Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Eishtmo on October 22, 2001, 10:52:00 am
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Just a few questions I have. Please answer all to the best of your ablity, thank you.
Modding:
1. Can the campaign briefing screen from FS1 be transfered into FS2?
2. Do campaign briefing .ani’s have to be .ani’s? Could they be stills instead?
3. If we set a fighter’s reactor to zero, what kinds of effects could we expect?
For example, if the ship rearmed, would the weapon and afterburner energy be completely restored?
4. Can a bomb be designed that uses the momentum from the launching fighter as its lone source for velocity? I mean, can a Newtonian bomb be made?
5. Can a weapon be designed that only has one gunpoint without affecting the fighter? Meaning that you only see one shot go off instead of two.
6. Could the table data for a given fighter be tested and partially implimented before the model for the fighter is complete?
7. Without going into detail, how difficult is it to make a cutscene file?
8. Is there a limit to the number of voice files FS can handle in any given campaign?
9. Know anyone who could mix various voice files (.wav files) into one? Know anyone
who could do it well?
10. Can a primary weapon be made to fire in bursts of three to four shots per trigger pull?
11. Can a primary weapon be made to have tracers every fifth shot or so?
Missions:
1. Is there any way to prevent friendly and hostile ships from firing on each other until a specific event is triggered?
2. How close can friendly and hostile ships come before automatically attacking each other? Could they ram each other without attacking each other soon after?
3. If a fighter has two seats, is there any way to allow the backseater to speak during a
mission?
4. On average, how many SEXP’s can an individual mission take? Is there a limit on the number of voice files that could be put into one mission?
5. Can two friendly fighters attack each other?
6. How long does it take to produce the average mission?
7. Can you scan bombs? If so, can such an event be an objective?
8. Are the triggers for cutscenes difficult to impliment?
Modeling:
1. Can a ship be designed that is mostly hollow, allowing easy transit through the
centerline of the ship?
2. Would it be possible to build an Arcadia sized scaffold (think Statue of Liberty style)?
3. How long does it take to produce the average fighter model? Capital ship model?
That's it. Your help is appretiated.
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Visit Warpstorm. (//"http://www.warpstorm.com") Do it now.
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I know there is a method, but all I see is madness.
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Here is all of the ones that I know:
1. Is there any way to prevent friendly and hostile ships from firing on each other until a specific event is triggered?
You can use the "protect ship" tag
Could they ram each other without attacking each other soon after?
Again, use the protect ship tag after the two ships ram each other
3. If a fighter has two seats, is there any way to allow the backseater to speak during a mission?
I think that the com .ani has to be set for each message. The "persona" part for ships is only for messages from wingmen. If you use one .ani for the pilot and another for the copilot, it should work.
5. Can two friendly fighters attack each other?
In one of the Silent Threat missions, a wing of Lokis attacks both you and the Shivans, all while displaying a friendly iff. I'm not sure how it worked, but it was probably done with the attack order instead of simply putting it in the mission. Freindly ships will not fire beams at each other, however.
8. Are the triggers for cutscenes difficult to impliment?
There is something in the mission file that alludes to cutscenes:
#Plot Info
$Tour: XSTR("Blah", -1)
$Pre-Briefing Cutscene: Blah
$Pre-Mission Cutscene: Blah
My guess is that if you want, you can insert them manually in wordpad, but they can only be before the briefing or before the mission.
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Originally posted by Eishtmo:
Just a few questions I have. Please answer all to the best of your ablity, thank you.
Modeling:
1. Can a ship be designed that is mostly hollow, allowing easy transit through the
centerline of the ship?
2. Would it be possible to build an Arcadia sized scaffold (think Statue of Liberty style)?
3. How long does it take to produce the average fighter model? Capital ship model?
That's it. Your help is appretiated.
