Dont know if shiparch is needed too, but I will post it anyway.


[Ship
ids_name = 80000000
ids_info = 900000000
ship_class = 0
nickname = dark_fighter
LODranges = 0, 99999, 99999, 99999, 99999, 99999, 99999, 99999
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_shiparch_Liblf
mission_property = can_use_berths
type = FIGHTER
mass = 100.000000
hold_size = 25
linear_drag = 1.000000
fuse = li_fighter_gas01, 0.000000, -1
fuse = li_fighter_smoke01, 0.000000, -1
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship02, 0.000000, 400
fuse = intermed_damage_smallship03, 0.000000, 200
max_bank_angle = 35
camera_offset = 6, 22
camera_angular_acceleration = 0.050000
camera_horizontal_turn_angle = 23
camera_vertical_turn_up_angle = 5
camera_vertical_turn_down_angle = 30
camera_turn_look_ahead_slerp_amount = 1.000000
nanobot_limit = 45
shield_battery_limit = 45
hit_pts = 10000
DA_archetype = ships\darknes\darkfighter\darkfighter.cmp
material_library = ships\darknes\darkfighter\darkfighter.mat
envmap_material = envmapbasic
cockpit = cockpits\liberty\l_fighter.ini
pilot_mesh = generic_pilot
explosion_arch = explosion_li_fighter
surface_hit_effects = 0, small_hull_hit_light01, small_hull_hit_light02, small_hull_hit_light03
surface_hit_effects = 150, small_hull_hit_medium01, small_hull_hit_medium02, small_hull_hit_medium03
surface_hit_effects = 300, small_hull_hit_heavy01, small_hull_hit_heavy02, small_hull_hit_heavy03
steering_torque = 24000.000000, 24000.000000, 58000.000000
angular_drag = 15000.000000, 15000.000000, 35000.000000
rotation_inertia = 2800.000000, 2800.000000, 1000.000000
nudge_force = 30000.000000
strafe_force = 20000
strafe_power_usage = 2
bay_door_anim = Sc_open baydoor
bay_doors_open_snd = cargo_doors_open
bay_doors_close_snd = cargo_doors_close
HP_bay_surface = HpBayDoor01
HP_bay_external = HpBayDoor02
num_exhaust_nozzles = 2
HP_tractor_source = HpTractor_Source
shield_link = bw_vheavy_shield01, HpMount, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_gun_special_10, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_09, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_08, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_07, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_06, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_05, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_04, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_03, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_02,HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_gun_special_01, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04,
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_10, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_9, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_8, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_7, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_6, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_5, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_4, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_3, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_2, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_elite_shield_special_1, HpShield01
hp_type = hp_thruster, HpThruster01

Ok, here's the most obvious one for me

darknes_patrol.ini -created file in mission/encounters

[EncounterFormation
ship_by_class = 6, 1, darknes_patrol <---
pilot_job = defend_leader_job
make_class = wanderer
ship_by_class = 7, 2, darknes_patrol <---
pilot_job = defend_job
make_class = wanderer
formation_by_class = fighter <---
behavior = wander
arrival = all, -tradelane, -object_jump_gate
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

Try this instead:

darknes_patrol.ini -created file in mission/encounters

[EncounterFormation
ship_by_class = 1, 1, darknes_patrol
pilot_job = defend_leader_job
make_class = wanderer
ship_by_class = 2, 6, darknes_patrol, -1
pilot_job = defend_job
formation_by_class = fighters
behavior = wander
arrival = all, -tradelane, -object_jump_gate
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

You really should only have 1 leader ship and the format is min, max and you had it set to a number between 6 and 1. The wingmen was set to 7, 2 I changed it to 2, 6 and added a "-1" to the end of the line. The "-1" will make those ships one level less than the group leader. So, this encounter would have between 2 and 7 ships, which is probably a bit high unless you've increased the density restrictions wherever you plan on using these. And the density only matter if there are other encounters in the zone, if you don't plan on having these encounters mixed with other ones you can ignore density restrictions.

And the formation by class need to match what you have in faction_props.ini, you had "fighter" here and "fighters" in faction_props where you define the formation.

The problem here though is that normally, in my experience, a messed up encounter ini file doesn't crash the game it just never appears. The crashes happen most of the time from an illegal loadout, but your loadout looks ok. You might want to double check all of the equipment if you made any changes to them.

If all else fails you can also try changing:

npcships.ini

[NPCShipArch
nickname = darkfighter
loadout = darkfighter
level = d7
ship_archetype = darkfighter
pilot = pilot_pirate_ace
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = unlawful, class_darkfighter

to:

npcships.ini

[NPCShipArch
nickname = darkfighter
loadout = darkfighter
level = d7
ship_archetype = darkfighter
pilot = pilot_pirate_ace
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = unlawful, class_fighter

And getting them in the game with a standard encounter like this:

encounter = area_assault, 10, 1.000000 (change the 10 to the level you want)
faction = bw_n_grp, 1.000000 (make sure I got the faction right )

If this method doesn't work then you'll know the problem lies in the ship itself.

Anyway, one of these things is bound to solve the problem for you

Thanks vic

Well it seems to be working (game did not crash), but I had to start new game which was weird. After I launched from Manhattan there should be a movie with me and king and that huge ship coming, getting destroyed...
I launched successfully but I ended up by fort bush, and had to go back to Manhattan. I think it has to do with density, so what should I do to decrease this.

If I try to load auto save game will crash, same thing for rest of the saves. When I start I get "teleported' to fort bush for some reason, there are no ships around and I cant get names of stations (object unknown is all I get).

I dont think its the ship cause I fly him in SP. I have no clue what problem could be, please help anybody.




Edited by - leonhart on 07-07-2003 04:33:20

Wierd, never saw that one

The object unknown error maybe a bug in one of the resource dlls? Or maybe something pointing the wrong place in the system's ini file, not sure, just speculation. The crashes could be anything from the ships or equipment nicknames changing, ship class alterations and changes in the faction_props? I haven't added any factions myself so I'm not sure there, I also allways run the Open SP mod with mine since I broke the story a long time ago

As for the density setting it should have no effect on you or any of the story ships. As far as I can tell density is checked before generating an encounter and if the current "population" is less than the density it will generate the encounter regardless of the number of ships in that encounter. So if you have a zone with a density of 8 and there are 7 ships there it will add in another encounter of say 5 ships but then no more encounters will be generated until the population is back under the density.

You should only have to worry about it if you want to have combat there, then you need a big enough density to allow the good guys and bad guys to spawn. In that case you'll also need to tweak the max battle size, it works just like density except it will only spawn opposing faction encounters if the population is under that limit. So if you have a max battle size of 8 and there were 5 outcasts the game would continue to generate police, navy and company ships until there were 8 ships at which time it would stop. But if there were 8 police ships there it would not generate any outcast encounters allthough it would continue to generate more police, navy and company ships. It's an imperfect system though, since an opposing faction may spawn on a patrol route outside the zone and then enter the zone completely ignoring density and max battle size limits. Sometimes the game also appears to completely ignore these limits just to spite you, I saw several occurances of encounters generated even though the exceeded the density and/or max battle size when I was testing all of this.

Edited by - Victor on 07-07-2003 05:07:59

I reinstalled the game and edited the the above files and now game does not crash, but ships do not appear.

Well that sound more like a normal bug

Double check the encounter ini file, if all else fails copy the contents from another one right in there and see if that helps. Make sure the formation_by_class matches the formations/classes listed in faction_prop.ini, that's usaully what solves it for me.