Space Empires V Editor 1.1 Released

[Elsemeravin]

Devnullicus said:

The value of 150 in Maximum Level is pretty high. The problem is that the form component is set with a min and max value of 0 and 100 for that field. I suppose I could change that to allow higher values (and I should definitely change the validation code to be in sync with the form components), but I'm not sure why you'd want such a high value for Maximum Level?

My plan is to make research more continuous with many many small rewards for each step. That way there won't be a big difference between two ships just because of a few turns from the next weapon level. And retrofitting ships won't be possible for every level (too costly).

I think you can easily max this value to 65536 so to have no more problems.

2) All fields that are combo boxes get their values from other files or seem to be hardcoded values in the game. If a field in the file would allow arbitrary user input, I had the combo box allow it as well. Most do not.

I get another problem with prevous component because of the group which is norally not hardcoded but refuse from the editor:

General Group := Organs

I'll keep posting as soon as I meet problems. Just tell me when you have enough so you won't hate me

[Devnullicus]

1. Interesting! and annoying. ok, I'll figure out a different way to do that field as a formula

2. Weapon Delivery Type seemed to only have a few hardcoded values, so I was assuming that they were hard-coded as part of the game. How annoying, as I actually use that field in figuring out how to validate some of the other data.

Not sure what you mean by Explosion as relates to Weapon Delivery Type?

3. Unit Type? You mean like a vehicle type? I know that some Vehicle Types are in VehicleUnitTypes.txt, but unfortunately only some of them are. non-unit vehicle types (like Base and Ship) seem to be arbitrary and hard-coded. So I decided to just use a hard-coded list and ignore VehicleUnitTypes.txt. Let me re-think that decision a bit and see if I can come up with a better solution.

4. Component Type List and General Group again seemed to be arbitrary hard-coded values. I didn't know if the game would accept values that didn't exist in the current data files, so I decided to play it safe and only allow existing values. If you can confirm that the game will handle other values, I'll make the combo boxes for those editable so that they can accept arbitrary values.

[Elsemeravin]

Devnullicus said:
grrr. That shouldn't be happening. Let me look into it. I should just have you run my releases before publicly announcing them - you always seem to find problems

You're welcome to do it if it helps.

[Devnullicus]

OK, there's enough bugfixes and changes needed that I'm going to fix these and put out a patch release later today. 1.1.1 due soon!

[Phoenix-D]

1. Thanks.


2. That field doesn't do anything. The only time its called at all is when the target ship has the ability that reduces weapon damage by a %.

About the explosions: see this line in history.txt.
"Weapon Explosion Effect Name" field in Components.txt should be working now. You can specify either a random "Specific Type" or an "Effect Name"."

Right now the editor doesn't handle that part very well.

3. Yeah, vehicle type. Simplest method would be to leave it as-is, but remove the error message. The editor loads non-standard vehicle types already (they show up in the lists and in the boxes), it just won't let you USE them. The same problem applies to Target Type, by the way.
4.

[Devnullicus]

The other three effect name fields have files that I can read from to get the data. There is no file to get values from for explosions. What should I use to populate the list?

[Phoenix-D]

Actually there is a file:
BitmapEffects_SpaceCombat.txt and
BitmapEffects_GroundCombat.txt

look for the comment

Explosions - Weapon

they begin after that.

[Devnullicus]

Ug. How the hell does the game interpret this field? sheesh.

[Phoenix-D]

As far as I can tell, there are two ways:

If [Random Specific Type] is present, it reads the next bit of text and picks a random explosion from that type. In stock, there's only one type- Weapon Explosion. So all the weapons pick randomly from the same group of explosions.

If [Random Specific Type] is NOT present, the line is read as the name of an explosion. In stock, that would be Weapon Explosion 1 to Weapon Explosion 4.

[Devnullicus]

Yup. So, here's the fixed list so far for 1.1.1:

General Bugfixes:

• Bugfix: Even better enforcement of legal mod directory locations (GameTypes is not a legal mod directory)
• Bugfix: Maximul Level and Custom Groups limited to ranges of [0,65535] and will now complain about the out-of-range data instead of just getting internal errors and doing the figurative equivalent of littering bits all over your computer's floor. *sigh*

Component Editor Bugfixes:

• All Weapon Effect Name fields have a "None" option now
• Weapon Explosion Effect Name now reads from BitmapEffects_SpaceCombat.txt and BitmapEffects_GroundCombat.txt to fill in its allowable values.
• Weapon Space Display Effect Name and Weapon Ground Display Effect Name now only allow "Weapon Explosion" Specific Effect types from BitmapEffects_SpaceCombat.txt and BitmapEffects_GroundCombat.txt.
• Weapon Delivery Type is apparently not used by the game and can be an arbitrary value. Changed editor to allow arbitrary values for this field
• Vehicle Types now reads VehicleUnitTypes.txt and adds those to the allowable list so that new vehicle types can be used.
• Weapon Target Types now reads VehicleUnitTypes.txt and adds those to the allowable list so that new vehicle types can be targeted.
• General Group can now accept arbitrary values

Still left to fix:

• Weapon Damage Type Formula seemed to be misleading and not a formula, but it turns out that it is an editable formula with specific variables possible. Fixed the editor to handle this.
• Component Type List can now accept arbitrary values

The last two are somewhat more difficult fixes, though, so unknown how long it will take yet. Hopefully, I'll have a release ready tonight sometime.