Star Trek Armada Classic Modding

[dvatreknerd314]

It's right in principle (the effect uses billboard sprites scattered around a mesh to get a blue hue on top of the tinted mesh), but it's definitely off. Kind of looks like the sprites didn't scale right. Maybe a typo in the sprite table entries? I made the mod for A1 so I never really tested it in A2. And the mesh doesn't seem to be changing color with shield integrity, but that might just be a FO thing.

I multiplied all three sprite node size values by 10 and this was the result. Not sure if this is something to do with how far away from the center of the shield model the sprite node is at, still need to do some comparisons with that

 

[CABAL]

I multiplied all three sprite node size values by 10 and this was the result. Not sure if this is something to do with how far away from the center of the shield model the sprite node is at, still need to do some comparisons with that

Ah! I think I have it! On the ships and stations you want to use my shield effect, add the line shieldPad = x, where x is a float value. You'll have to experiment to figure out what an appropriate value is.

Fleet Ops scales the shield model differently than A1 or stock A2 to accommodate their shield models, which work similarly to mine (or rather the other way around since theirs came first). The FO v4 loader has RTS_CFG.h lines to restore stock functionality, but you'll have to make do with shieldPad if you don't want to port it over.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

So I'm trying to make my own shield model, and I've used both Elrond's and one from Fleet Ops as templates, but this keeps happening... Elrond has !additive added onto its textures, FO's has !noalpha

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone know if it's possible to make a special weapon blockable by a point defense phaser? Such as blocking mines? Other pod-based weapons?

 

[Hath]

The point defense laser if i remember right will shot down any torpedo class weapon. To block or laser zap the mine i think all you would need to do is add torpedo ordanice info to the mines file and it should work.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
I think the point defense phaser will also block the Klingon Commando Pods from the SuQ'jagh class.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

The point defense laser if i remember right will shot down any torpedo class weapon. To block or laser zap the mine i think all you would need to do is add torpedo ordanice info to the mines file and it should work.

If you're talking about the classlabel, changing that changes how the weapon works entirely. I'm wondering if there's an ODF command that would let it be targeted instead.

 

[Chiletrek]

As far as I know that is hardcoded, you can try and make ingame tests to see how it goes. Maybe the FleetOps guys reworked that system and that could be translated into Classic somehow?

 

[Hath]

Ok so if I'm understanding you right you don't want to mess with existing special weapon files. Cant say I blame you. But you want a weapon that will stop enemy special weapons from working. If that's the case the only thing I can think of that would work would be to make a special weapon (and I don't see why you couldn't use a point defense laser as that base weapon) that would drain all of the enemy ships special energy if one shot. I think the Klingon special ship uses the right weapon for you to start with.
//Energy Dissipator weapon6 = "gmicro"

Hope this helps.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Ok so if I'm understanding you right you don't want to mess with existing special weapon files. Cant say I blame you.

Wrong. The specific line in the special weapon files I don't want to mess with is the classLabel because that line defines how a special weapon works.

But you want a weapon that will stop enemy special weapons from working.

Wrong. What I want is to make the projectile from specific special weapons to be targetable by point defense phasers.

I uploaded my attempt to create SFC-like missiles in A2 a while back, and I've changed how they work so now they have a visible mesh that turns toward its target as the missile is tracking it. The first version was based on the gamine weapon, while the new version is based on the gmicroorganisms weapon. If I remember correctly, neither of the weapon ordinances can be blocked by the point defense phaser, and I'm trying to create a more accurate representation of the Lyran ESG than what's included in the KA2 mod.

I may try basing it on the commando team weapon instead, and see if that's targetable by the point defense phaser

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Ok, so I got it to work now, but it only works in FO or FO Classic. Using the classLabel UniTorpedo allows the torpedo to use an SOD base, allowing it to turn as its tracking its target, be targetable by PDP, and cause damage to both the shields and hull on impact.

