Formations: Sphere, wall, claw, x formation, delta....

[Viperslayer]

Ok I really think the one thing that Would bring better stragety to the game would be the formations from hw1. It would be awsome again to have about 20 bombers surrounding a capital ship... I would be aswome!!!

What I really can't understand is why hasn't anyone made that kind of mod yet!?!?

I would do it but I dont know how... Any opinions or suggestions or voulenteers?

I really hate it when people look and dont respond.. Argh it pisses me off....

[Sastrei]

I agree that formations were one of the things that made me stop playing Homeworld 2.

However, I think it may be nearly impossible to mod that function into HW2.

Also, to increase the chances that people will help you, it is best to try and sound intelligent, rational, and level-headed. Pay attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

And remember, the best way to make something happen is to do it yourself. :)

-Stefan-

[OutriderVS9]

What I really can't understand is why hasn't anyone made that kind of mod yet!?!? Why haven't you done it yourself, then?

Nope, it's very possible to do. you just need to know how to script, and i believe how to place things on a 3D coordinate plane. One of the reasons the old HW1 formations were not implemented into HW2 is because fighters and corvettes alike would become cannon fodder for capital ships. Take the sphere formation; all of your strikecraft sit there stationary, therefore making very easy targets. HW2 is suposed to step up the reality from HW1, therefore rendering the HW1 formations obselete compared to HW2 formations.

[Sastrei]

It IS possible?!? >.> Homeworld 2 might be gettin' some moddin' from me...

Didn't you ever try "evasive", Outrider? If you hit a group of Assault Frigates with strikecraft in sphere, the poor frigate will spin in circles trying to hit it's tormentors. You can rip frigates to pieces that way. Formations are the best way to concentrate weapons fire.

-Stefan-

[Grey_Ghost]

Off the top of my head....no it's not gonna happen. The only thing remotely like it in HW2 is strikegroups. So even if you bound strikegroups to keys with some savy coding, ships only stay in formation while traveling. So you could make a bunch of single fighter craft look like a huge claw formation, but they'd break up as soon as they start their attack.

So I'd say we're stuck with squadrons if we want to see those formations used in attacking at all. We'd probably need the HW2 source for anything else.

[Sastrei]

Aw...dangit. Back to my Homeworld 1 TC.

*wanders off towards the research station*

-Stefan-

[Tefeari]

It IS EASILY POSSIBLE, look at the strikegroup and fighter group formation files, its all coordinate plane numbers.

I was meaning to do it but I just never got around to it. Mostly because I'm too lazy to figure coords myself for any complex formations I'd want. Someone could make a easy App to do this but meh, I never got around to getting one of those made either.

BTW, There are a few extra formation files I think in folders, (like X formation) you could use one of those pretty easily.

The problem is, you can only put in so many formations as to there are only 3 formation buttons (Assosiated with stances) and 3 strikegroup formations.

[sanityflare]

claw is in there as well, what about using the different formations with each other, ie f4 then f6 type thing

[Viperslayer]

Well I do extremely well in Algebra so I think I might give this a try!

[OutriderVS9]

You need to have somewhat of a knowledge of 3D coordinate geometry, or just putting 3D figures on a 3D coordinate plane.

[Viperslayer]

* I ment to say Geometry

[Inert]

Geometry does not help much. You require knowledge of trignometry and algebra II to do anything like a sphere or something. Unless you want to do a wall. Or at the extreme most of a geometry student, I would say you could try to do an claw.

There only consists of 6 formations anyways.

delta - geometry, maybe algebra
broad - geometry
X - geometry
claw - geometry, algebra
wall - geometry
sphere - definitely trignometry or algebra II

[Sastrei]

Ow. My head hurts now...

I don't suppose you could take some models and stick 'em in a virtual environment and get the coords that way? Just a thought. But you've got the scalability issues...

That does it, I need some Tylenol+codeine...

-Stefan-

[Grey_Ghost]

I thought this thread was about functional HW1 style formations. If it's just about changing a normal Squadron's formation, then yeah no mystery there it's more than doable. However, if we're talking about combining multiple different ships into a formation the only route (that i currently know of) is StrikeGroups. The problem with StrikeGroups as mentioned above is the ships won't hold that formation once they start their attack. It might almost work well with stationary craft which use the same attack styles and weapon ranges (like a frigate wall), but strikecraft definately would break up.

I know of no way to change attack styles on the fly, so even if you made a sphere formation, the ships would not behave as intended.

[Admiral S3]

Sphere may not be possible, but as someone mentioned above X might be doable. Like wise claw could be useable, The thing to do would be start with an X style on a small scale. 5 Wings of strike craft, and see if you could get emm to all line up....

After that try some larger numbers.

Good luck to whom ever decides to try this. Lord knows it could be nice to have my claws back.

[OutriderVS9]

I'm pretty sure all of these formations are possible to make. It's just that some might be unconventional for HW2 style combat.

[Exsus]

With out my favorite Sphere formation, Gurding has become worthless. You order some units to guard a ship, like a carrier. a scout flies by, the who esscort goes after the one scout. i like defending my ships in Rings of ships.

[Zatch]

Search is back, might wanna change your sig, t217t217 :).

As for whether or not the formations are possible, yes, they are, but if you go the route of strike groups then, as Grey Ghost mentioned, the formations will be dissolved as soon as combat begins. You might get around this by playing with the AI scripts, but that's a whole lot of work for something that won't affect gameplay very much. If you want stationary ships like in the HW1 sphere formation, just change the attack style of that particular ship so that it sits in space and rotates without moving. Pretty ineffective if you ask me =P.

[Viperslayer]

Finnaly! The calvary has arrived. Where you been Zatch?

[Zatch]

Trying to finish High School alive =O. Just a couple more weeks and then it's programming time again...