Topic: Need help with a mode I'm working on for SFC OP

[Magnum357]

Hi, I was hoping anyone with some knowlege of how the Shiplists files work in SFC OP could help me out.  I'm working on a personal mode and I have been reworking the shiplist file extensively.  I decided to take out most of the Pirate slots (will just use the Orion Slot for pirate ships only) and replace them with mostly minor races of SFB (like WYN, Tholians, etc.).  But I also want to put the LDR in a Pirate slot aswell, to keep them seperate from the Lyrans.  If I was to do this, would the game have any problems with LDR ships in a Pirate slot?  Would the game be alright with Lyrans without the LDR ships in there respective slot? 

If it would cause a problem (for Single Player Campaign purposes) is there a way around it?

[Rod ONeal]

Should be fine. The only problems you'd run into (off the top of my head) is 1, In SP skirmish the standard starting ship won't be there. You'll always have to select a ship for the added races. 2, Either the added races will have ability to double engines, or if you disable engine doubling in the game then the Orions won't have it like they should. 3, You'll have ship schematic/ui inconsistencies. The Lyran ship displays won't work in the pirate slots, for instance. 4, You'll have to redo the campaign .mct files if you don't want the added races to do the pirate campaigns. 5, The added races won't be able to flip hexes on the empire's map. I've tried everything that I could to change that, but nothing I've done has worked. 

That's all I can think of right at the moment. Nothing too major, IMO, except for the engine doubling thing.

[Bonk]

Hi, I was hoping anyone with some knowlege of how the Shiplists files work in SFC OP could help me out.  I'm working on a personal mode and I have been reworking the shiplist file extensively.  I decided to take out most of the Pirate slots (will just use the Orion Slot for pirate ships only) and replace them with mostly minor races of SFB (like WYN, Tholians, etc.).  But I also want to put the LDR in a Pirate slot aswell, to keep them seperate from the Lyrans.  If I was to do this, would the game have any problems with LDR ships in a Pirate slot?  Would the game be alright with Lyrans without the LDR ships in there respective slot? 

If it would cause a problem (for Single Player Campaign purposes) is there a way around it?

Here, I'll save you the trouble:
http://www.fileplanet.com/137323/130000/fileinfo/SFB-OP-Mod-v04
(also here: ftp://www.dynaverse.net/sfc2_op/Mods/SFB_OP_04.exe - but try fileplanet first, probably faster)

A mod for StarFleet Command Orion Pirates using a shiplist based on SFB, complete with Fighters, PFs, Tholians, LDR Andromedans and WYN.

This mod includes PFs, Fighters, LDR, Tholians, WYN and Andromedans. Engine doubling for the cartel slots is disabled. Empire and cartel slots are used as follows:

F Federation Ftr/Donated PF
K Klingon Ftr/Donated PF
R Romulan PF/Donated Ftr
Z Kzinti Ftr/Donated PF
L Lyran PF/Donated Ftr
G Gorn PF/Donated Ftr
H Hydran Ftr/Donated PF
I ISC Ftr/Donated PF
C LDR (Camboro) Ftr/Donated PF
P Andromedan (Prime) Donated PF
W WYN (WyldeFire) Ftr/Donated PF
X Orion (Orion) Ftr/Donated PF
Y Tholian/Neo-Tholian (Korgath) Ftr/Donated PF
B BeastRaiders Ftr

O Orion (non-player) Ftr/Donated PF
S Syndicate (Ftr donor) Ftr donor
T TigerHeart (PF donor) PF donor

This will install:

1) A modified version of gman's SFB SHIPLIST FOR SFC ORION PIRATES (original created 2001-09-20, modified 2004-02-15)

2) The Fleetdock13 models (created by Anduril, Atra-hasis Cleeve, E, Ghost.fox, Lansing, Starfire, Stress puppy, Jeff Wallace and Wicked Zombie)

3) The Tholian Will models by Commodore Brezgonne (Daniel K. Thompson)

4) Selected models and textures from Chris Jones' Ultimate TOS mod for SFC:OP

Sound familiar? I think this is pretty close to what you are after or would certainly make a better starting point than stock.


(Shameless plug I know, but why reinvent the wheel?)

[Magnum357]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  But how do I disable Engine Doubling?  I'm not sure if I want to mess with the .mct files, this is a pretty simple mode I'm working on.  Mostly a Single Player and Multimplayer skirmish mode, wasn't designing it to work with Campaign games or Dynaverse.  I can live with the Minor races and Andros occuring as Pirate Senarios for Campaign games.

Yes, I guess my mode might be a copy of SFB_OP, but it has some differences aswell, and I'm thinking about submitting it to CUG's for Tournament play games because I play a lot on GSA with single skirmishes.  Kinda want to make it an alternative to just playing 4.0 all the time.

[Bonk]

Cool. I just thought from the sound of it that you had not come across SFB-OP. Its fun to work on your own mod, getting there is half the fun with SFC.

To disable engine doubling, set AllowEngineDoubling=0 under [Network] in the sfc.ini file. To re-enable it, remove the line.

The trick is that you cannot distribute an sfc.ini file with a mod because the file contains user settings. So you must either have the users make the edit manually or script it in an installer. (as well as the cheating potential, as the user can edit the file freely.)

e.g. in NSIS:
install

Code: [Select]

WriteINIStr "$INSTDIR\sfc.ini"  "Network" "AllowEngineDoubling" "0"uninstall

Code: [Select]

DeleteINIStr "$INSTDIR\sfc.ini"  "Network" "AllowEngineDoubling"

[Beeblebrox]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm kicking a server idea around in my head and I have a question about engine doubling.  Is it possible to give a non-pirate race engine doubling?  Say, for example, the Federation?  If so, how is it accomplished?

[Rod ONeal]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'm kicking a server idea around in my head and I have a question about engine doubling.  Is it possible to give a non-pirate race engine doubling?  Say, for example, the Federation?  If so, how is it accomplished?

There is, but it's not real easy. If you're familiar with using "donor races"  to give fighters or PFs to the races that don't have them you can do the same thing with engine doubling. Use a pirate race to donate ships to an empire and it'll inherit engine doubling.

You'll have to rearrange the order of the races (a pirate cartel will have to be moved above the Feds in the shiplist) and that might break something in the game. I'm not saying that it will, I'm saying that I don't know if it will or not. I've never donated ships to an empire from a cartel. I've done it in reverse to remove engine doubling from specific pirate ships though.

If you gave me the specs I'd be happy to start with a couple of ships to get you going and you could continue it if that'd help.