Passive Damage Calculator

posted on January 27th, 2011, 3:33 pm

In another thread, a program was mentioned that the fleet-ops crew uses to calculate damage done by passives.  Could that program be made available to the public?

posted on January 27th, 2011, 7:09 pm

At some point it is suppose to be. However it likely uses a sires of hard coded values which would make it impractical for the rest of us to use.

posted on January 28th, 2011, 4:32 am

The programs that Optec has developed are very extensive and impossible to separate like that for now. They will eventually be released however, it will just take a long time

posted on January 28th, 2011, 3:28 pm

when optec does release his magical secrets everyone will be like:
"ooooh so thats how.."
"wow thats clever"
"ermmmm huh?"
" cant understaaaaaand waaaa"

posted on January 31st, 2011, 7:06 am

why apply passives that way when you could just edit the stats of the .odf directly w/o adding another cumbersome (and as the latest flops version shows) prone to breaking down step ?

posted on January 31st, 2011, 2:40 pm

why apply passives that way when you could just edit the stats of the .odf directly w/o adding another cumbersome (and as the latest flops version shows) prone to breaking down step ?

As an example, use camstudio to record yourself removing the adai passive from the game, using the method of editing odfs in notepad/wordpad. Your HD will be full of video before u finish, and u will know why they dont edit the odfs directly.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 4:31 pm

Tokra, I know you understand a lot about Star Trek, and occasionally have good ideas, but you don't understand how modding works.  Using scripts to generate a large number of text files is one of the only methods that is both incredibly powerful AND easy to learn.  Back in the day, I worked on Starcraft maps a bit and programs like SCTrigger were my best friend.

For these ODFs, we're talking about 9000 files with an average of 600ish lines.  A well-designed script can churn out the entire library in under an hour.  Not only is this a very good way to do it, it's the way Armada II was designed to be modded.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 4:58 pm

I'm sure I could build a PHP script that could do the task.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 5:12 pm

I'm sure I could build a PHP script that could do the task.

please please please please please please please please please please please please do this

P.S. With a cherry on top

posted on January 31st, 2011, 5:39 pm

Hmm, php?  I'm slated to learn that later this semester.  So far I've only used Perl or Java for things like this.

What would the component files be?  A list of all ships, a list of all weapon types, a list of all passives (and combinations, eg the "defiant mix")

How does the damage/rof calculator work?  Plug in an offense value, a ratio (this weapon does 30% of total damage) and a rate of fire, then let it decide the damage?

Here's a big question then: will Fleet Ops consider the game to be the same version if it contains the exact same stats but ordered differently inside the odf?  For example, if I wanted to have the damage numbers show in order from lowest to highest damage?

posted on January 31st, 2011, 6:23 pm

Well, for starters, it would need a database to put all of the data in, so you could save off your work.  I can use PHP and MySQL quite easily together to do this task.  The database would be able to store all of the necessary information about each weapon, and each ship, and each ship's passives.  If programmed correctly, there can be an unlimited number of ships and passives allowed.  It can also be programmed to deal increased damage as the vessel ranks up.  Once you've built a weapon file, the script can be programmed to provide you with a download link to the files generated.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 6:57 pm

Here's a big question then: will Fleet Ops consider the game to be the same version if it contains the exact same stats but ordered differently inside the odf?  For example, if I wanted to have the damage numbers show in order from lowest to highest damage?

I doubt it however you could get someone to try it.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 7:17 pm

If the odf has its code lines in a different order, they have been changed. Chances are that any change, no matter how small or insignificant, will ruin multiplayer.

posted on January 31st, 2011, 7:28 pm

yep, versions are compared based on file hashes. even an additional whitespace would cause a version conflict

posted on February 1st, 2011, 1:49 pm

Tokra, I know you understand a lot about Star Trek, and occasionally have good ideas, but you don't understand how modding works.  Using scripts to generate a large number of text files is one of the only methods that is both incredibly powerful AND easy to learn.  Back in the day, I worked on Starcraft maps a bit and programs like SCTrigger were my best friend.

For these ODFs, we're talking about 9000 files with an average of 600ish lines.  A well-designed script can churn out the entire library in under an hour.  Not only is this a very good way to do it, it's the way Armada II was designed to be modded.

What I mean is, dont use the passives at all.

Give ships (counting the changes as they rank up) a set of stats, and dont confuse the matter further with passives.

The same applies to balance, dont balnce thru counters and what not, balance thru cost of a ship, and adjust the ships prices based on stats (IE: metal cost based on hull strength, dil cost based on weapons strength) then leave chance to hit  tables between ships based on the ships size/manuverbility (IE: a galaxy class is always easier to hit than a defiant class, regardless of what the attacker is, but a defiant/BoP/Bug or other small ship is always harder to hit, just less so for the more manuverable ships).