The Final Strike

Post about your finished mods here.
AdmiralZo
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Location: Scouring Dantalion System for CSC Antarctica...

I'm trying to install them on the side turrets. However they keep on installing only onto the port-side turret, resulting in multiple weapons on one turret, and none on the other. I noticed that the Minotaur only allows one weapon on the turret, so there must be some way to do it.

Is it possible to do something like this:

Code: Select all

		<DeviceSlots>
			<DeviceSlot id="portTurret" criteria="p" 	linkedFire="whenInFireArc"	minFireArc="355" maxFireArc="175" posAngle="90" posRadius="24" posZ="8"/>

			<DeviceSlot id="starboardTurret" criteria="p" 		linkedFire="whenInFireArc"	minFireArc="160" maxFireArc="5" posAngle="-90" posRadius="24" posZ="8"/>
		</DeviceSlots>

		
		
		<Devices>
			<Device deviceID="&itStarCannon;" deviceSlotID="starboardTurret"/>
			<Device deviceID="&itStarCannon;" deviceSlotID="portTurret"/>
		</Devices>
relanat
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Quick addition to the post. George has added some <DeviceSlot> stuff but only to 1.8b1. Before that IIRC you need big slabs of code to set properties to device slots. NMS suggested it somewhere in the Ministry and there is more info in the API 40 Ministry topic.

Otherwise:

WOW! DigaRW is right. Definitely worth the wait. Well done. I agree with JBW that the mod quality and content are very good and it merges really well with Part One and Two.

Some quick observations (trying not to include too many spoilers):
"At least we won't be killing you as well". Awesome. Very undiplomatic!

Love the minefields. Excellent. Not so happy about them destroying the freighters I'm escorting. Shrugs. There's a war on!

Point Juventia system looks great.

Sindikat Lord bombs are very original. Nice one.

Great looking effect on the EMP missiles as well.

"We've mostly cleaned this system of its filth." Excellent!

The 'change ship' A... to P... is done really well. Well thought out and executed brilliantly.

Making the crates radioactive is very sneaky. Thumbs up!

And for people who can't read properly when they are so excited about a new adventure (that would be me too), my mistake was to extract the additional resources into the Resources folder directly from the zip files. That didn't work. My bad. You need to take the images out of the folders TheFinalStrikeResources1 and 2 and copy them directly into the Resources folder, otherwise the game can't find them (if you leave the additional folders in there you get duplicate UNID errors as well).
So basically I should have read the instructions. :lol: . What you need is one Resources folder with all the images and no extra folders.

A few comments:

The BM attacks might be better as groups of two or three. ATM its difficult to get them as they come singly from all directions (which admittedly is good tactics). If they are in a group the player can get more firepower onto more enemy at the same time.

Some of the missions are long. The freighters are slow. Add nebula and you might as well go make a cup of coffee!
Possibly you could spawn the weaponized-Polars used by the Fleet near the station (200 ls?) and have the player meet the ship there. Then start the attack. The Polar might get destroyed by other nearby ships before the player gets there though.
Maybe add a bigger thrust effect to Celendinne's ship and up the speed a bit. That along with a distance restriction to his station would help. When the station is on the other side of the system it takes a long time to get there. This side quest is definitely worth doing.
Escorting CSCs to stargates takes forever.The CSCs are really slow. Once they start changing systems they have a habit of wanting to go from system to system without doing much in each system. So long trips between stargates become very common. With a max speed of 2 and 1400ls to the gate you can have a nap while it gets there. A "We'll meet you in the next system" option might work. As the playership gates to the next system the CSC appears behind it. Like when your autons/wingmen appear immediately behind you even though they were a long way behind in the previous system.

There could be a scanning requirement to find Vermein. So scan for 5 or 10 seconds to find him, get a target lock, then if you lose him by say 150 ls or more, the target lock breaks and you need to scan again. ATM it seems too easy but that might only be in faster ships.

I found armor repair to be problem in some systems. There were a few armor repair kits around but they don't do much to octocarbide or higher armor. And damage levels were high, make that extremely high, in a lot of systems. Possibly the Comm settlements in the non-standard systems could be upgraded so they can fix armor up to higher levels.

Played the Wolfen. Although it has a targeting computer already installed, a visual display/SRS enhancement as standard would be nice.

The leveled-up loot is good. SOTP has segments of ceramic armor and other really low level stuff as standard loot in higher level systems which is pretty pointless (and worthless). Finding higher-level useful stuff is a very nice change. I'm assuming this is because of your code.

I also failed the 'protect the settlement from the capital ship' mission twice when the attacking ship (G...) destroyed the station long before I got there. Use playership speed or playership distance from the station, maybe, to calculate when the enemy ship starts attacking so there is a chance of success?

The Sisters mission showed a "Mission failed" pyMessage even though they gated out.

Also the journalist mission failed if only one ship made it out of the system.

What is the 800 which appears over the Aquila? Hull strength?

As JBW said, no major problems only a few glitches. To be expected in a mod as large as this one. Well done. Some bug reports and suggestions over in the Drawing Board topic.

