Newbie needs some help with errors

[KDR_11k]

mitglied.lycos.de/KDR_11k/unlinked.htm (http: removed to get this past the "no URLs for new users" filter, you have to go there and click the "TA Spring mod" link, the host doesn't allow direct file linking)

I'm building my own small mod and of course I'm running into problems:

1. Direct missile attacks have a tendency to hit nearby friendly units. As an attempt to counter that I reduced the bounding sphere size for the drones and moved the missile launcher points upwards but now the missiles still hit friendlies but rarely do damage against drones even on a direct hit. Is there some way to prevent missile units from hitting each other in a crowd other than making the missiles high-arc? Or alternatively a way to prevent them from firing when their line of fire is obstructed by frendlies?
2. Missile models don't show. Is there some necessary naming convention for the parts of a missile?
3. Units can be built in a water depth that they cannot normally enter causing them to remain immobile and hidden.
4. Random CTDs since updating to version 72b1 from 71b1. Really random, I can't seem to find a pattern in them (and of course no error message is produced). From the posts in the Help forum that may be a general bug?

The "can't find corpse" messages are normal, I didn't get around to making corpses yet. And yes, the textures look like ass.

[Comp1337]

1. Dont think so..

2. No idea.

3. From a factory? Or built directly with a builder?

4. No idea.

[KDR_11k]

3: Directly from a builder. I haven't implemented factories for large units yet so they're currently built by the builder drones and the Titan can build builder drones to speed up the start of the game.

[Gnomre]

1. Not really

2. Weapons can only have one object in the model, IIRC. Try opening the model in upspring and merging all the pieces into the parent piece until they are all part of the root. The root's name is irrelevent. Also make sure it has a bounding sphere if it's s3o.

3. Sounds like a fun bug, you should report it to the devs on their tracker thingy.

4. Dunno, haven't experienced any myself. I'd personally try introducing units one or two at a time to see which, if any, cause consistent crashes.

5. You go to BU, don't you? I've seen your evil nekorei model somewhere before!

[KDR_11k]

1: Damn. It's pretty annoying to have those missile drones blow each other up since they're supposed to come in swarms.

2: Thanks, that did it.

3: I have a feeling the issue is more with my unit settings than the engine itself.

4: Sounds like the only option then (ruled the ACV out so far, that was the last unit I added). It's annoying since the crashes don't happen quickly, they take like 10-20 minutes to happen. Once I've found the offending unit it's even more fun guessing what the engine doesn't like since it can't be bothered to throw error messages... *sigh*

5: Yep. Though that specific model wasn't all my work, I just did the last step (some changes, new UVs, new texture, put into the game) after the previous two people working on it gave up.

[Sean Mirrsen]

2) Missile weapons can have two pieces, in which case the first piece is the model itself, and the position of the second piece is where the missile flare displays, and the missile smoke begins.

[KDR_11k]

Cool. But what about that "propeller" thing mentioned in the weapon files, is that not implemented in Spring?

[Sean Mirrsen]

No, it's not implemented, although it could be. Basically it rotates the second piece around the z axis, simulating a prop for torpedoes or something of the kind.

[KDR_11k]

I found the CTD problem, the NTAI shipped with 72b1 seems to be faulty, it threw a global AI exception today (when I was testing if AI vs. AI would work for checking the CTD problem) and after replacing it with the newest version the crashes went away.

[KDR_11k]

Further testing reveals that the newest NTAI does NOT fix the problem...