Patching extra functionality into <gamemd.exe>

[DCoder]

Holy sh.. Just as I make an ModEnc article about Spotlights and put a header "Applies only to Tiberian Sun"... Excellent!

How is the origin of the light calculated? Is it placed at a hardcoded height and center of the building? Or at a relative height value? In TibSun it was an absolute height value, IIRC.

[pd]

Height seems to be absolute, I'm not sure.
Why should WW have maken it relative for RA2?

Anyway, wthigon told me that in TS, the spotlight followed enemies as soon as they get inside the radius (I can't really remember that myself), this is not the case here

Spotlights simply crashed in RA2 because it wanted to create a LineTrail for something I'd call a "BuildingLightType", and such doesn't exist.
Disabling that LineTrail creation for BuildingLights works, as we can see

I'm currently trying to investigate about the "102"-unit-bug.

If you have a buildable object on a place after 100, the AI will think that is the only unit buildable and create it over and over again. Literally. It will continue building until there is no money left or you stop it.

(Quote from ModEnc).

This isn't correct.
The AI triggers still work pretty well...

I just broke the VehicleType "limit" to observe AI's behaviour, they still built Miners correctly, the infamous "engineer track" attacked my base, later they built the 4 apocs, an Iron Curtain troup, and finally, Kirovs.
I also noticed that infantry triggers still work fine, they built the usual defense troups, even Desolators.

Anyway, while they build the taskforces like Kirovs, they still build the unit that broke the limit (HTNK in my case).
Like they built a Kirov, then a few Rhinos, then the next Kirov, and so on. Same for Apocs and other units.

My earlier guess that the TaskForces get messed up is probably wrong.

[DCoder]

Heh, that was done with map triggers.

It only worked on preplaced towers, which had this action attached:

52 - Change Spotlight Behavior
Changes the way a spotlight behaves. You should attach this trigger to a BuildingType that has HasSpotlight=true set. The behaviour can be set to '0' (no spotlight), '1' (sweep), '2' (circle) or '3' (follow).

(I know you're leaving pretty soon, but, any chance of de-globalizing the spotlight controls? Or other stuff in [General], like OpenTopped controls, IvanBomb controls, etc.? )

Edit after PD edited his post: How exactly did you `break` the limit? The numbers on the left don't matter, the amount of entries in the list does. When I got the bug, my bugged unit was a sub, and, well, the AI flooded the entire sea around its base island with them...

Also, I was wondering... could you share the IDA DB you are using? I'd be interested in looking at it myself, if that's ok with you.

[pd]

The de-globalisation of stuff is a nice task for 107 actually
I'll see how much I can do today.
jonwil planned to do many of those de-globalisations. He left, so yes, I should do that.

I'm happy about those spotlight movements, saves me a lot of work.
Is there any chance to change the direction? They seem to only point to northwest (damn... these must be n00b questions :unsure: )

About the "breaking", yes, I simply added loads of non-units till I actually reached 103.
103=HTNK, from 1 to 102, everything's given.
The bug "worked", the AI really build billions of rhinos, but they also built other stuff.

Screenies:
[attachmentid=45]
[attachmentid=46]
[attachmentid=47]
[attachmentid=48]

[DCoder]

Spotlights: ModEnc article. Also, the direction probably matches the turret's facing, if applicable.

I also rechecked the 102 unit bug with 103 units, and now I saw the 102nd unit being built endlessly too. (102nd was built far more frequently than 103rd, but they both were built in loop. Yes, the other triggers still worked.)

[pd]

:blink:
This could give us a hint.
I'll try adding a 180th unit or such, and see how frequently it's going to be built.

[Bobingabout]

Fourth crew! :o Fourth crew!!

tags please


i hope >100 units bug gets fixed soon.

[Blabering]
also, 74 unit whiteboy's bug is just as bad. but its only likely to be triggered if you own 3 or more sides tech trees. you can cause it in R:ROTC if you own all 4 sides, which is kinda annoying if you like unholy alliance, or like me, have a map where you start with all 4 bases so you can test new things such as cross-tech units. although its not as high priority as 100 units bug, its still a pain in the backside.

