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cw4:cpack:docs:7f65b557-95b9-47d0-807a-5d05b1b426db

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Custom CPACKs & Units
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VAUs (Vertu Air Units) CPACK - Vertu

:WARNING: Full details are provided. There will be lots of text but if you take the time and diligence to read it, every last bit of information about the VAUs CPACK is here.

-Current Units (CMODS)-

-Important information-

Please consider, the VAU CPACK is fully PAC COMPATABLE! With PAC_MODE enabled, the Summoner and RESTOCKv will be removed from the build menu after loading into the mission outside of the editor. This happens when clicking “Finalize” in the map editor to then play the mission for publishing and when a person just goes to play the mission. This is done in PRE so even with a beefy speed demon computer, the build menu will update long before the player has a chance to even select the buildings. This system also branches to the V-Tesla CPACK, so don't worry about it being a separate CPACK, PAC_MODE will still control the V-Tesla.

!PLEASE NOTE!: The TESLA VAU REQUIRES THE V-TESLA CPACK TO OPERATE! (Might be integrated at some point.)
If you don't import the V-Tesla CPACK in your map however, the summoner will work fine if the player attempts to summon the TESLA. It won't consume Liftic and most importantly, won't explode.

-AI (Artificial Intelligence)-

General VAU AI

Many of the VAUs contain a fully functioning AI that can be enabled by the player within the unit's GUI. The AI includes re-suppling when low/out of ammo, auto enabling the ARMED and AUTO RESTOCK status, a forced retreat when critically low on health, a fully automatous target seeking mode which accounts for Creeper height/depth and also “soon-to-be-damaged” Creeper/damageMapping, a formation mode, and a proper “end” condition such as from loosing the Rift Lab and failing the mission via destruction. When the Rift Lab is destroyed and a VAU runs out of ammo and can't find any source of ammo within enough time (30 whole seconds aka 5,000 years), the VAU(s) will leave the mission themselves like how the Rift Lab departs. The AI is also rather smart, if Creeper is nearby the RESTOCKv beacon, the VAUs will instead go to the Rift Lab to restock and if there is no Rift Lab… Leave the mission (only if the AI is in full control).
The RESTOCKv beacon also tracks how much ammo it has and uses the ammo regularly to check if it's still connected to an energy source. If the beacon reaches 0 ammo, it will tell the VAUs to restock at the Rift Lab until it obtains ammo again. This means VAUs will avoid the RESTOCKv is Creeper is nearby or “give up” on it if it receives no energy for too long.

General PAC_MODE AI

The CPACK has a PAC AI when PAC_MODE is enabled in the Governer script (simply set to 1 to enable, 0 to disable). In this mode, all VAUs are set to “Rouge” AI, and become unselectable. The Social VAU Interaction script in PAC_MODE is also set to create Fighter formations (currently only) once a full fighter group size is reached even if no Fighter is set with a leader AI. This formation creation can be disabled directly by setting “ENABLED” to 0 within the Social VAU Interaction global script.

Summoner PAC AI

The Summoner also has a PAC AI which will swap summon type when it will be impossible to summon more of the current VAU. This is simply controlled by VAU unit caps so you can place multiple and set their parameters individually to control what each Summoner can summon and how many. The Summoners will also work fine even when swapping their Summon Type mid-summon as there is an abort system the AI can conduct to avoid the self destruct consequence and while not breaking the summoning process (why the self-destruct exists). This has the possibility to replace the self-destruct failsafe consequence as a whole. Currently, a thought is to add a Cancel Summon button that will trigger this abort procedure for players using the Summoner. No guarantees though. It's not like the PAC CPack where 90% of the playerbase regularly encounter the CPACK. The Summoner AI also has a packet request delay variable which you can alter to change how quickly the Summoner obtains Liftic to summon VAUs. Very useful when making a PAC map with a summoner. A delay of 30 is 1 per second. CW4 runs at 30 FPS. So to summon a Fighter, it will take 350 seconds or nearly 6 minutes.

