MOD: STA2 Upgrade Project 2014 - A stock A2 mod in FO

posted on April 29th, 2014, 8:47 pm

I've been looking at the guide here and thinking about a couple of things that I'll check after work tonite. From the guide:

SKINNY_SHIP_COMBAT_FLOOR
-400
Determines the deepest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the shallowest Map Depth game option.

SKINNY_SHIP_COMBAT_CEILING
+400
Determines the shallowest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the shallowest Map Depth game option.

SHIP_COMBAT_FLOOR
-1250
Determines the deepest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the default Map Depth game option.

SHIP_COMBAT_CEILING
+1250
Determines the shallowest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the default Map Depth game option.

DEEP_SPACE_SHIP_COMBAT_FLOOR
-3000
Determines the shallowest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the deepest Map Depth game option.

DEEP_SPACE_SHIP_COMBAT_CEILING
+3000
Determines the deepest depth possible that a GameObject can be placed / moved when using the deepest Map Depth game option.

This makes it sound like the map depth you want to play on is selectable at the main menu? Will have to look around the settings and see. Also, at the bottom of the RTS-CFG file there is some FO code that was coped over by Blade when he did the original Classic mod that states something like enable map height = 1. I'm wondering now if I change that to 0 if it'll disable the map height all together? I believe in FO it is set to 0 since they don't use height variation except for generic ship maneuvering. Question is how will the missions then play if this is at 0? Would it disable the map height in the missions as well? Will it jack up the scripted pathing of off map ships? Hmmmm will have to test.

EDIT: OK, after more than an hour of trying different things and testing the answer to 1 and maybe 2 things was right in front of my face. In the RTS-CFG file there is the following near the bottom: float REPAIR_SHIP_DISTANCE = 350;
I just commented out that line with // and now the repair ships work properly. Whew.

Next, after looking in the advanced menu setup when starting an instant action game you can select three different map height settings, shallowest, default and deepest which correspond to the skinny, regular and deep-space floor/ceiling entries I listed above that are in the RTS-CFG. WOW, I'm clearly captain obvious as I never put two and two together regarding these. The question is do the campaign maps use the default setting or deepest? I'm inclined to think it uses the default which in stock was +/- 1250, but can't be sure. So, I changed my skinny settings to be +/- 400, regular to be +/- 800 and deep-space to be +/- 1200. I am off to bed so can't test tonite, but thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone wants to test before I can and see how AI ships perform now in the missions.

If the campaigns use the default floor/ceiling and I make that +/- 800 then the bases and turrets have a range of 900 which will be sufficient to cover that range. This is of course assuming the AI builds those bases and turrets at zero elevation. Testing this will be the only way we'll know. You may want to change the following back to the default setting of 3 which appears near the top of the RTS-CFG:

int cfgTACTICAL_WHERE_MODE = 1; // use last selected end path or what you get from shift

So that you can now maneuver your ships in the 3D plane

posted on April 30th, 2014, 10:36 am

Alrighty I've got all versions set up now to test between, v1.1-1.6.

The missing shockwave station in Klingon mission 7 pops up between v1.3 and v1.4. The a2_kling07.tt file is swapped out with one from thunderfoot006 - // edited by thunderfoot006 on 06/21/08.

Commenting out the lines:

ksuper.odf -1 // super weapon (Jach'eng class)
ksuperbl.odf -1 // shockwave station

Fixes the problem.



I've also noticed that in v1.4, 3 klingon birds of prey were added to Fed mission 1. Was this done on purpose?

So, I changed my skinny settings to be +/- 400, regular to be +/- 800 and deep-space to be +/- 1200. I am off to bed so can't test tonite, but thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone wants to test before I can and see how AI ships perform now in the missions.

Made these changes to v1.6 and had a run through Fed mission 10, there are still invisible ships coming onto the map. I also observed one ship passing above and below the visible limit several times, so it seems once they're on the map they aren't trapped on either side.

I'm inclined to think they are following a scripted path, because the same groups of ships came from the same place several times during the mission and the same types of ships were invisible each time, became visible at the same place and followed the same path once they became visible.

[rifraf]

posted on April 30th, 2014, 2:36 pm

Last edited by rifraf on May 1st, 2014, 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Alrighty I've got all versions set up now to test between, v1.1-1.6.

The missing shockwave station in Klingon mission 7 pops up between v1.3 and v1.4. The a2_kling07.tt file is swapped out with one from thunderfoot006 - // edited by thunderfoot006 on 06/21/08.

