[HW2 Weapon-Script Editor v1.4.4]

[Zatch]

Program Description: This program allows you to quickly and easily modify existing weapons and/or create new ones based on the existing weapons. You must have the decompiled *.wepn scripts (they can be anywhere on your hard drive) available so you can load them as a 'template' and save them to another file, or so you can modify them and save them to the same file. You must also have a decompiled familylist.lua in your ..\data\scripts folder.



Current Version: 1.4.4. Download the file attached to this post and extract it anywhere on your harddrive, then run hw2wsed.exe to open the program.

Note: As of version 1.4.4 the program no longer requires comdlg32.ocx.

You may need the Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Service Pack 5 Runtime files to run the program, which you can download directly from Microsoft by clicking here. Try running the Weapon-Script Editor first; if you receive an error about dependencies (usually DLL or OCX files) try downloading and installing the VB6 runtimes.

[Iamme]

.wepn scripts can be found in our big files correct?

[Zatch]

Yup. A little browsing around the fora will reveal how to extract and decompile the scripts, if you don't know how to already.

[TheUnforgiven]

Awesome, You rule Zatch.

[evillejedi]

excellent little tool

so far haven't had any bugs or had any scripts that didn't work or load (except one that doesn't actually work in game for some reason hmmm)




EDIT: does not handle anticipation values on ion weapons (see hgn_pulsar or hgn_ionbeam) also needs fields for both that and turret tracking speeds

can you put the fields in the order they are in the wepn file? right now its hard to track down errors when comparing (I had to change values one by one to figure out that the anticipation was giving a type mismatch)

[Zatch]

Version 1.1 released, includes many improvements (see the first post for details.)

[evillejedi]

looks like it still chokes on bea weapons, only other bug I've encountered is trying to add a weaponresult before clicking on an exsting one (the vars are not primed?)

[Zatch]

Does it crash when you load the beam weapons? I haven't had any trouble with the hgn_pulsar, hgn_ioncannon, or hgn_ioncannonturret. Also, adding a weaponresult produces an error because the Min and/or Max Effect textboxes are empty, and the program attempts to assign these empty text values to Double variables. It'll be fixed in the next version.

[evillejedi]

chokes on this

 -- LuaDC version 0.9.19
 -- 5/23/2004 7:33:03 PM
 -- LuaDC by Age2uN
 -- on error send source file (compiled lua) and this outputfile to Age2uN@gmx.net
 --
 StartWeaponConfig(NewWeaponType, "AnimatedTurret", "InstantHit", "Laser", "Normal", 0, 1400, 0, 0.4, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 0, 0, 120, 120, 0.1, "Normal", 1, 0, 300)
 AddWeaponResult(NewWeaponType, "Hit", "DamageHealth", "Target", 160, 160, "")
 setPenetration(NewWeaponType, 5, 1, 
 { 
 	ResArmour = 0.5, 
 }, 
 { 
 	PlanetKillerArmour = 0, 
 }, 
 { 
 	SubSystemArmour = 0.6, 
 }, 
 { 
 	TurretArmour = 1.3, })
 setAccuracy(NewWeaponType, 1, 
 { 
 	Fighter = 0.25, 
 }, 
 { 
 	Corvette = 0.4, 
 }, 
 { 
 	munition = 0.2, 
 }, 
 { 
 	Frigate = 0.6, 
 	damage = 1, 
 }, 
 { 
 	SmallCapitalShip = 0.6, 
 	damage = 1, 
 }, 
 { 
 	BigCapitalShip = 0.6, 
 	damage = 1, 
 }, 
 { 
 	ResourceLarge = 0.6, 
 	damage = 1, })
 setAngles(NewWeaponType, 0, -180, 180, -5, 60)
 setMiscValues(NewWeaponType, 4, 0)
 addAnimTurretSound(NewWeaponType, "Data:Sound/SFX/ETG/SPECIAL/SPECIAL_ABILITIES_TURRET_ON")

I know what a pain parsing can be so hopefully its just a simple thing

[Zatch]

Aha, I figured it out. Actually, that file brought up several programming errors that I missed, so the next version should be much more robust (it was the space in front of the number that was causing problems.)

[Mazer Rackham]

man, you just pump these things out, nice tool.

[Zatch]

v1.15 released. Shouldn't have trouble with beam weapons any more. Now, finally, I can go to sleep o_o.

