D7 TOS P81s (fixed)

Introduction

This is a fixed and improved version of Rick Knox’s D-7 TOS era Klingon battlecrusier.  Why it was submitted in the first place when so much of it was broken or incomplete is beyond me.  It’s taken a couple of weeks to gather the necessary tools, learn to use them, learn how poor they are for the job, make due, and long hours of trial and error frustration to finally get this ship to a reasonably acceptable level for submission.

Not to be disrespectful, but I don’t feel compelled run around and seek the permission from anyone that had a part in this mod’s creation 4 years after the fact when so much of it was broken and incomplete. After all, these items are Paramount’s property, not ours.  We’re just screwing around with them sans their blessing.

[Tools]

* Bridge Commander SDK Model Property Editor – A better sledgehammer than a finessed piece of software.
* NifSkope – www.niftools.org – As limited as it may be, it was the saving grace that allowed the disruptor cannons to finally be aligned properly.
* BC Tactical Display Editor – Very nice tool for placing and aligning weapons, firing arcs, and damage icons.
* Paint Shop Pro 8 – Provided the finishing touches on the unfinished portions of the ship.

[Fixes & Improvements]

* Fixed port disruptor cannon alignment.  The starboard disruptor cannon would fire just fine from the starboard warp engine.  The port disruptor cannon would only fire from the middle of the ship and could not be repositioned with the Model Property Editor.  All that the MPE would end up doing is moving the weapons fire flash.

Problem Cause:  Ship Scene Root scale was too big at 1.

Fix: Used NifSkope to reduce ship Scene Root scale to 0.9637.  Port disruptor cannon is now aligned properly with port warp nacelle.  Moved disruptor cannons to align more with the blue nub protrusion on the fore portion of each nacelle.  It looks better and more plausible to have disruptor fire coming these locations than from the gray nacelle hull structure.

Disruptor cannon fire has been changed to a whitish color. IIRC, that’s it how they looked in the TOS episode, “Elaan of Troyius”.  Although, true to Paramount’s inconsistent “screw it up” form, this episode preview has a few things wrong with the D-7 disruptors. 

http://www.starfleetlibrary.com/tos/tos3/elaan_of_troyius.htm

* Fixed disruptor beams tactical display.  The tactical display had each of the six disruptor beam weapons and firing arc icons overlaid on each other so you couldn’t tell when a target was in the firing arc or when a weapon was charging or depleted.

Possible Problem Cause:  The D7-TOS mod was submitted around 4/2002 while the Tactical Display Editor was not available until around 6/2003.  Although, Totally Games was able to align these items without the creation of the TDE.  Effort should have been made to align icons using existing stock ship .py files as a guide.

Fix: Each weapon, firing arc, and damage icon has been repositioned.

* Improved/Added disruptor beams and firing arcs.  The original disruptor beam firing arcs were either non-existent or poorly implemented.

Possible Problem Cause:  The D7-TOS mod was submitted around 4/2002 while the Tactical Display Editor was not available until around 6/2003.  Although, Totally Games was able to align these items without the creation of the TDE.  Effort should have been made to align icons using existing stock ship .py files as a guide.

Fix: Used the Model Property Editor aka “The Sledgehammer” to refine existing firing arcs and add new ones.  There were far too many blind spots on this ship.  The MPE arc spin function works, but in a odd counter intuitive way.  What you see is definitely not what you get and testing is needed.  Even so, the ship is now virtually blind spot free.  None of the disruptor beams fired through portions of the hull, warp engines, or impulse engines during testing.

Added an additional 2 fore/dorsal firing disruptor beams on the top of the bow “wedge” complete with 2D graphical images. The little nubs on the bridge/sensor array section might have been intended for these additional disruptors. Still, I chose not to put them there because I thought it would look pretty stupid and “realistically” out of place, i.e. not in line with what we’ve seen to date via movies, models, schematics, etc..  I’d remove them or move them if I could to the location where I have the 2D graphics representing the 2 fore/bow firing disruptor beams.

