[JC128]

Hey everyone, I have been playing Freespace and Freespace 2 since they came out but I have never touched the editor till a few days ago (shocking isnt it?)

Well I wanted to make a mission in which it was the player in the Shivans perspective. Is there a quick and painless way to fly the Shivan fighters as a player? Im aware there is a Mara listed under the terrans ship list but it doesn't carry Shivan weaponry.

Thanks,
JC

[Killfrenzy]

The quickest and easiest way is to adjust your table files. You'll need to make the Shivan weapons player usable.

I'd do it myself, but I can't do attachments.

Download VPView from the HLP FreeSpace downloads page, extract the weapons.tbl from root.vp and adjust the Shivan Laser entries.

Don't play with the ships.tbl for the moment, although that will allow you to let players fly the other Shivan ships.

Anyway, once you've extracted the weapons.tbl replace the Shivan Light Laser entry with this:

Code: [Select]


$Name:                                  Shivan Light Laser
+Title:                                 XSTR("Shivan Light Laser", -1)
+Description:
XSTR(
"Standard Issue
Level 3 Hull Damage
Level 2 Shield Damage", -1)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Title:    XSTR("Shivan Light Laser", -1)
+Tech Anim:                     Tech_Subach_HL-7
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
"The least powerful of the Shivan lasers.", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Model File:                    none ; laser1-1.pof
; The following fields (preceded by @) are only required for laser (the 3 ellipse
; thing) rendering, which requires that "Model File:" be none.
; These are the same values that used to be hard-coded:
@Laser Bitmap:                  laserglow01
@Laser Glow:   2_laserglow03
@Laser Color: 250, 30, 30
@Laser Color2: 250, 30, 30
@Laser Length:       7.0
@Laser Head Radius:  0.90
@Laser Tail Radius:  0.30
$Mass:                                  0.2
$Velocity:                              450.0                           ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                             0.3                             ;; in seconds
$Damage:                                8
$Armor Factor:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:         1.0
$Subsystem Factor:      1.0
$Lifetime:                              2.0                             ;;      How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed:               0.30                            ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    0.0                             ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                             100                             ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                             85                                      ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
$Flags:                                 ("in tech database" "player allowed")
$Icon: iconSD4
$Anim: SD4
$Impact Explosion:      none


That'll give you one of them at least!

[JC128]

i tried it like you said, extracted and edited the weapons table. Put it in the tables directory (cause it looked like a good place )

But I got nothing

[TrashMan]

weapon has to have the "player allowed" tag to be used bt the player.
Just add that to weapons you wanna use.

[Stunaep]

You seem to forget, that the Terran Mara doesn't have Shivan Light laser allowed as a primary bank. Find the Mara entries in the ships.tbl and add "Shivan Light Laser" or whatever to the "Allowed PBanks" list.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

And if you want to fly the other Shivan Ships, add "player-ship" to their flags.

[JC128]

OK heres where im at with these stupid weapons, I set the weapon flags to user playable or whatever the term is. Im not looking at the code right now, I edited all shivan ships to flyable.

The only shivan weapon that is only the loadout screen is the Light Laser but no shivan vessels are accepting and combination of weapons Mega, Light, Heavy (i checked what they could carry and everything and loaded out what I wanted in FRED) still nothing..

Further thoughts?

JC The Confused One

[Killfrenzy]

You've not enabled the Heavy and Mega lasers by the sound of it.

[Star Dragon]

Wasn't someone working on a Shivan mod? Where you are the shivan equivalent of alpha1 and you invade the GTVA? If so I 'd suggest you get with them. maybe they would let you beta test for them...

 If not then I suggest starting your own mod. In anyevent good luck with that!

[JC128]

all weapons have the 'player allowed' flag but the shivan ships wont use em, 'splain that and of course the shivan ships have them listed in the pbanks

[Killfrenzy]

Check for spelling errors!

Other than that, it may be an error in the tables....

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Maybe V never wanted you to fly Shivan fighters, and it's coded that you can't?

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Petrarch of the VBB
Maybe V never wanted you to fly Shivan fighters, and it's coded that you can't?

Nope...thats not it.  You can fly Shivan fighters...TBP uses that for the Thunderbolt and the Frazi for instance.

[JC128]

Flying them is the easy part, using shivan weapons.. Thats hard

[Killfrenzy]

How so?

