[Request] StarGate & Mods Pretaining To It

[StarBlade]

All entry from any sort of rift (transient rift, transwarp portal, 8472 portal, Premonition temporal gateway) happens in the vertical plane, then into the horizontal. And it always emerges from the absolute centre of the SOD from which you direct it to emerge-- you can't specify a hardpoint or angle it to one side or anything. The ship comes up through the rift, which always appears dead-centre, emerges at speed towards the screen, then levels off and slows to a stop. There is no coding-based mechanism by which this can change. Nor is there any way to position a SOD-based station/ship portal to "bend" the rift. It has to come up and then level off at you. You can alter the speed and stretch of the object in transit, but not the path it takes. I tried just about every configuration available when we included warp-ins in the SB34 Federation compilation mod, although they were really just built items coming through a rift instead of launching from a yard. Suffice to say I got about fifty CTDs and an end result that blended a warp flare with a built object flying up and out of it. This holds in common with the apparent outcome of the B5A2 mod, where jump gates were mounted to face vertically rather than horizontally, much for the same reason. They did some BRILLIANT coding work in B5A2 and they still couldn't overcome the same set of limitations (nor could they randomize the colour of the hyperspace void beyond the gate, but that's hardly their fault that B5 was so awesome as it was).

So you'll have to angle your Stargates. The programmers actually did what they did for good reason on this one: most people play the game top-down rather than in cinematic mode. So you have to be able to see the gate as more than just a flat line onscreen-- it has to be a circle you can cursor over and direct them to move. And even if you oriented your stargate to be horizontal you'd still have objects flying through them to transit to the other side-- where they'd emerge and immediately seem to crash through yet another gate on the other side.

If anyone seriously gets upset about this apparent breach of SG canon you have ample precedent from other modders on the same subject. And there's no reason you can't include an animated vertical-oriented stargate as a map object for PotDs and so forth, and include a separate horizontal-oriented stargate for use in-game. That's assuming you have the models and the knowhow, but it was beyond my capacity to do so in our mod, and I have a feeling that it's hard-coded to prevent there from being any viable alternative.

 

[swilson0907]

All entry from any sort of rift (transient rift, transwarp portal, 8472 portal, Premonition temporal gateway) happens in the vertical plane, then into the horizontal. And it always emerges from the absolute centre of the SOD from which you direct it to emerge-- you can't specify a hardpoint or angle it to one side or anything. The ship comes up through the rift, which always appears dead-centre, emerges at speed towards the screen, then levels off and slows to a stop. There is no coding-based mechanism by which this can change. Nor is there any way to position a SOD-based station/ship portal to "bend" the rift. It has to come up and then level off at you. You can alter the speed and stretch of the object in transit, but not the path it takes. I tried just about every configuration available when we included warp-ins in the SB34 Federation compilation mod, although they were really just built items coming through a rift instead of launching from a yard. Suffice to say I got about fifty CTDs and an end result that blended a warp flare with a built object flying up and out of it. This holds in common with the apparent outcome of the B5A2 mod, where jump gates were mounted to face vertically rather than horizontally, much for the same reason. They did some BRILLIANT coding work in B5A2 and they still couldn't overcome the same set of limitations (nor could they randomize the colour of the hyperspace void beyond the gate, but that's hardly their fault that B5 was so awesome as it was).

So you'll have to angle your Stargates. The programmers actually did what they did for good reason on this one: most people play the game top-down rather than in cinematic mode. So you have to be able to see the gate as more than just a flat line onscreen-- it has to be a circle you can cursor over and direct them to move. And even if you oriented your stargate to be horizontal you'd still have objects flying through them to transit to the other side-- where they'd emerge and immediately seem to crash through yet another gate on the other side.

If anyone seriously gets upset about this apparent breach of SG canon you have ample precedent from other modders on the same subject. And there's no reason you can't include an animated vertical-oriented stargate as a map object for PotDs and so forth, and include a separate horizontal-oriented stargate for use in-game. That's assuming you have the models and the knowhow, but it was beyond my capacity to do so in our mod, and I have a feeling that it's hard-coded to prevent there from being any viable alternative.

Thank you Starblade. I guess this idea then is really dead on conception. So let me just try to get it straight what you are saying, it isn't the StarGates' fault that it can't fly through the gate way I (or anyone else) would want it to, but it could (is) possible to make the StarGate appear horizontal it just won't work right with ships going through it.

