#0003 -- BuildingTypes and related bugs Options

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HyperPatch Development Discussion #0003

Topic Theme: Adding possible new logic's to BuildingTypes, fixing existing bug and moving some global values to BuildingTypes.

This topic is for everything related to BuildingTypes, what new things would you like to see? What bugs would you like to be fixed? And what global values (eg. SpotlightAngle= for example) moved to BuildingTypes to have a wider arrange of visual effects and logic's

-Hyper

This post has been edited by CCHyper: Aug 3 2009, 12:12 AM

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One thing that'd surely be useful is if building would accept all flags units do, aside from movement related flags (like speed, locomotor, speedtype, etc.).
That way you could for example have buildings which deploy into another one and then back into itself; this could be a productive and defensive mode for example.

See, i dont think i can make them "deploy" as you say, into another type, but what i can do it change its image on certain events...

Other than that I can only think of a couple Art.ini flags; StartFiringFrame, FiringSyncFrame1 and FiringSyncFrame2 (and also have the firing frames work when firing a SW... Although that should happen already if the EMP SW logic is used). The "Stand" anim could be useful as well (as an idle anim), although it doesn't even work for units...

Hm, i dont quite know how them keys work. But the SuperWeapon firing animation is already in the game, its just that, something stops it...

The firing frames are imo also not very useful, since 8 facings for the animated turret would look bad for buildings. That's why there should be first a new standard developed for animations.
1. make 32 facings for SHP units without turret work. This way you would get the necessary code for 32 facings firinganims too.
2. make 32 facings animated SHP turrets work for buildings.

FiringSyncFrame for buildings could be also avoided by making a discharge anim which is played right after the chargeanim.
e.g.
BuildingType.DischargeAnim=
BuildingType.DischargeAnimRate= ;speed at which the anim plays (similar to TurretChargeAnimRate)

Huh, Interesting. Noted.

The building2building deploy is indeed a good thing. Then the TibDawn Bunker SAM would be finally possible again. (or the FMV raising Laser turret) An automatic deploy and undeploy would be also useful for this.
e.g.

[BUNKERSAM]
BuildingType.DeploysInto=DEPSAM
DeployToFire=yes

[DEPSAM]
Primary=RedEye2
BuildingType.UndeploysInto=BUNKERSAM
BuildingType.UndeployInactivityDelay=90 ;after 90 frames without any activity like shooting aircraft, the SAM automatically undeploys

Im gonna shy away from the Building2Building deploy logic, im gonna look into the Tiberian Dawn way of doing things.

Some very important keys which need to be moved to BuildingType.
ReloadRate= ;so Helipads can have a different reloadrate (though maybe it would be even better to move this to aircrafttype, so a hightech banshee needs longer for reload than simple orcas)
BuildupTime= ;to give big buildings a slower Buildup anim than small ones
BuildSpeed= ;to make hightech buildings build slower and base defenses a bit faster independant from the costs
GateUp=
GateDown= ;for different gate sounds on different gates
TeslaCharge=
TeslaZap= ;for different charge and firing sounds on different basedefenses with charge logic

Reload= ;this key doesn't exist in game.exe but still stands in rules.ini from Ra1 and should be made working again, so can set the automatic reload time for the unit/building
On buildings you can use already Ammo, but they reload instantly when the ammo is depleted (units one the other hand reload only on a repairbay or when they play an idleanim like infantry). So this key would be not only useful for buildings but for units too.

All these are planned and im slowly working on

BuildingType.FreeInfantry= ;so we can give a free infantry
BuildingType.FreeUnitNumber= ;so you can give more than just one vehicle
BuildingType.FreeInfantryNumber= ;so you can give more than just one infantry

Planned, i think i might also add the PadAircraft logic to this...

