Replace Weapon Questions

posted on July 12th, 2011, 11:13 pm

I have two questions about replace weapons.

First would it be possible for a replace weapon to destroy a ship. I was thinking about using it with a delay to make ships appear temporarily.

Second is it possible to use a replace weapon as a toggle weapon that drains special energy and then when the special energy is up either fires itself again or another replace weapon (just something to let it return to the previous ship).

posted on July 12th, 2011, 11:23 pm

Yeah, you can make it remove a ship place a ship. make a ship disappear and then reappear again etc.

If I were you, I would have a look at the steamrunners torpedo weapon.  it should do what you want.  

Let me know if you want to know more than if its possible too.   I can explain more if you want.

posted on July 12th, 2011, 11:27 pm

well the 1st option is possible if u just want the ship to disappear (no explosion) but requires use of a blank object) would be like changing the ship into an unused pod or something like that) second option is kindda doable 1 will the ship have other weapons that drain energy if not then get the ship to start with 0 energy (1st rep weapon drains it) and then wen it fully recharges it activates the weapon (id use the energydisplaymode that has a countdown till fully charged option), if it does contain other weapons that drain energy then i suggest give it a timer

posted on July 13th, 2011, 12:30 am

Yeah, you can make it remove a ship place a ship. make a ship disappear and then reappear again etc.

If I were you, I would have a look at the steamrunners torpedo weapon.  it should do what you want.  

Let me know if you want to know more than if its possible too.   I can explain more if you want.

I'll take a look at the steam runner when I'm back at my computer tomorrow. Cheers.

well the 1st option is possible if u just want the ship to disappear (no explosion) but requires use of a blank object) would be like changing the ship into an unused pod or something like that) second option is kindda doable 1 will the ship have other weapons that drain energy if not then get the ship to start with 0 energy (1st rep weapon drains it) and then wen it fully recharges it activates the weapon (id use the energydisplaymode that has a countdown till fully charged option), if it does contain other weapons that drain energy then i suggest give it a timer

For the first idea if you made it a pod you'd end up with a random object in the game until the end (not sure if that woulld make any difference) I have just realised however it might be possible to transform it into a uball as I believe you can give them a set lifespan. I'd forgotten how great uballs are. Before the replaceweapon it was possible to create some fantastic effects with the uball like transporting entire minefields into space etc...

For the second idea I think I'll stick with with a fixed energy cost and a timer then as I only wanted  the weapon to use around half of the special energy. Not all as it would with the countdown method.

Thanks for the suggestions.

posted on July 13th, 2011, 2:05 am

Yes, until recently, a uball was called a trigger. many weapons use them in FO.

However, with the instant replaceweapon, you can make anything have a lifespan.  You give it an instant reeplaceweapon with a delay.  the item you replaced will stay and then replace once the delay is up.  you can replace it back to anything you want. 

Lotsa cool stuff already in FO.

posted on July 13th, 2011, 2:45 am

Yes, I'd recommend using u_ball_obj weapons - FO uses u_ball combined with replaceWeapon (and a lot of times utribeam) to produce a number of linked effects, and you should be able to duplicate what you want using this methodology .

[Anonymous]

posted on July 13th, 2011, 4:25 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on July 13th, 2011, 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ok New question.

Is it possible to use a replaceweapon as a non-special (special=0). I'm trying to get the weapon to trigger when the ship starts attacking an enemy (regardless of special weapon autonomy etc...) but currently it has a very weird effect where the ship basically hurls itself at whatever it's attacking.

Edit: Just to be clear, when special=0 on the replaceweapon when the ship attacks another the replaceweapon activates however the resulting replacement appears on the enemy where a normal weapon like a torpedo would have hit.

[Anonymous]

posted on July 13th, 2011, 4:52 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on July 13th, 2011, 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, and no.  replaceweapons can activate via cannonimp I believe, but it depends on what you are trying to do.

One example is a mod I saw a while ago that allowed fighters to launch as soon as a ship was in range of an enemy. It would 'attack' the enemy ship by launching fighters.   

What exactly are you trying to achieve?


EDIT: also, check out the replacementkeepowner line.  (spelling?)  if you set this to 1, the replaceweapon will add whatever is on your list to the map, and the ship that triggered it will stay.  It sounds like your weapon is replacing the trigger ship to the target location in which case you should change the replacement class with whatever you are firing, and add the replacementkeepowner line.

