Looking for help on an Autocannon Mod

from Sins Forums

   Hi all.  This is my very first post on the SoaSE forums and my first ever mod attempt.

I'm looking to change how the TEC Auto Cannons work by increasing their fire speed so that they spew out a constant hail of rounds and reduce their damage to (hopefully) balance it out.  I'm thinking of how the AA guns fire on BSG.

I've never done anything like this before and I was wondering if this can be done with the mod tool set (beta) download.  Would I be looking in Reference Data -> Game info?  What can I use to open the files, will notepad work?

 

Thanks:D

modding
11,197 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I was wondering if this can be done with the mod tool set (beta) download. Would I be looking in Reference Data -> Game info? What can I use to open the files, will notepad work?
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Yes it works just fine with the beta toolset

Yes look in reference data -> game info

And last but not least, yes, notepad will work perfectly.

look for the frigatepahseantifighter.entity, frigatepsiantifighter.entity, and frigatetacantifighter.entity files specifically.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I was wondering if this can be done with the mod tool set (beta) download. Would I be looking in Reference Data -> Game info? What can I use to open the files, will notepad work?Yes it works just fine with the beta toolsetYes look in reference data -> game infoAnd last but not least, yes, notepad will work perfectly.look for the frigatepahseantifighter.entity, frigatepsiantifighter.entity, and frigatetacantifighter.entity files specifically.
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Thanks for the help but I have another question now. Do the files frigatepahseantifighter.entity, frigatepsiantifighter.entity, and frigatetacantifighter.entity only affect the frigates? I'm also looking to change the auto's on the Capital ships so I assume I should look for a file similiar to the frigate files? :)
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Aye, the frig files will only effect the anti fighter frigs, look for files titled along the lines of CAPITALSHIP_PSICARRIER.entity etc... for the captial ship files.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
If I may add, just changing how many rounds the autocannon spews out will not change the damage. If you reduce the damage to less than 10 points per bank, set the burst to 1, burst delay to zero, and the refire rate to 0.100000; that would get the effect you are looking for I think. I'm not around my version of the game to check if that works though, so this is just an idea.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
If I may add, just changing how many rounds the autocannon spews out will not change the damage. If you reduce the damage to less than 10 points per bank, set the burst to 1, burst delay to zero, and the refire rate to 0.100000; that would get the effect you are looking for I think. I'm not around my version of the game to check if that works though, so this is just an idea.
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Ah ok. For some reason I was thinking damage was calculated per hit or salvo fired off.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
If I may add, just changing how many rounds the autocannon spews out will not change the damage. If you reduce the damage to less than 10 points per bank, set the burst to 1, burst delay to zero, and the refire rate to 0.100000; that would get the effect you are looking for I think. I'm not around my version of the game to check if that works though, so this is just an idea.
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I found a few lines I'm not sure about, along with the ones you mentioned.

BurstCount 15 : Is this the number of rounds per shot?

Burst Delay 0.060000 : This is the time between each shot?

MuzzleSoundMinRespawn 0.770000 : Is this the delay between each AutoCannon sound effect?

PreBuffCooldownTime : 4.500000 : I'm not sure what this is but is this the refire rate? I couldn't find anything that was labled refire.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
For autocannons, each burst consist of 3 projectiles, so 15 burst = 45 visual projectiles ingame.

PreBuffCooldownTime - Time it takes to reload and fire again.

Just to let you know damage it calculated for the full burst count.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
This is what I have so far. As far as I know this is purely cosmetic and dosn't affect the damage output of the Autocannons. So far the only problem I have with it is that I can't get all of the autocannon banks to fire at the same time and without pausing (I havn't been able to find the right setting in the refire rates). Lines in bold are modded.

Weapon
WeaponType "Projectile"
damageEnums
AttackType "CAPITALSHIP"
DamageAffectType "AFFECTS_SHIELDS_AND_HULL"
DamageApplyType "BACKLOADED"
DamageType "PHYSICAL"
WeaponClassType "AUTOCANNON"
DamagePerBank:FRONT 27.000000
DamagePerBank:BACK 49.500000
DamagePerBank:LEFT 49.500000
DamagePerBank:RIGHT 27.000000
Range 5000.000000
PreBuffCooldownTime 4.500000
CanFireAtFighter FALSE
SynchronizedTargeting FALSE
PointStaggerDelay 1.000000
TravelSpeed 4000.000000
Duration 10000
WeaponEffects
weaponType "Projectile"
burstCount 45
burstDelay 0.060000
muzzleEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Muzzle"
muzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.000000
muzzleSounds
soundCount 3
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE"
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT1"
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT2"
hitEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Hit"
hitHullEffectSounds
soundCount 1
sound "WEAPONIMPACT_PHYSICALHEAVY_HITHULL"
hitShieldsEffectSounds
soundCount 1
sound "WEAPONIMPACT_GENERICHEAVY_HITSHIELDS"
projectileTravelEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Travel"
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
A couple notes, to help you along here.

