Author Topic: Default ship models? (Read 27046 times)

Keldane · « **on:** October 06, 2009, 01:08:50 »

Just a quick question - is it possible to utilize all the basic ship models in a new mod, or do you need model/mesh files if you want to use a custom tacticstypes.ini file?

Mularac · « **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2009, 02:06:11 »

you can get the ship files opening the nexus_00.dat using the DaTool. http://www.moddb.com/groups/the-nexii/downloads there you can find it, along with some other cool downloads for nexus.

Keldane · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2009, 02:33:00 »

Ah, excellent. Thank you very much for the link.

Arparso · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2009, 02:38:49 »

You can use all the ship models from the vanilla game in your mod. You don't even need to include their files in your mod, when offering it as a downloadable package. For example if you create a new shipclass in your tacticstypes.ini using the "earthmaincruiser" mesh, that shipclass will use the Noah cruiser model, that's included in the nexus_00.dat archive in your Nexus installation folder.

Keldane · « **Reply #4 on:** October 06, 2009, 04:22:36 »

Sweet, even easier. Thanks very much.

Although, if I use a Tacticstypes.ini, it'll replace -all- the existing ship configurations, even if there's only one in the file, yes?

Arparso · « **Reply #5 on:** October 06, 2009, 05:38:40 »

Yeah, that's how it works. You just sort of "overwrite" the default Nexus files hidden in nexus_00.dat. If your mod doesn't have a tacticstypes.ini, then the default one from the singleplayer campaign will be used instead. If you have your own tacticstypes.ini, then only that one will be used and the default tacticstypes.ini will be ignored... therefore you have to supply a "complete" tacticstypes file including all the shipclasses you wish to use (including escape pods, asteroids, etc.).

Keldane · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2009, 05:51:48 »

So, start by copying and pasting and go from there. ^_^ This last question's getting a bit off topic, and is there any way to set a weapon to do different amounts of damage at different ranges?

Mularac · « **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2009, 10:35:48 »

no, you can't do that, but you can set it to have different accuracy at different ranges.

Keldane · « **Reply #8 on:** October 07, 2009, 19:20:52 »

I guess accuracy will have to do.

I have run into a bit of a problem, though. I attempted to define a custom ship class by copying and pasting the entry for the Support class from the Nexus Skirmisher tacticstypes.ini file, and the result was the game crashing on me repeatedly. I wound up having to overwrite my custom tacticstypes.ini with a fresh copy in order to repair the damage done and get the game to run in a stable fashion once again. A subsequent run through of the modding instructions included with the game yielded no useful information. So, would anyone be so kind as to tell me how to add a new ship class?

Edit: Would it be possible to create a machine or script that allows the player to use Commandos to take over an enemy ship mid battle? In this case, I don't mean a specific, scripted event, I mean any time the player has a unit of Commandos they can get onto an enemy ship, they can use them to take over that ship and add it to their fleet for the remainder of the battle.

The Old Dragon · « **Reply #9 on:** October 07, 2009, 19:34:36 »

Hi Keldane,

You're more or less there when it comes to adding a new shipclass ( or shiptype).
Copy the entry of an object that you think is similar to the object you're trying to create, then edit the ShipClass/ShipType number and name details (obviously, these have to be unique) and you're done. Your new beastie should be available.

One thing to bare in mind though, is that Nexus has a hardcoded shipclass limit of about 250. Picking a higher number than this will lead to a crash.

I take it you recieved no error messages at the crashsite?

Keldane · « **Reply #10 on:** October 07, 2009, 23:52:14 »

I had a unique name and ship class number, so theoretically that should have worked. I thought it might have something to do with the Serial line, but changing that didn't fix the issue.

It seems that whenever I try to define a custom Ship Class, or when I exceed certain parameters (trying to put 6 fighters in a squadron instead of 5, for example), I don't get an error message. The game just loads up to a certain point (for the fighter issue, it got as far as trying to display the in-mission UI; when adding a ship class or trying to change what sort of weapons can be equipped at a given hardpoint, it didn't even get to the main menu) before the game crashes to the desktop and I get a little message from Windows informing me that NexusDX9.exe has stopped functioning. I don't have this issue with any other mod using custom ship types, so I've concluded it must be me doing something wrong.

Edit: The issues have mostly been resolved. Using a lower number and shifting the position in the list fixed the Ship Class issue, and allowing different weapons to be equipped in a given slot doesn't seem to be a problem as long as I don't try to allow Flak weapons to be equipped in slots normally allotted to other weapons.