[JC128]

How? the shivan ships refuse to use them

[IceFire]

Originally posted by JC128
How? the shivan ships refuse to use them

That doesn't make any sense...AI enemy ships will accept whatever loadout is assigned to them...permissions or no.

[JC128]

im not talking about the AI. They use em no problem im talking about when i fly a shivan ship.

all weapons have the 'player allowed' flag but the shivan ships wont use em, shivan ships have them listed in the pbanks of course But still when a player flies a shivan ship they dont accept the shivan primaries. maybe im doing something wrong.

take a look

Code: [Select]

; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$Name:                                  Shivan Mega Laser
$Model File:                    none ;  laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:                  laserglow01
@Laser Glow:   2_laserglow03
@Laser Color:   250, 30, 30
@Laser Color2:   250, 30, 30
@Laser Length:       15.0
@Laser Head Radius:  0.50
@Laser Tail Radius:  0.30
$Mass:                                  0.3
$Velocity:                              400.0                           ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                             0.75                            ;; in seconds
$Damage:                                30
$Armor Factor:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:                 0.6
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$Lifetime:                              1.5
$Energy Consumed:               0.90                            ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    0.0                             ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                             108                                     ;;      The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                             85                                      ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
$Flags:                                 ( "player allowed")
$Icon:                                  icongun05
$Anim:                                  LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion:      none
; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[Killfrenzy]

When you say 'won't use them' are you talking about in-game or in the loadout screen?

[JC128]

both, my wingmen have them but my primary banks are empty

heres a cut from the ship tables, just to prove the pbank has the weapon listed and is player allowed.

Code: [Select]


$Name:                          SF Aeshma
$Short name:            SFight21
$Species:                       Shivan
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
"The SF Aeshma is a relatively rare, and only recently encountered, class of Shivan fighter. It appears to be a heavy attack fighter, like the Basilisk. With a low known top speed, Aeshmas seem to target slower-moving vessels, such as bombers, freighters, and gas miners. Their powerful lasers make them a danger to all such craft, so they must be engaged and destroyed as quickly as possible.", -1)
$end_multi_text
$POF file:                      fighter2s-01.pof
$Detail distance:       (0, 80, 220, 900)
$ND: 247 2 2
$ND: 159 7 7
$ND: 204 5 5
$Show damage:           YES
$Density:                       1
$Damp:                          0.2
$Rotdamp:                       0.4
$Max Velocity:          17.0, 17.0, 68.0
$Rotation time:         3.3, 3.3, 3.7
$Rear Velocity:         20.0
$Forward accel:         3.0
$Forward decel:         1.5
$Slide accel:           2.0
$Slide decel:           2.0
$Expl inner rad:        33.0
$Expl outer rad:        66.0
$Expl damage:           20.0
$Expl blast:            1000.0
$Expl Propagates:       NO                                                      ;; If set to Yes, then when the ship dies, the explosion propagates through it.
$Shockwave Speed:       0.0                                             ;; speed shockwave expands at, 0 means no shockwave
$Default PBanks:        (       "Shivan Mega Laser" "Shivan Heavy Laser" )
$Default SBanks:        ( "Trebuchet" )
$SBank Capacity:        ( 80 )
$Shields:               850
$Shield Color: 255 92 92
$Power Output:          2.25
$Max Oclk Speed:        68.0
$Max Weapon Eng:        150.0
$Hitpoints:                     125
$Flags:                         ( "fighter" "player_ship" )
$AI Class:                      Captain
$Afterburner:           YES
+Aburn Max Vel: 0.0, 0.0, 110.0
+Aburn For accel:       0.7
+Aburn Fuel:            300.0
+Aburn Burn Rate:       50.0
+Aburn Rec Rate:        25.0
$Countermeasures:       20
$Scan time:                     2000
$EngineSnd:       132                   ;; Engine sound of ship
$Closeup_pos:           0.0, -2.0, -35
$Closeup_zoom:          0.5
$Shield_icon:           shieldfs-01
$Score:             12
$Trail:
+Offset: 4.7 6.5 -5.9
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01

$Trail:
+Offset: -4.7 6.5 -5.9
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Trail:
+Offset: 2.8 -6.3 -1.9
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Trail:
+Offset: -2.8 -6.3 -1.9
+Start Width: 0.25
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.0
+Spew Time: 120
+Bitmap: Contrail01
$Subsystem:                     sensors,                        10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     communications, 10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     engine,                 35,0.0
$Subsystem:                     weapons,                        15,0.0
$Subsystem:                     navigation,              5,0.0