I would appreciate any help at solving these problems. I realise I could solve them myself if I knew everything about the EVN bible, but I wish to save myself some trouble :). I also know that you might have another approach at looking at this, so that would be welcome too.

{
There's a missile that I wish to have a deadly explosion. Not the missile, but the explosion - and not at once. It must do damage gradually, over time, as the ship remains in it's sprite field. Can this be?

Does the ! operator make something falsify, or does it make it the opposite of what it was?

A way of making some ship's exclusive to some outfits, and some to others. This should not require a special mission string, or belonging to a certain government, but is simply hardwired into all your availability test. For instance, a ship that was very large cannot purchase a shield generator of a certain type. This generator is available on the open market and neither it, nor the ship, are anything special.

Is it possible to create ships with absolutely no shields, and not have it look very stupid? Also, when piloting, is it possible to totally get rid of the shield bar?

Just one more thing; about ship sprites like the Leviathan and i.e., the Auroran cruiser. I would be ignorant of exactly what sprite form I would use to carry this over. The only thing I can be certain of is that it will be painfully large. For instance, there’s usually the 6x6, x3 vertical for a starbridge, but with a Leviathan would a document have it, 6x6 for the default rotation, then 6x6 for all other ship rotaries. Then ‘extra frames’ will auto sort that I hope. Just a quick confirmer - since it could well be 6x6 for the rotations in one angle, then 6x6 for the next angle.

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Everything can be expressed in 2. 2+2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.

Welcome to the Ambrosia Software web boards, Ex Nihilo!

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
There's a missile that I wish to have a deadly explosion. Not the missile, but the explosion - and not at once. It must do damage gradually, over time, as the ship remains in it's sprite field. Can this be?

Tricky - I doubt it can be done. The blast radius options allow the explosion to do damage, but only right at once. You might be able to fake it using submunitions.

Quote

Does the ! operator make something falsify, or does it make it the opposite of what it was?

Are you talking about test expressions or set expressions? In test expressions, placing ! in front of something causes it to return the opposite value. So, if 'b1' returns '1', then '!b1' will return '0'.

In set expressions, the ! operator sets a bit to 0. So, '!b1' sets bit 1 to zero.

Quote

A way of making some ship's exclusive to some outfits, and some to others. This should not require a special mission string, or belonging to a certain government, but is simply hardwired into all your availability test. For instance, a ship that was very large cannot purchase a shield generator of a certain type. This generator is available on the open market and neither it, nor the ship, are anything special.

Use the Contribute/Require fields. If the outfit has a specific box in the 'Require' field checked, than you'll only be allowed to buy it if that box is checked in the 'Contribute' field of your ship, or an outfit you have installed, or a rank you've received, and so on.

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Is it possible to create ships with absolutely no shields, and not have it look very stupid?

You can create ships with no shields by putting zero in the Shields field - can you elaborate on how this looks very stupid?

Quote

Also, when piloting, is it possible to totally get rid of the shield bar?

If you create a custom ďntf resource (and a custom gövt to apply it - see EV Nova 1.0.1 for an example) you can alter the sidebar however you want - I don't think you can actually hide the shields bar, but making it 1 pixel by 1 pixel should do the trick.

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Just one more thing; about ship sprites like the Leviathan and i.e., the Auroran cruiser. I would be ignorant of exactly what sprite form I would use to carry this over. The only thing I can be certain of is that it will be painfully large. For instance, there’s usually the 6x6, x3 vertical for a starbridge, but with a Leviathan would a document have it, 6x6 for the default rotation, then 6x6 for all other ship rotaries. Then ‘extra frames’ will auto sort that I hope. Just a quick confirmer - since it could well be 6x6 for the rotations in one angle, then 6x6 for the next angle.

You render a complete 360° rotation of ship for the first 'frame' of the animation, then a complete 360° for the second frame, and so on. To see this more clearly, open up the rlëD resource (~not~ the shän) for the Leviathan or Aurora Cruiser in NovaTools and you can see exactly how it was done.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Your Source for Almost Everything EV Nova-Related!
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

(This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 06-10-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**You render a complete 360° rotation of ship for the first 'frame' of the animation, then a complete 360° for the second frame, and so on. To see this more clearly, open up the rlëD resource (~not~ the shän) for the Leviathan or Aurora Cruiser in NovaTools and you can see exactly how it was done.
**

Rather, render from 0-350 degrees, and then the next "frame" of the animation from 0-350, and so on.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Thanks,

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Tricky - I doubt it can be done. The blast radius options allow the explosion to do damage, but only right at once. You might be able to fake it using submunitions.

Could you elaborate a bit more? Do you mean, explode it, then have the explosion explode, then so forth? So I'd do it for 20 frames/explosions? Just elaborate, please...

Quote

You can create ships with no shields by putting zero in the Shields field - can you elaborate on how this looks very stupid?

Mainly for the reason below. Well, it's nice to know that I can do that!

One thing more that I've thought of - is there a way of making the default trading items worth less? Because it seems a bit too easy at making money in EVN.

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Everything can be expressed in 2. 2+2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
Could you elaborate a bit more? Do you mean, explode it, then have the explosion explode, then so forth? So I'd do it for 20 frames/explosions? Just elaborate, please...

