stock A2 revamp (input please)

[jetnova16]

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 7:40 pm

Last edited by jetnova16 on September 23rd, 2011, 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I assume you mean the 'research cloak detect and your scout and sensor platforms line of sight see's all cloaked ships' issue ?

I'll agree that, if balanced properly, it should be changed so that once you research the tech, you have to upgrade the sensor platforms and scouts to detect cloaked ships, as that would make cloaking less of a joke as it was in stock, but for cloaking races either make the detect station/scout upgrade cost more or be more limited in some way. They've spent the time perfecting the cloak, not in detecting it.

Tok'ra, He isn't talking about Fleet Ops, but Stock Armada II, it is even in the title of the thread. There is no way to upgrade the sensor plateforms or the scouts or anything in stock A2 for that matter, unless you make an ODF Special Weapon that creates a new station or ship and "upgrade" like that. I should know, I learned all about the concept from Ghost's Federation Compilation Mod, he did this for all the Enterprise ships starting with the NX-01 and ending at the 1701-E.

Agreed, this is a out and out bug and should either be fixed, or made a feature for non-borg races.

Colonizing would be good with one ship for each race like the Borg and not lossing it afterwards. I even gave the Borg Colonizing Beam to a Dominion Ship to make it a Colony Ship and right after the colonization process has ended though, the ship starts to orbit and slowly vanishes. Borg ships don't do this but they don't have a special ODF file to prevent it either.

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 7:48 pm

Whether the ship vanishes or not is dependent on the ordnance used:

"ColonizerPod"
vs
"colonybm"

[jetnova16]

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 8:40 pm

Last edited by jetnova16 on September 23rd, 2011, 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Whether the ship vanishes or not is dependent on the ordnance used:

"ColonizerPod"
vs
"colonybm"

Then there is a problem that shouldn't be happening, my dominionplanetdef.odf is using this for the Colonizing Beam and it is the exact same Borg weapon on the Borg Colony ship, but unlike for the Borg, my Dominion ship vanishes after colonization is complete, as previously stated.

Here is the .odf file for the beam:
gcolbeam.odf

Code: Select all

//Name of the ODF file for the ordinance for this weapon
ordName = "colbeam"

// Mark this as a special weapon.
special = 1

//Display name for this weapon
wpnName = "Colonizing Beam"

// no tooltips since you never see it.

//Location of the button in the speed panel, zero means invisible.
buttonSlot = 0

// Time Delay between shots
// we only want it to fire once...
shotDelay = 5.0f

// Range within which the weapon will fire.
range = 600.0f

//Sound which is played when the weapon fires
fireSound = "accelCannon.wav"

//Programming Stuff DO NOT CHANGE
classLabel = "cannon"

// Only target enemy planets
needTarget = 1
switchToAttack = 0

//this special weapon can not be assimilated by the borg tech assimilator
//assimilatable = ""

colbeam.odf

Code: Select all

// The Borg Colonizing Beam
// Puts civilians (drones) on planet.

//Programming Stuff DO NOT CHANGE
classLabel = "colonybm"

//The number of units which are subtracted from the Special Energy Reserve
specialEnergyCost = 100

//Amount of time the ordnance will exists without hitting something
lifeSpan = 4.6

// time it takes to transfer all the civies (should be < lifespan)
transferTime = 4
// how many it will transfer over that time period.
transferAmount = 100

//Length of the shield hit animation.
shieldDuration = 1.0

//How fast the shot moves
shotSpeed = 1e6

//The sprite which is used for this ordinance
Sprite = "colonybmblue"

//Phaser specific: this modifies the color of the phaser
shotColor = 227

//Phaser specific: this is the thickness of the beam
Radius = 20.0

// Time to play through the animation for the sprite in seconds
spriteDuration = 1.0

Attached is the Dominion Ship, it is based off of the Fleet Ops Jem'Hadar C-17 Siege Cruiser. I created a special included ODF file for the ship too, colonywarcruiser.odf. That is also attached.

Attachments

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posted on September 23rd, 2011, 9:07 pm

@jet nova your mod you where talking about where can one getthere hands on it as i would love to test it out.

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 9:21 pm

Tok'ra, He isn't talking about Fleet Ops, but Stock Armada II, it is even in the title of the thread. There is no way to upgrade the sensor plateforms or the scouts or anything in stock A2 for that matter, unless you make an ODF Special Weapon that creates a new station or ship and "upgrade" like that. I should know, I learned all about the concept from Ghost's Federation Compilation Mod, he did this for all the Enterprise ships starting with the NX-01 and ending at the 1701-E.

