also, a poll.
Poll: What do you want me (Zacha Pedro) to do next? (21 member(s) have cast votes)
What do you want me (Zacha Pedro) to do next?
Do other such annotated templates (shďp, chär, etc...)
(11 votes [52.38%])
Percentage of vote: 52.38%
Do other kind of guides (put then a post telling which kind)
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
HTML-ise my works (should be easy enough) and put them in an actual dedicaced place (such as [s]Bomb's[/s] Zacha Pedro's plugin guide)
(6 votes [28.57%])
Percentage of vote: 28.57%
Test what I wrote so far (almost all info comes from the Bible and common knowledge)
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
Do other (tell what)
(0 votes [0.00%])
Percentage of vote: 0.00%
Rest and actually play the damn game!
(1 votes [4.76%])
Percentage of vote: 4.76%
I don't vote in polls
(3 votes [14.29%])
Percentage of vote: 14.29%
Sorry folks, I've been kept busy by RealLife, odd gövt flags, and my quest to extract music from Harry (partially successful, check Help On The Way). I've begun shďp, but I'd like to ask you what to do then since I'm not quite sure what would be the best. Any idea? Thanks in advance. As always, comments are more than welcome.
Annotated template:
The gövt resource
The gövt resource stores info for one government, each gövt resource being one government. Not all of them need to own planets/systems or have ships in space: for instance, sometimes a gövt resource is used to create a government that will only serve for a mission auxiliary ships; the government looks like another, except it always attacks the player. Also, the "independant" government always exists, but there is no gövt resource for it, some features are missing (ScanMask) while some are copied from gövt ID 128 (such as the legal rating penalties).
To begin with, the name of the gövt resource is used as the name of the government as the ruler of the system the player is currently selecting in the hyperspace map, so you can't use it as you wish. However, you can if the government is not to own any system (for instance if the government serves only in a mission, like "Psycho Voinian" in EVO/The Override TC), also, the semicolon ( ; ) comments work here as well.
The VoiceType field
This number field (that can be/come with some popup menus in your editor) tells which voices to use when a ship with this government as its inherent government escorts the player.
- -1 for ships with this inherent government to use no escort voice (silent)
- 0 is used by independant ships; notice ships that have no inherent government defined will always use the 0 voices
- 1 is used by Federation-inherent ships
- 2 is used by Rebel-inherent ships
- 3 is used by Polaris-inherent ships
- 4 is used by Auroreans-inherent ships (as well as ships specific to each house)
- 5 is used by Pirate-inherent ships
- 6 is used by Wild Geese-inherent ships (the WG Lightning)
- 7 is unused in the default Nova scenario, you can use it to give your new government whole new escort voices, provided your plug includes the corresponding snd resources. The IDs where the snd resources are found (and where you should put your own if you wish to add/replace by/put your ones) can be found in the Bible. Notice that if you're doing a TC, all eight (0 to 7) VoiceType values can be reused.
7 is the maximum you can put. An exception however is that you can put 1000-1007 to force the ships to only use the female versions of the corresponding voices, and 2000-2007 to only use the male versions (in the default Nova scenario, this only works for Pirate and Aurorean voices, and it's the other way round for Wild Geese!).
The sounds are stored (as 'snd ' resources obviously) at IDs starting from 1000:
-IDs 1000 to 1009 store voice type 0 acknowledgement speech,
-1010-1019, VT 0 targeting speech,
-1020-1029, VT 0 victory speech,
-1100-1109, VT 1 acknowledgement speech,
-1110-1119, VT 1 targeting speech,
-1120-1129, VT 1 victory speech,
...up to:
-1700-1709, VT 7 acknowledgement speech,
-1710-1719, VT 7 targeting speech,
-1720-1729, VT 7 victory speech.
You don't need to use all 10 available slots for each voice type speech, just make them consecutive and starting from the beginning (1000-1007 for instance). However, in order to use the male/female feature, the number of sounds need to be even for all speech types for the particular voice type, then the male voices are to be at even IDs (i.e. 1000, 1002, 1004, 1006) and the female voices at odd IDs (i.e. 1001, 1003, 1005, 1007).
The Flags field
There is quite a number of flags in the gövt resource:
-"Xenophobic": this government considers everyone but their allies as enemies, potentially including the player, as a consequence their warships attack pretty much everyone. This flag is mostly used for pirate (and assimilated) governments.
-"Nosy": In non-allied (but non-enemy) systems, warships of this government will attack the player (or not) by comparing the legal status of the player in the system (that pertains to the other, non-allied government) to its own CrimeTol, making it possible for it to attack even if the player is not considered a criminal there by the local authorities (thus this government being nosy). The default behavior is for the warships of this government to never spontaneously attack the player in systems belonging to non-allied-nor-enemy governments (they consider they don't have the authority to act outside of their juridiction). This flag is set for the Aurorean government and Vell-os, for instance.
-"Always attacks player": as simple as that; usually set for a government that will be used only for a mission's auxiliary ship or another such very special use. This flag is set for three special "Bureau" gövts at IDs 164, 193, and 195.
-* "Immune to player's shots": the reason this flag exists is not really known. Unused in the default Nova scenario.
-"Retreat when shields low": the warships of this government will break combat and flee when their shields go below 25%; default behavior is to fight to the death. This flag is almost always set for governments in the default scenario: Rimertans and very few others have it unchecked.
-"Ignore Samaritan" (also known by other names): when a ship of this government is under attack, nosy non-allied ships ignore his plea for help (while they would normally as part of their anti-piracy watch). This is set for the Federation, the Aurorean empire, most houses (though not Heraan) and some others.
-"Never attacks player": This makes this government pretty much allied with the player, no matter what. Also, notice that player's weapons can't hit ships of this government to prevent friendly fire. This flag is the corresponding one to "Always attacks player", only really used for mission ships, and it is unused in the default Nova scenario (probably because it used to serve to give auxiliary ships as pseudo-escorts to the player for a difficult "kill the ennemy ship(s)" mission in EVC and EVO, and this can be done better in Nova with a silent mission that gives actual escorts as special ships).
-"Freighters get 50% jamming": freighters of this government (i.e. the ships with AIType 1 or 2) get 50% of the InherentJam value of this gövt (see that field); many governments have this flag set, while the Polaris don't.
-"Përs don't use escape pod": përs of this government who have an escape pod won't use it, but they will reappear anyway when they are killed (i.e. they won't be considered dead). This is set for Rimertans.
-"Warships take bribes": you can (sometimes) sucessfully beg ships of this government for mercy. Otherwise, don't even think about it: they will always refuse. This flag is set mainly for the Federation, the Moash, and of course the Pirates.
-"Can't hail": ships of this government cannot be hailed at all; this is mostly used for "alien" governments and the like: this flag is set for the Hyperioids, for instance. Note that this property extends to ship types that are inherently of this government, regardless of their affiliation, so this is best used for actually alien governments. A fun thing is it's the way the fact cargo drones can't be hailed is implemented: the cargo drone ship is actually inherently of govt ID 184 ("Cargo Drone Robots"), that has this flag set and doesn't exist for anything more than this purpose.
-"Derelicts": ships of this government are created disabled. Notice no one cares if anyone (including you) boards or destroys such a ship, and governments who have the next flag set will gladly board ships of such a government.
-"Plunderers": warships of this government will plunder disabled enemy ships before destroying them; then again useful for pirates, but set as well for houses Vella, Dani and Moash, for Bounty Hunters... Beware! This flags is known to prevent ships of this government to refuel the player, even for a price, even if the government is set (with a ränk or the "roadside assistance" flag) to help the player for free.
-"Freighters take bribes": same as for warships, and set for almost the same governments.
-"Planets take bribes": the planets of this government will (sometimes) accept bribes from the player to let him land when he' normally not allowed to. Otherwise, their spaceport officiers are completely uncorruptible and it's very hard to land when unwanted.
