[Help] Altering Wave Weapon Parameters

[dvatreknerd314]

Is there any way to alter the visual parameters of a wave weapon? I know that the texture of the wave can be easily changed, but I'd like to change more parameters, such as the arc length of the wave, the thickness of the wave (from front to back), how many times the texture is repeated on the wave (for example, the stock Klingon super weapon has its texture repeated six times), etc. Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so, how I might go about accomplishing this?

 

[Adm_Z]

Is there any way to alter the visual parameters of a wave weapon? I know that the texture of the wave can be easily changed, but I'd like to change more parameters, such as the arc length of the wave, the thickness of the wave (from front to back), how many times the texture is repeated on the wave (for example, the stock Klingon super weapon has its texture repeated six times), etc. Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so, how I might go about accomplishing this?

Actually Yes, you can, though I"m not absolutely sure on which value changes what. If you use FO, there is an even easier way, but for Stock, there is an odf associated with each wave, and in it will be three variables.

rays = 16
rate = 100
radiusfactor = 0.85


These numbers can be modified to to what you suggest. Rays refer to how many times the texture is repeated, rate I believe, is the timeing it uses for its pulses, and though I"m not sure what the last one does, I believe it influences the oveall size of the wave.


Now that I look at it though, when you say wave, you don't mean shockwave, but rather the klingon super weapon wave, in which case you would edit similar values in the rwave.odf file.


// The arc of the wave in degrees
waveArc = 90

// The total length of the wave
waveLength = 110

// How tall the wave is
amplitude = 10

// how many waves fit in a certain distance
frequency = 10

// how quickly the wave cycles (up down speed)
waveSpeed = 10

// How many vertices wide is the wave?
rays = 9

// How many vertices long is the wave?
segments = 30

// How fast do we want the wave to spread
spreadSpeed = 15


And there are other variables in the odf that might interest you if you want to adjust more.


Also, if you are new to modding, here's how you do it. Go to the armada2/odf/specialweapons folder, find rwave.odf, make sure its not read only, and open it with notepad. Its as simple as that.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

The problem I noticed is that most of the parameters you listed for the super weapon wave don't seem to affect the final wave. For example, the rays parameter works fine with other kinds of waves (mainly the 360 degree ones), but it isn't accurate and doesn't change the outcome of a partial wave (the subspace shockwave is only 90 degrees).

What I'm trying to make is a weapon similar to the weapon used by the unidentified ship in the Star Trek Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy". I'm trying to restrict the wave arc to make it impact a smaller group of targets, but the only weapon I've seen that does anything similar to that, said weapon being the Subspace Shockwave, doesn't want to be tampered with.

 

[USS_Excalibur]

I think that the number of waves could actually define the arc. In the original Armada II code uses a line of code that uses a numeric values of waves to be sent out. Start with one wave and see how it affects it and change the number accordingly.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

Hi mate,

There are unfortunately only two classes capable of doing waves like these, and they are both very limited and quite poorly cobbled together:

http://guide.fleetops.net/guide/modding/fo-odf-commands/explosion/shockwaveexplosion/shockwavecannon
http://guide.fleetops.net/guide/guide/modding/fo-odf-commands/ordnance/repulsionwave

Note that many of the individual commands are seemingly nonfunctional, as described on the appropriate pages. As you found yourself, it's really not possible to change the parameters you would like to.

You can "make" your own wave-like explosion if you are skilled in animation, but this is independent of the classes (as it would just be an animation).