The_Particles_Within

[Lowell]

Hmmm...
could the Null file have been that your old profile took some of the old game text with it?
I have a new profile and am right at that map, I should complete it tonight. Two maps have ExitLocation and EnterLocation scripts that play at the completion of the maps objectives...I will test those...maybe at the completion I can take camera control away before the switch...it may cause a problem if the end script is bypassed, I can do a CamCut and move the camera someplace taking player control away then the script would ExitLocation and Enter without being missed. Not sure why your Positrons mission file wasn't written...

I think you may have swapped some errors for different ones. The two things to check out, as noted, are the ability to reprogram them over and over, and the level objectives that deal with gates already showing complete when the level starts. At least half the levels in the mod had one or both of these anomalies.

Well the gates do behave different with the settings, I will retest the lot and look into them again.

I seem to remember xander complaining at great lengths about SafeArea problems while doing Insurrection. It may be that he found alternate means of triggering events in some of the trouble spots.

I have run into some strange ones for sure. Most of the time a building will be in the mission file and has to be manually moved to the map file or something like that. It's the kind of thing you look at for weeks and don't even see or think is the problem...or the gremlin in the game as it were...I have gotten better at knowing what belongs where and at what settings, it is still easy to look past a mistake.

Are you on a Mac system?

Winn 2000 and XP pro ... Intel stuff I also have a fourth workstation, Intel 975 motherboard Duel core cpu and 8gig of duel core ram

Perhaps there was an enemy engineer out there reprogramming something that I didn't catch?

There are Red Engineers on the upper maps...beware what they spawn I'm not sure why Particles made a mess with the mission script for the Positrons map, my new profile as I have said should make it through Positrons tonight...maybe it will crash on me so I can find what it may have been. I also will read over it and the speech scripts plus objectives to make sure buildings and such are accounted for in the right order.

There were definitely incomplete objectives. And one difference between the first time where it crashed, and the second time when it didn't, was the Command Post 4 objective that wouldn't complete in Quarks the first time.

The funny thing is I was having some trouble with some of the safe areas triggering correctly. I had moved the safe area away from the building just to the right, my mistake for making too many edits at one time. The safe area is back at the flashing marker again...

If someone reports it as a bug, I think that qualifies. The point, is that the DGs spawn at the gates on all the subsequent levels, and that's the specified medium by which they transport. I suspect you moved the location because otherwise that whole section doesn't need to be played. (I had in fact skipped it). It probably needs some different tweaking.

Good point, Gluons spwan point isn't needed and I did remove it. I think Leptons is getting removed as I write. I played it last night and had plenty of spawn...even though more are needed for the map now than just the solar panels.

I have increased the number of ants in some ant hills, that did make a difference in my new tests. I have relocated the triffids on Protons, modified starting to level 2 "which did play better."

[thefrogger]

could the Null file have been that your old profile took some of the old game text with it?

No, I had created a new profile after making the game.txt change.

It's like when the level didn't start correctly, the game thought the mission name was "null". Since that's what it's listed as in game.txt before the mission gets activated, it just sounds like something is being done out of order, and the game tries to use that mission file before it has been set up. After exiting and reentering, the mission file name has been updated in game.txt correctly, so it starts fine the second time around.

Nice buildings, BTW.

[Lowell]

One of the script texts had the command { say pos_com } the command "say" should look like this... Say pos_com the S needs to be a capital letter. It is located in the { scripts } folder named { pos_com }
The proper way I guess would be to write it like this:

Say pos_com
WaitSay


< < hit return a couple times after WaitSay, there must be a blank line after the small script. Then just file save and exit

That would make it crash but that is for the positrons complete text, that should play only after turnning on the last objective.

[thefrogger]

That would make it crash but that is for the positrons complete text, that should play only after turning on the last objective.

Perhaps one of the red engineers can trigger that last objective? I definitely hadn't been to the last island yet, but it does seem like the objective got triggered. Both from the standpoint of the bug you found, and also something had to cause the game.txt update. Since it didn't crash on my second run-thru, the unusual objective triggering might have been related.

