WoWs Clips: Ram?
This is what constantly flip flopping on whether to ram or torp looks like.
Small Map Update
The Map’s not ready for an actual preview just yet, but progress on the terrain (mainly the peaks) is looking good and I should be able to make my deadline (the 23rd). More importantly, I’m starting to pick up some new knowledge and skills while working on this.
People have been saying you should make tutorials for things you just figured out, but I’ve always been reluctant, personally. Usually because I have a habit of taking the long road and if I’ve got a quick and easy method, I picked it up from someone else ten minutes ago. I might as well point you to them.
That’s been the reasoning for some years now, at least. Now I’m thinking more along the lines of: Oh hey, I could put more stuff on the site!
Making any kind of information available is work so once I figure out what I’m doing I’ll definitely start putting some photoshop information up on the blog.
Anyway, just a small update for today.
What’s That? (Frame Ops)
I’ve been so preoccupied with ironing out things for Frame Ops that I haven’t been able to come up with anything for today’s post. You know what that means ….
(As usual, I’ll be experimenting with the blogging format for readability, as well)
What is Frame Ops?
Frame Ops is a series in the Aeon setting centered around an E-sports community and the Battle Network, the gaming conglomerate that manages it all. The game Frame Ops is a fast paced mech shooter at its core, but ‘Battlenet’ went all cash-eyed and turned the game into a full blown E-sport with colossal commercial interests and at least two different leagues for the players. The whole series is based in the Jovian Sphere.
What is the Jovian Sphere?
The Jovian Sphere consists of all the territories around Jupiter, out to 1 AU from the planet itself. The Jovian League controls most of it, but that control diminishes the farther out you go from the settled regions. It’s like a combination of the old Wild West and the Pacific Ocean.
Details to Iron Out
As for what’s keeping me busy up in the mental workshop, it’s mainly the economics of both the setting as a whole, and the internal economics Battlenet’s system. Frame Ops isn’t just an E-sport for the times, it’s a new world created in cyberspace to facilitate all sorts of outlandish business models.
While Frame Ops is mainly about the gamers and their adventures, Battlenet’s activities, and those of the major companies are always carrying on in the background. This has a rippling effect throughout the various stories, affecting pretty much everyone who’s anyone. That’s why it’s important for me to understand the process, even if it barely amounts to background noise in any given story.
Besides, at some point, once I find a good way to do it, I will be focusing on Battlenet’s people, too.
A Work In Progress
I am working on Frame Ops’ ‘Odyssey related stories when I can, but I’d also like to do some smaller stories about characters that won’t get much attention otherwise. That will also help me out with ironing out the lore before things get too muddled.
Fleeing Victory’s format is working for me so far, so I’m thinking of using the same format for that kind of content.
Anyway, there’ll be more news on this when I’ve got more to share.
Cosmo Messer Update
I figured it was time for another Cosmo Messer update. There’s always going to be the question of mods, though. How many is too many? Isn’t plain old vanilla just best for workshop hopefuls? Well yes and no, but I’ve seen some decent workarounds in the form of vanilla ‘versions’ and ‘modded’ versions. I’ve decided to adopt the same approach for certain ship builds going forward. With that, let’s take a look at the updated Cosmo Messer.
This screenshot is the vanilla version.
There are design compromises here aplenty but only scripts are used. Something interesting to note about the size and shape of this fighter is that I was able to put most of the maneuvering thrusters inside. I even forgot to take out some of the timer blocks and space balls that I was testing with the modded version and there’s still plenty of room inside for more parts.
All of the internal thrusters are hydrogen based, so I didn’t need a lot of them to get the thing moving. I just needed 2 blocks of clearance per thruster for safe operation. Sadly, ion thrusters are so frustrating to use that they border on being useless for my builds. They don’t need conveyors or hydrogen storage to operation, just power, but their output’s so sluggish that you need an insane number of them. They’re better as cosmetics on small combat ships.
To help distinguish the Cosmo Messer from the Cosmo Falcon, I gave the base model a yellow nose similar to some of the Messerschmitt paint schemes.
To take it a step further I also ditched the ‘prongs’ of the Falcon and added two fin-like structures on the tip of the nose. I also tried to give the engines a bold thrust vectoring look like with the F-22 Raptor. It’s not much, but the differences add up to a noticeably different profile.
There aren’t enough hydrogen thrusters for reliable atmospheric flight or hovering just yet. That will change after some experimentation.
The vanilla version has no issues reaching high speed.