Yes, I know. Your point is, what, exactly ?

And jetnova, I'll give your .odf's a look


First thing first, I dont currently have stock installed so I'm not going to be comparing it to stock odf's..... but I do have my big book out as a refrence.


First off let me ask: Have you considerd taking the borg vessel odf that DOES work the way you want and just using that ?

Then just go and modify said .odf as needed. Oftentimes Ive found that that is the best or at least easiest and fastest way to go.

Anyway I'll look some at the odfs and update here if I find anything.

[jetnova16]

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 9:26 pm

Last edited by jetnova16 on September 23rd, 2011, 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

@jet nova your mod you where talking about where can one getthere hands on it as i would love to test it out.

If you are talking about Vanilla Ultimate 2.0, I posted the link to it earlier, it goes to A2files. I will just repost the link here though:

Armada II Upgrade Project, Vanilla Ultimate V 2.0.0 Mod Download, Star Trek: Armada 2 Mods

If you are talking about the mod that I am creating myself using Vanilla Ultimate as the starting point, it really is just a personal mod, since I bet some people won't like giving me permission to release it with their mods in it. Thus even asking for permission would be a waste of time because what ever mods I can't release will actually in some ways destroy the effect for the whole "Spanning The Generations" concept. Plus there are some Fleet Ops modules being used as well, they have their own policy on using/releasing, namely, can't do it.

Thus I really hope that you were talking about Vanilla Ultimate. In my opinion, it makes the graphics far better than stock A2 and even explosions look better.

Yes, I know. Your point is, what, exactly?

Nothing really if you mean comparing the two. On the other hand I wish the same thing that can be done in Fleet Ops could be done in Stock A2, especially for tech upgrading and everything related to it. It would make getting the individual eras Hero Units working better in my game according to their exact times. Right now I am going to attempt trying to research them and after they are researched, I am going to have the pods odf files include the coding for getting the ship, much like Dilithium Mining Stations spawn the freighters.
Then don't get me started on how the fighters work in Fleet Ops, I like it, but for the Replace Weapon code thanks to the Patch Project I have to lose the spawnin ship kind of.

And jetnova, I'll give your .odf's a look

First thing first, I dont currently have stock installed so I'm not going to be comparing it to stock odf's..... but I do have my big book out as a refrence.

Thank you very much.

First off let me ask: Have you considerd taking the borg vessel odf that DOES work the way you want and just using that ?

Then just go and modify said .odf as needed. Oftentimes Ive found that that is the best or at least easiest and fastest way to go.

Anyway I'll look some at the odfs and update here if I find anything.

I haven't really thought about using the Borg Colony Ship, I'd have to reference the Dominion ship's SOD and also change the HPs around.

Colonization could easily be a Hard Coded thing and only the Borg are able to colonize like that then, hopefully not though.

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 10:15 pm

Turns out CleansingWeaponIndex must be defined to remove the circle-around-the-planet behavior, and the Physics configuration file for the unit must have physics = "borg" ("smooth" causes it to circle around the Planet and then decomission).

One of the major points of Fleet Ops is to advance modding capabilities for the engine - FO can be set up just as A2 and doesn't require much effort to port any mods over (especially if using the A2 Classic mod as a base).

posted on September 23rd, 2011, 11:51 pm

What I meant by use the borg ships odf is take the borg odf, and mod THAT into the dominion ship you want, IE: change as little as possible.

Its a quicker method to fix something when stumped Ive found.

[jetnova16]

posted on September 24th, 2011, 2:38 am

Last edited by jetnova16 on September 24th, 2011, 2:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Turns out CleansingWeaponIndex must be defined to remove the circle-around-the-planet behavior, and the Physics configuration file for the unit must have physics = "borg" ("smooth" causes it to circle around the Planet and then decomission).

Do I have to include the "CleansingWeaponIndex" in the ship's ODF file or some wheres else? I always thought that went with the Borg's weapon that attacked enemy colonized planets. That is why the Dominion ship isn't using that weapon.

Do you mean that I have to edit the physics file that I specially created for this ship? Where should I add the extra coding and what one do I really need? My intentions is to make this ship act like a Battleship but at the same time have the ability to colonize without it vanishing afterwards. My ultimate plan is to have this ship be the only colony ship for the Dominion Alliance by removing the Cardassian one.

