Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Titan on February 26, 2008, 07:01:06 am

Title: Meteor showers?
Post by: Titan on February 26, 2008, 07:01:06 am
wouldn't it be cool if, say, you were about to make a run on a convoy, and all the sudden it and most other ships in the area get pulverized by a sudden meteor shower?

it would probably be kinda simple, simply make a ship that looks like a meteor, make it go on a course so that it collided with something, and have it set to kamikaze.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: colecampbell666 on February 26, 2008, 07:57:43 am
Have fun.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Woolie Wool on February 26, 2008, 08:42:50 am
The idea of meteor showers in space makes the fog nebulas in FS2 seem realistic by comparison. Meteors are rocks in space that burn up in a planetary atmosphere, and only in a planetary atmosphere. In space, you might as well make the transport go through an asteroid field, because meteors are just rocks.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Jeff Vader on February 26, 2008, 08:48:52 am
Yeah. You might as well throw in some rainbows while you're at it. Or tornadoes.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Titan on February 26, 2008, 03:00:28 pm
i'll do both once i'm 20

what i mean is sorta like in episode 5 of star wars, when the asteroids looked like they almost homed in a the falcon.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Snail on February 26, 2008, 03:03:35 pm
what i mean is sorta like in episode 5 of star wars, when the asteroids looked like they almost homed in a the falcon.

IRL the nearest asteroid would be kilometers away.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Polpolion on February 26, 2008, 04:05:54 pm
IRL you'd be lucky to see any asteroids if you were plopped into a random point within the solar asteroid belt.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Woolie Wool on February 26, 2008, 04:23:22 pm
i'll do both once i'm 20

what i mean is sorta like in episode 5 of star wars, when the asteroids looked like they almost homed in a the falcon.

Make the ships fly through an active asteroid field, and that's exactly what happens. Play the :v: missions "Rebels and Renegades" and "Paving the Way" again.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Topgun on February 26, 2008, 06:11:07 pm
what about really tiny, fast meteors?
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Scooby_Doo on February 26, 2008, 06:25:22 pm
what about really tiny, fast meteors?

.....with LaZeRs!!!!  LOL
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Herra Tohtori on February 26, 2008, 06:28:03 pm
what about really tiny, fast meteors?

I believe a random ship destruction SEXP would do exactly this. General probability of impact set by mission designer; individual ship's probability to get hit derived from the ship's volume...

You wouldn't even need to do any graphics effects because the rocks would be practically invisible.

Bang, you're dead. Sounds real fun. :rolleyes:


Might work as a plot element, but not as an in-game hazard.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Topgun on February 26, 2008, 06:31:44 pm
that gave me an idea. can you change the texture of a ship many times during a mission via sexps? I could make it look like a convoy just got hammered right when you jump in.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 26, 2008, 06:33:17 pm
Use waypoints to create 8 any corners then use distance < to simulate entering the path of the "mini asteroid storm" and rand time/damage sexps to simulate non uniform detonation.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Topgun on February 26, 2008, 06:34:47 pm
I want the ship to have holes lol
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 26, 2008, 06:39:15 pm
"Any" should read "box" (predictive text :)) on second thoughts only one waypoint point could be used with a distance less than. Are you gonna have this happen in an asteroid field inner box? (As defined in the asteroid editor)
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Topgun on February 26, 2008, 06:44:22 pm
no, I don't think that would look cool. if their is going to be "dust" flying around I think it would come from a far off explosion. not a clump of rocks. but what I want to know is can you change a texture via sexps. and if you can make said texture animated ;7.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Warp Shadow on February 26, 2008, 06:47:45 pm
no, I don't think that would look cool. if their is going to be "dust" flying around I think it would come from a far off explosion. not a clump of rocks. but what I want to know is can you change a texture via sexps. and if you can make said texture animated ;7.

Yes and yes.

