Modifying the skyranger to include side windows.

[Ruivoml]

So after 15 years or so of playing EU i discovered today that your soldiers can look around the skyranger without disembarking to get a look at the outside, while being safely protected by the ship's armor. No comments about that please xD

 

So i was thinking, it it possible to modify the skyranger (and lighting + avenger too i imagine) to include side windows? Right now it does not make too much sense that they can see straight through armor.

[Bomb Bloke]

The "see through walls" are a little misleading. What you're actually looking through is the gap between the walls and the floor/ceiling - and though those gaps give you a really good idea as to what terrain is out there, usually they won't let you get a proper LOS on an alien like a window would. The angles involved are too weird.

 

Now, you could change the walls so that they act like they have "real" windows, which'd let you see enemy units through them fairly reliably (if they're out there). Catch is this LOS will also open up LOF. Heheheh.

 

If none of that makes sense, take a read through this. It's all a bit long-winded and complex but it explains why the LOS and LOF systems seem to act so weirdly.

 

The compromise is to either block the holes so that you can't see out (a modified map for the Lightning has been released that does this - the gaps were cleared up while patching rather more glaring errors in the map design), or just make it "look" like the craft has got windows, without actually opening real holes soldiers can see more stuff through (which is what I'm guessing you want to do anyway).

 

Anyway, yes, there are a lot of programs out there that can alter the graphics. For example, the images that make up the SkyRanger go in "Terrain\Plane.pck". You'll probably find Daishiva's PCKView easiest in terms of extracting/repacking those particular image files.

[Ruivoml]

Hmm, i did some image editing some five years ago but for Apocalypse, when i wanted to change one of the vehicles for the alien battleship. I managed to do it, but then i found out that you could use tools to make the alien ships themselves available for purchase hehe. I'll take a crack at it and see what i can come up with..

 

I really thought for a moment that it was some sort of bug like the lightning had, but i remember that with the lightning you could step through those holes, which isn't possible with the skyranger.

 

 

thanks for the links =)