be boarded as with the cap ships in space. Notice how same sequence described above happens when boarding in space (weapons can't fire and you slow down a lot more). Another reason that further convinced me was the fact that this particular map for some reason wouldn't allow flyers to land PERIOD. I tested the Gunship, arc, the grevious ships and none of them landed on terrain. Yet I tested all of the flyer on this map and I was able to land ONLY on a small pad at the entrance to the hangar of the Trade Federation Ring ship. I tried to get a screenshot but I don't know how to post a .tga file on here but see for yourselves.

This is true, they have the perfect outline for a hangar. But your ship not firing should only be present in an area where you have added a landing region in zeroeditor and your LUA script. I think that somebody should cut the hole out and make hangar placement possible. (And make those tuningfork-like-prongs solid.

Yes, that must be it then, the creator of that map must have added a landing region or it was already programmed. After I landed on the small strip extended from the exterior of the hangar, I got out of my ship and I analyzed the scale of the hangar while standing next to it. It is just about the same exact size of that of the Venator's hangar. I see no reason why someone shouldn't get this to be a REAL hangar.

wouldnt the hangar have to be curved?

I think there are ODFs for hanger parts for the DCS as well.

i agree wiff alex shoodnt the hangar b curved in the trade fed ship?

If you tried to fit an in game hangar with modelling a new one I assume part of it would stick out the side of the ship.

To be able to put a hangar in it, there allready needs to be a Hole in model for a hangar entrance, there isnt so its not possible to put one. Only way to put one would be for someone to model a new version of it and put it ingame.

what if it would be a terrain cutter?

Terrain cutters only work on Terrain.

Theoretically, someone can use Bconstructor to extract the msh and add the hangar holes and then export it back into the game. However, extracting msh's is notoriously messy and unreliable.

I've never noticed that, I'm too busy blowing them up. This is great if someone can carve a small hanger in them. They are single objects so they can easily be animated. It wouldn't take much effort to make these drivable. Of course, once it started moving, you could no longer land on it.

i dont get why people want to fly capital ships, seems like a dumb idea to me when you can just script them to move.

Delta-038

Good catch. You found my "developer's test platform". I put that landing region in the map to stand and watch the AI battle without getting shot so I could ensure balanced gameplay.

Making them move when you blowup/repair/use a control panel is more interactive then having it move on a predetermined path. I personally don't crave drivable captial ships/frigates, but if it can be done well, why not?

I think helm control of a cap ship can be pulled off reasonably well - though it would have to be humans only (having AI do it would be not only extremely difficult but also stupid). There could be a console that you use (much like the turret consoles), and once you activate it, you can steer the ship. This would allow close - quarters battles between cap ships (a la episode III), where the turrets (both human and AI - manned) are in range of each other. That would be quite nifty.

The problem with driving a captial ship, is that regions don't move. You can get around the spawning in space part, but you won't be able to land in the ship once it starts moving. You could set the entire map inside a landing region, but then the fighters wouldn't be able to fire. Fighters can't fire inside landing regions correct? That can't be changed?

Edit: I think I've thought of a workable way around it. I'll work on it and let you guys know if it works.

There's a problem with moving capital ship that is worse than the regions and is completely unavoidable:

Entities (AI or player controlled objects) work on their own independent inertia and therefore would not move with the ship. This would endup with the players pinned against a wall in ship.

wouldnt it make online play extremely laggy too?

Terrain cutters only work on Terrain.

oh. hence the name
stupid me.