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Shields

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Excelsiors190

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Former MSFC Member
Thiers one thing i must know about the shields are they gonna be to really bad looking ones (calnt remember what the project was called) thiey were used in the art of war mod and KA2 mod or the stock one that have a colour chainge because the stock shields look more realistic (not the colour chainge the shape and distance around the ship) i dont care of the colour its just the....... im really haveing trouble explaining this id ad pictures but i dont know how if you have ever seen a picture of the shields being hit from ka2 or art of war then you know what i mean then:lol2:

i hope someone can tell me what the shields will look like because the shield physics used in the game are a big importance to me i calnt stand playing a game with bad shield physics
 

SquireJames

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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16 Feb 2008
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Well, the only difference in the blue shields mod (which KA2 uses a modified version of) is the colour and a slight change in shield effect. Technically speaking the change in effect makes weapons hits more realistic, since the shields only show the impact on the area that was hit rather than the whole bubble.

To each his own though. If you don't like the shields in YY (I am sure Majestic would agree here) then change them on your copy :)
 
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Excelsiors190

Deleted Due to Inactivity
Former MSFC Member
chainge

how do i chainge the shields thos thiers alot about modding im not that good at i can mod odf and the tech1 file but thats it i wouldent mind chaingeing the colour tho so if any one can help plz tell me the following things
how to
modifi the shield colour
and modifi the map editor thing you know when you press ctrl+A and that list thing where you press f1 f2 f3 so on i wonna know how to add things to it:lol2:
 

SquireJames

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Perhaps this thread should be moved to the modding forum, but, anyways..

Changing shield colour is a little fiddly. Download the blue shield mod and have a read of the instructions. Basically what happens is there is a new SOD for the shield effect, and new sprites for the actual shield hit. The colour is now no longer hardcoded but simply a texture file. The easiest thing I can suggest is just download the blue shields mod, install it using the given instructions and then either use the given shield colours (theres orange, red, blue, green and white I think) or make your own in Photoshop/GIMP/Paint/PSP

As for the map editor lists, this is muuuch easier :)

Open the ODF/Other folder and find the files called e_* (example e_kling.odf)

This is technically the second file in the menu system (since it defines what is in the Klingon menu). The first file is editmenu.odf, but you will probably have no need to edit that.

Now, chances are you won't be editing e_kling or others like it too much either, unless your rearranging the menu. To add new ships or stations you will want a deeper file, for example, ek_comba.odf, which is the combat vessels of the Klingon Empire.

If you open this file you will notice its slightly different to e_kling. The files referenced are not menus, but actual objects that can be placed. You can have up to twelve items on a menu, and the file system can go three deep (that is you can go Main->Klingon->Non-Combat but you can't add another menu layer below that, coding limitation)
 
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Excelsiors190

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Former MSFC Member
tnx

tnx for that now i can put more ships in for the feds
 

Majestic

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Yesteryears is using Elrond's excellent shield pack, but not the blue ones. I am using orange ones as they are more universal and blue shields anyway are more Nemesis style than TMP.

But SquireJames is right, any part of the mod you don't like you are free to change when you get your copy. Just be aware that in doing so you make your copy incompatible with others in online play.
 
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Excelsiors190

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Former MSFC Member
ok then

well majestic if you have a picture of the shields then i know what to expect i like it when thiers picture of the physics e.g. the shields the way the warp enters and exits then i know if im gonna edit it n i dont really do the hole online stuff anyways
 

Majestic

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Check the screenshots thread Excelsior, the last page or two there is an Excelsior and a Stormbird both getting shield impacts.

The physics currently in aren't final ones but eventually there will be videos showing them for you.

As far as warp I haven't touched on that yet with the exception of replacing the warp in sound with that off the TMP movies which I found in SFC.
 

Elrond

Crusher of Capitalism
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24 Apr 2006
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Aye, the problem with the weapons fire disappearing some time before it even hits the shields. I don't think there's any way around it, but I never pursued that. If you move the shield sprite too close to root in ms3d (or whatever) you'll end up with that effect, which stinks. The only way to visualize getting around that is having a plume rise up from the shields to hide the fact that the weapon disappeared before it hit the shields.
 
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Timothyjmcneeley

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Former MSFC Member
Personally I think shields are shields. Remember the early games all you saw was little white dots on a screen pop up, and nothing around a ship.
 

Syf

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Heck, you want to talk lucky... Be lucky that games have the level of quality they do nowdays... Forget just white dots appearing.... I remember when the white dots were the game! We used to bounce the white dots between 2 white "boards".... And we thought that was the greatest thing ever seen!

[fieldset=lookie here.... remember this!]
.....|
| *
((pong...pong))


[/fieldset]

Shields are fine to me either way we go, stock or modded. That's my opinion.
 
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Timothyjmcneeley

Deleted Due to Inactivity
Former MSFC Member
Heck, you want to talk lucky... Be lucky that games have the level of quality they do nowdays... Forget just white dots appearing.... I remember when the white dots were the game! We used to bounce the white dots between 2 white "boards".... And we thought that was the greatest thing ever seen!

[fieldset=lookie here.... remember this!]
.....|
| *
((pong...pong))


[/fieldset]

Shields are fine to me either way we go, stock or modded. That's my opinion.

Pong....pong...pong....pong....point. :lol:
 

Syf

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I see you remember!