Well I guess we can move on then to discuss the other idea I have, the one with after a planet is colonized by the Ancients, a StarGate appears next to the planet (a Pegusas Galaxy gate maybe). I have gotten Hero ships to appear after building a station, by using the coding from the Trading Stations and or Mining stations with the ships name. Could the "colonypoda" the colony pod for the Ancients be set to do something similar for StarGates?

 

[swilson0907]

Ok, I have just discovered a few pictures that I want to post. One of them might actually be the ship I have been looking for that I discovered in the forums at File Front well looking into the StarGate Mod by Score1_uk, Greathor, and also Alakazam. The Ancients ship that I found there Friday had looked like the Aurora class with a few differences, actually one minor one.

I finally found the picture but I think it might be a breach of rules here to post a link to the picture or to even copy to put here so I won't do that, but I will say I did post it there in the ship requests for Armada 2 on the forums there.

Here though, I am posting a few pictures that I found well trying to find a Daedalus class picture for my File Front Forums avatar. One of these pictures is the ship that I have been looking for and now I know what it is, it is an Ancients ship and it could be considered a cruiser, its the Ancients Bomber, it is the middle picture.

 

[Majestic]

Most of those images posted in your last post are by one of our forum moderators, -RJB-, he also designed the Tempest and Ancient Bomber.

 

[swilson0907]

Most of those images posted in your last post are by one of our forum moderators, -RJB-, he also designed the Tempest and Ancient Bomber.

WOW, WOW, WOW. Is all I can say! Thank you Majestic. Are they game ready models or do they need work, are they available for download? I guess you have given me someone new to contact!

Thank you again!

 

[Majestic]

You would never put them into a game, they are way to high poly, don't quote me but I would say they could be in the area of 1/2 a million polys. These type of models are built for image rendering and 3d animation, not games.

 

[kjc733]

I did not know about the fly downward thing. I hardly ever use wormholes and Borg gates. I did get the Tranwarp Conduit to function as a Jump Drive in the BSG Half Race Mod. Galactica and Co. do not go vertical when they Jump. I was only trying to be helpful. Since I am not doing so, I will stop trying.

Actually TF, that does open another possibility. We've been focussing on the wormhole-type systems because Stargates use wormholes. It works by having two gates and allowing instantanious travel between them. The problem is that in A2 the wormhole only works on the grid plane, whereas we want the ships to enter/leave horizontal, not vertical. Which means we can't use the standard wormhole.

However, what we're trying to get here is an effect, how we get there we don't care that much as long as it looks right when it works. The Transwarp Conduit makes a ship disappear from one point and appear at another. But they move enter/leave in the horizontal. So the question is, can we force this weapon to only be active in proximity to a gate? Just got to think about these things from a different perspective.

 

[Atlantis]

Agreed, I've never seen any evidence of a downward-hardcoding thing, seeing as I use the fluidic gate and transwarp gate principles in my own Babylon 5 jump gates, which do the exact same thing you want your stargate to do. It will work.

 

[StarBlade]

can we force this weapon to only be active in proximity to a gate?

A2 doesn't really do proximity-based weapons-- if you select two ships it'll work but a station and a ship wouldn't work, and the weapon could be made to trigger at any distance and cause all kinds of silly issues. The closest you could probably come is if you selected both the items and used the 8472 frigate/battleship weapon (which doesn't really work all that well and, unlike in the episode, doesn't burn whole planets to rubble) in order to warp out. Whether or not this would work is worth a check but I sincerely doubt you'll be able to do this AND maintain a stationary stargate in the process. Not only that but there's a good chance the classLabel conflicts will cause nothing but CTDs every time.

 

[Dominus_Noctis]

If you are willing to work with it, you can do proximity-based weapons in Fleet Ops

 

[swilson0907]

If you are willing to work with it, you can do proximity-based weapons in Fleet Ops

Being that have really just started to mod Armada 2, I think that I'll mod that for now.

A2 doesn't really do proximity-based weapons-- if you select two ships it'll work but a station and a ship wouldn't work, and the weapon could be made to trigger at any distance and cause all kinds of silly issues. The closest you could probably come is if you selected both the items and used the 8472 frigate/battleship weapon (which doesn't really work all that well and, unlike in the episode, doesn't burn whole planets to rubble) in order to warp out. Whether or not this would work is worth a check but I sincerely doubt you'll be able to do this AND maintain a stationary stargate in the process. Not only that but there's a good chance the classLabel conflicts will cause nothing but CTDs every time.

