Help with 12 armor plates

Xolarix · Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:39 pm

Hey guys!

I got some questions about the armor plates:

Mainly about this particular piece of code:

<ArmorDisplay>
				<ArmorSection name="forward"
						imageID="&rsArmourHUD;" 
						imageX="0" imageY="0" imageWidth="52" imageHeight="5"
						destX="42" destY="32" hpX="55" hpY="27"
						nameY="0" nameBreakWidth="360" nameDestX="12" nameDestY="0" />
	</ArmorDisplay>

I could use an explanation as to what this code means and does in the actual game.

I can guess, but I'd like to know for sure.

And then I'd like to know:
- How do I change it in such a way that each armor plate gets it's own spot on my ship and gets it's own damage based on the location of the armor?
ie: if I change the hpX and hpY locations, it probably means I change the locations at which you see the armor points still left for that particular part. Does it also change the way how those armors are damaged?
Crazy example: could I set the front armor's HP at the back of the ship, so that the front armor gets damaged if an enemy hits the back of the ship?

- how do I decide where to place my armor plates? what are the limitations on the X and Y of the armor location on the display, and is there an easy way to calculate where to place those armor plates?

- 12 armor plates are a lot of text next to the display of your shield/armor... any way to make some (or all) of them simply invisible? For example, by just removing the nameY, nameBreakWidth, nameDestX, and nameDestY line from this code?

Thanks if someone can help me out with this, it's quite important for me to know, y'know, as a ship designer who can't be creative with XML code xD

RPC · Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:06 pm

Code: Select all

<ArmorDisplay>
            <ArmorSection name="forward"
                  imageID="&rsArmourHUD;" 
                 imageX="0" imageY="0" imageWidth="52" imageHeight="5"
                  destX="42" destY="32" hpX="55" hpY="27"
                  nameY="0" nameBreakWidth="360" nameDestX="12" nameDestY="0"/>
   </ArmorDisplay>

imageID="&rsArmourHUD;"

The image resource for the armor.

imageX="0" imageY="0" imageWidth="52" imageHeight="5"

This is where Trans looks at for what to display. it's from (0,0) and gets a width of 52 pixels and length of 5 pixels.

destX="42" destY="32" hpX="55" hpY="27"

???
destX and destY might be where the picture is to be situated... but I don't know where origin is. Maybe from the center of the graphic?
hpX and hpY are probably where the hp counter is supposed to go.

nameY="0" nameBreakWidth="360" nameDestX="12" nameDestY="0"

nameY... height of the name from the armor graphic?
nameBreakWidth ... absolutely no clue :/
nameDestX = distance from graphic in X direction, in pixels.
nameDestY = distance from graphic in Y direction, in pixels.

Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:27 pm

With twelve segments, you do not need custom ship armor graphics. The hp boxes are big enough that they can serve as the armor graphics. (You still need armor graphics for Transcendence to look for. For that, I give it a dummy entry that points to a single black pixel from the Sapphire armor graphics.)

Where to place them? Wherever they look good. Trial-and-error may be necessary. It was for me.

It is possible to squeeze up to fifteen lines for fifteen segments. More than that, lines will need to overlap each other. Player can only tell the difference if ship armor is a piecemeal mismatch.

If you have not done so yet, download Playership Drones, cut-and-paste code from a twelve segment ship, then make whatever changes you need.