Modding SEV Thread Questions

[Suicide Junkie]

The way it should work is;
Target has X Hitpoints, figure in overkill %, figure in hit chance, etc. So, Y guns should be enough.

Weapon 1;
Fire on target

Weapon 2;
Fire on target

Weapon Y+1;
Too many guns targetted, skip.


If there are no other targets in range, the ship may just fire the rest because it can.

[StarShadow]

Hmm..I'll pay closer attention in my next set of combats.

"If there are no other targets in range, the ship may just fire the rest because it can. "

That I don't like. Just because there are no targets in range *now*, doesn't mean no targets will present themselves soon (ie before the wastefully discharged weapons can refire/reload). This could be a particularly bad thing for weapons with long reload times.

[Noble713]

In damagetypes.txt if you list multiple requirements how do you make them Req 1 OR Req 2 instead of Req 1 AND Req 2?

So if I set a damage type to destroy engines and weapons, will it destroy only components that are BOTH an engine and a weapon?

Is there no way to add a special damage type (i.e. deplete supplies) to an otherwise normal weapon?

The instructions imply that any weapon with a "Special" function skips the normal damage allocation process. I want a weapon that does both.

[StarShadow]

@SJ

Ok, I think I see what you mean, I was just looking through settings.txt again and noticed:

Estimated Targeting Damage Percent for Torpedo Weapon := 50
Estimated Targeting Damage Percent for Directed Torpedo Weapon := 50
Estimated Targeting Damage Percent for Beam Weapon := 50
Estimated Targeting Damage Percent for Bolt Weapon := 50

I still think my second point is valid though..

[Arralen]

How does the AI build its ships?

From what I've seen, the AI uses 'fixed' scripts instead of general algorithms and the component properties to build its ships:

If you change the "possible placements" from "Inner Hull, Outer Hull" to "Outer Hull, Outer Hull" (only "Outer Hull" is not accepted by the demo at least) for the basic scanner, the player can only place the scanner into outer hull sections.

The AI however does not use scanners at all in that case - looks like it has a 'build list' which does not order 'scanners' in general, but 'scanners in inner hull'.
Maybe this was bad luck, though - the designs I saw had completely filled outer hull on the upper deck, maybe the scanner came last and simply didn't fit :/

If the AI really uses those fixed lists, I wonder if its possible to do any *greater* mod at all ...

[Suicide Junkie]

I do agree that strategies will need some more power.

The situation is much improved if weapon damage is relatively small and hitpoints are increased.
In GGmod, there are often lots of ships left crippled, and then cleaned up later by the eventual victor if no enemy reinforcements arrive.

[Captain Kwok]

You're correct in noting that the AI design algorithm has fixed places (outer, inner) where they stick items.

[Rellep]

How exactly does scaling work? Setting "Starting Scales" in *_Ships_XFileClasses works as one would assume, but what does Base Model Radius mean? And Maximum Model Size in VehicleSizes? I swapped the numbers for frigate and (light) fighter, and got miniature frigates and gigantic fighters. But Baseships (at least) won't scale, no matter how low the MaxMdlSze. And frigate MaxMdlSze scaling also appeared to not work after I increased their Starting Scales to 1.00 (from 0.01... hehehe)

I was going to use scaling for additional ship sizes in my mod when no own models exist (such as the default shipsets), but is there really no other way then painfull modification of *_Ships_XFileClasses' for all shipsets?

[Kana]

Can you change the range breaks

Instead of 10, 20, etc. Can it be 1, 2, 3, etc? Or something to that effect? How does it effect the combat model? Or is this all hard coded?

[Phoenix-D]

There are no range breaks; that's display-only..

Weapon damage is determined by a formula; as far as I can that uses the exact range the weapon is at, and doesn't break down by 10s. No idea how to change the display part though.