Upgrades to disable hardpoints........help!

[Diddley squat]

hello dow modders.

in this project i am doing, i have a complex upgrade ebps.
i have 4 hardpoints, such as:
two handed weapon
left pistol
right pistol
melee weapon.

each hardpoint has a four upgrade sequence.

ideally, i need an upgrade on the two handed weapon to disable the pistols hardpoint, and an upgrade on the right pistol to disable the two handed weapon.

is this possible?

love dids.

----------

If you want to disable your weapon for whatever reason, you can apply "enable_weapon_modifier".

application_type -> apply_to_weapon
target_type_name -> hardpoint_01 (or whatever hardpoint that you are using atm)
usage_type -> enable
value -> -1 (yes, it says minus one )

If you are using different hardpoints(e.g. a tank with coaxial mg and so on...) you need to create one entry per hardpoint.

what i meant to ask, really, is where would you put the "enable weapon modifier" for the above situation.

Any help appreciated!

RESOLVED: SEE CORNCOBMANS' POST #27 FOR SOLUTION. THANKS!

[Cylarne_04]

I wonder what interesting things you could be working on.

melee
---------------------------------------
(hardpoint1) (hardpoint 2)
hand weapon, nil
nil, hand weapon
handweapon, hand weapon

I might suggest to you to make two separate hardpoints to your model, like...

(weapon one variant 1) (weapon one variant 2) etc.
(weapon 2 bare hand) (weapon 2 pistol) etc.

Just to make your life easier.

DOW is a bitch.

[Jaguar-Lord]

yes indeed !! what are you working on mate ?

[corncobman]

If the unit you're upgrading is a single unit squad, like a commander or a vehicle, you can upgrade by a research or addon and giving it the addon/research menu. You would need to edit the taskbar.lua file though.

Otherwise you can upgrade it through a general research in a building but the upgrade will happen for all units of the same type.

The other possibility is giving the unit an ability which upgrades the hardpoint in the area_effect modifiers, you can set the recharge time to something like 9999999 so the ability cannot be used more than once per game.

[Gorb]

As a minor side note, the AI files tend to hate values of 9999999 in certain situations (though I think only pertaining to map/build data, i.e. a build radius of > 999 or so), but that'd be the AI team's area of expertise. I simply remember setting the build control radius to 999 in the Dark Eldar Mod and thudo telling me it broke something

@JL: at a guess, Necromunda.

[Diddley squat]

Thanks for all your answers.

I think i'm gonna need some help. anyone want to be in on a necromunda mod team? models, oe, animations and textures are being done, i need scar coders/ mappers (J_L!) and corsix/ae peeps.

[Cylarne_04]

Me and Jaguar-Lord then fits the picture, and oh if so, we'd be working together on something at last! :O So then I can finally show Jaguar Lord once and for all my lame, crappy, stupid, not awesome, crappy, corny, unworthy, crappy and silly beyond unreasonable most boring scar code.

In terms of me retiring in two months from DOW however, I'd love to, but can't. However if you need help Diddley on your ae/scar code; I can help on the side.

And you are still stuck on your problem, and I didn't help still?

[Jaguar-Lord]

as i already said, given the amount of work you did are are still doing for Darkness Within, i will be on your side in the Necromunda Hive, i can take all the mapping in charge and the lead on mapping if any other are ready to endure my temper.
i got tons of environment assets ready for you (decals, texture, objects, fx .... the whole picture, i even have a private dev forum ready for the team to use.
hey Cylarne ! your ready for this, because in comparison the UA mod will be like a baby toy.... and don't forget we got a daemon mod to do too....

[Diddley squat]

J_L awesome. i am waiting for Big A to get back with IL issues, which he'll do when he has the time.

the mod only needs one map (to start with!) that a gang can grow in. there are no builders in the mod (except spiders webbing everywhere!). instead the map needs to have the buildings the gang can use (weapon shacks, merc hangouts, etc.) built in, for the gangs to capture like strategic points. and npc creeps stopping under developed gangs reaching parts of the map with further assets in.

ie : you want to get some heavy weapons in your gang? you only have two juves and two gangers in your gang? you need to get through a sewer filled with carrion bats and plague zombies to get them? then you need to get extra resources, get a bigger gang, and do it. etc. etc.

NYCylarne, no i couldn't get the 3 hard points to switch off after upgrading one hardpoint. it baffles me

----------



as it stands, you can upgrade all four hardpoints. i want the two handed weapon to stop you upgrading pistol, second pistol or melee weapon.

[Jaguar-Lord]

we have already talked about map concept, imo we need to discuss them further so i can turn your viison into some mapping reality, big A will be doing important IRL undercover mission and will be silent for a few weeks, that means we got some time to take care of your hive project.

if you want we can use RN to dev things or a more quiet place, read pm.

JL

[Cylarne_04]

@Jaguar-Lord: I don't wear diapers. I think booboo ga ga *sucks thumb*. But I can handle it.

and don't forget we got a daemon mod to do too....

