FO Shields to A2

posted on December 18th, 2009, 12:28 am

What I'm trying to do right now is convert FO's shield effects over to my personal A2, because I find them much better than anything out there (no offense to the modders who have spent lots of personal time to make those other ones, especially Elrond). After working with modding in Elrond's shield mod, I realized that simply renaming and overwriting the shields I have with FO's wouldn't work. This requires heavy sprite editing that I still don't have a knack for.

Anyone know what sprite file I can find the effects for FO's shield, and which sprite files I'd need to put each sprite definition to in my A2 game?

posted on December 18th, 2009, 12:30 am

I wasn't aware that you could get it to work outside of FO... 

posted on December 18th, 2009, 12:35 am

all weapon specific sprites are stored in the fleetops.spr, try searching for shield. You should be able to convert the basic effect, but it wont look good in armada2, as it cant handle better shield effects. you will also not be able to get the "critical flickering" if shields are low

posted on December 18th, 2009, 12:41 am

Okay, found the area where shield stuff is located, but something tells me that all of these don't go into one sprite file...

@animation fo4x4shield
offset 16 1.05 step
@auto=square
@keyframes

@animation shieldhitCenter
colour 11 1.0 linear
@keyframes
0.0 (0,0,0)
0.1 (0,0,0)
0.2 (1,1,1)
0.3 (0.8,0.8,0.
0.4 (1,1,1)
0.5 (0.3,0.3,0.3)
0.6 (0.5,0.5,0.5)
0.7 (0.1,0.1,0.1)
0.8 (0.2,0.2,0.2)
0.95 (0,0,0)
1.0 (0,0,0)

@animation shieldhitA
colour 4 1.0 linear
@keyframes
0.0 (0,0,0)
0.2 (1,1,1)
0.95 (0,0,0)
1.0 (0,0,0)

@tmaterial=additive
@reference=128
wshield_hitcenter wshield_hitcenter 0 0 128 128

@tmaterial=additive
@reference=256
wshield_blueA_hitglowS wshield_blueA_hitglowS 0 0 256 256
wshield_blueB_hitglowS wshield_blueB_hitglowS 0 0 256 256
wshield_greenA_hitglowS wshield_greenA_hitglowS 0 0 256 256
wshield_ocherA_hitglowS wshield_ocherA_hitglowS 0 0 256 256

@tmaterial=additive
@reference=512
wshield_blueA_specialA wshield_blueA_specialA 0 0 128 128 @anim=tex4x4_1.0

@sprite_node shieldhitCenterS wshield_hitcenter shieldhitCenter (22,22) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldhitCenterM wshield_hitcenter shieldhitCenter (20,20) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldhitCenterL wshield_hitcenter shieldhitCenter (17,17) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldhitCenterXL wshield_hitcenter shieldhitCenter (14,14) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluehitS wshield_blueA_hitglowS shieldhitA (28,28) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluehitSspecial wshield_blueA_specialA onesecondfadeout (28,28) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluehitM wshield_blueA_hitglowS shieldhitA (25,25) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluehitL wshield_blueA_hitglowS shieldhitA (20,20) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluehitXL wshield_blueA_hitglowS shieldhitA (16,16) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluebhitS wshield_blueB_hitglowS shieldhitA (42,42) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluebhitM wshield_blueB_hitglowS shieldhitA (37,37) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluebhitL wshield_blueB_hitglowS shieldhitA (30,30) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldbluebhitXL wshield_blueB_hitglowS shieldhitA (24,24) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldgreenhitS wshield_greenA_hitglowS shieldhitA (28,28) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldgreenhitM wshield_greenA_hitglowS shieldhitA (25,25) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldgreenhitL wshield_greenA_hitglowS shieldhitA (20,20) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldgreenhitXL wshield_greenA_hitglowS shieldhitA (16,16) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldocherhitS wshield_ocherA_hitglowS shieldhitA (28,28) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldocherhitM wshield_ocherA_hitglowS shieldhitA (25,25) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldocherhitL wshield_ocherA_hitglowS shieldhitA (20,20) (1,1,1) billboard
@sprite_node shieldocherhitXL wshield_ocherA_hitglowS shieldhitA (16,16) (1,1,1) billboard

Could you tell me in which sprite file does each selection go to? TBH, I'm very skilled at basic ODF modding, and I'm trying to expand my range of what I can do

posted on December 18th, 2009, 8:33 am

just put the required sprites in the weapon.spr of your armada install

posted on December 19th, 2009, 6:47 pm

which parts are those? I'm sorry if this is any bother to you, my modding skill is very limited beyond that of ODF editing

posted on December 23rd, 2009, 7:15 pm

Please tell me where each selection goes?!?!

You said put the required ones in weapon.spr, but like I said, I don't have much modding experience outside of ODF and other basic addon stuff. Does all of that stuff there go in the weapon.spr file or only a few parts?

posted on December 24th, 2009, 8:07 pm

Why not just copy one of the shield textures, rename it 'Xshldx01' and copy it into the stock texture folder? That's what I did and it looks good.

posted on December 24th, 2009, 8:46 pm

Just did that, and you're right, works pretty damn good. Thanks.

My only problem now is that I want to get FO's "Shield's Down" effect to my A2. A direct re-naming and overwriting gets it in-game. However, it appears in the center of the ship model, and smaller than the ship. Thats why I thought that sprite editing was needed to add it properly.