1/ Yeah, I think so, but you'd have to design it specifically to be hollow. This would have an impact on the detail of the ship, as polys would be taken up with making the 'hole'... that said, you've given me an idea (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Also, i belive Venom did flyable models for the Descent mod to represent hollowed out asteroids, etc
2/Yep, don't see why not.... could be technically tough, but not impossible
3/Depends on the model complexity (obviously), and the time for interface work. For me, the actual building & texturing process takes around 8-12 hours for LOD0 of a fighter, and 10-20 for a cpaital ship... LOding takes another hour or so, as does debris... pofe editing is very short (30mins) for a fighter, 1-3 hours for a capital ship (inc. paths).
Interface artwork for a flyable ship takes aroun half an hour, and tbl editing 15-30 minutes....
(not including testing)
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Mods:
2. Sure. Just have a single-frame ANI.
4. I believe the answer is no.
5. I don't see why not... if worse comes to worse, put two gunpoints on top of each other.
6. Again, why not? Just use another similar model.
10. Well, with a very quick weapon recharge and fire rate and a high drain, you could get something like that...
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Must. . . Have. . . More. . . Answers!
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Visit Warpstorm. ("http://www.warpstorm.com") Do it now.
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I know there is a method, but all I see is madness.
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Mods
11. I don't think so.
Missions:
4. In general, there is no limit to SEXPs, and usually, the more the better. As for voice file limits- none that I know of.
6. Again, varies greatly. Depends on how good you want to to be, and how well tested. (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif) I think an average mission can be made pretty well with about 5-10 hours of dedicated work.
7. No. Not unless the bomb is technically a ship.
There ya go. (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
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Thanks to you all. This information should come in handy.
Any other opinions on any of these, BTW?
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Visit Warpstorm. ("http://www.warpstorm.com") Do it now.
---------
I know there is a method, but all I see is madness.
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Which specific ones do you want more info on? (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
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Originally posted by Anduril:
4. In general, there is no limit to SEXPs, and usually, the more the better. As for voice file limits- none that I know of.
Uh, there is a limit on sexps, but it´s pretty hard to reach it... I hit it once. I used alot chatter (and didn´t know the send-message-list sexp) and that´s why I hit it. You probably don´t need to worry, tho...
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Originally posted by Setekh:
Which specific ones do you want more info on? (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif)
Any and all. If you've got better ideas than those currently proposed, I would love to hear it.
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Visit Warpstorm. ("http://www.warpstorm.com") Do it now.
---------
I know there is a method, but all I see is madness.
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Originally posted by Eishtmo:
7. Without going into detail, how difficult is it to make a cutscene file?
Its damned impossible unless Intercrap decides to let people use its video compression...
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For MVEs:
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/Forum13/HTML/000889.html ("http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/Forum13/HTML/000889.html")
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the firing multable bursts of primary weapon fire, you can't realy do it put if you make a trail with what looks like more shots and it's fast enough it will look like what you want.
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Bobboau, bringing you products that work.............. in theory
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Good idea... use a POF model or something with 5-6 "bullets" in a row, and make a sound that would go with it...
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good idea
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Hey, thanks guys. All of this should come in really handy assuming I decide to actually use it.
I still want to know about Modding #1, and #3, but I'm not too worried about it. Thanks again.
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Visit Warpstorm. ("http://www.warpstorm.com") Do it now.
---------
I know there is a method, but all I see is madness.
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Originally posted by Anduril:
Good idea... use a POF model or something with 5-6 "bullets" in a row, and make a sound that would go with it...
Why not simply drop the refire rates until you get the ROF you want like I did in 'Starfighter'?
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Modding:
1. Can the campaign briefing screen from FS1 be transfered into FS2?
I don't see why not, as they're just stored as PCX files in the .VP. Find out what specific file you want to replace and put a file of the same name in the data\interface dir.
2. Do campaign briefing .ani’s have to be .ani’s? Could they be stills instead?
It was said already, but I'll say it again: make a single-frame ANI.
3. If we set a fighter’s reactor to zero, what kinds of effects could we expect?
For example, if the ship rearmed, would the weapon and afterburner energy be completely restored?
