How to remove combat drone

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Dewbacca
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How to remove combat drone

Post by Dewbacca »

I cannot put into words how much I despise the combat drone/ aka the Minosians.

I have tried turning off "random events" which covers MOST of the monster table, but time and time again I lose a valuable ship discovering them and I'm looking at a couple of remedies.

A) editing the drone to be less OP, say, anything above a scout class vessel would get a chance to flee.

B) removing the code to place the combat drone altogether.

Plan A could be easily achieved via UE I think... weaken the attack but keep/ set a high defensive value so it takes a determined effort to eliminate it.

Plan B requires some hex editing that I am not yet comfortable with, but I think I MIGHT be able to put together a patch for QD's patcher to do the actual code editing.

I have tried the search function and found several threads with detailed (beyond my complete understanding) discussions about monsters in general and the Combat drone as one of them.

Once again I post asking if I have MISSED this code offered before, as I know that has been removed from other mods and I do not want to embarrass myself re-inventing an inferior wheel.

Any suggestions or insight would also be appreciated. I have found useful info in the following threads:
viewtopic.php?p=4159#p4159 Editing all monsters occurring, including Drone
viewtopic.php?f=231&t=319&p=29642#p29642 Contains info from SCT about Combat drone frequency. I might could set it to zero

Just removing the model would cause errors I think, so here is an open plea for better ideas or known solutions that I have missed.
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thunderchero
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Re: How to remove combat drone

Post by thunderchero »

SCT might give you a better solution but you might try this simple hex edit.

at 0x050f04 change 7D -> EB

this will ignore cmp statement and always go to "next system" instead of combat planet code and should never place combat drone from my tests.

personally I always thought the combat drone should regenerate next turn with a stronger version :twisted:
but then you would need a diplomatic solution to buy the "weapon system" to allow colonization of system. :grin:
after that it could become a planetary defense.
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Dewbacca
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Re: How to remove combat drone

Post by Dewbacca »

Reading thru some of the discussion I noticed there is unfinished code to allow the combat drone to spawn on MULTIPLE systems!

That plus your improved respawn would be a fun challenge together!

How about if the Combat drone spawned as a minor and you had to eliminate/ diplomacy the "minor"? Then it would be a simple thing to have it respawn a new drone every turn or so, possibly stronger versions as tech levels progressed.
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Dewbacca
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Re: How to remove combat drone

Post by Dewbacca »

Ok... in the end it wound up being easier to find the code with my hex editor that to write the patch file.

That being said... I think I can test it and if it works, I'll write a patch file for it.

*Update: Seems to be working fine on the first test... but that was only 60 or so systems explored. Will do more testing and then commit this to a patch.
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slickrcbd
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Re: How to remove combat drone

Post by slickrcbd »

Dewbacca wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 11:15 pm Reading thru some of the discussion I noticed there is unfinished code to allow the combat drone to spawn on MULTIPLE systems!

That plus your improved respawn would be a fun challenge together!

How about if the Combat drone spawned as a minor and you had to eliminate/ diplomacy the "minor"? Then it would be a simple thing to have it respawn a new drone every turn or so, possibly stronger versions as tech levels progressed.
To he true to the show, there should be four drones.
The first is easy to defeat (for a Galaxy-class ship), like taking on a tech level 1 scout. The second should be a bit harder, like taking on a destroyer II. The third should be a lot harder, like taking on a cruiser II or better. Maybe you want make it the equal of a non-refitted Galaxy class. In either case it should have a cloaking device.
The fourth should be the super-strong drone that needs a large fleet to beat.

Maybe I'm being too much of a Trekkie, but that would be true to how things were presented in "Arsenal of Freedom".
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