Possibilities of BZII?

[JuiceBox]

I've been doing some very minor modding (ODF editing and map making) for a while now, and I'm thinking about trying my hand at some 'larger' modding in the near future, like model making and such. Before I do that, I'm curious to know what Battlezone 2's limits are, so I was wondering if the following ideas would be at all possible. Some of these I know were impossible in 1.2 but I'm not sure whether or no that has changed since 1.3. So if you could explain whether or not they are possible, and how they could be done (I don't ask for a tutorial or anything, just which method I could use), I would really appreciate it.

• - Hovering recyclers. I mean true hovering recyclers, not ones with invisible treads. Likewise, hovering units that could deploy to form factories and armories would be cool.
  - I wanted to make some sort of flak missile which explodes into shards upon impact, similar to the flak grenade from Unreal Tournament's flak cannon, but as a visual-locking missile.
  - A mortar which, near the peak of its trajectory, 'splits' into several mortars, which all keep the approximate trajectory of the original, with slight variation.
  - Upgrading gun towers.
  - I don't think this is my idea - I'm pretty sure I remember hearing it from someone else before - but it would be cool if Scion gun spires could 'fold' back up when there are no enemies within, say, 300 metres, and in this 'folded' state they slowly regenerated health. It might cause a few balancing issues, but is it possible?
  - Walkers with mortars (like a howitzer walker or something). I don't really see any reason why this couldn't be done, but since I haven't seen it done before I was wondering if there might be some obstacle to it.
  - New recycler and factory panels, so if I wanted to make a new race that would still be able to customise its vehicles' weapons, I could. I know this couldn't be done in 1.2, which is why the Hadeans were made with their different variants, but I recall hearing that it is possible in 1.3.

I think this is all for now. If I can think of any more ideas I had then I will edit this list. Thanks in advance.

[Axeminister]

1. Don't know about hovering recyclers
2. The G66 mod has the Heat missle which has massive splash damage, so I'm sure you could do what you're saying with the flak, not sure about site lock though.
3. Forgotten enemies mod had mortars that, at the peak of their trajectory, split off into something else entirely, so I'm sure you could do it too.
4. Upgrading towers is possible in the G66 mod, so you can do it too.
5. Folding Spires that heal themselves sounds like a DLL thing, hope you know how to make those.
6. Walkers with mortar are in G66 mod.
7. Don't know about Recycler or Factory console appearance changes, I would ask General BlackDragon or Nielk1.

Sounds to me that you have never played G66, join Windy and I in a game and you'll see some of your ideas already in play, plus some very tough mpi action. You can find G66 for patch 1.3.6.2 here:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6

[Zero Angel]

- Hovering recyclers. I mean true hovering recyclers, not ones with invisible treads. Likewise, hovering units that could deploy to form factories and armories would be cool.

Don't know if its possible.

- I wanted to make some sort of flak missile which explodes into shards upon impact, similar to the flak grenade from Unreal Tournament's flak cannon, but as a visual-locking missile.

Not doable. The reason being that you are looking for an ordnance that has the properties of both a missile and a spraybomb. Because an ordnance can have only one classlabel (ie: missile, or spraybomb), you wouldnt be able to combine those functions.

The other alternative is to have the launcher be a radar locking torpedo launcher; the torpedo, since it is an object (as opposed to ordnance), would be able to have chunks in its explosion (much like how vehicles have chunks when they explode), and the chunks would be able to split off of the primary explosion and have their own sub explosions.

- A mortar which, near the peak of its trajectory, 'splits' into several mortars, which all keep the approximate trajectory of the original, with slight variation.

Possible by using a popper class weapon (see existing ISDF popper), the source weapon should be a salvolauncher that fires several poppers (with no shotvariance, and no shot delay, so they all go in one cluster) and then the submunition of the popper would have shot variance.

- Upgrading gun towers.