SlavesFriends/team members are currently working on it right now, I did my job and I'll redo it again this coming late July and it is great to have you aboard, slavefriend.

@Didleysquat: Man, nice plot so far.

Yeah, what you want to do is what Corncobman said. This is DOW where this game limits your brain.

[IronWarrior42]

You could give the two handed weapon modifiers that change the time costs of the other upgrade options to 99999999 could you not?

[Cylarne_04]

Probably cannot.

[Diddley squat]

after using bits of code from the fok taskbar.lua (thanks corncobman!), i can get the research (in this case two handed weapon training) to show, but the hardpoint enable/disable modifiers are having no effect.

I have tried:

for the hardpoint to remain active, and:


for the remaining hardpoints to be turned off.

i've tried these combinations of values:

exclusive > false

and

target_type_name > (entity name - in this case escher_leader)

also
target_type_name > hardpoint_01 (for all of the enable modifiers)
none of which work.

so, am i barking up the wrong tree?
have i missed something?
is there a way of doing it this way?

or is there a better solution or work around to make it work?

[Jaguar-Lord]

try to explain in plain English what you are trying to achieve, a solution may arise from a precise description, and by precise i mean not technical...at all. let's sail through the brainstorming session !

[IronWarrior42]

I believe the "target type" field is at least one source of error.

That field needs the name of the ebps file of the unit that the modifier is meant to apply to.
(For example space_marine_force_commander)

Its not where the hardpoint number targeted by the modifier is dictated, the hardpoint number effected is based on which hardpoint modifier you choose, iirc there's at LEAST 10 I

If you need versions of hardpointmodifier for numbers beyond what is available let me know.

Hope that makes at least a little sense and is in some way helpful.

[Diddley squat]

thanks yeah, it makes sense.

i have four hardpoints, and four entries in the modifier table. each entry has an enable_hardpoint modifier, from enable_hardpoint_01 to enable_hardpoint_04 in order.

OK, here is the desired outcome:

one gang member is recruited from a gang hideout. it he/she has just a knife, and a stubgun. it needs to get to a weapon shack, where it can upgrade to carry either:
one of five two handed weapons,
another pistol in the left hand,
a close combat weapon in the left hand.

ideally, the gang member can go back when enough resource has been collected and get a different gun.

it makes sense that the gang member upgrades to a better weapon of the same type previously chosen. (it is, after all, more experienced fighting that way by now!)

so.
the player could choose to spawn either a hand-to-hand gang member, a close quarters gang member, or a ranged gang member.

OR
the player could spawn a generic gang member, that could specialise after surviving the journey to the weapon shack, and choosing a particular weapon.

OR
the player could spawn a generic gang member, that could keep on changing its speciality every time it visits the weapon shop, and chooses a different set of weapons.

I think the first option is straight forward, but a little vanilla, and not in the vibe of the necromunda game.

the second and third options are BOTH preferable, and i wouldn't mind if i could get either of them to work!

these are the routes i've been exploring, but if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know!

[Gorb]

Agreed with IronWarrior. Hardpoint modifiers are applied to entity types, i.e. EBPs (Entity BluePrints).

hardpoint_01 is the default ranged hardpoint, and hardpoint_02 is the default melee hardpoint, I think. Could be mixing them up, as my codebase isn't on this machine (yet).

EDIT: ninja'd.

Okay, oh gods. Here goes code brainstorming. I am working with a memory set of the vanilla game, no taskbar alterations or modifications. Ergo, what I propose should (accounting for memory) work without editing anything other than the attrib code:

Option #1:

• Give the ganger four weapon upgrades (that will show up on the default UI).
• Limit available upgrades to 1.
• Give the ganger a permanent ability with a range of tp_point with one modifier. This modifier should disable upgrades on the unit (pretty sure such a modifier exists).
• Give the upgrade shack an aura which enables upgrades within the aura radius.

Each ganger will be able to be upgraded once, and only in range of the upgrade shack.

NB: to allow subsequent upgrades, um, you have to fiddle with requirements. Allow me to demonstrate:

• is_display_requirement = true needs to be a duplicate requirement of the upgrade shack requirement (mentioned above). Look at any vanilla HQ building for an example of a duplicate set of requirements (one that has is_display_requirement set to true, the other lacks it).
• Each upgrade to the existing weapon type needs to be set in the same UI space as the previous upgrade of the same type. There are four weapon upgrade slots, each with their corresponding UI number (I think).
• Subsequent weapon sets of the same type need to have a third requirement (beyond the upgrade shack and upgrade shark/is_display_requirement) that require the subsequent weapon to be allowed.

Okay, nope, that would break setting the upgrade limit to 1.

I'm not entirely sure how you could allow multiple subsequent upgrades. Not without access to my own copy of the LUAs, which I haven't gotten set up on here yet.