The dorsal and ventral fore disruptor firing arcs look screwed up in the MPE pictures, but they do work properly.  Try as I might, I wasn’t able to position them in the correct direction per hardpoint and have the weapons fire in the right direction.  Also, the d/v fore disruptors have at most a 90-degree to port or starboard firing arc limit to coincide with the perceived and implied capabilities of the disruptor bank via movies, models, schematics, etc..  Although, with no real evidence to say otherwise, it might be argued that the firing arc could be extended somewhat past 90-degrees to more of a port-aft/starboard-aft arc short of cutting into the warp nacelles.

To get good ventral fore, port, starboard, and aft coverage, disruptor beams 7FP, 8FS, 7A, and 8A were created.  They use the same firing spot, but different firing arcs. The two groups fire independently of each other.

There are now 8 disruptor beams, which is in line with the number of non-heavy disruptor weapons on a Klingon Academy D-7.  I added the 2 fore/dorsal disruptor beams because, with the weak nature of this ship’s shields, you have to expose the ventral (underside) of the ship in order to fire any of the 4 ventral disruptor beams that have a forward firing arc.  If the ventral shields are already low or nearly non-existent due to taking weapons fire, which is often the case, you end up making your ship unnecessarily more vulnerable to damage.  I would also propose that the Klingon Empire didn’t become a galactic power by having weapons free gaping blind spots on the dorsal hull that said, “Come pummel my undefended dorsal hull. I can take it and still subjugate your puny race.”.

Repositioned 2 disruptor beams to fire from the dorsal “wing” portion of the ship.  Previously, these disruptor beams were firing from some oddball location around the impulse engines.  There are two 2D graphical images on each dorsal wing to indicate the location of these disruptor beams. They’d be 3D images if I had a 3D modeling program to modify NIF 3.0 models and knew how to use it.

* Improved photon torpedo tube graphics.  The fore tube consisted of the same texture as the hull.  Through trial and error, I found the areas on the image file where I needed to put the reddish glow image and inner lining image for the torpedo tube.  Other than some slight graphical artifact issues around the edge of the reddish glow that seem to have more to do with the NIF that the image I created, the effect looks decent.

The aft torpedo tube is just a graphical optical illusion. That section of the model had what amounted to a dowel pole sticking out of it where the aft torpedo tube should be located.  Again, via trial and error, created reddish glow image and outer torpedo tube image to cover entire “pole”. There is some visible red color seepage from the tube portion when viewed in the dark, but I’m not sure what else I can do to minimize or remove it altogether other than what I’ve already tried.

Both reddish glows are dependent on being pointed in the direction of the in game light source.  They will not glow independently in the dark.  Still, that issue is not a big deal, but it would be a nice feature.

* Repositioned Ship Systems.  Some of the ship systems were sitting outside of the ship’s hull and have been 
re-embedded back into the ship’s hull using the MPE.

* Changed mass and rotational inertia.  The original mass used for the D-7 was from the Vorcha ship property specs: Mass 490, Rotational Inertia 15000. The ship handled like the Titanic in a hurricane.  Since the P81-Constitution ship property specs are based on the BC Akira (Mass 70 , Rotational Inertia 8000), I decided to use data from other sources to extrapolate the D-7’s mass and rotational inertia.

Specifically, I used the 1985 FASA Federation Ship Recognition Manual to find the Constitution’s metric tonnage (160,275) and the 1985 FASA Klingon Ship Recognition Manual to find the D-7’s metric tonnage (D-7A 100,300). After doing some basic mathematical computations, I arrived at the mass for the D-7 listed on the accompanying chart in green.  More accurate data and the means of arriving at these figures may exist.

For the rotational inertia, used Klingon Academy manual specs for D-7 K’T’Inga class ship (Maneuverability Rating: .39) and Constitution class ship (Maneuverability  Rating: 0.31).  Again, did some basic mathematical computations and arrived at the rotational inertia for the D-7 listed on the accompanying chart in green.  More accurate data and the means of arriving at these figures may exist.

All other ship attributes listed on the accompanying chart in blue I’ve left alone.


Side note: For those of you thinking of taking a Constitution up against this D-7, be aware that the that the early (07-24-2002) P81-Constitution’s port phasers did not have the same damage value as all other phaser banks.  Port phaser damage was left at or set at 300.  Starboard phasers were left at or set at 150.  Fore and aft phasers are set at 300.  Personally, I’ve set all phaser banks on my Constitution to do 300 points of damage.



