firing on your own fighters?

[bearclaw]

Has anyone else come across your PDC firing on your own fighters when they are launched? I've had this happen twice now. I'm not sure, but I think both times they were Fazrah fighters. The second time was for sure but I can't recall the first time. I'm using a Terran carrier with a mixed compliment of fighters. None of the others seem to fire on me.

Unless it was a Terran fighter the first time... I might have been carrying illigal cargo...

[Sivran]

I could swear I've seen mine do the same. In fact, that's why I came here. Not only have I seen my fighters be fired on by my own PDCs, but worse (and more often) they sometimes don't land when recalled.

I was using all Xiati fighters, on an Abbidon carrier at the time.

[bearclaw]

yeah, I've come across my fighters not wanting to dock again. What I found was that if you've given the command to return all fighters, then you can fly over the fighter and pick it up like cargo boxes.

[ace joh]

Yep, that's how I got around it too, also works for immobilized fighters. But I wonder why they can't seem to catch up on me when I'm flying at full speed (600), don't fighters have a LOT more speed than a carrier?

Currently never had my PDC fire on my own fighters, only when they were exploding. They also sometimes can't get out of the carrier on time and thus 'crash' into me...
edit : I'm using F&N mod, so I only have PD-lasers, maybe that does something?

[ December 27, 2003, 09:44: Message edited by: ace joh ]

[bearclaw]

I think I may have found something. I've still got to do some testing on this and if anyone else is willing to give it a try too, that would be great.

I think that the times I fired on my own fighters, that I had launched a fighter of the same race that I was fighting. Perhaps there is some sort of confusion in the game...

[Phoenix-D]

Unless you were fighting Terrans, that shouldn't have done it..the fighters are created as the same race as the player.

[bearclaw]

alright... that's not it then.

Back to square one!

[Phoenix-D]

Maybe not. They -should- be the same race as the player, but its possible a bug made them some other race.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Unless you were fighting Terrans, that shouldn't have done it..the fighters are created as the same race as the player. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No they are not. They are created as the actual race they are...

[Phoenix-D]

Fyron, buy and launch a Fazrah fighter. Does it immidiately try to kill you? No? Then it can't be launched as the race it is.

And direct from effects.txt:


Is Unit
This component will become a unit when launched. The Space Object XFile Name field indicates the class name of the fighter in the Main_Enemies.txt file. The fighter when launched will be the same level as the parent ship, and will be of the same race (for enemy determination). <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[ December 28, 2003, 02:31: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[bearclaw]

I've had fighters launch and work just fine, then retreve them due to damage. Lanch them again and they get shot at by my PDC. The same fighter.

[Phoenix-D]

I'm betting its a problem with the collision detection then..a fighter might accidently bump your ship not enough to kill it but enough to trigger your PDC.

[Sivran]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
I'm betting its a problem with the collision detection then..a fighter might accidently bump your ship not enough to kill it but enough to trigger your PDC. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, that definitely sounds plausible. My PDCs fire on my own fighters when they hit me (damn drunk pilots..) but when I'm careful to avoid ramming my fighters, my PDCs don't start firing on them. The collisiongrid "cheat" helps (for me at least) to avoid ramming.

Originally posted by bearclaw: yeah, I've come across my fighters not wanting to dock again. What I found was that if you've given the command to return all fighters, then you can fly over the fighter and pick it up like cargo boxes<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Haven't had much luck with that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Once they catch up to me, if I so much as turn around they get rammed instead of scooped up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
Fyron, buy and launch a Fazrah fighter. Does it immidiately try to kill you? No? Then it can't be launched as the race it is. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have seen that happen, actually... they are created as a member of their race, but they have special rules they are supposed to follow, so they do not think you are an enemy, and your ship does not think that they are an enemy. These rules don't always work though. This is why your PDC sometimes fire on fighters you have launched, and why sometimes your fighters turn on you if you pick up illegal cargo.

[bearclaw]

Okay! I've figured out what's going on. At least, for me.

I used the above view during a battle and found out why my carriers fire on my fighters!

When I launch them, I was launching them too fast and they were colliding with each other! The other times, the fighters must have either collided with my ship or another fighter and then my PDC's would kick in.

[Gruffel]

Fighters are coded really bad.
If you try to lauch multiple fighters (which should work when you have multiple figher bays) the fighters tend to collide with each other.
When you lauch or recover fighters while cruising around or battling (and doing evasive maneuvers etc) the fighters tend to collide with your own ship while launching/trying to enter the hangar.
That actually is ok for the recovery, so all you have to do is drop dead in space in order to recover fighters (launching should work though while moving).
A MAJOR issue is the point defence systems.
They fire at ANY fighter currently exploding rather firing on incoming torpedoes.
They even fire at your own currently exploding fighters.
For next patch PLEASE include a fix for that!
Point Defence should NEVER EVER fire on currently exploding fighters, target lock should immediately switch from a currently exploding target to the next enemy target (when you hit T the next enemy should be shown in the display as well)!
If you have multiple Point Defence Systems onboard, only ONE should fire on ONE incoming torpedoe, the next PDF should fire on the NEXT incoming torpedoe. Currently its useless to have more than one PDF for torpedoe defence.
Furthermore there should be an option (maybe in the cargo readout) to set PDF fire on fighters yes or no, that would allow the PDF to intercept torpedoes even when in a huge firefight where fighters are involved too.
I experienced the Galactica mod to be unplayable because of this coding lack. The mod itself is great and much fun but the lacking PDF control and the fighter ramming/firing bugs made me go down against the Cylon Fleets, my fighters were just useless, harming me more than the enemy and distracting my PDF fire.
Hmm...that should it be for now...
Gruffel
P.S.:
Are there any other mods/new campaigns out there yet besides the Galactica mod which I really like (especially with the sound, woot)
Any links would be really welcome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ January 05, 2004, 17:08: Message edited by: Gruffel ]

[Phoenix-D]

You can solve the launch problem by staggering your launches a bit. If you wait long enough they won't collide.

Firing on dying fighters is IIRC in the next patch fix.

[Gruffel]

Good to know they wanna fix it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif