Mission Bits

In ResEdit (and EV-Edit for that matter), missions are viewed by their resource ID number, not their mission bit. In each mďsn resource too, there is no field for its corresponding mission bit. As knowing the bit number for a mission is essential (to set or clear other bits), how do I figure out what the bit of each mission is?

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Originally posted by Gekko:
In ResEdit (and EV-Edit for that matter), missions are viewed by their resource ID number, not their mission bit. In each mďsn resource too, there is no field for its corresponding mission bit. As knowing the bit number for a mission is essential (to set or clear other bits), how do I figure out what the bit of each mission is?

I'm not sure what you mean by "corresponding mission bit" as many missions do not have any relation to any particular mission bit.

To answer your question about how to find out the bit numbers associated with missions, there are 2 tools that I know of that can do that: 'Plug Checker' from Dyna Systemes
(url="http://"http://www.ixoft.com/")http://www.ixoft.com/(/url)

And Pontus Ilbring's 'Mission Bits Exporter'
(url="http://"http://members01.chello.se/warlordpontus/ev/")http://members01.che...rlordpontus/ev/(/url)

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Joe Burnette

"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Joe Burnette said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "corresponding mission bit" as many missions do not have any relation to any particular mission bit.

Let's say you open the mďsn resource "Rescue Voinian Defector" with ResEdit. Near the bottom, you'll see a series of fields named "CompBitSet", "CompBitSet2", "CompBitSet3", etc., or something like that. These fields tell Override to set, or make available, the missions with the bit number written in the fields. The problem I'm having is that I have no clue what the bit number of any mission is. As I said before, there's no field with the bit number, and the resource ID has no relation to the bit number.

Missions don't have mission bits automatically assigned to them. Upon completion (or failure) of a mission, you can have it "set" a certain mission bit. In the case of the Voinan defector, it sets the bits entered in the ComBitSet fields. This causes other missions to be available not directly, but indirectly, because those missions have a field that states that the mission will only be available if a certain mission bit is set.

So once you complete the first mission, Override sets the mission bits defined in the CompBitSet fields. Next time you go to the spaceport bar (or mission computer), Override checks to see if those mission bits are set. If they are, it makes available any missions with the same AvailBitSet as the set bits. So you could have 4 or more different missions become available using only one mission bit.

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"Apple does not recommend allowing an elephant to operate a Mac in any environment."

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Originally posted by Gekko:
**Joe Burnette said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "corresponding mission bit" as many missions do not have any relation to any particular mission bit.

Let's say you open the mďsn resource "Rescue Voinian Defector" with ResEdit. Near the bottom, you'll see a series of fields named "CompBitSet", "CompBitSet2", "CompBitSet3", etc., or something like that. These fields tell Override to set, or make available, the missions with the bit number written in the fields...
**

No, all that the bit numbers in the 'CompBitSet' fields do is tell EV/O to set those particular bits. They might make certain ships available, or make certain systems appear, or make one or more missions available, depending on where those bit numbers are entered.

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**
The problem I'm having is that I have no clue what the bit number of any mission is. As I said before, there's no field with the bit number, and the resource ID has no relation to the bit number.**

I think Chrestomanci covered that rather well. Missions do not have bit numbers as such.

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Joe Burnette

"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

D'oh! Silly me. :redface:

Thanks for all your help, I knew I something was wrong.

What's the difference between setting a mission bit and clearing a mission bit?

First of all - think Set and Clear.

All mision bits are init'd to a value of 0 - ie off. When you set them the valuse becomes 1 - ie on - and all the changes that go with it are activated. When you clear a bit it is reset to 0 and all the changes disappear.

Useful for making some items only avalible for a limited time.

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--blackhole
(url="http://"mailto:blackhole@mac.com")mailto:blackhole@mac.com(/url)blackhole@mac.com

Quote

Originally posted by Chrestomanci:
**Missions don't have mission bits automatically assigned to them. Upon completion (or failure) of a mission, you can have it "set" a certain mission bit. In the case of the Voinan defector, it sets the bits entered in the ComBitSet fields. This causes other missions to be available not directly, but indirectly, because those missions have a field that states that the mission will only be available if a certain mission bit is set.

So once you complete the first mission, Override sets the mission bits defined in the CompBitSet fields. Next time you go to the spaceport bar (or mission computer), Override checks to see if those mission bits are set. If they are, it makes available any missions with the same AvailBitSet as the set bits. So you could have 4 or more different missions become available using only one mission bit.
**

O.K. but something nobody explains is:
Where do the mission bits come from??
example: let's say "mission 150 travel to Tolb" needs to set a mission bit so that I can get mission 151.
So 150 sets mission bit 26 and then mission 151 requires mission bit 26.
Who gives mission bit 26 to mission 151??
Do I do that? i.e. allocate arbitrary numbers in the "set" and "clear" areas?
This is the bit I find confusing

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Quote

Originally posted by Kevin Jordan:
**O.K. but something nobody explains is:
Where do the mission bits come from??
example: let's say "mission 150 travel to Tolb" needs to set a mission bit so that I can get mission 151.
So 150 sets mission bit 26 and then mission 151 requires mission bit 26.
Who gives mission bit 26 to mission 151??
Do I do that? i.e. allocate arbitrary numbers in the "set" and "clear" areas?
This is the bit I find confusing
**

Yes, the numbers are arbituary. There is a range limit - in EV:O I think they range from 1 to 256. But what you do is you choose a number for a mission - it's easier to work sequencially, ie the first mission in a string sets 1, the second 2 and so on. If you want mission branching that's where the complex work comes in.

The best thing to do would probably be to make a flowchart of the missions and give each one that needs a bit one on the chart then code it. Remember - mission bits do not have to be unique but strange things will happen if you give the same bit to two unrelated missions.

I can give more detailed info by email if you like.

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--blackhole
(url="http://"mailto:blackhole@mac.com")mailto:blackhole@mac.com(/url)blackhole@mac.com

ev mission bits range from 0 to 255, evo mission bits range from 0 to 511. for either one you can use any bit you want for whatever you want, though it's usually easier to make some sort of progression (personally, i make a list of all the missions needing bits in the order they are to be done. then i assign each one all the bits necessary to make it happen. for instance, bit 0 says someone explored planet a; bit 1 says someone colonized it, which removes the system from the map; bit 2 says government 0 colonized it, which inserts government 0's system; and bit 3 says government 1 colonized it, which inserts government 1's system)

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if tin whistles are made of tin, what's a fog horn made of?

What is the highest mission bit Override uses? I want to make new missions, but I'm afraid I might use a mission bit already used by Override, making, what blackhole said, "strange things happen". With the exception of searching for the highest mission bit set or cleared by Override, how do I figure out the highest mission bit Override uses? Is there a chart out there?

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Coming Soon...

DiscoBisonGun1.0

A plugin adding several missions which eventually make the Disco machine gun available to buy

What is the highest mission bit Override uses? I want to make new missions, but I'm afraid I might use a mission bit already used by Override, making, what blackhole said, "strange things happen". With the exception of searching for the highest mission bit set or cleared by Override, how do I figure out the highest mission bit Override uses? Is there a chart out there?

Quote

Originally posted by blackhole:
**Yes, the numbers are arbituary. There is a range limit - in EV:O I think they range from 1 to 256. But what you do is you choose a number for a mission - it's easier to work sequencially, ie the first mission in a string sets 1, the second 2 and so on. If you want mission branching that's where the complex work comes in.

The best thing to do would probably be to make a flowchart of the missions and give each one that needs a bit one on the chart then code it. Remember - mission bits do not have to be unique but strange things will happen if you give the same bit to two unrelated missions.

I can give more detailed info by email if you like.

**

Thank you for the info on mission bits.
Just to see that I understand:-
I will create missions 211-216 and to implement these I can choose any unused mission bit numbers? correct?
Sensibly, they would be sequential and simple. i.e. 1-6 or 101-106 or such.
Must I avoid using bit numbers that are already in use for EV/O?

Cheers
Kevin Jordan
In return for your kindness I will not mention the Bledisloe Cup 🙂

BTW as a moderator, can you explain why the cookie for my membership works sometimes and not other times?
Sometimes my offerings are rejected, I am told there is no such person yet when I try to re-register I am told that there IS such a person already registered. Very strange

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Quote

Originally posted by Kevin Jordan:
**I will create missions 211-216 and to implement these I can choose any unused mission bit numbers? correct?
Sensibly, they would be sequential and simple. i.e. 1-6 or 101-106 or such.
Must I avoid using bit numbers that are already in use for EV/O?
**

you don't necessarily have to avoid bits already in use, but if you don't eliminate the missions that set them you will have two completely different missions which set the same bit (i.e. bit 104 says you blew up a voinian dreadnought and/or delivered birdseed to feed hector, so blowing up a dreadnought would make hector fat and feeding a parrot would give you access to warships. btw, it's just a random example, i don't know any of the bits used in evo)

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if tin whistles are made of tin, what's a fog horn made of?