-"Greedy ships and bribable planets": ships of this goverment will extort you more when you bribe them, and their planets will always take bribes; this is meant for pirates who actually are after your money when they attack you and whose planets always have "interesting" stuff for the not-pirate-but-courageous-player...
-* "No beg for mercy/request assistance button": When a ship of this government is hailed, only the greetings and close comm buttons will be displayed, and answers to the greetings will be in the like of "sensors are picking up only static". This is set for the Aurorean houses but the Heraan, and the Nil'kemorya, for instance
-* "Minor government": when drawing map boundaries, this government is considered minor. Not all the implications of this are know; this is set for the five Aurorean houses as well as some others such as Rebellion. Notice you don't need to set this if the government does not own any stellar.
-* "No boundaries": This government will be completely ignored when drawing the boundaries on the map; then again this serves only if the government in question owns a stellar.
-* "No distress messages": This government's ships will not send distress messages when attacked; this property extends to all ships that are inherently of this government, so this is best used for aliens... or cargo drones.
-* "Roadside assistance": The ships of this government will always refuel/repair the player, and for free. This is pretty rare, as this makes more sense when given with a ränk: this is only set for the Vell-os and the Duellists in the default scenario.
-* "Don't use hypergates": Ships of this government will no use the available hypergates, for whichever reason you care (not) to give. This is actually very often the case, save for Nil'kemorya and the ones who have the next flag set.
-* "Prefers hypergates": Ships of this government prefer to use hypergates, rather than jumping out; this is set mainly for the Rebellion and Sigma Shipyards.
-* "Prefers wormholes": Ships of this government prefer to use wormholes, rather than jumping out; this is set mainly for Pirates, some aliens, and ATMOS (so that they don't jump out at S7evyn when there is no hyperlink from it...)
The CrimeTol field
This number field tells the amount of negative legal rating the player can have before the warships of this government will start attacking him. Notice this is also the unit in the legal rating scale: 1 unit of goodness/evilness in the scales in the Appendix II of the Bible is actually an amount of CrimeTol points, that can be "earned" by missions and the penalties found a few fields below. You can put something like 32000 for this government to be infinitely patient for some special reason; however, I don't think it's a good idea to put 0 or less (put instead a negative enough value in the InitialRec field).
- The ScanFine field
This number field is the amount of money the player will be fined when he has been scanned carrying an illegal, non-mission-related, cargo or outfit: 0 to fine nothing, or a positive value to fine as many credits. Also, a negative value will be the percent of the player's cash to fine (-10 to remove 10%), it's safer to remove big amounts of cash this way as you can be sure not to go over the amount of credits the player owns. Notice this feature is completely unused in the default Nova scenario (0 for all governments).
The SmugPenalty field
This number field states the number of legal rating points the player will lose when he has been scanned carrying illegal cargo (including illegal mission cargo) or an illegal outfit by a ship of this government. Illegal stuff is defined in the ScanMask fields of this government and the stuff in question.
The DisabPenalty field
This number field states the number of legal rating points the player will lose when he disables a ship of this government (for just disabling).
The BoardPenalty field
This number field states the number of legal rating points the player will lose when he boards a ship of this government (notice most of the times the DisabPenalty has been applied first, so this is on top of disabling).
The KillPenalty field
This number field states the number of legal rating points the player will lose when he destroys a ship of this government (notice most of the times the DisabPenalty has been applied first, so this is on top of disabling).
The ShootPenalty field
This number field states the number of legal rating points the player will lose when he shoots a ship of this government. This field is currently ignored, ever since its definition in EVC. But who knows, maybe EV 637.0.1 will eventually implement this feature, so fill this field anyway (there are some values here in the data files of the default Nova scenario).
The InitialRec field
This number field is the number of legal rating points for all systems owned by this government, at the start of the game, leave 0 for the default "clean" rating at the beginning. Notice the legal rating is kept system-wise (i.e. there is one number for each system), so as to allow the player to be liked in some part of the government's empire and not that much at others, however this means only the legal record of the government that owns the system is kept, and used for all stellars inside the system.
