Jump gates

[Mularac]

Anyone has ever succeded in creating and adding jumpgates to missions?
Or at least have any pointers as to where should I start?

(Modification level, not campaign)

EDIT: My first view in the official campaign files showed that there's a great chance that the only way to use a gate is in a campaign coding, but the manual does contain some information as to how to interact with them, even if it doesn't clearly specify how to add them to your mission... so I'm still hopeful...

[The Old Dragon]

Are we talking about the blue Nexus wormholes or the smaller orange ones?

[Mularac]

The blue ones, I think. The inter-system travel ones, like the one connecting Pluto-Noah in the campaign.

[The Old Dragon]

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever managed to reproduce them and they were considered 'hard-coded'.

What pages in the manual were you reading about the wormholes (I'm a bit too lazy to go hunting at the moment  )?

[GeoModder]

I can be mistaken, but didn't the Babylon mod add new graphics for jumpgates? Or were these based on the IP drive?

[Mularac]

For the record, I'm not trying to modify them or anything, I just want them included in a mission (regular nexus ships and all)
And Geo... you may be onto somthing here. I'm quite positive that the B5 mod had modded both the IP drives AND the wormholes... I'll take a look at their code.

EDIT: Damn... the Jump gate code on the B5 was a bit of a hack on itself... no relation whatsoever with Nexus' wormholes.

[Mularac]

Well, I think I was right, the only way to reproduce them is in Campaign-level coding. But, lucky for me, I AM developing in a campaing level environment
However, I have a problem now. The JumpGates appear in the center of coordinates and I don't have the slightest as to how to move them or even select them... any ideas?

[Arparso]

They appear in the center of the mission? Why not just move everything else away from there?

For selection, try:

Code: [Select]

Select(1, S.Gate);

[Mularac]

Got it. All you have to do is add this to the bottom, just above the entities section:

Code: [Select]

POSITION
NexusGate "<your gate>"  <x> <y> <z>
END


[The_Small_Time_Modder]

The JumpGates appear in the center of coordinates and I don't have the slightest as to how to move them or even select them... any ideas?

Hey guys! Just recently registered, ive been modding a few missions myself, the count is eleven by now, thanks to aparso's skirmisher program, kudos to him for that extremely handy program! 

Anywho, Mularac, how exactly did you code the creation of that jump gate? ive been trying to figure that out for a few weeks and these posts are getting SO close to the answer im looking for, thanks! 

Edit: I just remembered this, if anyone knows how to code so that the AI ship (a vardrag Explorer) uses the gate disruptor i have equipped on it on the gate, i'd gladly appreciate it, thanks!

[Mularac]

Unfortunately, I only figured out how to add jump gates to a mission in a campaign-level scripting, not modification level. But I'll post it anyway.

Let's say we want to add the scoratus-noah delta gate, then all you have to do is add this line at the top, right below the "deflocation" line.

Code: [Select]

addLocation "gate_Scoratus_Delta"

Then, at the bottom, outside of the RULES block, add this:

Code: [Select]

POSITIONS
NexusGate "gate_Scoratus_Delta"  13876 -5510 -12246
END

But as I've just said this method only seems to work in a campaign level scripting.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

So your saying that this will only work if you are creating your own campaign, or could it also work in the nexus skirmisher in SP settings? 

i really appreciate the replies! 

[Mularac]

As far as I can tell, only with your own campaign.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

I was just scrounging around and ran into this... you might want to check to see if this works Mularac.... it came from the pluto mission in the normal campaign!

Code: [Select]

FLEETENTRY 1
Gate -38252 -7141 -50870  0.864 0.097 0.494
END

This might be part of the puzzle right here.... 

[Mularac]

No, fleetentries (though they are related to jumpgates) are different things. They can be used in a regular mod, as it will mean a fleet comming out of a jump similarly like the ones on mp do.

It works like this:

Code: [Select]


JumpInShips(incoming,1); //Where "incoming" is the identifier of a list and "1" is the index of a fleetentry or jumpgate.



[The_Small_Time_Modder]

Oh.... well darn i thought i had something... 

Have you found anything new? im kind of scrounging around myself...

I noticed those .nexus files in the _00 DAT file have the names of the gates in the campaign, do you think it could be possible to create MORE of these .nexus files? If not, be able to include them in a mission script if you extract them?

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

I think i had a revelation over this topic! 

I remembered a slice of coding similar to that of the coding that had to do with the pluto gate, except it was slightly different.

POSITIONS
   //Ship "ship_Master"     0 -300 40000  7 23 135
   Ship "ship_Master"   18000   1200   13900 180 0 0
   
   Ship "ship_Killer_1" 0      -700   20700 180 0 0
   Ship "ship_Killer_2" 600   700   21700 180 0 0
   Ship "ship_Killer_3" -600   700   21700 180 0 0
   
   Ship "ship_Hunter_1" 0      700   23200 180 0 0
   Ship "ship_Hunter_2" 400   -400   22700 180 0 0
   Ship "ship_Hunter_3" -400   -400   22700 180 0 0
   
   Ship "ship_AngelwingC" -7995 177 34275 180 0 0
   NexusGate "gate_Noah_Delta" -16067 337 -8100
END

this came from "the chase" mission by the way...

Im starting to doubt these suckers are hard-coded, and im about to explain why and/or how...

   Firstly, if all this editable coding REGARDING the wormholes wasnt present, THEN i would suspect its hard-coded, but this stuff is here. So how could it be hard-coded if they're evidently placing it and naming it?

   Second problem with it being Hard-coded into the system, as i stated earlier, apparently there is some type of file format SOMETHING related to these things are tucked away in.