Game balance suggestion: I've played a fair bit now and the number of Fleet missions you have to do to progress to the 'larger' missions might be a bit too high. It seems like more than a dozen missions before you get access to Point Juventia. Maybe cap it at eight missions or so. This is only an initial impression though, definitely needs more gameplay to check it.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
AdmiralZo
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Location: Scouring Dantalion System for CSC Antarctica...

WOW! DigaRW is right. Definitely worth the wait. Well done. I agree with JBW that the mod quality and content are very good and it merges really well with Part One an
Haha, thank you! When I started with this adventure, I was planning to make the systems in the new chains more unique - but never got around to implementing it. Maybe in the next version... :D

Some of the missions are long. The freighters are slow. Add nebula and you might as well go make a cup of coffee!
I might try JBW's suggestion here - increase the thrust of the freighters.

There could be a scanning requirement to find Vermein. So scan for 5 or 10 seconds to find him, get a target lock, then if you lose him by say 150 ls or more, the target lock breaks and you need to scan again. ATM it seems too easy but that might only be in faster ships.
The "I'm here!" message that Vermein sends was meant for testing purposes only. But guess who forgot to remove it? :oops: The scanning requirement sounds interesting.

The leveled-up loot is good. SOTP has segments of ceramic armor and other really low level stuff as standard loot in higher level systems which is pretty pointless (and worthless). Finding higher-level useful stuff is a very nice change. I'm assuming this is because of your code.
I think this is a by-product of the high system levels. The systems towards the end of the chain are level 14, whereas the highest in SoTP is only 10.

Also the journalist mission failed if only one ship made it out of the system.
This is meant to happen. Both ships need to make it out safely.

What is the 800 which appears over the Aquila? Hull strength?
Yes, that is the hull strength. I wanted it to be below the ship, like the health bars on capital ships/stations, but couldn't get it to work. It is only 800 after you upgrade right???
PM
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While the player does not get the exact same health bars as enemy ships, you could use something like the neuroplague overlays for hull.
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AdmiralZo
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Location: Scouring Dantalion System for CSC Antarctica...

PM wrote:
Thu Mar 22, 2018 1:33 pm
While the player does not get the exact same health bars as enemy ships, you could use something like the neuroplague overlays for hull.
I'm guessing that this is from EP, which I don't have...yet. What do the neuroplague overlays look like? Could you please provide a sample of the code?
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AssumedPseudonym
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 One of my TBR playerships has interior HP, and the way I handle its interior HP is to show a bar under the ship with its current/max HP if there is any damage to the hull, similar to how damage to capships is currently displayed (though only for hull as opposed to overall damage). Part of the code goes on the ship itself, part goes on the overlay.

 Shipside code in the <Events> section:

Code: Select all

			<OnCreate>
				
				(sysAddObjRecurringTimerEvent 1 gSource "InteriorDamageOverlay")
			</OnCreate>
			<InteriorDamageOverlay>
				(if
					(ls (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'interiorHP) (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'maxInteriorHP))
					(objAddOverlay gPlayerShip &ovAEPariahInteriorDamage; 2) ; The overlay needs to last for two ticks, not just one, to be painted on screen.
				)
			</InteriorDamageOverlay>
 (For anyone else taking notes, this does mean that anyone running a capship mod with similar overlays in a TBR game is going to have multiple HP displaying on capship playerships once someone gets past your armor. Mod interactions are fun that way.)

 The overlay code itself:

Code: Select all

	<OverlayType UNID="&ovAEPariahInteriorDamage;"
		>
		<Counter style="progress"
			color="#cc6666"
			max="100"
		/>

		<Events>
			<OnCreate>
				(block nil
					(objSetOverlayProperty gSource aOverlayID 'counter (divide (multiply 100 (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'interiorHP)) (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'maxInteriorHP)))
					(objSetOverlayProperty gSource aOverlayID 'counterLabel (cat "Hull integrity: " (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'interiorHP) "/" (objGetProperty gPlayerShip 'maxInteriorHP)))
				)
			</OnCreate>
		</Events>

	</OverlayType>
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AdmiralZo
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That works perfectly! Thank you AP.
relanat
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AP wrote:One of my TBR playerships has interior HP, and the way I handle its interior HP is to show a bar under the ship with its current/max HP if there is any damage to the hull,
Is it OK for me to use this in my mods as well? Credit and thanks would obviously be included. I haven't checked it out yet but it sounds good.
AdmiralZo wrote: Yes, that is the hull strength. I wanted it to be below the ship, like the health bars on capital ships/stations, but couldn't get it to work. It is only 800 after you upgrade right???
I can't remember much about the number showing over the Aquila except that it got down to 7 at one stage :shock: Not enough playing to work out what was happening. I did hit the Upgrade Hull action a couple of times but wasn't sure what it was doing. Maybe add more info in the scrDesc as you upgrade? Can't remember clearly what happened.