SPECIAL_PAC_DISABLE_VAUS_START (ADVANCED! ONLY FOR AT LEAST SEMI-EXPERIENCED 4RPL CODERS!)

Within the Governer global script, there is a special variable referred to the “SPECIAL_PAC_DISABLE_VAUS_START”, if you don't have moderate experience with 4rpl, DO NOT TOUCH THIS! It is a special Boolean state (I wish there was a way to create actual Boolean initial variables) that disables PAC_MODE after it initializes PAC_MODE status. This will make the VAUs unselectable and everything else but then disable PAC_MODE so the VAUs don't operate by enabling their ARMED state and AI mode to Rouge. This is the only way to control when the VAUs currently on the map activate or can even be deactivated in the first place in a PAC map. It is up to the user to create code to utilize this mode in another CPACK, using “linkVar” as a Boolean to reenable the VAUs (no way to disable again currently but it is super simple). This feature however has proven not perfectly stable within the only time I used it so be sure to look at the comments involving this mode in the Governer script for references. This mode is also discontinued until I use it again. It is a very, very, specific mode with a specific use. The only map I have currently made that uses this mode is VPAC Incursion. This system uses the 4rpl CW4 method: RegisteredScriptVar. The registration name is “VAU_SWITCH” and the intended variable in question is the Boolean-used: “linkVar”. You only need to do “SetRegisteredScriptVar(“VAU_SWITCH” “linkVar” 1) or instead of “1”, can do “true”, to reenable the VAUs. With SPECIAL_PAC_DISABLE_VAUS_START enabled, it will auto-disable all VAUs on the map on Gameload and recompile (however, not ran while paused).

-General rules/features/concepts-

Click to display ⇲

Click to hide ⇱

  • Only when the Creeper visually reaches a VAU will it begin taking damage from Creeper exposure.
  • The more Liftic a VAU needs to be built/summoned, the more powerful it is.
  • “Hunter” AI will seek the deepest Creeper on the map.
  • “Rouge” AI will seek the deepest Creeper within the VAU's weapon range.
  • “Independent” will have the selected Rouge or Hunter AI enabled but will not join into a formation of a Leader.
  • “Leader” will have the selected AI type but other fighters with AI enabled will enter a formation around it. You can see what formation the fighter will conduct if it became a leader at the bottom of the Fighter's UI.
  • Formations are:
    • Square: 3×3 square with the leader in the middle.
    • Circle: Same a square but in the shape of a circle.
    • Cross: An “X” shaped formation with the leader in the center.
    • Converge: All fighters within the “formation” will remain around the Leader in no particular formation, simply being around the general location of the leader.
  • Leader Fighters will have an outline and change in their mini-map icon color to help with identifying them.
  • Auto Restock will simply have the VAU retreat to the “RESTOCKv” beacon when low/out of ammo, this is separate to the full AI. When the AI is enabled fully, Auto Restock and armed status is forced enabled. When restocking, the VAU will set it's hover height to 30, ignoring the UI state of it's hover height as well.
  • When the Auto Restock is enabled but not the AI and a “RESTOCKv” is available, the unit will go to the RESTOCKv's location. If the RESTOCKv is out of maintenance ammo, is destroyed (by any means), or has Creeper nearby it's location, the VAUs will Auto Restock at the RIftLab's location until the beacon is replaced or any of the previous become false.
  • You can customize how a VAU restocks. Should it wait for 25% ammo? Or 75% before leaving?
  • When a VAU finishes Restocking and doesn't have full AI enabled, it will go to the marker (specified location the same as with the Thor) it has been given while also abiding to the hover height UI state again. Other wise when it's AI is enabled, will just go on its marry way after restocking.
  • Upon Mission Complete (all required mission objectives obtained), the standard Vertu Fighter (“Fighter”/“VGPSF”) will leave the mission and will need to be re-summoned/built but newly summoned/built Fighters after Mission Complete will stay till the end. See LORE for lore details on this.
  • In PAC_MODE, ALL VAUs will retreat upon Mission Complete.
  • The V-Battlestation's shield WILL turn off upon being hit by a spore and be temporarily disabled.
  • The Unused Unit referred to as “Transport”/“VVT” has been abandoned due to how unconnected (to the Rift Lab) networks behave in CW4.
  • The V-Battlestation and Auto Station have a connection point BELOW THEM. The teal/cyan glowing orb is where these Stations can receive ammo from the network.
  • (Not for station-like VAUs). The higher a VAU is in altitude, the faster it moves due to reduction of air resistance.


