Replacing Weathered, All Weather, and Blind Fighter unofficial SPAs

[pheonixstorm]

With all the new SPAs that have come out, Environmental Specialist is the one I am most looking forward to finishing.

It will pretty much replace the three in the title. As such there is a question of what to do with the current unofficial SPAs. Here are my thoughts.

1. Take them out when I code in ES. Not a bad idea, but there are probably a fair amount of campaigns that have these spread about. Would be kind of annoying if you aren't paying attention to whats new only to find certain pilots can't use one of the three SPAs. This leads me to my other option.

2.Wait until after the next stable release to remove them. This gives everyone a lot more time to switch over but means I might forget to do it or might not be around at the time to make sure they get removed. Which causes yet more problems...

I have not started coding the replacements, but looks for feedback beforehand on what to do. Take them out now or later? Thoughts?

[pheonixstorm]

and it would help having a little info on whats replacing them...

An Environmental Specialist reduces by half (rounding down) all
movement and Piloting Skill penalties related to the environment
they are specialized in, when operating under such conditions.
Furthermore, if the environment affects weapon attacks in any
way, the Environmental Specialist receives a –1 target modifier for
all attacks he makes under these conditions.

This is per weather condition: Snow, Rain, Night... All the major weather types found in TacOps p36

[arlith]

I think they need to be left as unofficial options.  This is basically how we handle this kind of situation.  If they get removed, it can break people's games.

[Kojak]

Yeah, my merc unit uses Weathered for one of its unit-wide special abilities, and my Horse Galaxy has a Cluster where they all have Blind Fighter, so getting rid of those would, I'm guessing, cause my MHQ files for those units to stop working or possibly explode.

[SirMegaV]

What about a one time conversion dialog to help players migrate their skills during campaign loading?

[necromancer579]

I think they need to be left as unofficial options.  This is basically how we handle this kind of situation.  If they get removed, it can break people's games.

I agree.  The current abilities are already fully implemented.  Just label them Unofficial, as with so many other features.  There's no need to remove them.

Note:  I assume the new version is like Gunnery Specialization in that you can only have one of them.  The separate Gunnery/<foo> abilities still exist for anyone who wants to use them.  I'd prefer Environmental Specialist and the old trio coexist for the same reason.  It gives players more options.

[scJazz]

I think they need to be left as unofficial options.  This is basically how we handle this kind of situation.  If they get removed, it can break people's games.

+1

The unofficial options can not be removed. While the desire is understandable there are games with not just dozens but actually thousands of Personnel. Making someone go through that list looking for the people who just got modified would be... annoying at the least.

[pheonixstorm]

It's not that hard to replace them when the campaign is loaded. On load search personnel for x SPA and replace with y SPA. No need to have the user do all the work.

[Hammer]

I think they need to be left as unofficial options.  This is basically how we handle this kind of situation.  If they get removed, it can break people's games.

It's not that hard to replace them when the campaign is loaded. On load search personnel for x SPA and replace with y SPA. No need to have the user do all the work.

So how about we put it this way.  The unofficial opens need to be left as unofficial options.