[Anonymous]

posted on July 13th, 2011, 5:18 pm

Last edited by Anonymous on July 13th, 2011, 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

One example is a mod I saw a while ago that allowed fighters to launch as soon as a ship was in range of an enemy. It would 'attack' the enemy ship by launching fighters.   

That is pretty much what I'm trying to achieve but instead of launching fighters I want to convert the ship from one type to another.

If we call the types shipA and shipB when shipA attacks an enemy I want a replaceweapon to trigger converting shipA into shipB.

I thought be changing special=1 to special=0 the replace weapon would be used like a normal weapon whenever it attacks an enemy ship.

Instead when shipA changed into shipB shipB, instead of appearing where shipA was appeared on the enemy ships shields.

Edit: I feel like I'm making this overly confusing I'm trying to set up some fighters that behave sort of similar to x-wings from star wars where they 'deploy into attack position' on seeing an enemy. The fighters use a replace weapon to do this. Essentially I just want to trigger that replace weapon when the fighters attack an enemy.

I don't know if that makes it any clearer.

posted on July 13th, 2011, 6:00 pm

I see.  And you want it automatic.  I don't know actually, it seems possible, but I only know what I've had experience with, so I am not sure about this one.

I will wait for doms response on this one.

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on July 13th, 2011, 6:32 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on July 13th, 2011, 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah yup, that's possible - I'd try taking a look at the Saber's Cover Fire capability while using the Hyper Impulse drive. While in combat (firing normal weapons), the vessel can trigger cover fire (which is a replaceWeapon) on itself, making it untargetable, as the vessel it is replaced with is untargetable.

EDIT: to clarify, while not in combat (not firing), the Saber never triggers the Cover Fire replaceWeapon.

posted on July 13th, 2011, 7:41 pm

The way cover fire works is to fire a utrinumbeam at an enemy. This utrinum beam creates a uball_obj. This uball_obj fires off 2 unitorps at the closest allies. These unitorps add an extra replace weapon to any federation allied ships they hit. This replace weapon automatically triggers the replacement of that ship into cover fire mode.

That is sure as hell more complicated than it should be. I wish special=0 worked without my ship teleporting itself into the shields of the ship it's attacking. I wonder how many unitorps I should fire to make sure it hits the ship that I'm trying to replace.

Thanks anyway dom

posted on July 13th, 2011, 8:01 pm

Unfortunately my knowledge is limited to how current stuff in Fleet Ops works, and the occasional extrapolation from that coding - there may well be a easier way to do it, but unfortunately Optec does not have too much time, so it is doubtful he will have the chance to explain it here.

Hm, you said the vessel replaces itself to the target location? Have you used replacementXClassXPosition?
Posting your ODFs here might be the best option, as it is darn difficult to see what you tried to do so far

posted on July 13th, 2011, 8:12 pm

Unfortunately my knowledge is limited to how current stuff in Fleet Ops works, and the occasional extrapolation from that coding - there may well be a easier way to do it, but unfortunately Optec does not have too much time, so it is doubtful he will have the chance to explain it here.

Hm, you said the vessel replaces itself to the target location? Have you used replacementXClassXPosition?
Posting your ODFs here might be the best option, as it is darn difficult to see what you tried to do so far

Well here's the code:

Code: Select all

wpnname = "Incursion Armor"
tooltip = "Incursion Armor"
verbosetooltip = "Deploy the incursion's ablative armor"
buttonslot = 25
showonlyifhastech = 1
replacementmode = 2
replacement0Condition = "fed_incursion"
replacement0class0 = "fed_incursionM"
replacement1Condition = "fed_incursionFM"
replacement1class0 = "fed_incursionFMM"
replacementignorefleetcap = 1
specialenergycost = 200
dilithiumcost = 0
latinumcost = 0
biomattercost = 0
replacementkeepname = 1
replacementmaintainorders = 1
classlabel = "replaceweapon"
special = 1
replacementregisterasnew = 0
replacementcreationtype = 1
overridesubsystem = 0
speakonattack = 0
attackspeech = 0
replacementAnimate = 1

Adding in the line replacement0class0position = 0,0,0 didn't help either.

I guess you can test it with any replace weapon however just change the special = 1 to 0 and then attack the nearest thing to you.