I don't know how many people have noticed it, but when you go to create a vehicle, there's a drop down bar in the upper left of the screen which says 'Select a Loadout'. Obviously, this can be used to save different configurations of armor, weaponry, and engines to your computer so you can whip out that megaboomtank without having to place all that stuff. However, since upon the public release of 108 we'll have hundreds of emp_recruits who didn't read the manual asking 'how to get ammoz??' and 'y tank no shot?', I figure it would help them a lot (and maybe even us a little) to have more loadouts upon installation than 'Default'. I'm talking about different roles. For example, the NF LT could have a 'Tank Hunter' loadout with Std CN and ML, an 'Infantry Killer' loadout with Std CN and Chain Gun, and a 'Multipurpose' loadout with Std CN and Std MG. It couldn't be that hard to do, and would save comms a lot of grief when all those recruits get proper tanks instead of paper tanks with all their weapons unbound. :D
Indeed it isn't hard to do, but if you select an invalid loadout, you get a "vehicle must have armor" or "vehicle must have an engine" notification. Or even worse: they build a fully loaded medium tank, but none of the advanced weaponry has been researched, so no weapons whatsoever! (And it even gets built!) A DEFAULT loadout, like an APC with full plain armor with an MG, a GL and a standard engine will certainly help out newbies, but advanced loadouts? I prefer to tell them to RTFM, then :p
I can make 'em, but I can't code them into 108 and make them available to every emp_recruit that downloads the mod. That's why it's in Suggestions.
...\Steam\SteamApps\SourceMods\Empires_108\scripts Look for vehicle presets. Notice any familair loadouts? :p (You probably can't read 'em but I can) Here's RPG's explanation of making loadouts: http://wiki.empiresmod.com/index.php?title=Scripted_Vehicle_customization&diff=2928&oldid=2593 You just have to make them, test them and propose them to Krenzo.
Yeah, about that. Since Krenzo fixed the bug that allowed scripts to be exploited, can that nice writeup be reinstated?
It would be cool if weapons, armour and engins could be preferrentially ordered for let's say, 5 catagories Speed 1-Fusion, 2- 3Phase 3-Gas etc 1-Composite, 2-Abs etc Light weapons ---> Heavy weapons (get it? etc for the rest) Firepower Lots of weapons, lacking in speed and armour High Armour Best armour at cost of speed and weaponry Support Tank With stuff like plasma weapons etc Or as an anti infatry or anti-building tank All Around Not sure how this could be programmed in Then, you could select a catagory from the list, like speed, and you would given the best weapon/armour/engine available. Maybe your team hasn't researched Physics yet, so you get defaulted to the fastest engine after Fusion, lightest armour and lightest weapons that you have researched. I think this would help beginners out tremendously, and of course you could still change around equipment afterwards if you for some reason don't think Fusion is worth it... Is this possible with just scripts?
This is a good idea picard, I'll see if I can make some different loadouts to start with and get them to be included with the next rc (or the one after that).
Ooooo I should write up an external program that can modify your loadouts for you. Oooo!1111 >:-D Or I'll get bored.
I also really want the armour and engine reset to basic on each map load, as when moving from commander to commander map as usual, you always always every map have to reset it at the start of the game
I get what you're saying, but I don't think it's possible without coding. Basically, if a player selects speed as their loadout, they get the fastest engine that their team currently has researched, at the expense of firepower/armor. This would require the configurations to be dynamic, which I don't think you can do at the moment. The next best thing would be to give stats in the item descriptions, like star ratings for several factors. Engines in particular (speed/horsepower/cooling/stall resistance). The current descriptions are nice to read, but for new players it's hard to sift out the important info. I'm sure if we did this people could make more informed choices (I actually planned on doing something like this on the wiki anyway, but we all know how many people actually read that thing...).
star ratings are a genius idea. I really can't decifer the numerical stuff... I only know how good things are through experience.
