[SDE]

Hey there everybody,

I'm completely new to modding YR - I've done a spot of modding RA1 here and there, mostly creating completely retarded mods. Much the same as what I'm doing to YR, but hopefully I'll mature out of that soon..

Anyway, since I'm in no way experienced, I've been experimenting mostly with making clones of the standard units completely crazy rather than being original. So far, I've managed to make an individual special forces unit for each of the allied sides by making poor recolours of the SEAL SHP, i.e. SAS for the Brits, Ninja (boring, I know) for the Koreans, GIGN for the French and GSG-9 for the Germans. I've also been experimenting with giving each side a more individual feel - so far, I've run up against the following roadblocks. They're probably extremely stupid questions - I tried a search for the answers and failed (probably the wrong search parameters.. if these really are stupid questions I should know the answer to, please tell me so so that I can learn from my mistakes). Also, please feel free to pass judgement on the actual unit ideas, and if you think they're overpowered and should be nerfed or just so horribly uninventive I should be put down for them, again - please tell me:

1. I've created a slightly darker recolour of the Terror Drone, called the Annihilator Drone. It's pretty much just a very fast, very heavily armoured clone of the Terror Drone, costing $2500. It works perfectly - rips through any mobile defense in the enemy's base in seconds, very hard to kill (standard tesla blast does just more than half damage, charged tesla kills in one), the whole works. The weird thing is, it shows up in both the infantry and vehicle tabs - have you any idea why? Here is the code for it:

UIName=Name:UDRON
Name=Annihilator Drone
Image=UDRON
Category=AFV
Prerequisite=NAWEAP,TECH
Primary=UDroneJump
Secondary=VirtualScanner
NavalTargeting=6
Strength=300
SuppressionThreshold=30; damage below this amount won't suppress the parasite
ReselectIfLimboed=yes ; If selected when limbo on attack of infantry, reselect when unlimbo
DefaultToGuardArea=yes ; the much awaited terror drone default to move and attack when resting
Armor=heavy
TechLevel=6
Turret=no
IsTilter=no
CrateGoodie=yes
Sight=6
Speed=16 ; gs Don't go higher than 20, or he gets stuck running in circles
Owner=Russians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs
RequiredHouses=Russians
Cost=2500
Soylent=1250
Points=60
ROT=40
AllowedToStartInMultiplayer=no
Crusher=no
Crewed=no
IsSelectableCombatant=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
VoiceSelect=TerrorDroneSelect
VoiceAttack=TerrorDroneAttackCommand
VoiceMove=TerrorDroneMove
VoiceFeedback=
DieSound=TerrorDroneDie
MoveSound=TerrorDroneMoveLoop
MaxDebris=2
Locomotor={4A582741-9839-11d1-B709-00A024DDAFD1};<-drive   mech->{55D141B8-DB94-11d1-AC98-006008055BB5}
;MovementZone=Normal ;gs FLAW needs to be changed to this when The Flaw is fixed
MovementZone=Destroyer
ThreatPosed=40	; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,SmallGreySSys
Weight=1
ImmuneToPsionics=yes
ImmuneToRadiation=yes
Parasiteable=no
Trainable=no
Explodes=no
AccelerationFactor=5 ; really fast
DeaccelerationFactor=5 ; This is TS's mizspelingg knot min
ZFudgeColumn=8
ZFudgeTunnel=13
;Bombable=no
Size=2
Accelerates=false
Bunkerable=no; Units default to yes, others default to no

[EDIT] Problem FIXED: Turns out that because I put this unit in the "SpecialInfantry" for the secret lab instead of the SpecialUnits, even though I was trying to build it with a house that was in it's RequiredHouses it was adamant that I could build it from the barracks and the war factory. Moving it from SecretInfantry to SecretUnits solved the problem.. weird. [/EDIT]

2. On the basis that no matter how many times I capture a secret lab, I don't know whether or not I'm just unlucky or if I've messed up - if a unit has techlevel=-1, but is set as a "SecretInfantry" in the secret labs section, will it be buildable upon infiltrating the lab (and that unit being selected, obviously)?

[EDIT]Problem FIXED courtesy of Bobing and DCoder - TechLevel 11[/EDIT]

3. This is merely a balance question. I wanted to make the Americans feel much more "big guns" than the allies by removing their Prism technology, hence I'm replacing their prism tower with an anti-tank MG nest, they get a standard MG nest (semi-effective against vehicle, very effective against infantry), the pillbox and a "breaching tank" called the Intruder (I know the name is technically taken by the Harrier.. hmm) which doesn't have the prism tank's range but is incredibly strong and has a cannon which is good against base defence and decent against vehicles, for about $1500. Could this change ever be fair or will the range loss/other changes make the US too weak?

Thankyou for your help - again, if my questions have easily-found-out answers or I'm generally being a n00b then tell me where to shove it! (Links please.. :lol: )

[bobing]

1, make sure you've added the unit to the unittypes list and not the infantry types list, this is what controls where the unit comes from and what build tabs it is on.

