Spring RTS Engine

Ok, seeing as some of the more advanced people here have got their hands on the Spring source code, and started making mods, I think it will generally be a good idea to ask around if something they make is really needed. I am, of course, talking about things that are too small for the SY to spend time on themselves.

I will post here the changes I made to the game myself, and any other coders can post theirs here as well.

- Missiles now have their models attached.
- Missiles and VLaunches now follow a more level fall path, like they did in TA.
- Missiles and VLaunches do not smoke after they burned out.
- Missiles, VLaunches and cannon shots can be affected by wind in free fall. A windaffect weapon tag must be added to the TDF, it defines the part of wind's sped applied to the projectile. Recommended setting around 0.02-0.03.

Opinions on these changes are welcome, but keep requests in some other thread where I could find them.

The changes sound good Sean. Forthe missle models, is that implemented for all weapons with a .3do model? I've seen kroggies have their missile model, yet mods like OP seem to be having trouble getting theirs to work?

I'm a bit confused by this.

Firstly, I think that transport planes should fly at their normal altitude when carrying units. In my mod, if you pick up a krogoth with an advanced air transport, it only flies at about half its regular height and the krogoth model gets buried in the landscape.

If the engine could be made to read custom weapon damage right from a weapon TDF file rather than the armor values file, it would be very helpful.

Also, if the paralyzer tag could be fixed so it works properly, that would be wonderful.

I might be able to change the system that the weapon data is currently read by. The question is, who will be up to the task of actually modifying all existing weapon TDFs to suit this system?

For example, I'd like to make weapon damage by categories, a simple and effective system. So, you could write in [Damage] ARM=0 for the Stunner, instead of defining each and every Arm unit in the game.

But you should also be able to define individual values as well.

Fixed the multi share dialog thingy... working on hiding the health bars.

Done turning bars on/off. Any other cosmetic changes?

Currently trying to decypher the code responsible for weapons management.

I wonder, will any actual developers take a peek?

post code changes in Development section of this forum ...

I'm currently waiting for the projectile code that allows the projectiles to show their own model of the missile they are launching.

The Vlaunch weapons seem to have their own model attached to them selfs but that's it.

Also i'd like a way to scale up muzzle flashes or have different types i.e. concical, circular, semi conical/circular, muzzle braked flare, muzzle-hid flare etc etc. esspecially for TA:WD, I know this is a lot to ask, but is there a way to have textures with alpha added to muzzle flashes and projectiles? that would be awesome.

I'd also like to add to currently the soundtrigger tag does not work currently in, will eventually all tags be supported? it's kinda annoying when all shots from a machinegun sounds like multiple ones in some mods

I don't know, it seemed normal to me that missiles, rockets, vlaunch were not affected by winds while ballistic shots where. If you need a RL explanations, imagine that either they are so heavy their inertia prevent the wind from noticeable moving them, or that even non-tracking missile have some basic gyroscope and govern to move straight. But the real reason is that it was like that in Total Annihilation, and could affect the balance.Couldn't you add a tag, gonewiththewind or something, set by default to 1 for ballistic weapon and to 0 for missile, but that any modder could add to its weapon .tdf if he wants to add or remove the wind effect? Oh nevermind I just re-read your post and now see it's only in "freefall"and if your "windaffect" tag is used. How can I delete my post?

And I'd like to point out that SWTA units for unclear reasons seem to keep their custom weapon models.

Actually missiles and everything are affected by wind in TA. By an accident, I set the map wind strenght to like five-ten thousand and while wind gens couldn't produce any more than some certain value, missiles were completely pointless to use, because they all flew away.

can anyone post some date for SWTA weapons? if Z is indeed right that might proof interesting.