Good Afternoon, I have no found this anywhere via search and thought I would ask. If I am converting ships/building ships for use as an OPV in a Scenario is there a list of recommendations or requirements from Eleon that would assist in making sure it is not over/underpowered and has the necessary means to be a viable OPV?
Actually there are only two rules (for ships we add for the default game at least) 1. Size class: as low as possible. Not above 12-14, ideally below 10. (The CVs in the size classes 11-15 and 15+ are very SPECIAL ships and might get a special group so they are only spawned in low numbers/only once per playfield >> performance concern; top-limit is 20-25 even for these. ) 2. Thrusters are REQUIRED to be exposed. No build-in stuff (Players that attack an OPV should be able to "disable" it, which is happening when thrusters are destroyed. Build-in thrusters are not allowed because of that. You can check how "strong" your ship is compared to other OPV by looking at the Attack/Defense combat values in the blueprint info sheet (F2). Notes: - All opv require and CoreNPC (standard red core. No blue, admin or no-CPU cores) - You can add crew inside (static blocks). - If you build in NPC spawner for "boarding option" make sure the SPAWNZONES do not go further out than the ships hull = Spawners shall not be activated by the player flying around it! - You actually do not need to design as you would for a player ship as the SPEED for an CV is set via playfield, not what the actual acceleration/thrust of the vessel would be for a player. RCS are not needed as the torque and turning is hardcoded. - IF the ship has enough generators to match its power level does not matter. This rule does not count for NPC ships. In general the ships only required the basic devices you require for a specific function. ( Example: Ventilator + O2 tank allows pressurization, but does not matter if the O2 tank is larg enough) - Do not overstuff with Alien loot containers. The amount should be relative to the A/D values (although there is no real rule .. YET)
Thanks @Hummel-o-War are there any rules/limitation in regards to number of turrets and what they can target?
No, you can use any number that fitts the design / idea you are after. I suggest to have only one or two turret types, though. But same as with loot: Overtstuffing with turrets does not make a good combat experience - it just makes it hard. A Corvette that looks like a hedgehog where every m² has another turret would not be added in the default game for example.
Everything you read here is for the default scenario in terms of UNCHANGED CONFIGS (!). Vessels / OPV from any scenario can of course also be added to the default scenario. What we cannot speak for is for scenarios that have configs changed or their demands of vessels (in this case you might need to get in touch with the scenario creator)
Shall I do some configuration for normal containers to have loot (not speaking about alien containers) or is this done automatically? When I spawn an OPV in Creative I can see for normal containers something like 'Loot ID' set to 76. What does this mean, is this a reference to a config file? How do you place NPC spawners inside a CV? In the Alien blocks I can see only 2 for bases.
Loot ID goes to loot containers in the Containers.ecf config file. Every container has it's own default loot table, but most can be changed in the device menu. You shouldn't need to change them at all unless you can't find somewhere to stuff the requisite number of Alien Loot Containers. NPC spawners can only be placed on an OPV by copy+pasting one from a base.
Thank you Vermillion, appreciated! I have already copied a NPC spawner from another OPV and have adapted its spawning zone successfully.
