Yet more SO editing questions....

Well, so much for that theory. I checked SO in software mode (shudder), and found that 903 is most certainly not used. Unless... unless the hardcoded version of 903 is different to the MAT itself. The cockpit components did look slightly different in software mode, but whether they were a different file or not is difficult to tell. At any rate, this is worth experimenting with... we need to confirm that HARD is indeed soft, so we can ignore it :p.
 
Originally posted by Quarto
I checked SO in software mode (shudder), and found that 903 is most certainly not used. Unless... unless the hardcoded version of 903 is different to the MAT itself.

Originally posted by Eder
My guess is that whatever it is, it's "outdated" by it's hardcoded counterparts, and therefore, pretty much useless....

I assume that now you understood better what I was trying to say? ;) Seriously, I think this is the case, because when the cockpits call for 903, they actually go to its hardcoded version... basically, I think it's possible for 903 to be outdated, since it is not used.

Originally posted by Quarto
At any rate, this is worth experimenting with... we need to confirm that HARD is indeed soft, so we can ignore it.

HARD is indeed software mode, at least for some of the gauges I've been playing with today (can't remember which ones)... Haven't experimented with all of them yet, but I'll working on them today... every single one, if I get the time, and it looks like I will, for a change :) :)

And yeah, I'll ignore software mode. When I tested Standoff in it, a pair of Rapiers were enough to bring the thing down to a Ultima IX-like framerate.

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
I assume that now you understood better what I was trying to say?
Yes, no need to rub it in ;).

Seriously, I think this is the case, because when the cockpits call for 903, they actually go to its hardcoded version... basically, I think it's possible for 903 to be outdated, since it is not used.
Well, sometimes Origin decisions are as much of a mystery to me as the enemy :p.

HARD is indeed software mode, at least for some of the gauges I've been playing with today (can't remember which ones)... Haven't experimented with all of them yet, but I'll working on them today... every single one, if I get the time, and it looks like I will, for a change
Right, then SHAR will definitely be 3Dfx mode. Another puzzle solved... mind you, I'm all for ignoring 3Dfx mode too. Why should they get any better graphics than those of us with D3D cards? :)
 
Originally posted by Quarto
Right, then SHAR will definitely be 3Dfx mode. Another puzzle solved... mind you, I'm all for ignoring 3Dfx mode too. Why should they get any better graphics than those of us with D3D cards? :)

Agreed, they do not deserve better graphics than anyone else! :) I'm not giving them better graphics in Standoff, but I'm not giving them broken graphics either. There's still some kindness left in my bitter, bitter heart, I'm afraid. :p

BTW, I didn't finish my HUD yesterday because I decided to finish texturing my Morningstar and trying to get Mace and Flak cannons to work... unsuccessfully, so far. Is there no "blast radius" damage in this game?!

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
Agreed, they do not deserve better graphics than anyone else!I'm not giving them better graphics in Standoff, but I'm not giving them broken graphics either. There's still some kindness left in my bitter, bitter heart, I'm afraid.
Oh, don't worry. If there's no SHAR, they automatically get SOFT. In fact, I think it's only BACK that has SHAR.

BTW, I didn't finish my HUD yesterday because I decided to finish texturing my Morningstar and trying to get Mace and Flak cannons to work... unsuccessfully, so far. Is there no "blast radius" damage in this game?!
Nope. The only time anything like this occurs is when you destroy a capship missile, and that's actually done through mission code. Of course, the capship missile isn't really a missile but a ship. Can't do anything like that for an ordinary missile, I'm afraid :(.
 
How's missile collision handled? Is it by the collision sphere of the missile's mesh? Or by the tree of the mesh or whatever? Or is it just "point" collision, ie the center point of the missile mesh is the only thing that actually makes a difference?

--Eder
 
I have no idea. I suppose the most likely answer would be a collision sphere. But - if that's what you're thinking of - increasing the size of the collision sphere would do nothing to help, because the missile would still only be able to hit one person.
Anyway, check the missile meshes - they should include info about the collision tree, just like ship meshes.
 
Actually, I wanted to do that for the flak cannons (replace missile turrets on capships with "flak" turrets....)
But there's still a lot of quirks that would have to be worked out.

