All-in-one Helipad + Service Depot, UnitRepair=yes + UnitReload=yes + Helipad=yes gets me nowhere Options

[KajiTetsushi]

AGENDA
I've thought about going convenient by letting aircraft be able to dock, reload and repair at a Service Depot... or Helipad... or whatever.
In effect, I'll hopefully be able to RTB a damaged, empty helicopter and Oscar Mike it back with full ammo and full health, and by using just one repair bay, gameplay imbalance notwithstanding.


APPROACH
1. I took [GADEPT], then shoved one Helipad=yes up the code.
2. I took [GAHPAD], then threw UnitRepair=yes into the code.
3. I took [ORCA], then changed Dock=GAHPAD,NAHPAD to Dock=GAHPAD,GADEPT.


ANSWER
Effect seems the same whatever I do.
Orca Fighter

100% health + 0% ammo >> Land + Reload + Takeoff.
0% health + 0% ammo >> Land + Repair + Reload + Takeoff.

Stealth Tank

Executable crash

It would've been kinda nice if I could somewhat emulate the RA2 Allied Airforce HQ all-in-one Repair + Reload somewhat for the fun of it, but I'm not getting any.

Is this already proven to not work?

This post has been edited by Chris Ichikawa: Dec 13 2010, 04:52 PM

[Team Black]

I think I remember a mod once, maybe it was Total War, that gave helipads a repair weapon with range of like .5

[KajiTetsushi]

I think I remember a mod once, maybe it was Total War, that gave helipads a repair weapon with range of like .5

Wait -- I thought it was already proven that buildings can't use such a thing.
Tthe engine doesn't have a function for the [BuildingTypes] class to repair other object classes, or so I've heard.

Edit: Dug up TSTW's rules.ini. All Helipads are (repair) weaponless. Sorry, TB.

Edit: But yeah, you're right. I can have a healing weapon on a Helipad. The problem with that is that it heals what's around it, but not what landed on it. If I told a damaged, empty Orca to land, it proceeds to reload, but it stops repairing. I can't order it to activate its repair weapon, either. Tried with a damaging weapon and it seems that the attack order also stops working when the aircraft docks with the Helipad.

This post has been edited by Chris Ichikawa: Nov 17 2010, 10:38 AM

[Team Black]

hmm I guess one more thing you could try is Bittah's method of using particle systems with negative damage.

I haven't done a thing with these yet, so I wouldn't have any helpful advice as to how to implement it.
Also worth trying might be to assign a negative damage to the helipad's active anim - though that might only affect the helipad itself.
If it's possible to assign a particle system to animations, you could also possibly make the animation spawn the negative-damage-particle system, which in turn would heal the heli.

LKO would be a better guy to ask about this, he's done all sorts of stuff with anims and particles and stuff

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

I don't think there's a way to do this with anims or PSs, because both would also repair/damage the building.

Using an art.ini anim with negative damage doesn't works. So you're forced to use art.ini debris spawned by the activeanim. However, even if the art.ini debris allow to use a certain warhead (like repair WH with neg verses), the debris still damage the building. Regardless if they have negative damage or positive damage with negative warhead verses and they need at least +1 or -1 damage to use the warhead (with Damage=0 the warhead is ignored).
Thus the building would slowly get destroyed.
You can of course assign a repair particlesystem to the warhead to counter the damage effect of the debris, but this would heal the building also when it got damaged by the enemy.


However i've found a way to give aircraft a selfhealing ability without using the SelfHealing key, which renownedly causes bugs like invincible but constantly rotating aircraft.
You can give the aircraft a special DamageParticleSystem which has negative damage. Since the PS won't hit the unit during the flight, because PS can't hit flying objects, the aircraft will repair only when landed. Thus you get the impression the aircraft gets healed whenever it lands on the helipad. (though only to half strength as then the DamagePS is stopped and it also heals when it lands on normal ground)

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 18 2010, 10:29 AM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Crash? I love crashes, hit me up with a except.txt

[KajiTetsushi]

hmm I guess one more thing you could try is Bittah's method of using particle systems with negative damage.

