AE Basics: Weapons, Hardpoints and Upgrades

[mjolnir]

sorry to bump this thread, but it's VERY relevant to my problem. I'm trying to make the Baneblade autocannon actually fire coaxially to the main gun, instead of firing from no specific location on the Baneblade at random targets. So far, I've tried:
-sticking the animations, muzzle, and origin of the battlecannon into the empty fields of the autocannon's hardpoint_08. This makes the autocannon and the main gun aim by using the main turret, but when they're firing at different targets, the turret flickers back and forth between aiming at the two respective targets.
-creating an Obliterator-style weapon. This means that only one weapon can fire at the same time. I'd be fine with this, but both weapons use the main gun animation, muzzle flash, explosion effects, and sound. Everytime the autocannon fires, HUGE EXPLOSION.

[Octopus Rex]

Don't worry about the bump, that's not a problem with tutorials.

As for your problem, as far as I know I think you'll have to re-animated the Banebalde for that (or rather just tweak animation controls) in order to separate the two weapons properly. I'm pretty sure that's it. To do that you'll probably need the Object Editor, which is a whole world of pain that I know nothing about!

[Hunter331]

Ok, this may be a simple or stupid question, but I am trying to create a new weapon, but one that uses one of the existing models. For instance, say I want to create a new combat knife for the guard. I create a new sub-type within the melee weapons section. What field do I enter data that determines which model my new weapon uses? Thanks ahead of time.

[Octopus Rex]

You do not specify what the weapon looks like on the weapon file itself, you specify what visual weapon is going to be used on the unit's file, specifically in the combat_ext> hardpoints info. The "name_for_this_weapon_choice" is the bit that controls the visual graphics, the appearance of the weapon ingame. This is because the graphics are attached to the model, and not to the weapon. For example, you can't tell a unit to use a plasma pistol if the model itself doesn't have one, regardless of the info you on the weapons file. (However, you CAN do this in DOW2! )

Because of the way it is done you could set pretty much any weapons file to look like the knife, if you see what I mean, though you might find lascannon blasts coming out of it!

Hope this helps.

[Hunter331]

Thanks. You explanation really helped me to understand. To test it out, I attempted to give the Guardsmen Sergeant a normal lasgun. I changed the name_for_this_weapon_choice field, as well as the defining lua fields. I even attempted matching the data in hardpoint 2 to that of a normal guardsman. It isn't working. The sergeant still shows up with his sword and laspistol. What am I missing? Again, thanks.

Edit: I'm an idiot. I'm really not this much of a noob to modding. Of course I can't give a guardsmen sergeant a regular lasgun. They have no model for it. I just assumed that they would have created models for each race using each weapon. Silly me. Guess I need to learn how to use the object editor.

You mentioned being able to interchange weapon models + weapon data for DOW2. I am not aware of any modding going on for DOW 2 yet. If you're on the inside, let me know what's going on.

[Octopus Rex]

No, I'm not on the inside, but you can tell from looking through the archives. DOW2 has the wargear system in SP, and so instead of modelling every single piece of wargear into the each model you can use it on (can you image.....eeesh) it looks they saved themselves the bother and made it modular instead. So, I would presume from this that the animations are in the model i.e. a set of flamer animations, which works for all variations of flamers in SP. The graphics for the weapon must be in the weapon/wargear file, and simply bolt-on to the main weapon and use the unit model's inherent animation tree. Much more efficient, and much tidier. Yummy!

Disclaimer: much of that is simply conjecture from looking at the files and has not necessarily been proven in practice. I haven't been keeping up with DOW2 modding, but I'm pretty sure I've seen people sticking the heads of some units onto the bodies other and similar stuff like that without using an Object Editor (because we don't have one).

[TIMMY25]

Noob Alert!

I've got a problem with the upgraded sentinel icons I downloaded from the tutorial:I put them in my mod's art folder like a good soldier but when I upgrade a sentinel, the sentinel's picture turns into some kind of pink square

Also, I tried to make the Leman Russ fire actual shells that explode on impact like a Basilisk but I don't have the explosing impact and the battlecannon doesn't do any damage anymore.