If I could recode the engine that Armada uses, then we probably could do as we please with the shields. But since that's not possible, the shield mod made by Elrond is the next best thing.
 

SquireJames

Senior Chief Petty Officer
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371
On a related note, is there any way to have race coloured shields or is it an "all or nothing" replacement? Just in KA, Fed ships had blue shields, Klingon had orange, Romulans green, Gorn yellow, Tholians were a light blue I think, and Sha'Kurians a dull purple.

Right now I have a whitish blue, to try and be more generic (so all ships look fairly good with them). However if its possible i'd like shields coloured per race. Yacuzza did race coloured explosion sprites (those little explosions that occur when weapons fire hits the hull) and I believe the blue shields are based on a similar sprite system so, *shrugs*
 

Majestic

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On a related note, is there any way to have race coloured shields or is it an "all or nothing" replacement? Just in KA, Fed ships had blue shields, Klingon had orange, Romulans green, Gorn yellow, Tholians were a light blue I think, and Sha'Kurians a dull purple.

Right now I have a whitish blue, to try and be more generic (so all ships look fairly good with them). However if its possible i'd like shields coloured per race. Yacuzza did race coloured explosion sprites (those little explosions that occur when weapons fire hits the hull) and I believe the blue shields are based on a similar sprite system so, *shrugs*

Hopefully it (race coloured shields) may be in the next FlOps armada patch. :)
 

Syf

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Fleet Ops has done some outstanding work. It's possible.
 

Dan1025

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Yeah they've already confirmed that a future version of the patch project will inlcude an ODF command for specific shields, I think it's "ShieldHit = ". You just put that into any ship or station ODF and add the name of a SOD based effect and that'll become that units shield effect :)
 
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Timothyjmcneeley

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Former MSFC Member
FltOps is pretty outstanding, and kudos to its creators. But YY is just as good.

I loved the idea or race specific colors. When I play IA or MP on Armada II, every race has a color. Feds = blue, Kli = red, Car = brown, 8472 = purple, and Borg/Rom = green. Now if I have the Borg and Roms in the game at the same time, I use green for Borg and tourgoiuse for Roms.
 

Elrond

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Hopefully it (race coloured shields) may be in the next FlOps armada patch. :)

That would be pretty nice, definitely. If something could be modified to include some kind of ship texture modification when the ship is hit, an effect that would look like shields, that would be good for perfect skin shields. But I'm not sure if they can do that or not. I imagine it is in the realm of possibility. It'd be nice for one thing to learn how to actually make a patch like the ones they made so far.
 
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Excelsiors190

Deleted Due to Inactivity
Former MSFC Member
ok

WOW thiss is a full convo lol from my wishing to know if the shields will be these funny looking ugly white circles that are to close to the hull like in art of war and the star wars mods or if they will be the core ones but with better and new textures im sooo prowd lol
^ ^ <--]
W <-----cute happy face :3
 
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Timothyjmcneeley

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Former MSFC Member
Well, I'm glad to be of service. You pick a great topic to talk about.
 
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Excelsiors190

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Former MSFC Member
tnx

why thank you for some strainge reason i all ways do pick a ting that gets ppls minds going
 

SquireJames

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I find it entertaining how people deride something then in the same breath openly admit that they couldn't make something half as good. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though.

I am not sure if this is a famous quote but, it should be!

"It is easy to criticise that which we do not understand"
 

Majestic

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I find it entertaining how people deride something then in the same breath openly admit that they couldn't make something half as good. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though.

I am not sure if this is a famous quote but, it should be!

"It is easy to criticise that which we do not understand"

You got me confused mate. :confused:
 

SquireJames

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16 Feb 2008
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Well, we have someone saying that the blue shields mods impact effects are ugly white blobs, yet he admits he has little clue about modding himself, therefore has little idea how much effort, time and skill it takes to get something like that looking good. If you can't grasp how hard something is to make, when you criticise it you hardly come from a position of authority.
 

CrazyFrog1903

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25 Apr 2006
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Just get rid of the shields and turn it into a starship crash derby. Ramming speed!! :lol2::lol2:

But seriously. Shields are fine with me as long as that don't take away from the overall quality of the game. Or as long as they don't stick out to badly.
 
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Achilles

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Former MSFC Member
:confused: Art of war uses the blue shields mod, if you think that is ugly you are in the minority, they did an outstanding job on it.
 
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Excelsiors190

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Former MSFC Member
well i like the shields to look stock if you know what i mean and to be other colours not just blue yeh i like the stock one with gree yellow orange red but if that could be done as race colours eg
Fed
Normal blue=strong
light blue=weakend
baby blue or very light flickering=near colapse

the blue shield mod was good but it was to close to the hull and unlike the stock one witch it rounded o and smoth around the ship/station the one seen in AOW mod just floats there close to the hull and if thier is more than one hit on the shield close together it looks wierd and dodgey and errr......bumpy

the shields are a confuseing thing lol
i would defo chainge it my self but well its all russian to me all i can do it add ships and do voice file's and thats it oh and the map editor thing with the F1 F2 F3 n stuff sorta i only edit the fed
 

Majestic

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At this point in time we can't have shields colours per race, it's something I would love to do and no doubt many mod makes would as well, heres hoping that the FOps team will add something like that in their next A2 Project Patch.
 
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