-PAC_MODE details-

Click to display ⇲

Click to hide ⇱

  • All VAU UI states besides AI mode and Auto restock mode are preserved and will not be changed at any time after being set using CTRL+INSERT (may just be “INSERT” key now) to select the unselectable VAU in PAC MODE.
  • VAU AI will always be set to Rouge, the most dynamic and interesting AI type if possible.
  • The MBF will not ever use OVERCHARGE mode when in PAC_MODE unless manually set while in the editor but be warned that this will use a lot of Liftic from your PAC base.
  • The OVERCHARGE mode is currently discontinued and unmaintained, the Auto Restock AI of the MBF may not be working.




VAUs:

Summoner

The summoner is a frail and expensive Liftic building that allows you to Summon VAUs using Liftic for ammo in the summoning process. It is responsible for the VAU caps as it will only allow a specified quantity of a specific VAU on the map for itself. If SummonerA has a limit of 5 Fighters while SummonerB has a limit of 9, SummonerA will be unable to summon fighters once 5 are on the map while SummonerB can still summon Fighters no problem. Summoners do not track VAUs summoned by other players in MVerse because.. they are literally “ghosts”. Only the VAUs local to the player who built it exist for the Summoner that same player built.

  • Costs 200 Liftic to build.
  • Summons VAUs using Liftic.
  • Can store up to 2,000 Liftic.
  • 1 HP.
  • Causes a healthy lag spike when first ever placed in a mission.
  • If summoning is interrupted by changing the summon type mid summon, the summoning will cancel and the Summoner will have to recharge before being able to summon again. (As though it finished summoning).
  • It becomes a very sad day when the Summoner dies with over 1,000 Liftic in storage.

:NOTE: -Most descriptions are taken directly from the Summoner with some alterations and edits.-

Air Units

V-Battlestation

A massive station designed to provide massive support against masses of Creeper, has a massive shield to stop massive waves and very effectivly stop any moderate advancement of the Creeper. Possesses a heavy-hitting Liftic-Cannon that can stun both enemies and friendlies at the area of impact (though VERY, VERY, few enemies tend to be stunnable, no enemies can be stunned in vanilla). It's shield will soon fail after being hit by a spore and recover after a minute.

  • Only uses Liftic.
  • Base cost: 500 Liftic.
  • SHIELD SLOWLY DRAINS AMMO!
  • Has a very effective and large shield.
  • Very powerful Liftic cannon.
  • Long reload and shield recovery time.
  • Can use it's shield very mobile and tactically.
  • The fired projectile will stun anything that can be stunned at the impact zone.
  • Only has AutoRestock and low HP AI.
  • 80 HP.
  • Generally very low supply maintenance espeshally when the shield is offline.
  • 150 Ammo capacity.
  • Has a UI state that will prevent the Battlestation's cannon from firing when at or below ~20 Liftic ammo, prioritizing the sustain of the shield over the sustain of firing it's cannon.
  • Has a “Micro-Rift”-like orb under itself which is how it connects to a network.
  • Has fancy projectile.

Auto-Station

A simple floating station designed to provide support fire at massive ranges, can be very helpful for responding to Creeper that somehow sneaked deep into the complex or just for adding more damage against the Creeper.

  • Only uses Liftic.
  • Base cost: 150 Liftic
  • Very mobile.
  • Long range.
  • Cheap to summon and supply. (Though Greenar Mothrs aren't the most consistent and stable source of Liftic so beware).
  • Only has AutoRestock and low HP retreat AI.
  • 40 HP.
  • Has a “Micro-Rift”-like orb under itself which is how it connects to a network.