Another alternative is to use a StationType with the station name as the hull strength value. See RPC's Speedometer mod on xelerus for an example. This mod shows the ship speed below the ship as a number. The mod does cause lag because it also shows the speed of NPCs within 30 ls, but it will show what happens. I've got a cut down version for only the playership which I'll attach somewhen.


The side turret installation problem sounds like what I ran into when I started modding.
See https://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=54428
The device slot code to allow this was only added in 1.8b1 though. See API 40 Ministry topic.

Regarding the "---------->" to ---- -->"thing, this wasn't a problem previously. I was checking back over some older mods and it was in them as well. I suspect it is something new added in 1.8a3 to refine the XML specs used in the game. The game still works but let's you know to refine your code. Similar to starting XML tags with numbers (see https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8538).
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
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AssumedPseudonym
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relanat wrote:
AP wrote:One of my TBR playerships has interior HP, and the way I handle its interior HP is to show a bar under the ship with its current/max HP if there is any damage to the hull,
Is it OK for me to use this in my mods as well? Credit and thanks would obviously be included. I haven't checked it out yet but it sounds good.
 If the answer to that question was going to be “no,” I would have sent it to Zo as a PM. ^.~ Feel free to borrow it.
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Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
relanat
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Woah! I thought I'd have a closer look at the suicide Polar as it went off. BIG mistake! :D
Luckily I was in a GodShip.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
AdmiralZo
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Location: Scouring Dantalion System for CSC Antarctica...

Haha. I'm not sure what happened between version 1.7 Beta and 1.8. Before, the blast did not even cut through the player's shields, but now, you'll be lucky to survive the same explosion.
nemo88
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Epic adventure...
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Alandra
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I tried The Final Strike recently. I like your concept very much, and it's clear you've put a lot of work into this. Thanks!

Some comments and suggestions:

-Most systems have no place to sell anything, leading to money issues and a probable early death by lack of fuel. Even if the Ranx are made friendly-- and I'm glad that choice appears-- their marketplaces only sell, they don't buy. This should be fixed. And of course, the CSCs don't buy anything. This means that the player has to conserve their initial fuel until they get to the clusters of Commonwealth Settlements inside the rings of mines. I would add some late-game stations like Adventure Outfitters/Teratons/Ringer Shipyards along the way so the player can sell some loot and refuel.

-The Professor Calendinne mission seems interesting, but I think it should be made easier. The Luminous drones hanging out at the gate can eliminate Calendinne's Manticore escorts and drop his armor levels before the mission even starts. Then the Molotoks spawning multiple times at close range and from all directions makes it nearly impossible to finish. I would suggest removing a couple Molotoks and having them approach in clusters rather than separately. They could also spawn a bit further away. That way the Wolfen's lancer and MAG (for instance) have a chance of working against them.

-I love seeing some of the Ares mining and cloning infrastructure. Great work creating that! I assume there are missions dealing with them, but I'm not sure how to find them. I thought they might start at Point Juventia, but no missions are offered there.

-Some of the stargates launch the player onto the next system's sun, rather than onto the next stargate.

-The Svalbard explorer missions are very cool and create a pleasantly spooky atmosphere. I like your custom graphics for the partially destroyed wrecks. The pressure mechanic and the measurement device are great ideas. I think the first Iocrym mission might be a little too hard. The Command Ships could be moved further apart from each other and/or farther away from the player, creating more opportunities to shoot down their Quantumsphere shells. Giving the player a chance to find and install a Longreach while still in Ares space would also make sense to me. (Throwing in some Outfitters or Thor stations would make that possible.)

I'm running 1.8b4, so some of this stuff might be related to all the changes in 1.8. I look forward to trying future versions, if you wind up creating them.
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Warped95
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I've come across a few bugs or weird things in my playthroughs.

Number 1 issue is that Point Juventia missions seems bugged. After the first mission is activated, you can trigger the fail condition any time after you've already finished the mission by flying over the Juventia system's sun or around that area and leads to Juventia stuck in a blank screen for the rest of the playthrough. Other Juventia missions also randomly break and leads to the blank screen issue even with successful mission completion.

e.g. in one of my runs during the bomb mission, after you've destroyed the outpost and successfully recovered the data, returning to Juventia resulted in a blank screen.

Another bug that I've found is that you can still turn mark in to the commonwealth fleet even after you've already safely delivered him to his hideout and done a number of missions for the Rogue fleet.


Final thing is a QoL issue. If your Aquila takes significant hull damage, it's common to get your lamplighter damaged. It stops working properly. In both my runs where I've managed to get to the Aquila without encountering a progression breaking bug, it was damaged in intense fights. The only way I've found to repair it is dying and respawning (I think). Are there other ways to fix the damaged lamplighter?
AdmiralZo
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Location: Scouring Dantalion System for CSC Antarctica...

Thanks Warped95 and Alandra for your bug reports and suggestions. I haven't worked on this mod for just over a year now.... :shock: I'll probably try to fix a few things and get it up to date soon.

@Warped95 it might repair itself over time, but I''m not sure. I might add a feature to repair all damaged devices.
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