Home » PLAYER'S HQ 1.13 » JA2 Complete Mods & Sequels » UC/DL 1.13 & AFS » UC-1.13 Hybrid
UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75013]
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Sat, 10 December 2005 11:25
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Wil473 |
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Messages:2815
Registered:September 2004 Location: Canada |
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Thought I would start a new thread to see how much interest there is in this data set (I'm sticking to data, none of this difficult coding stuff), which for all intents and purposes was meant as a quick and easy escape from sunny Alruco to visit the former East Bloc... It hasn't been quick nor easy, but it sort of works.
To begin, I would like to thank the original Urban Chaos creators, the Mod Squad, and those that have given us 1.13. All creative credits and credits for the majority of the work belong to them. This is only meant as a drop in set of data files** Incidentally this project is unsupported by either party. All errors in porting over stats (if there is distribution), are purely my own.
Progress:
- all items from UC in (but not everything is working the same way, and not everything is working properly either)
- replicated the functionally of the mergers, combo, attachments, pockets, A.L.I.C.E.
- added a few new "toys"
- started testing without using the cheat codes (an excuse to play the game)
Problems (so far)
- The RPO-A is so far little more than a pre-loaded RPG. Still tinkering to get the Thermobaric effect of combo breath and explosive damage. A smoke/Mustard/Bug Gas cloud would be nice too.
- Roads still Alruco (might have to relocate Roger's car dealership)
- G8, G9 and I3 (so far) freeze the exe on load (same G8 and G9 work just fine with the original UC exe left in the folder)
- either Prof.dat needs to be resorted (along with renumbering the speech and gap files) or I've missed the toggle off for the UB MERC's
- some assembly required (see below)
Added:
Weapons:
FN F2000 (replacing M16/M203 w/unused UC graphic)
FN Five-seveN (unused UC graphic)
MP-448 Skyph (recycled Viking?)
FN P90 (unused UC graphic)
Sig SG-550 (unused UC graphic)
HK G36C (unused UC graphic, 1.13 stats so far)
HK G36K (unused UC graphic, 1.13 stats so far)
HK G36 (unused UC graphic, 1.13 stats so far)
HK/ATK xM29 (unused UC graphic)
Scopes:
PO 3.5x21 (Renamed Elcan, which is a western Optics mfg, subsidary of Raytheon I belive)
ACOG (no graphic, left from 1.13)
Trijicon Reflex (no graphic, left from 1.13)
PKS-07 (recycle of PSO-1)
Leopold Scope (no graphic)
TI Scope (recycle of monocular; not sure if this works as an attachment, but works as a handheld)
Other:
Thermal Imaging Camera
TI Goggles
Magazines for Skyph (12rd PM), Five-seveN and
** by drop in -> extract 1.13 to empty folder, remove/rename some 1.13 specific folders, replace xml's, and drop the whole lot into a working UC installation. There's more, but I'll need to remember what it was first.
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75014]
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Sat, 10 December 2005 11:40
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Lamorea |
Messages:2
Registered:August 2005 Location: Oshawa, Ontario, Canada |
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awesome idea, i'd love to play it! keep up the good work, and keep us updated!
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Civilian
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75016]
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Sat, 10 December 2005 13:48
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Kaiden |
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Messages:502
Registered:September 2003 |
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There are a number of TBS forum members who have been eagerly awaiting your progress, wil473.
As far as support. You know my time is limited right now, but what can I do to support this when I have a little time here and there?
Judge, It's best to do it all at once. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the code, but here is a list I was working on for Hard-coded sector data. I was going to go back to it when I got back into the code, but after spending some considerable time on bugfixes, and add in filenames for each item on the list, as well as finishing the list.
1. Travel type N/E/S/W if all possible directions for that sector are impassible, the Map is not used.
2. Underground Sector entrance locations.
3. Quest NPC locations.
4. Sci-Fi Sector locations.
5. City Locations.
6. Mine locations.
7. Enemy Patrol routes.
8. Enemy Garrison locations.
9. Priority Sectors for AI.
10. Starting Sector location.
11. BR Delivery sector location.
12. Airport locations.
13. Bloodcat Garrison and Ambush locations.
14. Roads.
15. Meanwhile triggers.(?)
That was as far as I got in the "Types of sector data that is hardcoded" list I was making.
