what are they and how do you set them?
Cron dating
Ok, i understand some of it, but what is the pre and post holdoffs and how the heck do you set the enamble on fields? Same with "on start" and "on end".
How do you set ranks? Are they realated to crons and what sets them off?
Release dates of ships and outfits.
How do you name them? I always see !b108 or somehting like that and i never understand whats its refering to.
@chronodrago, on Jul 2 2006, 10:05 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
Ok, i understand some of it, but what is the pre and post holdoffs and how the heck do you set the enamble on fields? Same with "on start" and "on end".
The EnableOn field is simply an NCB test string. If it is true on any given day, then the crön will have a chance of being activated (that chance is given in the Random field). For information on NCBs, see the beginning of the Nova Bible, and this thread.
The PreHoldOff is the number of days after the crön is activated before the OnStart field is evaluated. The PostHoldOff is the number of days the game will wait after evaluating the OnEnd field before it will try to activate the crön again.
Note that there are a large number of bugs with the crön resource, so there's a good chance that any given selection of numbers will cause the crön to malfunction. Specifically, you shouldn't touch the PostHoldOff field.
@chronodrago, on Jul 2 2006, 10:05 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
How do you set ranks? Are they realated to crons and what sets them off?
ränks are turned on and off using the Kxxx (activate) and Lxxx (deactivate) NCB operators. They can be activated or deactivated anytime an NCB set field is evaluated.
@chronodrago, on Jul 2 2006, 10:05 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
Release dates of ships and outfits.
What are you talking about here? Are referring to the Availablility fields? The AppearOn field? Something else entirely?
Edwards
@edwards, on Jul 2 2006, 10:45 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
What are you talking about here? Are referring to the Availablility fields? The AppearOn field?
Both, i dont understand either. 
For chars does the on start work the same way?
The Availability field is and NCB test string that tells the game when a ship can appear in shipyards and the Bar. For example, if you want a ship to only appear after a cetain mission, you would put "b3851" (or any othe unused bit) in that mission's OnSuccess field, and put "b3851" in the ship's Availability field.
The AppearOn field is also an NCB test field, but it controls whether a ship will appear as an AI ship, when referenced by a düde resource.
You may also want to read through Zacha Pedro's Annotated Templates, which you can find here (after changing the cut-off date for that forum to "show all").
For chärs, OnStart is and NCB set string that is evaluated when you start a new pilot with that chär.
Edwards
so the S in the on start section in chars represents String? like S128 would be vellos?
Ah ok, What about ranks. I want to give a rank to a person after they complete this mission, but i dont know how. Edit: Nvm about this question i found it.
And another question: lets say i put b1000 into the on sucess in a mission complete, if i put the same thing in the availibility box in a ship resource will the ship show up after that mission is completed?
EDIT: wooooow <_< i just found the answer agian, man i need to read better.
When i am making the ship go to a certain system on accept, do i stick in teh sys ID? Becuase the tutorial says Mxxx and my system is 1129. :huh:
This post has been edited by chronodrago : 02 July 2006 - 07:52 PM
@chronodrago, on Jul 2 2006, 05:40 PM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
When i am making the ship go to a certain system on accept, do i stick in teh sys ID? Becuase the tutorial says Mxxx and my system is 1129. :huh:
To teleport the player to system 1129, put "M1129" in the OnAccept field. "xxx" is just a short-hand for "whatever your RID (or NCB, in the case of Bxxx) happens to be".
Edwards
And what about linking missions into a string, i thought about doing cunjo hunt and linking it up with another misn but i dont know where the next on succes bxxx thats already there leads to. And i would just pick a random number, probably high so it isnt already used, and then put b9999 in both categories? Would the availibility box determine if it comes after the cunjo hunt misn?
Is there a way to make a rank be of two gov'ts? I want to have 2 gov'ts not attack you but i cant if i dont want both to show up.
I also want to make a gov't disappear. Would i be able to do that with a cron? If so, how would i create the on start field to say that gov't is dead.
This post has been edited by chronodrago : 03 July 2006 - 11:12 AM
@chronodrago, on Jul 3 2006, 08:00 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
And what about linking missions into a string, i thought about doing cunjo hunt and linking it up with another misn but i dont know where the next on succes bxxx thats already there leads to. And i would just pick a random number, probably high so it isnt already used, and then put b9999 in both categories? Would the availibility box determine if it comes after the cunjo hunt misn?