There are a number of scripts running inside, too.
Top down view shows the overall shape of the Cosmo Messer.
The Cosmo Messer base model still uses just four machineguns and a rocket launcher like before, but other variants will add to that or switch out those weapons for other options. It just depends on the use cases.
Now for the modded version.
Note the landing gears.
The main difference between the modded version and the vanilla version are the landing gears. I don’t like having landing pads or wheels sticking out from the bottom of the vehicle, and the shape of this ship would have made that a requirement. The modded version used to have a defensive shield, but I decided not to use that on the base model. Other versions might have it, but I feel the base model shouldn’t be decked out with all the bells and whistles, just have the occasional panel or hardpoint that implies a much greater potential.
The dynamic laser compression thrusters were a strong case for the modded version.
Naturally, this version handles extraordinarily well in all directions. The DHI thrusters don’t need any clearance so they can be placed anywhere inside the hull. I typically group them up in front of the external engines so the SIMPL readout looks better. Really, though, they could go anywhere. I won’t call this the ‘True Cosmo Messer’ but as far as the look and feel of it, this is what I had in mind originally. Having landing gears and ridiculously good handling also makes it usable in all environments.
There’s one more version I made that I want to show off today.
The Cosmo Messer A1.
The paint scheme isn’t all that’s different. This one is a carrier based interceptor with both the base model’s weapons, and some extras. It carries 6 air to air missiles (conveyor mounted launchers), 2 target designators, a rocket pod, and four machineguns. The designators act as the front ends of those pod looking things on the wings.
I had to change a few things under the wings and that gave it an aesthetic similar to the F-15 Eagle when armed.
I couldn’t find any pointed or rounded edges that fit the back ends so I just stuck some colored spotlights back there to keep it from being flat and bland.
One last thing to note. While the vanilla and modded base models have the same magnetic plate as the carrier fighter version for the purposes of docking, the carrier version has an additional use. I built a gravity catapult to test it and the magnetic plate works perfectly as a ‘hook’ to keep the messer in place until its thrusters are fired up. Originally the catapult had its own holding plate but I wanted the fighter to be able to launch itself without any timer blocks being involved. (I still might add some to shut the catapult down post-launch though). Once the pilot’s ready, they can switch the holding plate’s lock state and they’ll be on their way. I’ll showcase the catapult once I’ve upgraded it and built a ship that can support it. The Heinrich wasn’t designed for that and the Dresden class I’m tinkering with is too compact to support any kind of craft, much less a launch catapult.
Thanks for reading.
Credits and links.
That space station:
LMC Shipbuilding Co. HQ [Modular Design]
Mods Used:
- Dynamic Laser Compression Modular Thrusters
- Plane Parts (The wheels and landing gear panels)
- DHI Technologies Version 2.0 (DHI Small invisible thruster)
- AWG’s Convenient Weapon Pack [CWP] (Update 356)
Scripts Used:
- SIMPL | Ship Integrity Monitoring Program Lite
- Whip’s Turret Based Radar
- Whip’s Artificial Horizon Redux
- Easy Throttle Control & Max speed Script
- Delta Steering
Fleeing Victory and Fleeing the Feedback (WoWs)
To my surprise I was able to take care of Fleeing Victory #3 a couple of days ahead of time. That means I’ve got a free Sunday to devote to whatever (the map most likely). Feels good, man. Anyway, I decided to take a post to mention a few things, FV included.
I knew the draque units were going to show up relatively soon in Fleeing Victory, but until I started writing, I didn’t know just how soon. I figured by FV#6 they would have at least shown up onscreen, but I’ve gone ahead and debuted another of FV’s major characters. I think I’ll leave her name for FV#4 and not go into any more of that here. Suffice to say, you’ll be seeing a lot more of ‘Sra. Jinete’ in the future.
I had a little trouble figuring out where to end FV#3. There was an opening to end that last scene earlier for more tension, but I felt that it could also work if Ricard and the draque scout had some kind of exchange, some kind of nod to the situation they were both in. I went with the latter which also cemented the title for FV#3, ‘Orders.’ The original title I had is probably going to be pushed up to FV#4 or FV#5, depending on how the pacing goes.
So How’s Wargaming Doing?