PointStaggerDelay 1.000000 means there is a 1 second delay between each "firing point" on a given side of the ship, so if you want to have all of them firing simultaneously, set it to 0.

Duration 10000 has no effect on projectile weapons that I have found. This is used for beam type weapons, controlling how long the beam graphic is visible, so there is really no reason to have it set at all for this weapon. To change effective durations for projectiles, see:
BurstCount 45 and
BurstDelay 0.060000. specifically, these affect how many bursts there will be emitted, and the time between the start of one burst and the start of the second. so with those settings, each weapon will fire for 2.7 sec(45 * .06).

muzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.000000 does just what it sounds like, though I'm not sure what effect it will have on your game setting it to 0.0. If it works and sounds OK, though, no sweat.

One thing you haven't modded that you may want to consider is
PreBuffCooldownTime 4.500000 which is the amount of time between the start of two firing cycles. This does actually affect damage, so you'll need to adjust DamagePerBank accordingly.

So... For continous fire, like you mentioned above, use this formula:
(burstCount * burstDelay) + (PointStaggerDelay 0) = PreBuffCooldown

But remember that any research that changes weapon fire rates will break the effect, and you'll see overlapping effects or even crashes to the game, so you may need to add in a gap to base levels so the research drops it to the desired cooldown time.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
What is the magic number for prebuffcooldown? I've lowered it to one and I get the constant attack rate but the KOL likes to turn it's side and attack with the three auto's instead of the forward beams.

Anything between 1.0 and 2.0 redirects the position of the ship to it's side. Anything from near 0.0 gives the auto's -214million damage per shot.

I had the right settings earlier but messed them up and now I can't find them...
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Somedeadguy, well that is cool. So the Ai can figure out which weapons are most effective. With out having to mod in new behavior to get a ship that is broadside based to use its weapons right instead of pointing at the the enemy with the front of the ship.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
SomeDeadGuy, did you decrease the DamagePerBank when you dropped the PreBuffCooldown?

If not, then the Autocannon is almost 5 times more powerful than it was before in DPS (damage per second) That is the key stat the comp uses when deciding which side it prefers to fire from. So now the DPS of your autocannon on the left side is 49.5, while the beams are still at 9.

Try your autocannons like this:
Weapon
WeaponType "Projectile"
damageEnums
AttackType "CAPITALSHIP"
DamageAffectType "AFFECTS_SHIELDS_AND_HULL"
DamageApplyType "BACKLOADED"
DamageType "PHYSICAL"
WeaponClassType "AUTOCANNON"
DamagePerBank:FRONT 6.000000
DamagePerBank:BACK 11.000000
DamagePerBank:LEFT 11.000000
DamagePerBank:RIGHT 6.000000
Range 5000.000000
PreBuffCooldownTime 1.000000
CanFireAtFighter FALSE
SynchronizedTargeting FALSE
PointStaggerDelay 0.000000
TravelSpeed 4000.000000
Duration 0
WeaponEffects
weaponType "Projectile"
burstCount 20
burstDelay 0.050000
muzzleEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Muzzle"
muzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.250000
muzzleSounds
soundCount 3
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE"
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT1"
sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT2"
hitEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Hit"
hitHullEffectSounds
soundCount 1
sound "WEAPONIMPACT_PHYSICALHEAVY_HITHULL"
hitShieldsEffectSounds
soundCount 1
sound "WEAPONIMPACT_GENERICHEAVY_HITSHIELDS"
projectileTravelEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Travel"

That will update the look, but still be the same stats as vanilla sins. Just remember to keep overall DPS in mind when you start making changes and you should be OK.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks again for the help. It seems to work fairly well except for the occasional stops but I think that is due to the ship-to-ship angle though.

One other thing..

