Ship building

[Twisted]

So which OXP is the Battlestar Galactica in?

Aaron

[Captain Hesperus]

So which OXP is the Battlestar Galactica in?

Alas, the BSG is/was an idea/WIP that someone thought up and for which Selezen (wizard of ship building) threw together a quick model: the thread's here, though if you want to have a crack.

Captain Hesperus
"I think Thargoids would be really nice people if it weren't for their 'kill everything in sight' method of space exploration."

[Killer Wolf]

Cheers LittleBear, that Roles thing looks easiest. I've finished my model so i'll try adding the little "addshipstosystem" thing to see how it turns out...IF i can get milkshape to export it. it *says* it's created an (eg) OBJ file, but blender just ignores it :-/
i'll have to get Wings, see if that likes it, then try this Python business wotsit.

couple questions tho, if anyone can help please : -
i want my ship to be military and police and bounty hunter - firstly, does anyone know the AI names other than "hunter" for this? and secondly, if i don't giv eit an AI, will it hang there doing nowt while i check it out or will the lack of an AI crash the game?

re the different roles - do i have to do separate military/police/hunter shipdata plists?

cheers....

[johnsmith]

You could use route1patrolAI.plist or route2patrolAI.plist - route 1 goes between witchspace beacon and the planet, route 2 goes towards the sun. Both will attack fugitives. policeInterceptAI.plist is used for ships launched to defend the space station. No idea what the lack of an AI would do.

re the different roles - do i have to do separate military/police/hunter shipdata plists?

It's up to you. You could equip the hunter with better shields or missiles for example, or even make it a different colour with different makings. That would make sense, to diffentiate cops from hunters. Or just use a single shipdata for all of it.

[LittleBear]

As the police ship should have a blue club, you might want to do two entries:- one with the role hunter then the other one like shiped to the first but with ScanClass POLICE added and perhaps give it a police AI, like planetpatrolAI or route1patrolAI. That way it will act like a cop, send cop hails and shooting it will affect Legal Status. Think for testing you do need to sepecify an AI, but nullAI is valid.

[Dr. Nil]

Just to clear things up, we're of course talking about multible entries in the shipdata.plist. You don't have to make separate files.

Btw: I don't think you can make it both police and military ATM. But multiple scanclasses might be used for some nice ideas if it was implemented.

[Killer Wolf]

1) does anyone have any ideas what size/scale the Milkshape model units are in respect to the Ooniverse? Aegidian's tute gives measurements for Wings, but again i couldn't import my model from Milkshape
no probs scaling her up of course, would just like to get a general idea before testing.

2) d/l'd Python last night (crikey, there's millions of versions out there) but didn't get a chance to play - i take it i just intall it then unzip/whatever the OBJ2DAT wotsit but has anyone run into any probs w/ it? w/ all the bother that other progs have opening my Milkshape exports i would just like to know if i'm in for any more stress, heh.

3) in regards to all these plists. looking through some OXPs (see aegidian-special, eg) i see some things like "DS Store" that others (eg, s-ships1) don't have, and seeming copies of those named "_DS store" etc that just open ito odd characters. some also have a "demoships" plist that others don't ~ can someone tell me which i need/what they're about? They're not mentioned in aegidian's tute so i'm assuming they're not vital...? I've sussed that the Shipyard plist is the one you need if you want the ships to be available for sale.

cheers for the help in advance - i'll try and amalgamate all my newbie questions into another newbies' tute/FAQ when i finish.

[johnsmith]

Ds_store is cruft the mac leaves around filesystems. Windows leaves thumbs.db around image directories. You don't need any of it.

Demoships adds ships to the "welcome to oolite" screen when you start the game. It can be a handy way to see your model if you don't have dry-dock (which is mac only).

[Dr. Nil]

i'll try and amalgamate all my newbie questions into another newbies' tute/FAQ when i finish.

Good idea. A sticky FAQ/tutorial thread in Expansion Pack for new oxp'ers.

[Killer Wolf]

how do i prevent an item being fitted to a ship? do i need to set the overall key to "shipname-player" and then put a null after, eg, has_scoop? i understand this would prevent a NPC ship having one (if the name key was "shipname") so would this prevent a player fitting it at a dockyard if they had bought the ship?

same re weapons facings : i want my ship to only have forward guns, do i just miss out the weapon_position_starboard etc, or does it tie in w/ the weapon_facings attribute in Shipyard.plist? (which brings another question : wiki says this is a binary sum of 1, 2, 4, 8 so a fully gunned Cobra would have a 15 value - but i've looked at the StarWars ships and they have 20 : ?? this a typo?)

again, cheers!

