Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:29 am Post subject:
Overcharge Superweapon
Hey. I was recently thinking of giving some extra abilities to both factions in my mod. One I thought was a good idea, was something like an overcharge. What I have in mind, Is a superweapon that puts your power up to something like +500, which is ideal for when your power plants have been destroyed. If you've lost your power plants, you activate this weapon, which leaves your power on for a designated time, Simmilar to the Firestorm defence start / stop logic. Now, what I don't understand is how exactly I'm going to do this. Is it even possible? (I've not got much experience with creating new superweapons) QUICK_EDIT
a really good idea, but i see some problems.
1. a superweapon, which highly depends on enough power to work, should give power when powerlevel is low. Quite a paradox. But powered=no could fix this
2. i don't see any chance to raise the powerlevel in a direct way, since you can't affect it with a key.
The only workaround i could think of, is to abuse the hunterseeker logic.
Start the HS, give it a weapon with range=255 and deploytofire=yes. Then give the deployed dummy building power=500 and in art.ini an activeanim which damages the building until it gets destroyed (for the timer effect). This way the extra power would slowly sink too, which could be another cool effect.
If you make the HS and its dummy building invisible it should look like, as if the building gives +500 power as soon as you release it. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
Yeah, It's kind of a difficult thing to do being as there is the Power= Tag doesn't work under the SuperWeapon section. I've been playing around with it and at the moment, I've been able to get the superweapon to appear once the Advanced Power plant has been built, when your power is low, The SuperWeapon continues to charge, so that part works perfectly. As I said the only issue is that the Power= tag will not work under The Superweapon section. Abusing the HunterSeeker Logic as a good idea, but it seems a little bit to complex for most players of the mod to understand without some kind of readme explaining to them how to use it, but even if I do add an instruction set on how to use the new superweapon, I'm still not to happy about the way It'll work. You're idea of the power slowly returning back to it's normal state is indeed a great idea. I've been playing around with my OverCharge superweapon alot, and I'm afraid I can't find a successful way to raise the power level. Do you think there is another method we could try other than the HS logic, LKO?
Edit: I May have misunderstood the invisible building technique you mentioned. Are you saying that you have to deploy the unit that emerges from the superweapon fire to get it's effect? Or can it be so that as soon as It's released It'll raise the power level? QUICK_EDIT
Well I gave it a shot, but It didn't work. Got an IE, LOL. I'm not that good with superweapons as I've never looked into them before, so I could've made a stupid mistake. Here are the codes:
Code:
251=OVERCH
[SpecialWeapons]
HSBuilding=NAAPWR
[SuperWeaponTypes]
7=OverchargeSpecial
[OVERCH]
Name=Overcharge
Power=3000
Strength=500
WeaponsFactory=no
Prerequisite=NAAPWR
Factory=UnitType
DeployTime=.0
Adjacent=2
Armor=heavy
TechLevel=2
Sight=4
Owner=Nod
Cost=1
Points=80
Capturable=true
Crewed=yes
Bib=yes
Explosion=
NaturalSmokeLocation=
MaxDebris=0
ThreatPosed=0 ; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=
DamageSmokeOffset=395, 750, 410
AIBuildThis=no
[NHUNTER]
Name=Overcharge
Strength=500
Insignificant=yes
Category=AFV
Prerequisite=NAAPWR
Armor=light
TechLevel=1
Sight=7
Speed=25
DeploysInto=OVERCH
FlightLevel=400
Owner=Nod
DeployToFire=yes
AllowedToStartInMultiplayer=no
Cost=1000
Points=50
ROT=16
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
MaxDebris=0
ThreatPosed=10 ; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
GuardRange=5
Locomotor={4A582746-9839-11d1-B709-00A024DDAFD1}
MovementZone=Fly
HunterSeeker=yes
AlternateSpeed=10 ; this value is just used when exiting the war factory
AlternateFlightLevel=50 ; this value is just used when exiting the war factory
Selectable=false
IgnoresFirestorm=yes
[NAAPWR]
Name=Advanced Power Plant
Prerequisite=NAWEAP
Strength=750
Armor=wood
TechLevel=7
Adjacent=2
Sight=4
Owner=Nod
Cost=500
Points=40
Power=200
Capturable=true
Crewed=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
MaxDebris=8
ThreatPosed=0 ; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,SmallGreySSys,BigGreySmokeSys
DamageSmokeOffset=290, 570, 320
TogglePower=no
SuperWeapon=OverchargeSpecial
IsTemple=yes
Note: I did make a building which is titled OVERCH. I've also made Art.ini entries, It's basicaly an active Anim' as LKO said to do, with damege level of 10. Also, I've removed the actual hunter seekers from my mod, so that's why they're not in the HSBuilding= tag. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Location: Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:29 am Post subject:
I can remember that WW would wanted some kind of Battery superweapon in the game, but they never did... There still is some kind of Battery superweapon cameo in the game's mixes... QUICK_EDIT
1. remove from [OVERCH] WeaponsFactory=no, Factory=UnitType, DeployTime=.0, Bib=yes
Change TechLevel=-1, Capturable=false, Crewed=no
add Primary=OverchargeHunter
I'm not sure, but the HS could avoid to deploy, if the building has no weapon
2. You should leave GAPLUG in HSBuilding=NAAPWR, except you removed the GDI HS too. If you still have the HS-SW in GAPLUG2 the game could crash if GDI tries to fire it.