One of the major points of Fleet Ops is to advance modding capabilities for the engine - FO can be set up just as A2 and doesn't require much effort to port any mods over (especially if using the A2 Classic mod as a base).

I haven't really thought about it fully, but I am still deciding on making a copy of my mod for Fleet Ops. I just don't know much about modding it yet to attempt it... yet. I don't even know where to go to actually download the A2 Classic Mod either. One of the number one things I don't want to lose though is the campaigns.

What I meant by use the borg ships odf is take the borg odf, and mod THAT into the dominion ship you want, IE: change as little as possible.

Its a quicker method to fix something when stumped Ive found.

I tried that and sadly it didn't do what I was hoping. I did change the race name to from Borg to Dominion.

I think Dominus_Noctis is actually right, I guess that would mean that something about colonization is hardcoded to work only with the Borg using special coding that is only found for the Borg themself.

posted on September 24th, 2011, 3:07 am

hmm I wouldnt think that'd be the case but in many cases A2 stock ignored logic....

And come to think of it the cases where, that I can remember, other races used the same colonizing weapon, it was TC mods and that race was basically replacing the borg.

You could always base the race itself on the borg, and see if that works, although that may in itself cause yet more problems depending on the setup.

posted on September 24th, 2011, 3:52 am

Yes, cleansingWeaponIndex is a Colony command, that is just one of its effects.
Colony - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

Physics = "borg" is used in the physics file. It makes vessels have no left/right/front/back in terms of movement as well. The behavior to circle and disappear afterward is determined by the use of smooth physics.

Campaigns should be fully operational in the A2 Classic Mod Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Star Trek Armada II Import

Changing the race name will do nothing to change the issue - this is merely dependent on the physics label, as stated above .

[jetnova16]

posted on September 24th, 2011, 9:02 pm

Last edited by jetnova16 on September 24th, 2011, 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, cleansingWeaponIndex is a Colony command, that is just one of its effects.
Colony - The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fleet Operations

Physics = "borg" is used in the physics file. It makes vessels have no left/right/front/back in terms of movement as well. The behavior to circle and disappear afterward is determined by the use of smooth physics.

Campaigns should be fully operational in the A2 Classic Mod Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Star Trek Armada II Import

Changing the race name will do nothing to change the issue - this is merely dependent on the physics label, as stated above .

It looks like I have to deal with the vanishing for the Dominion Planet Defender after it is done colonizing a planet through the colonizing beam because the ship is now moving like a Borg ship instead of its front end leading the way. Also as for colonizing it didn't even colonize the planet with the physics = "borg" set in the physics file (and also renamed). Instead it jumped to the end of the map and went to the planet and then jumped away to the left corner of the map and vanished off the screen like it never had existed at all. At least with the ship vanishing, it still has colonized the planet that it was suppose to. (Meaning, I changed it back to its original parameters that I had set up for it.)

Thanks for the suggestion and information it just didn't work out and actually the movement of the ship just looks foolish and out-of-place. The best but sad bet is to deal with the ship vanishing all the time.

This experiment has proved one thing though, for all the races other than the Borg to have one colony ship and for it not to vanish is impractical and totally impossible to do in stock Armada II and unless I am mistaken, I believe even this would be the case in Fleet Ops, or is there a way to prevent this from happening in Fleet Ops or through another patch?

posted on September 24th, 2011, 9:14 pm

You still have to correctly configure the physics of the vessel 

posted on September 24th, 2011, 9:27 pm

You still have to correctly configure the physics of the vessel 

I did actually. I even tried 3 different attempts, none of them worked. The moment the coding is switched from smooth to Borg, the ships start moving like a Borg Cube (aka, the Borg Colony Ship used the Cube's physics file). The Dominion ship was moving leftwards when directed to go left, rightwards when directed to go right, backwards when told to go somewheres that was behind it and the only time the ship ever went forwards was when it was told to, except very, very very slowly for each possible way it could go. It didn't even bank left or right or pivote to turn like I wanted it to. The reason is the Borg don't do that stuff and the Physics = "borg" turns the ship into a Borg Ship for movement.

Could you possibly show me an ODF file that will actually do what the Dominion Ship is supposed to do in movement? AKA, its to act like a normal ship that isn't Borg.

posted on September 24th, 2011, 9:39 pm

Yes... obviously it will move like a Borg vessel... that's why the physics is called "borg" 

You cannot make a borg physics unit have a definitive front or back.