Aircraft carriers / air bases possible?

[hierakares]

Hello people,

I am quite new at modding Spring but I am very impressed about the possibilities you have as a modder.

I started to experiment with some 3D models of WW2 aeroplanes and this already works quite well.

I was wondering: Are you able to define sort of an aircraft carrier unit that could host aeroplanes and release them on demand? Or is it possible to make an airbase building that could perform the same task on land?

Just to be precise: I am not talking about repair pads or buildings / units that produce aircraft, but about installations that really only host and release units.

Having searched a little bit the forums I did not find a clear answer on that topic, so I would appreciate it very much if one of the experts around could help.

Thanks in advance & best regards

[Guessmyname]

Yes, you can. Aircraft carriers are perfectly possible. Keeping them from repairing might be harder (I wonder what happens when you make a mobile repair pad with canrepair=0;...) but having planes land on ships has always been possible, I think.

[FLOZi]

Yep. S44 does ahve code from Zpock for fully functioning airfields (though due to the sheer scale of the things we might go down a different route).

The Bomber drone launchers in THIS do the same thing on a much smaller and equally awesome scale.

[hierakares]

Thanks for your answers!

Is it possible to have a look on the realization of that in Spring: 44? I found that there is no current download of the mod available.

And which mod exactly includes the bomber drones (or: what does THIS mean)?

Sorry for asking such "basics", but I am still quite new to the Spring engine.

Thanks again for an answer.

[FLOZi]

It's not released yet. Hop onto #s44 on the lobby and try and speak to Nemo.

THIS is the name of a mod, confusing huh:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=14192


btw; all of these things are done with lua trickery - none of it is hardcoded in the Spring engine itself.

[AF]

CA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ZRQyc9Hik

[KDR_11k]

THIS uses one-way drones, they get launched and attack until they drop out of the sky, probably not what you want.

[hierakares]

Thanks for the hints and links.

The drones coming out of the mother ships look pretty cool, but if they are not really "hosted" but only kind of produced and launched it is really not exactly what I had in mind.

I was thinking about a real aircraft carrier that transports aircraft (and does not produce them), similar to a troop transporter on land, only for aircraft.

Is this maybe something the Spring 44 guys are working on?

[samoht70]

The carriers in CA automatically launch the attack drones against targets within range, and the drones return for fuel and repair. I think that setup would be a good start for a realistic airbase/carrier.

You could set up helper AI/LUA trickery to manage airbases: the airbase 'unloads' its units when there are enemies in range, and orders them to 'attack', bringing them back when they are low on fuel or the enemies are destroyed. To increase the usefulness of an airbase, commands given to the airbase/carrier could be transferred to its aircraft, so that when you order your navy to attack or patrol, the planes automatically join in.

This could become a very complicated and useful tool.