Fighter/VGPSF

A fighter designed for space.. that will be in atmosphere… It's slower than if in space let's just say… Although designed for dog fighting, it is General Purposed so it can be used against Creeper by charging it's photon cannons per discharge. It's a must-have honestly, being readably-available and very useful in all situations.

  • Only uses Energy.
  • Base cost: 350 Liftic (Would be 500 if they weren't so readily available).
  • Has dynamic AI.
  • Has many AI modes.
  • Can enter formations with other fighters.
  • Very mobile.
  • Provides a super sustainable and reliable source of damage.
  • Can kill PAC LUREs although it will take a good few attacking the same LURE to do so.
  • Is the main VAU.
  • Efficient both in combat and game performance, allowing many, many, fighters to be on the map without lagging the game to death (depending on what you use to run the mission).
  • 75 HP.
  • WILL LEAVE THE MISSION ONCE “MISSION COMPLTE” STATUS IS ACHIEVED! (Mission Complete is when you have the Initiate Jump button available). However, any fighter summoned after the Mission Complete status will be there to stay!

R-Fighter/EXP-VRF

An experimental version of the Fighter/VGPSF housing a proper reactor that produces too much heat to be concealed and therefor is exposed. This thing puts the Creeper's strength to shame!.. If you can wait to call one in that is… They are few in number and spread thin. They must be called with massive amounts of Liftic to make their attendance to your Summoner worth-while for Vertu. Only uses energy.

  • Base cost: 1800 Liftic
  • Has AI.
  • Has 3 weapons.
  • Can kill PAC LUREs very effectively.
  • Is a super weapon.
  • Provides devastating firepower.
  • Self-produces energy (2 per second).
  • Has shield.
  • 225 Total HP. 25 Hull, 200 shield. Shield health regens faster. When the R-Fighter is at or below 25 HP, it regens health slower and must be over 25 to have shield regeneration speeds in it's HP.

MBF

A special mobile battle platform equipped with energy generation capabilities for it's 4 0G laser guns floating along side it requiring NO AMMO TO USE but can use Liftic to engage an OVERDRIVE status to fire at record rates of fire.

  • Uses only Liftic only while OVERDRIVE is engaged to massively increase its rate of fire.
  • Perfectly reliable damage output. (Mainly because it doesn't use ammo unless in OVERDRIVE).
  • Has 3 fire priority settings. Deepest, Mixed (2 guns shoot closest, 2 deepest), Closest.
  • Base cost: 1250 Liftic
  • Has AI. (Restock AI unmaintained and may be broken).
  • 60 HP.
  • INCREASES THE RATE OF FIRE OF THE MAIN WEAPON OF ALL FIGHTERS! (They shoot green when not buffed, pink when buffed).

HCPPCAS

A floating station using internal propulsion to move around without many exposed thrusters that fires a deadly plasma-based-laser/cannon hybrid which vaporizes Creeper at unprecedented speeds. Has a massive cool-down phase however. Uses only energy…… Also good luck pronouncing it. (It's Hicp-Pkas with literal pronunciation).

  • Uses only energy.
  • Slow rate of fire.
  • Penultimate devastation to Creeper within the targeted area. Not one piece of Creeper even if perfectly Crimson will survive (except maybe 2,000 depth Creeper that was perfectly Crimson… Just.. Maybe..).
  • Can only ever sustain damage when armed. (At least, that's the intention).
  • Base cost: 1,000 Liftic
  • Has AI (only Hunter for a full AI mode).
  • 16 HP.
  • 1,000 Ammo capacity.
  • Heavily impacted by atmosphere dynamics (when not in space, it moves painfully slowly).
  • Moves to the other side of the map in seconds when in space.
  • Creates contaminated land at the area exposed to the laser cannon's wrath. Will not override any special terrain at the location.

Tesla/V-Tesla/Sniper-Tesla: (currently separate CPACK)

Does a lot of zapy zapy things, dealing sniper level damage (0.5 damage per shot) at MOSTLY UNRESTRICTED RATE OF FIRE. (Aka, basically frame per frame rate of fire).

