[vyper]

If I make a Destroyer so its not in the tech-database, and then use the "allow-ship" expression later in a campaign, will the ship then appear in the tech database?

(Please say I'm right about this )

[Vasudan Admiral]

nope, sorry, looking in the main campaign, there is a

tech-add-ships
             |_< ship to add >

but i this function isn't anyware in the "change" list.

you have to create a "do-nothing" and manually change it to "tech-add-ships". then it will automaticly change the function.

i wonder how many other functions there are that require this.
someone check the sc

[Su-tehp]

I have several related questions. I've pretty much filled my ships.tbl file to capacity. Even so, I have several ships that don't show up on the database even without putting in any "add-tech-ships" SEXPs.

First question: Is there a limit to how many ships can appear in the database at once?

Second question: If there is a ship that DOES appear in the database and I don't want it to at the start of the campaign (but I DO want it to appear later on), how would I fix this?

[Sesquipedalian]

This appears to happen because the tech room uses position in the ships table to determine whether a given ship is displayed or not.  What I mean is that the tech room does not say to itself "Okay, I'll display the GTF Ulysses, the GTF Hercules, the GTF Hercules Mark II, the..." but instead says to itself "Okay, I'll display the first ship, the second ship, the third ship, the..."

The problems start when one adds things to the ships table.  Say ship number 27 is not supposed to be shown in the ships table, but 26 and 28 are.  If one inserts a ship into, say, slot 16, then every ship after it will be bumped down a slot.  This will cause the ship that was originally number 26 to become ship number 27, and 27 to become 28 and 28 to become 29.  This means that the ship that was number 26 is no longer displayed because it is now in the 27th slot, while the ship that was number 27 now is displayed, even though we don't want it to be, because it is slot 28.

In the source code forum I suggested that this be changed so that the decision to display a ship be based on name rather than position, but I got no response.  It oughtn't to have been hard to do, since the tech-add-ship sexp already uses a name based system rather than a position based one, but no one wanted to take the time to do the copying and editing of the code, I guess.

[Su-tehp]

Can anyone make a list of which slots are shown and which aren't? If I have that list, maybe I can work with something...

[Sesquipedalian]

Why don't you make it?  It'd just be a matter of comparing the entries showing in the database with the actual ships.tbl.

[karajorma]

And then if you want a ship to appear later in the campaign you mearly need to change it's position in the ships table. For instance. If the hecate is ship 8 and the bastion is ship number 7 removing the bastion entry and placing a ship you do want to appear at the start in the slot for ship 8 would solve your problems.

[Su-tehp]

But this still doesn't answer my original question: how do I get a ship to not appear in the database, THEN appear later on in the campaign?

If someone is playing my campaign, how is the entry supposed to move in order to be seen? After all, I'm not going to be nearby when someone has downloaded my campaign; I can't tell then, "OK, after Mission 25, you need to move the GTD Raynor up one slot to see it in the tech database..." I can't be there to tell anyone playing my campaign that.

So what do I do? Is there a SEXP for making a visible ship not visible and is there another SEXP for making that same now-not-visible ship visible later on?

[StratComm]

I don't think you can remove ships (or ship numbers) from the tech database, period.  As for showing a particular ship, you may try playing with the campaign setup and seeing if the SEXP is accessable there.  Then you can activate it when you decide it's necessary.  Oh, and I'd be careful when doing this.  If you make the tech room try to display ships that aren't there, (remove a mod and be stuck with no ships in a slot that the tech room is trying to access), the game would probably crash.

[vyper]

Just remove the "in tech database"  tag from the ships table entry, then when u want it to be available - use the sexpression to make it come in

[StratComm]

I've never found "in tech database" to do anything anyway.  What I meant though is that once a ship (or ship number) is in the tech database, I don't think it can be removed.  If you start the campaign over, the Mara, Moloch, Iceni, and Sathanas are still in the database.

[vyper]

Originally posted by StratComm
I've never found "in tech database" to do anything anyway.  What I meant though is that once a ship (or ship number) is in the tech database, I don't think it can be removed.  If you start the campaign over, the Mara, Moloch, Iceni, and Sathanas are still in the database.

Ah, thats another infamous "event" that can only be reversed by creating a new pilot.

EDIT: Or, change campaign, then change back

[karajorma]

If that is the case then starting a new campaign should also reset the Tech Database in which case only the ships which have the in-tech-database flag should show up.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Let it be known that the tech database is f****d. Anyway, why worry, it's not exactly vital, is it. It's only there for eye candy anyway. You can read all the tech descriptions in ships.tbl, so what's the fuss about.

[karajorma]

Some people still don`t know what the ships.tbl is. Others wouldn`t be able to find it. Lastly many of us couldn`t be bothered to read through all the rest of the stuff in the .tbl to get to the descriptions.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Alright then, i'll let you off, just this once, mind. And don't let it happen again.

[CP5670]

I need to try messing around with this stuff a bit when I get my computer back up, since I was also having problems with the tech database...