Ship sizes and turn rates

[Tryptic]

posted on February 28th, 2011, 6:02 pm

Last edited by Tryptic on February 28th, 2011, 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hey guys, I'm planning to create my own personal Fleet Ops mod.  It's mostly for the programming experience, and I don't even know if I'll release it (I'd have to go around getting permission of course)

I need to know, is there a text command somewhere that determines the display size and collision size of a model?  For example, if I wanted to make a cube bigger can I do this just by changing a line, or do I need to actually open the models in Maya or another program to modify them?

Also, can I modify the agility of a ship i.e. its acceleration and turn speeds?  This one seems more likely to be a text command.

posted on February 28th, 2011, 6:46 pm

I assume you mean physical size of the model by display size: that is determined  by the ODF command, scaleSOD.

Collision size can be altered by the shieldPad command, as well as several commands in the RTS_CFG.h file.

Acceleration and turn speeds are modified by the physics files

Happy modding!

[Tryptic]

posted on February 28th, 2011, 8:03 pm

Last edited by Tryptic on February 28th, 2011, 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sweeeet.  Thanks.

There's a big difference between studying Fleet Ops and CREATING Fleet Ops, as I'm learning.  I just learned how to create SQL databases and convert between SQL, Excel documents, and text files.  Now I need to enter a buttload of data and create a Java program to lay down the odf's.

My first goal is to recreate the entire odf folder, using my own database and scripts.  Then I'll have some fun with the ship stats, but right now I have no intention of adding or removing anything.

posted on February 28th, 2011, 11:37 pm

Collision size can be altered by the shieldPad command, as well as several commands in the RTS_CFG.h file.

Could you please list each comand and exactly which file it can be found in.

posted on February 28th, 2011, 11:52 pm

Oh I see, the odf's can change the size of the SOD's, but I can't find that command in the existing odf's because the SOD's are using their normal size right now.

Will this "shieldpad" command cause fleets to act differently, as adding a warbird to a group of small ships causes them to spread out to fit the largest ship?

posted on March 1st, 2011, 12:23 am

I'm not sure if there are more commands, but there might be

scaleSod is inherited by all GameObjects - default is 1

shieldPad is inherited by all GameObjects and changes not just the collision radius, but also the radius of the shields themselves.

In RTS_CFG.h:

// How far apart should ships be when moving in formation
float FORMATION_SPACING = 100.0;

// How quickly do we rotate away from collision (1.57 is very quick)
float MAX_PREVENTION_ROTATION = 0.6;

// How much the last cycle's collision avoidance force should factor into
// this cycle's.  Must be less than 1.0, and should likely not be very close
// to 1.0.
float OLD_AVOIDANCE_FORCE_WEIGHT = 0.7;

// How far ahead to project a collision
float COLLISION_LOOK_AHEAD_TIME = 1.4;

// How much wider than reality to pretend objects are for collision avoidance
float COLLISION_SAFETY_MARGIN = 1.2;

// We're adding a special repulsion on the y-axis for collision avoidance.
float Y_REPULSION = 0.5;

posted on March 1st, 2011, 2:20 am

That is some cool stuff right there.  I need to take a look at these files 

Wait, does that RTS_CFG.h apply to all ships?  I notice in the odf's ships sometimes reference different physics files but I don't see them anywhere in the file structure.

posted on March 1st, 2011, 2:28 am

Yup, these CFG (config) settings apply to all ships (except there are some exceptions, like decomisioning rates etc) . However, it seems I misslead you. If you want the real physics of the ships, you should check out all the physics files.

Some names are smooth_physics , rotate_physics , noroll_physics , fighter_physics ... you get the idea

EDIT: oh, and those are all ODFs

posted on March 1st, 2011, 2:48 am

Wow, so it's really spread out.

That's okay, it's the price to pay for having everything accessible to be modified!  This project is really getting me excited.  I'm about to start work on my first IPhone game ('Cause that's what noob game designers do, apparently) and for the first time I really know how to do stuff.  I'm learning more on my own than 3 years of college, where the teachers are ESL and they throw in calculus and chemistry classes for no reason.

My database is growing quickly, and I'm deciding whether to store offense/defense/building information separately or in one big table with NULL for ships that don't have guns/aren't built/etc.

posted on March 1st, 2011, 2:57 am

Sounds cool

posted on March 1st, 2011, 4:23 am

What exactly is the shieldPad and how do I alter it?

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on March 1st, 2011, 4:30 am

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on March 1st, 2011, 4:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

This is all I know about the command so far - the work in progress section of the modding guide has been a bit on hold while waiting for Doca 

shieldPad
Float, Default: 0.5

Can be a positive or negative integer and is used to change the collision area of a vessel or station, but it also changes the radius of the shield bubble, so you shouldn't make it too small or the shields will cut through what they should be defending. Ship avoidance is based on shield bubble size.

It's a GameObject base ODF command - thus inherited (and therefore usable) by all of the below

# ConstructionObject - Unreleased

ConstructionObject ODF commands
# Craft - Unreleased

Craft ODF commands

    * CargoShip - Unreleased

    * Colony - Unreleased

    * Freighter - Unreleased

    * MineArray - Unreleased

    * Producer - Unreleased

          o ConstructionRig - Unreleased

          o Evolver - Unreleased

          o MiningStation - Unreleased

                + TradingStation - Unreleased

          o Planet - Unreleased

          o ResearchStation - Unreleased

          o Shipyard - Unreleased

                + Starbase - Unreleased

    * PlanetMiningBase - Unreleased

    * RepairShip - Unreleased

    * ResearchPod - Unreleased

    * SensorArray - Unreleased

    * Scavenger - Unreleased

# TerrainObject - Unreleased

TerrainObject ODF commands

    * AreaEffectObject - Unreleased

          o BlackHole - Unreleased

          o IonStorm - Unreleased

          o Nebula - Unreleased

          o Wormhole - Unreleased

    * AsteroidField - Unreleased

    * BackgroundObject - Unreleased

          o BackgroundPlanet - Unreleased

    * LatinumNebula - Unreleased

    * Scrap - Unreleased

    * UltritiumBall - Unreleased

EDIT: here's a picture attached

Attachments

posted on March 1st, 2011, 4:49 am

Is this a FO only command or is it found in stock too?

posted on March 1st, 2011, 5:01 am

It works in Stock as well Just undocumented by the other modding guides I believe 

In fact, I was just perusing some old posts for more information on defunct commands, and found out that the FO devs had discussed this command back in 2008, and you asked them what this command meant (seems Doca didn't know at the time)

posted on March 1st, 2011, 5:05 am

So if I insert it into the Craft.odf it will tricle down to all the other ships files right? Also what is the equivalent FO file?