[Skullar]

Hello boys and girls !

I was just wondering if you are working on FRED as well:

I am fredding a lot of stuff, and I can say there are some small features missing, and this slows down fredding missions quite significantly.
A fredders suggestion for better FRED :


1. Copy pasteing things around doesnt really work well.

First of all, If you want to copy several events from one event into another, this takes time.
The is no shortcut to swiflty adding  additional    do-nothing SEXPs, you have to repeatedly click "add new operrator" , and 2 more ones from the list to add a new sexp that can be overwritten with something you wanna copy/paste
And then you have to copy paste every single event, it is not possible to select a set.

2. Order of Sexp.

Perhaps I missed it, but so far I don't know of a possibility to change the order of SEXPS within an event. This is sometimes important ( the order matters !! ) when you deal with player orders or camera sexps.
When you find out you you made a mistake you have to copy one  sexp to another backup event, then replace this sexp with Sexp 2 through copy/paste, and then the 2nd sexp with the one from the backup. VERY inconvenient.

You should add the abilty to change order of SEXPS within an event by simple drag'n'drop




Little bugs :

I accidentally added an operator someplace I only needed a number. It was not possible to reverse that step.

it is also inconvenient if you have to work on conditions.
for example, a conditional sexp has to be enlarged or modified, you

[karajorma]

First question, are you using a 3.6.11 build from the nightly builds forum? If not, try one. I fixed a bunch of bugs with FRED in those and copy/pasting got a lot of love along with adding data, etc.

First of all, If you want to copy several events from one event into another, this takes time.
The is no shortcut to swiflty adding  additional    do-nothing SEXPs, you have to repeatedly click "add new operrator" , and 2 more ones from the list to add a new sexp that can be overwritten with something you wanna copy/paste

Why the hell are you doing that instead of using Copy/Add Paste?

2. Order of Sexp.

Perhaps I missed it, but so far I don't know of a possibility to change the order of SEXPS within an event. This is sometimes important ( the order matters !! ) when you deal with player orders or camera sexps.
When you find out you you made a mistake you have to copy one  sexp to another backup event, then replace this sexp with Sexp 2 through copy/paste, and then the 2nd sexp with the one from the backup. VERY inconvenient.

Drag and drop would be nice but to reorder an event I always simply cut out events and Add Paste them in again at the bottom.

I accidentally added an operator someplace I only needed a number. It was not possible to reverse that step.

Pretty sure I fixed that one in 3.6.11 too.

[Skullar]

Alright, kara... just some more questions then...

1. Why does Diaspora look far better that TBP ?

2. Is there a build ( 3.6.10 or later ) that will become a milestone, a pivotal element  ( like 3.6.9 was for us ) ? Or is current development just a neverending stream of updating and improving ? I just ask.... Current build doesnt seem to break compatibility with previous TBP campaigns ( yeah ! )  So , you recommend me switching to a current 3.6.11 ? Please recommend one...

3. When does Fred feature  auto-fred-mission-by-user-mindprobing SEXP ?

4. Who the hell made these pointless TBP xmas packages ? Those yellow nebulae were as necessary as influenca, even more the skyboxes offering nothing new ( you could do that with given backgrounds ALREADY ) , but requiring xmas vps installed for missions using them.

5. Why didn't we see Ivanova's entire body in the episode she walked into CIC naked ?

6. Cutscenes could use a "rotate camera around cameras current viewing direction axis" sexp.

7. It should be possible to give ships that enter via hyperspace, but WITHOUT warp effect a certain inertia they start with. Captial ships that appear with warp effect have that effect automatically, it should be possible to apply it to ships without own visible vortex. This would far better allow cutscenes showing SEVERAL SHIPS using the SAME vortex.
Currently this is not possible, not for arrivals ( they start with speed 0 by default ) and even less for departures.