Starblade, I'll think about trying this out.

Agreed, I've never seen any evidence of a downward-hardcoding thing, seeing as I use the fluidic gate and transwarp gate principles in my own Babylon 5 jump gates, which do the exact same thing you want your stargate to do. It will work.

I think I should try this out myself them to see what might be like for my game and namely my StarGate ships.

Actually TF, that does open another possibility. We've been focussing on the wormhole-type systems because Stargates use wormholes. It works by having two gates and allowing instantanious travel between them. The problem is that in A2 the wormhole only works on the grid plane, whereas we want the ships to enter/leave horizontal, not vertical. Which means we can't use the standard wormhole.

However, what we're trying to get here is an effect, how we get there we don't care that much as long as it looks right when it works. The Transwarp Conduit makes a ship disappear from one point and appear at another. But they move enter/leave in the horizontal. So the question is, can we force this weapon to only be active in proximity to a gate? Just got to think about these things from a different perspective.

It is too bad that we can't have two StarGates connect to each other instead of putting more than one gate's wormholes not connecting to another gate (I think you know what I'm trying to say). Like you stated, I don't really care how we get the effect to work.

Maybe thinking about this in another perspective is the way to go.

You would never put them into a game, they are way to high poly, don't quote me but I would say they could be in the area of 1/2 a million polys. These type of models are built for image rendering and 3d animation, not games.

I believe you Majestic about that. RJB already in a way told me that in a PM. I was pointed in the direction of a mod that used some of his models scaled down though, I'm just not sure if it is Armada II compatable. The mod is called StarGate Invasion for Sins of a Solar Empire.

 

[Majestic]

I was pointed in the direction of a mod that used some of his models scaled down though, I'm just not sure if it is Armada II compatable. The mod is called StarGate Invasion for Sins of a Solar Empire.

As long as you can get a hold of the bare model files you can convert them using Milkshape 3D to A2 format. Failing that you may be lucky and someone down the track may model them and texture the ships.

 

[swilson0907]

If you are willing to work with it, you can do proximity-based weapons in Fleet Ops

Looking at the ODF files for Fleet Ops, (FlOps) they are just way to confusing for me to work with as of right now where my talents are when it comes to modding. If a StarGate Mod is created for FlOps, I'll play it and surely enjoy it, I'll just have trouble modding it, and surely creating it myself. Well playing and trying to mod FlOps, I have had probelms with the ODFs, especially some ships using multiple ODF files, I think some actually linked to over a dozen files. It was just really confusing and after exeperiencing different crashes, I decided to just mod Standard Armada II for the time being, no hard feelings, I like playing FlOps, its just modding it I don't.

I'd like to see a StarGate mod for FlOps though if someone did decide to make one. It would also be fun to play too.

As long as you can get a hold of the bare model files you can convert them using Milkshape 3D to A2 format. Failing that you may be lucky and someone down the track may model them and texture the ships.

I have a few models that I was able to download for Sins of a Solar Empire, I was hoping for them to be Armada II compatible but they are not.

In what I downloaded, I have a folder that is called MESH and inside it are many mesh files but they aren’t opening with MS3D. They maybe something different or actual game files for Sins of a Solar Empire. Is it possible to open .mesh file and what programs can I use to do so?

If worst comes to worst, where can I find Sins of a Solar Empire and how much will it cost to download or to buy? Maybe I can add the StarGate stuff for it that I downloaded and play that well hoping for an Armada II StarGate mod; that is unless I really do have the mesh files for this Sins of a Solar Empire can and to try and convert them.

 

[Majestic]

Looking at the ODF files for Fleet Ops, (FlOps) they are just way to confusing for me to work with as of right now where my talents are when it comes to modding. If a StarGate Mod is created for FlOps, I'll play it and surely enjoy it, I'll just have trouble modding it, and surely creating it myself. Well playing and trying to mod FlOps, I have had probelms with the ODFs, especially some ships using multiple ODF files, I think some actually linked to over a dozen files. It was just really confusing and after exeperiencing different crashes, I decided to just mod Standard Armada II for the time being, no hard feelings, I like playing FlOps, its just modding it I don't.