Commenting out the lines:

ksuper.odf -1 // super weapon (Jach'eng class)
ksuperbl.odf -1 // shockwave station

Fixes the problem.

Good find. I had a hunch this may be the issue. There were very little reports of problems or any issues with the ImpSPCam mod that I used over at the A2 File Front site so I assumed it didn't have any issues. As a precaution I'll probably comb through every mission tech tree and compare it to a stock version and fix any other irregularities.

I've also noticed that in v1.4, 3 klingon birds of prey were added to Fed mission 1. Was this done on purpose?

This is due to the then ImpSPCam team discussing the changes/improvements they were making to the missions. It was determined that adding a couple small ships from the Klingons for scouting would be beneficial and fit in with the mission story. Klingon ships appear in a few of the Fed missions so you should see them in other maps periodically.

So, I changed my skinny settings to be +/- 400, regular to be +/- 800 and deep-space to be +/- 1200. I am off to bed so can't test tonite, but thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone wants to test before I can and see how AI ships perform now in the missions.

Made these changes to v1.6 and had a run through Fed mission 10, there are still invisible ships coming onto the map. I also observed one ship passing above and below the visible limit several times, so it seems once they're on the map they aren't trapped on either side.

I'm inclined to think they are following a scripted path, because the same groups of ships came from the same place several times during the mission and the same types of ships were invisible each time, became visible at the same place and followed the same path once they became visible.

The only other thing to try is to change the regular setting (the middle one) to +/- 1250 as it is in stock and if it still happens then we'd know positively that the AI uses the deep-space setting one of +/- 3000 for the mission maps.

posted on April 30th, 2014, 3:49 pm

Figured I'd jump right to putting it back at stock, 400/1250/3000, invisible ship issue fixed.



Something you may or may not care about. Pre existing federation shipyards are placed at a 45° angle, but ones you build yourself are straight up and down.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zadefouaja0ks ... 013649.png

posted on April 30th, 2014, 4:30 pm

Figured I'd jump right to putting it back at stock, 400/1250/3000, invisible ship issue fixed.

Well, that takes care of that mystery then. I would really like to know though if it's the 1250 or the 3000 figure that fixes it. If you have the inclination would you care to change the settings to 400/1250/1250 and test again? If not absolutely no worry. I'll try it after work. Ugh...stuck here 6 more hours

When you changed those values did you play long enough to see if the AI built anything beyond what they already had on the map? Reason I ask is because I'd like to know if they build stuff at zero elevation or do they go above/below that to build things? All map objects are basically at zero elevation so they shouldn't need to go beyond that except perhaps due to space limitations on cramped maps.

Something you may or may not care about. Pre existing federation shipyards are placed at a 45° angle, but ones you build yourself are straight up and down.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zadefouaja0ks ... 013649.png

Yeah, some stations here or there were placed at angles in the missions depending on the dev's moods or space limitation etc.. I left them as I found them usually. Did you also see my edit in the top post about the fix for the repair ships? Just wanted to make sure.

I'll probably put out another update before doing the final version as there's a couple other things I may add. One thing I did with the main photono.odf file was to set omegaTurn and seekTime to 0. Well, the fed torp files all have their own settings. After setting all those to 0 as well and testing I noticed that all ships now appear to fire torps aft. This isn't really the case as hardly any of those models have aft facing torps so what's happening is they are firing from the forward tube, but with 0 omega and seek time they instantly fire towards the target behind them.

I think I like this as it gives fleeing ships a chance to keep firing on targets aft. I'm inclined to leave it and include the changes in another update. I'm also seriously contemplating brightening the map lighting a bit as my tired eyes strain sometimes to see the Klingon and Romulan ships against the darker colored map backgrounds. I'm still mulling that one over though as I'm sick to death of editing the maps.

posted on April 30th, 2014, 5:18 pm

Sorry I shouldn't have skipped ahead. 400/1250/1250 also fixes it, no invisible ships. I haven't been able to check where they build just yet though, on that map the only easy way to survive is to wipe out the borg base right away, then sit around and wait for the ships that were causing the problem to show up. As it is, they only build new ships on that map anyway (at least in my experience).


