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.
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