To make a mission come after the Cunjo Hunter mission, you'll want to copy both versions of the second Cunjo Hunter mission (RIDs 835 and 907) into your plug-in, and add an unused NCB ( not b9999) to their OnSuccess fields. You would then put that NCB into the Availability field of your new mission.
Quite often, if you want to make a mission appear after a pre-existing Nova mission, it is safe to simply use one of the NCBs that already exist in that mission's OnSuccess field in your mission's Availability field, but in this case, the two versions of the Cunjo Hunter mission set different NCBs. Also, some NCBs link into mechanisms that clear them shortly after they are set, and a few are set by multiple missions. So, if you don't have a listing of which NCBs are used where, you should probably copy the mission and add a new bit.
You can see a list of available NCBs here.
@chronodrago, on Jul 3 2006, 08:00 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
Is there a way to make a rank be of two gov'ts? I want to have 2 gov'ts not attack you but i cant if i dont want both to show up.
If the two govts are allies, I think that if you have a rank such that one won't attack you, all of its allies will avoid attacking you, too. If that doesn't work, you can make a ränk invisible simply by not giving it a name.
@chronodrago, on Jul 3 2006, 08:00 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
I also want to make a gov't disappear. Would i be able to do that with a cron? If so, how would i create the on start field to say that gov't is dead.
It isn't possible to simply tell the game "this govt is dead". You will need to set up all of their systems to change to a version without the govt when a specific NCB is set, set any fleets they have to not show up after that bit is set, and if they have any ships that appear in systems that they don't own (via düdes), you will need to change those s˙sts to not use those düdes.
Edwards
@edwards, on Jul 3 2006, 11:57 AM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
It isn't possible to simply tell the game "this govt is dead". You will need to set up all of their systems to change to a version without the govt when a specific NCB is set, set any fleets they have to not show up after that bit is set, and if they have any ships that appear in systems that they don't own (via düdes), you will need to change those s˙sts to not use those düdes.
Edwards
Ok, luckily their color isnt shown on the map but i want them to disappear. So how would i make it change to "a version without the govt"?
How can i do this: "you will need to change those s˙sts to not use those düdes."? Do i create a copy of that system and then put an enable on field or somthing like that?
To make a system change, first you need to make two systems. One will be controlled by your govt, the other won't (if the system has planets, you will need to make copies of them without the govt, too, and have the non-govt system refer to them, rather than to the originals- you will also need to remove or replace references to govt düdes). Switching the systems uses the Visibility field. If you want to change from the govt version to the non-govt version when bxxx is set, you would put "!bxxx" in the govt system's Visibility, and "bxxx" in the non-govt systems visibility.
You would do the same thing for any other system where the govt's ships would show up, except that there, you would simply need to remove any düdes belonging to the vanished govt from the system's DudeType fields. Note that if your govt only uses its own unique varients of ships, you can simply put "!bxxx" in the AppearOn field of those ships, and you probably won't need to change any systems just to remove düdes.
Edwards
awesome thanks
Ok im trying to make amisn that explores the map, becuase my dam outfit wont work anymore. Is there shortcut way of doing that or do i have to right Xxxx for every syst?
Is this a valid NCB set expression if each leads to teh correct value? K159 Q25077 b9994 D269 b9813
This post has been edited by chronodrago : 03 July 2006 - 02:42 PM
Yep. It will start rank 159, possibly force the player into space, display a string fro STR# 25077 at the bottom of the screen, set b9994, remove outfit 269, and set b9813. Supposedly all at the same time, although strictly speaking that's not at all true.
@orcaloverbri9, on Jul 3 2006, 01:16 PM, said in Cron dating, ranks, and realese dates:
Yep. It will start rank 159, possibly force the player into space, display a string fro STR# 25077 at the bottom of the screen, set b9994, remove outfit 269, and set b9813. Supposedly all at the same time, although strictly speaking that's not at all true.
perfect! the rank is set, and the guy gets booted off of sol with a str# saying there is a new curfew and then the guy looses the outfit and some ships appear that he can buy now. I deleted b9994 and replaced it with Sxxx.
nevermind that i chagned the S1129 back to b1893 and put !b1893 in the availbility