I did catch your fix for the repair ship too, I just forgot to actually implement and test it. Just did that now, all sweet. Repair ships back to normal


It's quarter past 3 in the morning here so I'm going to call it a night, I'll check out how the AI builds stuff tomorrow. Off the top of my head though, I've always observed the AI to build at the level of the surrounding objects, IE if there's a high planet, they build high. If there's a low moon, they build low. A notable exception to this would be the cardasian advanced robotics institute. The AI always seems to build this as low as possible.

I'm also seriously contemplating brightening the map lighting a bit as my tired eyes strain sometimes to see the Klingon and Romulan ships against the darker colored map backgrounds. I'm still mulling that one over though as I'm sick to death of editing the maps.

You'll get no arguments from me on this one

posted on May 1st, 2014, 12:53 am

No problem. I really appreciate all the help given. I'll work on putting another update together for the klingon repair ship, the shockwave station in the campaign (after I've gone through every mission techtree first to check everything else,) the redone fed mission 09 map with that radioactive neb removed, plus ALL the redone torpedo files.

I also want to experiment with the ship-combat-floor/ceiling values to see what the absolute minimum is that would prevent invisible ships, but let the player have a little bit of room to play in 3D. I want to prevent the player from flying over/under defenses, but still keep those defenses as close to zero elevation as possible. 1250 is a bit much so we'll see.

I've also decided to brighten the map lighting on all maps and release that as a separate download for those who want it. It's kind of not fun if you can't even see the ship.

EDIT: I went through all the campaign techtrees tonite and unless I missed anything (I compared them to the objective files to make sure you could build what was needed for each mission) then that shockwave station and it's ship in Klingon mission 7 are the only errors that I can see

EDIT 2: I'm working on redoing the scripted pathing in all the campaign maps including a couple of edits to the RTS-CFG file and it's being tested now. All the maps will also have a little bit brighter lighting so you can see ships/stations better. Will release a new update once complete

posted on May 17th, 2014, 3:47 am

New v1.7 update released in first post. This one will probably be the last until the final release unless something needs fixed or whatnot, but we'll see.

I am currently working on redoing the campaign mission build lists to try and make the missions more difficult for those who want more challenge. If I don't wait until the final version I'll release these separately as an add-on beforehand.

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you encounter any issues

posted on May 17th, 2014, 7:52 pm

Pardon my ignorance but are you talking about playing stock Armada 2 with fleet ops graphics? And if so does that mean the missions as well?

posted on May 18th, 2014, 12:57 am

Yes, at its base this is stock Armada 2 played as a mod in the Fleet Ops engine. I do use some FO graphics like weapons, explosions and shield effects, but I also use the work of others like the ships/stations/map objects etc. The campaign missions are completely intact as well so you can play those just like you used to be able to. It also incorporates a mod that sets out to make the missions more challenging so they won't be as numbingly easy as they once were.

I am working on making new campaign build lists so they are even harder so we'll see if I'm successful.

posted on May 21st, 2014, 2:02 am

2nd post updated with a new Alternate Borg Race mod. Try if you like and let me know what ya think. Be sure and check the readme for full details.

posted on May 24th, 2014, 2:04 pm

Hey gents,

I just started the fed campaign and noticed that the difficulty is not changing and that the borg warp in somwhere between 50 -75 ships after 5 mins. Seems a bit much?

Also, the mining vessels do not mine metal from the metal moons?

Is this intended or am I just too rusty to remember how this goes ? haha

let me know thanks

posted on May 24th, 2014, 2:20 pm

I just started the fed campaign and noticed that the difficulty is not changing and that the borg warp in somwhere between 50 -75 ships after 5 mins. Seems a bit much?

The first federation mission is crazy difficult, probably too much so set to medium for someone just getting back into it. With a bit of practice and a change of tactics though you can beat it.

Also, the mining vessels do not mine metal from the metal moons?

Is this intended or am I just too rusty to remember how this goes ? haha

Federation mining ships only mine dilithium and latinum. To mine metal you need to build an orbital mining platform.

posted on May 24th, 2014, 6:02 pm

Thanks!


Another thing i noticed is that the trade menu isnt working like its supposed to. you cant tell a cargo ship to l oad with metal or latinum etc.

posted on May 24th, 2014, 6:08 pm

Yep that's a known bug, part of the Fleet Ops game the mod is based on.

Use D, L or M to load dilithium, latinum or metal. If you just want to set up trade routes, you can just right click the first and second trading station as per normal, you should still be seeing the 'begin trade' and 'end trade' icons when you hover over a trading station with a cargo ship selected.