A Mod Idea: Epic 40,0000, Spring Style

[MrSpontaneous]

first, I think that biomass should have the same sites as metal, since living creatures still need metal (like iron) to help their structures and I think this would be especialy true of tyranids since they have alot of bio armour.

If we are going to use the reclaim idea, it might be fune to have the capillary towers build things for the rippers to eat, (or they could just extract) same with spore chimneys.

THe chimneys I think should also be able to build fence units and luanch them to form walls ( as this is like throwing spores and making the plants grow so you get things like 40k dragons teath and such) It might also be good to have them produce spore mines. I think I like the idea of tyranid resorce structures and unit builders being more linked up but need a larger range of structrues.

Synapses might be possible with alot of skripting, say make them have a radar like effect, and make it so as long as units are under them you can control them, and when they go outside they carry out the last orders given and then try to move either twards the synaps or attack whats attacking them etc.

abviously there are things like genestealers that can operate outside of the synapses and thus, are easier to skript as they just always behave like normal units.

so there some more loose change and a dollor

[Guessmyname]

On the scripting thing, you'd probably have to ask zwzsg...

Does anyone know if any of the races include shield based stuff? I'm pretty sure some psykers do, and I think the orks have some makeshift shieldery (which isn't too reliable...) and it wouldn't suprise me to learn that the Tau, Eldar and possibly the Necrons have them too

[Torrasque]

About the synapses thingy. It could be cool if non synaptic creature are away from synaptic creature (warrior, hive) for 10 second, the unit controle are given to a "gaia" or neutral IA.
If you come back with a synaptic creature, you wait 10 second, and can control them again.

[MrSpontaneous]

I know that several tyranide psy creatures have some psykic shielding, such as the hive tyrant and the zanothrobe.

Some space marines have force field generators for some of their higher ups.

thats what I remember. . .

[Zoombie]

I just got the new Dawn of War: Winter Assult demo, and FIANL they realised that having corpses stay for an infinite amount of time is really really cool!

Also the Igg are represented very well in that game, where in acceptable casualtys is about... five thousand per scrimish?

But i was thinking that if the Tyrannids use synapsis creatures to stay in contact with the hive mind, then why dont you have the units suffer attrition natrualy, but have Synapysis units heal the same amount of damage at the same rate. So when you DONT have a Synapsis unit, then the units will slowly be damaged, while if there IS a synapsis unit in the area, then the units will stay normal.

Maby a 0.5 HP loss per secont. Not too fast, as the larger (and more intelegent) cretures will probebly survive on there own for longer, while stuipid and tiny cretures will quickly wither and die without the support of the Hivemind. This could add an interesting stratagy, if some race (lets say the Tau) created a psi blocker. Move it next to a Tyranned unit and whatch it "starve"

[Guessmyname]

Move it next to a Tyranid unit and whatch it "starve"

More like: "Rip the (psy-blocking) unit apart"

Also, it more likely for Imperial forces to use psy blockers (psychic blanks anyone?)

[Aun]

Or just a park a Hammerhead near it and watch the railgun tear it apart

[Sheekel]

BTW, the Dawn of War: Winter Assault Demo is out on FilePlanet. Fun game. I just might buy it! Real cool opening movie, too.

[zwzsg]

For SWTA, I scripted a "droid deactivation", that render droids useless when the droid command center is destroyed. The same thing can probably be used for your synapse thing. Basically it would work like that: There's a special script mounted on many units, enough units so that there's at least one of it running that script. For instance in SWTA I mounted it on all energy producers. What that script would do is, for every unit, read their height, compare it with a list to see if they are subject to the synapse thing, if they are, check if there is some controller nearby, and if not, then pick up and drop them. In TA, doing an insta pick-up every second or a few times per second is enough to confuse a unit to the point of rendering it useless. Basically it's stopped and forgets its order queue. However that has only been tested in TA, I'll have to check if in Spring too a quick pick up and drop erase the order queue of units. Also, in Spring my scripts can't read if a unit belongs to the player or not, so if two opposing teams are tyrannids, the enemy controllers will extend your control area and vice&versa. And lastly, while in TA using units scripts was the only way, in Spring you'd better modify the source to add the synapse thing once the tyrannids are done.

[Guessmyname]

Heh, synapse working both ways with Tyranid vs Tyranid would actually make things tactically more challenging. Also, is it possible to have random attack animations instead of just the same swipe/stab anim over and over again?

[zwzsg]

Sure, use something like:

attacktype=rand(1,3);
if(attacktype==1)
{
//animation 1 goes here
}
if(attacktype==2)
{
//animation 2 goes here
}
if(attacktype==3)
{
//animation 3 goes here
}

[Guessmyname]

Thought so. Thanks a lot! Could you also supply a script that makes the unit switch from long range weaponry to melee mode using the on/off button (I'd do it myself but I have trouble with on / off scripts).