Read up on submunitions - I believe they're in the EV Nova Bible under the wëap resource. My idea was that you would have the projectile launch several invisible weapons which would explode in sequence, creating the impression of an ongoing explosion.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**One thing more that I've thought of - is there a way of making the default trading items worth less? Because it seems a bit too easy at making money in EVN.
**

I believe if you look through the STR# resources in the data files you'll find one that contains the prices for the standard commodities.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Forums / Classifieds / Upcoming Plug-ins / More
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
Mainly for the reason below. Well, it's nice to know that I can do that!
**

What reason below? Below what? Personally, I was a bit confused as to why ships would look stupid without shields.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Quote

Originally posted by what_is_the_matrix:
What reason below? Below what? Personally, I was a bit confused as to why ships would look stupid without shields.

Below the question in the initial post: the issue of an empty shield bar on the sidebar.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://davidarthur.evula.net/")davidarthur.evula.net(/url): MissionComputer and the Talon plug-in
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/")EV-Nova.net(/url): Forums / Classifieds / Upcoming Plug-ins / More
(url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/survival_guide/")EV Nova Survival Guide(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**I would appreciate any help at solving these problems. I realise I could solve them myself if I knew everything about the EVN bible, but I wish to save myself some trouble:). I also know that you might have another approach at looking at this, so that would be welcome too.

{
There's a missile that I wish to have a deadly explosion. Not the missile, but the explosion - and not at once. It must do damage gradually, over time, as the ship remains in it's sprite field. Can this be?**

I don't think you can do that.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
Does the ! operator make something falsify, or does it make it the opposite of what it was?
**

Yes.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
A way of making some ship's exclusive to some outfits, and some to others. This should not require a special mission string, or belonging to a certain government, but is simply hardwired into all your availability test. For instance, a ship that was very large cannot purchase a shield generator of a certain type. This generator is available on the open market and neither it, nor the ship, are anything special.**

Sure. Just make the OnPurchase and OnCapture fields set a bit which the outfit requires.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
Is it possible to create ships with absolutely no shields, and not have it look very stupid?**

Look stupid how? I haven't done this.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
Also, when piloting, is it possible to totally get rid of the shield bar?**

When piloting, no. When messing with the ďntf resource, yes.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**
Just one more thing; about ship sprites like the Leviathan and i.e., the Auroran cruiser. I would be ignorant of exactly what sprite form I would use to carry this over. The only thing I can be certain of is that it will be painfully large. For instance, there’s usually the 6x6, x3 vertical for a starbridge, but with a Leviathan would a document have it, 6x6 for the default rotation, then 6x6 for all other ship rotaries. Then ‘extra frames’ will auto sort that I hope. Just a quick confirmer - since it could well be 6x6 for the rotations in one angle, then 6x6 for the next angle.
**

Something like that. I'm not totally sure what you mean.

&%#?! There were no responses at all when I typed this.

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Beware the substance '(url="http://"http://www.EVula.com/")e(/url)'

(This message has been edited by Blackdog (edited 06-11-2002).)

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
If you create a custom ďntf resource (and a custom gövt to apply it - see EV Nova 1.0.1 for an example) you can alter the sidebar however you want - I don't think you can actually hide the shields bar, but making it 1 pixel by 1 pixel should do the trick.

If I recall, Matt Burch said something to the effect that if you enter 0s in those fields, the bar won't appear -- this was in the just-weeks-before-Nova's-release days. You might be able to search for it . I don't recall if it was on this board or the Nova board -- I think it was the latter.

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Quote

Originally posted by UncleTwitchy:
If I recall, Matt Burch said something to the effect that if you enter 0s in those fields, the bar won't appear -- this was in the just-weeks-before-Nova's-release days. You might be able to search for it . I don't recall if it was on this board or the Nova board -- I think it was the latter.

Correct. I'm using this for the Defender in Merc.

Regarding submunitions: Set things up so that when the weapon enters your ship's proxradius, it detonates, releasing a swarm of maybe a dozen "cloud" sprites or whatever you want. It'll basically cast a net of dangerous "mines" for your ship to run into, simulating the effect you want.

-reg

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"Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again."
-Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs

Oh right, so I create a normal explosion sprite, which creates a 360 field which scatters invisible non-exploding 'mines' into the area which covers the sprite. This continues until the sprite ends. Ah, thanks...

Well, I don't suppose there's alot of other questions that I can ask...

Oh, yes, another one!

Does a computer with a fuel consuming beam weapon ever get affected by what a normal player would term 'running out of fuel'? I am sort of expecting an infinite fuel capacity, just sort of wanted someone to clarify this...?

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Everything can be expressed in 2. 2+2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.

Quote

Originally posted by Ex Nihilo:
**Oh right, so I create a normal explosion sprite, which creates a 360 field which scatters invisible non-exploding 'mines' into the area which covers the sprite. This continues until the sprite ends. Ah, thanks...

Well, I don't suppose there's alot of other questions that I can ask...

Oh, yes, another one!

Does a computer with a fuel consuming beam weapon ever get affected by what a normal player would term 'running out of fuel'? I am sort of expecting an infinite fuel capacity, just sort of wanted someone to clarify this...?

**

I don't recall, but I don't believe that the computer runs out of fuel. The easiest way to test that would be to just make the ship and weapon and see what happens when it tries to use it.

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Is it possible to have beam dissipation? I mean, a beam which was alot weaker if the target was far away, and then alot stronger if it was up close? I realise that create other would solve this for a missile, but I was wondering if it is at all practical for a beam.

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Everything can be expressed in 2. 2+2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.