I did it!

Eder

Eder

Mr. Standoff
I finally got my capital ships to work 100% bug-free! :) The Waterloo is now complete, apart from turret placement.... with special thanks to KW for teaching me a way around that shield-flash problem I kept getting during my last 100 attempts ;)

The shots are up at http://standoff.wingcenter.de - I'm too lazy to post their specific URLs here.

Oh, you thought this post was all about celebration, but oh no, it isn't! Here's something which actually resembles my previous threads, just to keep it familiar:

How do I make these darned RLEs get their palettes straight? :D

--Eder
 
Who doesn't? Shiny silver is for wusses, or peacetime flight decks :)

Seriously, though, I don't think the grey is too dark... if I make it lighter, it loses contrast, and that'd make it look even less metal-like than it already does... So I'm afraid that's as good as my capship textures will get :(

Oh, and besides... Just about all the characters will die throughout the plot, so I suppose I have to get the player in the right mood from the beginning ;)

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
I finally got my capital ships to work 100% bug-free! :) The Waterloo is now complete, apart from turret placement.... with special thanks to KW for teaching me a way around that shield-flash problem I kept getting during my last 100 attempts
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I sure hope you've gone through the trouble of making separate hangar and launcher components... we don't have either of those in UE, and I assure you they're dearly missed. We've got neato landing/takeoff sequences, but we had to code them from scratch.

How do I make these darned RLEs get their palettes straight?
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Well, uh... I... that is to say... err, I don't know. Actually, I'm not really sure I know what you mean :p.
 
Re: Re: I did it!

Originally posted by Quarto

I sure hope you've gone through the trouble of making separate hangar and launcher components... we don't have either of those in UE, and I assure you they're dearly missed. We've got neato landing/takeoff sequences, but we had to code them from scratch.
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Well, I do have separate hangars and launchers, but I fail to see how they will help me :p


Originally posted by Quarto
Well, uh... I... that is to say... err, I don't know. Actually, I'm not really sure I know what you mean :p.
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You know, those 16 bit images like the splash screen at startup - I took a 16 bit bmp, converted it with the latest TexConv, but it shows up with totally screwed up colors in game.

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
Who doesn't? Shiny silver is for wusses, or peacetime flight decks :)

Seriously, though, I don't think the grey is too dark... if I make it lighter, it loses contrast, and that'd make it look even less metal-like than it already does... So I'm afraid that's as good as my capship textures will get :(

Oh, and besides... Just about all the characters will die throughout the plot, so I suppose I have to get the player in the right mood from the beginning ;-)

--Eder
Click to expand...

Hey they do look very good, no need to put a :( there. It's just that in the games it always looked more silvery in my eyes. But you're right, your grey does look more metallic.

And almost everybody dies? That sounds very interesting! I
assume they all die a hero's death, saving sall of their comrades. Or does somebody slip on a piece of soap in the bathroom? ;)
 
Originally posted by Mekt-Hakkikt
And almost everybody dies? That sounds very interesting! I assume they all die a hero's death, saving sall of their comrades. Or does somebody slip on a piece of soap in the bathroom? ;)
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No, not all of them will die a hero's death, only one or two heroic deaths will be present, when "necessary". <G> the majority of the soon-to-be-deceased :)D) will simply die in combat, but some inexperienced fellas will die doing stupid things. (but nothing comparable to that guy from End Run who crashed while on landing approach :)) Sometimes, shit just happens, without any heroic last action to make it look better, and that's the kind of feeling I hope to put in this mod.

Edit: KW, I think Quarto meant the decoys. I found out that unlike what he thought, the little missile decoy indicator is stored in the MSSI form, not in the LOCK form. The graphics are the second DATA chunk in the MSSI form, and the upper-left corner coordinates for the text (which in this case is simply the number of decoys) is the last two values of the form's TEXT chunk. (I believe that was the name of the chunk, but I'm not sure... did you shorten Q's tutorial before putting it on your site? I seem to remember him mentioning this TEXT chunk stuff, but it's not on the tutorial you've put up...)

Anyway, basically: the second DATA chunk in the MSSI form is for the decoy's graphics, and the last two values in the TEXT (or whatever it was) chunk in the MSSI form are the upper left corner of the text area that will display the number of decoys.

--Eder
 
Actually, KW, while I did mean the decoy stuff Eder mentioned, I was mostly talking about all those things I talked about as being 'maybe' true, and which have since been proven by Eder as being completely true (yay! :)).
Updating the tutorial isn't urgent (there isn't that many SO mods out there - just you, Eder, and UE), so I'll probably do it myself in a spare moment. I'm rather busy right now, but I expect to get a few things out of the way in the days to come, and <Simpsons> then it's freedom, Willie, freedom!</Simpsons>
 
Yeah, that's cool. I really dislike it when there are thousands of heroes sacrificing themselves. Make them die in regular combat and it gets much more realistic and impressive IMHO.
 
