Modding SW3?

Welcome aboard, SpiritWolf 448.

Hmm, that page was still up a while ago - maybe someone here can help you find it. Good luck.

@Goblin Wizard:
Hmm... can we make all summoned pilots share one skill tree? That way we can teach them like Bryna&KT. About death, what about the "AI" perk? SAM copies have that one. I think it makes them not drop a rescue pod but automatically "respawn" back in the mothership.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by spiritwolf448

would anybody around here know another place where one could aquire that tool and maybe read up on modding a little more?

Some of these files were posted before on this forum.

IMDeditor_v3.zip

StarWolves-LUA_Manual_v1 English.zip english auto-translated version

StarWolves2ModdingHandbuch.zip generally about modding SW2 - german original

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Hmm... can we make all summoned pilots share one skill tree? That way we can teach them like Bryna&KT.

I think it's possible but I'm afraid about other problems. I'll have to check some things.

Originally Posted by Trucidation

About death, what about the "AI" perk? SAM copies have that one. I think it makes them not drop a rescue pod but automatically "respawn" back in the mothership.

You don't want them to respawn on mothership. You don't want to see them on ms at all. If they will respawn on ms they will occupy our precious pilots slots. But even if pilot is lucky and ends in pod, this pod goes to cargo bay. The only thing you can do with him is to sell him.

[SpiritWolf448]

Originally Posted by Goblin Wizard

Some of these files were posted before on this forum.

Attachment 2437

Attachment 2438 english auto-translated version

Attachment 2439 generally about modding SW2 - german original

Ah, I see. Thank you, GoWi. (and Truci for the Welcome )

I'll be over in that corner and read up on some things. Thanks again.

4S4W8

Just some random information.

\Data\LocData\English\
ui_windows.loc
- It looks like they planned another race, "Angorian", but it wasn't included for some reason. There's an error message for installing "Angor" tech.
- There were cargo hold limits planned? There's an error for "insufficient space". I haven't run into it in the game.

What happens if a pilot's ship gets blown up, and you don't pick up the rescue pod? I notice that the pilot icon is red. Does it still count towards your number of pilots?

Edit:
Imo missiles suck, as such they will be my first project. This game desperately needs better missiles but simply upping the damage / blast zone isn't the answer. Well, at least for me - my answer is larger payloads, baby! Why stop at 3, or even just 10 warheads? Imagine Zone of The Enders style missiles Too bad we can't attach light sources to objects, that would be really friggen' awesome. Light up the sky light in the screenshot, haha.

I've actually got a working sample but I need to fix my notes before I can show it. Problem is the missiles actually launch from the ship's missile hardpoints so you don't get a crazy-ass spread pattern like in the ZOE screenshot - the parent delivery vehicle needs some distance before releasing the payloads.

Edit:
There we go, the LS Master Spark... no subtlety at all, hehe. The only problem is when the AI uses it on you, you're screwed ♥

-
Note: Apparently backups (at least for .loc files) should not be left in the original folder, or the game will CTD upon launch, and LOGfile.txt will tell you it choked on the duplicate entries.

[Rastix]

Try SW2 and you'll see angorians and cargo limitations

Yes, it counts

Ah, no wonder they're in there... leftover stuff from SW2 eh? Also saw the cargo expansion slots in the modules file. I suppose that way is more realistic but not being able to buy something because "your backpack is full" is frustrating

I need to finalize the pricing on the LS Master Spark but otherwise it's done. I hope the AI uses it against me. Hmm... it would go well with Nanaki's Random Contacts, a wing of missile ships protecting a fleet will be extremely formidable.

Edit:
I wonder what happens when the mission script tries to access a dead pilot? You know how on occasion someone (Viper, Aja) says "wait here while I go investigate something", and that pilot leaves your team temporarily? Yeah... I wonder what happens if that pilot is dead...

Edit:
As promised, here are the details of missile editing. Please note I've only scratched the surface, there are many things I still don't understand.

(1) \Data\LocData\English\m_modules.loc
- Descriptions are in here. Each item has 4 lines @ entries: name, hint, sdesc, ldesc - the displayed name, the mouseover hint, short description, long description. By the way, the long descriptions of the AMS contain typos. I'm sure everyone has noticed they all have the same effectiveness (10). Only the description is wrong though, their data is actually fine (not all of them equals 10).

(2) \Data\Game\Modules.xml
- Base item definitions are in here. For missiles, HomingRocket and MIRVModule differentiate which display template in the shop to use. I simply renamed LRM1's tags from HomingRocket to MIRVModule. The entries are very straightforward to understand and I'll skip them (appearance, price, how many missiles per pack), but look at the last entries. It's a nested RocketParams section. This determines what missile to launch (rocket_name), it's effectiveness (seeker_name), and how it explodes (detonator_name). These 3 are defined in the next file.

