Can enemy ships run more than 4 drones at once?

[XionGaTaosenai]

Clearly, enemy ships can have system levels beyond what the player can achieve, as shown by enemies with level 5 shields. And Brother Shogo's Hayabusa Battlecruiser is a player ship that can sling 6 drones at once. But when I tried to make the second phase of the boss do this:

Code: Select all

<shipBlueprint name="BOSS_2" layout="boss_2" img="boss_2">
	<class>Rebel Flagship</class>
	<systemList>
		<pilot power="3" room="0"/>
		<shields power="8" room="1"/>
		<teleporter power="3" room="3"/>
		<medbay power="3" room="5"/>
		<engines power="4" room="8"/>
		<oxygen power="2" room="13"/>
		<doors power="3" room="7"/>
		<drones power="12" room="12"/>
		<artillery power="3" room="9"/>
		<artillery power="3" room="10"/>
		<artillery power="2" room="14"/>
	</systemList>
	<droneList count="6" drones="20">
		<drone name="REPAIR"/>
		<drone name="BATTLE"/>
		<drone name="BATTLE"/>
		<drone name="BOARDER"/>
		<drone name="DEFENSE_1"/>
		<drone name="COMBAT_1"/>
	</droneList>
	<aug name="SLUG_GEL"/>
	<aug name="DRONE_SPEED"/>
	<health amount="20"/>
	<maxPower amount ="40"/>
	<boardingAI>sabotage</boardingAI>
</shipBlueprint>

It only ever summons the first 4 drones.

[5thHorseman]

Clearly, enemy ships can have system levels beyond what the player can achieve, as shown by enemies with level 5 shields. And Brother Shogo's Hayabusa Battlecruiser is a player ship that can sling 6 drones at once. But when I tried to make the second phase of the boss do this:

Code: Select all

<shipBlueprint name="BOSS_2" layout="boss_2" img="boss_2">
	<class>Rebel Flagship</class>
	<systemList>
		<pilot power="3" room="0"/>
		<shields power="8" room="1"/>
		<teleporter power="3" room="3"/>
		<medbay power="3" room="5"/>
		<engines power="4" room="8"/>
		<oxygen power="2" room="13"/>
		<doors power="3" room="7"/>
		<drones power="12" room="12"/>
		<artillery power="3" room="9"/>
		<artillery power="3" room="10"/>
		<artillery power="2" room="14"/>
	</systemList>
	<droneList count="6" drones="20">
		<drone name="REPAIR"/>
		<drone name="BATTLE"/>
		<drone name="BATTLE"/>
		<drone name="BOARDER"/>
		<drone name="DEFENSE_1"/>
		<drone name="COMBAT_1"/>
	</droneList>
	<aug name="SLUG_GEL"/>
	<aug name="DRONE_SPEED"/>
	<health amount="20"/>
	<maxPower amount ="40"/>
	<boardingAI>sabotage</boardingAI>
</shipBlueprint>

It only ever summons the first 4 drones.

I wouldn't put too much stock into that. Try it with other ships. It's likely that even the standard drones for the Flagship are hard coded in the game. IIRC he actually has 5 drones, anyway: The 3 around you, the defense drone, and the boarding drone.

[XionGaTaosenai]

The Drones for the Flagship aren't hardcoded: I managed to change it from Boarder, Defense, Anti-Ship and Beam to Boarder, Repair, and 2 Anti-Personnel with no problem. It's only when I tried to re-add a defense and anti-ship to the mix did it not work right, and then it was the Defense and Anti-ship that didn't show up.

The flurry of drones that come with the power surge are hardcoded, but the ones it has regularly are not.

[kartoFlane]

Try adding a <droneSlots>6</droneSlots> tag.

[XionGaTaosenai]

Alright, tried giving it 6 droneslots. It still insisted on using only the first 4 drones on the list (Repair, 2 Anti-Personell, and a Boarder). However, when I did a pip of damage to the drone bay, the Boarding Drone shut down and the boss summoned its Defense Drone. I'm not using the special boss boarder that only costs 2 energy, so what it's doing is shutting down the 3-energy Boarder and activating the 2-energy Defense Drone. What this tells me is that the boss recognizes that it has 6 drones, but acts as if it only has an 8-pip drone system (instead of the 12-pip drone system I told it to have).

This undoubtedly has to do with the fact that higher up in the blueprints, I have <maxPower>8</maxPower> listed under drones. However, when I change that to maxpower 12, I wind up with 4 extra pips sticking out of the drone system on the player's upgrade screen, pips that would either be impossible to get or cost no scrap after reaching 8 pips (I did not bother to check). AI ships in regular FTL can have 10 power shields that don't show up in the upgrade menu, so how do I get drones to do the same, if it's even possible?

(I realize that the easiest solution would be to do exactly what the regular game does and make special boss-exclusive versions of the drones that cost less energy, but I want to see what alternative solutions, if any, are possible.)

[dalolorn]

There are no other solutions, sadly.