Edit- Bah, released 1.16 too. You can change AnimatedTurret rotation angles (early implementation, no error checking.) Now it's really time to go to sleep. Bughunting begins tomorrow afternoon...

[That_One_Dude]

Kick A** dude, but could you add the min, and max buttons.
Would make the gui a little easer to pop up and out when needed.

Thnkx

[evillejedi]

also need the misc values that control delay between salvos and err whatever else the other number is

[Zatch]

Next version will include the "setMiscValues" line, a Minimize Button, a few fixes (namely, switching the up & down rotation of turrets -- oops ,) and some better error checking.

[Zatch]

Released version 1.2. See the first post for details.

[frodoski]

Hey...Zatch...the link is not working!

[Zatch]

Haha, I knew that would happen. Changed the link about 30 seconds ago .

http://hw2ss.no-ip.org/HW2/ZaTcH/HW2WeaponEditor.exe

[Duelron1001]

Where is the weapon accuracy and armor penetration settings?

Also I belive that you can set the weapon's result to affect the Owner of the weapon, like so:

AddWeaponResult(NewWeaponType, "Miss", "SpawnWeaponFire", "Owner", 0, 0, "Hgn_BurstCannonBurst")

Not that this is used in the orignal game, but some one might want to use it (like me). I am not sure that the above code would work anyway though.

Lastly a UI thing:


Thats all not to say that this program is not useful, its just that it still needs work. b/w its some really good work for such a short amount of time.

[Zatch]

The program locks certain text boxes so you can't fool around with them if it's the wrong weapon type. So, for example, the Beam Pass-Thru Health (InstantHitThreshold) shouldn't be modified unless this is a beam (InstantHit) weapon, hence it is locked in the picture.

Also, the greyed out boxes are properties that you can never modify. "Burst shots" is just calculated on-the-fly based on your Fire Delay and Burst Length values, Weapon Type/FireType won't be changeable for a while because changing between the types will probably only confuse people unless the differences are a bit clearer. Weapon Effects File is changeable in the next version of the program.

If you'd been following the progress of the program, you'd see that with each major update I implemented another "set*" line to the modifiable properties. At the moment it handles "setMiscValues," "AddWeaponResult," and "setAngles."

"setAccuracy" and "setPenetration" might take a while because they're much more complex than the other lines (they take up multiple lines, include brackets, and look different depending on how the file was decompiled.)

Unless somebody tests the "Owner" value for the Target in AddWeaponResult, I'm not going to implement it.

Also, a known bug: you can't modify "dropped" weapons (i.e. mines.)

[evillejedi]

heh burst shots doesn't have to be auto matic, you can set funny values in there to get weird offset times (fire two, fire threw, fire two), but probably on automatic is best otherwise people will screw it up

[Duelron1001]

I was pointing out that I can see what is in these greyed out boxeds; all that has to be done it to change the colors.

I would of thought that for each line you would of add the next line, not the next random line (more or less).

But I am not saying that its crap or anything, don't get me worrong, this program is all ready useful (i hate going though the first line of a weapon config file, counting out each 0 or 1 till I find the value that I want to change)

I'll give the Owner value a go, will be kind of funny for a BC each time it fires does damage to its self :P

I second evillejedi, burst can end up fireing more or less then what you want them to do, I am not sure but it could be framerate related. From my testing I have found that during lower FPS periods the burst would not fire the right number of shots (hmm that was with my 9200, I wonder what its like now with my x800 XT...). Not that has anything to do with your program, its just HW 2; maybe we should get you to reprogram it for us :P

[Zatch]

@Duelron1001: I'm not sure what you mean by "add the next line." If you're talking about the arrangement of AddWeaponResult, setAccuracy, setPenetration, etc... They can go in any order as far as I know, so by configuring the output of my program I am, in a way, standardizing their format, though it may be rearranged in the future (if only to avoid errors.)

Also, how would making the burst-shots textbox modifiable actually affect your ability to determine the number/style of shots? It is merely a displayed calculation, and all of the involved variables can be modified in the two boxes above it. I'd change it so you could set the number of burst shots, but then the problem is: which textbox should be changed to make the burst work? i.e. If you set it to 10 burst shots you can have a 5-second burst with 0.5 seconds between shots, or a 10-second burst with 1 second between shots, etc... Can't just modify one variable and have it work . In case this wasn't clear: the value you see in the "Burst Shots" are not saved anywhere in the weapon file.