2, to make a unit available when capturing a secret lab, it must be buildable, so techlevel=-1 will prevent it from working, instead, give it requiredhouses=neutral. look at the other country spacific units, listed on the secret lab units for an example, don't copy my code because its probably spelled wrong, and the cases are definitly wrong.

3, it'll take a lot of experimentation to know if its "Ballanced" or not. to me, its just "4th side emulation", using a method i call "split tech tree", i basicly wrote the book and anything with "4th side" in its name :P

[SDE]

Originally Posted by bobing";p=&quot

1, make sure you've added the unit to the unittypes list and not the infantry types list, this is what controls where the unit comes from and what build tabs it is on.

I just checked this, and it's only on the unittypes list, not on the infantry or any other. Very strange.. As far as I can tell it's got everything that DRON has - hardcoding maybe??

Originally Posted by bobing";p=&quot

2, to make a unit available when capturing a secret lab, it must be buildable, so techlevel=-1 will prevent it from working, instead, give it requiredhouses=neutral. look at the other country spacific units, listed on the secret lab units for an example, don't copy my code because its probably spelled wrong, and the cases are definitly wrong.

I'll give this a try now - I hadn't really thought about that.. Does this mean I'd have to have:

Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance,Neutral,Russians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs,YuriCountry
RequiredHouses=Neutral

.. or does the RequiredHouses=Neutral make the owner largely irrelevant?

Originally Posted by bobing";p=&quot

3, it'll take a lot of experimentation to know if its "Ballanced" or not. to me, its just "4th side emulation", using a method i call "split tech tree", i basicly wrote the book and anything with "4th side" in its name :P

:lol: Fair enough! The split tech tree is such fun though.. I'm looking mostly to make it so that while each allied player is fairly similar, different tactics are advisable when countering them - i.e. the Brits currently have completely lethal anti-infantry and naval capabilities but sort of suck with tanks and air, whereas the Germans have the ultimate in ground-based assault (etc. etc.)

[Renegade]

What bob said, and stop this whole [SLAV] routine...we got that you're but a newbie...

About 3...having some experience with MGs, I must say: An "anti-tank MG nest" has no sense of reality to it. The bullets needed to crack a tank open are way bigger than what you'd put into an MG...so the only way to create an "anti-tank MG" would be taking an anti-tank cannon and automating its loading process...but it'd still be the size of a cannon, hardly qualifying for the designation "nest". Not to mention the barrel melting after a few rounds...

Prism is merely a graphic representation of the projectile's path. The balance doesn't come from the fact that it glows, so to speak, but from the damage it inflicts...so if you want to keep the existing balance, all you have to do is copy the current weapons/warheads/projectiles and "de-prism" them...take out the laser, change the infdeath and assign a cannonball projectile. Don't forget the sound. That way, the weapon is just as dangerous/valuable as before, but a conventional cannon and no futuristic laser.

EDIT (you posted while I did): RequiredHouses=Neutral would require you to be [Neutral] in order to get this object legally - you cannot be [Neutral] in normal game. The secret lab then overrides the RequiredHouses and lets you build the unit even if you're not [Neutral].

[bobing]

Originally Posted by SDE";p=&quot

I'll give this a try now - I hadn't really thought about that.. Does this mean I'd have to have:

Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance,Neutral,Russians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs,YuriCountry
RequiredHouses=Neutral

.. or does the RequiredHouses=Neutral make the owner largely irrelevant?

I'd do this
Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance,Ru ssians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs,YuriCountry
RequiredHouses=Neutral

the owner tag, apart from saying who gets it, it also used to specify what factories can build it. unless you have a tech war factory of "Owner=Neutral" then adding Neutral to the Owner tag isn't required.

it is basicly how renegade said it, the main step of the secret lab is that it randomly selects 1 of the units on its lists, then removes this "RequiredHouses=Neutral" tag. it possably does something to the pre-requisite tag too.

Originally Posted by Renegade";p=&quot

...having some experience with MGs...

you should listen to him, he's recently come back from the german army. However, it is a "Game", and not everything in here is realistic anyway.

[SDE]

Originally Posted by Renegade";p=&quot

What bob said, and stop this whole [SLAV] routine...we got that you're but a newbie...

I'm actually a "pathetic newbie loser", I'll have you know.. But thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by Renegade";p=&quot

Prism is merely a graphic representation of the projectile's path. The balance doesn't come from the fact that it glows, so to speak, but from the damage it inflicts...so if you want to keep the existing balance, all you have to do is copy the current weapons/warheads/projectiles and "de-prism" them...take out the laser, change the infdeath and assign a cannonball projectile. Don't forget the sound. That way, the weapon is just as dangerous/valuable as before, but a conventional cannon and no futuristic laser.