[Octopus Rex]

The icons: pink square means something has gone wrong (that much is obvious, but what I mean is that it supposed to go pink so that it's really blindingly obvious that something is amiss). Hard to say off the top of my head what's gone wrong. Triple check your folder tree and that they are in the right place is all I can say at this point. The UI folder in the zip goes in a folder called ART for your mod. Leave the sub-folders inside UI intact.

The last sounds suspect: I think you should check which weapon-data file you have selected for your leman russ battlecannon. Also, take a look at the Basilisk weapon stuff as a whole on the unit itself as there's often more to it than just "insert weapon here".

Hope some of that helps.

[Somi]

Hi All !
I made an ability to Tanks. How can i make it upgradeable to units (like weapon upgrades) ?

[Octopus Rex]

Don't quite understand what you mean. Please explain in more detail.

[Somi]

The ability i made (radar to tanks) works like SM Frag Grenade ability. When the research is done, the space marines gets SM Frag Grenade ability immediately. But i want upgrade units manually with this ability. (like when i do weapon upgrades) Just those units can use my ability what i upgrade with it.

oh and another thing.
I want equip Predator tanks with another weapon such Guard leman russ tanks cannon but its not working.
it not appears in upgrades
Even i set up this weapon as default.
Predator.rgd:
GameData->combat_ext->hardpoints->hardpoint_01->weapon_table->weapon_01->weapon->value : weapon\guard_battle_cannon_leman_russ.lua
But its not working as upgrade or default weapon.

[Varellian]

That'll be an add-on, then, I guess, similar to how an LP upgrades through the tiers?

Sorry, I can't answer the other question.

[Octopus Rex]

addons can't be used on units that can move (or rather, units with moving_ext) I'm afraid. I don't think they can be used with squads either but that doesn't matter at this point. You can't upgrade individual units with abilities in the way that occurs in DOW2 (or at least you can't with just the AE). Think about it like this: setting the ability is fine, but which requirement are you going to put on the ability?

With regard to the weapon: how do you know it's not working? What are you expecting to happen that isn't happening?

[Gorb]

You can't upgrade individual units with abilities in the way that occurs in DOW2 (or at least you can't with just the AE).

Well, if you modify the taskbar so units can use researches . . . the only problem is you can't create submenus for squads with more than one member. So you'd have to make a space on the taskbar itself for a "research" subgroup you can use for squads. Then you can give a squad a load of abilities you want to unlock, and use required_research to enable them as you complete the researches you can give to squads.

However, that requires altering gamescreen and stuff . . . I should really get round to making a tutorial for those kind of files, however the instructions start simple and kinda, well, snowball

Somi, I have a feeling your squad isn't showing the weapon because you've only changed the weapon file. "guard_battle_cannon_leman_russ.lua" contains all the information required for your cannon to deal damage. The model itself (on the Predator tank ingame) won't change from the Autocannon Turret to the Battle Cannon because the Predator model doesn't contain the information for the Battle Cannon mesh (model part). Your modded Predator will do the damage of the Battle Cannon and should probably cause explosions like the Lleman Russ Battle Cannon, however it will still look like a Autocannon Turret

Hope that helps.

[Varellian]

addons can't be used on units that can move (or rather, units with moving_ext) I'm afraid. I don't think they can be used with squads either but that doesn't matter at this point.

FoK have managed it for independent characters, and units. Dreadnought weapon configs won't fit into the taskbar, so they went and put them into a build menu.

I don't suppose it could be done similar to a Local Research/Stone etc, could it?

[Somi]

I see so i cant upgrde abilities like weapons.
Its not change the weapon its still the default/original weapon. (Guard leman russ tanks cannon is artillery type) so the predator not fireing like artillery tank.

EDIT : Ok i manage to give guard_battle_cannon_leman_russ.rgd to predator as default weapon(hardpoint_01->weapon_01) but its not working (no cannon barrel, not shooting). Maybe this weapon not compatible with Predator ?

[Octopus Rex]

@Gorb and Varellian: yes, that's why I said "at least you can't with just the AE".

