different colour phasers

[geon]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this has been asked before (and apologies if it has), but is it possible at all to give a race more than one phaser and torpedo colour?

I'm thinking of the following races in a multi era mod setting.

klingons - disrupters are green throughout their history, so there's no problem there.

For torpedoes:
In Enterprise era we have light coloured torps
In TOS era you have light/white coloured torps (the torps being fired at Enterprise at Organia in 'Errand Of Mercy')
In the motion picture era we have orange coloured torps (Ktingas in TMP), and green torps for the Birds Of Prey.

In the TNG era and beyond we have green/white torps (Birds Of Prey)

The Federation has even more variety.

In the Enterprise era we have red/orange phase cannons and orange photonic torpedoes (damn you 'Enterprise')

In TOS era, the Enetrprise is seen to fire a wide variety of phaser colours (white, red, blue) before standardising on the blue colour.

Photon torps seem to be the white variety.

In the movie era, the standard orange colour phaser is introduced.
With photon torps, the initial Enterprise torps in the motion picture are blue, but later revert to the standard orange type we get to see for the rest of the franchise.
The TNG era and beyond, standard orange phasers and photons.
Introduction of blue/white quantum torps.

The Klingons and Federation seem to be the two main culprits for colour variety at various times in their history.

Other races seem to be thankfully consistent.

Is it possible to trick the programme to accept more than one race weapon colour??????

[xDx]

Hi geon,
I too expressed this question so I will give you the answer I was given. To my knowledge each race can have only one phaser and torpedo color (hob files). Only one hob file (for each torpedo and phaser) is assigned to each race in the code and the location is as of yet unknown how to change this. It will happen eventually I am sure but other more pressing projects need be done first.

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

is it possible at all to give a race more than one phaser and torpedo colour?

That's possible & quite easy

Since you're refering to "eras" what would you prefer:

Weapon hob-files of ships determined by:

A – the current weapon tech level of the current ship owner (i.e. the "era")

B – the shiplist.sst entry of the ship (i.e. unique for each ship)


Option B would be recommended because it enables:

- custom weapons even for all minors & monster
- empire fleets with mixed weapon grapics
- stolen & minor-member ships keeping their adequate weapons
- the era is indirectly adaptable via the auto-upgrade function

And, last but not least, it's way easier to implement.

So what's the what, geon?
Are you strong enough to command the new "USS Down Under" featuring unique Vegemite-Beams and Dropbear-Torpedoes?
Or chicken?

[thunderchero]

is it possible at all to give a race more than one phaser and torpedo colour?

That's possible & quite easy

Since you're refering to "eras" what would you prefer:

Weapon hob-files of ships determined by:

A – the current weapon tech level of the current ship owner (i.e. the "era")

B – the shiplist.sst entry of the ship (i.e. unique for each ship)


Option B would be recommended because it enables:

- custom weapons even for all minors & monster
- empire fleets with mixed weapon grapics
- stolen & minor-member ships keeping their adequate weapons
- the era is indirectly adaptable via the auto-upgrade function

And, last but not least, it's way easier to implement.

So what's the what, geon?
Are you strong enough to command the new "USS Down Under" featuring unique Vegemite-Beams and Dropbear-Torpedoes?
Or chicken?

I guess I do not understand how this would be edited. I am guessing a code change would be needed?

from what I understand the "shiplist.sst" at 0x118 of each ship is where phaser/torpedoes are assigned. But it uses;

00 cards = cphaser.hob/cphoton.hob/cpton.gif
01 feds = hphaser.hob/hphoton.hob/hpton.gif
02 ferengi = fphaser.hob/fphoton.hob/fpton.gif
03 klingon = kphaser.hob/kphoton.hob/kpton.gif
04 rom = rphaser.hob/rphoton.hob/rpton.gif
05 minors = mphaser.hob/mphoton.hob/mpton.gif

so how would we add new files for option B?

thunderchero

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

I guess I do not understand how this would be edited. I am guessing a code change would be needed?

Correct - even two, but very easy ones.

from what I understand the "shiplist.sst" at 0x118 of each ship is where phaser/torpedoes are assigned.

Fatal error in reasoning –> by default, weapon hob is determined by current owner -> conclusion: shiplist.sst; even +0x118 and the code controlling it, has nothing to do with the subject.

so how would we add new files for option B?

