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These collumns are mine! Make yourselves at home by asking me whatever the heck you want related to Plugin Development!
Be it Graphics, neat tricks, Hera Questions, or sounds, I'm your man!
------------------ Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.
can you give me a few PC tricks
------------------ EVO/EVN rule 1st, Soccer rules 2nd The many smilies of rookie you can get them: (url="http://"http://chat.msn.com/emoticons_feature.msnw")here(/url) , (url="http://"http://www.ezboard.com/help/help_howto_useemoticons.html")here(/url) ,and (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/smilies.html")here(/url)
Quote
Originally posted by Slug: **These collumns are mine! Make yourselves at home by asking me whatever the heck you want related to Plugin Development!
**
lol. welcome back.
------------------ just take my post, and imagine everything is speeled right.
Well looky here. The old Hera master is back to strut his stuff. Hiya Slug, welcome back.
Well, I might as well pose the first question, and this one's a tricky one.
How do you create a CLUT resource from a standard Photoshop colour table?
------------------ Sundered Angel , The One and Only Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy
How do I get a mission to end when all the enemy ships are destroyed. The No Ships Left Command always ends the mission as soon as it starts
Originally posted by brookeview: How do I get a mission to end when all the enemy ships are destroyed. The No Ships Left Command always ends the mission as soon as it starts
Everyone has that problem; it's a coding thingie with Ares. Fortunately I have a way around it. For this you actually need two condiditons:
Make the condition for when all the enemy ships are destroyed, and in mission flags, check "Initially Inactive" This will make the condition inactive, so it will not execute it's action sequence even if the condition is met.
Make a second condition that is time based. "If Game Tick time is >= 0". This means as soon as the level starts the sequence is activated. Make it's action sequence the following: and enter the condition number of the first condition. This makes the first condition active, which means it will execute it's action sequence when conditons are met.
This way, it won't end the level before it starts.
(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 06-24-2001).)
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **How do you create a CLUT resource from a standard Photoshop colour table? **
Crikey, why on Earth would you need one of those? The best I can think of is you can't, at least not with my version of PhotoShop (3.0.7). For all my CLUT resource needs I've used ResEdit, and since Ares only supports 8-bit color (standard 256 colors), I haven't needed to do such customization.
Originally posted by Slug: **Crikey, why on Earth would you need one of those? The best I can think of is you can't, at least not with my version of PhotoShop (3.0.7). For all my CLUT resource needs I've used ResEdit, and since Ares only supports 8-bit color (standard 256 colors), I haven't needed to do such customization.
Basically, I need the CLUT Resource so my Title Screen will display right. And I sure don't feel like coding in 1024 values one by one by hand...
Thanks Slug I'll try that.
Originally posted by Sundered Angel: **Basically, I need the CLUT Resource so my Title Screen will display right. And I sure don't feel like coding in 1024 values one by one by hand... **
Ah, all is clear now. For titlescreens, I usually use Graphic Converter to change the image to 8-bit. (then I tidy it up by hand so it looks acceptable)
Ok here is a weird one. When I put the random direction up and down asteroid shooters in a level and try to play that level it tells me that the flagship of admiral -1 can't be set. How do I fix this?
Originally posted by brookeview: Ok here is a weird one. When I put the random direction up and down asteroid shooters in a level and try to play that level it tells me that the flagship of admiral -1 can't be set. How do I fix this?
In the Scenario Objects Section of the mission you're using it in, make sure you set IsPlayerShip off on the asteroid shooters. You also might want to update to Hera 1.0.0.
(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 06-26-2001).)
Ah, the famed ask Snail column is back again...
I have a question which I posed a few weeks ago, and as yet have failed to solve. (To be honest, my plug is, er slightly mothballed at the moment, other commitments. However, the question remains a valid one I think...)
Do you know what the maximum number of single player levels that can be in an Ares Scenario is?
Only 26 levels of my 28 level plug will load in the game interface. Is this a limitation in the game, or is it down to the construction of my plug? For example, if I delete level 1, level 27 then becomes available at the end of level 26...
My plug is a retrofit constructed on a copy of the original Ares Scenario file, and not a scratch built plug. Could this limit the number of levels to that of the original scenario?
A simple solution is to create a multi-parter plug. Not very satisfactory though, rather akin to replacing one's extensions and preferences folder (with the back up that we all keep from our original installation...) in order to fix that extensions conflict. Fixes the problem, but you never actually correct the actual fault....