I'm looking at the Advent MBP and I'm wondering if it's possible to remove the lasers and missiles and replace them with beam weapons? The ship would end up having all beams at that point. I'm guessing the weapon stats and code will stick but the hardpoints on the ship won't match. I'd most likely have to swap sound effects as well.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
To make matching weapon types, start by copying everything in the "weaponEffects" section into the same section of the weapon you want to change. Pay attention to these lines in the top portion too, as mismatches can break the game:
weaponType (this needs to match what is in the weapon effects section)
DamageApplyType (BACKLOADED or OVERTIME)
DamageType (ENERGY or PHYSICAL)
WeaponClassType (this sets the title of the weapon and determines what reseaches will affect it)

and these affect visulas:
SynchronizedTargeting (TRUE or FALSE, whether all points fire at one spot or spread out)
Duration (amount of time to display beams, in seconds)

good luck, you'll probably need it. Just one typo here can break your mod, so test often and use back-ups.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
One thing to note:

I have done this exact thing in my mod (The Mars Effect) and one thing I will tell you to *not* do is to change the PreBuffCooldownTime variable. It will affect game balance (requiring you to also change bank damage, which will in turn affect how much the tech bonuses increasing fire rate and damage affect your ships), and also have a much greater performance hit than adjusting the BurstCount and BurstDelay numbers. It's a major headache overall, and there is a far easier way of accomplishing this:

The best way to set it up is to look at the vanilla PreBuffCooldownTime number (let's call it 5.0 as on the Akkan weapon banks), and divide it by the number you want to use for BurstCount (lets call it 25 right now). You then adjust BurstDelay accordingly to evenly space it out (in this case 0.200000), so what you'd end up with is:

- Even game balance (you haven't made any damage changes thanks to leaving PreBuffxxxx alone.

- A weapon that fires pretty close to what a gatling gun would fire at; adjust upwards as necessary.


Thanks for the info on the PointStaggerDelay, I always assumed that adjusted weapon fx trail variance, this will be quite useful and might explain some thing for my mod.


Oh, and at the OP, for a very nice BS:G effect, go to the Sova .entity file (TECHCARRIER) and modify the second laser bank (left/right) into a medium class autocannon (I believe the Akkan [support] has a bank that you can use as reference), do the aforementioned changes, and see what happens ^.^ You can do it with a Heavy class autocannon, but the fps hit will be slightly higher.

EDIT:

In regards to changing weapon types, the readme for the Sins mod package actually walks you through on how to do this I believe; it's actually pretty easy--even easier if you use an existing template as an example to work from. The main things to watch out for is making sure to define duration(doesn't affect game balance btw), to change the soundfx to the correct one, and to make sure that you're defining the beam stuff at the end rather than the normal weapon trail. Again, it's really easy if you use an existing template as your guide.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Just one typo here can break your mod, so test often and use back-ups.
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I've done that plenty of times mostly because of an extra space. :D

One thing to note:I have done this exact thing in my mod (The Mars Effect) and one thing I will tell you to *not* do is to change the PreBuffCooldownTime variable. It will affect game balance (requiring you to also change bank damage, which will in turn affect how much the tech bonuses increasing fire rate and damage affect your ships), and also have a much greater performance hit than adjusting the BurstCount and BurstDelay numbers. It's a major headache overall, and there is a far easier way of accomplishing this:The best way to set it up is to look at the vanilla PreBuffCooldownTime number (let's call it 5.0 as on the Akkan weapon banks), and divide it by the number you want to use for BurstCount (lets call it 25 right now). You then adjust BurstDelay accordingly to evenly space it out (in this case 0.200000), so what you'd end up with is:- Even game balance (you haven't made any damage changes thanks to leaving PreBuffxxxx alone.- A weapon that fires pretty close to what a gatling gun would fire at; adjust upwards as necessary.Thanks for the info on the PointStaggerDelay, I always assumed that adjusted weapon fx trail variance, this will be quite useful and might explain some thing for my mod.Oh, and at the OP, for a very nice BS:G effect, go to the Sova .entity file (TECHCARRIER) and modify the second laser bank (left/right) into a medium class autocannon (I believe the Akkan [support] has a bank that you can use as reference), do the aforementioned changes, and see what happens ^.^ You can do it with a Heavy class autocannon, but the fps hit will be slightly higher.EDIT:In regards to changing weapon types, the readme for the Sins mod package actually walks you through on how to do this I believe; it's actually pretty easy--even easier if you use an existing template as an example to work from. The main things to watch out for is making sure to define duration(doesn't affect game balance btw), to change the soundfx to the correct one, and to make sure that you're defining the beam stuff at the end rather than the normal weapon trail. Again, it's really easy if you use an existing template as your guide.
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I had done this originally but lost my data. I havn't been able to reproduce the cosmetic effect. THanks.:D