Messages

Yep, this was reported over on the Steam site for the mod and should be fixed in the upcoming BTC 2.1.

For the record, I've been moving a lot of my development over to the Steam page for the mod.  Feel free to pop in there and leave comments there as well to make sure I see them quickly, I have a bug-reporting section all set up.  Figure I'm going to need it with the armor-system changes in 2.1 and how ambitious they are. >.>

That would indeed look awesome, seeing like a small round ricochet off thick armor without spalling.

Nevermind, don't need an answer.  Got bored this weekend and the simple answer is yes, you can use flat values just fine.

Got the new system working well, it'd seem.  Soon BTC will have the equivalent of 7.62mm rounds bouncing right off tank armor!

[IMCache.AddValue("armor_value", 0 + lerp * 0)]

I suppose I can do a better job of framing the questions, as well.

Basically, it would be in three parts.

A) Can I use non-percent values in NPC stat XMLs;
B) The stats applied in the NPC XMLs, are they applied after CalculateNpcLeveledCache?  I ask because I can't find the section of the script where it's reading the set effect variables off the pirate XML; it seems to just write them directly to a given mob.

Basically I'm hoping I can achieve what I want with two changes:
1) Set something like in CalculateShip.js, to make the variable-based-on-danger armor zero:

IMCache.AddValue("armor_value", 0 + lerp * 0)

2) Set something like this in the NPC XML:

         <effect>
            <effect_type>armor_value</effect_type>
            <effect_base>20</effect_base>
         </effect>

So, is that possible/should it work, or is my syntax off?

Is the ship invisible, or straight black and looks invisible for the most part?

If it's black with no skin, that's an issue with your UV layer.

Hell, even with a straight invisible ship I'd check the UV layer and materials.  Sounds like the texture isn't applying properly.

Yeah, me and a couple of the other modders have been tossing this idea around for a while.  It's not hard work, just time-consuming as all hell.

One suggestion I had to contribute as well: when setting up the 'materials list' you can set the materials to both pirate drops and to limited/rare store spawns.  This helps to balance out the fact that a fairly rare ship /should/ be a bit better than others by making it so that everyone has a shot at building them.  People like playing traders?  That's great, they can go from station to station making money and slowly stocking up on those rare materials.

Okay!  Like always, no rush.

As to the aliens, okay, I see the calculation now.  So a few follow-up question, then: can you use the NPC XML files to change up non-percentile effects as well?  For instance, armor, if I used just <effect_type>armor</effect_type>, instead of <effect_type>armor_percent</effect_type>, could I add a flat amount?

Essentially, what I'm looking to do here is set default armor values for each size class in my mod.  So if the above would work and I can add a flat amount, that's easy enough; I can just modify CalculateShip.js to give zero armor for any system danger level, and instead grant the ship the armor it should have for the hull type directly in each pirate XML.

Also, what does the <hull> tag do in the pirate XMLs, then?  Is it just used for the visuals, knowing which model to use and where the turret hardpoints attach, ect?

Question of the day is back, for when the devs have time.

This one I'm hoping is a quickie.  Is the armor on spawned mobs (like pirates) static and based on the hull you give the pirate, or does it increase based on level/danger level of the system?  If it does increase, which JS or XML handles that?

Would it be difficult to implement an armor value for shields much like hulls have?  I understand that it'd throw off balance in the vanilla game a bit but perhaps it could be worked in that it only factors in if the attribute is set, much like with the fire origin offsets?  IE, if you set a shield_armor to something, it'll use that value, otherwise it defaults to 0 (which is the current on all shields I believe).

I would find it... useful.

Yeah, I have in the works what I call the poor man's crafting system; it's just done via NPC dialogues.  The basic gist is that various NPCs across the universe would tell you what they needed to craft specific items and then accept those items and give you the completed project back.  Not really tough to do, looking at the starter quest teaches a person everything they need for it.

I always figured I'd eventually make that the way the super-high-end tech was made in my game, the experimental -X variants on everything.  Right now they're available in shops randomly for massive amounts of money, but it'd be nice to have a 'crafted' way to produce them.  Once I get the base project in hand again with the current releases I'll look into putting it in for at least the hulls in BTC.

I could, but that's pretty much the WYSIWYG icon and the resolution that you'd generally see it in-game if you're running at 1920x1040.

Yeah, I tend to be that way.  As to the balance, I just like things a bit more technical and rock-paper-scissors I suppose; I still feel that the AT guys have the balance for the vanilla game pretty down-pat by this point.

Need an opinion.

http://i.imgur.com/epw9HdO.png

How's that look for the new hull icon type?

Updated to v2.0.1 for some omni-hardpoint goodness.  Mostly on top-end hulls, though.  Hey, it's experimental tech!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmyw9jz27qknwru/BTC201.zip?dl=0

BTC is pretty much everything I'm working with, I just incorporate any ideas I try into that.  My main tinkering at the moment is in the math systems, though, and reworking some of the balance.  Given than BTC uses three class sizes for ships instead of two, I'm really trying to give a purpose to each.  To that end I'm tinkering with armor and damage values (instead of just DPS values) to further differentiate between armor-piercing weapons and rapid-fire, low-damage anti-shield or anti-hull weapons.

As an example, I'm toying with defaulting all corvettes to 0 armor, frigates to 25 armor, and cruisers to 50 armor (and then making it MUCH more difficult to acquire other armor, since it's an summed value and not a multiplicative one).  This would make the rotary weapons exceptional against corvettes, tickling against frigates, and unable to touch a cruiser at all without massive investiture in the weapon damage trees.

Other than that, I'm still just getting all the BTC modules up to snuff.  General weapons and hull options are looking good but I want a vast array of upgrade modules for various attributes and a reason for people to swap them.  I also need to tweak adjustments to the physics models I have made and update NPCs, and then get my crafting system into place (making use of dialogue options and some drop items).  I also have a slate of 3D models that I'd love to have done up, though Flessen has been very helpful in that regard in the past (some of the turret models he did for BTC are amazing, like the artillery cannon, twin barrel and MLRS rack.) Lots to do, lots to do.  Which is why I've been trying to attract people to help with the project.