Well, I kept on plugging at it, hopefully it's coming out better than I thought earlier. Still a WIP, but it may be the largest CV I have made to date.
The continuing adventures of COP on Event Horizon: With 5.0 came a much needed wipe of the server that coincides with Moto and I slowing down at work. Having addressed my poor internet issues at home I also have time outside work hours to put in. We started off at a run, gathering resources in record time and getting a well defended base up and running quickly. The last round we found ourselves floundering a bit, not really able to take the fight to anyone else, we just played defense with massive bases and massive CV's. The one and only foray into attacking was a complete disaster resulting in the loss of our Class 3 Ship. This time we immediately set about designing ships for one purpose. To take the battle to anyone in the system at will. After some initial teething issues with SOP (standard operating procedure), we have established a viable course of action once we have arrived at a target. We tested it last night. I believe in recon, as such we modified a cv_bug_v built by Eddie Price, for the role. The resulting ship I call the Lady Bug, it is cheap and simple and Eddies ship was a great starting point. I took it out and re conned 3 planets taking some damage along the way. Finally locating a base, it was small and immediately opened fire on the Lady Bug. Normally a 30mm cannon wouldn't have the time to take out even a recon ship but unknown to me the core had been exposed. Falling out of the sky the ship crashed into a nearby body of water completely submerged. A quick assessment of the situation showed both the core and warp core missing. I had a core and installed it, the ship jumped back to life and I rocketed up to orbit snapping photo's along the way to pinpoint the location of this base. A short wait while continuing to check out the moon and I had warp core delivered. by Motokid402. We returned to base with the derelict ship, too damaged to repair we will scrap it and rebuild a new one. We prepped for the attack, 4 HV's which were modified versions of a Desert-Raider-V1 built by Aoki Satara, which I have posted up as the WVW-Abrams-Mk1 that I have continued to evolve into COP specific versions. There really isn't much left of the original at this point but the public version still sports the original power train. We loaded a WVW-Dragonfly, one of our COP fighters called the Billy Club, and a Chocolate Viper built by Forced. The attack CV is designed to bring the pain planet side, we found a likely spot to set down, got as level as we could and jumped out of the cockpit to the hanger. We quickly unloaded a HV and the Viper. As I approached the base the Abrams opened up and completely destroyed the base in seconds. Turns out it was made from wood. We raided the place, which didn't yield much loot and initiated egress. As I moved the Abrams back to the CV it opened up toward the mountains and I just caught the white flag appear in the radar. We had killed a player. Enter Patrick. I powered down the Abrams and we flew over to the area he was last in to find him standing there wanting to loot his backpack. Introductions and a quick assessment of his situation inspired him to join COP at our suggestion. We loaded up the strike package and our new member and headed back home. Once there we deemed it prudent to get Patrick up to speed on our methods and procedures. We showed him around the base, pointed out specifics and then set up for a attack on our moons drone base and maybe a Lorian POI. Once again we took the strike package and landed within visual range of the drone base. We unloaded a SV for Moto, while Patrick and I grabbed an Abrams each. After some initial problems with stability (possibly just competing gravity generator with moon G) requiring a relog by Patrick and one HV actually exploding somehow, we headed to the base. During our problems with stability in any HV Patrick tried to operate our HV's were firing arty shells toward the base, we did not receive any return fire with the possible exception of the exploded HV, perhaps it floundered in range of one of the Drone base guns during our problem. We finally moved in and the Drone base opened up with a vengeance. The HV's, now modified even more by battle experience, performed excellently if not flawlessly. We hammered the base from the ground while Moto lit it up from above for about 2 full minutes. Finally the base core was hit and we received the message that the drone base was now disabled. We looted the place and claimed it for COP. There was a base nearby that Moto said he and Forced were unable to completely take down last round so we decided to give it a go. We only had 2 1/2 good HV's left and we were down to 1 fighter. We moved in. This base had firepower beyond any I had ever tried to take out, a wall of death was spit toward my HV as I began to cheat to the left. The firepower unleashed from our 2 HV's and Moto's 21 gun salvo's combined with the bases firepower made for a quite a show. Unfortunately I failed to take any pics as even letting go of the controls for a moment would surely be the end of my Abrams. After about a minute of fighting with no appreciable reduction in firepower from the base I changed tactics in desperation. I headed straight into base, aiming directly at one turret. As I powered into the location the turret exploded, along with at least 2 of my turrets, but I came to rest in the turret enclave and the other turrets could not get a clear line of fire on the HV. I sat there watching my turrets take out enemy AI and blast at the core. I was taking hits from 30mm and maybe 15mm and the HV was slowly dying. I jumped out with my epic plasma cannon and gave the small turrets hell but I was soon overwhelmed by enemy AI. I re upped in the med bay of the CV, grabbed the last HV and headed back, I rammed straight in again, the base having a clear line of fire hammered me all the way in, but I again came to rest in the same area, this time with 3 intact turrets. In just a few seconds the base powered down, core less. We looted the place, finding the epic assault rifle, epic rocket launcher, and the epic sniper. Plus tons of other loot. Not a bad haul. It had cost us 1 fighter destroyed (viper), 1 heavily damaged (Billy Club) and the loss of 2 Abrams, and while we managed to load and return the other 2 they were so damaged we scrapped them and rebuild new ones. Not a bad night for COP and the return on the resources spent was fantastic.