I'd like to see a StarGate mod for FlOps though if someone did decide to make one. It would also be fun to play too.

Well that's a much nicer response than what I got on Filefront and all I did was suggest the same thing. You pretty much had a go at me for just suggesting a option you may had not considered. I wasn't at all impressed and doubt I would provide any-more suggestions in the future to you due to that kind of behaviour. I PMed you on Filefront about it and I consider the matter closed so no need to bring it up here. You want to continue it the only place that I would consider replying and not just straight deleting it is via PM here or on Filefront.

 

[swilson0907]

Well that's a much nicer response than what I got on Filefront and all I did was suggest the same thing. You pretty much had a go at me for just suggesting a option you may had not considered. I wasn't at all impressed and doubt I would provide any-more suggestions in the future to you due to that kind of behaviour. I PMed you on Filefront about it and I consider the matter closed so no need to bring it up here. You want to continue it the only place that I would consider replying and not just straight deleting it is via PM here or on Filefront.

I don't want to continue to really discuss FlOps. It just is way over my head and thus what I mean is just too confusing for the ime being. If a StarGate mod is created for FlOps though, I'm all for it as I said earlier. To be honest, modding FlOps scares me.

 

[swilson0907]

I was wondering what type of shipyards should I use for my StarGate races?
The Goa'uld could use the Son'a Shipyard, the Tau'ri could use the McKinley Drydock from the Federation (possibly). The Ori, the Ancients, the Replicators and the Asgard I just don't know what yard they should use.

For Research Stations and Upgrade Stations, what should these races get? Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[kjc733]

I've already stated what I use for the Tau'ri. As for the Goa'uld, the race mod I pointed you at includes shipyards, main bases, research bases, turrets - the whole lot.

Remember to slow down from time to time, write stuff down in an organised fashion (I make spreadsheets of tech trees, weapons fits and AI hiearchys). Besides, by moving so quick you make the rest of us look bad

 

[swilson0907]

I've already stated what I use for the Tau'ri. As for the Goa'uld, the race mod I pointed you at includes shipyards, main bases, research bases, turrets - the whole lot.

Remember to slow down from time to time, write stuff down in an organised fashion (I make spreadsheets of tech trees, weapons fits and AI hiearchys). Besides, by moving so quick you make the rest of us look bad

I don't want to make the rest of you look bad.
I was just courious when I asked that for other options because for now, my StarGate Race is a combination of all StarGate races (except the Wraith) and I want to change that sometime soon.

 

[Terra_Inc]

For yards I can recommend FahreS' "The Claw" multi-race-yards. They look quite generic and would probably look good with all kinds of ships.

 

[swilson0907]

For yards I can recommend FahreS' "The Claw" multi-race-yards. They look quite generic and would probably look good with all kinds of ships.

I look into it, the name sounds good and any shipyard that doesn't seem to fit one race or another would be good.

 

[kjc733]

And just because I've been transferring over my A2 stuff to the new laptop today (and I of course needed to check it still worked )

 

[swilson0907]

And just because I've been transferring over my A2 stuff to the new laptop today (and I of course needed to check it still worked )
View attachment 3688

That is a very cool picture and a very nice battle! The SGC (Tau'ri) won right?

 

[kjc733]

It's been a bit of a side project for a while now, so it's not fully balanced. The Tau'ri ships are balanced against each other and have a thought out weapons fit, and are sort of balanced against the standard Hatak in terms of shields and firepower. However the Goa'uld haven't been balanced in terms of build time/resources. The Goa'uld AI and tech tree are also a little crude, so it spams Hataks and then the big jobs (name escapes me at the mo).

In short, yes they won, but only because the 304s have transportable nukes (which currently go through shields). And I did lose a number of ships trying to reclaim a disabled Prometheus. If I finally get around to doing the Goa'uld properly, I suspect they'll be a real pain to beat. Especially with the build limits imposed on the Tau'ri.

 

[swilson0907]

It's been a bit of a side project for a while now, so it's not fully balanced. The Tau'ri ships are balanced against each other and have a thought out weapons fit, and are sort of balanced against the standard Hatak in terms of shields and firepower. However the Goa'uld haven't been balanced in terms of build time/resources. The Goa'uld AI and tech tree are also a little crude, so it spams Hataks and then the big jobs (name escapes me at the mo).

