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Author Topic: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Been..  (Read 9127 times)
thechortler
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Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Been..
« on: September 17, 2003, 08:11:13 am »

Hey guys, if anyone remembers my previous post about the Earthling nukes, they'll probably recall I have an affinity for the pokey little Cruiser.  There's no ship I'd rather take on a Drednaught in, seriously.  Anyway, I beleve that if the Earthling had one unit higher top speed, and possibly one unit faster recharge, it'd be utterly invincible, or at least one of the top ships.  Seriously.  I'd like to try this out, and create a mod where the Earthling's engines are one unit faster.  Unfortunately, I have absolutely no bleeping idea how to do this.  The FAQs aren't really that informative--shouldn't this be a relatively easy operation?  Which file should I be modifying in the Earthling folder?  Thanks in advance.
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2003, 08:42:08 am »

As far as I can tell, there's nothing in the content files that pertain to ship variables. If you really want to do this, I suggest that you tweak the values in the source, then compile it yourself.

From uqm-0.3-source\src\sc2code\ships\human\human.c
Quote
#define MAX_CREW 18
#define MAX_ENERGY 18
#define ENERGY_REGENERATION 1
#define WEAPON_ENERGY_COST 9
#define SPECIAL_ENERGY_COST 4
#define ENERGY_WAIT 8
#define MAX_THRUST /* DISPLAY_TO_WORLD (6) */ 24
#define THRUST_INCREMENT /* DISPLAY_TO_WORLD (2) */ 3
#define TURN_WAIT 1
#define THRUST_WAIT 4
#define WEAPON_WAIT 10
#define SPECIAL_WAIT 9

Set THRUST_WAIT to 3 (or should we be bothering with MAX_THRUST or THRUST_INCREMENT?) and TURN_WAIT to 0, and that should cover it.

On another note, I realize that editing the content files might be desirable for mods, but what about chunks of the source such as this? Is it feasable to have a similar system for source mods?

EDIT: Alternatively, if you don't have a compiler or know how to use one, you could try locating these values in the executable with a hex editor. Though I imagine this process would probably be a lot more involved and not entirely worth effort since the source is availible, for a reasonable sum of Credits.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2003, 08:48:33 am by sageallen » Logged
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2003, 03:04:18 pm »

If one wanted a melee trainer, it shouldn't be hard to do.  Actually, I came across one for the original SC2, that would let you change these values (mostly - there's some unwritten rules you need to follow).

It's fun to play with something like this for a while, but it does get boring quick...my thing was to make different ships that were totally invincible to the other ships, and then have those to play against.

Some ships you can do lots to by changing those values, and others you can't improve (or upgrade) upon much without tweaking the source.

The Earthling Cruiser is one you can make totally invincible.   Increase the recharge rate up to the Chmmr's, then reduce the time between firings and energy per shot, and you'd get something similar to Star Trek, and almost invincible...the point defense acts like the phasers, and you can let loose multiple nukes at once by doing this.  Of course, up the speed and you get something nasty to fight.

Or with something like this, something fun was always to give the Orz lots of crew and then reduce the "rate of fire" on the special...was always fun to get in front of a ship and let 8 marines loose at once with no chance of the opponent not seeing all of them.  Of course you can always turn down the energy usage on the cannon and make it rapid fire...

There's always loads of fun to be had with certain ships...of course, a ship like the Melnorme could only be improved much by decreasing the time to RED on the ball.   Although, rapid fire confusion ray is another fun mod you could do changing these values.

Maybe someone could come up with an editor like I'm describing?
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2003, 04:25:21 pm »

Patching these values in memory is feasible, but I don't have the foggiest how to do it. I imagine if a spec sheet of the exe (or equivalent for other OSes) were put up, someone with the proper knowlege could make use of it and produce such a program.
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2003, 04:31:20 pm »

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Patching these values in memory is feasible, but I don't have the foggiest how to do it. I imagine if a spec sheet of the exe (or equivalent for other OSes) were put up, someone with the proper knowlege could make use of it and produce such a program.


It'd take looking at the source to figure out the type of variable and the value and then hexedit search the EXE to find numbers like that, tweak them, and then see what changes and taking good notes at which byte # you find that value.

It'd be tedious work initially but easily programmed once the notes were completed.
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2003, 04:53:46 pm »

what about modifying shp files and using them in the addon directory?
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2003, 07:00:26 pm »

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It'd take looking at the source to figure out the type of variable and the value and then hexedit search the EXE to find numbers like that, tweak them, and then see what changes and taking good notes at which byte # you find that value.

It'd be tedious work initially but easily programmed once the notes were completed.


The problem with this approach is that UQM changes all the time, and that it can be compiled in so many ways. Any editing method based on editing the UQM binary is probably only going to work with one specific binary (e.g. UQM 0.3 for Windows, official release). In other words, you'd have to look for the right offsets every time you update UQM, so CVS users can probably just forget about this approach.

The only really flexible approach to editing ships is to edit the source code. For basic editing such as tweaking numeric parameter values, reading the values from a separate file (e.g. a SHP file) should suffice.
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2003, 08:58:16 pm »

Yeah, just don't get the one piloted by Captain Kirk...  Grin
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2003, 06:16:41 pm »

It would be neat to have a mod with all the ships souped up to insane levels...
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2003, 08:46:56 pm »

In the PC version of SC2 you could edit the .shp files. There was one for each ship, the cruiser was "human.shp." There are a few editors on TPNF, but none seem to work. I'm not even sure if UQM actually uses these files, but they are in the content.zip.

In theory, if they are still used, you should be able to extract them, edit the files needed and re-insert the editted file back into the zip file.
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Death 999
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2003, 09:49:01 pm »

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It would be neat to have a mod with all the ships souped up to insane levels...


Well, if they're all insane, then can they all be said to be balanced again?
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Chrispy
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2003, 02:43:07 am »

id have to say the ships are good the way they are. maybe make the chmmrs zap-zats less good so u could beat it by just shooting madly
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2003, 06:54:36 am »

I think the point is what it would look like, two insanely souped up ships going at it. :p
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but it is not!
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2003, 02:59:20 pm »

Luckily it is not. The human cruiser is what i always expected and supposed it would be: In combat a high turning rate, a point defense and a strong powerful rocket, which can easily be tricked or get rid of. It just seems to fit to humankind the way i feel it. The only thing which seems a little wrong is the recharge rate for the nukes. I thought the nukes should be able to blast off a lot faster (like 8 in a row, then a long pause to recharge). Even submarines can lauch torpedoes faster than that cruiser.
And the batteryusage seems to high for a launch. The nuke as an own propulsion system after all and does not seem like being slingshot out of the cruiser (which would slow the cruiser down a bit).
Just my two eurocents...
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Re: Earthling Cruiser: The Ship that Could Have Be
« Reply #14 on: September 19, 2003, 03:33:46 pm »

If you've ever played timewarp, it show some modified cruisers which are very interesting...
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