Let's say I set a Burst Length to 3 seconds with a 0.5 second Fire Delay, and then a Burst Delay of 3.5 seconds. Will this result in continuous firing (every 0.5 seconds) or will the 3-second burst finish, then wait 3.5 seconds, then start again? I'll test it out at some point today but if you'd like to save me the trouble...

I'll change the colors in the greyed-out boxes so the text is easier to see.

[Zatch]

Update released - some minor interface modifications (fixed some color problems) and you now have the option of choosing a different weapon hit effect.

[Duelron1001]

I ment by adding the next line as it would appear in the normal weapon config, not that it matters or anything. But I my only thing was the color, I just couldn't see what was in there makeing those textboxs useless.

Editing the expected number of burst textbox? I never ment that, but I could be useful to be able just to enter the number of shots that you want and the program ajust the burst length (possiable that there is a option so the fire delay is changed insed, this is done via a options menu).

Your example should fire every 0.5 sec for 3 secs, total of 6 shots. It will then wait the 3.5 that you set, however the number of shots fired may change in game so it only fires 5 shots. To get arround this I normaly set the the fire delay and burst length so there is amount of time (say 0.1 sec) is avilable to the weapon to fire all the shots.

So we have a weapon, fire delay of 0.25 sec, burst lenth of 1 sec and burst delay of 20 sec. the weapon should fire 4 shots, however testing has shown that this may not all ways happen so we set the fire delay to 0.24 sec. Therefore the weapon should fire 4 shots with 0.04 sec left over, this should normaly alow for all the shots to be fired. Again the weapon may still only fire 3 shots with this setting, so we ajust till it does. But this is what beta testing is for.

Hope it helps.

hmm just dled your update, I am getting this stranger error, Run-time error "429": ActiveX can't create object. This is not the first time that a program has given me this error, you have any idea how to fix it?

[Zatch]

Thanks for the info on the burst firing, I'll take that into consideration when finalizing the program's output.

The only different object in the program that I can think of is the FileSystemObject I added (for easier file manipulation.) This should come standard with the latest VB6 runtime files, are you sure you've installed the VB6 Runtime Files SP5?

[Duelron1001]

Its odd as v1.2 worked fine, not to mention all of your other programs. Just reinstalled VB6 Runtime Files SP5, still no luck. I know of two other programs that give the exact same error message, don't know what could be casuseing it. Does this program try to write anything to disk when it starts up?

[Zatch]

I think I figured it out. You're missing a *.dll file that the program uses to manage files (I didn't include this object until the latest version - the one that stopped working for you.) Download scrrun.dll and reg_scrrun.bat, put them in the same directory, and then run the batch file "reg_scrrun.bat" to register the "scrrun.dll" file. Then, try running HW2WeaponEditor.exe again.

[evillejedi]

seems to duplicate the setmiscValues line occasionally

the only added thing I would like is to have the file name displayed on the title bar (forget what you are working on and you have to reopen to check what its called) also the open file directory should default to the one in options


heh if you want something to work on for the armor classes and for the accuracy

 StartWeaponConfig(NewWeaponType,"AnimatedTurret","Bullet","TurboLaser_10D","Normal",7500,25000,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,20,0,0,1,0,20,20,1,"Normal",1,0,0)
  AddWeaponResult(NewWeaponType,"Hit","DamageHealth","Target",1744,2325,"")
  AddWeaponResult(NewWeaponType,"Hit","SpawnWeaponFire","Target",0,0,"Anti_Sub_Heavy_Burst")
  
  setPenetration(NewWeaponType,50,1,
  {Hull_Cap_1D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_2D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_3D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_4D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_5D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_6D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_7D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_8D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_9D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_10D=1,},
  {Hull_Cap_11D=.75,},
  {Hull_Cap_12D=.5,},
  {Hull_Cap_13D=.5,},
  {Hull_Cap_14D=.5,},
  {Hull_Cap_15D=.5,},
  {Hull_Cap_16D=.5,},
  {Hull_SF_1D=1,},
  {Hull_SF_2D=1,},
  {Hull_SF_3D=1,},
  {Hull_SF_4D=1,},
  {Hull_SF_5D=1,},
  {Hull_SF_6D=1,},
  {Shield_SF_1D=1,},
  {Shield_SF_2D=1,},
  {Shield_SF_3D=1,},
  {Shield_SF_4D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_1D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_2D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_3D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_4D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_5D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_6D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_7D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_8D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_9D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_10D=1,},
  {Shield_Cap_11D=.75,},
  {Shield_Cap_12D=.5,})
  
