[Spoon]

I just created an other new model, gave it a proper table entry. It shows up fine in game, in the F3 shiplab, in FRED.
Except when I try to assign the ship to the player (I want to test run it) in FRED. Then FRED gives a error message and shuts down.
I can select the ship just fine in the weapon loadout screen as well but when I commit with the ship selected the game crashes. When I let the AI pilot it however, there isn't a single bit of trouble.
Haven't ran into this problem before and don't know where to look really.
Here's the table entry

Code: [Select]

$Name:                           Nordera Pillager
$Short name: Pillager
$Species:                       Nordera
+Type:                          XSTR("Medium fighter", 2945)
+Maneuverability: XSTR("Decent", 2946)
+Armor:                         XSTR("Heavy", 2947)
+Manufacturer: XSTR("Unknown", 2948)
+Description: XSTR( "Mostly mechanical, no shielding, plunder pillage rape and loot ", 2949)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR("Plunder rape pillage!", 2950)
$end_multi_text
+Length: 12 m
+Gun Mounts: 4
+Missile Banks: 1
$POF file:                      Pillager.pof
$Detail distance: (0, 400)
$Show damage: YES
$Density:                       1
$Damp:                          0.2
$Rotdamp:                       0.35
$Max Velocity: 0.0, 0.0, 60.0                  ;; in x/y/z -- z only specified forward.  use

special tokens for backward movement
$Rotation time: 2.0, 2.5, 2.0
$Rear Velocity: 0.0
$Forward accel: 3.0
$Forward decel: 1.5
$Slide accel: 0.0
$Slide decel: 0.0
$Expl inner rad: 25.0
$Expl outer rad: 75.0
$Expl damage: 25.0
$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
$Allowed PBanks: ( "Light cannon" ) ("Medium cannon")
$Allowed Dogfight PBanks: (  )
$Default PBanks: ( "Light cannon" "Medium cannon" )
$pbank capacity: (1000, 1000)
$Allowed SBanks: ( "wildfire"  )
$Allowed Dogfight SBanks: (  )
$Default SBanks: (  "wildfire" )
$SBank Capacity: ( 60 )
$Shields:                                       0
$Power Output: 3.0
$Max Oclk Speed: 68.0
$Max Weapon Eng: 150.0
$Hitpoints:                     850
$Flags:                         ( "player_ship" "fighter" "generate icon" "default_player_ship")
$AI Class:                      Captain
$Afterburner: YES
+Aburn Max Vel: 0.0, 0.0, 120.0
+Aburn For accel:       0.7
+Aburn Fuel:            300.0
+Aburn Burn Rate:       60.0
+Aburn Rec Rate:        25.0
$Countermeasures: 25
$Scan time:                     2000
$EngineSnd: 126                   ;; Engine sound of ship
$Closeup_pos: 0.0, 0.0, -30
$Closeup_zoom: 0.5
$Score: 10
$Trail:
+Offset: 2.890410 -0.006887 -9.575076
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Trail:
+Offset: 1.726941 -0.006887 -9.575076
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Trail:
+Offset: 0.494217 -0.006887 -9.305223
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Trail:
+Offset: -0.703845 -0.006887 -9.305223
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Trail:
+Offset: -1.842471 -0.006887 -9.575077
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Trail:
+Offset: -3.046971 -0.006887 -9.575077
+Start Width: 0.5
+End Width: 0.05
+Start Alpha: 0.5
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 1.4
+Spew Time: 60
+Bitmap: Contrail05
$Subsystem: communications, 10,0.0
$Subsystem: engine,   35,0.0
$Subsystem: sensors,      10,0.0
$Subsystem: weapons,           15,0.0
I ran FRED in debug mode and it gives me some assertion error about MAX_SHIP_CONTRAILS > SP -> AB_COUNT
this tells me nothing however. I tried removing the contrails but this did nothing (not to mention I already have a few ships with 4 contrails that work flawless)

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Not sure if it has anything to do with this but you said ships with 4 contrails but it appears you have 6 defined.

[Spoon]

Not sure if it has anything to do with this but you said ships with 4 contrails but it appears you have 6 defined.

yeah this one has 6 but I also tried this one with 4, which made no difference.
The other ships I have with 4 contrails work just fine.

Speaking of contrails (I hope I can explain this well enough), i've noticed a pretty big hit in framerate when contrails are enabled. But only if the ships that are in sight are being idle. When the ships have orders to attack something (and thus pick up speed) the frame rate will return to normal.
When I put a few ships at say, 3000 click away from me without any orders, the frame rate will be around 63-70. When I give these ships the initial order to attack me however, the frame rate will be the 'normal' 120. This confuses the heck out of me.

[Wanderer]

Max contrails per ship is 12. However all contrails from tbls and tbms are cumulative (for each ship) so it is possible to go over the limit even though the 'final' entry would have just 6 contrails.

[Getter Robo G]

I didn't check it line by line, but how did you make your table if it still causes errors removing contrails?

Does your specific table that fails on that model work for other models?

FS2 is good for noob modders because when you learn to make [small changes] and work your way up it gets pretty easy to narrow things down. Or at least avoid hang ups that you can work around till you get more clarification.

[Spoon]

Max contrails per ship is 12. However all contrails from tbls and tbms are cumulative (for each ship) so it is possible to go over the limit even though the 'final' entry would have just 6 contrails.

I'm not sure I follow, I have only added contrails in the ships.tbl. Nowhere else. Where else can one add contrails anyway?
Also, this doesn't explain why FRED and the game crashes when I try to pilot the ship myself but works fine otherwise


I guess i'll make an other thread about the framerate issue in the support forum.

but how did you make your table if it still causes errors removing contrails?

Does your specific table that fails on that model work for other models?

I just directly copy the table entry of an other working ship and alter the parameters (description, hitpoints, modelfile etc.)

[Wanderer]

Gah.. sorry i was blind... 

Code: [Select]

Assert(MAX_SHIP_CONTRAILS > sp->ab_count);
This refers to the afterburner trails you have on a ship. Each thruster point in every thruster of the ship has one. So... it appear you have defined somewhere afterburner trails for a ship with more than 12 (in total) main thruster points.

[Spoon]

Gah.. sorry i was blind... 

Code: [Select]

Assert(MAX_SHIP_CONTRAILS > sp->ab_count);
This refers to the afterburner trails you have on a ship. Each thruster point in every thruster of the ship has one. So... it appear you have defined somewhere afterburner trails for a ship with more than 12 (in total) main thruster points.

Aaaaaah that explains it perfectly.
The ship indeed has more then 12 thrusters (18). Turning off the afterburner in the table fixed the issue.
I thank thee Wanderer!