I believe, actually, that a vast majority of the important deceased characters in WC died in ordinary combat, or in other ordinary circumstances. Ask any survivor from the Tiger's Claw... if you can find any. They're rather scarce these days... ;)
 
Ah, back in the 50's... :)

However, let's take it from there: Spirit afterburnered into a space station, Angel was torn apart by a Kilrathi prince, Hobbes went all Kilrathi again, Vagabond got killed on a spy mission (which despite his death, succeeded)...

The deaths I'm gonna script into my mod are along the lines of Shadow's death, Catscratch's death (if you choose not to save him), Dallas's death, etc.

NOT the Hawk-like death, though... NEVER! A Colonel with decades of experience getting blown up while "on patrol"...? That's simply throwing away a great character for nothing more than 2 minutes worth of drama. :rolleyes:

--Eder
 
It's interesting... everybody rants about the tiny tiny tiny possiblity that Blair is alive... nobody considers that it's far more likely that Hawk may have survived. :)
 
I guess despite all the ranting about the lack of a funeral, people weren't really that concerned about Hawk, LOAF :p.

Oh yeah, about the hangar and launcher, Eder. Well, when you have a hangar, landing at the end of the mission is a matter of one command, instead of two or three procedures. Similarly, when you have a launcher, takeoff is really easy (but of course, may not be very appropriate for the capships you're using), because it's also just one command. Furthermore, if you have a hangar, you don't need to worry about programming what happens if the player's home carrier gets destroyed. You simply set the carrier in question as the player's home carrier, and if it gets destroyed or loses all the hangar components, the player gets the appropriate message.
 
Originally posted by Quarto
I guess despite all the ranting about the lack of a funeral, people weren't really that concerned about Hawk, LOAF :p.
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I did! That bloodthirsty bastard was my favorite WC character :(

Originally posted by Quarto
Similarly, when you have a launcher, takeoff is really easy (but of course, may not be very appropriate for the capships you're using)
Click to expand...

I've coded a cutesy launching cutscene already, with my limited knowledge, it looks quite ok, but it'd look way better if I could force the player's ship to kick in afterburners (instead of just using 100% throttle) and if I could tell the player's stupid wingman to fly straight for a few seconds, instead of trying to form up with the player's ship while it's still PARKED IN THE FREAKING HANGAR! :p (Oh, and it would also be help ful to know how to get back to cockpit camera after the cutscene is done... <G>)

Originally posted by Quarto
Furthermore, if you have a hangar, you don't need to worry about programming what happens if the player's home carrier gets destroyed. You simply set the carrier in question as the player's home carrier, and if it gets destroyed or loses all the hangar components, the player gets the appropriate message.
Click to expand...

Ah, this sounds like it will save me some trouble, indeed.

Hey, Q, just a couple of questions while on the subject of mission editing:
How do I get back to cockpit camera after I've already messed around with the camera to create a cutscene?
And how about sending me a series file, even if it's not commented? (I think I can try to figure some things out on my own, and I'd really like to start putting gameflow stuff together)

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
I've coded a cutesy launching cutscene already, with my limited knowledge, it looks quite ok, but it'd look way better if I could force the player's ship to kick in afterburners (instead of just using 100% throttle)
Click to expand...
You tell him to go somewhere relative to the base ship, instead of just putting him at 100%. If he's going somewhere, he'll go at AB speed.

and if I could tell the player's stupid wingman to fly straight for a few seconds, instead of trying to form up with the player's ship while it's still PARKED IN THE FREAKING HANGAR!
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Aww, you call that a problem? The wingmen should only be added to the player's wing after he's cleared the deck :).

How do I get back to cockpit camera after I've already messed around with the camera to create a cutscene?
Click to expand...
SF_PlayerSwitchToCam(CamID_cockpit, Player);
It helps to disable the camera after doing so. Not that it makes a difference, it's just good habits to turn off equipment when you're not using it ;).

Hmm, perhaps you would like to take a look at our UE landing and takeoff functions? These I wouldn't bother commenting (except in places where they are very unclear), but they ought to give you a lot of neat ideas (I'm rather proud of them ;)).

And how about sending me a series file, even if it's not commented? (I think I can try to figure some things out on my own, and I'd really like to start putting gameflow stuff together)
Click to expand...
Be patient for just a bit more :).
 
Originally posted by Quarto
You tell him to go somewhere relative to the base ship, instead of just putting him at 100%. If he's going somewhere, he'll go at AB speed.
Click to expand...

Great, I hadn't thought about that. Thanks!

Originally posted by Quarto
Aww, you call that a problem? The wingmen should only be added to the player's wing after he's cleared the deck.
Click to expand...

D'oh... this one was right in my face! :eek:

Originally posted by Quarto
SF_PlayerSwitchToCam(CamID_cockpit, Player);
It helps to disable the camera after doing so. Not that it makes a difference, it's just good habits to turn off equipment when you're not using it.
Click to expand...

I think I tried that already, but I must have done something wrong... Hmmm, I'll play with that command a bit more.

Originally posted by Quarto
Hmm, perhaps you would like to take a look at our UE landing and takeoff functions? These I wouldn't bother commenting (except in places where they are very unclear), but they ought to give you a lot of neat ideas (I'm rather proud of them ;)).
Click to expand...

Yes, I think that could help me out a lot! Thanks :)

--Eder
 
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