8. Are shine- and glowmaps something the engine looks automatically for ( lod 0 only ? ) , or does every map have to be registered somehow ( within the pof or so )

9. What happens if you open a hyperspace vortex on the event horizon of a black hole ?

[karajorma]

1. Why does Diaspora look far better that TBP ?

First we use more modern builds. Our models were by and large made to take advantage of that and we use much higher poly models than TBP does. IIRC TBP uses around 5000 polys for B5. We use that many for a fighter.

2. Is there a build ( 3.6.10 or later ) that will become a milestone, a pivotal element  ( like 3.6.9 was for us ) ? Or is current development just a neverending stream of updating and improving ? I just ask.... Current build doesnt seem to break compatibility with previous TBP campaigns ( yeah ! )  So , you recommend me switching to a current 3.6.11 ? Please recommend one...

There's never really been a huge backwards compatibility problem with FS2_Open. Occasionally a bug or change will cause one but usually it will be resolved as quickly as possible in those cases. I wouldn't want to go back even to 3.6.10 for FREDding but that's cause I use a lot of the advanced features in 3.6.11. Whether you want to change is up to you but you might at least want to experiment with 3.6.11 and see if the issues you had a problem with are fixed. Between the bug fixes I added and using Add Paste you should be able to solve most of your issues.

3. When does Fred feature  auto-fred-mission-by-user-mindprobing SEXP ?

4-6 months after we complete the auto-fred-mission-by-user-analprobing SEXP

5. Why didn't we see Ivanova's entire body in the episode she walked into CIC naked ?

Cause it's a family show and Claudia Christian only gets her tits out in the movies.

Or Playboy.

6. Cutscenes could use a "rotate camera around cameras current viewing direction axis" sexp.

Huh?

And I don't do vector maths.

7. It should be possible to give ships that enter via hyperspace, but WITHOUT warp effect a certain inertia they start with. Captial ships that appear with warp effect have that effect automatically, it should be possible to apply it to ships without own visible vortex. This would far better allow cutscenes showing SEVERAL SHIPS using the SAME vortex.
Currently this is not possible, not for arrivals ( they start with speed 0 by default ) and even less for departures.

See 6 for why I'm not touching it.

[chief1983]

1. Why does Diaspora look far better that TBP ?

Wait, that was a serious question?  When was TBP started, 2001?  Don't get me wrong, TBP obviously looks far better than a 2001 game as it was worked on for many years after that but there are definitely features not being taken advantage of by its assets that newer mods are taking advantage of.  TBP still looks better than the first season of the show though.

[Trivial Psychic]

For 7, he wants the ability disable vortex rendering for warping ships, (an option that has been in FRED since the beginning I might add), but to preserve the arrival and departure acceleration and deceleration.  Basically, same as regular warping minus the vortex.  I used to push for this constantly back when I was an active member of TBP a few years ago.  The idea is, in B5, fighters can't warp on their own, so they either need to use a jumpgate, or warp alongside a larger ship that can warp on its own.  If you use the current system, you either have the cap-ship (in warpout scenario) accelerating away to its vortex, while the fighters just sit there and disappear, or you use the sexp to generate a vortex and have all the ships lumber towards it on waypoint paths.  All its needs (from a FRED interface perspective) are "retain acceleration" and "retain deceleration" check boxes in the events editor and possible toggle sexps.  The check boxes would be greyed-out if the box to disable vortex generation is not checked, or if the arrival/departure location is listed as a fighterbay.

[Skullar]

You got it, Trivi !

[den5]

7. It should be possible to give ships that enter via hyperspace, but WITHOUT warp effect a certain inertia they start with. Captial ships that appear with warp effect have that effect automatically, it should be possible to apply it to ships without own visible vortex. This would far better allow cutscenes showing SEVERAL SHIPS using the SAME vortex.
Currently this is not possible, not for arrivals ( they start with speed 0 by default ) and even less for departures.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,61894.msg1252242.html#msg1252242

[karajorma]

Is that just abusing the fact that you haven't provided maps for the hyperspace effect? Cause if it is you're going to get all kind of issues when people try using debug builds with that in there.