 

[Hath]

Glad you got it working. Sorry I wasn't more helpful.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone know if it's possible to make the Borg Remodulation weapon affect the ship firing it instead of a different target?

 

[Hath]

OK i can answer this one. Yes you can make it only affect the parent ship. All you have to do is change the range to 0.0

 

[dvatreknerd314]

OK i can answer this one. Yes you can make it only affect the parent ship. All you have to do is change the range to 0.0

You do realize the remodulation weapon isn't an area cannon, right?

 

[Hath]

Is this the weapon you are talking about?

// Shield Remodulation
weapon3 = "gremod"

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone know if there's a way to change the color of the resource amounts or the various ship information for each individual race?

 

[Hath]

Dvatreknerd314 did you get your remodulation weapon to work?

 

[dvatreknerd314]

So I've noticed a little issue in my game where if there's a large number of units, various effects like weapons and explosions stop rendering. Is there a setting in the ART cfg file or the RTS file that would fix this?

 

[CptBenSisko]

Thats probably an issue with the amount memory the game can access... Armada II only had access to 1GB of ram originally I believe. the FO team managed to increase it to 3GB.... soo basically 32GB of ram is wasted on a game like this.. hopefully the GOG version has allieviated this deficiency somewhat

 

[CABAL]

Thats probably an issue with the amount memory the game can access... Armada II only had access to 1GB of ram originally I believe. the FO team managed to increase it to 3GB.... soo basically 32GB of ram is wasted on a game like this.. hopefully the GOG version has allieviated this deficiency somewhat

The best a 32-bit application can do is 4GB. They'd need to remake the game from scratch in a 64-bit engine to get more. Which I would not complain about if it was compatible with the original ODF and SOD files.

 

[K_merse]

I don't think the SOD and ODF files would bea problem in a 64 bit environment, but I doubt anyone would have the knowledge and be willing to spend the time to rebuild the core engine...

 

[dvatreknerd314]

Does anyone know if there's a way to prevent a unit from being rendered on the map and prevented from showing up in the Admiral's Log? I've got a fighter-heavy race that lags the game significantly unless the map is no longer showing and I'm trying to fix this.

To be clear, I'm not looking for an empty texture for the game to render instead. This won't fix the lag issue. I'm trying to keep the game from attempting to render anything on the map for fighters at all

 

[K_merse]

The short answer: There is no way.

Longer version: The engine can't distinguish if it's a fighter, a capital ship or a moon it renders. It only ees that it's a SOD file witha texture it needs to draw on the screen.
You could reduce the polycount or the resolution of the textures on the fighters, or define a LOD so they would be rendered only as a plane with a fighter symbol for example. But you can't specify what to render and what not to render I'm afraid.

 

[dvatreknerd314]

The short answer: There is no way.

Longer version: The engine can't distinguish if it's a fighter, a capital ship or a moon it renders. It only ees that it's a SOD file witha texture it needs to draw on the screen.
You could reduce the polycount or the resolution of the textures on the fighters, or define a LOD so they would be rendered only as a plane with a fighter symbol for example. But you can't specify what to render and what not to render I'm afraid.

Sorry, I mean to prevent it from rendering on the map. If I hide the map, the lag goes away

 

[CptBenSisko]

are your fighters selectable like starships are? And what classlabel do you have assigned to them?


there is a definitely a way.. because my shuttles/fighters don't show up on the minimap.. let me dig into the files and see what coding is needed

 

[dvatreknerd314]

are your fighters selectable like starships are?

No, but they're still showing up on the minimap and in the admiral's log

 

[CptBenSisko]

No, but they're still showing up on the minimap and in the admiral's log

im not sure if the admiral's log will change.. but they can def be invis on the minimap.. whats the their classlabel? i assume you are using FO as a base?

 

[CptBenSisko]

I found it.. add this line of code to your fighters and shuttles


mapicon = "mapicon_empty"

 

[CptBenSisko]

did that work for you?