The Art of War version 0.1

[Shwart!!]

STATUS: 1/5 done with map structuring
0/10 done with mission structuring
0/10 done with scripting
2/5 done with storyline structuring

First alpha is released! It is meant to be played with no profile enabled, for now.

http://happyhrs.net/dar/wp-uploads/shwart/TAoW0.1.zip

Read the posts for background information about the mod... This information will be incorporated into the package sometime in the future.

All constructive criticism is appreciated... but please, PLEASE don't steal my maps or ideas. Ask first.

Bear in mind, I've found and fixed basic bugs 3 times to date, and reuploaded every time. This in only 20 minutes. If you have a problem, redownload... and if the problem persists, wait a day and redownload. It may be fixed.

[trickfred]

Add a static shape, and use the factory's .shp file. Same appearance, no crashie.

[Shwart!!]

Excellent! Thank you!

My mod is coming along nicely now, despite being made by a complete n00b... I'm up to 4 totally structured levels. I think I'll get the first release out about the time of the new year.

EDIT: What on earth?! Now on Biodome (Biosphere Jr.), when I enter the level, there is no SpawnPointMaster! It's there in the editor, but invisible/unusable in the game!

And one more question: What, if anything, does "Controller" do? I cannot get it to have an effect...

[xander]

Excellent! Thank you!

My mod is coming along nicely now, despite being made by a complete n00b... I'm up to 4 totally structured levels. I think I'll get the first release out about the time of the new year.

EDIT: What on earth?! Now on Biodome (Biosphere Jr.), when I enter the level, there is no SpawnPointMaster! It's there in the editor, but invisible/unusable in the game!

And one more question: What, if anything, does "Controller" do? I cannot get it to have an effect...

Make it global.

SpawnPointMasters behave a bit differently, depending upon whether they are global or local. Both will feed souls into a spawn system, but only the global SpawnPointMaster will be visible, and only a global SpawnPointMaster can be used as a mission objective. Look at Temple for an example of a non-global SpawnPointMaster.

xander

[Shwart!!]

Ah... /takes notes

Thank you!
The local one could be interesting to use...

... and what do you mean by a mission objective? How would a SpawnPointMaster be an objective?

[xander]

Ah... /takes notes

Thank you! :D
The local one could be interesting to use...

... and what do you mean by a mission objective? How would a SpawnPointMaster be an objective?

Any building that can come online can be used as a mission objective. For instance, a Refinery comes online after it refines 20 primatives. If your Refinery is, say, building ID 0 on a level, you can create a mission objective that looks like this (in the objectives section of the mission file):

Code: Select all

BuildingOnline:[levelname],0     descripive_string     some_script.txt

The Refinery starts the level offline, and will trigger the objective when it comes online, after refining 20 primatives.

A SpawnPointMaster comes online when the population of red units in the level drops below 10. Thus, if you want to have a "wipe out the enemy" objective, you can use a SpawnPointMaster. One more note about the SpawnPointMasters -- if they are global, and, therefor, visible in a level, they will cause souls to instantly rise when a unit dies. Thus, engineers can't collect them, and incubators are useless. Have a look at Biosphere to see how that works. Actually, look at both Biosphere and Temple to see the differences. There is a global SpawnPointMaster in Biosphere, and a non-global one in Temple.

xander

[Shwart!!]

Indeed... I had wondered how that was scripted to occur.
That helps greatly.

Thus, if I want a visible SpawnPointMaster without instant soul rise, use a StaticShape and a local SPM stacked, I'm presuming.

[xander]

Indeed... I had wondered how that was scripted to occur.
That helps greatly.

Thus, if I want a visible SpawnPointMaster without instant soul rise, use a StaticShape and a local SPM stacked, I'm presuming.

Yes. However, you will not be able to use the SpawnPointMaster as a mission objective (i.e. kill all the badies). Only buildings that are global can be used as mission objectives. Basically, any building that is global has an entry in game.txt . To check whether an objective is complete or not, Darwinia checks game.txt for buildings that are online. If your building is local, it won't be recorded in game.txt, and won't ever be counted as online for objective purposes. Thus, having a "kill the baddies" objetive with an invisible SpawnPointMaster cannot be done. You can, however, fake it with SafeAreas.

