Very nice work! I like the Skytrooper more than the Improved Skyranger that is present in the Final Mod Pack. About the skyspotter, I think it looks a little too chubby... Just my humble opinion, but I think it would look better if made longer (also improve capacity to six troopers or 2 soldiers and a HWP) and given a bigger radar radome.You are right, I wondered if I made 4-10-16 or 6-12-18...
Thanks for sharing!
Hello Aldorn: Just a question... The SkyGuardian is another variant of the craft or you just renamed the SkyTrooper? Thanks!Hi,
Hi,Maybe it's worth the risk. Usually with the Skytrooper most of the soldiers in the mid section stay in the Skytrooper for the first turn due to the sheer length of the Skytrooper. Unless if you want to make an entirely new Skyranger with a 3 or 4 block width, then adding two more doors near the mid section would be helpful.
Do you have some more idea for a different Skyranger ? ::)
I tried to make on with 4 side doors, but it was too dangerous
Maybe it's worth the risk. Usually with the Skytrooper most of the soldiers in the mid section stay in the Skytrooper for the first turn due to the sheer length of the Skytrooper. Unless if you want to make an entirely new Skyranger with a 3 or 4 block width, then adding two more doors near the mid section would be helpful.If you are speaking of 4 side doors, have a look at this one (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1145.msg21389#msg21389) (I mean the second one)
If you are speaking of 4 side doors, have a look at this one (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=1145.msg21389#msg21389) (I mean the second one)Yes I've already downloaded that :P
I have to say that it was fun, but given that I play with many aliens around, this was too difficultEither I have it yet, or I could remake it if you need
Files are still attached :)
The small platforms in front of every door is interesting because you may fight with some nice LOF then go back to SkyRanger. If you are well organized (also not too much soldiers), you can even manoeuvre so that many soldiers fire the same round
I could make a version with 4 side doors from the XXL of current thread, as ground engines are very useful especially when you land on a border : jump and hide behind, or between both engines => many strategic places to post soldiers. I think I will do this now
Also.. The engines under the plane might work tactically, but physically, I have a hard time picturing a plane that would work like this. With engines so off center, wouldn't it just spin all the time?For sure I would not design crafts in real life...
Also new version V0.4 including two XXL crafts : Skycruiser and SkylanderSkylander is perfect!
The problem is that soldiers don't use internal tiles in priority, so I removed the floor tiles of the side (rear) doors
The Skycruiser should be limited to 20 to avoid this issue, or the floor tiles of side (front) doors
The Skylander and its 30 soldiers is the biggest one I will create !
This should be enough to assault any alien base even in my future mod
Beware that I took a risk for the Skylander, in some situation (especially on the border) a tank should be able to disembark, but could be unable to board againEDIT : An XCom ensign is missing...
So many planes to chose from! I'll have to add 15 new tiers of planes in my ruleset! :PI will propose a version (of all skyrangers) with engines under wings rather on the ground
I think the new ones with engines under the wings look AWESOME. Just have to write the rules for them.
I guess I could have a few different models within a tier (in my mod: starting craft, alloy craft, hybrid craft), where bigger = slower, and going up in tier means getting faster, more HP and some extra capacity, at the cost of requiring more alien alloy, time and money to manufacture. If only I weren't so busy.. I wish I could work for OpenXCom, instead of doing a PhD..!
I will propose a version (of all skyrangers) with engines under wings rather on the ground
In your opinion, which one has the better look between :
- PLANE.GIF : 4 big wings, 2 motors
- PLANE3.GIF : 2 very big wings, 2 middle wings, 2 engines
- PLANE5.GIF : 2 very big wings, 2 small wings, 2 engines
And tell me if all are suitable (also brings variety) or if one of them is absolutely not useful ? Also :
- is it coherent to have 4 engines ?
- is it coherent to have 2 wings of same size ?
- is it coherent to have spoilers not only at rear wings ?
- could engines be one tile smaller, one tile bigger ?
- ...
My feedback: Plane 3 looks best but the Vertical Stabilizers (Rudders or Spoilers) should only be at the back of the plane, unless you made them smaller and placed them at the ends of the main wingtips. :)Isn't it the case for PLANE3.GIF ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingtip_device
Derp, you were right. ;) Plane 3, looks fine in that respect. Also, Rear Engines are fine as well as those on the wings.Could you be as accurate as possible : PLANE3.gif ?
And I thing wing engines look better than ground engines. (Not that I wouldn't like the tactical advantage, ;) )I totally agree, that's why I will provide at least two versions any time : a real version with wing engines, and a fictional version with ground engines for tactical advantage
And... SKYLANDER-02WE.gif is the better of those variants. The extra landing gear makes sense to hold this larger craft.I will provide both these 4 versions
Plane3.gif >> I prefer that one for the wing ratio (large front, small in back) and the vertical stabilizers in the rear. :)Ok so :
Engine wise, It think that two engines are fine on midsize variants. It looks fine on Plane3.
On larger craft, 4 engines would be fine.
On the whole I don't really feel like Vertical Stabilizers in the middle of the craft works well with aircraft design. In the majority of modern aircraft they are at the rear of the craft as it gives the rudder leverage on turning it. Some exotic designs put them at the front of the craft, but these are very few and far between. ;)
I agree that plane3.gif looks the best. The only thing I would change is to make the engines a little bit shorter, so they don't stick out the front of the wings so much. They can be almost flush with the wing, like they are on skylander-02we.gif.I will do
The larger one.. I don't know.. To me it looks too long and skinny, the 2 pairs of similar wings look like too much (and the intake of the rear engines is right in the exhaust of the front ones, which is more of an issue than one might think if the worry of VTOL aircrafts choking their engine because of air recirculation still holds).I will keep these 4 engines to make a difference with other ones, as some modders are not against having 4 engines, but I trust you about the air circulation...
