Any way to modify "Designs.dat" file?

[EA6B]

Does anyone know of a way to modify the "Designs.dat" file so that the computer can fly custom ships?

[n-drx]

let's suppose you wouldn't be going to do this to cheat...

you would then change the current ships with better ones, that means, more expensive ones...

but each mission gives the AI a certain number of credits to buy its ships so, being all of the ships more expensive, you would have to manually change and balance every mission to adapt it to the new ships...

so - apart from the fact that lots of people would use this feature to cheat - changing the ships used by the AI it's not so immediate as it could seem!

anyway, if you are interested, there is a way to change at least the design of the AI ships: use the Designs Manager provided with the Critical Mass Tools.

[EA6B]

I already downloaded your Designs Manager. It's a neat program, but I wish there was a way to modify the components of default ships, or to add new default ships. Someone wouldn't have to make default ships more expensive, they could simply excange the ship's components for more useful components. For instance, I think drones in an attacking squadron do more harm to their own squadron then to the enemy. They tend to give away their squadron's position before their squadron is anywhere near the target. Extra stealth might solve this problem, and make the drone a better offencive ship for both human and computer. Also, drones are such easy targets, I don't recall ever seeing one live long enough to use up its entire missile array. There's no point in putting missiles on a ship if the ships isn't going to get a chance to use them. For this reason, I think drones should either have fewer missiles, or a larger number of missile launchers, to make them more efficient. I think allowing the human to lead a squadron of custom ships but not allowing the AI to do so, puts the AI at a dissadvantage, by giving the human a wider selection of ships to chose from. Your "Critical Mass Designs Manager" is a neat program.

Oh . . . and, there are already plenty of ways to cheat, by using the custom missions designer to give yourself tactical advantages.

[TheKangaroo]

I don't recall ever seeing one live long enough to use up its entire missile array.

Have you ever flown a drone yourself? (I know this is not what you meant, but anyway... It's fun doing that.)

[EA6B]

I've never flown a drone as my personal ship. I have flown custom ships that were similar to drones, but they were destroyed pretty quickly, so I try to avoid those type of ships.

[Old Man Johnson]

I got a Gold Cross with a drone once (it's actually really easy because the drone is so cheap, just get like 1 or 2 good kills)

[pedroski]

I sometimes fly my first to third missions in small ones like drones bug etc and so i get a few gold crosses to get me deep fast