help with Editor

[Major Cooke]

Can someone point me to a very ACCURATE AND EXCELLENT thread about the map editor? I really need some help about a few things...

I heard you can attach SpiritSpawns to the spawnpoint system, but when I attempt, it crashes.

I also tried linking one of the TrainLink's or whatever their called, the cart links to the TrainEnd or the cart link end where it unloads the primitives but that too crashed my game... Can someone PLEASE help me out in fixing these bugs?

Oh and before I forget... On the map Biosphere, there are reciever links linked to the SpawnPointMaster... HOW DO YOU DO THAT ON NORMAL MAPS!?

[Icepick]

http://thenextgame.co.uk/modguide/

[xander]

Oh and before I forget... On the map Biosphere, there are reciever links linked to the SpawnPointMaster... HOW DO YOU DO THAT ON NORMAL MAPS!?

For all of the rest of your questions, http://thenextgame.co.uk is your best bet. The last question is a bit more complicated. You cannot link a receiver system into a spawn system. Look at the actual Biosphere map, and you can see how it is done. The last ReceiverLink actually links to another ReceiverLink that is hidden inside of the SpawnPointMaster. You can't see it while playing, but it is there.

Another really good source for modding information would be http://www.nihilesthetics.info/Darwinia ... rwinia.htm , though it is a bit more technical.

xander

[Major Cooke]

[quote="Major Cooke"]
I also tried linking one of the TrainLink's or whatever their called, the cart links to the TrainEnd or the cart link end where it unloads the primitives but that too crashed my game... Can someone PLEASE help me out in fixing these bugs?
quote]

You still haven't answered this question.

[xander]

I also tried linking one of the TrainLink's or whatever their called, the cart links to the TrainEnd or the cart link end where it unloads the primitives but that too crashed my game... Can someone PLEASE help me out in fixing these bugs?

You still haven't answered this question.

Because the question is not all that clear. Are you refering to TrackLinks and TrackEnds? What are you trying to do with them? Please be as specific as possible... and note that thenextgame does explain how to use track links...

Also, you might try looking through the map file for Mine, as that may help you figure out what your problem is.

xander

[Major Cooke]

I took a search around, and yes i was talking about tracklinks and trackends. I tried to hook a link up to an end and it crashed my game... I'm trying to figure out how to set it up, and i DID look at thenext game but no matter what I try it still crashes my game when i try to hook the 2 up.

[Lowell]

I also tried linking one of the TrainLink's or whatever their called, the cart links to the TrainEnd or the cart link end where it unloads the primitives but that too crashed my game... Can someone PLEASE help me out in fixing these bugs?
quote]

You still haven't answered this question.

Okay TrackLinks mines, TrackJunctions, TrackStart and TrackEnd.
TrackEnd is toggled by the Yard building (which also needs power...that's anouther story) TrackStarts are toggled by Trunk Ports. TrackJunctions are merged with TrackLinks to make a split. The mines need the Refinery to make the carts move or the TrackStart to a Trunk Port. Follow the arrows, if the wire is twisted, rotate it. Download my mod The_Particles_Within and tear a couple of the levels apart...you'll see. I am working on a new update 0.12 but 0.11 has the mines and more.

And aren't we suposed to talk about this stuff in the Mods section...

Lowell

[Major Cooke]

Okay, so the trackstart goes where the trunkport is? Actually, wait... I have my refinery on the same map along with some mines in the same location as the construction yard, but i happened to put a TrackStart near there but it worked just fine... When i made a trackend, i clicked "link" on the tracklink and clicked on the TrackEnd which was NOT hooked up to anything and it crashed the editor... Can someone help me fix this crashing error? it happened everytime i tried to hook a link to an end.

[xander]

TrackStarts and TrackEnds do not need to be triggered by TrunkPorts and Yards (respectively). They can be triggered by any active building. Look at Station in Insurrection for an example. Both the TrackStart and the TrackEnd in the cart loop are triggered by the same TrunkPort. This makes it look like carts are dumping their loads at the Yard, but keeps the Yard from producing Armour (because the player should not have Armour at that point, and the story explains that the Yard is producing ammunition for airstrikes, anyway). A mine system works like this:

Any building in a mine system may link to any other building in a mine system. They may not be linked to any other building, or Darwinia will crash. Thus, you cannot link a TrackStart to a TrunkPort. If you want the TrunkPort to deposit cargo into the carts, then you must use the ToggledBy setting. Do not interlink different systems, Darwinia will crash.

