Modding questions...

[PaladinX]

Well, I made one 360 degree hardpoint (0 - 359), and a couple that were somewhere around 135 degrees. I didn't add a new model, I just created a new component slot layout and assigned it to an existing model (For the time being) in order to get something into the game right away (As I said before, I have no modelling skills to speak of).

Basically I took the Amonkrie cruiser and turned it into a dreadnought... I changed the naming conventions for weapons, so that rather than having a bunch of lasers that fit into light slots and a bunch of torpedoes that fit into heavy slots, I have heavy and light weapons based on tonnage, and "cannon" slots for the really big guns. It provides a bit more flexibility in ship design while at the same time allowing the layout designer to use firing arcs to tweak a ship towards a certain role.

I put the ship in the ship dealer's inventory by default, and used the credits cheat to buy it and take it for a spin. Hitting "Show weapon arcs" in the ship dealer's interface caused the game to hang up, but I could buy it and equip it and take it out for a spin. I'm not sure what the problem is with it, to be honest

[Rollo]

I see. I have also tried a full 360° arc, but the game choked on that.

Try an arc from 22.5 to 337.5 or 202.5 to 157.5. The game handles arcs in 22.5° increments without problems and that only leaves a small blind spot in the front or rear.
Also you need to change the entry for the appropriate firing point in the SpaceObjects_Xfiles.txt file. Just changing the slot is not enough. In fact, IIRC, the setting in SpaceObjects_XFiles.txt is the one that counts. The entry in the slot file is kinda redundant.

[PaladinX]

Yeah, I was just realizing that myself about the X files...

[PaladinX]

After messing with the Spaceobjects x files file, I managed to get my ship working, although I had to create hardpoints by hand. I discovered that there seems to be a hard limit of 10 hardpoints as well.

I'm going to bed now, but I'll be playing with point defense beams and missiles tomorrow.

By the way, point defense guns are really fun to watch if you change their reload time to 250 and lower their damage... I just need to find a way to lower their accuracy now. I basically want to see the PDCs fill the sky with lead in the course of trying to shoot something down.

[Phoenix-D]

You can make an unselectable campaign. What you need to do is place the campaign inside a subfolder..eg:

Camp1/Camp2

When refercing the second one, instead of just Camp2 you put /Camp2 (or maybe Camp1/Camp2)

Not 100% sure this works, I can't remember the results of my test. but it DOES work for map files and such.

[PaladinX]

I'll try that when I get around to the actual campaign construction, thanks Phoenix.

Good news on the PDC front, point defense beams and missiles work (Although you really want to increase the PD missiles ranges to the 300 range due to slow missile speed) and restricting point defense guns to specific arcs works also!

Which actually makes me curious whether or not I could make normal weapons 360 degree guns by simply not tying them to a firing point at all... I'll have to try.

One question about missiles/torpedoes... I saw in another thread that torpedo speed can be tweaked... Is it possible to have different speeds for different classes of torpedoes? I'd like to have fast anti-fighter missiles and slower anti-ship torpedoes if possible. If not then not. I can always make do by giving the anti-fighter missiles really long ranges, just more elegant the other way.

[PaladinX]

Nevermind... Found it. Torpedo speed is part of the effect type you reference, so if I create a few different effect types with different speeds, it should work. I think

Also, if you don't link a weapon to a firing point defined in the X files file, it has 360 degree coverage

[ February 20, 2004, 14:00: Message edited by: PaladinX ]