Ship Damage Mod?? Is there one?

Jake B · Post by **Jake B** » Thu, 21. Jan 10, 21:36

I have searched through countless pages of mods, and topics, and have seen no sign of any damage mods, or even anyone asking about them.
Specifically what im looking for is when the hull of your ship takes damage, to have a few telltail signs of distress, like a little smoke from odd places, or darkened parts of the hull, possibly a combination of both.

I like a little visulization when I play games, When my fleet comes back battered and bruised from a fight, it would be nice if they didnt look like they just rolled off the assembly line.
I'm not sure if its possible to do, or has already been disscussed, but if anyone has any idea, I would be very happy. Thanks

EmperorJon · Post by **EmperorJon** » Thu, 21. Jan 10, 21:45

I think it would be extremely hard, as each damaged part would have to be a new ship model.

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Thu, 21. Jan 10, 21:49

Well.....

It is possible to make hit effects stay for a while (for instance, Gauss cannons leave behind a smoke effect in cmod), but typically its a good idea to not leave those around /forever/. i assume it would be possible to change it a bit (less overall hits, so you can display more actual 'battle damage') or randomize the time somehow..

But as soon as it changes sectors, im fairly sure these effects are gone.

Of course, you might be able to get a mod to fake it by having a fighter drone or something shoot at your ship randomly, leaving behind such weapon remnants if it changes systems..

But just increasing the hit effect timer in effects.pck might do it (particularly, as stated with cmod's changed gauss cannons)

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Thu, 21. Jan 10, 22:03

There is a very nice particle effect called... Grey Cloud or something in particles3 file. Looks exactly what's needed, a fiery cloud with lots of smoke. If it's possible to add it to random places on the hull surface when, let's say hull lower than <value>. How hard is that?

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 02:51

Someone correct me if im wrong, but I am not sure you can script in effects.

However, if you tie the effect to the repair laser... MARS will send out goblins to repair your ships, and you would see the gray clouds everywhere

panzerkw · Post by **panzerkw** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 04:59

Klingon Academy-esque ginsu effects would be nice, but they might have to wait for the next game/engine, I think. It's a bit annoying that a 1% hull ship still has full weapon effectiveness, but oh well.

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 19:07

I do have a test mod at the moment where by when you hit a ship flame effects come from it for a period after, but i have hit a bug/limit of the particle engine of X3:TC making it impossible to work.

If its a bug it will never be fixed as this type of idea is not used in the game.

Post about it here ::http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 19:51

That is incredibly odd, and frankly, I havent even a guess as to how to fix that... but if you ever do, itd be awesome

Perhaps.. can emitters randomly create more emitters? I ask, because if you have an emitter that spits out one emitter of random type (well, multiple types of the same effect in general...) then each emitter type would have its own timer?

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 21:06

It is very odd. I am planning to look at it again, but for the time being the BSG mod takes priority.

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 21:29

yeah but what is BSG without awesome battle effects like that?

Killjaeden · Post by **Killjaeden** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 22:36

There is a very nice particle effect called... Grey Cloud or something in particles3 file. Looks exactly what's needed, a fiery cloud with lots of smoke. If it's possible to add it to random places on the hull surface when, let's say hull lower than <value>. How hard is that?

If the engine hits the particle limit no more are being created until you are below the limit again... this isn't a brickwall you can destroy with a little hack. It's armored steel. in other words: hardcoded.

If you apply an effect per hit by making the effect last longer you could see your frame counter crawl backwards. a battle involving more then 5 ships would turn into a lag-fest.
Just count the shots of one 5sec burst of a M3. Or fly close to a capital ship and fire a full set of PAC at it from very close range and watch your fps-counter.

The engine isn't build for something like that. Forget about it.

Lancefighter · Post by **Lancefighter** » Fri, 22. Jan 10, 23:32

The impact effect of the gauss cannons for cmod would be great for something like this; Keep in mind however, that they are usually gone before the next volley hits. (gauss cannons there do some 10-20 shots/minute)

If you simply decrease the number of rounds in the air (and therefore, rounds hitting stuff), it might work.

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Sat, 23. Jan 10, 00:07

I will take a look at cmod and see what they do (think i already know) but as killjaeden said this is most likely a limit of the engine.

The particle engine is really not that good for doing most effects and is now really dated compared to newer stuff. (eg the effect of the plane in the first scene in crysis would be great to have for X3 fighters and cap ships).

Hopfully in the next game they will add far more effect base graphics so we can get better trails, explosions, weapon effects ect, base engine is fine just need more shiny creating stuff added.

em3e3 · Post by **em3e3** » Sat, 23. Jan 10, 01:20

I really liked the 'flame' effect in X3:R caused by missile hits. I didn't even notice it was missing in TC until I looked through my screenshot folder:

[ external image ]

If it *was* in the engine, in R, seems like it could still be in TC.

killerog · Post by **killerog** » Sat, 23. Jan 10, 03:18

Yep its in the game files, use a tweaked version for my trails mod and its the effect i use for the damage test mod i posted above.