cw4:cmod:docs:6bff7473-183e-4731-b28a-c4905d87fb9f

[VAU CPACK] Fighter (VGPSF)

The Vertu General Purpose Space Fighter is a take on the concept originally made an example by evolutionary emergence of “specialized to be general purposed”. It is so general purposed, no alterations where necessary to enable the VGPSF to be effective against Creeper by no more than charging it's Photon Cannons rather than their default mode. The VGPSF is a shinning icon of the Vertu Empire, being tough enough to rival the endurance of entire battleships of primitive races. The only brand of weapon that can damage Vertu Fighters are those created by Vertu, or exceedingly upscaled primitive weapons that somehow landed a hit because by the fundamentals of kinetics, a big enough bullet will go through even the Neutronium¹⁾ from a Neutron Star.

VERTU LORE DETAILS:

Vertu survived the great filter known as the technological barrier of stagnation that (99.9E100)% of technological empires fall and perish to when their technology becomes so advance, the species that made it forget how they did so, commonly out of laziness like “let the computer do it” and other reasons. Vertu has long since surpassed this hurdle and has spiraled out of control in it's innovation, becoming an anomaly of a developed society that broke the cycle of evolution-devolution-evolution and mastered Clark Tech²⁾.
This has put them so far ahead of any intelligent species and even those at their apex and on the brink of self destruction from this great filter, find anything of Vertu they encounter to be a “God” and even go so far to restructure their society to convert into a form of spiritualism (and forget any primitive society below Kardashev³⁾ 2!) in the presence of such levels of technology and Clark Tech. Vertu however, expresses pure hatred for such praising behavior and exterminates any society that obviously expresses such behavior towards them. That is, after their refusal to comply to the many, many, very strongly worded messages sent to the leader(s) of said society primary by hacking into the nearest digital system(s) in their proximities. If Vertu didn't “displace” them already that is since the Vertu Empire can care less if a strategic planet is inhabited by a civilization less than Kardashev 2.5. They will still act as if it wasn't inhabited and expect the locals to do nothing significant enough for the acknowledgement of existence by Vertu or else. If they are at or above Kardashev 2.5, things become more than a free real-estate business simulator for Vertu.

The Vertu Fighter is the pinnacle of Vertu Engineering, being one of the few examples of quality so developed, no concept of “quantity” can rival it's “quality”. Put the Fighter against odds using quantity and it will almost always come out on top in a way that favors quality over quantity.

If you play VPAC and question this under how having enough Light SAMs can force a Fighter to retreat and abandon the defense, click here.

Understand that the Fighter only retreated because you brought it down to 90% integrity when it wasn't trying to be tough and couldn't care less in committing to defending a place there are uncountable numbers of from some Blue Liquid-like thing that Creeps along the surface and dissolves selective things in contact with it. It was sparking and smoking because it had a bunch of electric plasma fires stuck to it in any nook or cranny which was annoying the shit out of the Computer Intelligence as the residue created bolts of electric discharges and combusted the surrounding atmosphere much like how Lightning does but on a micro-level and very frequent. If you got a Thermometer onto a VPAC map, you would notice that over time, the map would get hotter.. hotter.. and hotter.. with no visible source of heat. It would all be from the Plasma shots from Light SAMs slamming into the air and or whatever physical object and it's plasma-electric residue combusting the Atmosphere and releasing micro-lightning-discharges. Have this go on for long enough vs the one-time strike from lightning and the surrounding air can get toasty. I would also rather not give the Fighter some thousands of health. 75 will do for how “if at 0, it's good enough for a retreat”.

These fighters are everywhere, so although their quality required substantial investment and careful applicating, they can be easily summoned via the Summoner due to how the Vertu Empire micro-manages these fighters. Although their demand is infinite, the supply can meet said demand so long as it's not unreasonable.