The MaxOdds field
This number field is, in percent, the maximum enemy forces/allied forces ratio at which the ships of this goverment will attack, more than that and they won't bother the ennemy (but the enemy, on the other hand...). Let me explain. Each ship has a value of strength, defined in the shďp resource's Strength field. Depending on the remaining shield amount of the ship, a multiplier from 30% to 100% is applied. Then the strengths of the ennemy ships are summed, and compared to the sum of the strengths of the allied ships. If the computed ratio (enemy/ally) is superior to the value (first divided by 100) in this field, the ships of this government will not consider the odds favorable, and won't attack. This means a value of 100 will make ships of this govermnent only attack when they are as strong or stronger than their enemies (usually for pirates). A value of 200 will make ships of this government attack unless they are outnumbered by more than 2-to-1, 300, 3-to-1, etc, and everything in between is possible; notice "normal" governments (i.e. not Ambrosia/ATMOS nor mission-only ones) in the default Nova scenario have this value in the 115-350 range, except Hyperioids who have 50 and won't attack unless they outnumber the ennemy by 2-to-1!
The Class fields
These four number fields allow you to place this government in at most 4 classes, that are containers for governments. Notice the fact that two governments belong to the same class doesn't make them allies by itself, to do this you need to put the class they belong to in one of the Ally field of these governments, see below. Leave the Class fields you don't need to -1 (by the way, I think you can use class numbers from 0 to 32767, since these are not IDs, but don't quote me on that; you have everything you need between 0 and 255).
The Ally fields
These four fields contain classes, and this will make this government allied with all the governments inside these classes. Unlike the previous versions of the engine (EVC, EVO) where the government IDs were directly put, this allows for more flexibility. For instance, to make government A and B allied with each other, just enter 0 in both their Class1 fields, and put 0 in at least one their Ally fields. Notice you don't need to explicitely make each tell they're allied with the other: if Dafydd says "I like ATMOS members," (class 0) and Jason (who belongs to class 0) says "Dafydd? Who's that?" Jason and Dafydd are automatically allies, because Jason's love for Dafydd is implied in Dafydd's statement of undying devotion to ATMOS members, including Jason. 
Put then again -1 in the fields you don't need.
The Enemy fields
These four fields contain classes, and this will make this government consider all the governments inside these classes as enemies. To make A and C enemies, just put 0 in an Enemy field of gövt C (provided A belongs to class 0 as we did just above). Then again, the feeling is reciprocal, and A will hate C just as much as C hates A. Also, xenophobic governments (see that flag) will consider all other non-allied governments as enemies. Put -1 in the fields you don't need.
The Interface field
This number field sets the ID of the ďntf resource to use for the side bar when the player is flying a ship inherently of this government. 128 is the "normal" side bar, 129 is used by Polaris ships, 130 by Fed ones, 131 by Rebellion ones, 132 by Aurorean ones, 133 by pirate ones, and 134 by Vell-os. Putting -1 will make ďntf ID 128 be used; also, ships with no inherent government will use ďntf ID 128 as well. Notice you can very well make a new ďntf resource for your new government.
The NewsPic field
This number field allows you to state which news picture stellars of this government will use, which, along with the fact not the same things are in all government news, or at least not put the same way, makes the player feels the different governments are philosophically different and apply more or less censorship. If you put -1, the default "Independant News Corp" pic will be used, while putting something equal to or above 128 will make the PICT at that ID be used. Values from 9000 and up are usually used, 9000 being the independant one, 9001 is used by the Federation and assimilated stellars, 9002 by the Polaris stellars, and 9003 to 9008 by the various Aurorean factions (Moash, Vella, Tekel, Dani, Heraan, and generic Aurorean, respectively). You can just as well put your own news pic for your new government, just give it an unused ID (9009 and up are best here) and make sure the PICT has a size of 224x300 pixels.