EDIT: Also, some of the IG tanks have dozer blades. It would be ace if they moved up and down with the terrain. Can this be done?

[Benito]

I've updated the existing units to use the additional weapon points and fire arcs that were added in v0.63. It simplifies the scripting by an unbelieveable amount. The Baneblade and Shadowsword bos scripts are now no-brainers thanks to fire-arc support in the FBI file. You can charge the Baneblade into the center of a firefight and watch all its weapons independantly aiming at separate fire arcs. The FPS option in Spring has been invaluable in testing/debugging this.

I'm still not sure how to handle the Warhounds fire arcs, given that the torso turns both weapons and you don't ever want the flamer and turbolaser to cross over, but you do want them aiming independantly...

I've uploaded the update here

It's about time I knuckled down on giving the Reaver some legs...

[Guessmyname]

Benito = Excellence.

I'm still confused on how the fire arcs work, however. Could some kind person please explain this to me?

EDIT: I've just thought of a sort of morale system for Epic TA.

It works thus: When a unit is created, its armoured state is activated.

When it's health drops below a certain barrier, it loses said armouredstate and the unit's weapons switch over to some less accurate versions (won't apply to guided weapons for obvious reasons)

Of course, when it has been repaired the unit regains its accuracy and armoured state.

The only forseeable problem with this that I can think of is units that would have an armoured state without said morale system, ie a Tau unit with a shield that deactivates when a certain amount of health is lost.

What does yea all think?

[Min3mat]

nice idea, isn;t there a simpler way to do it?

[Benito]

Well I've almost finished the Reaver titan, just a few details needed, but with over 600 faces already it doesn't need many more...



And yes, the barrels on the Gatling Cannon do spin...

The Baneblade is the best example of fire arcs with seven guns.

Firstly the main cannon (weapon #1) has a full 360 degree fire arc so the FBI file tags are as follows:

WeaponMainDir1=0 0 1;
MaxAngleDif1=360;

The secondary cannon (#2) has a limited fire arc to the front, as does the front bolter (#5).

WeaponMainDir2=0 0 1;
MaxAngleDif2=20;
WeaponMainDir5=0 0 1;
MaxAngleDif5=45;

The WeaponMainDir2 uses an xyz vector to specify the central direction in the fire arc. In this case z=1 points straight forwards. MaxAngleDif2 specifies a 20 degree fire arc for the secondary cannon, which is +/-10 degrees either side of the WeaponMainDir2. Similarly, the front bolter has a 45 degree fire arc, which is +/-22.5 degrees either side of WeaponMainDir5.

The left bolter (#6) and right bolter (#7) have side fire arcs:

WeaponMainDir6=-1 0 0;
WeaponMainDir7=1 0 0;
MaxAngleDif6=135;
MaxAngleDif7=135;

They both have the same arc, but the xyz vectors point in different directions. x=-1 points to the left, x=1 points to the right. Their 135 degree fire arcs allow +/-67.5 degrees either side.

Finally the left lascannon (#3) and right lascannon (#4) have overlapping fire arcs which point slightly forwards.

WeaponMainDir3=-0.9962 0 0.0872;
WeaponMainDir4=0.9962 0 0.0872;
MaxAngleDif3=230;
MaxAngleDif4=230;

In this case the fire arcs were designed to overlap at the front by 60 degrees and at the back by 40 degrees. The result is that the centre of the fire arcs is +/-85 degrees of the front. To calculate the xyz vector you set the x=sin(+/-85)=0.9962 and z=cos(85)=0.0872. If you wanted a rearwards fire arc you would use a negative z.

Does this explain it?

[Benito]

BTW, I was wondering how we would represent void shields. Use of armoured states would be the obvious one, perhaps randomly switched off when it is hit by a weapon. We could also use some kind of random method for "repairing" them, i.e. switching the armoured state back on. Obviously the less health the titan has, the less chance it has of repairing its shielding.

If we ever have gargants we can have a number of power fields which each get randomly knocked down and then permanently switch off the armoured state when it reaches zero.

Holofields could be represented by using the moving sweetspot like SWTA uses, only on a larger scale. Also we can make the sweetspot move "more randomly" when the titan is moving, to simulate the additional shielding you get from movement. Again this could be damaged and repaired randomly by re-centering the sweetspot as required.

[Guessmyname]

nice ideas! Yes it does explain it well. Thank you Benito

[calvaYnada]

Hello ^^

I would like to know if you need some help for your mod (i'm 3D modeler since 3 years)

I'm a fan of Final Liberation, and all Games workshop games



my MSN : calvaYnada38@hotmail.com

David (French)

[Benito]

So far its all been very informal. If you want to model something go ahead and do it. We could do with more organisation...

Sorry about the broken links, my hosting is going through some change...