In short, yes they won, but only because the 304s have transportable nukes (which currently go through shields). And I did lose a number of ships trying to reclaim a disabled Prometheus. If I finally get around to doing the Goa'uld properly, I suspect they'll be a real pain to beat. Especially with the build limits imposed on the Tau'ri.

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of build limits did you put on the Tau'ri?

 

[kjc733]

1x 303, 4 or 5x 304s, 2 each standard and upgraded Achilles, 1x Enterprise carrier. I think. Not sure what, if any, I'll put on the new cruisers.

At present they also have the Ancient stuff (not in the AI though), but as there are now a few extra ships I may split them off to another race.

Limits are done using the 1.2.5 patch, which is also how Enterprise deploys the 302s.

 

[swilson0907]

1x 303, 4 or 5x 304s, 2 each standard and upgraded Achilles, 1x Enterprise carrier. I think. Not sure what, if any, I'll put on the new cruisers.

At present they also have the Ancient stuff (not in the AI though), but as there are now a few extra ships I may split them off to another race.

Limits are done using the 1.2.5 patch, which is also how Enterprise deploys the 302s.

First before I forget to mention it, I too am using the 1.2.5 patch, it is very handy after all and I like it very much.

Alright, I haven't decided what I'm going to do (if any) limitations on ship building. Maybe the Hiveships ships will get a maxbuildable number I just don't know.

You brought up another point I have been meaning to ask but haven't really found the right post to slip it into, but since you just mentioned, I'll ask my questions here:

1) How do I use the "fighter" weapon coding from the Patch? I've heard about it but I don't have any using it right now, instead my Dart fighters (for Hiveships) and F302 Fighters (created seperate special weapons for the buildable ships) but the fighter versions are using the "drone" coding and aren't doing what I intended them to do. What coding do I need from the patch to fix that problem?

2) How do I set up a Maxbuildable number? Can please give me the coding for doing that too?

If there were some more ships and whole lot of Stations for the Wraith, the Tau'ri (Which I'd combine with the Ancients after all in Atlantis its us using Atlantian Technology anyways), the Replicators (mostly Pegusas Replicators), and the Asgard, I'd subtract a few of the added races from my Armada II mod and add them all as seperate races. Because there isn't, its mostly just one big compulation race with everything, its not really what I wanted to do but it is all I can really do right now. I wish there were new or close to being released StarGate mods for Armada II. It is so disappointing that many of the mod projects featuring it have stopped and their creators... "vanished".

 

[kjc733]

first up, the build limit. Add this to the ship odf and set the number to the upper limit.

maxBuildableNumber = 1

As for fighter code, it's actually a replace weapon, not a modification of the drone weapon. It actually replaces a ship or group of ships with something else. You can either keep it simple or go complex. I currently have a simple system onboard my tenterpirse.odf.

Following is the special weapon code, obviously the weapon odf needs to be added to the techtree and the ship odf as a weapon.

//Display name for this weapon
wpnName = "Fighter Squadron Deployment"

//tooltips
tooltip = "Fighter Squadron Deployment"
verboseTooltip = "Allows the Enterprise class carrier to deploy F302 Fighters to harrass enemy vessels."

//Time Delay between shots - not used
//shotDelay = 0.0

//Location of the button in the speed panel
//buttonSlot = 4

// location of the button in the popup palette
//popupSlot = 5

// Priority of button in the speed panel, this is only
// used if it is non-zero.
buttonPriority = 10

//Type of border to use for this button.
//0 = No border.
//1 = Offensive border.
//2 = Defensive border.
//buttonBorder = 2
special = 1
//Programming Stuff DO NOT CHANGE
classLabel = "replaceweapon"


//this special weapon can be assimilated by the borg tech assimilator
//assimilatable = "fedpod1"
replacement0Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement1Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement2Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement3Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement4Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement5Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement6Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement7Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement8Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement9Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement10Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement11Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement12Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement13Class0 = "tenterprise.odf" // Akira Class wo/ fighters
replacementCreationType = 3 // Vessel is reported as separated in Admirals Log

replacementkeepName = 1     //enabled

hotkeyLabel = "HOTKEY_F6"

This is the code in my BC304Launch weapon (although I no longer use it on the 304). What it does is it removes the ship that has the weapon, and replaces it with the list above. Now for a more complex system you'd have two special weapons and two motherships. Mothership-A would have the fighter launch weapon which replaces mothership-A with fighters and mothership-B. Mothership-B doesn't have a launch fighters weapon, but has another replace weapon that replaces a group (mothership-B plus fighters) with Mothership-A. But this becomes a problem when you lose fighters in combat as replacements need to be built before you can reload the mothership. I think examples of this concept are used on MVAM'able Prometheus' (Trek, not 'Gate).