3. Add to [NHUNTER] Primary=OverchargeHunter else the deploytofire key won't work and the HS doesn't deploy
4. change in [OverchargeHunter] Damage=1
with Damage=0 a unit doesn't try to fire and this way won't deploy.
change Speed=100 and Warhead=SA
with Warhead=none the weapon couldn't find a suitable target and Speed=0 could cause the bullet to stay forever at the firing position, which could make the game crash if there are too many dummy projectiles flying (standing) around.
5. remove from [OverchargeSpecial] UseChargeDrain=false
UseChargeDrain is just a needless key here _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
I remember me and Muldrake tried to emulate this battery feature as a Super Weapon for Nod "battery" using the HS as deploying due to a weapon, the general idea was:
HS Ready -> Hunter Seeker Spawns -> Dummy Weapon Forces HS to deploy into building with high power and invisible etc. -> Building has a looping damaging animation will eventually destroy it over a certain amount of time.
We never got it to work and thats the simplest way of getting what you want to achieve. If you do get it to work let me know though and I highly suggest you try whats been mentioned above by other people and in my post. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Well unfortunatly, with all the fixes that LKO mentioned, It still didn't work, I've sat at my modding computer for about 3 hours playing around with this idea, but I just can't get it to work as I desire.
I did get some interesting results though, The Hunterseeker did appear (I hid it, so that It wouldn't spoil the overcharge idea of a random hunterseeker popping up) and it randomly blew up a building in MY base... This was still after I changed all the codes by the way. Another interesting thing happened, After I released about 4 Overcharges, A bright light appeared on one of the regular power plants, and it was slowly descending in health.
It wasn't. I was playing against a GDI AI, and the hunter seekers where removed for testing this Idea. I think it was because I placed that power plant close to one the the invisible overcharge hunter seekers, There was about 3 overcharge-seekers there. QUICK_EDIT
Uh did you use just an edited existing hunter seeker? You will need to remove a lot of tags such as primary, hunterseeker=yes, speed=0 etc and change its speed and movement type to an ordinary ground units.
If you did anything I suggested earlier then it might have been a damaging animation damaging your power plants but thats only if you included it. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Location: Teamblackistan Posts: Over 9000
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:12 am Post subject:
Well I gave it a try myself.. everything works fine, except the ability to deploy without the player telling it to do so.
I gave it
HunterSeeker=yes
GuardRange=255
LargeVisceroid=yes
hoping that any of those tags would make it deploy to attack automatically, but none worked..