To do this, create a very large SafeArea (one that encompasses all of the land in your level, but that does not stretch beyond the boundaries of the level). This SafeArea should be on the red team, and have a capacity of 0. Pick an enemy unit type. When all of those units are dead, the SafeArea will become active. If that SafeArea is global, it can be used as a mission objective. They only problem with this system is that it requires you to have one mission objective for each type of enemy in the level (i.e. "Kill All the Virii", "Kill All the Centipedes", &c.).

xander

[Shwart!!]

Is there any method of increasing the size of the world map? 6 levels in, I realise that I will need more space. At least double.

[xander]

Is there any method of increasing the size of the world map? 6 levels in, I realise that I will need more space. At least double.

Well, you could use a larger shape. I will post instructions when I get home. However, I am not entirely certain how well Darwinia would react to such a change -- it might not place locations properly. Also, how many levels are you planning? There is a lot of space on the map, if you know how to use it. I could easily get 20-25 levels on, more if they have short names.

xander

[Shwart!!]

5 minute reply. I feel special...

Hmm... Looking at StrickenSouls, it might not place them right automatically, but they could be manually placed in all 3 dimensions. (see Revelation)

I will have at least 40 levels. If I have extraneous space, I will make more, but probably I will have no extra space. They also mostly have 3-4 syllable names. The shortest so far is Forge.

Maybe I need to be more clear on my description of the mod.
The Art Of War is a huge mod, designed for maximum replay value. There are 4 nations plus Sepulveda. Each one has an entire resource sustem, although some use different styles than others. This makes 5 base campaigns, each one having at least 2 general ways to play it. Possibly there will be a sixth campaign, being either with the Virii or solo, either focusing on the demise of Darwinia.
Note that all of this is written in present tense, though it is barely started.

EDIT: It, apparently, is possible to get the teams 0 and 2 DGs to work like the reds by using an AI. Is this true on other OSs?

Also, why are different DGs differently sized? What is this a function of? Is there a way to manually call it?
Is there a way to one-time-call a spawn of units?

The AAA profile. How does it work? If it is referenced in game.txt, could I make multiple AAA profiles, created seperately based on which affiliation you choose to complete the mod, so you could have 3 or 4 AAA profiles (e.g. AAA: teamone or AAA: sepulveda) to redo different missions for different teams?

P.S. xander, you've officially become the forum role model of this newbie. Congradulations!

And thanks for all the help you've given me to date.

[xander]

Okay -- how to make the world map bigger:

1. In main.dat, you should find a directory called "shapes/". In that directory, look for three files: globalworld_inner.shp, globalworld_middle.shp, and globalworld_outer.shp. These are the three shapes that make the world map -- you will need to alter each one of them.
2. The first large section of each of these files lists all of the verticies used in the shape. There should be close to 3000 in the inner globe, 4000 in the middle globe, and 6000 in the outer globe. You will need to scale each and every one of these verticies. The first thing that you want to do, probably, is replace all of the spaces with tabs, and replace any multiple tabs with single tabs. You can then copy the positions section into a spreadsheet, such as Excel.
3. In your spreadsheet, you need to multiply each value by some constant. You should know how to do that.
4. Once you have the new values, paste them back into the shape file. Save the shape file. You should be good to go. However, I do not think that it will lock your level locations to the map. You will have to scale all of the numbers in locations.txt by the same amount that you scaled your map.

5 minute reply. I feel special... Very Happy :D

I live to serve.

...I will have at least 40 levels. If I have extraneous space, I will make more, but probably I will have no extra space. They also mostly have 3-4 syllable names. The shortest so far is Forge.

Maybe I need to be more clear on my description of the mod.
The Art Of War is a huge mod, designed for maximum replay value. There are 4 nations plus Sepulveda. Each one has an entire resource sustem, although some use different styles than others. This makes 5 base campaigns, each one having at least 2 general ways to play it. Possibly there will be a sixth campaign, being either with the Virii or solo, either focusing on the demise of Darwinia.
Note that all of this is written in present tense, though it is barely started.