      If you look into the _00.DAT file, you'd see a file labeled 'Nexii'. This file contains the names of every single pair of wormhole gates in the regular campaign. Their format is '.nexus' so it has to be readable by wordpad (which i JUST found out they ARE!!!), BUT this is the BIG picture of this puzzle... these nexus files are what CONNECT each of the wormholes! So, using this information, we could easily create a NEXUS file based off of the ones provided in the main campaign.

       Also, these nexus files contain each GATE, which we can also code into, say, a custom system, such as my Arcturus system. I could connect arcturus, and another of my custom systems, Ouroboros, together using this type of file.

heres an example, i pulled out the alpha nexus, which connects the sol system to the noah system

Code: [Select]

Name "nex_Alpha"
Color 1 1 1
Background 0.68 0.91 0.97 0.76 0.63 0.69 0.75 0.27
NumStars 5000
Gravity 50
Damaging 50

GATE
Parent "astfld_Pluto"
Name "gate_Sol_Alpha"
Secret 150

SemiMajorAxisKM 112.63
MeanAnomaly 52.9651
Radius 4E-007

PosInNexus -42983 -15257 -28785
END

GATE
Parent "Noah VIIb"
Name "gate_Noah_Alpha"

SemiMajorAxisKM 13325.3
Eccentricity 0.35
Inclination 28.4824
AscendingNode 148.821
ArgOfPericenter 334.907
MeanAnomaly 243.749
Radius 0

PosInNexus 26293 -25227 -11315
END

  Now, how did they put the wormhole model into the scene? this i am not quite sure, but i think what i put in earlier is linked to it....

Here it is again, if you are not sure what im talking about.

Code: [Select]

FLEETENTRY 1
Gate -38252 -7141 -50870  0.864 0.097 0.494
END

I also found this in the same mission file, this has to be connected with the .nexus file somehow...

Code: [Select]

MISSION 16
Name "name_16"

StoryMission 1 6
DefLocation "astfld_Pluto"
AddLocation "fleet_Player"
AddLocation "gate_Sol_Alpha"

If someone can figure out how to add a gate in the solar system editor (code wise, im sure its similar to the code i just highlighted in red) Im sure that would unlock our little mystery here, and we'll be able to POSSIBLY use these in the skirmishers SP settings.

OR

We create a whole new version of the wormhole for the skirmisher, im sure theres coding somewhere that has to do with the ones that appear in multiplayer (when you send ships in to the scene) that we could base them off of.

[Mularac]

Like I've said, it's not hardcoded, I've actually meddled with it quite a lot in my latest mod, but only for campaign-related coding.
When coding a campaign a lot of features are made available that you wouldn't have access to in the regular mod environment, like fleets and also wormholes (well, I could be wrong, but I've yet to found a way arround that)
What you're showing here is very close to the thruth.

The nexus files are located in the folder named nexii, and then added to a mission via the addlocation command (which is only available in campaign coding AFAIK). If you want to place the gate to a different location then you can use the positions block like this, as you've shown:
POSITIONS
NexusGate "gate_Noah_Delta" -16067 337 -8100
END

The fleetentry, however, it's a whole different thing and that CAN be used in the regular modding environment. Ships coming out will do so with an effect similar, if not identical, to the "short" jumps of the white cruisers, seen in the campaign.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

yeah, my last post was a little shaky since i was discovering things while i was typing it up, but yeah. I wanted to post it up before i forgot it! 

Anyway, back into focus.

1- have you at least tried using the POSITIONS code in a mod mission?

2- what exactly did any errors you encountered say?

3- on a side note, how would you go about creating your own campaign?

[Mularac]

It won't work, because the files in the nexii folder are not parsed by the regular mod's compilator, so the information regarding jumpgates are not taken into consideration by the game, therefore the line addLocation "<gate>" is moot. And since that doesn't work, adding it on the POSITION block is pointless.

and 3: don't. Not until you have way more experience with the nexus modding language first. Coding in campaign level can be very frustrating since most of it is not documented and there are little to no error messages.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

Ah, i see. Thanks for the fair warning there.... 

EDIT: is there a way to access this 'compilator' you're speaking of? Maybe we could modify the mod so that it is able to recognize campaign coding and utilize it if that is the case...

[Mularac]

Well, actually I mispoke, it's not a compilator but an interpreter, it takes the script written in Black Ruler language and then transforms it into a code the engine can use, probably something in c++, where a compilator is a piece of coding that transformas a programming language into machine code.
So, to answer you: We'd need the source code to access the interpreter coding.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

which im guessing we will need either an expert hacker who could reach those OR someone from the nexus' development team who programmed the game. both of which would be next to impossible to easily come by....

In other words...

TSTM: 0

Nexus: 4 

Im gonna take three final stands here...

1. Perhaps we could make a version out of scratch that can be used in the Skirmisher mostly for decoration (yet you can use gate disruptors on it)?

2. If its too cumbersome to make a whole new gate type, why not try making one thats a mirror of the campaign's gates and modify it so we can use it in the skirmisher? (simply scrounge around for as much coding that describes the gate model as possible and fill in the gaps from there)

3. Perhaps the coding for the gates is in another of the DAT files? if that's plausible then maybe aparso can figure out if its possible to get in them and take a good peek inside.... if the FIRST two are out of the question then THIS should be THE SMOKING GUN!

(P.S.: i got a good feeling about the third one...)

[Mularac]

1. what do you mean make a version from scratch? I'm pretty sure that can't be done, as we can't access and modify the source code and everything involving the the gates is pretty much hardcoded.

2. pretty much the same as above.

3. no... the nexus_01.dat, 03, 04, etc, contain the game's cgi videos. and the nexus_00.dap contains the files fixed in the 1.01 patch.

[The_Small_Time_Modder]

welp.... thats a bummer....