Coding Questions

deleteme, someone

How do I get the server to NOT truncate my darned post?

Lets see if I can copy and paste into this reply...

Nope, can't -- still truncates

Edit: Kwok, if you hit "quote" you'll see that less than half my questions displayed for some reason.

d'oh, it was trying to parse my <-- stuff. Fixed.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

http://www.spaceempires5.com/en-US/node/862

As you can see in the thread I linked to above, I have a reason other than idle curiosity for a lot of these questions. My "Missile Mod" idea came about primarily as a result of deciding that there was probably not a (useful) way to do what I wanted to do with the weapons as-coded. The closest I came to was to use the "getempiretechlevel" thing (don't remember the exact text) inside the weapon's formula code, but I think that'd act unpredictably if the weapon changed hands. Is the "empire level" code stuff saved to the design when its made, or will it go and read it anew each time?

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

If I understand it right, "vehicleUnitTypes" let me custom-define my own vehicle types... for example, clone the "drones" selections and have a half dozen different types of drones (all of which can be renamed to various types of missiles, each following their own rules?).

I just wish I saw a similar section applying to ships/bases!

To that point, I want to know what a lot of the following values mean:

.Can Communicate
Guess: This item allows the unit to act as a first contact event.
.Can Be Launched Into Space
.Can Be Recovered From Space
I'm reasonably certian this lets you launch/recover units.
.Has Spaceyard Capability
Lets you add spaceyard components?
. Can Be Sector Obscured
.Can Obscure Sectors
No clue on these two.
. Can Be Scrapped
. Can Be Mothballed
. Can Be Unmothballed
. Can Be Deconstructed And Analyzed
. Can Be Retrofitted
I'm guessing these do what they say, allow for scrapping, mothbolling, etc etc.
. Detonates When Enemy Near
I'm guessing this is what lets the mine's kill enemy ships?
. Has Facing
No clue.
. Can Use Warp Points
. Can Be In Fleet
. Shares Supplies In Fleet
I'm guessing these are also what they say.
. Can Fire Into Space From Planet Surface
. Can Fire Into Space From Ship Cargo
I'm not sure about these... do they let something inside cargo act on somethign outside the ship/planet?
. Takes Part in Ground Combat
. Can Self-Destruct
. Can Be Fired On And Destroyed By Owner
Again, I think these are fairly obvious...
. Can Be Transferred While In Cargo
Not sure what this does though.
. Cannot Be Controlled By Player Once Launched
. Seeks Towards Target And Rams
Drone controls?
. Cannot Move And Tracks Target
I think this makes sattelites capable of firing.
. Can Be Dropped For Ground Combat
. Can Be Boarded And Captured
I hope this is obvious...
. Hidden in Combat
. Abilities Added To Parent When In Cargo
What're these though?
. Does Not Require Supplies
. Cannot Be Hit By Mines
I think these do what they say.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

I think thats to allow the combat sensors to work, you'd need "Can Fire Into Space From Planet Surface/Can Fire Into Space From Ship Cargo" to fire from a planet/from cargo.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Tonnage Space Formula := 10 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 0)
Tonnage Structure Formula := 15 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 0)

Obviously the first one gives the space available on the vehicle size, but the second one seems odd. Do vehicle "hulls" actually have tonnage now or something?

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Can anyone think of any way to make an engine drain supplies while in combat? Specifically, a unit engine. In a pinch, i'd willing accept having some other component do it, so long as it did it constantly (i. e. shield regenerators would only drain supplies while regenerating, so thats out).

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

How does the engine handle fractional division and decimals in formulas? I. E. can I put in a *2.5 and have it come out as 5 every 2 levels? And if I want to integer divide the level so that you get a boost to an attribute every three levels, is that possible?

Also,

Requirement 2 Description                       := This vehicle must have 1 Missile Control Core.
Requirement 2 Formula                           := Get_Design_Specific_Component_Count("Missile Control Core") = 1

The "missile Control Core" doesnt' work,b ecause I want to be able to have several components, with differen't names, all holding that same requirement (some will have bonuses attached to them, some won't, etc etc). Can anyone else think of a good way to handle that?

edit:

n/m, the destroyer size held the clue: (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Control Center") = 1) or (Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Master Computer") >= 1)

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

(200 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 200)) - (([%Range%] / 10) * 0.00) - iif([%Range%] > Min(30, (([%Level%] - 1) * 0) + 10), 10000, 0)

I'm trying to understand this equation from the standard warhead component. It doesn't seem to add up!

First off, the range for a warhead HAS to be 0, since it only impacts on ramming, so why is it bother to check by range (especially when it then multiplys by 0!) and then checking to see if its outside the max range (when again that has to be 0!)?