Arparso · « **Reply #11 on:** October 08, 2009, 11:57:30 »

Remember that you'll only get meaningful error messages, if you start the mission editor and not the game itself. The game usually just crashes without further comment, but the mission editor will give you relatively accurate description of the error (at least most of the time).

Keldane · « **Reply #12 on:** October 09, 2009, 22:59:26 »

Hmm, an excellent point. I'll use the mission editor for testing from now on.

Edit: Does anyone know how make weapons capable of both firing on fighters and firing on larger ships?

The Old Dragon · « **Reply #13 on:** October 10, 2009, 10:19:26 »

That's already been done... well, apart from a few entries that we're still confused by.

Drop by the Nexus forum and have a look at this thread... Secrets of tacticstypes.ini

It's helped me out quite a few times.

Keldane · « **Reply #14 on:** October 12, 2009, 03:57:41 »

Gaaaah, I can't believe I made that mistake. >_<

At any rate, I'm still having my multi-target difficulties. My experiments seem to suggest that it's not possible to have a weapon that can fire on both fighter-size craft and normal size craft. Has anyone else attempted this, and if so, have they been successful?

Mularac · « **Reply #15 on:** October 12, 2009, 07:23:28 »

sadly no, it can't be done. But I can offer you a good number of alternative solutions for the problem:
1- Make a brand new weapon with the same effects (start, travel, end lines) than the flak but anti-ship wise and place it on the ship
2- Same as a above but you can also make it automatic, to fire on ships as if they were fighters, just add the line "automatic" to the weapon's description on the tactics (not very advisable, though, it can malfunction...)

Keldane · « **Reply #16 on:** October 13, 2009, 00:25:33 »

I thought so. Ah, well.

Now I have a question concerning energy generators. According to the wiki, the EnergyOutput line is the amount of support energy produced by the generator. When reading the tacticstypes.ini file, I see that the format for the line is actually EnergyOutput (X) (Y). I assume that (Y) is the output, given that it's the larger number, and I'm wondering what the (X) value is. Does anyone know, off the top of their heads?

The Old Dragon · « **Reply #17 on:** October 13, 2009, 00:57:23 »

"EnergyOutput- Energy output of generators. first number is the type of energy. 1 is for weapon gens, 2 is for shield generators, 3 is for engines, and 4 is for support generators. the second number is the amount of power generated every 0.1 seconds. Only Type 4(support) power is capable of filling up the reserve power cells."

Keldane · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2009, 18:39:59 »

A big thanks to everyone who has answered questions for me. I think my mod is off to a solid start now.

The Old Dragon · « **Reply #19 on:** October 15, 2009, 10:35:13 »

No probs, just keep us up to date with your mod. We get very interested in new developments.

Keldane · « **Reply #20 on:** October 15, 2009, 22:36:47 »

It's nothing too spectacular; I'm just modding ship classes and devices to replicate Ground Zero Games' Full Thrust tabletop space combat system (clicky). It's nowhere near exact, and hopefully it'll provide something a little different from standard Nexus games. I also intend to include the Warfare mod written by Arparso in some of the missions, once I get to the point of creating them and pending permission from Arparso.

Arparso · « **Reply #21 on:** October 15, 2009, 22:47:53 »

Consider my permissions granted.

However, keep in mind, that Nexus doesn't like too many ships in a mission at the same time, so it'll crash sooner or later.... perhaps implementing a hard limit concerning the number of ships to build would be a wise choice.

Keldane · « **Reply #22 on:** October 15, 2009, 23:00:03 »

Thank you, it is greatly appreciated.

My thought had been to have a set number of resource points for a given mission, and have the construction of each ship cost a certain number. That way, by adjusting the points value of the smallest ship and the maximum number of points for the mission, I would ultimately set a limit on the number of ships that could reach the battlefield. Determining points value and determining the armament of a given ship type would become easier with this method, as well, as I could simply use the Full Thrust rules for ship construction to come up with both.

Arparso · « **Reply #23 on:** October 16, 2009, 01:18:09 »

Sure, that'll work, too.

Keldane · « **Reply #24 on:** October 20, 2009, 21:01:24 »

Alright, I have a new question. This one isn't really important in any way; it's just a curiosity thing. Would anyone here happen to know how (or, for that matter, if it's even possible) to make commandos transfer ship to ship without the use of their own fragile little pods? I tried to set them to use the Datascanner's animation, and it predictably did not work.