[Dr. Nil]

Equipment: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Shipda ... #has_scoop

Place the weapon positions in shipdata and if it's a player ship then have the weapon facings decided in the shipyard.

Perhaps the Star Wars ships were made by tuning every stat from existing ships up - without regard to what the numbers signify.

[johnsmith]

In shipyard.plist, list optional equipment, like

Code: Select all

		<key>optional_equipment</key>
		<array>
			<string>EQ_FUEL_SCOOPS</string>  
     </array>

Anything you don't list won't be available to buy.

[Killer Wolf]

cheers John.

Doc : re wiki, i'd read that but "Determines if a ship has a fuel/cargo scoop." was different (in my mind!) to "Determines if ship CAN have a scoop".

KW
//\oo/\\

[Killer Wolf]

Charlie, have you had any probs w/ UU?? i've just reinstalled it (v2.29) and it's driving me fricking mad. i've got my milkshape-exported OBJ file in UU but all my groups are getting split up in the UV map. they'll either be all over the place, or there'll be 95% in one clump and then the odd triangle somewhere else. I've tried every possible combination of grouping methods/unwrapping styles and even deleted all my groups i made in MS3D and grouped them all again in UU. i tried welding the groups too, and it helpsed a bit but not 100%

have you experienced this, or have any tips??

i swear this first ship is jinxed. i should've started off w/ a Cube ship :-(

cheers....

[Charlie]

Charlie, have you had any probs w/ UU?? i've just reinstalled it (v2.29) and it's driving me fricking mad. i've got my milkshape-exported OBJ file in UU but all my groups are getting split up in the UV map. they'll either be all over the place, or there'll be 95% in one clump and then the odd triangle somewhere else. I've tried every possible combination of grouping methods/unwrapping styles and even deleted all my groups i made in MS3D and grouped them all again in UU. i tried welding the groups too, and it helpsed a bit but not 100%

have you experienced this, or have any tips??

i swear this first ship is jinxed. i should've started off w/ a Cube ship

cheers....

Just checked - mine is v2.15 - had no real probs...

Tips?
I suspect this behavior is why I like UU3D - madness?
I find it gives me controll as to exactly where & how big I place faces
( Bit of a faff but very useful when adding updated ships to my .oxp's - just use the exisitng texture & move bits about to get what I want )

More useful?
I use 3ds-max for my modeling & texture in UU...

Under 'Groups' ( top right ) select the one you want while in UVEdtr mode ( button below this window ) That group will go red ( selected )
Pull-down menu->UVmapping-> Whatever suits best for that bit of the model. Right-click on the resultant map to stretch/move/etc
Same can be done via 'Materials' if you've used more than one .png file ( I rarely do )

The select drop-down has some useful options - by face,vert,etc?
->Group is the one I think you are looking for with regard to how your individual elements fit together. ( I usually do that bit in 3ds-max )

Useful stuff?
File->Export->UVMap
2DTools - Good for UVEdtr mode
3DTools - Good for for Persp etc mode

Having trouble getting your textures to stick?
Starting with no UV ( skip a few steps if need )
Like this:-
1)T-R - Groups->'groupname'->R-click Select ( & assign if not greyed out )
You have now selected your group.
2)T-R- Materials->R-click-> 'add'
3)R-click Select, Assign
4)R-click on your new material entry->'properties'
Most of this should be left alone as Oolite either doesn't use or will bugger it up
5)Click on the 'maps' tab
6) Click Bitmap from Diffuse: ( don't touch the others - see above )
Properties->change ( choose your .png ) ok->ok
7) No texture? &*@@£"!
Click on the '-' @ the root of the Materials tree & then click the '+' to re-expand the tree - your texture should now appear.
If you can't see the texture how are you supposed to do any UVMapping?
.
9) Still no go?
Sometimes I have to save & reload my model @ this point to get the texture to take.

Complicated?
Oh-yes
But - for me I've found this MUCH easier than any other 3D package I've used ( still can't find this in 3DS-Max! )
Also I'm pig-sick of the supposedly 'intillegent' UVMappers in other packages doing their own thing instead of what I want.
( Rather like M$-Word in that respect )

Bottom line?
In my opinion there isn't a single 3D package out there that isn't utter crap!!
Thats why I model in 3DS, Tweak+texture in UU3D, & put the polish on with MS3D...

P.S.
Don't forget that what one package thinks is a .obj or .3ds file is NOT what another thinks - lots of incompatabilities!
When transfering between packages it helps alot to keep the number of groups + textures down to a minimum to reduce 'mess-ups'.
On that subject:- So far I've only managed to get ObjToDatTex.py to accept .obj files from:
Wings3d
MS3D
3D Object converter

Errors no-matter what I do with any other package I've tried.

Hope this ramble ( rant ) helps a bit.