Shipedit

[LordJerle]

Anyone know where to get the Shipedit utility? Just getting back into the game, and the mod sites I used to use back in the day are all defunct, and the only links I can find for it are broken.

[ShadowDragon_79]

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

I'd love to see those in action once you're done! Hopefully proting them over to SFC2 should be way easier, since ShipEdit 3.0 is still available and can calculate BPVs for you, and you can actually add ships without the game crashing.

Nice - I got some more ideas this weekend, but haven't implemented them yet...

Also, I forgot that I changed the Lyran BB to have more ESGs than their DN, plus upgraded one Gorn CA to use more Plasma-G ( replaced two single-weapons, propably ph2 or PlasF, by three PlasG each... I really hope I also increased the BPV, or else that'll be quite unfair... ) .

Also, in skirmishes the AI seems to decide on it's ship by listplace instead of BPV... meaning I didn't yet get it to use my BB+ :( .
And the early game-end is a bit of a problem, too, since ofcourse the BB+'s should appear even after the normal BBs... ( don't like the idea to date the stock ships back )

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

EDIT: guide updated with a picture of weapon firing arcs.

Thanks very much. :)

Seems the arcs on that Klingon CA were LW/RW ... But looking on your chart, FLLX/FRRX seem even more obscure...

P.S.: I don't think putting anything except "ALL" for an ESG would be a good idea... or would it?


P.P.S.: How do I defeat a certain well-known space-creature (doomsday machine/world eater) in the Klingon campaign? I tried everything that came to mind, even scanning and using attack-probes, but nothing so much as scratched it - and I had a B11...
I do know the original(TV) solution, but didn't have such a spare available... ;)
(And yes, I destroyed it's command-ship and completed the mission, but the log said I should have destroyed the creature, too)

[ShadowDragon_79]

As for my additional ideas, the most problematic propably is that I want to switch most phasers - except ph3 & phG - to disruptors for Klingon & Romulan ships.

The raw BPV-value isn't as meaningful here, since phasers contribute to point-defense, while disruptors don't. :/

So I'll likely have to be a bit more careful there, and maybe even leave some ph1/ph2 in...

[MtZuul]

Update: I just finished all the "weapon compatibility" charts!... and I also discovered a major goof in the weapon arcs chart (specifically I accidentally labelled the RP arc as LP), I fixed that too.

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

Also, in skirmishes the AI seems to decide on it's ship by listplace instead of BPV... meaning I didn't yet get it to use my BB+ :( .
And the early game-end is a bit of a problem, too, since ofcourse the BB+'s should appear even after the normal BBs... ( don't like the idea to date the stock ships back )

That may be worth looking into, I'll run some experiments to see if the skirmish missions really ignore ship BPVs (assuming they're not preset ships of course) when assigning them to the AI.

About the BB+'s dates there shouldn't be an issue with giving them later years... as long as the campaign character doesn't retire before they appear, in which case that would be problematic.

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

Thanks very much. :)

Seems the arcs on that Klingon CA were LW/RW ... But looking on your chart, FLLX/FRRX seem even more obscure...

P.S.: I don't think putting anything except "ALL" for an ESG would be a good idea... or would it?

Glad I could help :)

Yep, those FLLX/FRRX are quite unique. They're used only by Federation ships AFAIK. (it may have something to do with having their warp drives in the way of their phaser hardpoints, something you definitely don't want to shoot through :P)

Regarding ESG arcs, you're right. Well, at best the game may ignore the firing arc, at worst the weapon may not fire at all or glitch out. (I should test that too just to see what happens)

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

SPOILERS

If I recall correctly, that famous space creature will die if it tries to eat a ship bigger than a frigate (in fact one of the Federation elite missions have you killing one by putting a ship in its way), so if you manage to tractor another ship into its maw you'll kill it.

[MtZuul]

Oh, btw, if you go through the idea of replacing klingon/romulan phasers with disruptors, keep the following in mind:

• You have 4 different disruptors to choose from, they do equal damage but have shorter or longer ranges.
  
• As you mentioned, they're pretty unwieldy for point defense.
  
• While phasers can't be overloaded as disruptors can, they're more flexible energy-wise. You see, you can change the charge rate of the phaser capacitor in order to free up some extra energy, something you can't do with disruptors (besides turning them off I guess).
  
• Disruptors deal about as much damage as a Phaser-2, yet cost twice as much to charge, and keeps draining energy once loaded until you fire it (granted, disruptors deal more consistent damage at longer ranges than phasers). So make sure to balance out their energy production or you may end up with power-hogs with too little energy to function D:

You could, alternatively, rename Phaser-2s to "light disruptors" and maybe change their texture and sound to make them more disruptor-like (if you want to do this I could help you with that). This would at least avoid the previous mentioned issues.