In World of Warships news, I managed to get the new German Battleship Brandenburg in a special container yesterday. I took her out for a spin (which is all I had time for) and I like her. Wargaming did a lot of comparisons to Tirpitz in their overview video, but the community sees more similarities to Odin. I’m not sure which way I’m leaning yet (I never got to play Odin), but the ship is in an interesting place. It’s only really held back by the fact that Tier 8 players aren’t allowed to have fun when Tier 10s are around. I’m kind of hoping WG figures out this new ‘Tier 11’ situation quickly so that Tier 8 can finally have some relief from all of this nonsense. Tier 8 would be tied with tier 7 for this game’s best tier if not for the matchmaker in random battles.
Real talk. I’ve kind of fizzled out on the issue of Wargaming’s bad practices. WG clearly got the message and are making changes little by little. They even started posting those drop rates immediately rather than putting them off until 2022, something I mentioned looking bad for them. Something I was waiting on after of the good news was for WG to make some kind of visible effort to mend things with LittleWhiteMouse. I doubt that’s going to happen, and even if they did make some kind of effort, I think the time scales it would involve would make it meaningless to most. At this point I think that relationship is over and what’s done is done.
As for player feedback, this problem is a never ending cycle of bad timetables and bitterness. People can argue that adding submarines to the game or not nerfing the crap out of aircraft carriers across the board is a clear sign that they’re being completely ignored, but that’s disingenuous at best. It’s the bitterness talking. If WG took the routes some of the ‘mobs’ are suggesting, submarines would be cancelled leaving us with 4 ship types. Next, aircraft carriers would probably be removed outright since people would realize WG is willing to run with any demand with enough torches and pitchforks behind it, leaving us with 3 ship types. Finally, once the player base is whittled down to just the people who like or can tolerate endless, impunitive HE spam, WG will finally be free of distractions from some of the game’s biggest problems, the HE spam, the balancing of tiers, and the lack of interesting and diverse game modes. That’s a lot of destruction just to get through the bad suggestions to the good ones. I just think WG needs more leeway when it comes to player feedback and our expectations, especially considering this:
The player base can only rally around an idea.
Wargaming has to create an actual product.
That’s not to say that I think Wargaming has done a 180 and we should just assume everything is in the rearview mirror. Maybe a 90 degree turn. By all means hold WG to their promises. Companies will try to get away with whatever they can. It’s like clockwork. So you have to keep them honest however you can.
My reasons for going on a spending hiatus are close enough to addressed as they’re likely to get. I don’t begrudge WG for adding subs to the game, not even in the way they went about it. They were at least being careful this time. More over, as much as I would like additional permanent game modes and the cushion that would provide for all this random feature testing WG likes to do, it’s a moot point until the player base is big enough to warrant the existence of those extra modes. “If you build it, they will come,” while true, won’t convince anyone over at the budget department or whatever they have.
As for submarines, I think they’re boring, but I also find the game in general boring these days. It’s mostly just about sailing my favorite ships and trying to have great moments in them. I understand people’s frustration with the particulars. No one wants to spend a year straining their neck looking out for planes only to be double pinged and deleted by six torpedoes out of friggin’ nowhere. No one wants to be forced to sit at the back of the map or be burned down in 90 seconds by a moody, fire spitting cloud of smoke. The game is set up in such a way that ship vs ship dynamics have to be addressed in broad strokes, and sweeping changes have to be made all at once. The public test server is all we’ve got going for us as the player base and it’s just there to eat up a ton of hard drive space in exchange for more feedback time. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s not enough. The game needs more ‘game,’ not just more ships or cool mechanics.
For example, a lot of people thought subs would be a good fit for convoys mode for historical reasons, and I agree, but what if convoys was already a permanent game mode during sub development? What if subs were announced specifically for convoys mode and only convoys mode? You wouldn’t have gotten nearly as many upset randoms and ranked players if they knew that, at least for the moment, submarines wouldn’t be coming to their game modes and shaking things up. Submarines could have been fully released with no major backlash, carefully balanced as data piled up, and then after a year or two, Wargaming could have started floating the idea of adding them to randoms and ranked. There would be resistance just like there always is, but the discussion would be more productive, not just players getting angry at the inevitable introduction of submarines. More modes provides the infrastructure for steadier, less panic-inducing feature testing. That’s why I’ll always advocate for it, even if we’re not quite there in terms of player population yet …
… according to Wargaming.
So, am I back to spending stupid amounts of money on random warships in-game? Hah! No. I’m just hopping off the hiatus train as of this post. If I feel like premium time or doubloons are worth buying, I’ll buy them, and that also includes special events like Arpeggio. I’ve still got my budget to consider, though; I’m a photoshop user after all and Adobe isn’t cheap.