Option #2:

. . . seems quite similar to Option #1. Am I missing something?

Option #3:

in-progress, unsure if possible in the way I am imagining it

[Diddley squat]

Thanks Gorb.

the ebp is set up with hardpoint_01 two handed gun(but the first upgrade a dummy)
hardpoint_02 is the melee, (represented on the model by a knife) and upgrades from pickaxe to chainsword
hardpoint_03 is a right handed pistol and
hardpoint_04 is th left handed pistol.

i set the target type as (in this case) escher_leader (the ebp name) in a previous attempt, but the outcome ingame was the same!

[Gorb]

Okay I think I have multiple subsequent upgrades figured out; I hope you like lots of requirement code. Will update the previous post later tonight or tomorrow, got to go now

[Jaguar-Lord]

i'm not a AE coder so my vision for this is more map oriented.
if you can't achieve what you want with a single model and a very complex upgrade and hardpoint system you can do it with some simple scar coding.....ok, not that simple !

+for this you need to have one model for each weapon variation. tracking each characters (experience gain, objective completed...) is doable even after upgrades and buff or gears and special abilities have been obtained.
+mapping wise : the character enter the weapon "dealer" building (interactive cinematic possible here) and the player chose from a list of upgrades, weapons, gears (you can have for each of them a clickable object/entity displayed during the cinematic or click icons in the taskbar). you can design several weapons/gears dealer shops for the different gang flavour and have different ones on the map.
+each time you chose an option you can have the weapon or gear description displayed on screen either via the tooltips or a custom oversized scar button.
+once you are happy with your choice the old model is despawned outside camera view, the new upgraded model is spawned and comes out of the shop.
+it gives you a complete control of what each until can or can't do, once chosen the option rule is removed from the decision tree so you can't have conflict.


the downside of this system are : 1)you need to make each model variation, anims fx and such, it may require more 3d work. 2)you need a good scar coder.

JL

[Gorb]

I wonder. Can weapons receive ebpextensions?

[Gorb]

Anybody? Is AE/Corsix/LUA coding a lost art these days?

[Diddley squat]

I tried concorbmans suggestion, which was to change the taskbar lua, and have the enable haprdpoint modifiers applied to research. so in game, i can click on a "two handed weapon training" research, but it does not stop the hardpoints from firing, or being able to be upgraded. I am a complete ebps noobie, so i have no idea what i've missed, or what is going wrong. if anyone wants to have a look at the mod file to see if they can get it to work, just let me know! i would be very grateful!


If it comes to it, i can just have a different entity completely for the different specialists, then maybe use the bloodthirster/champion possession ability to respawn the gang member with the specialist hardpoints.
cheers,
dids.

[corncobman]

If I understand you correctly,

the upgrade for hardpoint 1 needs to disable the other 3 hardpoints,
the upgrade for hardpoint 2 (left melee weapon I'm assuming) needs to disable hardpoint 4 (left pistol) and hardpoint 1
the upgrade for hardpoint 3 (right pistol) needs to disable hardpoint 1
the upgrade for hardpoint 4 (left pistol) needs to disable hardpoint 2 and hardpoint 1

Am I right in guessing that this isn't a leader unit and that you can have more than one of them on the field at any one time?

If so then I suggest using addons instead of researches as using local_required_addon_exclusive will work independently of other units of similar type whereas using researches will not.

@Gorb - I'm pretty sure that while it may be possible to give weapons the ebps extensions, I don't think that they will have any effect once they are added to the weapon.

[Diddley squat]

I tried putting the modifiers on the weapons themselves before posting this thread, and nothing happened. Nothing was happening anyway though, so it really didn't give me any clue as to the solution.....


spot on corncobman, that's right.

this is for a standard necromunda house gang member. all of the gang members are in squads of one. but they need to be upgraded independently of each other.

So addons it is! i'll give it a pop!


Thanks everyone for thinking about this! I'll let you know if i can get the addons to work.

[corncobman]

Using apply_to_entity should work because I've tried it with addons before. Using apply_to_entity_type will affect all such units at the same time.

To disable hardpoints

modifier_type -> enable_hardpoint_xx
application_type -> apply_to_entity
target_type_name -> blank
usage_type -> enable
value -> -1

To upgrade hardpoints

modifier_type -> default_weapon_modifier_hardpoint_xx
application_type -> apply_to_entity
target_type_name -> blank
usage_type -> addition
value -> x (depending on which weapon in the hardpoint the addon refers to)

----------------------------------------------

To make addons exclusive from one another, for example to disable addons 2, 3 and 4 once addon 1 is done:

In the requirements for addon 2, 3 and 4 add

local_required_addon_exclusive
mutually_exclusive_with -> addon 1

[Diddley squat]

corncobman you are a genius.

it works perfectly now.

thankyou all for your help, and corncobman, special props to you!

[Jaguar-Lord]

GREAT NEWS !!! we can now focus on serious work