trouble with slots

[Miyoshi]

Hello all!

I've been having some trouble modding the slots on ships in the game- specifically adding extra weapon slots.

I'm trying to add some weapon slots to a Xiati Carrier and I'm using the original hardpoints.

I have previously successfully tweaked the Xaiti Battleship, with an increased firing arc and extra tonnage and such without problem.

SJ's slotmodder program seems to be working well. when I save it, I find the new entry in the beginning of Main_ComponentConfigurationSlotsPlayer.txt and everything appears good, but when I try to buy the ship, the slots don't show up and the firing arc aren't shown in the ship dealer (but they are for all the other ships).

I've tried my "new" ship with the standard Xiati Carrier Layout, and it works with the increased firing arcs from the SpaceObjects_XFiles.txt.

Do the slots have to be in any order, weapons first, then shields, etc? Is there some little problem I just don't know about?

Thanks for any help you can give,

Miyoshi

[Miyoshi]

I solved my problem. It was so stupid- hours of searching and trying, and the answer was simple. I'll share for your entertainment:

Do you know that file called CampaignData.txt? I found it, and instead of editing all the original files, I had been making copies with new names (so they'd all be at the top when I looked for the files). In that file, you can select which files are used for the data. I did it for stores, new purchase ships, bitmap effects, character stats, components, etc, with no problem.

Appearantly, it doesn't work for Main_ComponentConfigurationSlotsPlayer.txt. When I renamed the original file and changed the name of my modded one, it all worked.

Gosh, did I find a bug?

Well, I hope you all get some entertainment out of my suffering!

Miyoshi

[Instar]

Sure, submit it as a bug if you think you found a problem. I'm not a big modder myself, but you might want to ask those who know more about it first though.

[Salvo]

I am having similar problems. I've tried to mod the Abbidion light cruiser's weapon arcs to fire all forward. [and changed heavy weapon ports to light]

I just modded the file, "Main_ComponentConfigurationSlotsPlayer" to do this.

It worked when loading a current game, then going to a dealer who sells that ship. But, it doesn't work when starting a new game and selecting the Abbidion Cruiser as your staring ship. [I also modded the file, "Main_StartingPlayerShips" adding the ship to the list] The weapon hardpoints worked, but the arcs went back to their original settings.

What did I miss?

[Phoenix-D]

Did you change the Main_StartingPlayerShips file BEFORE or AFTER making your other change?

[Salvo]

After.

Also, It seems I was wrong. The modded arcs are displayed on the purchase ship screen, but after buying the ship they revert back to their original settings.

The modding manuel references the xfile,

"The starting weapon arc in degrees. This value should match up to the weapon arc degrees in the spaceObject_Xfiles file for this firing point. The arcs should be in 22.5 degree increments for proper display."

I guess in this case it means the Xfile, "abbidon_cruiser1" if so I don't understand this file enough to make the required changes. It just looks to me like it is just building the model for the ship.

[Phoenix-D]

Oooh, that problem.

The issue there is the slots are defined in two DIFFERENT places. Where you changed them, and in SpaceObjects_Xfiles.txt.

The later sets the maximum size of the arc. You can make it smaller via PurchaseShips and StartingShips, but not bigger..

And no, it isn't editing the ship file; just the text file. Look for lines like these:

Firing Point 1 Arc Start := 315
Firing Point 1 Arc End := 45

[Baron Munchausen]

Phoenix-D said:
Oooh, that problem.

The issue there is the slots are defined in two DIFFERENT places. Where you changed them, and in SpaceObjects_Xfiles.txt.

The later sets the maximum size of the arc. You can make it smaller via PurchaseShips and StartingShips, but not bigger..

And no, it isn't editing the ship file; just the text file. Look for lines like these:

Firing Point 1 Arc Start := 315
Firing Point 1 Arc End := 45

Aha! I had the same problem and now I could fix it... if my computer with Starfury on it were usable.

Oh well, when I get a newer and much more powerful computer I'll finally be able to make a Terran battleship with 4 forward-firing heavy weapon mounts! Muhahahaha!

[Baron Munchausen]

It works! I've expanded the forward weapon arcs on a Terran battle ship to also face their respective sides and allow three weapons to bear to each side instead of just two. But it turns out that the slots are 'reversed' from what I expected, so I had to re-arrange the numbers to make the expanded arcs face outward instead of inward towards the ship...

[Suicide Junkie]

Try editing the weapons to autofire like point defense does

They only target the nearest ship, and if you upset the TCN, you won't be able to stop shooting them, but its still nifty.