Possible via [GameObjectClass] :: upgradeName = "myupgradedguntower"

- Walkers with mortars (like a howitzer walker or something). I don't really see any reason why this couldn't be done, but since I haven't seen it done before I was wondering if there might be some obstacle to it.

Yes. Easy to do.

- New recycler and factory panels, so if I wanted to make a new race that would still be able to customise its vehicles' weapons, I could. I know this couldn't be done in 1.2, which is why the Hadeans were made with their different variants, but I recall hearing that it is possible in 1.3.

Possible via [FactoryClass] :: weaponConfig = "myweaponfile.odf" // If blank, uses *weapon.odf. If specified, MUST end in .odf

[MrTwosheds]

A true hovering recycler vehicle is not possible, But there are probably now ways to successfully fake it with dll support.
(used a hover scav and dll support to give it recycler like status)
The flak missile is possible as an effect only, Ie not firing its own sub-ordnance.
Upgrading gun towers, Walkers with mortars, factory panels all entirely possible.
Folding up gun towers, would require dll support, I have some designed to do just that, but I'm not a dll maker , so they don't do it
Splitting Mortar's basically is not possible, but could be faked as ZA described.

It is always possible that some of what we say here is no longer true, It may indeed be possible to make a flak missile or a splitting mortar, Its just that nobody has quite figured out how to do it yet. I have at least 1 (TOP SECRET) weapon based on aircraft class, You may wish to conduct research of your own in that area, it is relatively unexplored.

[JuiceBox]

Thanks everyone. I'll have a fiddle around and try to put some of these things into practice. Some of them I don't know if I'll ever end up using (namely the ones that require DLL, which I don't know how to do atm), but it's nice to know that they are all possible or 'fake-able' to some extent.
EDIT: Axe, I do have G66, just never gotten around to playing it (other than a quick look at a few of the maps).

[Nielk1]

Make your hover recycler require a pool and it works fine. It is just a hover scav and a pool (or custom pool possibly with masking so it can't get confused with normal pools) where the exactor form is the recycler. Scavs can add to scrap bar when still mobile, can even act as silos or scrap generators when mobile, so now the DLL is only needed for un-deploying the thing rather than scrap management as well.

[JuiceBox]

Make your hover recycler require a pool and it works fine. It is just a hover scav and a pool (or custom pool possibly with masking so it can't get confused with normal pools) where the exactor form is the recycler. Scavs can add to scrap bar when still mobile, can even act as silos or scrap generators when mobile, so now the DLL is only needed for un-deploying the thing rather than scrap management as well.

Interesting... a recycler that uses a scrap pool. I'll keep that in mind, thank you.

[Nielk1]

That is how the mythical Battlezone Classic mod does it. However, as there are no pools, it did not bother to use the masking. You can actually mask a resource pool so it cannot be used by normal scavs and it can be used by some set of special scavs, thus creating deploy spots for any number of things. Well, actually a specific number, but I forget how big the mask gets.

[JuiceBox]

It's just made me think that would be a good trait for a new race - a recycler that deploys on a normal scrap pool, and acts like its own extractor, so that you don't need to build a scavenger until/unless you want more pools. It would kinda suck if played on a map with no base pool, though.

[JuiceBox]

The other alternative is to have the launcher be a radar locking torpedo launcher; the torpedo, since it is an object (as opposed to ordnance), would be able to have chunks in its explosion (much like how vehicles have chunks when they explode), and the chunks would be able to split off of the primary explosion and have their own sub explosions.

I'd like to try this out... only I don't know how to get things to use chunks when they explode.

[MrTwosheds]

http://www.bzscrap.org/downloads/Docume ... 1_9_09b.7z

[Zero Angel]

Newer version of modlog at this location:
http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/hosted/modlog_pb4a.chm

[Zero Angel]

The other alternative is to have the launcher be a radar locking torpedo launcher; the torpedo, since it is an object (as opposed to ordnance), would be able to have chunks in its explosion (much like how vehicles have chunks when they explode), and the chunks would be able to split off of the primary explosion and have their own sub explosions.

