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Ravendark

Combine/uncombine special power

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So i reworked the alien buzzers combine specialpower into a test sniper combine with predator setup.

It works but there are a few kinks. The sniper doesn't get the > > < < blue cursor when you mouse over the vehicle to combine with it, you have to select the combine unitabilitybutton from his commandset then click the vehicle.

 

Question: is this hardcoded to the alien/buzzers somehow? i basicly copied the buzzers unique kindofs i thought could be responsible for it. For the rest it a basic copy paste thing with renaming.

 

Also the vehicle can't use its uncombine button after it has been combined, again copy paste from the seekertank, didnt see anything special related to this. the uncombine special power requires the combined parent conditions..is this not triggered, or hardcoded to the aliens?

 

Anyway any ideas or advise is apreciated, below is the code i used copied to paste bin if anyone wants a closer look. Not sure if i derped something up and missed something or if this is something hardcoded.

 

Sniper_combined_headache01

 

 

Edit: Fixed the Uncombine thing....i just derped it up with referencing the right xml file. The cursor thing is still a mistery. Altho i might be stepping away from using this special power practicly.....it seems vehicles need to get really close to other infantry before their combined unit attacks...for the melee range buzzer swarm that is ok, but for a range unit this feels klunky.

Edited by Ravendark

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As far as I know the cursors for the Combine SP are hardcoded - if you rename the Specialpower (or make a copy) it wont work.

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Yeah, sadly all context sensitive stuff is hardcoded.

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Isn't it possible to make a clone of the hard coding effect? Imitation should always be possible when it comes to coding.

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If you don't know what people talk about please inform yourself. The short answer is no, the long answer is have fun hacking the exe if you want to.

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Lauren, I started writing code in Jan '99 with HTML in Notepad. I picked up JASC's Paintshop Pro a couple years later since Photoshop was too expensive. I used a lot of html, dhtml, shtml, xhtml, which were all precursors to xml; and the eXtensible Markup Langauge when it came out was a game changer. For added function on websites, I got to using javascript. I learned what cgi, perl, and bin was and how to use them. I did all this over a few years by reading the source codes of websites and figuring out what was what. I learned how to use Paintshop Pro really well and even tho I have Photoshop today, the UI isn't friendly imo. I liked Corel's menus much better but I use PS when I have to for things I can't do in PSP. I did a lot of graphic design for ads, posters, brochures, business cards, you name it I probably did it. I made templates for websites too. I tried my hand at Flash, didn't care for it, but really enjoyed 3D modeling. I've used Poser and Maya for different things, and an old program now called 3D world builder. Fun times. I've used 3D Studio Max when I had to for different things. I took Computer Science in college, and learned C++, Java, etc but my strength and passion was always in web design. I can bug hunt more than a dozen languages because I can read them, and have --USED-- 33 different languages, most of which are now defunct, over the past 20 years. I write automation scripts in AutoIT I still do some websites here n there, but freelance only and very infrequently. I was also a DBA of 5 completely different databases for AT&T. Since Wordpress came along, I already knew PHP and MySql, so it became easier to just set up a wordpress based site than write the code like how I used to. I do more photo restorations and coloring now too than graphic design. So please be a little more polite next time than to assume that I don't know what I'm saying. If the short answer is no, then say no and be done with it.

Edited by dvs1

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The point is: this totally is not about xml. Also your graphical skills with ps/3ds and other programs like these mean squat as they've nothing to do with the actual problem. That you took computer science in college is the only relevant portion here. Although seemingly as your question shows a lack of understanding of the concept of how an engine like SAGE uses the data it gets it is quite obvious that these were never quite extensive or above the level of idk, programming Snake. As does you presenting your references in html/xml do. Xml here is only used to store the data the game reads in a human readable form, xml in itself does nothing, and exactly that is what "hardcoded" means. Again all the references you state again just show your lack of understanding how this stuff works. To quote wiki:

Hard coding (also, hard-coding or hardcoding) refers to the software development practice of embedding what may, perhaps only in retrospect, be considered an input or configuration data directly into the source code of a program or other executable object, or fixed formatting of the data, instead of obtaining that data from external sources or generating data or formatting in the program itself with the given input.

As you obviously didn't know the terminology you could have done just a quick google search on the term hardcoded and you would have gotten this as the first result.

 

 

If you're unsure if an element is hardcoded you can even use a simple text editor and search for it. Like this:

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AuGWwjATR_55hMwyTl9qyv0lnvjWYw

 

This stuff wouldn't be hardcoded if there would be a way to set that via data. The only relevant similarity would be the C4, which is triggered not by a named special power (it was in the first few versions) but the combination of the C4 KindOfs. As this shows the C4 cursors specifically there is no way to abuse that to show a different cursor for a custom sp while still having the C4 stuff intact.

Rewriting both the buzzer and this unit to chain another sp to it that does the actual work might even be possible in this case, dunno if the range check works or just cancels it which I think I remember from the Avatar, but even if it does one is still limited to 3 such cursors (combine, charge defenes, and conversion beam).

Edited by Lauren
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If you're unsure if an element is hardcoded you can even use a simple text editor and search for it. Like this:

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AuGWwjATR_55hMwyTl9qyv0lnvjWYw

 

Awesome didn't think of that.

 

Since i am basicly doing a TC mod i could just repurpose the original SP. But with some testing yesterday i found the SP doesn't really appeal to what i was hoping...it seems to really work well enough with a chase/melee weapon setup...longer range weapons are fickle, also i thought the buzzers attached in a drone like manner but they basicly just go invisible condition at the center of the vehicle and the vehicle spawns fake buzzers arround it with a fxlist effect.

I would be better of to use a actuall slave and leash setup to get my "mixed unit tactics" aka infantry run along side a vehicle, to work.

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you can hex search the cnc3game.dat and it's turn out that there are three and only three SpecialPowers allow you "click target and use": SpecialPowerCombineWithUnit, SpecialPower_ChargeDefensesTrigger and SpecialPower_ConversionBeam.

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Which are all shown on the linked screen and mentioned in my post.

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