I haven't done a thing with these yet, so I wouldn't have any helpful advice as to how to implement it.
Also worth trying might be to assign a negative damage to the helipad's active anim - though that might only affect the helipad itself.
If it's possible to assign a particle system to animations, you could also possibly make the animation spawn the negative-damage-particle system, which in turn would heal the heli.

I've tried that already, it doesn't work, but thanks for your suggestion, anyway.

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

Crash? I love crashes, hit me up with a except.txt

But let's try and keep off .exe hacking here.

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

I don't think there's a way to do this with anims or PSs, because both would also repair/damage the building.

Aiiih... Okaaaaay, that's one fun feature down the drain...

Using an art.ini anim with negative damage doesn't works. So you're forced to use art.ini debris spawned by the activeanim. However, even if the art.ini debris allow to use a certain warhead (like repair WH with neg verses), the debris still damage the building. Regardless if they have negative damage or positive damage with negative warhead verses and they need at least +1 or -1 damage to use the warhead (with Damage=0 the warhead is ignored).
Thus the building would slowly get destroyed.
You can of course assign a repair ParticleSystem to the warhead to counter the damage effect of the debris, but this would heal the building also when it got damaged by the enemy.

I see. I'll try that anyway. So, you're saying that I need some kind of debris that has these?

; art.ini

CODE

; *** Animation Overlays ***
; Active animation for helipad.
[GAHPAD_A]
LoopCount=-1
Spawns=REPAIRDEBRIS
SpawnCount=1

; Damaged active animation for helipad.
[GAHPAD_AD]
LoopCount=-1
Spawns=REPAIRDEBRIS
SpawnCount=1

[REPAIRDEBRIS]
Damage=1
Warhead=RepairWH

; rules.ini

CODE

; *** Warhead Characteristics ***
[RepairWH]
Particle=RepairParticleSys

[MechanicalInverseWH]; [Mechanical] with inversed values
Verses=0%,-100%,-100%,-100%,-100%

; *** Particle Systems ***
[RepairParticleSys]
HoldsWhat=RepairSpark
BehavesLike=Spark; let's just pretend it is

; *** Particles ***
[RepairSpark]
Damage=2; or -2?
Warhead=MechanicalInverseWH
BehavesLike=Spark

However i've found a way to give aircraft a selfhealing ability without using the SelfHealing key, which renownedly causes bugs like invincible but constantly rotating aircraft.

Yeah, I know... I discovered that waaaay back then. The aircraft just continues on flying and tumbling because it repairs itself by 1 unit of RepairStep whenever its Strength=0.

You can give the aircraft a special DamageParticleSystem which has negative damage. Since the PS won't hit the unit during the flight, because PS can't hit flying objects, the aircraft will repair only when landed. Thus you get the impression the aircraft gets healed whenever it lands on the helipad. (though only to half strength as then the DamagePS is stopped and it also heals when it lands on normal ground)

Compromise, compromise... Oh, well, I'll try that, too. All I actually wanted was to prevent the aircraft from SelfHealing=yes while flying.

This post has been edited by Chris Ichikawa: Nov 18 2010, 02:38 PM

[Nyerguds]

But let's try and keep off .exe hacking here.

Odd statement. Any insight into the problems that occur when trying this could possible lead to a solution that DOES work, even without hacking. and I see nothing wrong with giving him the opportunity to fix a bug, since he's working on a patch.

This post has been edited by Nyerguds: Dec 7 2010, 11:07 AM

[KajiTetsushi]

Odd statement. Any insight into the problems that occur when trying this could possible lead to a solution that DOES work, even without hacking. and I see nothing wrong with giving him the opportunity to fix a bug, since he's working on a patch.

Quite frankly, I can't tell whether Hyper's being serious or just pulling my leg.

[Nyerguds]

He's absolutely serious. He's been researching the C&C game engines for years, focusing on the TS one. He taught me pretty much everything I know about hacking, and helped me to start the C&C95 patch 1.06 project.

