Questions here: an inquiry thread! [Updated Sep 15th, 2014]

[R4V3-0N]

Question, is there anything about "Shotgun" type weapons (vanila: Flak) that is hardcoded or is there a specific bit of code i have to do?

I attempted to make something similar to the lines of flak but I seem to have some issues.

I want it to fire a projectile that splits to two and hits the ship. (so in a sense a normal flak but 2 'debris' instead of one)
however I want it to fire 2 bursts.

I attempted to do a weapon like that but I got very... odd results. It fired 4 bursts from what I saw with some of those main projectiles doing nothing and only the last 'main' projectile does the flak thing.

I think 1 of the 'debris' also does nothing but I can't see to clearly.

Is this a bug with multiple volleys of a 'shotgun' weapon or is this a mistake somewhere?

Double checking, how can you determine how many bits of debris the flak creates and do they have individual values?

I really struggle with the new weapon types added in AE

[Metzelmax]

The projectiles spin without animation when fired and will go straight once hitting the ship.

Code: Select all

   <type>BURST</type>
       
<projectiles>
   <projectile count="1" fake="false">debris_large</projectile>
   <projectile count="2" fake="false">debris_med</projectile>
   <projectile count="3" fake="true">debris_small</projectile>
</projectiles>

Here you set how many "parts" the shot consists of. There are 3 debris_small declared as fake, which means their impact does nothing. The other 2 projectiles will hit and be the ones that show as red dots on the ship.
So:

<projectile count="1" fake="false">debris_med</projectile>
<projectile count="1000000" fake="true">debris_small</projectile>

Does 1 damage and

<projectile count="1000000" fake="false">debris_med</projectile>
<projectile count="1" fake="true">debris_small</projectile>

does 100000 damage.

[NarnKar]

@Rave

Setting more than one shot on a BURST weapon will cause the weapon to fire each individual piece, and then the intended burst clump. If you have 3 fake projectiles and 2 real projectiles, and you set shots to 2, it will fire a fake projectile, a fake projectile, a fake projectile, a real projectile, a real projectile, and then a clump of 3 fake and 2 real projectiles.

[R4V3-0N]

Thank you guys. helped quite a bit.

[NarnKar]

How often does a Combat Drone I fire?

[JamesBai03]

is there anyway to shorten the cooldown for a shield drone?
and can you determine the strength of a boarder drone?
also, is the repairing speed of the repairing drone changeable?
Thanks.

[R4V3-0N]

How often does a Combat Drone I fire?

undefined.

Depends on the size of the enemy ship and the shield shape and/or area.

it can fire in less then a second when bouncing from the bottom off a narrow end and going to another. or 10 seconds if it travels all the way up.

[R4V3-0N]

I will start to soon make my first few enemy ships and then later on events.

How do I exactly put an enemy ship into a game? Do I have to refrence it's blueprint name in autoblueprints or do I / can I directly reference it in an event?

Also I will soon start making events and there is a lack of tutorials on the forum for it besides people simply warning others that it is the hardest thing in terms of coding to do.

Also I am planning to change the way the ships are received. Changing most of the events that these ships can be found and how they are handled. Is it possible to change the events that give you a ship? Or is that hard coded?

[RAD-82]

I think events are rather easy, since the game files have lots of examples for you to look at. Emulating them isn't that difficult.

Check in events.xml for DONOR_MANTIS_CHASE. Most ships are in events_ships.xml, but the ship for this event is right there under it.

Code: Select all

<event name="DONOR_MANTIS_CHASE" unique="true">
   <text>You are immediately hailed by an impressive looking Mantis ship, "Your ship would make a mighty fine prize. Prepare for battle!"</text>
   <ship load="DONOR_MANTIS_CHASE1" hostile="true"/>
</event>
<ship name="DONOR_MANTIS_CHASE1" auto_blueprint="MANTIS_FIGHTER">
   <escape timer="5" min="5" max="5">
      <text>You pick up more chatter from the enemy ship, "You know what... Forget this. Prepare for retreat!" Looks like they're preparing to make a hasty get away!</text>
   </escape>
   <gotaway>
      <text>The ship made an emergency FTL jump, but it looks like they didn't mask their signatures. You could easily follow them if you want.</text>
      <choice hidden="true">
         <text>After them!</text>
         <event>
            <text>You input their coordinates into your map and prepare to follow.</text>
            <quest event="DONOR_MANTIS_CHASE2"/>
         </event>
      </choice>
      <choice hidden="true">
         <text>Forget it.</text>
         <event>
            <text>They're not worth the trouble. You prepare to leave.</text>
         </event>
      </choice>
   </gotaway>
   <destroyed>
      <text>Their ship breaks apart and you move in to scrap the remains.</text>
      <autoReward level="MED">standard</autoReward>
   </destroyed>
   <deadCrew>
      <text>With no more crew on board you are free to salvage what you can from the remains.</text>
      <autoReward level="HIGH">standard</autoReward>
   </deadCrew>
</ship>


It would appear that auto_blueprint references a shipBlueprint or a blueprintList of shipBlueprints.


There is an unlock code for the A ships, minus the Lanius and Engi, that you can use. They go inside events. The B and C ships are hardcoded to achievements.

List of the unlock id codes:
<unlockShip id="1">The Engi secret tech has been delivered to the hangar. The stealth ship has been unlocked!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="2">A Mantis cruiser has been unlocked and added to the hangar!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="4">The Federation Cruiser has been unlocked and added to the hangar!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="5">The Slug cruiser has been unlocked and added to the hangar!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="6">The Rock deliver a cruiser to the hangar. The Bulwark has been unlocked!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="7">A Zoltan cruiser has been unlocked and added to the hangar!</unlockShip>
<unlockShip id="8">The Crystalline ship is sent to the hangar. The Bravais has been unlocked!</unlockShip>

I suppose id=3 would unlock the Engi, but that is accomplished by reaching sector 5 (Kestrel only?), so it is sort of pointless to do that. These are numbered based on the pre-AE hanger order.

[R4V3-0N]

alright... so let me try to break that down...

event name is well, is the event. no idea what "unique=true" would mean though... sector specific?

text is the first text you get.

Ship load will be the ship that will be on the screen and hostile true or false will make it an enemy or not at first.

Escape time I assume is it starting already to ftl jump?... not sure what the numbers exactly mean or what it's out of.
text that's after that is the text that occurs if it jumps away?

not sure what choice hidden means....

text is what it says for the option and the event text combo after that is the response....

then destroyed is the resault what happens if the ship is destroyed...
autoReward would be in LOW, MED, HIGH I assume and will range in loot.

Is that approximately correct of the event above?