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Number Of Requirements                          := 2
Requirements Evaluation Availability            := AND
Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement        := TRUE
Requirements Evaluation Allows Usage            := TRUE
Requirement 1 Description                       := Empire must have at least tech level 1 in Capital Missiles.
Requirement 1 Formula                           := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Capital Missiles") >= 1
Requirement 2 Description                       := Empire must have at least tech level 1 in Warheads.
Requirement 2 Formula                           := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Warheads") >= (1 + ([%Level%] - 1))

That comes from the code for anti-planet warheads. I thought levels were linked to the first tech in the list, but the warhead goes to 100, exactly as if levels are linked to warheads, the second in the list.

Anyone have a clue how that might be happening?

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

D'oh! Thanks!

Name                                            := Counter Missile
Description                                     := Tiny missiles which seek out and destroy enemy missiles.
Picture Number                                  := 167
Maximum Level                                   := 95
Tonnage Space Taken Formula                     := 30
Tonnage Structure Formula                       := 30
Cost Minerals Formula                           := 100 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 5)
Cost Organics Formula                           := 0
Cost Radioactives Formula                       := 20 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 5)
Supply Amount Used Formula                      := 0
Ordnance Amount Used Formula                    := 10
Can Be Placed On Vehicle Types                  := Ship, Base, Satellite, Weapon Platform
Can Be Placed In Ship Sections                  := Inner Hull, Outer Hull
Component Type List                             := Technological
General Group                                   := Weapons
Custom Group                                    := 0
Number Of Requirements                          := 1
Requirements Evaluation Availability            := AND
Requirements Evaluation Allows Placement        := TRUE
Requirements Evaluation Allows Usage            := TRUE
Requirement 1 Description                       := Empire must have at least tech level 1 in Point - Defense Weapons.
Requirement 1 Formula                           := Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Point - Defense Weapons") >= (1 + ([%Level%] - 1))
Number Of Abilities                             := 2
Ability 1 Type                                  := Ordnance Storage
Ability 1 Description                           := Provides storage for [%Amount1%] units of ordnance.
Ability 1 Scope                                 := Space Object
Ability 1 Range Formula                         := 0
Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula                      := 500
Ability 1 Amount 2 Formula                      := 0
Ability 2 Type                                  := Point-Defense
Ability 2 Description                           :=
Ability 2 Scope                                 := Space Object
Ability 2 Range Formula                         := 0
Ability 2 Amount 1 Formula                      := 0
Ability 2 Amount 2 Formula                      := 0
Weapon Type                                     := Seeking
Weapon Delivery Type                            := Missile
Weapon Target Type List                         := Missile
Weapon Damage Type Formula                      := "Normal"
Weapon Space At Range Distance Increment        := 10.0
Weapon Space Min Damage At Range                :=    0.0
Weapon Space Max Damage At Range                :=    0.0
Weapon Space To Hit Modifier At Range           :=    0.0
Weapon Space Min Damage Modifier Formula        := iif([%Range%] &lt= (250 + (([%Level%] - 1)* 2.5)), (300 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 5)), 0)
Weapon Space Max Damage Modifier Formula        := iif([%Range%] &lt= (250 + (([%Level%] - 1)* 2.5)), (300 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 5)), 0)
Weapon Space To Hit Modifier Formula            := 50 - [%Range%]
Weapon Reload Rate MS Formula                   := 3000
Weapon Display Type                             := Directed Torpedo
Weapon Space Display Effect Name                := Missile 7
Weapon Ground Display Effect Name               := Missile 7
Weapon Explosion Effect Name                    := [Random Specific Type] Weapon Explosion
Weapon Sound Effect Name                        := Capital Ship Missile
Weapon Seeker Speed Formula                     := 0.05
Weapon Seeker Turn Rate                         := 0.01
Weapon Seeker Tonnage Structure Formula         := 30 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 2) 
Weapon Seeker Defense Modifier Formula          := 40

So, can you figure out why this won't open fire on incoming missiles?

edit: Someone told me you could safely go up to 500 on the range, apparently they were wrong, capping it at 300 appears to work.

Edit edit:

Thats not right, capping it at 300 still doesn't fix the problem, an alltech game shows them not working... Anyone have any ideas? Maybe something is broken in my test game...

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

No... I want missile. Seeker would make it target seekers, which there are darned few in my mod at the moment. There are, however, missiles (I modified the unit types to make drones into missiles).

It was actually some kind of artifact in the test game, probably because it had been ported over about 5 "working" versions. Now, it will fire about 1 test in 5 O.o

edit:

Whats really fun, is my warheads (on the missiles) are doing WAY too much dmg. About 3x what they should be, and I can't figure out why.

Edit edit:

I'm going to have to give pu on this mod, there is somethign SERIOUSLY screwey going on with the calculation of drone impact damage.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.

Actually, I did get to fire, just not predictably. It'll target and fire about 1 time in 5 for some reason, even when there's plenty of ordance and dozens of launchers per vessel.

There are 10 types of people in the world:

Those that understand binary, and those that don't.