[What to expect in battle]

Expect to get your butt kicked more often than not.  I don’t know what criteria Rick Knox used for determining the D-7 specs listed on the included chart or in the file.  As it stands, I don’t agree with all of them because some values make the ship overly vulnerable.  Still, the only thing I’ve changed are the mass and rotational inertia of the ship.  I don’t get into overpowered god ships.

[Included files]

* Rick Knox’s original files
	o Bridge Commander\data\Icons\Ships\D7TOS.tga
	o Bridge Commander\data\Models\Ships\D7TOS
		* Only high level graphic D-7 files
		* High level texture graphics
		* High level NIF file (D7TOS.nif)
	o New - Bridge Commander\scripts\Custom\Autoload\D7TOS_Disruptors.py
	o Bridge Commander\scripts\Custom\Ships\D7TOS.py
		* Slight file mod: longName = 'D-7 Ktagga TOS'
	o Bridge Commander\scripts\ships\D7TOS.py
		* Slight file mod: "FilenameHigh": "data/Models/Ships/D7TOS/D7TOS.nif"
	o Bridge Commander\scripts\ships\Hardpoints\D7TOS.py
		* Restructured & Organized
		* Removed unused ship systems
		* Removed irrelevant or erroneous material
		* Slight file mod: SetModuleName("Tactical.Projectiles.D7TOSPulseDisruptor")
* Choice of two different non-BC disruptor cannon sounds.
	o Bridge Commander\sfx\Weapons\D7TOSDCannon1.wav (TOS)
		* From Space Station K7’s TOS Weapons Mod II
			http://spacestationk7.eliteforce.com/index.php?f=tw2
	o Bridge Commander\sfx\Weapons\D7TOSDCannon2.wav (New)
		* From Bioware’s Shattered Steele
			http://www.bioware.com/games/shattered_steel/
	o Go to Bridge Commander\sfx\Weapons, listen to each sound, choose which D7TOSDCannon
	     you want, and then rename it to D7TOSDCannon.
	o Bridge Commander\sfx\Weapons\D7TOSDBeam.wav


* Mid-dorsal and mid-ventral red blinkers

[Additional files & credits]

* Zambie Zan’s Klingon TMP Torpedo files (alexandre.marques AT gmail DOT com)
	o Bridge Commander\scripts\Custom\Autoload\ZZZ_KlingonDPack.py
	o Bridge Commander\scripts\Tactical\Projectiles\ZZ_KlingonTMPTorp
	o Bridge Commander\sfx\Weapons\ZZ_KlingonTMPTorp.wav

[Necessary Files]

* NanoFX 2.0 for blinkers to work and for an overall better BC playing experience
* BC-Mod Installer .NET to have all files installed automatically


P81 - D7TOS-P81D7TOS.SetMass(44.000000)
D7TOS.SetRotationalInertia(6452.000000)

ImpulseEngines.SetNormalPowerPerSecond(50.000000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAccel(1.000000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAngularAccel(0.100000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAngularVelocity(0.500000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxSpeed(7.000000)

4409 KPH @ 100% Engine Power
5512 KPH @ 125% Engine Power

DisruptorBeam1.SetMaxDamage(50.000000)
DisruptorBeam1.SetMaxDamageDistance(60.000000)
DisruptorBeam1.SetRechargeRate(0.350000)

StarCannon.SetMaxDamage(300.000000) or 220 based on Tactical.Projectiles.D7TOSPulseDisruptor
StarCannon.SetMaxDamageDistance(100.000000)
StarCannon.SetRechargeRate(0.400000)

Torpedoes.SetTorpedoScript ZZ_KlingonTMP
AftTorpedo.SetImmediateDelay(1.500000)
AftTorpedo.SetReloadDelay(30.000000)
def GetLaunchSpeed():
	return(19.0)

def GetLaunchSound():
	return("KlingonTMP")

def GetPowerCost():
	return(20.0)

def GetName():
	return("Photon")

def GetDamage():
	return 800.0

def GetGuidanceLifetime():
	return 6.0

def GetMaxAngularAccel():
	return 0.14

SetMaxShields.FRONT_SHIELDS, 3400.000000
SetMaxShields.REAR_SHIELDS, 2800.000000
SetMaxShields.TOP_SHIELDS, 1200.000000
SetMaxShields.BOTTOM_SHIELDS, 1200.000000
SetMaxShields.LEFT_SHIELDS, 1200.000000
SetMaxShields.RIGHT_SHIELDS, 1200.000000