Gorb, do those researches only work for that one unit though? I though researches were, by their very nature, global? i.e. yes you can research it off a squad, but it will still apply across all the units?

Varellian, weapon configs are an entirely different thing from addons. Squads are designed to have independent weapon configs from each other. The same is not true of abilities (though it doesn't necessarily follow that it cant be done). Putting addon_ext on an entity with moving_ext will give you a fatal error and the game will not load. However, I think ombrephenix's codex evolutions (which is what is being reference by you two) puts addons in by forcing them into non-addon_ext extensions. Maybe this is what Gorb was talking about (did you mean addons, not researches Gorb?)

While I don't want to come off as patronising, I'm not sure Somi wants to be fiddling around with the gamescreen and taskbar just yet, because it's real pain in the ass.

[Varellian]

It was my mistake - instead of being an Addon, it was a Local Research similar to a stone, Gorb Clarified that over PM, so yeah, slaps on my wrist for false info.

[Somi]

SORRY ALL ! i made a mistake i thought guard leman russ tanks cannon is an artillery type, but no ork looted tank is what i need.
i extracted ork looted tank weapon with AE and rename it to sm autocannon and it works.
If a unit has only 1 weapon (whirlwind) can i equip 1 more weapon ?

[neilmarines]

i`ve recently found out that can also change the hardpoints of the chaos marines to allow you to upgrade to flamer`s and missile launcher`s without having change the model as they are already exsist , there in the weapon RGD files but were not used for some reason, check in the weapon RGD`s for unit names with that weapon for example "chaos_missile_launcher_tactical.rgd" is the file for the chaos marines weapons that the unit can have, so if the weapon file doesnt exsist for that unit then you most likely wont be able to use that weapon ingame unless you change the unit model aswell .

Neilmarines.

[Octopus Rex]

Yeah, Chaos Marines had the same four weapons as Tacs in original DOW, but they got taken out for WA except HB, the plasma added back in for DC. Check out the Raptors too as they've have flamers and plasma pistols from DOW1 as well.

The important bit however is the graphical model. You can make another weapon RGD if you need it, but yeah, it's easier to find those unused relics by skimming the weapon RGDs rather than open up combat_ext on each unit!

[neilmarines]

Hi.

I`ve recently found a tau weapon rgd "tau_centaur_artillery.rgd" ?, but don`t know if its being used at all ?

How would i use this on a tau vehicle, which hardpoint would i use hardpoint_01 or hardpoint_02 ?, and what are the other hardpoints used for ?

Neilmarines.

[Octopus Rex]

I think maybe you've misunderstood. There's no reason to use a hidden weapon file - it will not do anything that you cannot already do with any other weapon file as it is just a list of stats. Also, no new graphics will be displayed, so you won't see it on the model or anything.

If you still want to use it on a model then you can put it on any hardpoint. All the weapon files are basically interchangeable stat lists. There's a couple bits of changes you might see, like what projectile is fired for example, but that's about it.

[ggggary]

Hi. I'm BRAND new to this whole mods thing for DoW Soulstorm. What program do you use? Where can I get it? Do you have a beginners/newby place to start? What I've seen so far looks cool, but I am at a loss were to start.

Stay calm,
be brave,
wait for the signs.

[Octopus Rex]

Here (the links on that page all head back to these forums btw)

Welcome and good luck.

[classified]

you can download corsix's tools from http://www.corsix.org/cdms/downloads-5.html

[Lesomuzik]

Hello,
I new in modding and I tried really hard, but now I give it up. I was trying to make an flamer upgrade for assault SM. Everything works, enemy morale is low, but they still have bolt pistols and chainsword in their hands.

I think, that there can be 2 problems

1. assault SM model doesn't have flamer equiped (but I think that this isn't true, because the "art/ebps/races/space_marines/texture_share/space_marine_unit_default.wtp" effects SM tacs and SM assault)

2. the chainsword in other hand. Then question is how to turn it off :-)

Can you help me? :-)

[Gorb]

The Assault Space Marine model doesn't have a Flamer mesh, no, so trying to make them upgrade to Flamers won't work. They'll do the damage and everything; they just won't look like they're holding and firing Flamers.