-Basic Info-

Costs 350 Liftic in the Summoner to summon.
Never bad to have. Always good to have.
Only uses Energy.
Has dynamic AI including 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. Only applies to VPAC LUREs found in the “VPAC Main” CPack. It is possible this may also be expanded upon and a form of damage is created, making it no longer VPAC exclusive and that VAUs can damage enemy units directly.
Efficient both in combat and game performance, allowing many, many, fighters to be on the map without lagging the game to extreme levels.
Is the main VAU.
75 HP.
Will leave once Mission Completed⁴⁾ status is achieved. If Fighters are re-summoned after this status is achieved, they will stay to the end unless they encounter a valid retreat condition such as being too low on health.

-Role-

The Vertu Fighter within CW4 has a very simple but general role of providing air-ground firepower by vaporizing targeted Creeper. They have far superior range and efficiency compared to most combat towers but require a high impulse recharge that can be harmful to the Rift Lab's energy production abilities and cause sudden and extreme deficit while also being limited in number.

The biggest advantage of all VAUs is how they obviously can fly over Creeper and target as they please. The Fighter works very well as a fast response unit and moderate-heavy fire support, further complimented by using energy as ammo as opposed to limited resources while still being easily accessible via the Summoner.

With their high speed, firepower, and efficiency, there is virtually no reason not to summon a few Vertu Fighters before investing into more expensive Liftic transactions in the Summoner, they are just that handy. It is also a practiced tactic by Vertu incursions to create two Summoners. One is dedicated to summoning Fighters and only Fighters while the other is dedicated to summon every other VAU as seen fit at any point in time but only if there is enough available Liftic to sustain two Summoners.

Role (lore version):

In core design, the Vertu Fighter is.. well.. a fighter. So in the event (somehow) the Creeper evolves into a more militaristic methodology, the Fighters will be actual Fighters. This however is infidecimally impossible due to how the Vertu Empire is an anomaly in terms of technological age. Having overcome the great filter of technological stagnation and having no opposition to their ability to innovate and advance, and much like in Human Earth technology, with advancements in technology; more and better tools to conduct scientific study and discovery become available to enable breakthroughs in the categories of science to be achieved both more frequently and easily with the original limit being the great filter of technological stagnation from hyper advanced technology. Since Vertu has overcome this great filter, there was and is no stopping their innovation so it is infidecimally impossible for the Creeper to develop any kind of military presence to warrant the Fighters to act like the Fighters they are in their core when Vertu is so far ahead.⁵⁾

More details to the above lore are provided here.

Obviously there are exceptions, but said “exceptions” are infidecimally entirely involved with only the Fighter's individuality, typically being; a Fighter will get board with it's low fire rate and the Creeper not actively engaging it, and swap firing modes into their original and preferred dog-fighting weapon mode. Usually the individual quickly learns how the ineffectiveness of this firing mode is more boring and sticks with the advised weapon mode. After some few missions in service, that individual fighter won't swap firing modes again. The true exception however; is that given the opportunity to not need to charge it's weapons to vaporize Creeper, some of these types of individuals that fit the description stated previously will take said opportunity without question and in the simulated event this happens, the other Fighters on the same mission will quickly join in. This is the only known possible situation where Fighters on a CW4 mission will behave like the Fighters they are at heart. It is Vertu policy to cycle Fighters out of service in CW missions and into more militaristic missions to help with their mentality from this foreign Fighter-behavior on CW missions and eventually be cycled back into service in CW missions after exercising their “natural” Fighter behavior(s) for long enough and with enough potency.

-AI (Artificial Intelligence)-

All VAUs have an AI to restock ammo and almost all, exceptions being the V-Battlestation and Auto Station, have proper AI for independent operation without you giving them orders.

The first AI is AutoRestock AI which is responsible for controlling the VAU when critically low on ammo and needs to go restock. It will even override the main AI by having priority. It is a very simple set of logic that tells the VAU to and how to go either to the Rift Lab or RESTOCKv beacon if it's available and active. It will also react to the Desired Ammo widget that specifies how much ammo the VAU should wait to obtain when restocking. When the VAU's ammo reaches at or above the Desired Ammo, the AutoRestock AI will release it's control. If the Desired Ammo is at “~MAX”, when the VAU obtains 5 ammo less than it's max ammo, a timer will count down based on the VAU's Charge Speed widget to simulate the next 5 packets on their way and how long it would take to receive all 5 remaining packets. Once the timer expires or full ammo is achieved at any moment, AutoRestock AI finishes and relinquishes it's control. This means that if the VAU is firing and using ammo while restocking, it won't be stuck restocking by waiting for newly sent ammo packets sent every time it fires before that original packet arrives and a new one needs to be sent to give it full ammo.

