Adventures in modding

[ptarth]

The delay does do something.  It causes the shots to spawn sequentially instead of all at once.

They spawn sequentially anyway, just really close in time. The delays are on the order of milliseconds which is faster than humans can process. I understand what it does, but not the reasoning behind adding it.

[nas1m]

What about something like Visual Studio?  That's what I've been using; it's been really great for it. 

I'd been using Notepad++ before that (I have NO idea why they called it that, but it's an XML-specific editor), that one is pretty decent, but not as good as VS.

Easy. It's likely a hommage to C++, which is to C what Notepad++ is to Notepad .

[Cinth]

I don't normally dabble in this stuff.  I just play games and generally become a happy camper.  Most stuff I would edit in XML for other games would be simple changes that can be handled in notepad.

My laptop has notepad++, and several programming tools (C++ and Java) I used in college.  I generally go brain dead when faced with this stuff

[Cinth]

Anyway, the thing I'm writing in now to try (because it looks like it will be simpler) is to use "system_to_attach_to_shot".

I'm going to mod up the vars to have that add the new system which should allow me to paste the second pattern in.

[Misery]

Yeah, that's basically the bit I was talking about.  That's how the later bosses work.  It's just.... much faster to write up, if you can figure out how to get it to do the thing you want.   That's the tough part.  But if done right you can get complicated effects without having to go into the patterns or vars stuff at all.

[Cinth]

I'm trying to use as much preexisting stuff as I can.  This part was something I needed to solve from scratch (it was in the wiki though, I should have read it more slowly).

So if this works, the only part of it that would be new (as far as the weapon and patterns) would be the system I just wrote in. 

[Cinth]

Thanks ptarth, that solution looks pretty close to the overall effect I want, just a bit to tweaking to get it just right.

I tried using add system in the vars and it just didn't work, even though it should have.  Probably just me messing up somewhere.


Anyway, his guy is celebrating (ss).

[ptarth]

Depends which system you added to which one. If you did it wrong it would probably chain and cause infinite explosions. I'd need to see the code to see what happened.

[Cinth]

Basically I added "add system to shot" to the original vars and the system was set to look like a single shot of the rain canons burst with a second pattern added on.  I might have messed it up, sure.  But what you handed me works like a charm for the moment.  I've got to get the size of all the sub-shots down a bit and the damage modifier down some too.


System

Spoiler for Hiden:

      <system name="FlakSubmunition"
                        category="Weapon"
                        firing_timing="AllTheTime"
                        targeting_logic="Direct"
                        attack_power="3"
                        shot_type="FangsPurple"
                        shots_per_salvo="1"
                        damage_type="Ballistic"
                        special_bullet_patterns="FlakSubmunitionPattern"
                        only_fires_on_death="true"
                        time_to_live="2"
                        shot_speed="1200"
                              >
            <modifier target="MyShots" type="RicochetsOffTerrain"/>
      </system>

Vars

Spoiler for Hiden:

            <var name="CircleRungSM_Terrain">
                  <bullet angle="0" speed="0" shot_type="Invisible" damage_mult="0" never_collides_with_terrain="false">
                        <wait time="[DELAY]"/>
                        <die />
                        <spawn>
                              <bullet_pattern>
                                    <bullet angle="[A]" speed="[SPEED]" shot_type="[SHOT_TYPE]" damage_mult="0.5" never_collides_with_terrain="false" system_to_attach_to_shot="[SYSTEM]">
                                          <wait time="[TIME]"/>
                                          <die />
                                    </bullet>
                              </bullet_pattern>
                        </spawn>
                  </bullet>
            </var>

[Cinth]

Now we are getting places.  Gameplay testing!  Shot sizes are pretty close to where I want them for the patterned bursts

[Misery]

I'm curious, are you intending on submitting this for possible inclusion into the game?  I may have already asked this and forgot, but I ask again!

Only thing to watch out for is possible slowdown from a weapon like that.... that's alot of tiny bullets! 

[Cinth]

Maybe.  It depends on a lot.

Right now I think I have at most 3 bursts on screen at once, and my frames haven't dropped below 40 in play testing.


I think some of your bosses have more shots on screen than I do

[Misery]

Maybe.  It depends on a lot.

Right now I think I have at most 3 bursts on screen at once, and my frames haven't dropped below 40 in play testing.


I think some of your bosses have more shots on screen than I do

Hmm, from discussions with Chris, I've found that hitting 40 might actually be an issue.

Well, what's your usual FPS in-game?  Like, when you're just playing in average rooms with an average mech?  I'm curious to know how far it goes down if you really spam that thing VS how it normally is.

With alot of the bosses, including something like Centrifuge with it's extreme bullet count, they're actually using bullets that have no true collision on them.  The game doesnt have to process any possible terrain interactions (aside from bullets hitting the boundary of the room, if I recall correctly), and the bullets tend to just keep going when they otherwise wouldnt.  It was put in because alot of bosses were actually causing issues on some systems.   Obviously this isnt doable for all attack types (like Mirror) so I had to remove it for some, but most are still using it in some form. Basically Chris went in and did a variety of things with stuff like that to keep them functional yet reduce the draining effects they were having.  Like how Crystal Mother's purple laser things were changed; they function the same but now use far less bullets than before.

Huge amounts of bouncing shots can be an issue, which may need to be looked at.  Chris actually may have some ideas on how you can keep the drain to a minimum while still retaining all the function, if it turns out that it's a bit much.

[Cinth]

I'm gonna drop the reload to 2rpm and balance from there and possibly take the bounce form the smallest fragments.

I managed to hit 30 FPS with the thing that reduces damage for reload.  My usual FPS? It varies a lot actually usually floating in the low-mid 100s until it gets crazy. 



I remember the stuff with bosses... I wasn't happy that the boss room hiding spots went away with that  change (I pretty much rage quit against a boss and played something else for about a week).

[Misery]

Oh, the "system to attach to shot" thing:  It goes in the system itself, actually.  That's why it doesnt work, and it's why some of the bosses dont use the vars or patterns file whatsoever, because they're just able to attach systems to shots within the systems file alone.

However, if the system you're using this on has a bullet pattern of it's own, it will override this.  The bullets it fires, the systems attached to them can have patterns.