without >100 i can't add my extra sides at all, so i would like to see this fixed. erm, i'm also going to need the new prerequisite system (PrerequisiteAlternate##= is the 1 i'm after here, but i'd also like a PrerequisiteMisc##= for some other things(Depot, Navel, Construction yard, ATECH) and maybe negatives too, no plans for negative yet) to make them work properly, because i'm going to need a prerequisite alternate for the powerplants and refinaries and stuff like that. (the new 4 sides will be subsides from the existing 4 using seperate MCVs, problem is i need to re-use the powerplants to let the AI build them properly, unless you add 5th-8th side suport, but i'm not going to push that(infact i think i like subsides better in this case). I'll see how far i can get by simply using prerequisiteoveride on the powerplants, because powerplants are only prerequisite construction yard anyway. its the units that will be the pest, because most of them will now be able to come from 2 war factories.(allied/einstein, soviet/russia, yuri(P/E)/yuri?, CDA/CR)

anyway, i predict that you'd be best off looking at the new prerequisite system later on, when you try and do the 4th spyable battle lab, because i think thats something to do with the prerequisite system.
[/Blabering]


did you look into why it doesn't work on my laptop?(IE, look at that except file i sent you, and posted.)

just a few "Reminders"
prerequisites
more colours in multiplayer/skirmish
more armour types
adding sensors to buildings

[genosource]

sorry if this is the wrong thread
about animation superweapons
i saw this post from pad

Code:

Type=Animation
Animation=NUKEDIE;my example

when triggered
how to make 5 animations in one shot?
just in the ground.
Something like prism tank spread shot (well for the animation)

[Bobingabout]

i don't think you can do it with anims, i think you'll need an actual weapon. so you'd need to make a new superweapon with PDs new(unreleased) EMP superweapon that fires an actual weapon. you'd simply use some kind of invisable flight to target weapon that shards(like prism, or even cluster)into 5 other projectiles.

its probable that you'll need a placeholder dummy unit of some kind. i usually create something such as [DUMMYMINER] TechLevel=-1 Primary=weapon1 Secondary=weapon1shard ElitePrimary=weapon2 EliteSecondary=weapon2shard, and then place the placeholder unit somewhere in the units list such as 150=DUMMYMINER. this is because there is no weapons list, so the engine reads weapon names from units to see if they exist or not.

[DCoder]

On subject of dummy units, I find dummy IFVs more convenient because of high weapon count

[Bobingabout]

yer! why didn't i think of that?

EDIT
Hey, its the 28th, PD goes away tommorrow, how soon will 1.06 be released?
i hope its going to work on my laptop...

[~Cyb3rSpik3~]

earlier you guys were talking about fixing the laser fences. I don't know programming but i think i know whats wrong with them. Seems to be a problem with the fences being 'on/off' what i mean is: If you clone nafnce and napost from TS and build them they don't work correctly (units pass over them). But If you place two posts a map and set their 'Energy support' to '0' then create 'Turn building on' trigger for both posts, the laser fence will work perfectly... (the same effect can be accomplished with a powertoggle SW) I don't know if that info can help you fix the laser logic or not... but it doesn't hurt to know

[pd]

I don't know how they work at all, so maybe a slightly more detailled description? What's NAPOST?

I've actually seen some laser fence code in ra2, so probably it can be re-enabled easily, just like spotlights.

[FS-21]

...so maybe a slightly more detailled description? What's NAPOST?

(this cameo not show the laser fense post, only the sections)

NAPOST is a building 1x1 that works like the standard wall when 2 [NAPOST] are near will be linked (like the walls) by other 1x1 buildings called [NAFNCE] (laser fence section). Laser sections are invulnerable/uncrushable until 1 of the 2 linked laser fence posts is destroyed, all laser section from the 2 linked explodes.
If my memory isn't wrong, if the building not had energy then the laser fense section was disabled until you had more energy (building more PP, selling buildings, disabling buildings...).

example in-game of the laser fence:


& rules.ini code from TS

Code:

; Laser fence post
[NAPOST]
Name=Laser Fence Post
Prerequisite=NAAPWR
Strength=300
Armor=concrete
TechLevel=8
Adjacent=3
Sight=4
Owner=Nod
Cost=200
BaseNormal=no
Points=30
Power=-25
Crewed=no
Capturable=false
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
LaserFencePost=yes;This building is a laser fence post and obeys the rules for a building of this type.
MaxDebris=2
Powered=yes
ThreatPosed=0; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,LGSparkSys
IsBase=no
GuardRange=10; Used to set max. intra-post distance

Code:

[NAFNCE]
Name=Laser Fence Section
Strength=800
Armor=concrete
TechLevel=-1
Sight=1
Owner=Nod
Capturable=false
Cost=0
Points=00
Power=0
Selectable=no
Crewed=no
LaserFence=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
ThreatPosed=10; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,LGSparkSys
IsBase=no
LegalTarget=false
TogglePower=no

[~[Guest]wthigon_*~]

I've never seen the Laser Fence Post. Is that for Tib Sun?