Every other factor can be overcome by giving it an invisible image, deploy anim, active anim, and explosion anim, max debris=0, Selectable=no, Repairable=no, Targetable=no
Deploy to fire was in the tags, it still didn't work. The way the overcharge Idea should work is so that you can't see the hunterseeker dummy, let alone the dummy building. So I guess for now, as I've got no idea's, I'll have to investigate this idea another day. Maybe theres just something we're missing. QUICK_EDIT
Unfortunatly, no matter what me or TB seem to do, It just will not work 100%. As he said, Getting Power= tag to work correctly in the vehicles list or the Super Weapon section would solve all our problems. The furthest i've got this working to, is so that you have to deploy the hunter seeker yourself, no matter what tags I add, the hunter seeker will not automaticaly deply. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Dec 2004 Location: Tiberium Research Center N27
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:40 am Post subject:
Aro wrote:
Unfortunatly, no matter what me or TB seem to do, It just will not work 100%. As he said, Getting Power= tag to work correctly in the vehicles list or the Super Weapon section would solve all our problems. The furthest i've got this working to, is so that you have to deploy the hunter seeker yourself, no matter what tags I add, the hunter seeker will not automaticaly deply.
Can't the hunter seeker deploy for an attack? _________________ DUNK! QUICK_EDIT
Out of interest you are aware the hunter seekers original movement types and I think, locomotor make it unable to deploy unless you make it a standard ground vehicle... Just wondering because that may be the problem if it was overlooked, however the exact same problem I had was the Hunter Seeker not deploying with this dummy weapon, and I mean artillery's don't self deploy, do they? _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Dec 2004 Location: Tiberium Research Center N27
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:28 am Post subject:
Morpher wrote:
Out of interest you are aware the hunter seekers original movement types and I think, locomotor make it unable to deploy unless you make it a standard ground vehicle... Just wondering because that may be the problem if it was overlooked, however the exact same problem I had was the Hunter Seeker not deploying with this dummy weapon, and I mean artillery's don't self deploy, do they?
I think artileries CAN be put in guard mode - bot in deployed and undeployed state. _________________ DUNK! QUICK_EDIT
I and TeamBlack did use loads of different movement zones. Every single one of them listed in the rules.ini wouldn't work. Artilleries however can self-deploy if they come in guard mode by default, which is another thing I've tried with the Overcharge Idea, which unfortunatly didn't work. This is a really confusing matter, I've tried almost everything. QUICK_EDIT
Perhaps there is come hardcoding then to make artilleries self deploy when in guard. If artilleries and juggernauts self deploy when in guard try using Artillery=yes or Juggernaut=yes in conjunction with some tags TB tried such as Viscroid tags and other ways which would provoke a unit into self deploying, other than I really can't suggest anything more sorry. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Aro, if you're still interested, I found a way to make this work. The Juggernaut and the Artillery always try to deploy when they are under attack. Just give a building a dummy weapon that will attack the hunterseeker, and it should deploy just fine. I tried it myself using a Juggernaut and the Construction Yard. (I'd have a better method, but I have not gotten a reply to my limpet drone question) _________________ Steel Talons Commander QUICK_EDIT
They did try using the artillery, yes. But, they could not get it to self-deploy once it was built. If you want proof, I'll take some screenshots of what I did. _________________ Steel Talons Commander QUICK_EDIT
Aro, if you're still interested, I found a way to make this work. The Juggernaut and the Artillery always try to deploy when they are under attack. Just give a building a dummy weapon that will attack the hunterseeker, and it should deploy just fine. I tried it myself using a Juggernaut and the Construction Yard. (I'd have a better method, but I have not gotten a reply to my limpet drone question)
Give one of your buildings a dummy weapon? If so then why would your building attack your own unit? Or do you mean give something like the construction yard a weapon with a range of like 255? If that then wouldn't the Conyard attack other things than the hunterseeker?
show some screenies. _________________ Please, read the signature rules of the forum. QUICK_EDIT
Yes, I did give the Yard a weapon with a range of 255 so that the computer would shoot at my Juggernaut. However, it did shoot other things besides the Juggernaut. That's something that is easily fixed though(easier if the AV=true tag can be made to work for other things besides the limpet). Here are the screenshots.
screen01.PNG
Description:
My undeployed juggernaut. I had to kill some of my units to make the Yard shoot at it.
Filesize:
146.77 KB
Viewed:
5447 Time(s)
screen02.PNG
Description:
The juggernaut deployed into the battery structure(in this case, the EMP cannon)
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Overcharge Superweapon
This was still after I changed all the codes by the way. Another interesting thing happened, After I released about 4 Overcharges, A bright light appeared on one of the regular power plants, and it was slowly descending in health.
I'll investigate into this further another day. As for now, I'll look into other SuperWeapon possibilities.
