Plasma weapons

[DCER]

If this game we're not rushed we would have plasma cannons for our ships to use. But fear not, we may still get our hands on them

In 1.0.2 there's a bug with Galaxy II, so it does up to 640 additional damage. This is because it has extra weapon data that no other ship has. If it were not for this bug, we would have never found the meaning of those bytes. Maybe it was left there on purpose?

Anyway, to get almost fully working plasma cannons on your Galaxy, this is what you do:

EDIT: This will only work on 1.0.2 as in 1.0.3 the bug was fixed!

Code: Select all

In trek.exe at 0x9574C replace: A4 01 00 00 ..... with 64 02 00 00 90 90 90 90 90

What this does is - it tests the ship data for plasma weapons. If they are set to 0, the ship fires phasers. If not it fires plasma cannons.

Make a copy of kplasma.hob rename it to hplasma.hob and put it into stbof.res

This gives the feds plasma graphics to use.

The graphics don't work properly when other ships use plasma, but with Galaxy the shots are properly shown! We need to find out why and we can give plasma to other ships!

The downside is a ship can only use either plasma or phasers this way, never both.

Another issue is the weapon descriptions. I suggest we use phasers for damage etc. And set number of plasma cannons to equal number, but let the damage be 0. This way only phaser damage is used and also show properly in the description. All that is left to do then is to manipulate the weapon descriptions to show plasma cannons instead of phaser banks/arrays etc where needed.

Ok, so here is a screenshot of plasma cannons in action. Not as pretty as it could be but working properly

[DCER]

after some more testing, the plasma still gets sideways sometimes

[Weirdness]

very cool. I think I can be safe saying I am NOT the only one annoyed at B'rels, K'vorts, and Defiants firing beam weapons!!! This, I think is has potential for being a huge breakthrough for tactical combat and correcting applicable ship weapons assuming it can be applied to other ship classes with later tweaking!!!

EDIT: Come to think of it, I don't ever recall seeing Romulan Warbirds fire beams either in any of the shows they were in...

[thunderchero]

after some more testing, the plasma still gets sideways sometimes

I also did some testing and on same test I just changed angle I was replaying from and plasma shot would go sideways depending on my point of view.

thunderchero

[stardust]

haha, neat discovery DCER

I can't help but wonder why the creators gave the Galaxy class plasma cannons though.

[JeanLucPicard1]

They look like the anti-matter spread from BOBW. Maybe each class of ship was supposed to have a special weapon like in Armada.

This is terrific though. That means if we can get the textures smaller, shorter, and tweak the color we can give the Defiant pulse phasers and beta quadrant races disruptors.

[Dr_Breen]

where are these plasma guns fired from? do they use the phaser hardpoints? if not we might save some more phaser slots, by giving the klingons disruptors only...however this would cause an issue in the weapondescription though except if somebody allready found a solution for it.

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

I repost the data regarding the (supposed?) plasma weapon stats:
ship function 04 /for "command and control"


Relative offsets in shiplist.sst of the Galaxy II- (default values)

+0xB4 (01) attNum: = howmany special beam weapons

+0xB8 (96) attLev: = Beam Accuracy

+0xBC (08 ) attMul: = Beam Multiplier

+0xC0 (50) attStr: = amount of beam damage

+0xC4 (0C) Shield Penetration

+0xC8 (01)

+0x101-103 (E0 75 40) MaxRange

-> None MinRange found yet



Edit:

begin of plasma project

code for plasma (exclusively)

The graphics don't work properly when other ships use plasma, but with Galaxy the shots are properly shown! We need to find out why and we can give plasma to other ships!

Maybe value at +0xC8 has something to do with this? Did you test a full transfer of all values above to other ships?

Or is there an undiscovered hardpoint for the weapon on the Galaxy hob?

Or is it fired like torpedo just from hob centerpoint (or from phaser hardpoints)?

I suggest we use phasers for damage etc. And set number of plasma cannons to equal number, but let the damage be 0. This way only phaser damage is used and also show properly in the description.

The third weapon is calculated as beam but the grapic behave is that of a torpedo or bolt. Can this "combat calculation" of the weapon be influenced?

All that is left to do then is to manipulate the weapon descriptions to show plasma cannons instead of phaser banks/arrays etc where needed.

Sounds good, but weapon lable isn't ship dependant but by build by & weapontech build requirement.

after some more testing, the plasma still gets sideways sometimes

Again, as I said, we would need a full 3D redo of plasma hobs & gifs in order to fix that. Currently only a nearly round torpedo like animation will work properly. Disuptor blots, pulse phasers & plasma weapons as shown have to be full 3D reworked.

Also,as jean-luc said, addaption of textures "smaller, shorter" for bolts/pulse or the possibility to implement a second type of torpedo per race is interesting too.

[DCER]

Or is it fired like torpedo just from hob centerpoint (or from phaser hardpoints)?

From what I've seen it fires as a torpedo.

The third weapon is calculated as beam but the grapic behave is that of a torpedo or bolt. Can this "combat calculation" of the weapon be influenced?

What I thought was that we could use the bug. If it's adding plasma damage to phaser damage for the Galaxy, maybe we can just let the phasers do the damage and only the graphics would be changed.

Sounds good, but weapon lable isn't ship dependant but by build by & weapontech build requirement.

Maybe we could find a way to fix that. We know where the code is, thanks to Gowron.