  • Uses only energy.
  • Costs 800 Liftic.
  • NO AI!
  • IS A POINT DEFENSE UNIT WITH 1,000 AMMO CAP!
  • Does not react to atmosphere dynamics.
  • Has an OVERCHARGE system that causes the Rift Lab to output a perfectly constant stream of energy packets. Use with caution when energy is tight!
  • ~Unrestricted rate of fire.
  • Very long range.
  • 3 HP.
  • Will die in an EMP explosion and stun nearby units including enemy units if they can be stunned. It's a ball of totally safe energy that zaps things that get near it, what do you expect when it's safety features fail?

RESTOCKv/Restock Beacon

A beacon marker that can be placed literally anywhere and will be the location VAUs go to when low/out of ammo if their Auto Restock AI is enabled.

  • When placed, will provide VAUs its location for them to go to when low/out of ammo.
  • Completely free to place.
  • Will auto-set it's build limit to 1.
  • Will regularly use ammo as a way to check if it has access to a source of energy packets. If it uses all of it's ammo, it will tell the VAUs to go to the RiftLab instead.
  • If Creeper is nearby the RESTOCKv beacon, VAUs will not restock at it and instead at the RiftLab.
  • Damaged VAUs will not retreat here. They will instead retreat to the RiftLab.
  • VAUs will descend on to the RESTOCKv to ensure they are in range.

-LORE-

Summoner

A quantum communications system that uses the <REDACTED> substitute you built it with to power itself that can communicate with Vertu units, mainframes, fleets, essentially anything designed to receive calls when need be.. which is kind of everything.
The Vertu economy revolves around <REDACTED> though here in the Creeper World universe there is Greenar which can be used as a substitute. To summon a VAU a certain amount of Greenar is needed to conduct a transaction process. The Summoner transports the Greenar to Vertu establishments designed to refine it into <REDACTED> and continue powering the Vertu economy (which is not based on stupid paper representing “gold”). <REDACTED> is like energy as a resource, it lets you do things. The ability to do things is value and is what determines if it's worth sending a VAU to the Summoner that called it.

The more Greenar in a single transaction, the more proof that the area the Summoner is located at has high quantities of Greenar. Making it clear it will be worth while sending additional effort in securing that area. The summoner is a way to communicate proof that the establishment has access to Greenar to turn into <REDACTED>. You don't want to spend energy trying to get energy only to make a net negative is the consensus of this transaction process.

Vertu General Purpose Space Fighter

A Vertu original CI Fighter that is general purposed in a similar fashion to life. General purposed to be specialized. They are the #1 military unit of Vertu being agile, exceedingly robust, effective, efficient, ….., and “good against everything” in a way. Fighters although mass produced still can't meet active service demands. Whenever a fighter is called, a temporary fighter is called due to the uncertainty of a permanent fighter attendance and unpredictable availability of fighters. When the “mission” is completed, these fighters will return to become available for other Summoners and by then, many fighters have been assigned to your Summoner in the mission, only requiring you to complete the transaction process for each fighter. These fighters won't ever leave unless heavily damaged or something along that mark.

The fighters are a quality over quantity design yet have a production demand almost never met. Vertu has specialized heavily in making these fighters so although they are expensive to create, they rarely need repairs, any form of maintenance, or upkeep, keeping the transaction cost low. Fighters are built and ready for an entire campaign right away. They can do marathons like sprints. This is why the transaction cost does not change when permanent fighter assignment to your Summoner is made. There are always fighters to go around but not enough for ALL Summoners at one time and some attendances are more urgent than others.

This cycling of individual fighters has enabled Vertu to sustain numerous campaigns with easily 1/1,000th the estimated required amount of total fighters to attend all Summoners. A single non-permanent attending fighter easily transitions through over 100 missions a cycle. A cycle is: Sent out on it's first mission -> returning to it's designated base for internal recharge and minor maintenance. It is a very complicated process but Vertu has planet-sized super computers dedicated for managing this process and it has been a very worthwhile investment of micromanaging. Each fighter gets the most value out of itself as possible.

