New Modding Features

[The GoldFish]

I uh, don't imagine this will be even be close to release quality before the next patch goes live. For a start, it has to be proven not to break anything - Introversion have other priorities, after all.

We will probably be waiting at least a month, probably a month and a half to see any of this, assuming that this can go ahead in the first place.

[Montyphy]

Merry Christmas, everyone. Have some dynamically coloured spiders playing in the snow!
http://the-icebox.com/Darwinia/spiders.jpg

Those laser shots look like lightsabers...

[Shwart!!]

Aaaannd that's everything I needed (read: wanted desperately) for TAoW!
How would the dynamic coloring for shapes work? Would it reference team coloring, or new color settings in the file?

Shwart!!

EDIT: xander, I doubt you will ever do this... but I can only dream of the awesomeness of Insurrection with these features used.
I would pay good money for that.

EDIT 2: Nuke silo. Takes 20 DGs at ports. Destroyable at 500 HP, immune to lasers. Every 5 minutes, causes nuke 'splosion at the only incubator point on the map, using the rocket.shp as the missle. When firing, a DG appears in textboxthingie and says Nuclear Launch Detected. Then all your DGs there turn purple (Darwinia radiation color) and die. Possible?

[Testrie]

while
if
SetResearch research # - allows you to upgrade or downgrade research using scripts. setting # to 0 removes the research.
SaveResearch name - Notes down the current research under name
LoadResearch name - retrieves reserch that was previously noted down.
ScreenSay string - you know how "run program: squad" appears on screen? let us do that to any text.
cameras on globalworld. why not let our scripts fly around space?
Bootloader name - starting bootloaders from script. (that run right away... wherever you are) the game is paused until the bootloader ends.

more to come

elyea

[martin]

Merry Christmas, everyone. Have some dynamically coloured spiders playing in the snow!
http://the-icebox.com/Darwinia/spiders.jpg

while on the topic of makiing stuff dynamic why not make the team colours etc changeable by script command?

and I second tesries conditional ideas.

[The GoldFish]

:arrow: while
if

How exactly do you imagine these working? 'If' I can imagine working ok with building:online stuff, but 'while'? Darwinia's scripting doesn't really lend itself to whiles with enter wait skipping and quitting ending the script.

'If' can mostly be emulated as it is currently anyway.

Edit - also, the bootloader one is a bit of uh, a strange request. Firsttime I can imagine being a nice thing to have available though.

Another idea;

Additional shorthand versions of buildingonline, like bo, for a) easier hacking out of stuff and b) defence against typos

[Testrie]

:arrow: while
if

How exactly do you imagine these working? 'If' I can imagine working ok with building:online stuff, but 'while'? Darwinia's scripting doesn't really lend itself to whiles with enter wait skipping and quitting ending the script.

'If' can mostly be emulated as it is currently anyway.

Edit - also, the bootloader one is a bit of uh, a strange request. Firsttime I can imagine being a nice thing to have available though.

Another idea;

Additional shorthand versions of buildingonline, like bo, for a) easier hacking out of stuff and b) defence against typos

I actually mentioned the bootloader for firsttime... but why have a firsttime command when you could have a bootloader one?

elyea

[The GoldFish]

Because it might be very many times easier to have a first time command than any other bootloader.

Remember someone has to code this...

[Testrie]

Because it might be very many times easier to have a first time command than any other bootloader.

Remember someone has to code this...

fine. the only bootloaders ill have any pratical use for are firsttime and credits

elyea

[Foobie]

I'm still pretty new at modding in general, but I'd like to second some of the ideas I've read so far:

change the editor so that you cannot link unlinkable buildings

And to indicate when a link won't actually do anything, even if the link is possible. For example, linking an AISpawnPoint to a BluePrintConsole will trigger the spawn when the relay is manned; linking it to a SolarPanel will not.

I always wanted to bring buildings online / offline (active / not-active) through scripts
SetResearch research # - allows you to upgrade or downgrade research using scripts. setting # to 0 removes the research.

Also, to allow activating a building to run a script.