TrackStart:
Generally, a TrackStart is linked to a TrackLink (though it doesn't have to be). They are generally toggled by TrunkPorts (see the mission Yard). After a cart passed by a TrackStart (about halfway to the linked TrackLink or other building), a primative will be deposited into the cart, assuming that the toggling building is online/active (I haven't actually determined if the status has to be online, or just active, though the general behaviour would indicate active). Parallel wires will connect this building to the building that it is linked to, and carts will travel along those wires.

TrackEnd:
Works much like a TrackStart, but deposits primatives. Generally, these buildings are linked to a TrackLink, and are toggled by a Yard. As a full cart passes a TrackEnd, it will deposit its cargo, assuming the toggling building is active. If that toggling building happens to be a Yard, it will deposit its primative in the Yard. Otherwise, the primative will disappear (see Yard and Mine, respectively). Parallel wires will connect this building to the building that it is linked to, and carts will travel along those wires.

TrackLink:
Links TrackStarts, TrackEnds, TrackJunctions, Mines, and Refineries. Parallel wires will connect this building to the building that it is linked to, and carts will travel along those wires.

TrackJunction:
TrackJunctions are the only buildings in the mine system that may link to multiple other buildings. Generally, you will link a TrackJunction to several TrackLinks. Parallel wires are *not* created from the TrackJunction to the linked building(s). Thus, they are generally used like this: a TrackJunction is linked to several TrackLinks, each of which are located at the same place as the TrackJunction. Look at the map file for Mine for an example. If TrackLinks are not colocated, then mine carts will be teleported from the TrackJunction to the linked building. Using this, you could probably create a straight section of track, where carts start at one end, travel to the other, and are teleported back to the beginning.

Refineries:
Refineries drive the carts. An empty cart goes through a Refinery and comes out empty. A cart with a primative in it goes through the Refinery, and comes out with a primative. A cart raw polygons in it goes through the Refinery, increases the Refinery count by one, and comes out with a primative. The Refinery becomes active when manned by DGs, and comes online when it has refined 20 primatives. The active staus drives the carts, while the online status can be used for mission objectives.

Mine:
An empty cart passing under a Mine is filled with raw polygons. Other carts are unaffected. Mines cannot be brought online, but are made active by DGs.

-----

A basic mine system and a basic yard system might look like this (the basic format is that from a map or mission file, but I have taken out the unneccessary columns):

Code: Select all

#Type           id      link(s)         toggledBy (if relevent)
#==============================================================

# this is a mining system
TrunkPort       0       -1
TrackLink       1       2
TrackLink       2       3
TrackLink       3       4
TrackJunction   4       5   6
TrackLink       5       7
TrackLink       6       8
Mine            7       9
Mine            8       10
TrackLink       9       11
TrackLink       10      11
TrackLink       11      12
Refinery        12      13
TrackLink       13      14
TrackEnd        14      1               0


# this is a yard system
TrunkPort       0       -1
Yard            1       -1
TrackStart      2       3               0
TrackLink       3       4
TrackEnd        4       5               1
TrackLink       5       2

A scematic of these two systems might look like this:

Code: Select all

MINE SYSTEM:
                 5 - [7] - 9
                /            \
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -<              >- 11 - (12) - 13 - |14| - 1
                \            /                      |
                 6 - [8] - 10                       v
                                                    0

YARD SYSTEM:

|2| - 3 - |4| - 5 - |2|
 |         |
 v         v
 0         1

xander

[Major Cooke]

Thanks alot...

Now my next question is:
How do you set the map so you have ilke... full stats on progress bars for tasks?

[xander]

Set this up in game.txt, in this section:

Code: Select all

Research_StartDefinition
   Research Darwinian      0       2
    Research Squad          0       1
   Research Engineer       0       1
    Research Laser          0       1
   Research Grenade      0      0
   Research Rocket         0      0
   Research AirStrike      0      0
   Research Controller      0      0
   Research Officer      0      0
    Research Armour         0       0
    Research TaskManager    0       2
    CurrentResearch         Squad
Research_EndDefinition

The first number is the number of points that have been applied to that particular topic since the last upgrade. The second number is the current level of the research topic. It takes 50 points to get from level 1 to level 2, 100 from level 2 to 3, and 200 from level 3 to 4. Each control tower is worth 22 points. If you want to max everything out, put a 4 in the last column for each topic. You can use larger numbers on several of them (squads, the task manager, and airstrikes come immediately to mind; and level 5 engineers can build bridges, not that you can use them).

