making "one-shot" components

[Mark Walton]

Anyone know how to create new one-shot component types? Like the Emergency Propulsion and the Stellar Manip components.


I tried adding "Component Destroyed On Use" to a component with another ability (Ship Training) but all that happened was, the component kept on training them without requiring that the component be specifically used.

It seems to me that it's the abilities themselves which govern this, and would require a hard coded change to make other abilities act in this way.


Unless anyone knows how I could do this.

[Jourin]

I play with a modded component called External Mount Missiles inspired from the Honor series by David Webber. I took this component from DavesMod or Delmod. The reload rate is 30 so it can only fire once during combat. I also added the restriction of only 1 per vehicle. The restriction works with human design but not AI - bug reported to MM, but not fixed (MM just ignores all my bug reports). I fixed this by increasing the 1 per space value in the AI design. Now the AI will always have 1 but only 1 External Mount Missile component on its ship and Humans can also only use one. Does this help?

[Mark Walton]

I don't think that will do what I want, in this instance.

My plan was part of the development of Neutrals with unique and tradable abilities.

What I wanted to do was make a ship training component, which added experience points only when "activated" and worked only for one turn (and then was destroyed)
So you would move the ship into position, with any ships you wanted to train, then crack open the component and let the training flood out...

I have tried mucking about with negative numbers and so on, but I think this is impossible to do.

[jimbob]

I tried making a "super weapon" that would fire an incredible amount of damage, but would be destroyed in the process... except that it wouldn't blow up! No amount of messing about would make it "self-destruct".

To make it seem like the component is a one use device I made it so the weapon only fired once per 30 rounds. I also increased the 'supplies used' to 1000. I figure it's as if the component gets damaged on use, but that the crew manages to fix it once combat is done.. they just need to fabricate the replacement parts.

I hope that someday there will be an ability that lets the component blow up on use, even doing damage to it's own ship. This wish has been mentioned by others in other threads.

-jimbob

[Mark Walton]

I was just playing around, I made a custom hull :

Name := Missile Swarm
Short Name := Missile Swarm
Description := Massive cloud of deadly missiles
Code := HH
Bitmap Name := FighterSmall
Vehicle Type := Fighter
Tonnage := 100
Cost Minerals := 500
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 500
Engines Per Move := 1
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Missile Weapons
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 3
Ability 1 Type := Combat To Hit Offense Plus
Ability 1 Descr := Maneuverability increases chance to hit enemy targets in combat by 100%.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 100
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Combat To Hit Defense Plus
Ability 2 Descr := Small size makes ship 50% harder to hit in combat.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 50
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Ability 3 Type := Combat Movement
Ability 3 Descr := Provides 5 movement points in combat
Ability 3 Val 1 := 5
Ability 3 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := False
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := False
Requirement Min Life Support := 0
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 0
Requirement Uses Engines := False
Requirement Max Engines := 0
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 100
Launched from Ship := True
Launched from Planet := True

And some custom components:

Name := Missile Barrage Launcher
Description := Area on a starship where fighters are stored for launch.
Pic Num := 58
Tonnage Space Taken := 150
Tonnage Structure := 150
Cost Minerals := 300
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Vehicle Type := Ship
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Unit Launch
Family := 15
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Missile Weapons
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Launch/Recover Fighters
Ability 1 Descr := Can launch and recover fighters from space. 1 fighter can be launched per combat turn and 4 fighters can be launched per game turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 1
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Cargo Storage
Ability 2 Descr := Provides 100kT of cargo space.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 100
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Name := Megaswarm
Description := Mass of warheads designed to simulate a 1-shot missile battery.
Pic Num := 185
Tonnage Space Taken := 100
Tonnage Structure := 100
Cost Minerals := 1000
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 10000
Vehicle Type := Fighter
Supply Amount Used := 0
Restrictions := None
General Group := Weapons
Family := 2042
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Missile Weapons
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Cargo Storage
Ability 1 Descr := Counts as Cargo Storage component, toward requirement on hulls.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := Warhead
Weapon Target := Ships\Planets\Ftr\Sat
Weapon Damage At Rng := 5000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weapon Damage Type := Normal
Weapon Reload Rate := 0
Weapon Display Type := Torp
Weapon Display := 0
Weapon Modifier := 0
Weapon Sound := mine.wav
Weapon Family := 36

What this does is not perfect but it lets you make a weapon which has # of shots limited over game turns instead of just combat turns... the actual "boom" bit is a modified fighter. I might use this sort of system for other "one-shot" weapons. I will also tyr to think of a way to simulate "direct fire" weapons this way.

Doesn't help my initial problem though.

[jimbob]

That's great. I've always wanted a way of firing clusters of missles. Can you limit the weapon types allowed for that hull... otherwise people will be putting direct-fire weapons on it. Missles that do direct-fire are just tiny fighters in my opinion.

Is it possible to replace the small fighter bitmap for this weapon with a generic missle(s) pic? I'd be happy to do the cut and paste in Adobe.

-jimbob

[This message has been edited by jimbob (edited 22 November 2001).]

[Mark Walton]

Already ahead of you there...

The hull requires 100% cargo spaces.
The weapon component counts as cargo.
So you can have the warheads, or useless cargo items like sat launchers
(you can't put actual cargo in a fighter hull, so the launchers are useless)
In theory if you have modded supply storage, you could cheat and use that (a lot of people I think mod supply storgae to store 0 cargo, so they can make tankers out of transport hulls)

Yeah you could have a new pic, I was going to make one but didn't want to confuse the issue.



[This message has been edited by Mark Walton (edited 22 November 2001).]