Now there is a bug with this in that you lose the ship name in the process. So if you have two carrier names (eg Enterprise and Lexington), then you may start with the Enterprise, but afterwards you may end up with a Lexington (and a whole bunch of fighters named Lexington too). So I just have one carrier and ignore any references to Enterprise-A etc.

So what do you use 1.2.5 for if not the replace weapon and build limit?

EDIT -
Whilst on the subject of codeing, my railguns:

railgun.odf

#include "pulse.odf"

//Name of the ODF file for the ordinance for this weapon
ordName = "railpulseo"

//Display name for this weapon
wpnName = "Pulse"

//Time Delay between shots
shotDelay = 0.1

//Sound which is played when the weapon fires
fireSound = "rgun1.wav"

//Location of the button in the speed panel
buttonSlot = 1

// Priority of button in the speed panel, this is only
// used if it is non-zero.
buttonPriority = 10

//Type of border to use for this button.
//0 = No border.
//1 = Offensive border.
//2 = Defensive border.
buttonBorder = 1

range = 700.0f

// Restrict the Fire Arc
restrictFireArc = 1

// Use this fire arc restriction
fireArc = 1.61
hitChance = 0.6
classLabel = "areacannon"
needTarget = 0
hitCondition = 2
maxTargets = 2

railpulseo.odf

#include "pulseo.odf"

//The sprite which is used for this ordinance
Sprite = "pphaser"


//Phaser specific: this modifies the color of the phaser
shotColor = 227

// Time to play through the animation for the sprite in seconds
spriteDuration = 1.0

lightColor = 1.0 1.0 0.0
lightFalloffStart = 50.0
lightFalloffRange = 5.0


//The base amount of damage which the ordinance does with each hit
damageBase = 1
damageThreshold = 6

shotSpeed = 900


//Phaser specific: this is the thickness of the beam
Radius = .2

// Length of the beam.
Length = 19.0


specialEnergyCost = 0

shieldDuration = 0.05

//Phaser specific: this modifies the color of the phaser
shotColor = 227

And yes, they need to be a bit shorter ranged too

 

[swilson0907]

first up, the build limit. Add this to the ship odf and set the number to the upper limit.

maxBuildableNumber = 1

As for fighter code, it's actually a replace weapon, not a modification of the drone weapon. It actually replaces a ship or group of ships with something else. You can either keep it simple or go complex. I currently have a simple system onboard my tenterpirse.odf.

Following is the special weapon code, obviously the weapon odf needs to be added to the techtree and the ship odf as a weapon.

//Display name for this weapon
wpnName = "Fighter Squadron Deployment"

//tooltips
tooltip = "Fighter Squadron Deployment"
verboseTooltip = "Allows the Enterprise class carrier to deploy F302 Fighters to harrass enemy vessels."

//Time Delay between shots - not used
//shotDelay = 0.0

//Location of the button in the speed panel
//buttonSlot = 4

// location of the button in the popup palette
//popupSlot = 5

// Priority of button in the speed panel, this is only
// used if it is non-zero.
buttonPriority = 10

//Type of border to use for this button.
//0 = No border.
//1 = Offensive border.
//2 = Defensive border.
//buttonBorder = 2
special = 1
//Programming Stuff DO NOT CHANGE
classLabel = "replaceweapon"


//this special weapon can be assimilated by the borg tech assimilator
//assimilatable = "fedpod1"
replacement0Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement1Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement2Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement3Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement4Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement5Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement6Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement7Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement8Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement9Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement10Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement11Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement12Class0 = "302.odf" // Peregrine Squadron
replacement13Class0 = "tenterprise.odf" // Akira Class wo/ fighters
replacementCreationType = 3 // Vessel is reported as separated in Admirals Log

replacementkeepName = 1     //enabled

hotkeyLabel = "HOTKEY_F6"