Well, over the last couple days I have been repainting a CV "smuggler freighter" which I originally finished just before the 4.x update that screwed up colors, so it was needing a makeover before I even considered sharing it. It actually outdated everything currently on my workshop. The first CV I built that I was actually happy with how the inside and outside worked out. Little boxy.... aaaand I really ought to upgrade the hull to at least hardened steel. But she's a very homey ship with all the critical components layers deep in the ship. She's all ready for the workshop.... now if I could just afford internet <.<
Finally tried my hand at creating a dedicated. I have been mod for a few weeks and wanted to find out how hard it was to do the real admin work. Glad I dodged that management role bullet, but at least I now have a way to verify all the crazy suggestions about server changes are actually possible. So just a private server for testing ideas on. The biggest issue I have while setting up a dedicated was in fact Windows firewall rules. Lessons were learned, and I'm going to stick with moderating only. But yes a dedicated server from scratch if just an afternoon in the making.
So today we finished (to a degree ofc) our current design - this time I't s a triple treat for new year Geri, Freki, and Fenrir Linkies to BP's in the CV Thread Enjoy - And Happy New Year from the the Space Moles
I was experimenting with a concept. The idea being to provide a mechanic's garage in space for SV's. So, I built a CV module with a little piloting area and it's own repair bay. I then built a BA frame for them, because bases don't move in space, whereas if the ship coming in bumped the repair dock, it would cause the CVs to float apart. It was just a rough attempt, but it worked. Yes, I'm a bit tired and I missed the "C". Finally, them assembled together. Ideally, it would be a double sided structure with another row on the other side.
My "nothing but the gun" hard (ish) Akua start has progressed to hand building myself a starter SV. Since this screenshot I add a couple gatling guns. Not *quite* high enough level for rocket launchers. But there's an Epsilon Outpost within spitting distance of my base - so close my turrets sometimes shoot down the patrol drones near it (and then I get warned a troop transport is coming). It's a real thorn in my side, I need it defanged... one foray trying to take it down with two gatling guns has convinced me, however, I need some sathium. Steel blocks are not holding up against four laser turrets on that base.
Over the last day or so me and my faction mate have been gearing up for our first supply run since the 5.0 reset (Zas, Ere and crystals etc) god knows why it took us so long but we're finally pulling our thumbs out. The first step in that was making a very cheap space BA for the trading outpost. Just something of a jumping off point so that we don't have to bimble about in pvp areas with our holds bursting with swag. So i came up with this thing. Other than things like constructors etc its all concrete which was a bit of a challenge in the looks department with the limited textures and all but it turned out ok in the end. Luckily we didn't run into any problems on our little foray because with the vehicles we had a stand up fight wouldn't have been an option. But it did get me hankering for a new run at the single player campaign which i haven't tried since the reset, With that in mind I decided to work on a variant of my Metoer mining HV for single player or pve areas. This version is a lot better for clearing ore deposits or just tunneling out areas for construction. and with a small modification there's plenty of room for a turret on top to keep those pesky drones at bay. So with this done I'm now ready to get my face pummeled by space freighters in sinlge player
Arrived on Oscutune and found a suitable place to set my CV down. It's not easy, not a lot of flat land on Oscutune. Anyway, started exploring and there are 5 POI's within easy striking distance of my landing sight, including one that will eventually make a nice space port. Never seen them bunched together so closely before. Also spotted a Farm POI from the air but haven't checked it out yet. I like this planet, think I'll stay awhile....and it's so nice to get that helmet off and breathe real air again.