[EXPERIMENTAL] Vertu Reactor Fighter

One day. The all important question was asked. What if we took the Fighter, cut it in half, shove a reactor in it's core and connect to two halves with nothing but beams rather than solid hull, and give it a crap ton of shields to make up for it's structural alteration? Well you get a wild card. The ace up the sleeve.
All VGPSFs have a shield designed to absorb energy weapons, 10% of the reason being that lasers are good against mass,, and 90% because lasers fire at the speed of light and are one of the few things that can hit a Fighter doing a V3-90* change in vector motion while ALSO being good at cutting armor. The idea was, armor counters basic damage, maneuverability counters Anti-Tank weaponry heavy enough to tear the armor, and the cheap shield to reduce the effectiveness of lasers just enough to make the armor not instantly vaporize.
Seems like a good coverage of all Rock-Paper-Scissors. But what if we went further? They are after all JUST fighters… And a heavier Fighter never works due to the sensitive structure of covering all 3 parts of the Rock-Paper-Scissors.
There was only 1 option, increase power output. The Fighter has a heat sensitivity issue. The one thing Fighters are bad against, heat based weapons like Flame Throwers or hot plasma weaponry. So gotta make sure the Reactor can cool easily in many many situations… Just make it exposed and have cooling mechanisms connect the Reactor rather than hull.. Alright.. if we need to expose A FREAKIN ATOMIC REACTOR, there is only 1 defensive option.. SHIELDS!
Pump all the energy you can muster into the latest Paragon shield. A shield that can at any moment, swap into a different shield type at the cost of efficiency.. which is countered by the new reactor. Alright, got a nearly unstoppable shield unless the enemy specifically brings weapons designed to obliterate shields. Oh wait… We still have a ton of excess power…


WHEN IN DOUBT! ADD MORE THINGS!!

  • HEAVY LASER EMITTER!
  • OVERCLOCKED LASER EMITTER!
  • 6 HIGH ENERGY PHOTON MISSILE PROJECTORS! WITH NANITE-MASS GUIDANCE SYSTEMS!
  • HIGH POWERED MANUVERING THRUSTERS!
  • HIGH POWERED MAIN THRUSTERS
  • SUB-DIRECT CHARGING TO THE FTL CORE!
  • ADVANCED COMPUTER PROCESSING MAINFRAME!

And you get…
A super weapon of a similar size to a Mustang Interceptor plane in WWII.
Now if only we had the complex materials to make them in ma- oh wait.. If the enemy wields anti-shield weapons the R-Fighters have to retreat on the spot…. Well make a few of them and be sure to tactically employ them. They are now our Ace up the sleeve. Not something to always use but will sure as damn be devastating when not given respect.

A very new addition to the Vertu Arsenal. Hence, [EXPERIMENTAL]. They are quite a wonder weapon.



Version number and download link

Current version: 2.8.12.2 Download location
Next major update | Determined plans:

  • Creation of defend location markers! Current plan: If the location marker finds Creeper nearby, the VAU Social AI script will tell all VAUs with AI to go to that location. Will probably be a kind of radio-tower-like model that can be destroyed by the Creeper.
  • Addition of proper AI to the Battlestation and Auto Station: Rouge, Hunter, {[and possibly for Battlestation only] Leader-Rouge, Leader-Hunter, Leader (leader being for Fighters to sit around or even instead the addition of drones to do this rather than using the Fighters, or again, is scrapped in the next main update}.
  • Possible rework of Fighter movement or even all VAU movement to a vectorized motion rather than a perfect hovering motion. This will make the VAUs feel far more natural and be a more lore-accurate form of movement. This has been taken back as the VAUs are very much like VTOLs and with how they work, is best kept that way in practice.
  • Summoner description text format update.


Custom CPACKs & Units
Index

1)
Vertu.General.Purposed.Space.Fighter
2)
Experimental-Vertu.Reactor.Fighter
3)
Mobile.Battle.Front
4)
Highly.Charged.Photon.Pulse.Cannon.Assault.Station
cw4/cpack/docs/7f65b557-95b9-47d0-807a-5d05b1b426db.txt · Last modified: 2022/12/19 08:35 by Vertu