- The SkillMult field
This number field allows you to state how good pilots of this government are. Which is actually (for lack of a better way) made by making ships have different speed and acceleration (from the stock model) when owned by this government. Simply enter the multiplier from the normal accel and speed, in percent, in this field: a value of 50 will make ships owned by this government have a less good accelleration and top speed than the stock model, while 150 will make them have better accelleration and top speed (than the stock model), 100 being normal. You can leave put -1 for normal skill (equivalent to 100). In the default Nova scenario, very few values stray far from 100.
The ScanMask field
This is described as a 16-bit hex field in the Bible, but probably is implemented as as many checkboxes in your editor. If you wish this government to consider some outfits or cargo illegal, you will check at least one of them; for instance, if you wish the government to consider the same things as illegal as the Feds do, check the first one; as the 'reans, the second one; as the Pols, the third one; check my guide about them for more explanations. Sadly, there is no unused ScanMask field, so you'll have to reuse one. Leaving every bit unchecked will make your government consider nothing illegal.
- The Require field(s)
These are described as two 32-bit hex fields in the Bible, but your editor probably implements them as 64 checkboxes. For the stellars of this government to allow the player to land, he will need to meet all the Contribute/Require bits that correspond to the checkboxes set (this can be useful for travel permits). This means that the player will never be allowed to land, regardless of his legal rating, unless he meets the bits set, and even then it will then depend on his legal rating; so if there is even only one bit set, the player won't be allowed to land by default (and probably won't know what he needs to do to be allowed to land). Also, this feature is completely unused in the default Nova scenario. So leave to 0/all unchecked not to use.
The InhJam fields
These four number fields are the amount of jamming each warship (AI 3 and 4) of this government has, for the four jamming means, that are each linked to a specific kind of guidance: in the default Nova scenario, the first is IR jamming, the second matches radar jamming, the third one gravimetric jamming, and the fourth one etheric jamming (to which most Polaris weapons are sensible). It's as if all warships of this government had a jamming outfit doing these jammings built-in, but only when belonging to the government in quextion (i.e. not when the player captures one). Notice freighters (AI 1&2) get 50% of this jamming if the flag setting so is set.
The MediumName field
This text field (limited to 63 chars) lets you state the name of the government as it will appear to the player instead of xxx in the "Sensors detect xxx reinforcement fleet approaching."
The Color field
This hex field, that's probably implemented as a color picker in your editor, allows you to choose the color theme of this government, mainly used to color its empire on the map (but you can apply it yourself to other things as well, such as the background of shipyard ship images as is done in the default Nova scenario). If there is an hex field, it's encoded the same as an HTML color (first two hex numbers unused, then each following pair being one color channel, first Red, Green, then Blue), use some tool that will give you the HTML color from a color picker to know what to enter here.
- The ShipColor field
This hex field, that's probably implemented as a color picker in your editor, allows you to choose the color with which to color ship of this government; use sparingly as it can get annoying if overused. If there is an hex field, it's encoded the same as an HTML color (first two hex numbers unused, then each following pair being one color channel, first Red, Green, then Blue), use some tool that will give you the HTML color from a color picker to know what to enter here. Set to 0x00000000 (pure black) to leave unused; notice this is unused in the default Nova scenario.
The CommName field
This text field (max of 15 chars) is the government's name as it will appear in the hail dialog, like "Trader" in "Pegasus (Trader)".
The TargetCode field
This text field (max of 15 chars) is the government's name as it will be shown in the target display when targeting a ship belonging to this government. Notice room there is very limited, so you'd better keep it under 8 chars (consider it's "W Gse" for the Wild Geese!).
There is a maximum of 256 gövt resources, which means gövt IDs from 128 to 383 can be used.
This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 09 December 2004 - 01:37 PM
don't worry, I make the same mistake some times).
the Arpia government, despite all my attempts in changing the ränk and gövt resources, always seems to refuse to help every time I ask for assistance. How is this possible?
