The Homeworld Map Makers Primer v2.1 FINAL

 
HW Tutorial 4.0 Mothership File

 

Part Four: Overview

In this
section you will deal with the Mothership Mission Sphere Files: 'Mothership_0.missphere and Mothership_1.missphere'.

4.1

Set up the Mothership_0.missphere and Mothership_1.missphere files.

4.2

Add more shiptypes and set their numbers and formation.

4.3

Set the ships position and facing.

4.4

Repeat 4.2 and 4.3 for the Player Two file.

4.5

Part Four Summary.


Quick Links Relevant to this Chapter

 

4.0 The Mothership File

Mothership files contain all the player starting fleets and the starting location of those fleets. The most important aspect of these files is the fact that these files are named in the level file and the game will seek out these named files, if they are not included as listed in the level file (case and spelling again!) then the game will crash.

 

4.1 - Set up the Mothership_0.missphere and Mothership_1.missphere files.

Once again let’s use the example given in the Tutorial Map Files folder, go into it and copy both the Mothership_#.missphere files into your Revelations2 folder.

4.1.1 - Rename each file to;

Mothership_0.missphere
Mothership_1.missphere
.

These files will concern ship details for player one and player two consecutively.

4.1.2 - Open both these files, we will edit both simultaneously, it’s easier that way.

 

4.2 - Add more shiptypes and set their numbers and formation.

Okay lets take a look at our starting fleets. The basic start up kit; along with the Mothership we have a resource collector and a research ship. Let’s add more. Now, the simplest way would be to copy the starting fleet we want from another Mothership_#.missphere file and change the fleets starting location and facing to fit the map, but we are going to do this the hard way.

We will deal with one file at a time here to speed things up, so starting with the Mothership_0.missphere file (Player One).

4.2.1 - Copy the last line four times, leaving no blank line gaps. So we now have 7 lines of ships. We want to have a resource controller in there, as well as some scouts, three frigates and three ion frigates (as in Hyperspace Arena).

4.2.2 - First off, we will rename all our ships, using Relic’s Ship list in Appendix A, (and being-ware of case and spelling!)

Rename your newly copied ship lines to the ships you want. You want to change these last four lines, respectively changing ‘ResearchShip’ to:

ResourceController
LightInterceptor
StandardFrigate
IonCannonFrigate

4.2.3 - Okay, change the numbers of each ship type, we want;

2 ResourceCollectors
1 ResourceController
4 ResearchShips
5 LightInterceptors
3 StandardFrigates
3 IonCannonFrigates

We are happy with the rest of the lines for the moment, just make sure they are all in PARADE_FORMATION, so the position will not matter, the facing we will deal with shortly (see 4.3) and the race is "R1". Cool. If its not R1 (Kushan) then change every R2 that you can find to R1

 

4.3 - Set the ships position and facing.

Position and facing (or location and ship heading) using the posx, posy and posz co-ordinates (position) and rot (rotation) parameters. We want one player set up to the ‘north’ of the map (top of your drawn out map) and the second player to the ‘south’ (bottom of your drawing). Also, we don’t want the players to start too far apart, perhaps 100km will be enough (and we can always change this once we have seen our map). 

We will be using PARADE_FORMATION throughout because all ships that begin in PARADE_FORMATION, their posx, posy and posz values and their facing will be the same. ie; using PARADE means you only need to set up the co-ordinates for the Mothership and any included ships will default in the same positions they attain when they are built in the game.

4.3.1 - For Player One (the Mothership_0.missphere file) change the x,y,z co-ordinates to; 0,50000,0.

4.3.2 - Dealing with the facing (rot), remembering that -x=0 and the angle is measured anticlockwise, we can see from our drawing that to have player 1 (at co-ord. 0,50000,0) facing the centre he must turn 270 degrees (or –90°), for player 2 on the ‘minus’ y axis this turn will be 90°. Just remember your trigonometry and you can’t go wrong.

 

4.4 - Repeating 4.2 and 4.3 for the Player Two (Mothership_1.missphere) file.

Repeat parts 4.2 and 4.3 for the Mothership_1.missphere file (Player Two), and change every R1 you find to ‘R2’.

The easiest and quickest way to do this is just by copying the entire contents of the Player One missphere file over the entire contents of the Player Two missphere file and then changing merely;

(4.2.3) All the R1 references (to; R2)
(4.3.1) The location co-ordinates (to; 0,-50000,0,)
(4.3.2) All the position (rot) values (to; 90)

 

4.5 - Summary

OK then, now you’re Mothership_0.missphere file (for Player One) should look like this;

; MissionMan script, Friday, Sep 3 1999, 12:14:43 PM
; Copyright (c) 1998-99, Relic Entertainment Inc.
; MissionSphere Object: R1,Mothership 


Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,Mothership,1,NULL_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,ResourceController,1,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,ResourceCollector,2,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,LightInterceptor,5,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,ResearchShip,4,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,StandardFrigate,3,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?
Ships     ,0.0,50000.0,0.0,-90.0,R1,IonCannonFrigate,3,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

And you’re Mothership_1.missphere file (for Player Two) should look like this;

; MissionMan script, Friday, Sep 3 1999, 12:14:43 PM
; Copyright (c) 1998-99, Relic Entertainment Inc.

; MissionSphere Object: R2,Mothership
 

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,Mothership,1,NULL_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,ResourceController,1,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,ResourceCollector,2,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,LightInterceptor,5,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,ResearchShip,4,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,StandardFrigate,3,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

Ships     ,0.0,-50000.0,0.0,90.0,R2,IonCannonFrigate,3,PARADE_FORMATION|?|?,?,?

And that's that. Simple. We have set up two starting fleets, for Player One (Kushan) and Player Two (Taiidan), sitting facing one another in the basic starting formations around their Motherships and at 100km apart.

You could if you wish have the other ships, say the scouts for instance, in any of the viable formations other than PARADE and the co-ordinates will locate the central or 'lead' ship in that formation. Just be careful that your ships are not too close together.

 

Quick Links:

HW Primer:
Chapter Four - The Mothership Mission Sphere file

Quick Jump to Relevant Areas in the Primer:
4.1 Mothership Missionspheres

Quick Jump to Relevant Appendices:
Appendix A: Relic Ship List

Appendix A: The Mothership File Parameters

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