In any case, it's good you found something.

[Lowell]

well...for some strange reason the radar dishs no longer connect properly in the Angstrom map. It most likely is because I "stretched" the world map to a rectangle rather than a large square...it has the effect of stretching the water bitmaps to where they don't display, ie. the darkness in the water...I wanted the land floating in mid space look. I could fix it by making the map square but that defeats my purpose. So...I have removed the dishes and stretched out an island path to follow.

Angstrom in the story is an old unused cut through that the Soul Distroyers were using as a regroup spot. I am expanding the storyline a tad for that, I also am adding a small change so that players Must follow the "path" using officers and escort the spawned darwinians to the safe island at the end. It's a spooky map made for those who like to use Officers and absorb units to combat the Soul Distroyers...armor works too...I like Rockets, but even angstrom has a bit too many for just rockets.

So Angstrom is an escort mission for the most part.

Quarks needs something added for a good mission, I like the tripods...I have upped the ants for more fun. I added the buildings and started to make a plan for the map, I need to re-look at it as a whole.

[xander]

Quarks needs something added for a good mission, I like the tripods...I have upped the ants for more fun. I added the buildings and started to make a plan for the map, I need to re-look at it as a whole.

I like the look and idea of the tripds, but play around with them for a bit. I tried to include them in a couple of maps in Insurrection, and they just don't seem to behave properly. No matter how far away from an enemy unit they are, across however much water there is, they will move straight for the enemy. I think that it is probably ill-advised to employ them, especially without thouroughly testing the context in which they are used.

xander

[Lowell]

Well, I did some test maps and found that the one I have setup works well enough. I set the ants’ straight up a long path, the player needs the squads to take out a couple spiders and centipedes first, as the tripods can't defend themselves against them. They seem to only be good at killing ants. Ants will "mold" into each other into what seems to be one ant, but might be 50 all bunched into one...they can't attack the tripods legs so they sit under the middle of the tripod, and the tripods blast away. It seems to be the only thing I have found for them to do. Believe it or not they seem to follow the path through the map the way I wanted. Going for the large group ahead then turning towards the far end if the island. I also instruct the player their level of "re-programming" is in question and may need destroyed at the end of their mission.

I also added a green ai unit and green ai target flags, I'm not sure but they do seem to follow the path.

Oh...also I am about to convert some buildings I need. Just can't see using the same ones for too many things. Thanks to Richard Taylor for the fuel tanks and new style generator, a fellow http://www.Renderosity.com artist as myself. These .OBJ objects are rendered in Vue 'd Esprit 5 Infinate...too bad we can't use the nice textures...


EDIT//I also have fixed Angstrom's radar dish troubles. Lepton had two radar dishs removed, other things added to finish the map. Hadron, Angstrom, Leptons has had the lights turned up a tad so the radar dishs can be aimed easier. Angstrom had a couple areas at the path start where at low graphics the path got a tad too small, So I added a couple small land masses to enlargen the path. I also looked at the area on Gluons where it was mentioned that near the spawn area there seemed to be a blockage at the entry. I saw none, however there is a cannon at either side unless you blew them up then they would be gone. The other is there is an ai target flag near the middle opening so the reds can man the cannons. That shouldn't affect the greens though. I have slightly reworked the area, that should open up the entry a tad. Gluons didn't need the ai spawn point either. So I have added an incubator at the first island...then it's up to the spawn points after capture to spawn enough to man the solar panels.
Don't laugh but the Leptons crash is because I didn't place the generator in the mission and game text. I really didn't want to make it an objective, it is just for show. When the generator completes it's objective of producing the amount of current needed it trips to online status. But the mission text says "so what...I have no record of your event..." then crash...All fixed, with more added to complete the map.

So testing Update 0.12...the bug list is getting shorter...

[thefrogger]

When the generator completes it's objective of producing the amount of current needed it trips to online status. But the mission text says "so what...I have no record of your event..." then crash...

Ahh, that makes perfect sense. I didn't bother sending anyone to the solar panels the second time around, because it didn't seem important. So the generator never came on-line.

