SE-5 : Batteries & weapons

[Phoenix-D]

Damage types can be created. Abilities can't.

[Kana]

Phoenix-D said:
Damage types can be created. Abilities can't.

I guess if you consider a damage type as being something relating to

Does_Component_Have_Ability("Pre-Defined Game Element")

Or

Is_Component_Weapon

Which are abilities, or component/weapons with said ability. Yet if we cant make new abilities, then I would say NO, we cant really make new damage types. We more properly can only redefine damage types, that may not be currently part of stock...

[Fyron]

Neither of those have anything to do with the concept of damage type, though. Damage type is only what is on this line:

Weapon Damage Type Formula := "Normal"

Abilities are not damage types, so the "does have ability" is not relevant.

Is_Component_Weapon() relates to this information:

Weapon Type := Direct Fire

It returns false only when the component has that value set to None (well, bad values of weapon type might also return false, who knows). It is not related to damage types or abilities in any way.

=0=

For reference, AI Tags do absolutely nothing. They do not inherently tell the AI anything. You can use them to force different AI behavior by calling that ability instead of the real ability of the item, but you can do that with any non-functional ability too (like facility resource generation abilities in SE4 components file). The AI Tag abilities are merely there for easier legibility.

[Captain Kwok]

Kana said:...Does_Component_Have_Ability("Pre-Defined Game Element")...

Does_Component_Have_Name("Any Thing You Frickin' Want") would seem to disagree.

[Phoenix-D]

Captain Kwok said:

Does_Component_Have_Name("Any Thing You Frickin' Want") would seem to disagree.

Listen to the friendly green man, not me- I can't test it yet. (EB didn't even SHIP my order yet..grumble..).

Buy as Fyron said, damage types aren't abilities. They aren't related at all.

[Fyron]

Kana said:
NO, we cant really make new damage types.

I forgot to add: DamageTypes.txt would very strongly disagree with you, my friend.

[Elsemeravin]

Suicide Junkie said:

The main problem will be in when SE5 recalculates that function (it isn't very often)

Most of the formulas include %range%, but you noticed that the damage is not recalculated often ? does that mean it calculates the damage per range once and then uses this calculation for a long time ?

Do you have an idea how often it recalculate the damage grid ?

[Jarena]

It looks like it will work in relation to ship hulls, but can a component "see" other components in the ship/fleet/system?
From what I see I'm guessing it will be possible to add damage modifiers based on number of components to a ship (with interesting additions like diminishing returns, what have you) but, can I really define a damage type that says, basically:
for every [component a], deal +10 damage?

I suppose come tomorrow I'll have some idea (provided Gamestop 's shipment arrives)

[Phoenix-D]

You don't want to use damage types for that, you want the fake abilities.

Give your component an ability. Then call that ability in the damage line that says something like

(normal weapon formla) + 10*(Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("Component")

To clarify things a bit:
Damage Types are found in DamageTypes.txt, and refered to via the "Weapon Damage Type" line in components.txt.

Abilities are found..all over the place..and listed in a file that isn't included in the demo. They're refered to using stuff like the Get_Design_Ability option and Ability 1 Type line in components.txt.

What you're refering to in your last post is the damage *formula*. That's set via Weapon Space Min Damage Modifier Formula and the like, and then modified by the Damage Type.

[Fyron]

There is no abilities file attached to this post. Move along, nothing to see here.