FreeSpace Port ReCharged Dev log 11: Rally Points
- Iain 'Sessile_Nomad' Baker
- Jan 17
- 5 min read
Welcome back, friends. In the last post, we saw how I introduced warship formations into FSPR and the ability to boss around pet warships. Now we will see how I improved the player's ability to direct their movements.
Bossing Like a Boss
The ordering system in FS enabled fighters to attack and defend specific targets, attack any enemy, guard the player, and ‘form on my wing’.
This last order triggers your AI wingmates to stop whatever they are doing, then make a beeline for you. Once they had reached you, they would stay close to you and not do anything else until ordered otherwise. This comes in very handy when AI wingmates get themselves into situations they can't get themselves out of.
For vanilla gameplay, this was all that was needed, but for FSPR, it was proving woefully inadequate.
Artificial Stupidity
The problem was those damn PDCs. They were just too damn good at shooting up the player’s wingmates, and the wingmate’s AI wasn’t smart enough to keep clear of them.
Because of this, the player would often need to do their thinking for them. What was needed was a way of getting AI wingmates to ‘go waaaay over there where it’s safe and STAY there until called’.
Unlike Real Time Strategy (RTS) games, FSO doesn’t have a facility for ordering wingmates to occupy an empty area of space. So, I would have to get a little creative and find a workaround. My mental journey looked a little something like this.
First, I thought to myself, the player can order in reinforcement craft and have them appear near their ship.
Secondly, the player can also order AI wingmen to guard a ship, which means they will go and fly around it, and if no hostiles go near it, they will stay put guarding it.
So… what if I add to each mission something that can be called in as a reinforcement ‘craft’, but then doesn’t move or do anything else?
That might work, I thought, but it would need to be something the AI wingmates wouldn't collide with, since wingmates in FS tend to crash into things due to their artificial stupidity.
This seemed like a workable idea, but I would need something to use as the reinforcement ‘ship’. So, I went ‘asset hunting’…
Then I remembered playstesting a campaign I had provided a little voice acting for previously. It used the models below as virtual HUD icons indicating the route the player should take.
They looked the part, and because they were meant to be virtual HUD icons instead of ‘real’ craft, they were already set as ‘no collide’ - i.e., they couldn’t be shot or crashed into. Just what I needed!
The fact that they came in two colours was also useful - I could use one colour for the Deployable Rally Points created by the player, and one for those created by the mission designer. (In universe - the senior officers, IRL the person creating the mission in FRED.)
So, by adding these to the missions, marking them as reinforcement ships and setting them to arrive in front of the player, while removing their jump in effect, the player can ‘Deploy’ them where they want them by:
Flying to the desired location,
Calling them in as ‘reinforcements’.
Hey presto - one would magically appear out of nowhere.
To get AI wingmates to go over to it, the player simply orders them to ‘guard’ it as they would any other ship. This would also work for the warships identifying as fighters mentioned in the last post.
Success - deployable Rally Points! You can see this in action in the video below:
Rally Points and 'orderable' warship demonstration
This worked very well, and had several uses, including keeping wingmates away from PDC armed craft, and setting up ambushes from specific approach vectors.
Jank and Limitations
This method is very much a kludge, since it's trying to do something the game engine was not set up for. As such, it's not without its limitations, and it possesses a touch of jank.
Janky
We will start with the jank. Firstly if the player places a Deployable RP near an asteroid field, the wingmates will shoot the asteroids to stop them from ‘colliding’ with the Rally Point. 😂
Secondly, if the player deploys a rally point near an enemy warship, the warship's escorting fighters will attempt to shoot it. Their shots will go straight through it to no effect of course, but it's a little immersion-breaking. That said, it could open opportunities for decoys and the like...
The solution to both of the above, of course, is placing the Rally Points in the correct locations.
Limitations
Now the limitations. Firstly, the player will be limited to the number of deployable Rally Points the mission designer has added. For FSPR, I have added between six and nine per mission, which seems sufficient so far. If playtesting suggests more are needed, I can easily add more later.
Secondly, the player cannot remove them once deployed, which might make the 'map' look a little cluttered, and may interfere with cutscenes.
Thirdly, if the player deploys them too near enemies and then orders their wingmates to guard it, the wingmates may attempt to defend it by rushing off to attack the enemies. This could be useful if the player is setting up an ambush, but counter-productive if they want to keep their wingmates out of harm's way.
Again, the player being mindful of where they place them is the solution.
That’s all for this week. Next time we will look at how FSPR embraces the principle of 'fight smarter, not harder'. See you all there.
Previous dev log posts
Iain is a 40+ author and gamer from England, who started his gaming journey on the Atari 2600 36(ish) years ago. His specialities include obscure cult classics, retro games, mods and fan remakes. He hates all sports games and is allergic to online multiplayer. Since he is British, his body is about 60% tea. He can be reached via email at nomadsreviews@gmail.com
Nomad’s Reviews now has a YouTube Channel - Nomad's Reviews Plays.
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