Your valued opinion please Slug.
------------------ Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...
Originally posted by Lord Commander Anic: **Ah, the famed ask Snail column is back again...
Your valued opinion please Slug. **
That's quite interesting. I've spent a bit more time with Hera now, and have observed that it behaves quite peculiarly when there are Net Levels present. If, for example, you have 20 missions in the mission list, and decide to stash a net level not at the end, but in the middle (say after level 10), then when you play the plug, Ares will only let you go up to level 10. If, perhaps, you have a plugin with all ofit's net levels BEFORE the singleplayer levels (Net levels first, singleplayer levels last), then try to play it with Ares, it will pop up an error message when you click New Game, aying that there are no single-player levels available in the plug.
Here's what I would like you to do, Anic: remove all multiplayer levels from your plug (put them in a seperate plugin of something) and see if the problem persists.
There are no multi-player levels in the plug. I deleted them all, along with the tutorials before I started on the plug. However, bits of them could possibly remain...
Hey Slug is there a problem with the planet dirtcloud sprite. Mine keeps complaining about not having shape #22 I think
------------------ Creator of the great new plugin for ares that still needs a name.
Woops! never Mind
Here are some toughies for ye:
Tracking lasers: Can it be done?
What happens if you have mission briefings in a net level?
Is there any way to have a stasis-field type weapon?
Can you simulate more than 3 placement values on a ship's weapon?
Can you fire 2 seperate shots from different parts of a ship at once?
Forward arc weapons like in EVO?
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: Tracking lasers: Can it be done?
Tracking lasers? I'm not sure precisely what you mean. If you mean lasers that homing missiles automaticaly home towards, and nothing else, then create the laser with a pulse created at the end. Pulse is only engaged by the missile, the missile only engages the pulse. Here's the trick: don't check the "CanBeEngaged" flag on the Pulse, so the only way to "Engage" is to run headfirst at it. The same trick is used with the Energy Blob, if you look.
If I'm not mistaken, nothing. I haven't tested though.
Expire Action: Alter BaseType, not Hated, no movement. I shall say no more.
Have the gun create a pulse with multiple placement values that has a create action of fire special - each gun can have 27 placement values without even creating multiple levels of pulses.
See above
Forward arc weapons like in EVO?(/B)
Create a friendly pulse as the weapon that automatically faces forward, make it able to turn. Have an age of 5, and make it EXPIRE: Fire Beam/Pulse/Special, wherever you feel like storing the forward-firing pulse. The pulse will automatically fire at any ship that's in the area where it can turn, or else simply fire forward after the expire.
------------------ "Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'" "I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor." "Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "
Ignore Pallas. His brain's fried at the moment and he can't think straight
Quite easily. Human Gunships have them, just they're not very good at shooting down small fast stuff because they're slow and don't do much damage. Make them turreted, make them fast.
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: What happens if you have mission briefings in a net level?
Absolutely nothing happens. It won't play the briefing, but if you have a prologue, it will show up as the description for the Net Level.
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: Is there any way to have a stasis-field type weapon?
The Cantharan Gateship has one. Pallas' suggestion works too, but it's too complicated. Just give it an ALTER > OFFLINE command to paralyze the target.
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: Can you simulate more than 3 placement values on a ship's weapon?
If you mean giving a ship more than 3 weapons, yeah there are ways around that. I use the Activation feature of the actual ship. Make the firing rate the Activation Interval for the ship you want the 4th weapon on, and make the weapon activation sequence under the actual ship activation sequence. I've managed to make a "fourth weapon" that senses whether or not the enemy ship is near; if it is, it fires a turret shot. Again, Pallas needs some brain rest.
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: Can you fire 2 seperate shots from different parts of a ship at once?
Sure, just make the weapon create two different shots, each with a distance range of whatever. Of course, if you're talking beams, that gets complicated, and if you mean parallel beams, that gets even more complicated.
In StarLance, I have a fighter that fires two parallel kinetic beams at once. The pilot can chose if he wants to fire the gun on the left wing, the right wing, or both at the same time. How? Just put the gun in two weapon slots.
Originally posted by Count Altair El Alemein: Forward arc weapons like in EVO?
It's all just a matter of putting the gun at the front of the ship and setting the appropriate bullet properties.
(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 06-30-2001).)