My method was picking a "special" sector SEC_A9 just as an example and doing a search for it in the code. To be completely meticulous, and make sure I didn't miss anything I didn't know about, I was planning on just going down the list of all 255 and searching on all of them.
This is what I was working on right after I got the 10-07 Editor working with 10-07. Right before my free time started shrinking. I figured, that if we had the Editor, the next thing should be this. It would really open the door for Mods, not just ports of UC or DL, but others as well.
Also I had done some testing with Cities.xml, the farthest I got was, that it WILL increase the border of the existing towns, I did not however try training militia, or anything in the new town sectors or anything like that. I didn't even test renaming.
It will take a lot of consideration in doing this, as there is sooooo much data that ties to Sectors and all of it needs to be externalized at some point, how you take this on now will greatly impact how related data will be externalized later.
Quest NPC's for example, removing the limit is on the list and so is making them customizeable. How many Quest NPC's can you have per Sector, and in what sectors? How and where will this be specified by the Modder?
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75017]
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Sat, 10 December 2005 14:46
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kaybl1991 |
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Messages:30
Registered:December 2005 Location: Hamilton - New Zealand |
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I agree that externalizing all of the strategic map and its data, while necessary for true total-conversions, is going to be a mission and a half. Fortunately XMLing traversal data is relatively easy. Let me explain - the map seems to be drawn from three main 'structures' in memory:
1. The overall sector type, a weigh for AI movement calculation and traversal types are all neatly partitioned off in a SECTORINFO array. I've nearly finished externalizing this array, and preliminary testing suggests in works appropriately (5min transits round Atremo).
2. 90% of the rest of the strategic maps information is stored in an array StrategicMap. This is a serious 'onion' of data structures, hardcoded exceptions and misc. jiggery-pokery. So far I haven't looked much into it.
3. Random bits of hardcoded magic. This includes, but is not limited to, SAM sites, where you can train militia, creature features, and underground sectors.
My current goal is to make UC perform like it used to, but I'm sure along the way I might glean some useful information that we can discuss when attempting to externalize 2 & 3.
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Private 1st Class
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75020]
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Sun, 11 December 2005 01:10
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Wil473 |
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Messages:2815
Registered:September 2004 Location: Canada |
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I did an item number by UC item number port, to accomodate the UC maps. ie. the guard in the factory basement who is meant to drop the KSVK AMR, will continue to drop the KSVK.
Beyond the "traditional" JA2 item numbers (which UC uses up practically all of them) there's plenty of room for additional stuff. 5000 item limit, free time, XML editor, and the permission of the stis' creators and there is nothing to stop every item to appear in a JA2 Mod making an appearance at Bobby Ray's and local merchants. Is there a limit to how many frames an STi can have?
Additional Observations from testing:
- Changes to EnemyGunChoices.xml took effect without having to restart. Decided about a week in Danubia should have a more stringent "Order of Battle" Then again, the Eastern European procurement system seems to deploy a more varied range of personal arms.
- Smitty is no longer an arms dealer, just talks about the CAR-15 to modded M-4 series upgrade path. I'll need to take another look, but I don't think his character number coresponds with an original JA2 merchant.
- I've paid MERC enough so that some of the UB Mercs are available. As I didn't bother copying over the stats from the 1.13 prof.dat, their stats are messed up. Thankfully there haven't been any crashes caused by this yet.
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75027]
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Mon, 12 December 2005 21:14
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Wil473 |
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Messages:2815
Registered:September 2004 Location: Canada |
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On day one the B10 bike gang goes hostile if you pick up the SMG at the bar door, shoot them, or show up after dark. UC's extended faction are not supported by 1.13 in its present form, which means I think the cops, gun runners, and B10 gang are all regarded in 1.13 as Hicks. The hostility of the subway gangs on the other hand seem to be triggerd by the NPC (go to the Atremo subway with Alt-E cheat code enabled, everyone is friendly till the NPC gang leader finishes talking). Port Kip gangs are linked to King Pin's faction, and don't go hostile till you offend him. Everyone who is meant to go hostile in UC goes hostile in 1.13 for me by nightfall generally. (They don't seem to like me nosing about the country at night.)
