Topic: FYI: work in progress: OP+ 4.1

[Dizzy]

It's a sweeping fix. What is involved is that the shiplist for all the planets with weapons are redone and then the models themselves will have to be rehardpointed. The hardpoints are currently located anywhere from 5 to 7 range above and below the equator on the physical planet model itself, which obviously causes point defense weapons not to fire because if a ship approaches the equator, the point defense weapons are too far away to fire.

Make note that any weapon that ignores a fire arc should not be used on a planet as firing through the planet mesh occurs and the resulting sound collision from that fire is quite annoying. Below you will see the planet fire arc where HW1 is the front of the ship. HW1 stands for heavy weapon hardpoint 1 and is the 1st heavy weapon column in the shiplist. PH11 stands for the 11th phaser hardpoint and corresponds to the 11th weapon column in the shiplist.

The Yellow arcs should be Ph3 hardpoints which should be present on ALL planets. The Blue are the Ph4's which should be standard on all armed planets. The Red should be heavy weapon hardpoints that should be on all armed planets. The Orange should be optional heavy weapon hardpoints. The rest shaded grey should be only used for homeworlds. Ph1's should not be used on planets as it would give the planet too many defensive phasers.

I do not remember testing to see if a planet can make use of defensive tractors vs drones. I think they do, and I would give all planets 6 and homeworlds 12.

I am fuzzy on the artifex program and do not remember specifically which planets are referred to as colony world, core world and homeworld. If there are other designations artifex uses that the scripts and the map match up, it would be easy to simply use the existing planets as a reference and arm them from the stock taldren template using the fixes I have made.

I have implemented this fully, and as-is.

.. why? Because SFB-style planets are impossible. We can only make a close approximation.
In SFB, planets are not armed. They have ground bases, and these are independant units. Firing at a ground base unit only affects that unit, and not the whole planet  (unlike SFC). There's no sharing of power either between these ground units. (again, unlike SFC).

That leaves me with 2 alternatives: do nothing, or we do our own. .. and this rules are good enough as-is. It's detailed enough that I can programmatically detect problems if there any.

Note: I haven't changed any of the other systems, except for the tractors.
Note2: I haven't released an installer for this. I have more work to do before I am satisfied with some other stuff that needs to be redone. (ie: bad pirates powercurve)


-- FS


Code tidbit for the mount definitions:

Code: [Select]

  # defensive phasers only! 14, 17, 21, 24
  my $all_planets_mounts = {
    66 => { 'mount' => 14, 'arc' => 'RS' },
    75 => { 'mount' => 17, 'arc' => 'RH' },
    87 => { 'mount' => 21, 'arc' => 'LS' },
    96 => { 'mount' => 24, 'arc' => 'FH' },
  };
  # 3, 4, 8, 9 -- 11, 15, 18, 22
  my $armed_world_mounts = {
    33 => { 'mount' => 3, 'arc' => 'FRR' },
    36 => { 'mount' => 4, 'arc' => 'RRR' },
    48 => { 'mount' => 8, 'arc' => 'LLR' },
    51 => { 'mount' => 9, 'arc' => 'FLL' },
    57 => { 'mount' => 11, 'arc' => 'FH' },
    69 => { 'mount' => 15, 'arc' => 'RS' },
    78 => { 'mount' => 18, 'arc' => 'RH' },
    90 => { 'mount' => 22, 'arc' => 'LS' },
  };
  # 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 23
  my $home_world_mounts = {
    27 => { 'mount' => 1, 'arc' => 'FA' },
    30 => { 'mount' => 2, 'arc' => 'FAR' },
    39 => { 'mount' => 5, 'arc' => 'RAR' },
    42 => { 'mount' => 6, 'arc' => 'RA' },
    45 => { 'mount' => 7, 'arc' => 'RAL' },
    54 => { 'mount' => 10, 'arc' => 'FAL' },
    60 => { 'mount' => 12, 'arc' => 'FAR' },
    63 => { 'mount' => 13, 'arc' => 'RS' },
    72 => { 'mount' => 16, 'arc' => 'RAR' },
    81 => { 'mount' => 19, 'arc' => 'RAL' },
    84 => { 'mount' => 20, 'arc' => 'LS' },
    93 => { 'mount' => 23, 'arc' => 'FAL' },
  };


I understand. Dont sweat the small details like what exact type or number of hvy weapon you use. As long as all the arcs are there and there is something to fire out of it, I'll take a look at it when you are done and recommend any changes if any that I think are necessary before you are ready for a release version. But your best guess is always gonna be better than the way it was in this specific case.

[Voidwar]

Sure hope Corbomite is back online, was sorry he had to step out.

[FireSoul]

What kind of sensitivity did you use for the LODs? The planets are visibly .. crappy.
Note: I'm re-downloading your Planets.zip. I may have fetched your earlier version.

Ok, attached are the stock planets with new hardpoints that follow Dizzy's layout (not mps).  please note there are no texture files in here as the only thing changed are the .mod files.  I placed the hps slightly off the planets surface so they shouldn't shoot the planet when the fire.  I haven't test them in game though.