In any case, I wish you luck with your modding journey.

[ShadowDragon_79]

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

...
You could, alternatively, rename Phaser-2s to "light disruptors" and maybe change their texture and sound to make them more disruptor-like (if you want to do this I could help you with that).
...

That might be interesting. I haven't yet looked into what's needed to mod weapons in this game, though - where would I start with this?

And what should I best use for converting meshes to and from this game?
I'd at least like to export the Hydran DN and make it broader for the BB, as the manual's description says it should be.

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

SPOILERS

If I recall correctly, that famous space creature will die if it tries to eat a ship bigger than a frigate (in fact one of the Federation elite missions have you killing one by putting a ship in its way), so if you manage to tractor another ship into its maw you'll kill it.

That's what I meant with the "TV"-solution. And well, it didn't die when my K-B11 unintentionally collided with it's maw, so...
But maybe it's control-ship is flagged as a sort of trigger? Will have to try maneuvering that one into it... Silly me even forgot to think of tractors, so thanks. :)

And if I remember correctly, then there are several of these creatures in one of the Federation-missions...
Has been a long time since I played them (on the CD-version) - so I don't remember what I did back then - , and I currently am going through the other species' campaigns, so I didn't want to start that one again just to find the answer.

[ShadowDragon_79]

Btw. , Lyrans would propably also be good with disruptors instead of phasers. And they have ESGs for defense, after all.

And to complete making the species more specific ( ;o) ) , I'd switch out Gorn phasers for more Plasma-G and Hydran phasers for more Fusions & Hellbores (well, Hellbores mostly) , plus convert all plasmas on gorn ships to Plasma-G (guess where that letter comes from?) ...
That'll make Gorn-ships even more blunt bricks than they are now, but that sort of fits to them, doesn't it? (I'll propably increase their shields, too)

Except for the Klingons ( wasting 'good' offensive energy for 'pitiful' point-defense just isn't their style ;) ) and Lyrans, I'd leave a few phasers for most, though - but FEW is the keyword here, and I still haven't concluded how few exactly.



Meanwhile, did you find any info on the different disruptor-ranges?
( might be in the boardgame-rules if nowhere else, but I haven't looked into them yet )

[MtZuul]

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

That might be interesting. I haven't yet looked into what's needed to mod weapons in this game, though - where would I start with this?

And what should I best use for converting meshes to and from this game?
I'd at least like to export the Hydran DN and make it broader for the BB, as the manual's description says it should be.

Well unfortunately weapon modding in this game is limited to changing graphics, sounds, and labels... unless you know how to use a hex editor which would allow you to directly mod things like recharge rate, damage output, range, and more (this can be easily done in SFC II thanks to some people actually making a small program to do this without needing to know about hex editing). Graphics are located in the Textures folder (weapon effects) and in the Sprite.q3 file (UI related graphics); labels are located in the Strings.txt and handle most of the in-game text, including weapon names.

Regarding the ship models, Taldren released some plugins back in the day for 3ds Max 3, 4 and 5 that allow users to import/export the .mod files used by the game, and they're the same plugins the devs used. However there's also plugins for Gmax, a free version of the older 3ds Max releases, which may be easier to acquire. If you want I could create the custom BB's you need (besides, I could use some 3d modelling practice and these are excellent for that).
(For completeness sake I should mention that Milkshape 3D also has import and export capabilities, but it's much more limited.)

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

Btw. , Lyrans would propably also be good with disruptors instead of phasers. And they have ESGs for defense, after all.

And to complete making the species more specific ( ;o) ) , I'd switch out Gorn phasers for more Plasma-G and Hydran phasers for more Fusions & Hellbores (well, Hellbores mostly) , plus convert all plasmas on gorn ships to Plasma-G (guess where that letter comes from?) ...
That'll make Gorn-ships even more blunt bricks than they are now, but that sort of fits to them, doesn't it? (I'll propably increase their shields, too)

Except for the Klingons ( wasting 'good' offensive energy for 'pitiful' point-defense just isn't their style ;) ) and Lyrans, I'd leave a few phasers for most, though - but FEW is the keyword here, and I still haven't concluded how few exactly.

That would be quite interesting to see. If anything I'd like to see how strategies would adapt to these changes.

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

Meanwhile, did you find any info on the different disruptor-ranges?
( might be in the boardgame-rules if nowhere else, but I haven't looked into them yet )

Oh right, I forgot to mention those :P
I'll update the ship modding guide with a disruptor range table, thanks for reminding me of that.