I'd like to try this out... only I don't know how to get things to use chunks when they explode.

Torpedos default to not having chunks when they explode. According to the changelog

- Fix for bugzilla #101, related to mantis #2377. For torpedos,
defaulted

[GameObjectClass]
UseVehicleCrashOnDeath = 0
NumChunks1 .. NumChunks5 = 0

This defaults torpedos to not having seconday explosions on impact.
Modders are free to set up odfs that specify these, however. [NM]

Furthermore:

- Added snipe ("xplSnipe"), chunk ("xplChunk"), and crash ("xplCrash")
explosion values to CraftClass. Chunk and crash explosions specify
the destruction effects for debris created in the primary explosion,
allowing mod makers to customize explosions per-vehicle. [Ken]

[CraftClass]
chunkEffect1 .. chunkEffect5 = "iochnk01.xsi" .. "iochnk05.xsi" // chunks from craft. Note that .xsi MUST be present.

If you need more help about how chunks work, search the Extras/Changelogs or the mod log.

[S.cavA.rmyG.en]

I wanted to make some sort of flak missile which explodes into shards upon impact, similar to the flak grenade from Unreal Tournament's flak cannon, but as a visual-locking missile.

spome thing like this.
Gwhatever.odf

Code: Select all

[WeaponClass]
classLabel = "torpedolauncher"
altName = "gcomet_a"
wpnName = "?"
fireSound = "gcome00.wav"
wpnReticle = "gcomet.0"
wpnCategory = "ROCK"
isAssault = 0

[LauncherClass]
lockRange = 500.0
shotDelay = 1.0
lockDelay = 0.5
coneAngle = 0.075
lockingReticle = "gcomet.A"
lockingSound = "lock01.wav"
lockedReticle = "gcomet.B"
lockedSound = "lock02.wav"
targetCount = 3
targetReticle = "gcomet.1"

[TorpedoLauncherClass]
objectClass = "comet_sc"

comet_sc.odf

Code: Select all

[GameObjectClass]
geometryName = "iocmet00.xsi"
geometryScale = 1.0
classLabel = "torpedo"
baseName = "grccmi"
scrapValue = 1 // how many you want it to drop
ScrapClass1 = "splinter"//what you want it to drop
ScrapClass2 = "splinter"//
ScrapClass3 = "splinter"//
scrapCost = 0
maxHealth = 200
maxAmmo = 200
unitName = "splinter"//up to you
aiName = "TorpedoProcess"
aiName2 = "TorpedoProcess"
[CraftClass]
rangeScan = 0.0f
periodScan = 0.0f
velocJam = 0.0f
[TorpedoClass]
setAltitude = 1.0
alphaTrack = 20.0
alphaDamp = 5.0
velocForward = 25.0
accelThrust = 50.0
omegaTurn = 2.0
alphaSteer = 5.0
lifeSpan = 20.0
xplBlast = "xminxpl"//you mite or mite not want to change this
LIFT_DAMP = 15.0 
LIFT_SPRING = 40.0 
soundThrust = "waspmsl.wav"//same here

this sould drop a splinter mine after it hits but that
can be changed to any thing you want but it will have a random heading.

[JuiceBox]

this sould drop a splinter mine after it hits but that can be changed to any thing you want but it will have a random heading.

Okay, this didn't work (didn't drop the mine). I think I'm going to give up on the flak missile concept for now.

I've been trying to get the splitting mortar to work, but the problem I'm having is that popper class mortars launch their ordinance towards the target, rather than having it follow the trajectory of the original mortar. I'm not sure if there is any way around this. In addition, I'm not sure how to get the submunition to have shot variance - shotVariance under the PopperClass heading doesn't work. I tried making it a missile and making it waver, via omegaWaver and rateWaver, but no matter which values I put in it only seems to waver by the tiniest amount, meaning it still looks like a single projectile except under very close inspection.

EDIT: I also still can't seem to figure out how chunks work. Looks like I might need someone to spoon-feed me...