I finished off and uploaded the Tortoise today. It's kinda in preparation for when we get mining turrets for CV's. I plan to remove the cannot turret from the underside of the bridge and replace it with a mining turret when they become available. I'm also debating on adding additional mining turrets to the neck (again, when available). <sigh> I keep making flying boxes.
Oh you have the ability to do that ??? If you can then please do because I enjoy the freighters but I would love to have hostile warship CVs patroling and looking for a fight in the more hostile systems. Hopefully they will replace the Drone escort with heavily armed SVs escorts .
The AI freighters spawn once and then either randomly die, or go to their little AI heaven. Does not make for a patrol at the moment, I suspect it will in the near future.
Not nearly a much fun stuff to Report for my latest going ons on the WASD Server play, except that i'm working on plotting & scheming a way to get to Aeris Orbit at minimum before tomorrows (As of the time of this Post.) Starter Playfields Reset where i'm still on Akua-R which is among those. Boss Mr. Fun suggested that it's a Legal Tactic to ask for Transportation off & I pondered offering a portion of my Iron as payment for such, then I got onto the Server & Resumed Play & to my horror I had been Robbed! Turned out I had never taken a POI as a Temp Base before till that last Play so I never knew before that when doing such it Defaults to Public Faction & I never thought to look at that so someone or other was able to simply stroll into my Temp Base during my large downtime & rob me blind! The only reason it wasn't Checkmate for me on the spot was cause they kindly & thankfully left me my Survival Constructor (If you, the Thief reads this, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this, you rotten swashbuckler backstabber! ) & a couple other things they didn't apparently care about, & thankfully I never don't have a Drill directly with me so ability to Mine wasn't compromised. I wasn't done needing that Emergency O2 Maker dude though, dammit. The only thing I could really do was Facepalm at myself, tell the Server what had happen figuring I deserved to be laughed at, then noting they were cool peeps & actually managed to not laugh at me somehow... well, publicly anyway. (Many thanks! ^_^ ) then seek to recover from my own Mega Derp. No choice but to give up at Bartering for Transport off, I went about re-gathering Resources, & while awaiting them Processing set about plotting & scheming what i'd do next... then got distracted by the thought that I hadn't really taken a good look at all the Systems from the Map. I amused myself looking through it then noticed one of the PvE Planets was a Lava Planet. I'm attracted to the thought of making my Home here, & it's within Warp Distance from Akua-R. I'll need to prep for this well first though, especially considering stuff i'll wanna have on hand there is on Akua-R but likely not there, including Biofuel Supply, & i'll need Oxygen Generation capability. So, new plan: i'll try to make a carefully planned strategy to use this Large Constructor for what I need from it while I can, then try to carefully choose what i'll have in my Inventory holding it for safekeeping then park myself somewhere hopefully safe then Endure the wipe, then seek to blow this Taco Stand during the Next Week. Oh, I guess I did have stuff to talk about after all, derp. P.S. If ya ever conquer a POI to use as a Temp Base, DO NOT FORGET TO SET IT PRIVATE ASAP!
I hope we can some type of animation blocks because it would be cool if you could make the head move on that ship.
I would prefer animated blocks we could use to simulate warp nacelles. A dome with a spinning light would be a nice start.
A highly directional light would work, for some reason we are not allowed spotlights on CV's and not able to change the spotlight color on the HV/SV? My idea is to shine it through a Gravity generator to create light pulses. But the absence of shadows makes this a bit not happening for me. Anyway, that's a wish-list thing to get spinny blinky lights.
Ya know, Spotlights for CVs used to have no point, but now that CVs are getting Mining Drills, this may be a whole nother story now... Also it used to be possible to change Spotlight Intensity & Color long long ago, but it didn't work right so it was removed pending Rework... the Rework waiting has gotten awful long now... I hope the Devs didn't change their mind about ever getting this Rework done at all...
