[esarai]

Hi,
I'm trying to do a new mission which involves accelerator rings. Now, why the hell would peeps need accelerator rings when they've got subspace drives? Well, this system is riddled with subspace anomalies, and long-ranged jumps cause ships to tear themselves to pieces. So, To get around that, people made Magnetic Accelerator Rings, or MARs. I need help in figuring out how to make anyone who approaches the ring get super-accelerated.

I already tried to do it with just alpha 1, writing a bunch of sexps where if pilot's distance to accelerator ring is less than 750, he gets flung out to kingdom come. This didn't work, and I have no idea why.

A copy of the sexps follows so people can tell me what I messed up:




thanks.

[Jeff Vader]

Hi,
I'm trying to do a new mission which involves accelerator rings. Now, why the hell would peeps need accelerator rings when they've got subspace drives? Well, this system is riddled with subspace anomalies, and long-ranged jumps cause ships to tear themselves to pieces. So, To get around that, people made Magnetic Accelerator Rings, or MARs. I need help in figuring out how to make anyone who approaches the ring get super-accelerated.

I already tried to do it with just alpha 1, writing a bunch of sexps where if pilot's distance to accelerator ring is less than 750, he gets flung out to kingdom come. This didn't work, and I have no idea why.

Haven't FREDded ever, but I've heard that that FRED2_Open is fun.

how do you put in images into the post rather than making a link?

Code: [Select]

[img]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk124/esaraisaiea/MARSCoding.jpg[/img] or with very wide pictures, [lvlshot]http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk124/esaraisaiea/MARSCoding.jpg[/lvlshot]

[Backslash]

You're not doing anything wrong... it's due to the way the game physics treats the Z object acceleration.  The speed was applied, but it got instantly reset to 0.

Try setting $use_newtonian_dampening in ai_profiles.tbl to YES.  This should make your example work properly.

[esarai]

Sweet. I'll try it next time I get near my FS2 computer. And using newtonian dampening should make it behave the way I want it to, too. I was trying to make the rings aligned in different paths so that the player must maneuver their craft in a very skilled manner, or else they get flung into dead-space or smashed to tiny bits.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Sweet. I'll try it next time I get near my FS2 computer. And using newtonian dampening should make it behave the way I want it to, too. I was trying to make the rings aligned in different paths so that the player must maneuver their craft in a very skilled manner, or else they get flung into dead-space or smashed to tiny bits.

Sounds horrible to a bad pilot like me

[Snail]

You're not doing anything wrong... it's due to the way the game physics treats the Z object acceleration.  The speed was applied, but it got instantly reset to 0.

Try setting $use_newtonian_dampening in ai_profiles.tbl to YES.  This should make your example work properly.

You're smart.

[esarai]

Sweet. I'll try it next time I get near my FS2 computer. And using newtonian dampening should make it behave the way I want it to, too. I was trying to make the rings aligned in different paths so that the player must maneuver their craft in a very skilled manner, or else they get flung into dead-space or smashed to tiny bits.

Sounds horrible to a bad pilot like me

Don't worry, It shouldn't be that bad... Just make sure you're pointed at the next ring and watch out for random debris strewn about.

[Backslash]

You're smart.

Why, thank you   Really, I only already knew why this was because I tried to do it myself last year.  It was sure frustrating tracking down the reason back then!

Using set-object-speed like this was the reason I looked into that last year.  It allows for so many possibilities like this -- accelerator rings, catapult launches, etc. To say nothing of the potential for cutscenes...

Actually I had done it so that this option was enabled by default (because it made almost everything about fighter movement more customizable as a result).  Unfortunately it turned out that it messed up retail FS2/FSPort missions, because capships kept too much momentum upon jumping in.  So Turey helped move it to a ai_profiles flag.  In my opinion, any mod that is not shackled to retail table data should use this flag

Looking forward to your missions, esarai...

[esarai]

woah, I can't believe you found out how to solve that. I can't even find the ai_profiles.tbl file. Man I feel stupid. Where exactly would it be?

[Snail]

woah, I can't believe you found out how to solve that. I can't even find the ai_profiles.tbl file. Man I feel stupid. Where exactly would it be?

It's an SCP added table, you'd have to make it yourself, it's not in retail FS2.

[esarai]

So, Just make ai_profiles.tbl and it's only content should be:

#Ai Profiles
$Profile name: Accelerator
$use_newtonian_dampening: YES
#End

Or wait... Do I have to include the definitions for the AI Classes?

And this doesn't seem to work. Hey Backslash, could you post the code that let you do the accelerator thingy, cause this one isn't working.

[Backslash]

Uh... maybe.  Sorry, I'm currently away from my gaming/coding computer so I can't test or give you the example mission yet, but I'll be back tomorrow.  Your event looks fine to me, though.

Try adding a +nocreate under the $Profile Name: line (and don't forget to capitalize Name), then name the file "something-aip.tbm" (you can change 'something' to whatever you want, but keep the -aip.tbm ).  If that doesn't work, scrap that and fill out a whole ai_profiles.tbl with the AI classes and all.  A simple copy paste from the sample in the wiki should be fine.

A way to test if the problem is in your ai_profiles table or not:  temporarily change the set-object-speed-z to set-object-speed-x (or y)... those directions should work no matter what.  (...unless your ship has a $Damp of 0.)

[Flaming_Sword]

Remember to have the actual AI profile set in your mission. I forgot to do that a couple of times... 

[esarai]

Okay... I changed the acceleration direction, and it works both x and y, not z. It also does not last. You'll get a boost, but when you get out of range, you lose all your momentum, really fast. I'm going to try and make it work with booleans: If you've gotten close enough to the ring, then accelerated = true, and as long as accelerated = true you will have a velocity of 1400 or some such.  Means I need to make decelerator rings.

version 2:

speed : Integer Variable for defining speed
accelerated : boolean value to determine whether to apply speed or let pilot control his velocity.

If close to ring, add accelerator power to current velocity, save as speed variable.

speed variable is constantly applied while accelerated is true.

That brings me to another question... How do you make an event modify a variable? (making it behave kinda like "if A is true, then 350 + B = B")

[Jake2447]

what are you using as the ring?
knossos or a new model?

[esarai]

I'm using an Arcadia, but I intend to make a specialized model soon.

[Retsof]

This mission sounds fun.  I hope it is a standalone so that I can play it when it's done.

[Jake2447]

I'm using an Arcadia, but I intend to make a specialized model soon.

arcadia as a ring?

[Droid803]

The Arcadia has a hole in it, do you forget?

[griffon67]

wouldn't it be cooler to use the construction rings ? (I forgot the name of these ring)
they are the one you don't see int he campaign but used in multiplayer
EDIT : wasn't it the ganymede ?