Multiple hardpoints for heavy body?

[Watermelon]

This is probably because you are using debug build, it is slow on my end too. Release mod runs well even with speed set to 10x on Athlon 2.4 Ghz.

Something like a max value for a cost of a droid?

yes,the cap is 1000 I think,'tiger' body + 3 ripple rocket definately costs more than 1000,but it displays 1000 in design/build menu.

Do you mean you add "hydra" to all multi-weapon droids? That reminds me: automatic droid naming could also be a small problem, how do we name tanks with multiple weapons? I suppose names would be rather big. Maybe we should only include 'main' weapon name (probably first one).
Not sure how FIRE_SUPPORT works. In the worst case scenario we will figure out by trial and error.

I added a int 'hydra' is added to the droid struct,in template functions it will perform a check 'if ( psTempl->numWeaps > 1 )' if the result is true,a name prefix 'hydra' is added to design name string.

And i'm sure more problems will arise, but that's another side of adding new features.
That tank is equipped with 3 weapons? It is a bit hard to differenciate anything, I wish the screenshot was of a higher resolution.

it only draws the primary weapon at the moment,I changed the render function displayComponentObject,displayComponetObj to use CONNECTOR(hardpoint position) 2,3,4,5,6,7 etc of a pie model for the 2nd and the 3rd weapons' pGraphics and pIMD,but I dont have pie with more than 2 CONNECTORS/hardpoints(CONNECTORS 0 is main turret position 1 is reserved for VOTL(lower) turret position ) to test it.

It will also be necessary to modify the syntax of assignWeapons.txt. We can probably agree on the highest number of weapons a droid can have (3, 4?) and depending on that number add trailing 0's.

Well done.

thanks,the interface is very inflexible,I just hacked it to make it display additional 2 buttons for auxiliary weapons after main turret is set,so the max weapon is 3,that is the only problem that prevents you from having more than 3  weapons,the rest of source uses the value of #define DROID_MAXWEAPS.I didnt change the structure's number of weapons though.

BTW if needed, we can organize a small meeting on IRC, 10 minutes can be worth of days of forum postings.

We sometimes hang out on freenode servers, in #warzone.

I tried getting on that server,but I get booted by ping timeouts every few minutes,dont why. 

[Troman]

I tried getting on that server,but I get booted by ping timeouts every few minutes,dont why. 

Have you tried some other servers? Here's a list: http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml

[Watermelon]

Finally fixed the render problem(it was a glitch of the 'displayCompObj' function,that function only sets 1 matrix previously,now it sets/ends 1 per weapon loop) and the pie model connectors problems with the help of Troman.

Here is the screenshot of the 'Light Cannon hydra Viper tracks',you may not find the difference between regular LCVT and this one at a glance,but if you look carefully you will notice it costs more and has more HPs and 3 light cannons:(the 3rd one's Vector z is a bit low and half of the cannon is 'sunk' into the body)

[img width=300 height=249]http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/7294/wz44ia0.jpg[/img]

[Troman]

Now with triple firepower Light Cannon might actually be usefull for something.

Have you already tested it in the game?

[Watermelon]

Now with triple firepower Light Cannon might actually be usefull for something.

Have you already tested it in the game?

yep,I have finished all modifications to 'backend' functions such as TurretAlign,Targeting,ActionInRange tests against multiple targets etc to support this feature before test in game.

The 'hydra tank' works fine in game,it shoots 3 cannon projectiles and has 1 reloadbar for each cannon,the 2nd and 3rd dont have muzzleflash effects at the moment because the weapon IMD extract function was #define as a macro 'Weapon_IMD' pointing to '(asWeaponStats[Droid->asWeaps[0].nStats])->pIMD',but it's very easy to fix.

'hydra LCVT' in action:

[img width=300 height=278]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1197/wz55al7.jpg[/img]

[Suprano]

Cool Features.
What would happen, if e.g. a Truck got weapons?
Funny idea *g*

--Ano

[Troman]

And what would happen if there were fortresses with 4 weapons? 

[Watermelon]

Cool Features.
What would happen, if e.g. a Truck got weapons?
Funny idea *g*

--Ano

that will be buggy cause a droid can only pick 1 AI profile,so either construct turret will not work or the weapons wont target/shoot at targets,exclusively.I'll need to disable the tabs for utility if the droid has more than 1 weapon.

And what would happen if there were fortresses with 4 weapons?

adding multiple weapons to structure should be relatively easy with the changes I made,at least you dont need to change the design interface for structures,and all units/structures shared the same 'droid' base object in wz,so the structures multiple weapons feature can be done with only few changes in structures.c.

[C01eMaN]

Good Work Watermelon You deserve A Beer My Friend!! 

[Watermelon]

Good Work Watermelon You deserve A Beer My Friend!! 

Glad you like the idea.

I have fixed most of the bugs/exploits I could find in my modfied source files,and it's pretty stable now.Here are the latest 1024x768 screenshots captured with 'release' build:

Dual Medium Cannon Scorpion leaving the factory:
[img width=300 height=225]http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/1608/w ... 057sl9.jpg[/img]
full size:http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/1608/w ... 057sl9.jpg

Hydra python(armed with heavy cannon and 2 twin tank-killer) marching
[img width=300 height=225]http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/4714/w ... 064ce9.jpg[/img]
full size:http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/4714/w ... 064ce9.jpg

Hydra python unleasing 2 twin tank-killer upon the poor AI's derrick:
[img width=300 height=225]http://img315.imageshack.us/img315/5903 ... 072to2.jpg[/img]
full size:http://img315.imageshack.us/img315/5903 ... 072to2.jpg

Mortar Hydra python:(armed with 1 heavy mortar and 2 light mortars)
[img width=300 height=225]http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/3311/w ... 080rs1.jpg[/img]
full size:http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/3311/w ... 080rs1.jpg

[Troman]

Seems like most of the bodies are too small to carry more than one weapon. Only few weapon don't seem to be out of proportion like Machinegun, Mortar and Minipod.