(3) \Data\Game\Rockets.xml
- The dirty details of rockets are all in here. From the previous file, rocket_name references a RocketCarcass block. This is basically how the missile looks like and how it flies.
- We're most interested in this part, how it explodes. This would be the detonator_name entry. Normal missiles use DistanceDetonator tags, but we need to change it to the MIRV-type. Otherwise our missile will simply launch and then explode. Normal missiles have 3 entries only, time_to_live, damage, and explosion_distance. For MIRV type we add a lot more info. Missile_count determines how many warheads it splits into (yay!), and then we have another RocketParams section. Basically this means the MIRV "explodes" into other rockets. It's got the same 3 entries as the parent definition: rocket_name, seeker_name, and detonator_name.
- This rocket_name is for each warhead's appearance. It's just another RocketCarcass block. For my custom one I simply recycled the existing MIRV warhead info.
- Again, seeker name determines how good it is against countermeasures.
- Finally we define how the warheads actually explode, with detonator_name. This time we use DistanceDetonator tags just like for regular missiles. This section simply time_to_live, damage, and explosion distance.

I don't quite understand many values such as time_to_live, seeking_time, viewing_angle, etc. More testing needed but for now we have the basics of missile editing covered.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Trucidation

I wonder what happens when the mission script tries to access a dead pilot? You know how on occasion someone (Viper, Aja) says "wait here while I go investigate something", and that pilot leaves your team temporarily? Yeah... I wonder what happens if that pilot is dead...

First you need to define "dead". If you see pilot in your pilots list (in red or other), he is not dead for the engine.
Second, it depends on what you want to do with "dead" pilot. Even totally dead pilot still can speak (no problems with dialogs). Every mission file has a function "StartInitMis" which creates pilots for different purposes. It works independently from real life of the pilot.
Even functions that work with pilots in space have many ifs so I suppose you won't encounter errors too often.

Originally Posted by Trucidation

I don't quite understand many values such as time_to_live, seeking_time, viewing_angle, etc. More testing needed but for now we have the basics of missile editing covered.

time_to_live - time of missile flight in seconds
seeking_time - how long the missile will be searching for the target if he misses or the target will be destroyed before missile hit. I'm not 100% sure about this.
viewing_angle - missile luncher, gun barrel maximum deviation from the "firing forward" position (I'm sure there are better words in english to explain this but..).

Thanks!

I see... as long as we have the pilot, script will simply spawn instance when it takes control. Interesting. Probably will make pilot not-dead when he returns to team?

I understood your explanation on the values too, thanks. Maybe we can say "viewing_angle" is maximum rotation angle of launcher. Hmm, does this mean wider angle = can fire to the side if angle is wide enough? There's some other things I need to look at as well when I get home from work today.

Edit:
\Data\Game\ShipDescriptions.xml
This appears to list what ships carry what items. So ships can't have randomized equipment? Aww. Also, how do we tell which ships are available in what game difficulty (easy, normal, hard)?

I was thinking of revamping the long range missiles - they suffer from the ship not equipping radar so their range is crippled (e.g. LRM2 range = 450, but most ships' sensor default = 135). Players can also abuse this fact because ships which get hit by damage outside of their sensor range don't respond, e.g. you can rain LRMs on the alien fleet in the Dionysus Sphere but they will just sit there and let you massacre them -.-" You can also break a script by torpedoing the target and destroying it when you're supposed to reach it first and have some dialog before attacking it (I learned that the hard way in Vulcan, lol).

There's also 2 apparently unused missiles, LRM2_GK and T3_GK. The GK tag makes it sound like a turret @ mothership item, but since missiles don't work with mothership I guess they were simply left out. I also wonder why the game isn't complaining that LRM2_GK is duplicating LRM2, and T3_GK is duplicating T3. Heck, there's T1_unguided versus T1, as well as T2_unguided versus T2.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Probably will make pilot not-dead when he returns to team?

How it works - When pilot leaves you his stats are saved and he is killed. When he returns new pilot is created and saved stats are loaded into new pilot.

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Hmm, does this mean wider angle = can fire to the side if angle is wide enough?

Exactly!

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Edit:
\Data\Game\ShipDescriptions.xml
This appears to list what ships carry what items. So ships can't have randomized equipment?

It's possible but game uses few diffrent setups and pilots.

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Aww. Also, how do we tell which ships are available in what game difficulty (easy, normal, hard)?

"if (GetLevelDifficult()==EASY) then..." function like this checks difficulty level. Look into Create_flight_2.script.

Originally Posted by Trucidation

I was thinking of revamping the long range missiles - they suffer from the ship not equipping radar so their range is crippled (e.g. LRM2 range = 450, but most ships' sensor default = 135).

As you know missiles have even @600 clicks range. It's far beyond best radar scan range. For those you should use a scout. If scout is equipped with good radar and/or cloaking device you can snipe out whole fleets (e.g. with torpedoes).