[Lesomuzik]

I quess the best option now is to borrow it from other mod (Legions, FoK etc.), right? Are there any problems with copyright?

[Darth_Overkill]

My Problem:
I have a unit with weapon data for weapon 1, 2 & 3 in hardpoint 1 & weapon 1 & 2 in hardpoint_02 (5 weapons in total, 2 default, 3 upgrades). But I don't want my unit to be be able to upgrade hardpoint 2 via the reinforce bar (instead it will be a research that upgrades the entity) and still be able to upgrade hardpoint_01 from weapon 1 to 2 then to 3.

What I've tried:

1) Setting complex_upgrades to false in the ebps and max_upgrades to 1 in the sbps.

This does not work as you can upgrade both hardpoint_01 and hardpoint_02. This was the expected result as the tutorial did say max_upgrades has no effect when complex_upgrades is set to true.

2) Setting complex_upgrades to false in the ebps and limiting to 2 upgrade in the sbps. Make weapon_02 of hardpoint_02 require the research that upgrade the entity globally.

This fails as you can still choose to upgrade hardpoint_02 after completing the research, it's acts a little wierd actually. When the research is complete the unit says you have 1 (in the reinforce bar) but 0/2 upgrades (in the details section). When you click on it to upgrade it (after completing) becomes 1/2 upgrades but stays at 1 in the reinforce bar. This was destined to fail as I need complex_upgrades set to true to get hardpoint 1 to upgrade from weapon 1 to weapon 2 then to weapon 3.

3) Setting complex_upgrades to true and change weapon_02 of hardpoint_02 so that show_in_reinforce is set to false.

EPIC fail. The game crashes to the desktop when I do this.

4) Setting complex_upgrades to false and change weapon_02 of hardpoint_02 so that show_in_reinforce is set to false.

While this method finally gets rid of the upgrade option for hardpoint 2 the problem now becomes my whole hardpoint 1 upgrade from weapon 1 to weapon 2 then to weapon 3 not working when complex_upgrades is set to false.

My Question:
Is there anything else I haven't tried yet or am i totally out of luck?

[corncobman]

If you are using Soulstorm you can set no_button to true in the ui_ext of the weapon to stop the icon appearing in the UI.

[jONES1979]

If you mod a SS game, not DC, you can use variant #1. but in the weapon's RGD for weapon_02 of hardpoint_02, set ui_info.no_button = true

It is strange, but i'm not able to delete this post

[Darth_Overkill]

All right thats got it working just the way i wanted, thank you both.

[WilliamBlack91]

I've got a question, how can I arm a vehicle without weapons (like a rhino) with for example bolters?

[Chiu ChunLing]

All the weapons a unit has or can get are specified on "hardpoints" in the "combat_ext" section of the entity blueprint. Units with no weapons (like the rhino) typically lack this extension, but if you use Corsix's Mod Studio you can simply copy the combat_ext from another entity blueprint and paste it into the other blueprint. Then you can go down the list of hardpoints and edit their weapon tables.

Unfortunately, while this will allow your rhino to shoot things and damage them, it doesn't do anything about the lack of visible weapons on the model, and unless the weapon uses a projectile blueprint, there will be no visible sign that the rhino is firing weapons or what the weapons are. I can offer no help on this, as modeling is completely beyond me. Most weapons also require animation and effects, which is (if possible) even further beyond me.

[VoIdDrAgOn]

Hey guys, im working on building a devastator squad for space marines and a havoc squad for chaos, i'm doing this by trying to remove the flamer and plasma gun. Problem is, when i do the devastators, and remove the flamer and plasma gun, and bump up the heavy weapons, they still appear as upgrades, could i get somehelp on this, i only want a heavy bolter and missle auncher as upgrades.

[Chiu ChunLing]

How did you "remove" the flamer and plasma gun? Did you go into the combat extension for your devastator entities and remove them from the hardpoints weapon list?

[VoIdDrAgOn]

yes, but it comes up with the tactical squad allotment

EDIT: Sorry thanx, i figured out what was happening, i had the trooper base as the tac squad, not dev squad, fixed up now real good. Sorry