Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • Dude, Where's the ships


      Can't get ships to appear in a system

      Okay, so, I'm trying to write a TC of rather generous proportions. But a lot of the developers out there suggest starting small (like plug packs) and work up to the TC level. Fine.

      I found myself potting asteroids one day and decided to create: Nova 'Roids!

      Just an asteroid type game using the engine. And so far, it's taught me a lot.

      However, In both endevours, I'm having the very same issue. ships don't appear in any system I create.

      The asteroids game is a bit of a TC itself since I wanted to use different systems as the various "levels" of the game. So I created a fairly simplistic spiral starmap. The first level is the easy, asteroids-only, type. The second level is the "save" system with a place to land. Next system is a bit harder, etc.

      Thing is, I decided to have "aliens" shooting at the rocks (like in the original game) but I can't get them to appear. I tried placing Krypt, (using my own ship and dude, but the default shan) and the darn things won't appear.

      I looked at some of the Krypt systems in the main game. I split everything into 25 percent pieces (rather than one at 100%) everything looks exactly the same. Yet, I can't get any ships to appear.

      Side Note: I discovered the 'char' resource that set up the initial character. Such a little trivial thing does so much. I'm thinking I might be missing something similar (like a desc perhaps?).

    • Just a guess: The each system has an "Average Ships" value. Did you remember to set that above '0'?

      This post has been edited by Eugene Chin : 08 August 2010 - 03:57 AM

    • QUOTE (Eugene Chin @ Aug 8 2010, 01:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

      Just a guess: The each system has an "Average Ships" value. Did you remember to set that above '0'?

      Yup, though I'll admit it was one of the things I missed for quite some time.

    • Alright, since my first guess didn't pan out, and since the source of the issue isn't apparent from the description, I'll run down the list of possibilities:

      Systems Resource:
      Average Ships set above Zero - You just said you'd set this.
      • Dude Types points to the right Dude
      • Dude Probability for that Dude Type is set above zero

      - You said you set one of these to a series of 25%'s, but I wasn't clear if it was the system's 'dude' probabilities or the dude's 'ship' probabilities.

      Dudes Resource:
      • Dude points to the RID of the ship
      • Related Ship Probability is above zero - Again, setting this to a series of 25%'s is a good way to do it.

      Ships Resource:
      • Ship AppearOn NCB should be clear, or
      • Ship AppearOn NCB should be valid: i.e. it is something that is set by a mission or the char resource
      • Ship RID is valid (Between 128 and 895)

      Shans Resource:
      Shan data is valid - If the shan is copied, it should be valid.
      • Shan RID matches Ship RID

      If that list doesn't help you clear up the problem, you may need to give more details.