ChargePerSecond.FRONT_SHIELDS, 15.000000
ChargePerSecond.REAR_SHIELDS, 6.000000
ChargePerSecond.TOP_SHIELDS, 6.000000
ChargePerSecond.BOTTOM_SHIELDS, 3.000000
ChargePerSecond.LEFT_SHIELDS, 3.000000
ChargePerSecond.RIGHT_SHIELDS, 3.000000

Constitution

Constitution.SetMass(70.000000)
Constitution.SetRotationalInertia(8000.000000)

ImpulseEngines.SetNormalPowerPerSecond(50.000000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAccel(3.000000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAngularAccel(0.150000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxAngularVelocity(0.400000)
ImpulseEngines.SetMaxSpeed(6.600000)

4157 KPH @ 100% Engine Power
5197 KPH @ 125% Engine Power

Dorsal/VentralPhaser1&3ab.SetMaxDamage(150.000000)
Dorsal/VentralPhaser1&3ab.SetMaxDamageDistance(60.000000)
Dorsal/VentralPhaser1&3ab.SetRechargeRate(0.080000)

Dorsal/VentralPhaser2ab.SetMaxDamage(300.000000)
Dorsal/VentralPhaser2ab.SetMaxDamageDistance(60.000000)
Dorsal/VentralPhaser2ab.SetRechargeRate(0.080000)

Tactical.Projectiles.TMPPhoton
ForwardTorp1.SetImmediateDelay(0.250000)
ForwardTorp1.SetReloadDelay(40.000000)
def GetLaunchSpeed():
	return(19.0)

def GetLaunchSound():
	return("TMP Photon")

def GetPowerCost():
	return(20.0)

def GetName():
	return("Photon")

def GetDamage():
	return 500.0

def GetGuidanceLifetime():
	return 6.0

def GetMaxAngularAccel():
	return 0.15

SetMaxShields.FRONT_SHIELDS, 10000.000000
SetMaxShields.REAR_SHIELDS, 5000.000000
SetMaxShields.TOP_SHIELDS, 5000.000000
SetMaxShields.BOTTOM_SHIELDS, 5000.000000
SetMaxShields.LEFT_SHIELDS, 5000.000000
SetMaxShields.RIGHT_SHIELDS, 5000.000000

ChargePerSecond.FRONT_SHIELDS, 11.000000
ChargePerSecond.REAR_SHIELDS, 11.000000
ChargePerSecond.TOP_SHIELDS, 11.000000
ChargePerSecond.BOTTOM_SHIELDS, 11.000000
ChargePerSecond.LEFT_SHIELDS, 11.000000
ChargePerSecond.RIGHT_SHIELDS, 11.000000


Title		: D7
Filename	: P81_D7TOS.zip
Version		: 1.0
Date		: 4/7/2002
Author		: Rick Knox a.k.a pneumonic81
Email		: [email protected]
URL		: http://www.apocent.com, http://www.apocent.com/www/dominion

Credits	

model design	: paramount
textures	: rick knox
mesh		: rick knox
Build time	: 5 days
Hardpoints      : Laurelin
BCMod Conversion: NanoByte
TGL's           : Inglo
Revised Readme  : Mike Prodanovski
Thanks to	: The BC community


mod specs

mod		: Yes 
break 		: yes
LODs		: yes
Illumination	: yes 

Also Included

Custom Hardpoint file

Description of the Modification

an original model created in studio max and converted using SDK plugin

Technical Details

Tested in Bridge Commander 1.0

Known Bugs

-none

Steps to install

1. Double click on the P81_D7TOS.BCMod

Copyright and Distribution Permissions

THIS MODEL(S) IS NOT MADE, DISTRIBUTED, OR SUPPORTED BY Activision TM & (C) INTERPLAY & PARAMOUNT PICTURES.

Copyright notices 

Star Trek, Bridge Commander, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager (and the various logo devices used in them) are copyright Paramount Pictures, as are the characters, related images, and sound from the productions. 

Please do not modify this file or the included texture with out seeking the authors permission. It is just polite.

D-7 TOS Fixes & Improvements

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