Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Howdy All:

I'm a relative newcomer to the Freespace community, though I have a friend who's been into it since FS1. I'm currently in the conceptualization phase of my first campaign I call "GTI: Untold Sorties", where a wing of covert GTI ships encounter a Knossos device which is inactive. I would prefur to have said Knossos appear inactive with its interlocking components not moving. I was hoping that there might be an option within FRED2 to perform this, like an order to "Play Dead", but to no avail. It crossed my mind that playing around with the Knossos' table files might yeild a method to render each segment imobile, but then I remembered that someone in this messageboard might be able to give me some advice on this problem. It would be even better if there was a way to have the device switch from inactive to enabled during a mission, or perhaps the reverse. I realize that this might require an edited POF or something (which is way out of my league), but I'll take what I can get.

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location:
Posts: 214

Funny, I always thought the Play Dead order would stop all rotating submodels. Well, I haven't tried this, but try setting the ring subsystem strength to 0. They'll stop rotating, but I'm not sure if they'll still be visible. Then you can repair the subsystems and they'll start rotating again.

If you destroy the subsystem, and the ring components vanish, you'll probably need a modified POF. If so I'll handle it, since we'd need one for Scroll of Atankharzim anyway, I'm guessing.

__________________
Palpy uber alles!
-Woolie Wool

Galemp, you should be shoved into the intake of a Boeing 777.
-Mikhael, upon seeing my [url=http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19105]FS uglies[/url]

[url=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/fsport/]Revisit the Great War at the Freespace Port![/url]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Down Under (Sydney)
Posts: 9

this was fixed in one of DTP's source code builds. third release i think.
http://home19.inet.tele.dk/dtp/sourcemodifications.html

__________________
\/asudan /\dmiral
[url=http://www.scifi3d.de/twistedinfinities/index2.htm]Twisted Infinities[/url]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 4

Hey, TrvPsyc came to me, his afore mentioned friend and i removed the rotate points in the POF for him. Thanks for assistance all.

__________________
Its simple Math.
Erinyes + (Kayser x8) = FUN

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Thank you all for your suggestions. Emperor, I already tried the subsystem thing, but as you expected, the rotating components vanished. I was over visiting Shadow earlier and he used a version of ModelView to edit the .pof file and remove the rotating segments. There may be a way to use FRED to instantly replace the frozen Knossos with an active one to simulate an activation, but I'm not completely sure if I will need to do this to complete my campaign. This brings me to another issue. Shadow used ModelView to edit the .pof, but the versions I have downloaded and tried don't have the features his does, like "edit .pof" or "Show Rotating Segments". It seems he has a newer build of the program, and I haven't been able to find a newer one. I've the same problem with VP View and TableView I think. I tried the update feature but the site it sends me to has nothing. I'd get them off Shadow, but he's since deleted his install files. All I've got is ModView V1.0 Beta-03 Build-16 01/06/2001, TableView V1.0 Beta-01 Build-01 11/28/1999, and VP View 32 V2.0 Build 101 (Though the spash screen says 102) 05/08/2000. If anyone has the newest builds of these, I would appreciate a link, email, or perhaps ICQ. Once again, thanks

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2001
Location:
Posts: 1234

[URL=http://www.freespace-2.com/tools/]Look here[/URL]

Strangely modelview isn't on that page but if you look [URL=http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=260405]here[/URL] you'll find a good version of it which has had the turret limits raised.

__________________
Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/intro.html]Karajorma's Freespace FAQ [/URL] (now with added GE goodness)

Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Thanks for the link. I went to that thread and downloaded the .zip file, but when I tried to install it, it said that it was missing "D2Pal.dat" and wouldn't proceed any further. Once unzipped, the .exe was 1750 KB in size. If anyone else has a confirmed functional version of this application or any newer than those I listed in my above post, I would appreciate it.

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Down Under (Sydney)
Posts: 9

links to complete and working stuff here with instructions: http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15019

make sure you to INSTALL the main modview 05b BEFORE trying to use my raised limits version. it crashes at startup otherwise

__________________
\/asudan /\dmiral
[url=http://www.scifi3d.de/twistedinfinities/index2.htm]Twisted Infinities[/url]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 181

quote:

---

Originally posted by Trivial Psychic
T There may be a way to use FRED to instantly replace the frozen Knossos with an active one to simulate an activation, but I'm not completely sure if I will need to do this to complete my campaign.

---

__________________
"What you egg" Macbeth Act IV, Scene II, line 80
"Young fry of Treachery" Macbeth Act IV, Scene II, line 81
[url=www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/ntv/]Neo Terra Victorious - Bet you didn't see that one coming.[/url]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Got the Beta 05 installed and followed the instructions for installing the upgrade. I'm not sure if the upgrade is functioniong, as I can't recognize the regular textures from the enhanced stuff. Anyway, the important thing is, its in, it works, and its got the features I was looking for. Thank you all for your continued assistance.