  setAccuracy(NewWeaponType,0,
  {Fighter=0,},
  {Bomber=0,},
  {Corvette=0,},
  {Heavy_Corvette=0.1,},
  {Frigate=0.25,},
  {Heavy_Frigate=0.5,},
  {Destroyer=0.75,},
  {Cruiser=0.9,},
  {SuperCapital=1,},
  {Utility=0.25,},
  {Munition=0,},
  {SmallCapitalShip=0.25,},
  {BigCapitalShip=0.5,},
  {Mothership=1},
  {Emplacement=0,},
  {UnAttackable=0,},
  {SubSystem=0,},
  {Resource=0,},
  {ResourceLarge=0,},
  {Capturer=0,},
  {Chimera=0.75,},
  {Shield=0,},
  {small_missile=0,},
  {large_missile=0,},
  {Hero_small=0,},
  {Hero_Large=0.00001,})
  
  
  setMiscValues(NewWeaponType,2.5,0.5)
  setAngles(NewWeaponType,15,-80,80,-80,80)

and yes I understand that there are defaults I just like to be explicit

[MagNet]

I know this isn't the right place for this but, EJ how did you make a new armor type? Also Zatch, great program, very handy. I was doing weapon tweaking in note pad and I was wondering why the re fire rate of this one gun wasn't changing. found out later that I was tweaking the checklineoffire variable instead of the fire rate.

[Duelron1001]

YaY! All the programs that give me that error now work. Thanks ZaTcH! But I wonder why I didn't have this .dll file before.

Anyway I tested the "Owner" and got some rather strange results. Of the weapons that I tried all of them gave the same result. They contuied to do damage their targets as they would normaly instead of damageing them selfs. However I have only tried this useing damagehealth. I think that more investergation is needed, it must do something, otherwise why did relic include it?

Oh and evillejedi you have alot of family class... I envy you for just being able to keep track of all of them :P

[Zatch]

* I discovered the setMiscValues bug last night, and have fixed it in the latest version (will be released a little later today.)

* I'll add in the filename on the titlebar.

* I do intend to change the default file-->open directory to the one in the options menu, and the setPenetration/setAccuracy line/group parsing routines are nearing completion (the program will check your familylist.lua for valid entries, of course.) By default, the program will display all possible armour families in a list, and lines that don't appear in the file will simply have a value equal to the default value (I can have the program write out every value explicitly if you'd prefer that, otherwise it will only write out exception values.)

Edit - Glad it works now, Duelron1001 . On the topics of EJ's excessive familylist editing - I've dealt with this before (in the original ShipScript) and I am confident I can do it again (this time armed with some better OOP techniques.) Sometimes I feel like I'm writing these programs just for evillejedi, because of all the exceptions/modifications his particular scripts require... I rather enjoy the challenge, to be honest.

[evillejedi]

heh well I tend to find bugs by breaking things so I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, but I'd also wish other people would use larger varieties of classes since this allows a progressive range of values (which I'm only using as a filter right now)

if you want a really nasty challenge how about a graph that plots the armor values on a curve with adjustable points (j/K I don't need that)

[Zatch]

v1.3 released - See first post for details.

If it doesn't work, you can still download v1.22 using this link

Edit - @evillejedi: Thanks for posting that file earlier, I decided to have the program output *.wepn files in your style (the bracketing style, I mean.)

Edit2 - Oops, seems there was a little bug with version 1.3.0, just click the download link again to get 1.3.1 (it should open files that look like evillejedi's now, as well as the standard LuaDC output versions.)

[evillejedi]

I know I'm just nitpicking here but can we get some spaces between the sections of the file (double space between accuracy and penetration) right now everything is all crammed together. also the program eats comments ' -- ' , took me a while to figure out why I had weapon effects suddenly turn themselves on after being commented out. othe than that seems to work fine (the default familylist path is wrong it should be homeworld2\data\scripts right now it is homeworld2\scripts\)

[Zatch]

v1.3.3 released - Fixed (hopefully ) the problems evillejedi pointed out.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've had an abnormally large amount of schoolwork lately (lots of tests and projects all clumping together, plus midterms starting next week.) Expect an almost fully-functional HW2WeaponEditor in the next few days, though (meaning you will be able to modify the weapon's accuracy and, to a limited degree, its aiming type -- i.e. "fixed," "gimble," "animated turret," "dropped...")

