Sub-units/ design feasability

[PTTG??]

Would it be possible to have a unit designer of some kind that would allow you to attach components to hardpoints on a "chassis", allowing you to, using the same basic set of tools, create a huge number of possible units?

For example, you'd open up the interface, select a chassis like "Medium Tank", then get a screen showing that basic chassis. Then you can select what equipment you want in each of several slots, like specific weapons, generators, engines, and armor.

Now, I figure that units probably can't be changed "live", but I figure that these attachable features could actually be separate units that are scripted to act attached to the chassis, which is the actual unit.

This opens a lot of options, such as having very huge units with hardpoints that can be targeted separately, though small units should have invisible hardpoints.

If that's doable, then things like generators and armor, which should normally be invisible, can have purely statistical effects on the unit, which presumably is easier to change than the graphics.

There are two main advantages to this; first, rather than having four or five different construction units with two levels each, you have just two, maybe three different "Nanobeam emitters." Then, if you need some flying constructors that can land on water, then you can select a Chopper chassis, attach a Nanobeam, and give it the Floatation Device ability.

The second is that more varied units are available; if there are, say, 6 different basic chassis types (i.e., walkers, tanks, wheeled, naval, flying, structures) with five sizes each (light infantry to ubermechs, crawlers to titan tanks), with ten reactors and ten weapons, ten types of armor, and ten special abilities, that provides 300,000 different units. Even the most ambitious mod would hesitate before promising that much variety.

Is this feasible in the current engine?

[AF]

pxtl iirc eperimented with rendering additional components on models via lua

[imbaczek]

see THIS and its Imperator.

[KingRaptor]

see THIS and its Imperator.

Imperator turret building is broken in current Spring version.
The cause isn't immediately apparent, there's no error message and KDR didn't know when I asked him either.

EDIT: Though depending on what you want to do, simply allowing the turret pads to morph might work. Actually, I'll fiddle with that a bit now.

EDIT 2: Nothing I do works. Screw this!

EDIT 3: KDR worked out the problem; it was nothing more than the turret units not being loaded due to having canMove = true, canFly = false and no defined moveclass. What a freaking waste of my time!

[Pxtl]

pxtl iirc eperimented with rendering additional components on models via lua

Wasn't me - never done any lua magic like that.

[FLOZi]

it was Pressure Line

[Pressure Line]

*hides*

possible, yes. easy, no.