This is the code in my BC304Launch weapon (although I no longer use it on the 304). What it does is it removes the ship that has the weapon, and replaces it with the list above. Now for a more complex system you'd have two special weapons and two motherships. Mothership-A would have the fighter launch weapon which replaces mothership-A with fighters and mothership-B. Mothership-B doesn't have a launch fighters weapon, but has another replace weapon that replaces a group (mothership-B plus fighters) with Mothership-A. But this becomes a problem when you lose fighters in combat as replacements need to be built before you can reload the mothership. I think examples of this concept are used on MVAM'able Prometheus' (Trek, not 'Gate).

Now there is a bug with this in that you lose the ship name in the process. So if you have two carrier names (eg Enterprise and Lexington), then you may start with the Enterprise, but afterwards you may end up with a Lexington (and a whole bunch of fighters named Lexington too). So I just have one carrier and ignore any references to Enterprise-A etc.

So what do you use 1.2.5 for if not the replace weapon and build limit?

EDIT -
Whilst on the subject of codeing, my railguns:

railgun.odf

#include "pulse.odf"

//Name of the ODF file for the ordinance for this weapon
ordName = "railpulseo"

//Display name for this weapon
wpnName = "Pulse"

//Time Delay between shots
shotDelay = 0.1

//Sound which is played when the weapon fires
fireSound = "rgun1.wav"

//Location of the button in the speed panel
buttonSlot = 1

// Priority of button in the speed panel, this is only
// used if it is non-zero.
buttonPriority = 10

//Type of border to use for this button.
//0 = No border.
//1 = Offensive border.
//2 = Defensive border.
buttonBorder = 1

range = 700.0f

// Restrict the Fire Arc
restrictFireArc = 1

// Use this fire arc restriction
fireArc = 1.61
hitChance = 0.6
classLabel = "areacannon"
needTarget = 0
hitCondition = 2
maxTargets = 2

railpulseo.odf

#include "pulseo.odf"

//The sprite which is used for this ordinance
Sprite = "pphaser"


//Phaser specific: this modifies the color of the phaser
shotColor = 227

// Time to play through the animation for the sprite in seconds
spriteDuration = 1.0

lightColor = 1.0 1.0 0.0
lightFalloffStart = 50.0
lightFalloffRange = 5.0


//The base amount of damage which the ordinance does with each hit
damageBase = 1
damageThreshold = 6

shotSpeed = 900


//Phaser specific: this is the thickness of the beam
Radius = .2

// Length of the beam.
Length = 19.0


specialEnergyCost = 0

shieldDuration = 0.05

//Phaser specific: this modifies the color of the phaser
shotColor = 227

And yes, they need to be a bit shorter ranged too

Thank you for the coding parts and the ODFs.

Is it alright if I try out your railguns and fighters? Mine might need some major changing, or well not that major.

I'll post my Fighters next time for you to see, my railguns are in another thread that I started. Have you solved the Multi-Targetting "problem" with your railguns?

 

[kjc733]

I don't mind, that's why I posted them. They're probably scavanged from something else anyway

Just note if you copy the railguns word for word that there's a reference to a sound file which I don't think is standard.

For the fighters it should just be a case of swapping the ship names in the file and adding the odf to the mothership and techtree. Simples.

Nope, railguns will still random fire if you select a target. No way round it, and we did spend a bit of time trying with the BSGHRM. But they do not target own ships.

 

[thunderfoot]

...Have you solved the Multi-Targeting "problem" with your railguns?

This is something nearly everyone has tried to work around at one time or another. From nearly the moment the game came out. The A2 game engine was originally developed for a modern mechanized ground combat game which was never developed further. The coding has references to all sorts of things like grenades and smoke rounds and such. Weapons and ships which can fire on multiple targets have always fired randomly at nothing as long as I can remember.

This is something down in the hard code of the game. I suspect the only way to fix it properly is with a .dll hook of some sort, a la Fleet Ops. Or, you could decompile the game engine code and then adjust what you wanted. Decompiling the code means the EULA is violated and it would be impossible for any responsible website to host such a mod due to legalities concerning intellectual property copyright violations. And yeah, we already know this sucks.

There have been some ingenious workarounds to cut down the amount of random firings by multi target weapons but AFAIK, no one has eliminated it completely.