As for switching from an inactive Knossos to an active Knossos, I'm still not sure I will need it. The technique covered above however (which I was thinking about myself) could present the problem of the segments not matching up in their position when switching from one to the other. Even if their positions do match up, it would mean each segment would jump from a motionless state, directly to maximum speed. This might appear a bit unrealistic.

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 4

I got the knossos and the inactive knossos together in a table file and made a mission where the 2 knossos started at the exact same spot as each other, turned on the no warp and said for the turning knossos to appear at 20 and the inactive 1 to disappear at 20. It worked perfectly, the knossos appeared to start turning from the position it was originally in. I didnt see a problem with the top speed thing because the knossos actually goes pretty slow. When i tried to go from active to inactive, it was to jerky in the transition, I suppose i could time it exactly to stop turning when the knossos is in idle posittion.

__________________
Its simple Math.
Erinyes + (Kayser x8) = FUN

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

That's good news Shadow. As I mentioned to you in my last email, I'm done the initial weapons and ships table edits, but I may have to make changes later. In any case, I'm finally into fredding and my first mission is going well, but I've run into a bit of a snag. The mission's bonus objective involves finding a piece of ancients' debris in an asteroid belt. For the debris, I downloaded a reskin of the Shivan spacehunk, but its so bit that you can't effectively hide it in the asteroid belt, no matter how dense I make it, or how many single asteroids I place blocking its view. I openned a .pof of an asteroid in the newest version of MODview and replaced its skin with a tile from the ancients' spacehunk, and changed the filename. I then copied the asteroid entry in the ships table file, changed the name and pof file, and removed the two flags for no impacts and navbuoy and replaced them with one for cargo. I did this because I'd like the object to be scannable. I then openned FRED and made a simple mission with just a ship, and this piece of small ancients' debris. All went well until I went to test the mission. I selected the mission from the techroom and got as far as the final commit, but when I clicked on it the whole program locked up and I had to reboot. I thought it might have been a system overload since I had been running several other programs before this, so I tried it after the reboot but the same thing happenned. I hope someone has a way out of this delema for me. Anyone?

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Never mind. In the table files, I had changed the species entries for the selected fragments of ancients' debris, to Ancients as opposed to Shivan, Vasudan, or Terran. When I changed them to Terran, the program worked again. I even managed to get the item scannable by flagging it as "cargo". Now its all down to FREDing.

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Me again. This isn't exactly related to the original question that spawned this thread, but since I started it, I might as well avoid cluttering up the screen with multiple threads. In any case, on to my problem.

I'm FREDing my second mission in the campaign I was talking about earlier, but I've run into a snagg of sorts. This mission uses a lot of ships and objects, which may be playing a factor in my problem. I've made two attempts to complete FREDding of this mission, but every time when it comes to doing the Campaign Briefing, as soon as its done and I try to test the mission, the error detector program comes up and tells me that a specific sexpression is illegal. The thing is, before I added the CB, it didn't complain about said SEXP. Also, if I try reversing the change and removing the CBs, the same error message appears when I test it. If I acknolege the error and continue with Freespace, the mission proceeds without any problems. Is this a FRED problem? Is there any way around it (without removing ships)? Is there a patch for it?

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 181

Post the specific error, and if possible the sexp that is causin it - we may be able to spot the error from that, but there are so many sexp combinations FS2 doesn;t like that it may be difficult withpu the actual mission

We can try though

__________________
"What you egg" Macbeth Act IV, Scene II, line 80
"Young fry of Treachery" Macbeth Act IV, Scene II, line 81
[url=www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/ntv/]Neo Terra Victorious - Bet you didn't see that one coming.[/url]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

I'll put the final touches on the mission, minus the command briefing, then copy the mission to another filename and try adding the briefing. If the problem introduces itself, who ever test runs my mission will have a base level comparisson. Also, this campaign takes place just prior to the beginning of FS1 so ships from that era are needed. That means that whoever tests the mission will need to use the Port program, plus my edited versions of ships and weapons table files, which I'll include with the mission pair.

I should have it completed by tomorrow night EDT. A blanket premptive "Thank You" to whoever can help me with it.

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 63

Problem solved... sort of. It seems that my mission surpassed the top end of either file size or number of events. If its filesize, the cieling would seem to be in the neibourhood of 140 KB. In any case, I had to sacrifice one of my capital ships, but this ship would arrive if you failed to destroy an earlier ship, so I was able to delete a whole bunch of code that had to deal with the other sequence.

In any event, on to my next mission!

Later!

__________________
The Trivial Psychic Strikes Again!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged