A empty mod base.

[MechaStalin]

Hi, I am new to the spring community but have known about the engine for some time, I remembered it when I was messing about thinking of making an RTS mod, My plan is for a cold war style mod featuring various NATO and USSR countries, all the units for several countries are modelled in low poly style with good textures and are ready to go, but I don't know much about modding this engine its self. I have gone over the tutorials but was wondering if there was a basic mod working directory that would include all the folders and files you need, if not, is there a recommended mod to de-compile as a base that would be the most simple? What I am looking for is just a simple directory that would have examples of maybe 1 unit of each type across 2 or more sides and all the appropriate configuration files for them.

Any help will be appreciated. :)

[imbaczek]

Try one of the older Kernel Panics. Look at CA if you need all the bells and whistles.

[[Krogoth86]]

I don't know of a "blank" modfile but I'd recommend PURE as a basis. It's done pretty clean and in the XTRA_STUFF folder you also have a default_unit FBI file and in general you'll find a txt file here and there explaining some things...

[AF]

And people were wondering what the point of my sdk mod thread was?

[1v0ry_k1ng]

xta is pretty moddable atm since every unit and weapon was renamed for ease of modding (if you know your TA unit names that is)

[Neddie]

Hi, I am new to the spring community but have known about the engine for some time, I remembered it when I was messing about thinking of making an RTS mod, My plan is for a cold war style mod featuring various NATO and USSR countries, all the units for several countries are modelled in low poly style with good textures and are ready to go, but I don't know much about modding this engine its self. I have gone over the tutorials but was wondering if there was a basic mod working directory that would include all the folders and files you need, if not, is there a recommended mod to de-compile as a base that would be the most simple? What I am looking for is just a simple directory that would have examples of maybe 1 unit of each type across 2 or more sides and all the appropriate configuration files for them.

Any help will be appreciated. :)

You could ask FLOzi of S44 for help. He's a fan of the Cold War.

[MechaStalin]

And people were wondering what the point of my sdk mod thread was?

I went back and read your thread and its pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

I'm not too good on my TA units to be honest but I know what types there are. If somebody could give me the config files to look for for the following kind of units I'd appreciate it. I tried looking myself but I forgot about the sheer volume of units TA has

APC/IFV (Wheeled and tracked if possible, I'm not sure if spring calculates movement differently for these 2 types.)
Medium Tank
Amphibious APC (Wheeled and tracked if possible)
Recon Vehicle
SAM/AA Gun Vehicle
Recon Plane
Helicopter Gunship (I think the brawler would work best for this?)
Ground Attack Plane
Air to Air Fighter
Stealth Plane (Think F-117)
Air Transport (Plane and heli would share similar config yes? Just heli would be VTOL)

Suggestions for what configs would fit those best would be greatly appreciated, I'm also wondering what countries people would most be interested in to start? I'd like to focus on Russia and a NATO country for the start but other conflicts could be interesting, I have the modern arsenals of the following available.

US
Russia
Germany
Great Britain
France
China
Israel
Japan

Although I'd like to do all those countries, I'm trying to keep it within realistic goals to start. :)

[FLOZi]

Did someone say cold war mod <_<

What year/s?

[MechaStalin]

Did someone say cold war mod <_<

What year/s?

Not sure yet, but if anything It will be in the 80s.

[Pressure Line]

I may be able to cobble something together. dont expect anything particularly pretty though :/

[MechaStalin]

I may be able to cobble something together. dont expect anything particularly pretty though :/

If you're up for it I greatly appreciate it, default models are not of concern really, I think I've got the model part down from the tutorials last night.

[FLOZi]

Did someone say cold war mod <_<

What year/s?

Not sure yet, but if anything It will be in the 80s.

Well my knowledge / interest only really runs from 1946 - 1970.

Still interested overall though.

[MechaStalin]

Did someone say cold war mod <_<

What year/s?

Not sure yet, but if anything It will be in the 80s.

Well my knowledge / interest only really runs from 1946 - 1970.

Still interested overall though.

The problem is most of the equipment I have modeled falls closer towards modern than older stuff, although the Chinese side does have T-55/T-62 style tanks. I'm considering making the Tier 1 stuff be that then as the game advances so would the time period its taking place in if that makes any sense. T-62 goes to T-72 which eventually becomes T-80, Mi-24s become KA-50 prototypes etc.

I'm also wondering how to do the commander, and considering removing it completely as I don't think it fits the setting well. Also, is it possible to do recon vehicles like the BRDM-2 that would have sight bonuses etc but only when their stationary for a second or so?

Edit: If somebody could post or tell me where I could get an example simple tank model I'd appreciate it, one thing I'm still completely unsure of is scale.

[Argh]

Also, is it possible to do recon vehicles like the BRDM-2 that would have sight bonuses etc but only when their stationary for a second or so?

Yeah, you can do that with Lua or COB.

If somebody could post or tell me where I could get an example simple tank model I'd appreciate it, one thing I'm still completely unsure of is scale.

Scale is whatever you want it to be. All games for Spring vary widely in terms of depicted scale. Basically, it's up to you as the game designer to figure this out, based on the size of the conflicts you want to portray. There isn't any reason why we can't have games with units in FPS levels of detail, but in very small numbers, for example... it's really up to game designers to figure this stuff out.

[MechaStalin]

Also, is it possible to do recon vehicles like the BRDM-2 that would have sight bonuses etc but only when their stationary for a second or so?

Yeah, you can do that with Lua or COB.

If somebody could post or tell me where I could get an example simple tank model I'd appreciate it, one thing I'm still completely unsure of is scale.

Scale is whatever you want it to be. All games for Spring vary widely in terms of depicted scale. Basically, it's up to you as the game designer to figure this out, based on the size of the conflicts you want to portray. There isn't any reason why we can't have games with units in FPS levels of detail, but in very small numbers, for example... it's really up to game designers to figure this stuff out.

Well, I want the unit scale to be similar to the original TA, I'm really not interested in redoing entire maps and their objects at this time.

But yeah, if anybody still has suggestions for a mod to use as a base I'd appreciate it, I tried with some of the mods I found and most of them are very, very complicated and its very hard to get it working properly.

[Argh]

A tank that's sized between 3-4 Footprints (radius 24-32 hitspheres in UpSpring) is fairly standard, in terms of size-on-screen. That's irrespective of scale, however.

As for what to use... TBH, I'd still have to recommend NanoBlobs. No Lua, everything is pretty clean and un-cluttered, and most major unit types are represented somewhere. Plus, I wrote a lot of comments in various places, to try and help newbies out.

A little out of date, doesn't use the current state-of-the-art stuff, but meh, you need to build a solid base before you're going to get anywhere, and a lot of the code is commented.

As for the whole, "it's darn complicated" business... meh, it just goes with the territory, I'm afraid. Building a RTS isn't exactly easy.

If you just want a simple tank animation script... meh, Marco LazyScriptor will make a tank script- you can find it at fileuniverse.com.

That won't teach you much that's useful, but if you have a model built, it'll get it in-game and functional at a really basic level. Read the animation tutorials linked in the Wiki, then go back and study sourcecode, it'll start making more sense, I promise.

I taught myself how to write BOS, way back in the day, in about 2 months. I write much better BOS now, of course, but meh, you're not going to be ready to hear about advanced concepts until you've learned how to crawl on your own.

[MechaStalin]

I'll try to take a look at Nanoblobs and see what I can do with it, thanks.

[Tribulexrenamed]

Make a Warm War mod with Nukes and H-bombs.

[MechaStalin]

I managed to get the T-72 ingame with functioning turret, barrel recoil, etc. Only problem is the shell fires out of the center from inside the hull, not the barrel. Not sure how to fix that yet.

[Peet]

In the QueryWeaponX(piecenum) function in the bos, set piecenum to the firing point, which is an extra empty object you'll need to have at the end of the barrel.