Sounds like you've found the G8 and G9 problem suffered by some in classic UC. Wonder if what you found can be used by original UC (I've never suffered G8 and 9 problems in the classic so I can't really test this). If the Beta Editor is willing, I'll see if the noted blds are important to these maps (Perko and the entrance to the underground Private Security outfit being sites of concern).
I haven't seen a single bloodcat in Danubia. The game dumps me into tactical warning of an attack, yet Alt-E reveals no furry hostiles. Last time I was in E13 was a few weeks ago (using 1.13 11/08), no problems then except for the false blood cat warning, and one of the Barkeepers CTD's (the one to the NW, the smaller bar, Peter?).
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75031]
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Sun, 18 December 2005 10:26
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kaybl1991 |
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Messages:30
Registered:December 2005 Location: Hamilton - New Zealand |
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Heres the results of another fun week of fixing:
1. StrategicMovementCosts map no longer has bugs. If there are any errors, its just in something that can be fixed in the XML. I even externalized the sector shortnames into the XML so we can have the unforgiving "Galileo Stadium" once again
2. I3 is finally debugged! Some incredibly subtle error with one of the Civilians schedules - I haven't so much as fixed it, as prevented JA2 crashing when it happens. Once we have a map editor we should go ahead and fix CIVILIAN[128].
3. Externalized Militia code by adding a variable "MAX_MILITIA" to the Cities.xml. Setting it to zero makes thing work like the old Omerta, while any number higher enables militia. At some stage I'll set it so that number is used to control the total number of trainable militia per city. You can also train militia in the sectors previously marked as 'urban' around the cities. As part of this I've added militia to Atremo, Tixa(?), Gotham, and Orta(?). If anyone hates any of these changes they can edit the Cities.xml.
4. Adding a rather specialized option, URBAN_CHAOS, to the Ja2_Options.ini. This will cause all the laptop webpage to render properly. In the long run some sort of scripting module will have to be developed so modders can drop custom pages into the laptop and have them work properly - but that'll be a serious undertaking.
5. So all thats left is some serious testing on my part to check for any other fatal problems with JA2UC113!
@KIA
SAM sites, patrol routes, and AI strategic values are specifically hard-coded in JA2. There is some planning for a major rewrite to externalize these and other hardcoded features, along with some form of strategic map editor, but it will take a while. See the post above by Kaiden for more details.
I agree with the comment about the 'Shopkeepers'. Currently they are hardcoded, but it shouldn't be too hard to make the code check if a shopkeeper inventory XML exists for a particular character and display a 'buy' button if so.
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Private 1st Class
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Re: UC-1.13 Hybrid[message #75048]
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Mon, 16 January 2006 04:50
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Kaiden |
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Messages:502
Registered:September 2003 |
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Judge, RoWa21 is working on new Strategic map screens for all the resolutions, send him that changed code for the militia popup, so he can incorporate that and to make sure there are no conflicts with what he is doing.
As far as Bloodcat code, I've seen a number of hard coded references to sectors containing bloodcats. Your workaround seems like it would cause no problems, but I'll take a look at the code and see what I can find.
Also, Realist has been working on externalizing other Sector data, so I'm going to send your changes to him and see if that will help him out with getting everything sector related to be in flatfiles. <--- Sorry archaic terminolgy getting the better of me, Standard Ascii, text, XML's, INI's etc... You two should have a chat regarding what's been done by the both of you, to make sure you're both on the same page, so if you both continue externalizing sector related data, the format would be the same, etc...
And Lastly, LOVE the JA1 Idea, I think it will be great to have Militia ANYWHERE, of course, we'll have to make that optional. But it would help especially with the enemies on INSANE, where you have to have dedicated trainers in ALL towns in order to keep the enemy from wiping out all of your militia. You could keep someone in Drassen training militia, and then just keep them moving to all of the towns.
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