Edit:  Fixed, I think...

[Tus-XC]

Not their settings (had to guess at it), let me go fiddle again

[Tus-XC]

These ones have the lods set to change at 1800 and 5000 (should be the same as the stock ones now)

.... I hate lods

[FireSoul]

These ones have the lods set to change at 1800 and 5000 (should be the same as the stock ones now)

.... I hate lods

Thanks Tus, I'll look at 'em in the morning.

[Tus-XC]

cool, just a reminder though, i set up the hardpoints to float a little bit above the planet, should be barely noticable in game, if that.

[Shalafi]

as long as we don't constantly hear *THWUMP THUMP* every time the planet fires I think it'd be fine... *technobabblehandwaving* they're very low orbit sats

[FireSoul]

RC3's up.

http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/OP_plusrefit/opplus_41_models_20110522221827.exe

New changes of note:

• Planet hardpoint changes: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=OP%2B_Contents_and_Changes#Planets_hardpoint_fixes
• Pirates get a power boost, similar to what Taldren did: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=OP%2B_Contents_and_Changes#Power_Boost.2C_.C3.A0_la_Taldren

[Dizzy]

Some of the work you have done is mind boggling.

[FireSoul]

Some of the work you have done is mind boggling.

Any task is manageable, if broken down into smaller achievable tasks. Especially if there's enough time to do it.

[FireSoul]

RC3's up.

http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/OP_plusrefit/opplus_41_models_20110522221827.exe

New changes of note:

• Planet hardpoint changes: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=OP%2B_Contents_and_Changes#Planets_hardpoint_fixes
• Pirates get a power boost, similar to what Taldren did: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=OP%2B_Contents_and_Changes#Power_Boost.2C_.C3.A0_la_Taldren

I haven't heard back from anyone. Is this a good sign? 

[Age]

Keep your finger crossed.

[FireSoul]

I've been doing my own playtesting. These are items I want to work on, delaying a release.

-- X FRDs? Could be added in now. Would be neat.
-- Enhanced Class MEDIUM_CRUISER to be used for HEAVY_WAR_CRUISER (movecost 0.75) position.
  -- some races, like Fed, actually call it the medium cruiser so it's accurate enough
-- Make ?-PE planets R(estricted) except for pirates and Federation.
  -- seriously, Earth appears everywhere on the D2's HomeWorld assault. Fix!

There might be more as I find them.

[FireSoul]

RC4 compiled. These are very subtle fixes, but made me happy. These fixes won't ever even affect PvP: they are entirely D2-related. I've discovered these issues while tweaking EvilDave D2 missions to do better ship selection when dealing with a OP+ shiplist. I don't expect to need anything else, but we never know. 


OP+ Site: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=SFC:OP_Plus_Refit
Release Candidate 4 Download: http://klingon.pet.dhs.org/OP_plusrefit/opplus_41_models_20110529222800.exe


ie: This is a Advanced Technology Fleet Repair Dock (FRX) in a modified EvilDave Homeworld Assault, advanced era.


-- FS

[FireSoul]

FYI:

I just saw an armed planet fail at shooting disruptors. (kept shooting itself). It was L-PLPh8, using model OPPLUS41/models/planetfire/planetfire.mod  (from Tus's latest zip).
I was playing with a custom test campaign, geared for mission Met_NW16PlanetDefense.scr which I'm currently updating for better compatibility.


I'll investigate later, probably tomorrow morning. It's 1am and I've been doing SFC stuff off and on all day. Besides, I also saw an out-of-era Mirak with MIRV (m refit) so I want to look at that too.

-- FS


Assets\Scripts\Campaigns\TESTING.mct

Code: [Select]

Name="TESTING - rebuilt ED missions"
Description="Testing ED missions as a Lyran commander"

EarlyMapName="EarlyMap.mvm"
MidMapName="MiddleMap.mvm"
LateMapName="LateMap.mvm"
DifficultyLevel=2
Era=1
TriggerMission=""
TriggerPrestige=0
[Missions]
0="Met_NW16PlanetDefense.scr"
[Races]
0=3


[Tus-XC]

didnt' see any issues w/ the model, hp naming convention or hardpoint placement.  Might be a disrupter w/ a bad arc maybe?

[L0vetobowl]

On a planetary assault I ran into Z-PL2 at range zero way before I hit the physical model if that make any sense. The planet had rings I think.

[FA Frey XC]

Just a little note - Firesoul's shiplist will =-not=- be used for SFC EAW : Community Edition or SFC4.

This is due to licensing issues, nothing else.

Great work Firesoul!

Regards,

[FireSoul]

didnt' see any issues w/ the model, hp naming convention or hardpoint placement.  Might be a disrupter w/ a bad arc maybe?

I think the hardpoints need to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise.   I think I can handle that.

See attached image: "Front" view shows hardpoint 1 to the far right. (hardpoints distance from planet have been exaggerated)


Edit: I'll do the fix, not a problem. It's just a rotate of -90 degrees on the Z axis, in 3dsmax. Then re-export the model with LODs 1:0, 2:1800, 3:5000.