[tnathan475]

What is the maximum number of ships that can be added to to the ships.tbl? and is this changable so it is higher?

[blowfish]

130 is the limit for non-inferno builds (which is basically almost everything).  That includes the ones that are already in there (I forget the exact number), but I think you have somewhere around 20 ships breathing room.  This can be changed via code (actually its relatively simple), but I've heard it does weird things to pilot files.

[Hellstryker]

Theres a simple answer... just use an inf build 

[blowfish]

Theres a simple answer... just use an inf build 

Difficult for those of us who aren't on windows...

[Droid803]

So...how exactly do you get an inf build anyway? (or where is the code that controls the the limit?)

[blowfish]

Search in Recent Builds for an Inferno build.

Before worrying about code, you must make sure you are set up to compile (with all the source from SVN etc ... if you don't know what I'm talking about, you are not prepared to start changing code).  IIRC it is in globals.h and should look something like this:

Code: [Select]

#ifdef INFERNO(or something like that)
    #define MAX_SHIP_CLASSES 200
#else
    #define MAX_SHIP_CLASSES 130
#endif
Basically you need to change that 130 number to something larger.  I have no idea what adverse effects this could have on everything else though.

[Goober5000]

You can't simply change the number of ships, you have to activate the INFERNO compile-time variable.  This triggers a number of checks and balances in the code to deal with bumped limits.

[blowfish]

Are those checks and balances specific to 200 ships, or could the limit for Inferno builds be expanded?  And why hasn't this been done for regular builds as well (you don't have to post a detailed answer as it will probably just lead to more questions)?

[Scooby_Doo]

* Scooby_Doo patiently waits for dynamic ship class count. 

[Titan]

if you put the original ships.tbl in your mod's folder, you can delete any extra ships that won't be used (knossos, meson bomb, etc) to make extra room for your ships. just put the tbl data directly into the above-mentioned tbl file.

[Getter Robo G]

Here's a good counter question noe one has asked.

For everyone who says "Just use an Inferno build"... WHAT do you lose by doing so (if anything) by not using 3.6.9 or 3.6.10??

Is the max ship number the only difference between builds?
I'd like to have that answered by a SCP person...

If that's the case then I will switch to that, as long as no errors pop up during testing. (I had a bazillion of them trying to swtich to 3.6.9 from 3.6 and had to start over from scratch! I'm not looking forward to another such restart.)

[Goober5000]

Are those checks and balances specific to 200 ships, or could the limit for Inferno builds be expanded?  And why hasn't this been done for regular builds as well (you don't have to post a detailed answer as it will probably just lead to more questions)?

Inferno has 400 ships, not 200.  And no, it can't be bumped without causing the same problems that led to the Inferno build in the first place.

Bumping is not a trivial matter, in this case, because it breaks EVERYTHING.  (Well, not everything, but most things.)  It's nowhere near as simple as, say, bumping SEXP_NODES (which have been made dynamic anyway).  The two major problems are the pilot files are rendered incompatible and multiplayer doesn't work.  However there are a bunch of other seemingly unrelated issues that follow from these.

As for why haven't these problems been fixed yet -- the answer is that we've been trying to.  Taylor, bless him, has been working on the 3.7 code for probably over two years now.  When 3.7 is ready, ship limits will be obsolete.  Until then, you'll have to live with what you've got.

Here's a good counter question noe one has asked.

For everyone who says "Just use an Inferno build"... WHAT do you lose by doing so (if anything) by not using 3.6.9 or 3.6.10??

Is the max ship number the only difference between builds?
I'd like to have that answered by a SCP person...

Well, you can't interchange Inferno pilots and regular pilots, for one thing.  Inferno not only bumps ship limits, it bumps weapon limits too, and a few others, I think.

We really need an SCP FAQ somewhere.  This question has been asked before, but every six months a new group of people comes along who haven't heard the old answer.

EDIT: I know.  Somebody should do a search for the common SCP questions and post them up on the Wiki.

[tnathan475]

thanks for all the info guys, guess ill just have to clean out my ship.tbl for things that i know i wont use for now.  how far along is version 3.7?

[Droid803]

There's a weapon limit? SH*T! I have a feeling I'm going to hit that too...soon... >.<

Oh well *starts clearing ships.tbl of redundant entries*...*waits for 3.7*

[Titan]

There's a weapon limit? SH*T! I have a feeling I'm going to hit that too...soon... >.<

Oh well *starts clearing ships.tbl of redundant entries*...*waits for 3.7*

my advice is actually being used? 

[Droid803]

Yup, sicne its basically the best way to do this without screwing around with stuff that I don't want messed up.

What is the weapon limit anyway? 130? less? more?

[blowfish]

Weapon limit is 200, 300 in Inferno builds.

[Whitelight]

Inferno ship limit is not 200, its 250. 

[blowfish]

I just saw that.  I was closer than Goober though.

[Goober5000]

Gah.  I looked at the code too quickly.

Here it is:

Code: [Select]

// from ship.h
#define MAX_SHIPS 400 // max number of ship instances there can be.DTP; bumped from 200 to 400
#define SHIPS_LIMIT 400 // what MAX_SHIPS will be at release time (for error checking in debug mode); dtp Bumped from 200 to 400

// ****************************************************************
// DO NOT CHANGE THIS - IT WILL LIKELY BREAK FREESPACE2 PXO SUPPORT
// TALK TO DAVE B FIRST
// ****************************************************************
#define MAX_SHIP_CLASSES_MULTI 130

#ifdef INF_BUILD
#define MAX_SHIP_CLASSES 250
#else
#define MAX_SHIP_CLASSES 130
#endif