The second AI is the “Full AI” which is more advanced sequences of logic that can actually be confidently called a form of AI rather than a logic sequence. This AI can do some forms of problem solving in the CW4 mission. This includes the reaction of being low on health and retreating to the Rift Lab, fully retreating (as in leaving the mission) when out of ammo and no ammo can be found within enough time, searching for targets, avoiding Creeper, entering formations (currently specifically for Fighters only), and eventually: prioritization logic and reaction to special buildings being under threat by Creeper and attempting to defend them (currently not yet implemented).

-Auto Restock AI-

All VAUs have this kind of AI. The MBF's AutoRestock AI however currently does not work. It is an underdeveloped part of the MBF (due to lack of need to do something about it).

Whenever the VAU runs out of ammo, it will retreat to the Rift Lab to restock ammo. However, if a RESTOCKv beacon is present and is online, it will go to it instead.
VAUs will adapt their height to ensure they can connect to the network. You don't have to worry about where they go to restock, they will handle it themselves.

-FULL AI Mode-

Only the V-Battlestation and Auto Station don't have this kind of AI. While a VAU has this AI enabled, it has full control over itself and will do it's own thing.
This includes:

Restocking ammo.
Retreating when low on health.
Finding a target.
Reacting to Creeper height, depth, and damage-mapping.
Controlling altitude.
Abandoning of the mission if unable to find ammo in 30 seconds after using all ammo.
Controlling the Armed status (auto setting to Armed).
Controlling the AutoRestock status (auto enabling).

The Vertu Fighter is unique in that it has the most AI types of all VAUs.

Rouge: Finds the deepest Creeper within gun range and goes to it's location to shoot at it. This is the most dynamic and interesting AI type.
Hunter: Finds the deepest Creeper on the map and goes to it's location to begin shooting at it.
Leader (Fighter unique): Can have Rouge or Hunter AI co-enabled or have neither enabled while having other Fighters with AI enabled other than Independent AI and other Leader AI to enter a formation around the leader. Current formations are (in 2D from top-down): Square, Circle, Cross/X shape, and Converge⁶⁾. The “Full AI” called “LEADER” will still cause fighters with AI enabled (as specified earlier) to enter formation but the leader itself doesn't have it's AI in full control of itself. This is very useful for creating a “squad” where you only need to select and move a single Fighter rather than selecting all of them and individually telling them where to go. When a Fighter has any Leader AI enabled, it will have an outline to highlight it.
Independent (Fighter unique): A co-enabled AI that is stated by “Hunter-Indep” and “Rouge-Indep”. With this AI enabled, it will have the same behavior as Hunter or Rouge except that it will not enter into any formation with a Leader.

-Formations details-

When entering a formation, all fighters of the group will orbit around the leader (unless in converge formation) while maintaining the formation pattern.
Each fighter is still in independent control of itself while in a formation. It is very much that the fighter itself is responsible for being in the formation. If it runs out of ammo or is too damaged, it will retreat as it sees fit at any time it pleases.

-Using the Fighter's UI-

This may be the main reason you are here at this wiki page. And if that is true, fine. I will provide the details here but please understand that the UI only looks complicated because the Fighter uses all 7 UI widgets, the 6th and 7th are unimportant in an immediate sense. Note: The UI Widgets start at 0 and end at 7.