Again, as I said, we would need a full 3D redo of plasma hobs & gifs in order to fix that. Currently only a nearly round torpedo like animation will work properly. Disuptor blots, pulse phasers & plasma weapons as shown have to be full 3D reworked.

I hope someone more knowledgeable in making hob files tries it, as I know little about designing 3D objects

[thunderchero]

Or is it fired like torpedo just from hob centerpoint (or from phaser hardpoints)?

From what I've seen it fires as a torpedo.

I hate to disagree with the master but plasma fires from top of saucer like phasers do, while torpedoes fire from deflector area (center of hob).

The third weapon is calculated as beam but the grapic behave is that of a torpedo or bolt. Can this "combat calculation" of the weapon be influenced?

Not sure why you think it behaves like a torpedo, during replay torpedoes stay visiable and plasma will vanish like a phaser.

Again, as I said, we would need a full 3D redo of plasma hobs & gifs in order to fix that. Currently only a nearly round torpedo like animation will work properly. Disuptor blots, pulse phasers & plasma weapons as shown have to be full 3D reworked.

Until we understand how a flat object like torpedoes rotates with players persective this may not be possible. (I have already tried to reconvert plasma hob) every time I try to convert hottohob crashes. If we make a new 3d object texture will never look correct from all angles. so new object will not work as far as I can tell.

although I have added some lines from photon.hob to plasma hob. but they still go sideways

I wish I had better news, But I have not given up yet

thunderchero

[Peter1981]

this is a daft idea:

but in theory couldn't you replace the plasma.hob with and old hob you like?

e.g. could a Galaxy class lob oberths at the enemy??

[stardust]

why not...i've seen someone else on here replace the ferengi's torpedoes with Latinum bars

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

The graphics don't work properly when other ships use plasma, but with Galaxy the shots are properly shown! We need to find out why and we can give plasma to other ships!

That's just a lucky default view and has nothing to do with the Galaxy, or one of plasma weapon settings as I guessed. But it seems some ships have a better default viewing angle for plasma e.g. Galaxy & Ambassador.

The third weapon is calculated as beam but the grapic behave is that of a torpedo or bolt. Can this "combat calculation" of the weapon be influenced?

What I thought was that we could use the bug. If it's adding plasma damage to phaser damage for the Galaxy, maybe we can just let the phasers do the damage and only the graphics would be changed.

Yep I read. But since Phaser AND Plasma is calculated as beam that wouldn't cause a change here.
And the bug isn’t just adding plasma damage. It’s adding the shot but with phaser.hob.

I suggest we use phasers for damage etc. And set number of plasma cannons to equal number, but let the damage be 0. This way only phaser damage is used

As far as I understand you'll use plasma values only to switch beam/plasma, i.e. plasma attNum larger than zero = plasma. Has the "number of plasma cannons" value a real meaning unless its zero?

plasma fires ... like phasers do

You’re right. It shows up at best by klingon BoPs.

Not sure why you think it behaves like a torpedo, during replay torpedoes stay visiable and plasma will vanish like a phaser.

I'll try to explain what I meant (regarding the projectile/packet nature of the animation):

-A torpedo can cause damage after the shooter ship is destroyed. Take a look at DCER’s posted pic above. What happens if Galaxy would be destroyed before the fired plasmas hited the target? The beam calculation doesn’t support this afaik.
But now I’ve seen animation speed is fast enough. Only fired against fast targets (avoiding/retreating) plasma performs sometimes a parabolic trajectory. And sometimes it's funny to see how the plasma jumps around a target if missed.

-A torpedo does either the full damage or nothing (hit or missed). Whilst beam damage reduces with the combat distance (and there is some part of torpedo combat calculation not found yet). Hence do we want plasma being degenerative by distance?

Until we understand how a flat object like torpedoes rotates with players persective this may not be possible. (I have already tried to reconvert plasma hob) every time I try to convert hottohob crashes. If we make a new 3d object texture will never look correct from all angles. so new object will not work as far as I can tell.

Maybe I was wrong, seems just a vector issue during my tests. Basicaly the grapic can support all viewing angles (including back/front). Strange since phaser hob supports vector always properly.
And btw I'm impressed there is a lot potential. By the right view a plasma attack looks amazing, almost like the Defiant in the shows.
I hope there is a way to solve this vector & viewing angle issue.

Also the displayed plasma size seems related to the ship sizes but still too large.
-> test d'Deridex

[jigalypuff]

i have replaced the torpedo hobs with a totaly different mesh, it is easy to do

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

I think this interesting project deserves a bump.


Sub_496340 switches the plasma/phaser weapons.

For plasma:
496380 mov edx, 3 -> sound effect (2&3=phaser sound)
49639D mov edx, 3 -> graphic location & movement


DCER’s code above checks shiplist.sst at +0xBC (plasma attMul). Thus we set this to 1 for all ships supposed to fire pulse weapons instead of beams.

Unfortunately there're still two major issues which I wasn't able to solve:

1. vector issue of the graphics representation (unless jigalypuff is willing to support the project with his knowledge of longish but vector stable torpedo HOBs)

2. the graphics size depends on the ship size (unlike torpedoes)


Now I hope that some of you who are more familiar with graphic editing can support the project.
It won't be perfect, but even provisional pulse-phasers for Defiant & disruptor-bolts for klingon BoPs would be great.

Here’s “the planâ€