(I'll also add the rest of the ship UI's)

[MtZuul]

Good news, gmax works fine with SFC's mod files.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417599214

So at least, if you can get your hands on this program, it'll work fine for your purposes.

[ShadowDragon_79]

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

... Graphics are located in the Textures folder (weapon effects) and in the Sprite.q3 file (UI related graphics); ...

Found the graphics folder - but which section of the projectile-graphic is used for ph2's ?
It's easy to identify most others ( except the blue beam - is that used for tractors? ) , but there only seems to be *one* yellow/orange beamtexture. If that's used for both ph1 *and* ph2, your idea won't work... ( it's not essential, but would be a nice addition )


Also, what do I use to convert/edit the sprites.q3 ?
But good to know that's only the interface-graphics, I thought there might be more important parts in it, thanks. :)


And thanks too for the disruptor- and modelfile-info :) ; though I also could use a bit more practice modeling.



I got a bit out of step, but the Klingon BB+ is in, and I encountered my first AI-Federation-BB+, but not in skirmish - of course it *had* to be in "surprise reversed"... *RIP* poor old Klingon CA. :/
( Because of it's added weapon systems or whatever, I couldn't take it down in time, PLUS I had to ignore those cruisers firing on me... )

The AI-shipclasses seem indeed to be assigned to slots - I used DN-entries for my BB+'s, so they'll propably appear when the AI is wanting to use a DN... as exemplified above, that can make playability rather low ( but still better then if they were to replace FFs... ;o) ) .

Will have to see if I can get one in skirmish, using this info.

[LordJerle]

Since this thread has taken a life of its own... Relevant link :-P
http://dynaverse.net
They've got forums and some tools that might be handy.

Oh and for viewing models, there IS a model viewer for SFC 1
http://www.dynaverse.net/downloads.php?id=29&game=all#download

[ShadowDragon_79]

Thanks. :)


And Frankenstein approves. ;o)

LordJerle の投稿を引用：

... has taken a life of its own...

[MtZuul]

Thanks LordJerle, it's good to know Dynaverse is still around (and pretty active by the looks of it).

And yep, this thread got derailed harder than a train with no tracks, sorry about that :V
Maybe we should start a new thread for modding-related stuff?

ShadowDragon_79 の投稿を引用：

Found the graphics folder - but which section of the projectile-graphic is used for ph2's ?
It's easy to identify most others ( except the blue beam - is that used for tractors? ) , but there only seems to be *one* yellow/orange beamtexture. If that's used for both ph1 *and* ph2, your idea won't work... ( it's not essential, but would be a nice addition )

Also, what do I use to convert/edit the sprites.q3 ?

Oh it's true, i thought ph1s and ph2s had different textures since they look slightly different... or maybe not and my brain played tricks on me :/

And regarding the sprites.q3 file, you'll need the Q3 Editor made by D4v1ks, you can find the most recent version in the Hot & Spicy forums[hotandspicyforums.com]. You can save or load any picture file in it, but make sure to use similar color formats to the originals (some use 8-bit color with palletes, other use 16-bit color, so be careful with that).

But yep, making a new thread would be ideal to make these things easy to find for those interested in learning about modding (also, why don't we have a workshop for this game? it would be perfect for sharing ships and the like!).

[ShadowDragon_79]

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

Thanks LordJerle, it's good to know Dynaverse is still around (and pretty active by the looks of it).

Agreed. :)

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

But yep, making a new thread would be ideal to make these things easy to find for those interested in learning about modding ...

Well, I thought the title would still be indicative enough of the content... But it might indeed be better to open a new thread.

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

... (also, why don't we have a workshop for this game? it would be perfect for sharing ships and the like!).

Well, propably because the game is so old and the publisher doesn't expect enough profit from such an undertaking? ( especially seeing that they didn't even bother to put SFC2 here... )

But I agree, workshop support would be useful, should it ever happen. :)

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

Oh it's true, i thought ph1s and ph2s had different textures since they look slightly different... or maybe not and my brain played tricks on me :/

Well, I think they do look different in-game because the ph2 fades out faster with range...

MtZuul の投稿を引用：

And regarding the sprites.q3 file, you'll need the Q3 Editor made by D4v1ks, you can find the most recent version in the Hot & Spicy forums[hotandspicyforums.com]. You can save or load any picture file in it, but make sure to use similar color formats to the originals (some use 8-bit color with palletes, other use 16-bit color, so be careful with that).

Thanks for the info & link. :)

And yes, I do know about color-formats and such... had enough annoyances with them in other games ( especially with .dds-files, because I still don't know an editor/viewer that *displays* the dds-files' sub-format - I can select it upon saving, but I can't look which ones the original files use, which makes it trial-and-error... :/ )