WP Abilities

[Fyron]

Gandalf Parker said:
Speaking of warp points, Im not sure which of the many mods I loaded that popped in tons of new warp points and descriptions for them but I wish they were abit more specific. There is lots of variety but effects (damaging, worthless shields, etc) dont seem to tie in to specific images. The planet images give some idea of what you will get when you examine it further but the warps seem random. Are we stuck with that?

Warp point abilities and warp point object descriptions are almost 100% unrelated. SE4 assigns the abilities randomly, and there is little we can do about it. SectType.txt (which defines the picture, description, and basic properties of an object, but not abilities) has no references to the ability classes in StellarAbilityTypes.txt. The same thing happens with stars, planets, storms, and asteroids.

With warp points, you can assign them as "unusual" with this line in SectType.txt:

Unusual := FALSE

If this is false, the WP will not have any abilities. If it is true, it can have abilities.

When a WP is added to a system, the type of WP is determined by this line in SystemTypes.txt:

WP Stellar Abil Type := Normal Warp Point

If it is "Normal Warp Point," the warp points will be of the non-Unusual type (Unusual := False). If it is "Unstable Warp Point," they will be of the Unusual type. Which entry in SectType.txt is chosen and which ability is selected in StellarAbilityTypes.txt is not relateable.

As a side note, SE4 only uses one WP entry in SectType.txt that has Unusual set to false. The last WP defined in the file with Unusual = False will be used for all normal WPs.