For a "meteor shower" use the asteroid field editor in FRED and check the box to make it "active".
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Titan on February 26, 2008, 07:23:30 pm
I want the ship to have holes lol

have a convoy a derelicts with eletrical shocks mving over there surface, and GTD legion-style hole in them... that would acually make a pretty good plot elemet for- *runs away before anyone can take his idea*
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 27, 2008, 02:28:12 am
You want holes, they need to be modelled, entered into the tables and then use a ship class change sexp to create the illusion. Lol this is looking to be pretty fun now i put more than 5 seconds of tired thought into it :)
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Titan on February 27, 2008, 09:02:39 am
seriously, its 3 am... go to bed.  :lol:
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 27, 2008, 10:50:34 am
Not where i am :) !
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Topgun on February 27, 2008, 11:31:22 am
You want holes, they need to be modelled, entered into the tables and then use a ship class change sexp to create the illusion. Lol this is looking to be pretty fun now i put more than 5 seconds of tired thought into it :)

not little holes.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 27, 2008, 12:09:32 pm
I know what you mean, like the gtd legion right? Well you'd have to take an existing model, the triton for example. Convert it to a cob/whatever, add gaping holes
And texture it. Then convert it to a pof, give it a tbm and use sexps to change ship type/model in game :) unless someone can think of an
Easier way?
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Solatar on February 27, 2008, 01:30:04 pm
Create a weapon that uses a small asteroid as its model. IIRC, Sexps exist that "create-weapon" at a specified location in space. I think you can enter "rand" values to describe the point, and thus create an area that is being shot at. I messed around with this to create the effect of anti-orbital cannons firing with little accuracy at a large ship in orbit.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Titan on February 28, 2008, 06:54:50 am
orbital cannons huh?

 :drevil:
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: haloboy100 on February 28, 2008, 07:27:03 pm
Anti Orbital :P
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Solatar on February 28, 2008, 09:47:49 pm
Yeah. Ground based cannons designed to fend off spacecraft.

...Although both are cool in their own, explosive ways.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: haloboy100 on February 28, 2008, 10:00:24 pm
I just realized how cool that would be. In orbit around a planet, to see a huge projectile rip through a capital ship from the planet.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Solatar on February 28, 2008, 10:36:30 pm
The way I had it set up, it was more of a passive hazard. The shots weren't aimed. They just went from the direction of the planet in the skybox towards away from it. They'd hit anything they came into contact with. Dealt some minor damage to the capital ship, but really was only causing damage to make things look cooler and more exciting.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: JGZinv on February 29, 2008, 01:10:01 am
Planetary Ion Cannon - SW ESB   :D
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Warp Shadow on February 29, 2008, 06:14:56 pm
Naaah! For cooler and more exciting you have lots of fast firing minor nuisance cannons in the background so there's lasers flying everywhere. You use anti-orbital cannons for ship ripping pwnage. :drevil:
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Mobius on February 29, 2008, 06:25:27 pm
For a "meteor shower" use the asteroid field editor in FRED and check the box to make it "active".

Any chance to give asteroid trails? They would be perfect!
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Snail on March 01, 2008, 03:01:00 am
Naaah! For cooler and more exciting you have lots of fast firing minor nuisance cannons in the background so there's lasers flying everywhere. You use anti-orbital cannons for ship ripping pwnage. :drevil:

Uhh no, not a good idea.

Apparently, there is a maximum of something like 700 shots able to be fired at any one time in the game. So if you have 2 capships with 30 turrets, firing 25 bullets a second each, you've already got 1,500 shots in the game area. So when the player fires his guns, nothing comes out of the barrels except the firing sound (which doesn't travel through space anyway :P).

Any chance to give asteroid trails? They would be perfect!

That wouldn't be too hard to implement (I believe) but it would be extremely hard to make it look good... What kind of trails would we use?
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Solatar on March 01, 2008, 10:11:20 am
Dust particles?
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Mobius on March 01, 2008, 10:20:05 am
BtRL trails of fighters, I think they're ok.
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on March 01, 2008, 10:21:31 am
Not for asteroids though? Are talking bitmap or particles here?
Title: Re: Meteor showers?
Post by: Mobius on March 01, 2008, 10:30:08 am
Maybe they work if we set the trails as thrusters originating from the center of the asteroid or something else.