I don't know what we should do about that.
Just look at Leopard Tracks Twin Assault Gun.

Isn't that funny?

Maybe we should adapt body scaling to the number of weapon used, the way it is done with propultions now: propultions are scaled (actually replaced) depending on body size. We could do the same, whenever a second weapon is placed on a droid we replace body with a bigger pie model to fit more than 1 weapon. Although it would require some modifications to body code and data, it sounds like a good solution to me.

Good/bad/ugly?

[Troman]

There's also another possible solution which seems to be more elegant to me: we simply introduce new multiturret bodies (multiplayer/skirmish only), 1 body for each tech level.

T1 - I'd say max 2 weapon slots, shouldn't be very big
T2 - 2 or 3 weapon slots
T3 - 4 or 5 weapon slots, a huge body, like a mobile fortress. Could resemble Leviathan from UT2004:


BTW this is how a tank should look like:

Couldn't resist to post it.

[Watermelon]

yea all bodies are too 'narrow' and some weapons are too big(especially late game ones),with hover propulsion it looks more rediculous,not sure if you can change the 'scale' of a pie without changing the actual data files though.

Another problem is the design window is running out of space,there is no more rooms for buttons after the 2 buttons for 2nd and 3rd turret I added.

Maybe a better solution is to add another component(like the component version of armor they planned to add) to extend the size of a body,without replacing all exist body pies with bigger versions.

[Watermelon]

After fixing another 2 crashes(both related to 'order' a non-combat droid to ATTACK_TARGET,numWeaps safety checks were commented-out by someone dont why),it's stable now.

Load/Save seems to be functioning,though it will convert all old save to a temporary new format save_version_99(Droid's turretRotation/turretPitch are arrays now,save struct change inevitable),so you should avoid loading old save games/make backups before loading old save games.

For Campaign I am not sure,it does work with the first mission,but I dont know if there will be any potential problem in later missions because of the changes I made.

Thankfully,there was no changes affected the netcode.I did a mp test with 2 human 6 ai with 'release' build in map 'T2 clover?',the game lasted about 1 hour and didnt get a single crash.There were minor desync problems but I dont think they have anything to do with the changes(structure building progress/defence structure animation desync)

Summary of things I changed:
1.Multi-turret support in design screen,in-game,optional,you can still use 1 weapon on heavy bodies,body template will become valid when the first turret is selected.
2.Added 2 'CONNECTORS' for every body pie I could find.
3.Turret number based on body size,currently:
All Light bodies - 1 turret
All Medium bodies - 2 turrets
All Heavy/Super-Heavy bodies - 3 turrets
4.Added engine output as a factor when calculating the basespeed,droid gets 50% basespeed bonus if ( droidengineOutput > droidTotalWeight )

Known problems:
1.AIs dont use multi-turret droids at all.
2.AIs get owned so easily by human players' multi-turret droids.  ;D
3.The price gets 'capped' to 1000 with certain designs,e.g:Tri-Ripple tiger only costs 1000
4.Duplicated design name possible.
5.Any potential crash problems.

Should I attach the source patch against rev 431 here as attachments or send them to developers for review?

P.S:Let me know if you want to try this build in windows,I have windows binaries compiled with VC express(requires VC8 redist)

[Troman]

Load/Save seems to be functioning,though it will convert all old save to a temporary new format save_version_99(Droid's turretRotation/turretPitch are arrays now,save struct change inevitable),so you should avoid loading old save games/make backups before loading old save games.

What about creating and loading new save games, do new savegames work properly?

Summary of things I changed:
1.Multi-turret support in design screen,in-game,optional,you can still use 1 weapon on heavy bodies,body template will become valid when the first turret is selected.
2.Added 2 'CONNECTORS' for every body pie I could find.

Do all bodies need 2 connectors, even tiny ones? Will that automatically allow us to put 2 weapons on them?

3.Turret number based on body size,currently:
All Light bodies - 1 turret
All Medium bodies - 2 turrets
All Heavy/Super-Heavy bodies - 3 turrets

I really don't know if Medium and Heavy bodies can handle 2 and 3 turrets, respectively. I mean that will probably look ugly with most of the weapons. I think it will be better if we add new bodies for this purpose, some fresh wind so to speak.

I have created an overview of body data for this purpose, for an easier orientation:
http://wz2100.net/wiki/user:body_table

4.Added engine output as a factor when calculating the basespeed,droid gets 50% basespeed bonus if ( droidengineOutput > droidTotalWeight )

Where is engine output defined, in propultions.txt? Was it completely unused up till now? Are you sure 50% is not too much? We don't have as many Schumachers to put them into every single tank.

We should probably fuzzify this engine output/speed bonus relation.

Known problems:
1.AIs dont use multi-turret droids at all.

AI uses pre-defined template list.

2.AIs get owned so easily by human players' multi-turret droids.  ;D

Now that's a problem.  ;D

Should I attach the source patch against rev 431 here as attachments or send them to developers for review?

I don't know about this, I don't have a tool to apply patches, unless the patch is done with TortoiseSVN, maybe Devurandom can do this when he has time or you can create patch with TortoiseSVN and I can look at it.