[Major Cooke]

can I adjust it now, or do I have to start say at 10 at the beginning?

I also noticed I failed to connect building control tower number 77 to radardish number 76 on the neutrons map.

edit// I just fixed the trouble with the control tower #77 and radar dish #76, the tower needs linked to the dish.

It actually needs to connect to the PylonStart... That's what I did, and it fixed it all.

EDIT: NEVERMIND!!! it didn't...

[Lowell]

can I adjust it now, or do I have to start say at 10 at the beginning?

I also noticed I failed to connect building control tower number 77 to radardish number 76 on the neutrons map.

edit// I just fixed the trouble with the control tower #77 and radar dish #76, the tower needs linked to the dish.

It actually needs to connect to the PylonStart... That's what I did, and it fixed it all.

EDIT: NEVERMIND!!! it didn't...

Version 10 was some time ago. Those radar dishs are fixed in 0.11 I had a couple radar dishs that were giving me fits, all fixed.

However the Start Pylon is something that I cannot get to work. Several have looked at the trouble and I made a quick fix for my Positrons map. Did you find a way to get the Start Pylon to work ?? Please say yes...
EDIT// Version 0.12 is almost finished.

[Toastmeister]

Lowell,

Did you ever post the pylonstart issue where someone from IV would see it? Our conversation from last week left me believing it would be in the main forums where Chris is a moderator.

Toast

[Lowell]

...Just posted it under General...


EDIT// .... great ... looks like I'm the only one who has ever posted a big problem on the General listing. That sticks out like a sore thumb.

EDIT//
I guess if there is no response I can leave the solar panels in as a fix for now. At this time I am working on refining the storyline throughout the levels in place. I had to upgrade/rebuild my main workstation, I have been transferring and reloading, updating, replacing. This is the last one to replace for now. Changing from Asus motherboards to all Intel with duel core cpu's, duel core ram DDR2. The 512mb GeForce cards are a real bite in the a***. They cost more than the base machine. Darwinia screams, render time has been cut in half if not more. I can run 64 and 32 bit programs all on one machine. Now does this tangent mean part two will be made faster and more error free.... I would like to think so

[Major Cooke]

oooo i cant WAIT!!! this is gonna be a huge fix, so I can finally proceed to the next maps correctly!

\\EDIT: Can you give us an update on how much longer there is before you release it? im nearly about to piss myself from so much excitement with releases of theBIGmod, this mod, and... um... Enemy within, there i remembered.

[Lowell]

I have made several changes...

Hadron, Angstrom, Lepton, Gluons and Quarks have had mission modifications as well as some landscape adjustments. Lighting has been adjusted on four maps I believe.

I will be pounding out the last few changes over the next day or two. For example; the Hadron level consists of four maps, each with the same mission addenda. Thus, I have altered the play on each. The frame rate is better as well.

There are still several tests and checkpoints to run through. Progress the past couple weeks has slowed due to LightWave projects and system upgrades/replacements. Let me say that the 7900 GTX GeForce cards are out of this world. Looked at a Zalmen Plus unit today, I think I might also buy the Northbridge block cooler and a second graphics card cooler. I decided to go with the Intel 955 3.46 ghz CPU's. They run on the Intel 975 motherboards buss speed of 1066 mhz. Hyper Threaded so I can run four threads at once. Render time is cut way down from what I've seen so far, an 18 min. sequence would take 180 hours to render at full broadcast settings in the past. So the machines would be busy for weeks. When complete I will have five such machines. So...short story long, I've been playing with new toys building/replacing the second machine.

Also I have been working on part two of The_Particles_Within. I will say again, if anyone has any mission ideas they think would be cool let me know. Also, If anyone would like to be a part in the making of The_Particles_Within...E-mail me at Lowell@CrimsonSun.cc please place Particles Within or Darwinia in the subject line...I scan mail fast by the headings. There is allot to go through in making one of these.

Give me a day or two and I should be near complete with part one's (0.12) Update.

[Major Cooke]

Kool... cant wait... i wonder what changes are made... o well i'll just have to find out.