Set it to zero where, in the TBL or as a SEXP?
4. Can a bomb be designed that uses the momentum from the launching fighter as its lone source for velocity? I mean, can a Newtonian bomb be made?
Maybe. For one, you can give it a top speed of zero. Second, ships have a few lines in the TBL file about momentum; I don't know if bombs have those lines, but even if not, copy-pasting from the SHIPS.TBL might work...
5. Can a weapon be designed that only has one gunpoint without affecting the fighter? Meaning that you only see one shot go off instead of two.
If by without affecting the fighter you mean without doing any POF editing, then I think the answer is no.
6. Could the table data for a given fighter be tested and partially implimented before the model for the fighter is complete?
Yes. Just change the POF line in the SHIPS.TBL entry to the POF name of another, similar if possible, ship.
7. Without going into detail, how difficult is it to make a cutscene file?
Ask Kazan, I think he knows the nitty-gritty of the file formats and such.
8. Is there a limit to the number of voice files FS can handle in any given campaign?
Shouldn't be.
9. Know anyone who could mix various voice files (.wav files) into one? Know anyone who could do it well?
If you don't find anyone else, I could have a shot at it. I've done plenty of sound-editing work, but just don't ask me to generate from scratch the sound of a Shivan on the toilet or anything... (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/lol.gif)
10. Can a primary weapon be made to fire in bursts of three to four shots per trigger pull?
You could have half of that effect by making it a huge energy consumer, but that wouldn't prevent a single-shot trigger pull...
11. Can a primary weapon be made to have tracers every fifth shot or so?
Again, you can simulate it, but you can't actually have the engine display a different glow map for every 5th shot.
Missions:
4. On average, how many SEXP’s can an individual mission take? Is there a limit on the number of voice files that could be put into one mission?
I reached the mission message limit in a mission I made, but I don't know about the SEXP's. I think there is, though - there is for everything else...
6. How long does it take to produce the average mission?
Definetly depends on the desired quality and complexity.
7. Can you scan bombs? If so, can such an event be an objective?
Not as such.
Modeling:
1. Can a ship be designed that is mostly hollow, allowing easy transit through the
centerline of the ship?
Yes. Look at my GTExD, for example. (http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~freespace/ubb/noncgi/smile.gif) Or the PVI Karnak.
2. Would it be possible to build an Arcadia sized scaffold (think Statue of Liberty style)?
Easier then you might think. It may depend on what proggie you use, though, but this is the general idea:
- Duplicate the Arcadia mesh
- scale it up a wee bit
- Boolean subtract the original mesh from the larger one, resulting in a "shell" that fits the Arcadia perfectly.
- create a rectangle long enough to transfix the arcadia "shell", and duplicate it to form a whole line of rectangles side by side. Then duplicate that line on top of itself so you have a whole wall of them. Be sure to leave thin spaces in between them. Lastly, boolean subtract the rectangles from the shell, which should leavs you with a pretty holey shell. Do the same with the other direction for a full grid effect.
- OR create a grid of squares with even but small spacing in between them. Extend them all into long rectangles, and then follow the instruction above.
3. How long does it take to produce the average fighter model? Capital ship model?
Depends if you can do the whole process or if you need to rely on someone else to do a step or 3.
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America, stand assured that Israel truly understands what you are going through.
"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Just becase you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"To err is human; to really screw up you need a computer."
Creator of the Sandvich Bar ("http://michael.randelman.com"), the CapShip Turret Upgrade, the Complete FS2 Ship List and the System Backgrounds List (all available from the site)
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A Shivan on the toilet...
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I dont wanna know...
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Originally posted by Alikchi:
A Shivan on the toilet...
*crunch*
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America, stand assured that Israel truly understands what you are going through.
"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Just becase you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"To err is human; to really screw up you need a computer."
Creator of the Sandvich Bar ("http://michael.randelman.com"), the CapShip Turret Upgrade, the Complete FS2 Ship List and the System Backgrounds List (all available from the site)