I can't get my capships to work yet, either way :p


EDIT: But, as a cheap work around for the Mace (I really need to make it work - how's Morningstar Squadron From Famous Confed Capship Which Makes a Secret Cameo® supposed to show up in the last minute to help the player's squadron if they can't fire their Maces? That would simply be a waste of a perfect and nicely dramatic Morningstar cameo! :)) I suppose I could make a "tracker-like" missile which splits into a LOT of short-range, invisible and trail-less missiles which never miss, couldn't I? (Instead of setting it off with your guns, like in WC2, in this case the Mace would be a long range missile - shoot it, say, 10 thousand klicks from the enemies, and stay away until she goes off... since the invisible missiles it spawns would have about 5000 klicks of range)

--Eder
 
Originally posted by Eder
I suppose I could make a "tracker-like" missile which splits into a LOT of short-range, invisible and trail-less missiles which never miss, couldn't I? (Instead of setting it off with your guns, like in WC2, in this case the Mace would be a long range missile - shoot it, say, 10 thousand klicks from the enemies, and stay away until she goes off... since the invisible missiles it spawns would have about 5000 klicks of range)
Yeah... just use the MIRV-type like the Vampire's whatever-it's-called missile. And rather than making the child missiles guided, make them dumbfires. All fifty of them ;). Hell, if you put a little bit of work in, you may even be able to make them damage capship components too.
 
Sounds like a pretty convincing Mace to me :)
Just gotta make the missiles it spawns really fast, so that by the time the player realizes the original missile exploded (actually: splits up in 50 invisible parts), all the 50 parts have exploded already :)

--Eder
 
Yeah, and don't forget to set the main missile's damage to Freakishly Insanely High (TM), so that if someone runs into the missile before it splits, he'll regret it for the rest of his life (in other words, very briefly) :). About 5000 damage points should be enough, I guess.
 
I'll probably use WCA to check out how much damage the Mace does against a Kamekh or a Dorkathi, and make it similar in Standoff (That's how I figured out WC2's ships' afterburner fuel ammounts)

--Eder
 
Hehe, that wouldn't be the most productive experiment, because a Mace will take a Dorkathi or a Kamekh out in entirety, and with plenty of damage points left over :).
I started researching WC2/A weaponry once upon a time (even toyed with the idea of making a gun editor). I figured out just about everything about guns (and I've forgotten most of it since :p), but never really checked much about missiles. If you want, I could do a bit more research in that area.
 
Originally posted by Quarto
The Ferret is on the way :). Back to work.
Hey KW, since I've gone to such lengths, maybe you should take this stuff and put it up on your site as a tutorial :).

I will look into that later, dont have time right now...the gun info is valuable too ;)
I have an idea for a leech gun, although it would need to know if a ship was hit or not, and how many times by x gun in a mission...its possible?
 
Originally posted by KillerWave


I will look into that later, dont have time right now...the gun info is valuable too ;)
I have an idea for a leech gun, although it would need to know if a ship was hit or not, and how many times by x gun in a mission...its possible?

I'm pretty sure you can do that through mission scripting in WCPPas. Keep track of the shots on the ship and when it hits a certain number switch it to a neutral ship and don't allow it to move.

TC
 
Originally posted by TC
I'm pretty sure you can do that through mission scripting in WCPPas. Keep track of the shots on the ship and when it hits a certain number switch it to a neutral ship and don't allow it to move.

Unfortunatly, this could not work, not with the functions we know anyway. The only function that keep tracks of the shots is SF_TestPlayerShotAlignmentFlag(align) and it only checks for the players and makes no difference between guns or missiles.

On the other hand, a leech missile may be "scriptable", the only thing is that the missile would have to be a ship, like the capship missile, and the player would not be able to fire it by himself. Wingmans could fire it, but is the AI intelligent enough ? :)
 
Originally posted by PopsiclePete
On the other hand, a leech missile may be "scriptable", the only thing is that the missile would have to be a ship, like the capship missile, and the player would not be able to fire it by himself. Wingmans could fire it, but is the AI intelligent enough?
Hmm, at first I thought this would be impossible, but thinking about it, I think this may well be doable without much trouble. The only two issues would be launch (it would have to be very carefully scripted) and the guidance (guidance would work all right to a certain degree, but the missile's motion would probably be a tad jerky).

BTW, does anybody else have trouble getting into the CZ? Most of the time, it tells me that the server is too busy :(.
 
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