We just load the initial letter for *phaser.hob(resp *plasma.hob) from shiplist.sst +0x11A and for *photon.hob from +0x11B (->unused marker for empires).

-> They must be set for ALL ships, stations & monster in shiplist.sst, of course! (via UE support?).

Then just put your new hob-files (including the specified gif-files in your new *photon(resp.*plasma).hobs + adjusted pallete files for them) in stbof.res.

And there are ample opportunities, since the initial letters are NOT restricted to alphabetic characters.

I just tested @phaser.hob (i.e. initial letter 0x40) and it works flawlessly.

In case of a blunder:

File: ..\..\source\ui\tactical\objview.cpp, Line: 441, obj->handle != I3D_INVALID_HANDLE

[thunderchero]

Ok I am getting worse instead of better at editing....

question

-> They must be set for ALL ships, stations & monster in shiplist.sst, of course!

so should 0x11A and 0x11B be set to on both?
63 -> cardassians
66 -> ferengi
68 -> federation
6B -> klingon
72 -> romulan
6D -> minors and aliens

then edit to the those values to the new value of the new phaser or photon?

This had no effect....... so I guess I could use a little more instructions

thunderchero

[Darth_Windu]

As a novice at BotF exe editing, albeit one armed with Vegemite-beams (which is horrible unless spread very thinly...), how would this be done? I'd think it would be absolutely ideal for giving say the TOS Constitution-class blue phasers, and the Defiant and Sovereign classes Quantum torps whilst all other feds have Photons. I assume we couldn't have different names for the projectiles as well? So for example if I name the Fed torps as Photons, even if the Defiant fires Quantums (blue) they will still be labelled as Photons?

[thunderchero]

labels is a different subject

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=371&p=4798&hilit=We ... 9ef8#p4798

thunderchero

[Darth_Windu]

...my head just exploded

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

Ok I am getting worse instead of better at editing....

so I guess I could use a little more instructions

LOL -> An obvious communication error occurred:

what would you prefer:

Weapon hob-files of ships determined by:

A – the current weapon tech level of the current ship owner (i.e. the "era")

B – the shiplist.sst entry of the ship (i.e. unique for each ship)

Noone responded. Consequently, I didn't waste my time with setting up one of the codes.

I'll try to post instructions for option B soon.

[Tethys]

I think this could be of great use, by all means do those codes!

[Darth_Windu]

If it helps, I'd much rather being able to set unique colours for each ship rather than by era.

[Peter1981]

I agree DW setting the phaser, plasma, and photon based on shiplist index seems to be the best option as most comprehensive, but we'll need a lot of new gif's if there's to be veriety between ships.

[thunderchero]

I agree DW setting the phaser, plasma, and photon based on shiplist index seems to be the best option as most comprehensive, but we'll need a lot of new gif's if there's to be veriety between ships.

You could also use different torpedeo types (hob) as below



thunderchero

[geon]

Vegemite beams? Dropbear torpedoes???? lol
Ah yes, the perfect anti Borg weapons! Try adapting to those!!!!

Seriously though, I was thinking of something a little more simpler.

Like a different hob for each colour that could be assigned for a specific ship.

For example, currently you have h phaser and h torp hobs for the Federation. In the vanilla version, these are both light blue. I know it's quite easy to replace them with new colours and torp shapes, ie new h phaser and torp hobs, but this just changes the colour/ torp for ALL ships in the Federation.

That's why many mods have green disruptors and torps for the Klingons (instead of the vanilla red). Simply copy the Romulan beam and torp hobs, rename them k phaser and torp, and replace the originals! Presto, canon weapons!)

But again, that is a blanket change for the whole fleet.

What I'm asking is this. Is it possible, using the UE, to have, say h phaser 1 (blue) assigned to one ship and h phaser 2 (orange) assigned to another ship. And will the game be able to differentiate these, or will just one colour still be assigned to the whole Federation?

Take another more complicated example.

For Cardassians, c phaser 1 (purple for the early compression beams), c phaser 2 (orange for phasers some ships have), c phaser 3 (later gold disruptor beams).

Would the current game recognise some ships with the purple beams and some with the orange if I assigned them to different ship models?

And would it upgrade all to the yellow beams at a higher tech level?