Here's what I'm trying to do: I want to make a plug that allows you to custom build your own ships. So, you pick a ship which is basically just the appearance, because it has no stats. Then you buy an engine, sheilds, etc. which put the stats back into your ship, allowing you to customize how your ship performs. It works fine, except you can't buy outfits! I don't understand it, you can buy cargo like food and medical suplies, but no weapons or anything. Not even things that don't require mass, like the sensors. Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

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Well, the description you gave is extremely broad. If you either explained how your plug works in depth or posted the plug-in for us to take a look at, then I'm sure you'd get a far better answer.

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Well, I made some ship files which have no stats. Like, 0 armor, 0 sheilds, 0 free mass, 0 top speed, etc. The only thing it has is strength, because you can't buy an outfit that will edit that. Then I made outfits so once you bought this empty ship, you go into the outfitter to put the parts together. For example, an engine you'd buy will make the top speed 200 and the acceleration 45 or whatever.

One thing you can buy, I called it Interior Design, will alter the amount of free mass and cargo space. It adds 50 or whatever number of cargo, and the mass is set at, say, -50. When your go into an outfitter, it will say it has 50 tons free mass, but the buy button is darkened, as in, you can't click on it. For any outfit at all.

Does that help?

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Quote

Originally posted by Buddy Holly:
Well, I made some ship files which have no stats. Like, 0 armor, 0 sheilds, 0 free mass, 0 top speed, etc. The only thing it has is strength, because you can't buy an outfit that will edit that. Then I made outfits so once you bought this empty ship, you go into the outfitter to put the parts together. For example, an engine you'd buy will make the top speed 200 and the acceleration 45 or whatever.

One thing you can buy, I called it Interior Design, will alter the amount of free mass and cargo space. It adds 50 or whatever number of cargo, and the mass is set at, say, -50. When your go into an outfitter, it will say it has 50 tons free mass, but the buy button is darkened, as in, you can't click on it. For any outfit at all.

Does that help?

Hmm. I'd imagine that the engine wasn't designed to support this kind of thing, and chokes when you try to do it. Unless your plug-in has flawed implementation, I think it's safe to say that you should try a different implementation method.

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(url="http://"http://www.freeman.org")Freeman Center for Strategic Studies(/url)
"Death Waits in the Dark" - 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
Military Technology: (url="http://"http://www.army-technology.com/")Army(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ffiletop.html")Navy(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.naval-technology.com/")Navy II(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.af.mil/news/indexpages/fs_index.shtml")Air Force(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.airforce-technology.com/")Air Force II(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/7e931335d515626a8525628100676e0c?OpenView")Marine Corps(/url)
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Hmm... well, that sucks. It just seems like it should work, I don't get why it doesn't. Oh well, thanks anyway.

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It actually is supported by the engine, and in our upcoming plug Sephil, we use a similar system...

Of course, we also have normal ships, but then again, thats not my area of expertise...

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Sephil is coming...

Did you set the outfits to require the colum 1 row five check box (in Novatools) like most EV:N outfits but not set the ships to contribute it?

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Nón est ad astra mollis é terrís via.
There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.
-Seneca
Dum vita est, spes est.

As i said, thats not my field. Im the writer, not the programmer or any of that technical stuff.

If you want to find out, try catching up with Masamune, and ask him.

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Sephil is coming...

Quote

Originally posted by StormyNight:
Did you set the outfits to require the colum 1 row five check box (in Novatools) like most EV:N outfits but not set the ships to contribute it?

I think StormyNight is right. This sounds like exactly the problem. Almost all the standard EVN outfits require that bit to be set so that Vell-Os ships can't buy mechanical outfs even after that storyline. If your ships do not have that bit set in their Contribute fields, then that would be your problem. What would be REALLY cool, is if the ships DON'T have that bit set by default. The first thing you buy is a power distribution system, which doesn't Require that bit but Contributes it. Then all the other outfs would "have power" and so you can buy them. You could make different grades of power grids, with different efficiencies, etc.

-Vaumnou

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Thank you, StormyNight! Your were completely right; I didn't even think about the contribute and require feilds. So thanks a lot, you saved my plug-in.

And Vaumnou, I kind of used your idea too. So I wouldn't have to go back and add the contribute field to each ship, after your done with all the picking of parts and everything, there's another outfit called 'Build Ship', as in telling the shop it's ok to build your ship with the selected parts, and it's this outfit which adds the contribute field. Pretty much the same thing as you said, and it works great.
I like the idea of having different grades of it too, so maybe later I'll work that into it. It'd add another level of customization, which would be sweet. So thanks to you as well.

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(This message has been edited by Buddy Holly (edited 04-28-2003).)

Theres some pretty cool things you can do with power levels and engines and the power of weapons, but I can say no more...

especially since I have no idea how to do them.

Alls I can say is wait for Sephil....

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Sephil is coming...

that's kinda like what i did for my space empires plug: each ship requires some form of control component (small ships require a cockpit, larger ships require either a master computer or a bridge, crew quarters, and life support) before anything else can be added

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