0:[FLIP] Target priority. The targeting priority of the Fighter between Deepest and Closest.
1:[CHOICE] Hover Height. What altitude the Fighter should fly up to when under manual control.
2:[CHOICE] Charge speed. How fast energy is sent to the Fighter whenever connected to the network. Default refers to the vanilla speed that almost all vanilla units use which is 2 packets a second. “~MAX” is 30 packets a second.
3:[FLIP] Auto Restock. A switch to turn Auto Restock behavior on and off. You will probably never touch it.
4:[CHOICE] Desired ammo. How much ammo the Fighter needs to obtain before it is considered restocked.
5:[CHOICE] AI Mode. The Full AI controller. What is selected in this UI Widget determines the behavior of the Full AI which will then take over control of the Fighter unless set to the special “Full AI” of “LEADER”, the last type in the list of AI choices.
6:[LABEL] Informative text that says what formation the Fighter will enforce when in a type of LEADER AI mode. You need to scroll down the UI to see the text.
7:[LABEL] Status text which has proven to not even be working and was long discontinued as legacy debug code that wasn't specifically just for debugging long ago, hence why it wasn't removed during that time. You would need to scroll down the UI to “see” this blank widget. There is an off chance text will successfully display there but I have not seen this myself. You can treat this UI Widget as nonexistent.

Download location and CPACK information location:

¹⁾

What is Neutronium? SCIENCE LESSION TIME!

You have been warned. It is a form of atomic material where atoms are compacted so close together, such as in Neutron Stars (including Pulsars and Magnetars, they are both still Neutron Stars but with extra flavor), the electrons “orbiting” the atoms are forced against the Strong Force (I can be mentioning the totally wrong force here, I have yet to be exposed to quantum physics in full yet though that is on my to-do list. -Vertu) to “merge” into the Protons they where attracted to and create Neutrons. The space the Electrons where previously occupying is then filled with other Neutron Atoms forced closer together under extreme gravity. Neutronium is expected to be the toughest form of matter, being incredibly dense (teaspoon = Mt. Everest, good luck using it as armor), sturdy (much like how a wall is sturdy compared to a clump of loose sand), possibly unbreakable (due to it's density and being sturdy as previously mentioned) without something on the levels of a blackhole doing something about it, and stable (interactively stable specifically. Not “stable” in that you can casually take it out of a Neutron Star raw and have it not possibly freak out and create Electrons via some quantum mechanic and release enough energy to set the Earth on fire. By “stable”, I mean that since it has literally no electromagnetic charge, you can't atomically interact with it like with acid and other forms of chemical bonding that can be deconstructed much like in alloys like Steel and cause “damage”. One way being electromagnetic for steel or electrolysis of Water (though this is molecules rather than alloys). Can't do that with Neutronium since there is nothing to interact with (because when we say we or something “touch”, our Atoms actually don't “physically touch” but instead repel each other similar to reposing magnets. No physical collision occurs yet we still consider this as “touching”. Only in Nuclear Fusion, Nuclear Fission, and in the case of Atomic Spaghetti do they physically interact. This means Neutronium is the only form of matter that can only be interacted physically). There is also Atomic Spaghetti which is possibly even stronger than Neutronium, being a single “line”/“stretch” of Neutron “paste” rather than individual, very packed, Neutron Atoms.

²⁾

Clark Tech is technology so advanced, it is hardly distinguishable from our concept of “magic”.

³⁾

The Kardashev Scale is a categorization of a civilization's ability to harness and use energy. A Kardashev 1 civilization has full access and exploitation of their entire planet's available energy, including indirect means like using Solar Panels on it's surface. A Kardashev 2 civilization would of harnessed the full energy of their native solar system and in the realms of Sci-Fi, most “interplanetary civilizations” are actually nowhere near Kardashev 2.

⁴⁾

When all required objectives are fulfilled and you can Rift Jump to complete the mission.

⁵⁾

LORE: However, Vertu does express a part-time interest/curiosity to who created the Creeper. Also known as the Gray Goo by Vertu but as a blue liquid and biological edition. Many Vertu Fighters actually commit to service against the Creeper out of their own curiosity of this question and their curiosity to the Creeper in general. Sadly they are too few in number to make summoning Fighters even cheaper than 350 Liftic. This all still uses energy at the end of the day and the demand for Fighter services is so large, it is meaningless to not call it infinite.

⁶⁾

The “Converge” formation simply has the other fighters that are entering “formation” to “stick around” the leader in proximity to it. The fighters in this group will simply stick around the leader rather than entering a proper formation.

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