Mod Help

[Giulio Cesare Augusto]

Hi,
I'm new at modding Transcendence and I'm trying to build up a new set of solar armors but they do not work properly. What should I put between the tags <Armor> </Armor> in order to make them working properly?

[Yugi]

Well.....give me a minute to prepare a small guide.

Here is the first class of my main Fichikai Armor line:

<ItemType UNID="&itFKArmorI;"
name= "Fichikai Armor class-I"
level= "4"
value= "4750"
mass= "650"
frequency= "verycommon"
numberAppearing= "4d6"
modifiers= "MinorItem"

description= "Class-I Fichikai Armor is one of Fichikai's worst armor segments yet. This is like titanium, just a little bit better."
>

<Image imageID="&rsItems1;" imageX="0" imageY="0" imageWidth="96" imageHeight="96"/>

<Armor
hitPoints= "40"
damageAdj= "72,72,78,78, 82,82,88,88, 92,92,98,98, 102,102,108,108"
repairTech= "2"
repairCost= "3"
installCost= "60"

composition="nanoscale"
/>

</ItemType>

Note that they are not <Armor> and </Armor> tags, instead the armor code goes between <Armor and />.
HitPoints is how much HP there is, repairTech is the tech level of the station required to repair the armor (Ringers are the highest with 9)
RepairCost is the amount that each HitPoint takes to repair.
InstallCost is the amount required to install the armor.
Composition doesn't really do anything. It ranges from Nanoscale, antimatter, ceramic, there are a large number of them.
DamageAdj is the % of the damage from a weapon that the armor recieves. For example, if a laser-type weapon was fired at you, you would take only 72% of the damage. Each number stands for a damage type, in this order:
laser
kinetic
particle
blast

ion
thermo
positron
plasma

antimatter
nano
graviton
singularity

dark acid
dark steel
dark lightning
dark fire

There also immunities such as ionImmune, or whatever damage type you want it to be immune to. There are also reflectivities, such as ionReflect, or whatever damage type.
There are a large number of special effect, and in case you didn't know the tag for solar armor is:
photoRecharge="true"

there is also another solar-based tag:
photorepair
, which instead of refeuling your ship repairs the armor segment instead.

Hope this helps

If you need any more help, either post the xml code or email it to me at [email protected]

[Giulio Cesare Augusto]

Thanks for your fast answer. I was exactly unable to find the tag "phothoracharge". But now I have another question. You say

"Composition doesn't really do anything. It ranges from Nanoscale, antimatter, ceramic, there are a large number of them."

Are you sure about it? It seem sto me that if you choose nanoscale the armor self-repair. Am I wrong? The self-repairing capability is not related to the composition?

[Giulio Cesare Augusto]

I've been able to create the set o solar armors that I was trying to do. But I noticed that for the armors is not possible to define a value for the recharge rate. I tried to do it using the <solarDevice> refuel= </solarDevice> tags. But it seem it "conflict" with the <armor> tag. In fact there are some strange effect from inside the game. Any advice?

[FAD]

If I'm not mistaking, I believe that the function 'photoRecharge="true" ' has a predetermined set value for recharge and cannot be adjusted. That being, one would either have to install solar panels or use a playership with more armor (6-8 segments) than the default playership's 4 armors-to get a faster recharge rate.

[Giulio Cesare Augusto]

Ok but, if the composition has no effect. How do you make an armor to be self-reparing? I studied the code in the Fichiwaki armor extensions and I have not been able to understand how self-repair works. Could anybody gimme a clue?

[Yugi]

Ok but, if the composition has no effect. How do you make an armor to be self-reparing? I studied the code in the Fichiwaki armor extensions and I have not been able to understand how self-repair works. Could anybody gimme a clue?

For self-repair, you need to add the repairRate tag. Something like this:
repairRate= "200"
The lower the number, the quicker the armor repairs itself.

I've been able to create the set o solar armors that I was trying to do. But I noticed that for the armors is not possible to define a value for the recharge rate. I tried to do it using the <solarDevice> refuel= </solarDevice> tags. But it seem it "conflict" with the <armor> tag. In fact there are some strange effect from inside the game. Any advice?

In this case, instead of putting the refuel= "xxx" tag in the solarDevice section, you just need to put it in armor instead, like:

repairTech= "9"
repairCost= "18"
installCost= "380"

composition= "nanoscale"
repairRate= "160"
refuel= "60"

I can't remember if the number needs to go up or down to increase the amount of refeuling...

EDIT: Am I really the only one that knows this stuff? (not including George, of course).

EDITII: Here is a small list of special effects you can have for armor (and most other devices, too, epecially shields):
radiationImmune (immune to radiation)
timestopImmune (immune to GOC)
ionEffectImmune (immune to the device-damaging effect of the Ion Disruptor)
EMPImmune (immune to EMP attacks)
shieldInterference= "true" (does not allow shield to work while installed (like in Meteorsteel))
blindingDamageAdj= "50" (can't remember)
deviceDamageAdj= "50" (can't remember this either)
EMPDamageAdj= "50" (*sigh* can't make heads nor tails of this one)
stealth= "10" (from stealth armor. i haven't used this before...now i know why my stealth armor didn't work....i had "true" instead of a number...)
completeBonus= (when all of your armor is this type, they all gain however much HP you say)
decayRate= "240" (opposite of repairRate)
disintegrationImmune="true" (very handy against the Iocrym )

[Burzmali]

All of those adjust attributes reduce the "damage" done by an EMP, ion, etc. weapon. As a result, you are less likely to be affected by those effects when using armor with those attributes.

[Yugi]

Really? When i've been modtesting, the "damage" is non-existant. When EMP-immune, EMPs do not affect your ship at all, the same with all the other immunities.
The immunity is, however, weakened as the armor's HP is weakened.

[Burzmali]

That's why I put damage in quotes. My best guest is that EMP3 works tha same as WMD3, in that a specific percent of the damage is used to determine the EMP effect, the higher the number, the greater the effect. The adjust attributes reduce the effect's rating, and if it dips below zero, the effect isn't triggered. However, that's only a guess based on worldship plate.

[FAD]

It seems to me that the item is limited to only 2 effects. At least, only two will show up in the discription section. Is it true that only 2 are allowed?

[Yugi]

No, you can have as many as you want, they just don't all fit on the item description.

[FAD]

K, I'll take your word on it. I have noticed that George doesn't use more than 2 effects per item so I assumed it was due to limitations.

I have discovered that certain effects VS damage adjust will conflict.
An example: If you apply laser reflective coating on a segment of armor that's vulnerable to laser, not all laser fire will reflect off and the armor can still be damaged by the laser. Same with particle, ion and others.
I'm guessing that depends on the angle of the weapon fire hitting the armor. If the weapon fire hits direct broadside -->|, it has nowhere to reflect so it continues its path into the armor.

[Yugi]

I'm guessing that depends on the angle of the weapon fire hitting the armor. If the weapon fire hits direct broadside -->|, it has nowhere to reflect so it continues its path into the armor.

Hmm...i'm not so sure about that...direction isn't a feature in Transcendence...