Dangerous Warp Points

[tbontob]

I think my opponent is going to be interested in reading this.

It has to do with Warp Points which do damage to ships when you move through them.

Typically (I think), the damaging warp points are part of “a massive black hole which is drawing all matter from nearby solar systems.”

A discription of the effects of the black hole are:
-All ships will be moved 2 sectors towards the center each turn.
-The center of the blackhole will destroy any ships that enter it.
-Heavy gravitation causes all shields to be useless.

To make it easier to differentiate the WP’s, I will designate the WP in the black hole system as BH-WP and its twin into the next system as bh-WP.

The extent of my knowledge is:
1) Landing on the bh-WP without going through the BH-WP will cause no damage.
2) Landing on the bh-WP by warping through the BH-WP will cause damage.
3) Landing on the BH-WP without going through the bh-WP will cause damage (I think, but am not sure)
4) Landing on the BH-WP by warping through the bh-WP will what?
5) I have discovered two types of dangerous BH-WP’s/bh-WP’s:
--a) A smaller than normal warp point.
--b) Odd warp point which appears to be of a different density structure than normal warp points.
Both WP’s describe their effects as “Strong gravitic fields causes damage to ships”.
6) The first warp point in 5a) is small and the warp point in 5b) is large.
7) Neither the type nor the size of the warp point seems to affect the amount of damage. They appear to damage ships equally.
8) It is impossible to not land on the bh-WP when warping through BH-WP and therefore damage cannot be avoided.

Even though some statements are strongly worded, they may be incorrect. Any corrections are welcomed.

Any new info will also be very much appreciated.

EDIT: The above may be a bit misleading in that if you have a normal WP in the black hole system, then no damage is sustained. It must be a 5a) or 5b) WP.

[ June 05, 2003, 22:13: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Krsqk]

AFAIK, damaging warp points 1) only cause damage when travelling through them, and 2) occurence is randomly determined--it may or may not happen. I have no idea what the odds are.

[JLS]

You will find all the effect settings and Chances in the StellarAbilityTypes File from the Base and or Mods Data Folder

[ June 06, 2003, 03:53: Message edited by: JLS ]

[Fyron]

And in Abilities.txt and the Modding 101 Tutorial.

[cybersol]

Originally posted by JLS:
You will find all the effect settings and Chances in the StellarAbilityTypes File from the Base and or Mods Data Folder

The chance field listed in that file is the chance of that ability type to exist for that object type. There is a 100% chance for an unstable warp point to get Warp Point - Turbulence value 1 = 200 damage in the unmodded game for example.

But it seems the first ship usually gets through a warp point with this damaging ability type unscathed. The next ships are often not as lucky. So the question is whether there is a % chance to take no damage whatsoever even thought the warp point has the damaging ability. As far as I can tell (so far) this percent chance is not listed anywhere in the txt files.

[JLS]

I am sorry, I may have been unclear with this.
Chances here, only means what Stellar Ability type will/may get picked at random… Data is from the StellarAbilityTypes file.

For example: with base se4

Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Unstable Warp Point
Number of Poss Abilities~~~~~:= 1
Ability 1 Chance~~~~~~~~~~:= 1000
Ability 1 Type~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Warp Point - Turbulence
Ability 1 Descr~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Strong gravitic fields causes damage to ships.
Ability 1 Val 1~~~~~~~~~~~~:= 200
Ability 1 Val 2~~~~~~~~~~~~:= 0

Chance of 1000 here means this Type will be used EVERY time the SystemTypes file calls for it. The Quadrant Map you ask for in your game decides the System Type.

Value 1 means you will take 200 points of normal damage…

If you have a few Armor structures or Possibly shields, your Engines may survive this hit, to make it back for repairs.

AI Friendly System Ability Types can be modified so the hit is only enough to do Partial damage to a (early to mid) Tech AI ships or a staggered amount with 200 being the very highest damage rating. Try to preserve as many engines as possible for the AI is good. The AI with a Dreadnouht that moves ZERO is very expensive for the AI to maintain.

Example of a AI Friendly Unstable Warp Point

Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Unstable Warp Point
Number of Poss Abilities~~~~~:= 4
Ability 1 Chance~~~~~~~~~~:= 100
Ability 1 Type~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Warp Point - Turbulence
Ability 1 Descr ~~~~~~~~~~:= Strong gravitic fields cause damage to ships.
Ability 1 Val 1~~~~~~~~~~~:= 200
Ability 1 Val 2~~~~~~~~~~~:= 0
Ability 2 Chance ~~~~~~~~~:= 200
Ability 2 Type~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Warp Point - Turbulence
Ability 2 Descr~~~~~~~~~~~:= Strong gravitic fields cause damage to ships.
Ability 2 Val 1~~~~~~~~~~~:= 100
Ability 2 Val 2~~~~~~~~~~~:= 0
Ability 3 Chance~~~~~~~~~~:= 400
Ability 3 Type~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Warp Point - Turbulence
Ability 3 Descr~~~~~~~~~~~:= Strong gravitic fields cause damage to ships.
Ability 3 Val 1~~~~~~~~~~~:= 80
Ability 3 Val 2~~~~~~~~~~~:= 0
Ability 4 Chance~~~~~~~~~~:= 200
Ability 4 Type~~~~~~~~~~~~:= Warp Point - Turbulence
Ability 4 Descr~~~~~~~~~~~:= Strong gravitic fields cause damage to ships.
Ability 4 Val 1~~~~~~~~~~~:= 50
Ability 4 Val 2~~~~~~~~~~~:= 0

With the above example: Ability 1 thru 4 Chances of being created are are:

1: That will do 200 Normal Damage = 10%.
2: That will do 100 Normal Damage = 20%
3: That will do 80 Normal Damage = 40%
4: That will do 50 Normal Damage = 20%
None, other then a interesting Image = 10%

The chance that this ability will be present in the stellar object.
This chance can range from 0 - 1000. The total of all the chances
for all of the abilities of this Stellar Object should be equal to or
less than 1000. Values are in 10ths of a percent.

2 or 3 50-80 pts. A ship should survive unharmed by this hit; most of the time if you have Armor and Possibly shields.

==============================
REFERENCE

Abilities.txt file.
Explanation of the Ability.

Warp Point - Turbulence
Value1 = Amount of damage done to objects moving through this warp point. (Normal Damage)
Value2 =

QuadrantTypes File. This is the map you will choose when you start your game.
This is when the game calls for a Black Holle.

Name := Ancient
Description := Old section of the galaxy dotted with nebulaes and black holes.
Min Dist Between Systems := 1
System Placement := Random
Max Warp Points per Sys := 5
Min Angle Between WP := 60
Number of System Types := 27
Type 11 Name := Black Hole
Type 11 Chance := 50
Type 12 Name := Black Hole 2
Type 12 Chance := 50


SystemTypes File.
This is where the Black Hole Data is stored and how the Warp Point Type Gets into Play.

Name := Black Hole
Description := This system is filled with a black hole.~~
System Physical Type := Black Hole
Background Bitmap := Blackhole.bmp
Empires Can Start In := FALSE
Mask Background Objs := TRUE
Non-Tiled Center Pic := TRUE
Number of Abilities := 3
~ ~ ~
WP Stellar Abil Type := Unstable Warp Point
Number of System Objs := 0

=======================================
END
=======================================

I hope this clears this up

JLS

EDIT: Reworded to add 'Possibly shields'

[ June 06, 2003, 16:47: Message edited by: JLS ]