Plug-In Design:How do I make a weapon?

Ingredients:

- a complete oütf resource, including:
- name and text description
- set of values and aspects (see EV Bible, oütf resource)
- a set of images for the item
- 45 degree view, 100 x 100 pixels
- the above scaled to 32 x 32 pixels
- set of values and aspects (see EV Bible, wëap resource)
- sprite specs for spďn resource
- a 36 sprite frame grid and mask
- sound made when weapon is fired, 11kHz mono, uncompressed.

Uses:

Weapons are used for both offense and defense. The simplest weapon to make is a beam or laser weapon. It's animation is built-in to the program and several colors are available for the beam.

Weapons can also have ammunition. In this case, create two oütf resources; one for the gun, and one for the ammunition. Only one wëap resource is necessary, and it is used to describe the ammunition (sprites, damage, guidance, etc.).

Fighter bays are similar to weapons with ammunition. Two oütfs are needed. The first is used for the fighter bay, and lists the second oütf as its ammunition. The second oütf describes the ship. Set the ship to be the ammunition for the fighter bay. The wëap resource describes the fighter bay.

You can add a sound to the weapon for greater effect.

Construction:

1. After the oütf resource is complete, create a new wëap resource and give it a proper ID number. Make sure this ID number is recorded in the oütf resource's ModVal field.

2. If this is a beam weapon, note that certain fields in the wëap resource take on different aspects.

3. If the wëap resource is for ammunition, the AmmoType field holds the number (oütfID - 128) to identify the gun to the ammunition.

4. For the ammunition's graphics, a sprite and mask set are needed. 36 frames rotated in 10 degree increments (in the case of a missile). These do not necessarily need to be created in a 3-D program. The frames of the sprites and the mask will each need to be pasted together in a 6x6 array. Paste these final arrays into two PICT resources with an appropriate ID number.

5. Create a spďn resource with its ID between 200 and 263. Properly record the sprite and mask ID numbers in this new resource. The number (spďnID - 200) goes in the wëap resource's Graphic field.

6. If this is a launch bay, the Guidance field needs to be set to 99 and the ID of the shďp to be launched needs to be placed in the AmmoType field.

7. Sounds can be added in the snd resource. They need to be saved as 11kHz mono format with no compression. These are stored in the ID range of 200 - 263 in the snd resource.