I am also not sure it is warranted. The avenger carries 26 troops at most and it is the Ultimate Craft. Of course, it might be considered so because it is at once your best fighter and your best transporter, so one could argue that as your "best fighter and pretty good transport", it's still the ultimate craft but I am not sure it should be outdone as a transport. I am finding the the skyranger's 14 troops is most of the time enough (in most of the UFO missions, some of my soldiers end up just walking along not finding aliens, or picking their while my breachers clear the UFO. Bases and terror missions are different, but not that different.No problem. Some are asking for huge capacity, so I propose this Skylander (as XCOMFan, I like the SkyRanger and am not in urgency to use Lightning/Avenger...).
A conventional plane carrying 16-20 soldiers should be enough, I think. It is then an upgrade on the skyranger, but also leaves the avenger as the ultimate craft. I am thinking of going:I will provide many sizes, then you'll just have to select one and set parameters to limit capacity to your convenience
1 - Skyranger (14 troops)
2 - Alloy Skyranger (16 troops & faster) + smaller plane (10 troops & a fair bit faster
3 - Hybrid Skyranger (uses Alloy + UFO Navigation; 18 troops and faster than alloy large plane)
+ smaller plane (12 troops and faster than the alloy small plane).
Of course, the small planes will be outdone by the lightning once it becomes available, but until then it is a great craft to quickly go to a small landed UFO before it takes off again (and they can take a HWP). Similarly, the avenger will outshine the larger planes, but that's the point, it's the best craft.
Out of curiosity, is the size of the wings dictated by engine limitations (like how big a map area you'd need to land it), or is it a stylistic thing?You're right, I have not the possibility to make wings larger than the big one, as the Skyranger map size is limited (max width = 10 ; max length 20)
I'm just thinking regarding your 'long skinny' comment....most aircraft tend to stick to a particular ratio in terms of length/width due to increased mass requiring increased lift surfaces. For a big transport with a delta-type wing you'd probably expect the whole thing to be as wide as it is long, like an equilateral triangle.
The original skyranger has that kind of profile (plus forward canards). As far as forward wings go, they're usually small and used for increased maneuvrability....in real life I dont think both sets of wings being the same size would work too well (pretty sure it'd mess up the airflow) but if you can only make wings so big it's probably a good fictional way of increasing lift surface size to make the plane look more balanced.Right, I had no other possibility than make it larger
Shame the engine doesnt let you do wingtip stabilisers....again, from a design perspective they just look very cool. :)It's not totally right...
Not that these rangers dont look cool, I just have a habit of overthinking unecessarily. :p
Keep up the good work dude.
Ok, I think I found the cause...Nice
A little request to you, just for "eye candy", but I think it will improve the looks of the mod: would you consider to modify the two "big eyed" smaller craft to have a larger (longer?) radome to emphasize its role as sensor/exploration craft? I think they would look more different to the others and will add to the immersion of the game... :-) A million thanks again!I'm sorry I am not sure to understand your request
Hi Aldorn!
I am working on integrating new crafts in my mod, and I was wondering if you could flex your craft building abilities again by making:
1- A regular skyranger, but with a small (one tile wide) side door on each side, right behind the small front wings.
2- Take the craft above, elongate the fuselage by adding one tile behind the large rear wings, keeping the wings where they are, but moving the vertical stabilizers (the vertical wings) back one tile, so they are still at the back of the plane.
Thank you in advance!
Oh man.. Almost there! I was trying to be as accurate as possible, sorry. For me the fuselage is the whole cylinder, so if adding to the top/walls, it would also add to the floor. Could you elongate the floor of the long skyranger to go with the elongated walls/top? (Making it cargo space 16, by pushing the ramp back one tile and adding a "row" of floor tiles).Done for Longer
Also, could you move the side door to behind the wings? Good point on the overlap with the "X" symbol, so, could you move the "X" one tile back too. (So the doors go where the backmost/rightmost "X" currently is, immediately behind the little wings, and a new "X" immediately behind these new doors = one tile back from where the backmost "X" is on a regular skyranger.) Basically, take the door you just added, and the "X" to its right, and move them both one tile towards the back of the aircraft.Done for both
Finally, would it be possible to add floor tiles hanging off the sides of the skyranger in front of where the side doors are? (like you have done for the plane in the top right spot of your preview on your first post).Done for both, but beware adding this ground tile will make your units deploy on it...
By the way, Aldorn, as per field troop reuqest: would be possible for you to modify the Skytrooper craft without the two lateral doors platforms? They would like to be sure that this event will not happen again! :-)I let you rename all the files to your convenience
remove the fact the a new game sets skytooper as your crew trasport and removes your interseptors i think that was in there for testing ?Right, it is just here as an example
Is it possible to make the lateral door able to be open or close like UFOs's one ?
Right, it is just here as an example
Stuff is available, then it's easy to mod it as expected (add weapons, rent cost, research, ...)
Technically yes, but it'd require making a new tileset with a new type of door. (Which is not really that hard to do, but still, it's a new tileset, which means more weight on the entire game.)i would like to see this . i had to ulock the 60 fps becuse of the fmp new maps thay get movement lag if thats what you mean by weight
i would like to see this . i had to ulock the 60 fps becuse of the fmp new maps thay get movement lag if thats what you mean by weight