The ConstructionYard= key is the only one that allows to undeploy a building and sell the building. All other deploy keys make selling of the building impossible. Unfortunately is the ConstructionYard key bound to MCVDeploy in the multiplay menu and it has to be active to allow undeploying.
A deployer key which works like ConstructionYard but without the connection to MCVDeploy would be very useful.
e.g. BuildingType.Undeployable=yes

This should be easy.

a key to specify the direction of the deploying unit would be also good (this is normaly bound to the deployerkeys like ConstructionYard or TickTank)
BuildingType.UnitDeployDirection=[Byte 0-7] ;0 facing north, rotating clockwise

This should be a easy one too...

Lin Kuei Ominae[/url]' post='44578']ExitCoord= doesn't work for barracks. should be fixed to make it work on vehicle factories and other factories too.
i would suggest a 2-dimensional value defining the cell where the unit spawns.

ExitCoord should only work with GDIBarracks/NODBarracks=true, test this out...

This post has been edited by CCHyper: Aug 24 2009, 11:27 PM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

ExitCoord should only work with GDIBarracks/NODBarracks=true, test this out...

tested long ago. Both GDIBarracks and NODBarracks make no difference and also in connection with ExitCoord there is no change.
The exit point for infantry is in some way bound to the foundation size.
On 2x2,3x2 it's the south edge of the building
On bigger foundations like 4x3 on my cyborg barracks it's the west edge of the building.

The art.ini powered activeanims are all only working when you are low on power, but keep running when you manually shut down the building.

More info please?

ActiveAnimPowered is an anim which should play only when the player has enough power and when the building has set Powered=yes.
If he is low on power, this anim should stop/freeze on the current frame.
However it only stops when he is low on power, but doesn't stops when he manually shuts down the building.

e.g. the GDI radar stops spinning when on low power, but keeps spinning when you just turn it off.

Since turning off a building is like being low on power just for this building, it should stop the powered anims too.

So the game does not have ExtraBuildingLight anyways? I could do this i think...

Hm, the game reads ExtraLight from a BuildingTypes ART.INI section, could someone test this for me please?

ExtraLight in art.ini is a key which allows to raise the brightness of this building. It's just a key which helps you, when you have made your SHP too dark or bright and adjust it this way a bit afterwards.
However it's no global key which affects all buildings on a map.

Also, would it be possible to make the maps' lighting settings affect buildings (see this)

Hmm, i dont quite know how this works, i think LKO could fill me in here...

huh? how should i know how this works. I have no exe hacking powers like you.

However my suggestion is that the game doesn't considers the unittem.pal when changing the map lighting setting via the [Lighting] section in the map.
Though it correctly changes the palette and applies the ion storm lighting settings when the ion storm is active.
So i would suggest comparing the normal lighting and the one of the ion storm. Maybe there is just a byte which says to disregard the palette for the normal lighting.

and the ability for upgrades to be placed on more than one building eg ion cannon node can be placed on both adv comms center and upgrade center

I dont see why this should be done, could you not just clone the upgrade for that?

The problem is, that you then have 2 or more upgrades in the sidemenu, which are basically the same.
This would be also useful when you have 2 powerplants and both can get the same upgrade turbine
or when you have 2 component towers (a weak low-tech and a strong high-tech) and both should get the same turret upgrades.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Aug 25 2009, 11:39 AM

[Rampastring]

ExtraLight in art.ini is a key which allows to raise the brightness of this building. It's just a key which helps you, when you have made your SHP too dark or bright and adjust it this way a bit afterwards.
However it's no global key which affects all buildings on a map.

Yes, I meant it as a global key which could be used in maps (like the ExtraInfantryLight, ExtraAircraftLight and ExtraUnitLight keys)

However my suggestion is that the game doesn't considers the unittem.pal when changing the map lighting setting via the [Lighting] section in the map.
Though it correctly changes the palette and applies the ion storm lighting settings when the ion storm is active.
So i would suggest comparing the normal lighting and the one of the ion storm. Maybe there is just a byte which says to disregard the palette for the normal lighting.

Yes, then there's also that civilian buildings are affected not only by normal lighting, but also by lightposts. However, I'm not sure if players' buildings are affected by lightposts during Ion storm.

This post has been edited by ^Rampastein: Aug 25 2009, 01:17 PM