Fair enough - it's a shame really, because I'm trying to escape from turrets (the lengths to which I went to include them used to be rather worrying) but it sounds like you've got far better knowledge of these sorts of things than I. There is already a "heavy sniper" unit in the mod, using a large anti-material sniper rifle.. is that realistic? And would it also be realistic to replace the American prism tower with a sniper nest/tower using one of these? I prefer to avoid cannons as base defenses because they can so easily be rushed past (ie the RA1 turrets- ugh) - either that or they have to be "hypervelocity" which sounds all too much like an excuse (titan!).

Originally Posted by Renegade";p=&quot

EDIT (you posted while I did): RequiredHouses=Neutral would require you to be [Neutral] in order to get this object legally - you cannot be [Neutral] in normal game. The secret lab then overrides the RequiredHouses and lets you build the unit even if you're not [Neutral].

Ah, thankyou.. that explains a lot.

Originally Posted by bobing";p=&quot

I'd do this
Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance,Ru ssians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs,YuriCountry
RequiredHouses=Neutral

the owner tag, apart from saying who gets it, it also used to specify what factories can build it. unless you have a tech war factory of "Owner=Neutral" then adding Neutral to the Owner tag isn't required.

it is basicly how renegade said it, the main step of the secret lab is that it randomly selects 1 of the units on its lists, then removes this "RequiredHouses=Neutral" tag. it possably does something to the pre-requisite tag too.

Since I'm making all of the house units secret-lab units too, does that mean I'll have to give them "Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance,R ussians,Confederation,Africans,Arabs,YuriCountry" as well?

Originally Posted by bobing";p=&quot

you should listen to him, he's recently come back from the german army. However, it is a "Game", and not everything in here is realistic anyway.

I'll keep that in mind! The only reason I gave the idea is really because in the original RA1 mod I was developing, you ended up with a string of very small explosions on and around the tank, which tended to look very good; however, I'm trying to keep the American Army somewhere within the limits of normality, so maybe I should keep looking for some new ideas..

Another question then:

4. I've been using OS SHP Builder to recolour SHP's - palpack I and II have been ridiculously useful here. Is there any way to "extract" voxels as a set of frames to allow them to be recoloured? It seems possible due to the way that XCC mixer represents them - a grid of frames - but when I looked at the voxel-making tutorials, I got fairly confused; the best I have heard of so far is converting a voxel to an SHP, but when all you want to do is recolour a tank you end up with a distinctly unsatisfying end-product as it can't tilt, have a moving turret (to my knowledge) or really behave like the other tanks. In accordance with the guide posted by Renegade: Could you point me to a resource that might help me with this if you are short on time?

[EDIT] Problem FIXED - VoxelSE III on Project Perfect Mod - http://www.ppmsite.com [/EDIT]

Thanks again for your time!

[DCoder]

Um, bob, Secret Lab overrides TechLevel=11 no problemo (confirmation: CannisRules), so no need for that Neutral jibba jabba.

(Wow, my 1000th post.)

[Renegade]

Was about time...four weeks of waiting...

CONGRATULATIONS!

@SDE: ModEnc's Community Portal as well as ModEnc itself; and, brand spankin' new: #RenProj on irc.gamernet.org (I'm in there right at this very moment).

Afaik, XCC Mixer can copy voxels as PCX (and possibly the other graphics formats), creating either one layered file or one file for each layer. However, the recolor tool in the latest VxlEditor actually does its job quite well... (check PPM for it)

[SDE]

@DCoder: If I can just use TechLevel=11.. Would I still have to put in the "Owner=" to make the factories work?

@Renegade: Thanks, that voxel editor is great - I feel like such an idiot, I spent about 2 hours staring at HVA editor and trying to extract voxels (with no success) into images using XCC Mixer and getting nowhere.. and thanks for the links, I've been using ModEnc for help with RockPatch - I'll see if I can use it to expand my horizons a little. Once I get round to installing an IRC client I'll be on #RenProj and irritating the life out of you, don't you worry.. Incidentally, when I tried to extract voxels using XCC Mixer, when it didn't crash it just gave 12 blank jpegs (for the rhino tank main base voxel)?

Also, if there might be any answers to any of my other questions I'd be delighted to hear them - thanks for the help you've given me already!

[SDE]

Problems 1 & 2 are now both fixed - problem 2 courtesy of you fine folks, and problem 2.. well, the explanations in the original post now, but for the record it turns out that putting a vehicle in the SecretInfantry means that it will be buildable from the barracks by any house that would be able to build it, although no unit is actually produced. Very strange..

I have a new question too:

5. My SAS trooper uses a grenade launcher vs. ships, C4 vs. buildings and an assault rifle vs. infantry and tanks; it has:

NavalTargeting=7
LandTargeting=2

with the assault rifle as his secondary and the grenade launcher as primary. I don't want him using the nade launcher against tanks, but as it is the trooper will never fire at passing enemy units, although he will retaliate; what can I do about this that will preserve the way the unit works while allowing him to be useful?

Thanks again!