Modding, Mission Design, and Coding > FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP)

Objecttypes overhaul - modder feedback request

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AdmiralRalwood:
So I've been working on updating the old "objecttypes 2.0" patch to the current codebase, and I'm starting to feel worried about potential loss of functionality.

Each ship class can only have one objecttype (also called "class type"), which is determined by which objecttype's name appears first in its list of flags. However, nothing stops a ship from having more than one "type flag" in its flag list—you can have a fighter that is also a transport, for instance. How much of a problem this is depends on what behavior you're expecting. FSO will define some of its behavior by which one is listed first (thereby defining its "class type"), but otherwise, it will behave like both at once, counting as a strikecraft in some situations and a transport in others (and, if given cargo, would display the name of the cargo, which fighters cannot).

However, and here's where we get into the reason I created this topic, fully moving all objecttype behavior into objecttypes.tbl flags (which this overhaul would do) would break the ability to combine types simply by giving a class multiple type flags. Instead, you'd need to define a new objecttype (named, say, "fighter/transport") which contained the exact combination of flags you desired. You could customize which orders made sense for the new type, specify exactly in which ways it is more like a fighter and which ways it is more like a transport, and all sorts of other fun things objecttypes.tbl lets you do.

What you could not do is then have anything with both flags "fighter" and "transport" automatically use the new objecttype, which means a drastic behavioral difference from FSO 3.8.0 (or, indeed, any previous version of FSO).

So I want feedback from modders. Specifically, how do you use class types? Do you just copy whatever flags were used by the retail ship class most similar to what you want to create? Do you specifically combine different type flags to get new behaviors? Do you ever use objecttypes.tbl for anything? Would you like to? Would it cause problems if how FSO handled type flags suddenly changed drastically? Let me know your thoughts.

Spoon:
I for one was not even aware that you could combine these flags for different behaviors. I've personally only ever used them solo. So I wouldn't miss this functionality personally.
The objecttypes.tbl I use with WoD is (for as far as I can remember) unchanged from the retail one, since it has a pretty good selection of classtypes.

0rph3u5:
Like Spoon I was unaware that the previous functionality was a thing. I always assumed those flags were mutually exclusive.

I did experiment with the objecttypes.tbl because of AI target priorities (link) but ultimately scrapped it because it didn't offer the functionality I needed (which is to help me create ships that exclusively target bombs to simulate a "ius in bello"-regime).

chief1983:
Does the FSCRP have a large collection of relevant tables that could be scanned for the relevant line quickly, and checked to see if anyone has ever combined these types?

AdmiralRalwood:
If nobody ever combined them before, it would greatly simplify things, because then I can pretty much just use the current paradigm as-is.

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