[Devastator]

He's absolutely serious. He's been researching the C&C game engines for years, focusing on the TS one. He taught me pretty much everything I know about hacking, and helped me to start the C&C95 patch 1.06 project.

Now Hyper is a teacher too? Maybe he is a professional C&C hacker now.

Ontopic:I've looked over this idea and it didn't seem to work for me either.

[Nyerguds]

Now? He's been helping me for more than 3 years...

[KajiTetsushi]

You can give the aircraft a special DamageParticleSystem which has negative damage. Since the PS won't hit the unit during the flight, because PS can't hit flying objects, the aircraft will repair only when landed. Thus you get the impression the aircraft gets healed whenever it lands on the helipad. (though only to half strength as then the DamagePS is stopped and it also heals when it lands on normal ground)

I tried it, LKO. It doesn't work.

I mean... I put Damage=-10 into a new spark particle and used it. I get the spark, but no damage or inverse damage.
This gameplay mechanic doesn't seem to be looking so well...

This post has been edited by Chris Ichikawa: Jan 11 2011, 06:27 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Now? He's been helping me for more than 3 years...

Its been that long already?

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

I tried it, LKO. It doesn't work.

I mean... I put Damage=-10 into a new spark particle and used it. I get the spark, but no damage or inverse damage.
This gameplay mechanic doesn't seem to be looking so well...

That's because Particles with BehavesLike=Spark, Smoke, Web or WeakGas can't do any damage. You have to use BehavesLike=Gas or Fire on the Particle.

Here's a working example code

CODE

[ParticleSystems]
xx=AirCraftHealSys

[Particles]
xx=AirCraftHealP

;LKO: add this PS to an Aircrafts DamagePS so it heals slowly itself when landed
;use this instead of bugged SelfHealing=yes
[AirCraftHealSys]
HoldsWhat=AirCraftHealP
BehavesLike=Spark
ParticleCap=2
SparkSpawnFrames=1
SpawnSparkPercentage=100

[AirCraftHealP]
Image=none
MaxDC=1
MaxEC=10
Translucency=0
Damage=-1
Warhead=FirestormWH
BehavesLike=Gas

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Jan 17 2011, 02:26 PM

[KajiTetsushi]

That's because Particles with BehavesLike=Spark, Smoke, Web or WeakGas can't do any damage. You have to use BehavesLike=Gas or Fire on the Particle.

Yup. The code works. Thanks, LKO. =)
I think it's an interesting feature when it's used on mechanical units. It makes SelfHealing=yes on ground units less boring to watch.
BehavesLike=Fire doesn't work based on my observations, though. Apparently, it only works on weapons.

---------

Also, I still don't understand this part.

I don't think there's a way to do this with anims or PSs, because both would also repair/damage the building.

Using an art.ini anim with negative damage doesn't works. So you're forced to use art.ini debris spawned by the activeanim. However, even if the art.ini debris allow to use a certain warhead (like repair WH with neg verses), the debris still damage the building. Regardless if they have negative damage or positive damage with negative warhead verses and they need at least +1 or -1 damage to use the warhead (with Damage=0 the warhead is ignored).
Thus the building would slowly get destroyed.
You can of course assign a repair particlesystem to the warhead to counter the damage effect of the debris, but this would heal the building also when it got damaged by the enemy.

So, does that mean that whatever weapons the enemy uses will not damage, but instead, repair the building?

This post has been edited by Chris Ichikawa: Jan 20 2011, 12:05 PM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

No, the enemy will normally damage the building. But the building would repair itself for free (without the manual wrench repair order), because the particlesystem that is used to undo the damage of the art.ini debris, would give the building more hitpoints than the amount which the debris has taken away.
e.g.
The art.ini debris will always do 1 damage to the building (so the warhead works and can repair the unit landed on the pad).
Thus the warhead used by the debris, creates a repair particlesystem.
However the randomness of the PS causes it to repair more than 1 hitpoint. This randomness also prevents to make the PS repair exact 1 hitpoint, thus it has to be a tad more than the damage, or the building would destroy itself slowly.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Jan 21 2011, 09:04 PM