Jebus! I wish you luck. That is a very ambitious project.

EDIT: It, apparently, is possible to get the teams 0 and 2 DGs to work like the reds by using an AI. Is this true on other OSs?

I don't know. I have never tried it. Give me minute...

...


...


It works on Macs. If a level contains a green AI unit and AITargets, the green units will be attracted to those targets like red DGs. Interesting.

Also, why are different DGs differently sized? What is this a function of? Is there a way to manually call it?

Why are different people different sizes? It is just another quirk of the nature of DGs :) As to controlling it manually, as far as I can tell, no. However, I hadn't even noticed that they were different until you mentioned it. It is really subtle, too. Nifty.

Is there a way to one-time-call a spawn of units?

No. Not really. When an AISpawnPoint becomes active, it continues to spawn units until the level is completed. The only way that I can think of to have units spawn once and only once would be to put the AISpawnPoint in a SafeArea that is activated as soon as the AISpawnPoint becomes active, and have that SafeArea be the only objective of the mission. When the mission completes, the SafeArea will stop spawning units. Aesthetically, I don't like this solution, as it gives the impression that a mission is complete when it is not, and it doesn't give you the option of putting other official objectives in the level, but it does get the job done.

The AAA profile. How does it work? If it is referenced in game.txt, could I make multiple AAA profiles, created seperately based on which affiliation you choose to complete the mod, so you could have 3 or 4 AAA profiles (e.g. AAA: teamone or AAA: sepulveda) to redo different missions for different teams?

When you use the AAA profile, Darwinia does not load game.txt. Instead, it loads game_unlockall.txt. It also activates all Trunkports in the game, and makes all levels available (not necessarily playable, but available -- if a level is available, but there is no mission set for it, it will be greyed out and unplayable). So, it is not really possible to have multiple AAA profiles, unless you want players monkeying around with your files to swap game_unlockall.txt files around.

P.S. xander, you've officially become the forum role model of this newbie. Congradulations!

And thanks for all the help you've given me to date. Very Happy

Heh. Tell that to some of the folk in the Defcon forums :) At any rate, I am happy that I can help.

xander

[Shwart!!]

Um... About the world resizing thing, I'll work on that and get back to you tomorrow...
Where do the co-ordinates start on the world map? I need to know that.
Yes, I know it's an ambitious project. I think I can do it, though... and I will not let the mod, nor this topic, hopefully, die.
The lack of properly scriptable multiple AAA profiles could be an issue... I will probably just have all zones be friendly (i.e. like you are of the nation that controlls that sector).

MAN! Notepad takes a long time to do the tab scaling thing!
Word does it sooooo much faster...

[xander]

Where do the co-ordinates start on the world map? I need to know that.

How do you mean? What is the origin? I believe that the origin (0,0,0) is in the same place as the soul repository.

MAN! Notepad takes a long time to do the tab scaling thing!

Heh.

xander

[Shwart!!]

Hmmm... I must've done it wrong... There is now an empty hole where globalworldinner should be- that's the only one I've done yet. I think I followed all your steps right... probably a tabbing issue... and it's not just too far out to see it.
2 things could help me with this- steps for reversing the tabbing issue, or someone just doing it for me- probably in a 3d editor. Neither of which is likely.

Yes, I meant the origin. Thank you for reading between the lines. It helps greatly.

I'm now considering having a 3-way cutscene battle. Greens, reds, and yellows all fighting in a Biosphere-like setting, the Greens and Yellows working together somehow. All of these following AITargets and such, creating a huge, entirely AI battle.

BTW, if you have a group of yellow DGs in-unit, they become invisible but fully functional- save their weapons can be fired like that of squads (extra function), if you can find the centerpoint of the group to select it. Not very useful, but cool nonetheless. Lasers and 'nades coming out of the air will panic an enemy. Now, if only there was a way to group your DGs manually to do this, in-game...