[ReevesG]

okay, i could use some help because im having some prblms. when i go to open a file in the weapon editor, an error pops up that says "C:\Program Files\Sierra\Homeworld 2\Data\Scripts\Weaponfire" does not exists. then it asks me of i want to enter a new directory. if i say yes, this weird box pops up with all kinds of stuff, and if i say no, it says "please locate your 'familylist.lua' file before opening a weapon for modification." can any1 help me?

[Zatch]

You always have to find the familylist.lua, no matter, so that the program can load in the "family" strings properly. The other error can be ignored, but it's better to just point the program to the right directory for the sake of easier editing and no more annoying popup errors. These issues can be addressed by clicking "Yes" when the popup appears, and then selecting the appropriate directories (and the location of "familylist.lua") and then attempting to load the file again. You will need to have decompiled your HW2 *.lua scripts and/or extracted the "data.zip" file into the appropriate directories. If you need info on any of these steps, just let me know.

[ReevesG]

well, i have the data.zip thing, i just dont know how to extract it, and even if i did know how to extract it, u said i need to extract it to the appropriate files, which files would be the appropriate 1s?

[ReevesG]

yes! i think i got it all to work now, thanks a lot for ur help zatch.

[Zatch]

You're very welcome .

[ReevesG]

shoot, get 1 prblm fixed, then another 1 pops up. i was just wondering how do u increase the health of ur missile so that it will actually last long enough to get to ur target after u have increased the range. i saw that u could make them go faster, but i dont really want to do that, i just want them to last longer. can some1 help me plz?

[Zatch]

Unfortunately, that property cannot be modified from the Missile Launcher's *.wepn file, but instead must be modified directly in the missile's *.miss file, which you can find in "..\Homeworld2\Data\Missile" if you've extracted your scripts. The line is "NewShipType.lifetimeTime = ##" where "##" is the lifetime of the missile, in seconds.

Edit Going out for lunch, should be back within 1.5 hours for further help. It is 1:13pm, forum time.

[ReevesG]

a couple of things. 1st of all, i was just wondering what the difference was between normal, normal only, and special in the activation part of the weapon editor. 2nd- i changed the range of the torpedoes for the hgn's, i didnt know which torpedo file was for which ship's torpedo, i just increased them all. so then i went to the game, and they didnt seem to have changed. so then i increased all of the ranges a whole lot more figuring i might be able to see a difference if i changed them more, but still the same. is there like something i have to press or change or something in order for it to take affect? maybe im just doing the entire thing wrong in the first place. help would be much appreciated.

[Zatch]

Did you change the lifetime or the actual range of the torpedoes? If you want them to shoot very long distances, increase the range and the lifetime of the projectile (range is defined in the missile launcher's *.wepn file.)

[ReevesG]

whats the difference between the normal, normal only, and special options in the activation part of the weapon editor?

[Zatch]

"Normal" means the weapon does not require a special keypress to be used, whereas "Special Attack" weapons do require that special keypress after some sort of research has been completed (i.e. the hgn_scout's EMP requires a keypress to be used.) "Normal Only" means the weapon will only be used before a new attack has been researched, as with the hgn_bomblauncher (Bomber's weapon) which is not used anymore once you have researched "Improved Bombs."

[ReevesG]

never mind with all of the questions i had earlier, i figured it all out. thx a bunch to every1 who helped me.

[ReevesG]

i was just wondering which type of missile the vgr destroyer uses. i know think its some type of fussion missile, but i dont know if its a heavy 1 or a normal 1.

[Zatch]

In the vgr_destroyer.ship file we find the line

StartShipWeaponConfig(NewShipType,"Vgr_HeavyFusionMissileLauncherWeak","Weapon_Missile","Fire_Missle")

And then in the Vgr_HeavyFusionMissileLauncherWeak.wepn file we find the line

StartWeaponConfig(NewWeaponType,"Fixed","Missile","Vgr_HeavyMissile","Normal",40,4500,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,20,0,0,1,1,0,0,0.1,"Normal",0,0,0)

So now we know that the vgr_destroyer fires the missile Vgr_HeavyMissile which can be found in "..\Homeworld 2\Data\Missile\Vgr_HeavyMissile"