Modding my way through...

Shadowcat · #1 December 6th, 2005, 02:29 AM

Zogu · #2 December 7th, 2005, 12:40 AM

thanks all for your answers!

by the way, is it possible to "glue" some of the ship systems in place, so that the player cannot remove or replace them? could be interesting in some mods. for instance, you find a ship with very powerful weapons but terrible shields... but you can't replace its systems, so that you have to use it intelligently.

about my question on quests: yes, i was wondering if some kind of an API or scripting language is available for building complicated objects, or objects with "new" behaviors? i have a few ideas...

and one last comment... i was reviewing ships from good old games like "Star Control II". i wonder if it would be possible to implement some of the propulsion systems. for instance, short distance "constant beam" weapons, ships flying in reverse, or ships reacting to firing ammo by recoiling...

oh and by the way, it would be very cool to increase the inertia effects in WW. and to add one major planetary body in the combat screen (to add gravitation effects)... it would justify the creation of an "inertia dampener" ship system... and maybe add "turn rate" and "inertia" as thruster's characteristics (additional to raw speed)...

maybe add asteroids (in small amounts, or in very large amounts) in combat screens, so that ships have to care about mid-space collisions... or use them to hide if they have defensive lasers, a "ram dodge shield" (haha), or very hardy metal plates...

just my daily bunch of not-so-original ideas...

Zogu · #3 December 21st, 2005, 11:57 AM

I just started programming my first WW mod. This is gonna be SO FUN. Prepare to be surprised... by the possibilities!

Fingers · #4 December 21st, 2005, 04:45 PM

You can add a "structural" flag to ship systems to prevent them from being uninstalled. The main weapons of the starship D....... (which you may have found) work this way.

The ship movements are pretty basic, and can't be modified besides changing the turn rate and speed. This might be expanded in the future to add some interaction between ship motion and weapons (such as weapons that throw a ship into a spin, maybe a recoil like you said). The 1.1 patch concentrates on bug fixes but we may well add new features and content in later updates.

The areas of the game with the most freedom in terms of modding are quests and weapons. Both of these systems are also pretty complicated and I haven't had the time to document them very well.

Zogu · #5 December 21st, 2005, 07:29 PM

Thanks for all these very useful insights!

For the ship systems, I'd like to see some additional flexibility:
1. thrusters should have a turn rate modifier (which adds to the ship's default turn rate)
2. shields could distinguish between beam (radiation), projectile (concussion) and missile (explosion)
3. I'd insist with the gravitation effects, which could add a lot of depth in combat

But of course... I know you must be overwhelmed with work and have a 2 miles long "to-do list" already!!!

Right now I'm experimenting with very specific mods and up to now, it's been a breeze. Cheers for the mod system!