Ability to create a damaging explosion at some coordinate via script as many times as you like

Or to destroy specific buildings via a script

My own suggestions:

• Set population caps on AISpawnPoints, or limit them to a number of executions (eg, to spawn a single unit)
• Create consistency for what makes a building "online". As I mentioned above, manning a BluePrintConsole with Darwinians will make it online (at least as far as an AISpawnPoint is concerned). Manning a SolarPanel with Darwinians does not count as online (although it does make connected power lines pulse). This may actually be a behaviour of the AISpawnPoint, not the other buildings ...
• Add a new building that creates a ring of Darwinian "slots". You could place this on top of any other building, link it, and set how many Darwinians it takes to man and activate any building (for example, to allow Darwinians to capture ControlTowers or TrunkPorts, or to man StaticShapes).

[Testrie]

• Add a new building that creates a ring of Darwinian "slots". You could place this on top of any other building, link it, and set how many Darwinians it takes to man and activate any building (for example, to allow Darwinians to capture ControlTowers or TrunkPorts, or to man StaticShapes).

isnt that part of DynamicBuilding?

elyea

[Foobie]

• Add a new building that creates a ring of Darwinian "slots". You could place this on top of any other building, link it, and set how many Darwinians it takes to man and activate any building (for example, to allow Darwinians to capture ControlTowers or TrunkPorts, or to man StaticShapes).

isnt that part of DynamicBuilding?

elyea

Perhaps, but my interpretation was that it would only apply to objects created as a DynamicBuilding. That would still be pretty useful, but you still couldn't put the Darwinian ports around an existing building, such as a ControlTower, Tree or Library.

It occurs to me that the radius of the ports would have to be adjustable too, so that it could be scaled to match the building the ports were linked to.

Edit: Changed my terminology 'slots' to 'ports', because I was using the wrong word...

[Testrie]

• Add a new building that creates a ring of Darwinian "slots". You could place this on top of any other building, link it, and set how many Darwinians it takes to man and activate any building (for example, to allow Darwinians to capture ControlTowers or TrunkPorts, or to man StaticShapes).

isnt that part of DynamicBuilding?

elyea

Perhaps, but my interpretation was that it would only apply to objects created as a DynamicBuilding. That would still be pretty useful, but you still couldn't put the Darwinian ports around an existing building, such as a ControlTower, Tree or Library.

It occurs to me that the radius of the ports would have to be adjustable too, so that it could be scaled to match the building the ports were linked to.

Edit: Changed my terminology 'slots' to 'ports', because I was using the wrong word...

well cant you have a seperate shp file thats a ring and place it at the same place as a controltower?
and why would you want to do this?

elyea

[Foobie]

• Add a new building that creates a ring of Darwinian "slots". You could place this on top of any other building, link it, and set how many Darwinians it takes to man and activate any building (for example, to allow Darwinians to capture ControlTowers or TrunkPorts, or to man StaticShapes).

isnt that part of DynamicBuilding?

elyea

Perhaps, but my interpretation was that it would only apply to objects created as a DynamicBuilding. That would still be pretty useful, but you still couldn't put the Darwinian ports around an existing building, such as a ControlTower, Tree or Library.

It occurs to me that the radius of the ports would have to be adjustable too, so that it could be scaled to match the building the ports were linked to.

Edit: Changed my terminology 'slots' to 'ports', because I was using the wrong word...

well cant you have a separate shp file thats a ring and place it at the same place as a controltower?
and why would you want to do this?

elyea

The short answer is that I don't have the tools to create a new shape. Perhaps if the DynamicBuilding could have no shape but a variable size, and linked to another building so that activating the DynamicBuilding would then activate the linked building, it could be faked out.

As to why, I want to allow Darwinians to bring TrunkPorts online (either directly, or by manning the ControlTower linked to the TrunkPort). I imagine that allowing Darwinians to man/capture structures other than the ones already in-game would open up the possibilities in setting mission objectives too.

[Icepick]

As has been said, you will be able to do this with a DynamicBuilding. You can simply take a copy of the Control Tower shape, add some port markers and it will come online when enough Darwinians are operating it.