In case you were wondering, the controller is a squad weapon that is not used in the game. If you assign that weapon to a squad, fire it at a group of friendly DGs. They will turn blue and follow the squad around as though it were an officer. I have found it to be an interesting weapon in escort missions, and moderately useful against spiders and large groups of virii (use the squad to deal with the spiders, and the DGs will take care of anything else). Other than that, it is only marginally useful, as you can do the same thing with a level 3 officer.

xander

[trickfred]

In case you were wondering, the controller is a squad weapon that is not used in the game. If you assign that weapon to a squad, fire it at a group of friendly DGs. They will turn blue and follow the squad around as though it were an officer. I have found it to be an interesting weapon in escort missions, and moderately useful against spiders and large groups of virii (use the squad to deal with the spiders, and the DGs will take care of anything else). Other than that, it is only marginally useful, as you can do the same thing with a level 3 officer.

xander

I'm fairly certain that DGs will not fire lasers when under the influence of the Controller. I'm also fairly certain that they used to, but Controllers seem to have been screwed up further than they were in a recent patch. I was planning on using them in EnemyWithin Part 3, but alas, they no longer really have any appeal over an Officer, unless for some reason you spefically don't want them to fire at enemies in a level. They just stand around while Spiders pounce on them, and get shot up by red DGs without retaliating. At least, on my system, and game v1.42. Tested a few days ago, and just thirty seconds ago. Controller set to v1.0. Lasers and DGs set to v3.0. If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know.

Edit: Also, you can't alt-tab past the Controller in the TaskManager, and you can't seem to select the Controller anymore to Ctrl-C it (I'm certain you were once able to), further making it more of a hindrance than a help.

[xander]

I'm fairly certain that DGs will not fire lasers when under the influence of the Controller. I'm also fairly certain that they used to, but Controllers seem to have been screwed up further than they were in a recent patch. I was planning on using them in EnemyWithin Part 3, but alas, they no longer really have any appeal over an Officer, unless for some reason you spefically don't want them to fire at enemies in a level. They just stand around while Spiders pounce on them, and get shot up by red DGs without retaliating. At least, on my system, and game v1.42. Tested a few days ago, and just thirty seconds ago. Controller set to v1.0. Lasers and DGs set to v3.0. If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know.

Hrm... that is interesting. Which patch (do you know?) changed this behaviour? The last time I played with it, I was using 1.2.2.

xander

[trickfred]

I suspect 1.3, but I didn't bother checking old versions to see when it happened, since I've already begun using RunningPrograms, which won't work pre-v1.3, so I figured it was pointless. Well, add that to the list of modder requests, I guess, though since it's not used in the main game I don't imagine it'll be fixed.

Oh, and if anyone has a copy of the Win32 v1.2.2 patch, can they email it to me for testing purposes? Or did Win32 go straight from 1.21 to 1.3? (I honestly don't remember)

Edit: NM, looks like it skipped, and I have 1.21.

Edit2: I must have been smoking some good wacky tobacky last year. I just loaded up v1.0, straight off the CD, and the DGs still won't fire at the spider. Until the Squad is offed, then they go crazy on it. I guess Controllers never worked at all on Win32. Weird that they do on Macs. Another reason not to use them in mods, I guess.... inconsistency across platforms. I tried Controller v1.0, and v4.0. If anyone else has luck getting them to work in Windows, please follow up.

[Major Cooke]

Set this up in game.txt, in this section:

Code: Select all

Research_StartDefinition
   Research Darwinian      0       2
    Research Squad          0       1
   Research Engineer       0       1
    Research Laser          0       1
   Research Grenade      0      0
   Research Rocket         0      0
   Research AirStrike      0      0
   Research Controller      0      0
   Research Officer      0      0
    Research Armour         0       0
    Research TaskManager    0       2
    CurrentResearch         Squad
Research_EndDefinition

The first number is the number of points that have been applied to that particular topic since the last upgrade. The second number is the current level of the research topic. It takes 50 points to get from level 1 to level 2, 100 from level 2 to 3, and 200 from level 3 to 4. Each control tower is worth 22 points. If you want to max everything out, put a 4 in the last column for each topic. You can use larger numbers on several of them (squads, the task manager, and airstrikes come immediately to mind; and level 5 engineers can build bridges, not that you can use them).

In case you were wondering, the controller is a squad weapon that is not used in the game. If you assign that weapon to a squad, fire it at a group of friendly DGs. They will turn blue and follow the squad around as though it were an officer. I have found it to be an interesting weapon in escort missions, and moderately useful against spiders and large groups of virii (use the squad to deal with the spiders, and the DGs will take care of anything else). Other than that, it is only marginally useful, as you can do the same thing with a level 3 officer.

xander

Do i need to make a new game.txt and shove it in my mod folder?
I already know about the controller gun when i tried it out.