Hey! Don't apologize! This is another GREAT one to discuss.

I think the addition of buyable upgrades ROCKS.

I would love to add this to the game and make them expensive so I have something to shoot for when earning money!

I would really like to see S7ATIC share his solution to this issue.

I think having more stuff to buy that can upgrade your ship is something a LOT of people are excited about!

the only conceivable upgrade we could purchase right now is the cloaking device. What else is there?

Hey guys,
Ive noticed that Cap Ships have an Infinate Power "addon". Im sure someone could make an upgrade to reduce energy cost of firing weapons, if not completly get rid of the energy cost. Just a thought. Although I could see how this might be a little TOO powerful of an upgrade.

If you look in the equipment folder there are a lot of things in there. Stuff like reactors, cloaking devices, cooling devices. Similar stuff to what was in Privateer 2.

Adding ANY equipment upgrades (weapons,shields,thrusters,engines,ect..) would still fit this topic. I've been searching the posts for over an hour for info on adding items to the game thru the copy&paste&rename&change stats method, without any luck. The post on cloaking devices wasnt specific enough for my low I.Q. I added a ship this way, but it took about 4hours to get it right due to the posts not listing each file adjusted & how(skip one file or adjustment & it doesnt work). It may be quite a while before new graphics can be added in such a way as to make things available for purchase at stations & planets. But using copy&paste&rename&change would allow us to add upgrades to things already in the game. For example, a weapon with slower/faster fire rate, higher/lower energy use,ect. Or shields with much lower capacity but faster recharge. Different Thrusters.

SuPaFrEaK, you can add infinite power to a ship by opening loadouts.ini &
finding the loadout for the ship you want to change--I think the first few listed are player ships and most are for AI flown ships.
change the line:
equip = ge_fighter_power_01 (for original fighter)
to
eqip = infinite_power
I'm uncertain if it will work with the same ships you start with in the game. I made a new loadout to go with the ship I added, and it works.

I am going to play around with this and if I am successful I'll post my detailed method here.

In the meantime, if someone else wants to beat me to the punch, please do. I won't be insulted .

Here is the simple way to add the normal and deep scanners as sellable items. For the sake of this example I will add them to Manhattan.

FILE: DATA\EQUIPMENT\market_misc.ini

Planet Manhattan is located here:

[BaseGood
base = Li01_01_base

After this line:

<pre><font size=1 face=Courier><font size=1 face=Courier>
MarketGood = ge_s_thruster_01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
</font> </font></pre>

Add the following:

MarketGood = ge_s_scanner_01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
MarketGood = ge_s_scanner_02, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1

SAVE AND EXIT FILE
====================


FILE: DATA\EQUIPMENT\engine_good.ini

(This file is currently empty, that is why it is a great file to use for adding things. It is easy to keep track of what you have aded).

Add the following:

[Good
nickname = ge_s_scanner_01
equipment = ge_s_scanner_01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_radarjammer.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263750
ids_info = 264750
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db


[Good
nickname = ge_s_scanner_02
equipment = ge_s_scanner_02
category = equipment
price = 2000
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_radarjammer.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263751
ids_info = 264751
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db



SAVE AND EXIT FILE
====================


Enter the game, go to Manhattan, and you will note the following:

1) If you click on your internal equipment, it now lists your scanner.

2) You can buy a normal or deep scanner.

====================

You might be asking: "Where are the stats located for the scanners?"

They are located in: DATA\EQUIPMENT\misc_equip.ini

Starting at approximately line 449:

<pre><font size=1 face=Courier><font size=1 face=Courier>
[Scanner
nickname = ge_s_scanner_01
ids_name = 263750
ids_info = 264750
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
range = 2500
cargo_scan_range = 2000
lootable = false

[Scanner
nickname = ge_s_scanner_02
ids_name = 263751
ids_info = 264751
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
range = 5000
cargo_scan_range = 5000
lootable = false
</font> </font></pre>

====================

There is only one thing about this that isn't so peachy. As far as I can tell, the deep scanner does not actually WORK.

I tried the deep scanner, and I could not see ships beyond 2.5k.

So then I tried cranking up the ranges for the DEEP SCANNER, but it does not seem to have any effect either.

I worry that something is hardcoded somewhere regarding scanner ranges.




Edited by - ThresholdRPG on 10-03-2003 10:28:40

Ive added tons of ship upgrades, everything from armor scales to powerplants.

Knight79 a couple dozen topics below described how to add a scanner, i just used that info and started messing around adding all kinds of stuff. I tried adding different types of scanners but no matter what i set their range at, they couldnt scan enemys past 2.5k away. Must be hardcoded. As for powerplants and engines, they work fine, each have their own icon picture, i also added armor scale upgrades, making the armor tougher. Still no luck on the cloaking device, of course maybe you can get it to work if you jettison the thing to uncloak and beam it back in to recloak. I havent tried that, but i remember i could jettison it at one point.

I havent messed with the jammers and stealth features, i will look at those soon, but i have a feeling ill run into a dead end with most things ive tried to do.

The only problem with the upgrades like engines, powerplants, armor, and scanners, is you cant make specific levels of items for the ships, at least i havent figured it out, every ship can use every upgrade.

Ill show you how to add some powerplants

add this to data\equipment\misc_good.ini

[Good
nickname = ge_fighter_power01
equipment = ge_fighter_power01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_powerplant.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263705
ids_info = 264705
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

[Good
nickname = li_fighter_power01
equipment = li_fighter_power01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_powerplant.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263720
ids_info = 264720
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

[Good
nickname = li_elite_power01
equipment = li_elite_power01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_powerplant.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263721
ids_info = 264721
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

[Good
nickname = ge_fighter2_power01
equipment = ge_fighter2_power01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_powerplant.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263706
ids_info = 264706
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

You can adjust their prices to whatever you want, this makes them a sellable item, now you need to add them to the base you want

now go heredata\equipment\market_misc.ini

add this to the base you want to, like Li01_01 (Manhattan)

MarketGood = ge_fighter_power01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
MarketGood = li_fighter_power01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
MarketGood = li_elite_power01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
MarketGood = ge_fighter2_power01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1

These are small powerplants only for small fighters like the starting ship, so i would start a mp server and create a new player to see if it works.

Presto, you can buy/sell these powerplants.

***********************

Now to add scanners
goto whatever ini you want, lets use misc_good.ini again

add this somewhere

[Good
nickname = ge_s_scanner_01
equipment = ge_s_scanner_01
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_radarjammer.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263750
ids_info = 264750
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

[Good
nickname = ge_s_scanner_02
equipment = ge_s_scanner_02
category = equipment
price = 200
item_icon = equipment\models\commodities\nn_icons\equipicon_radarjammer.3db
combinable = false
ids_name = 263751
ids_info = 264751
shop_archetype = equipment\models\commodities\crates\crate_grey.3db

Adjust prices, move on to market_misc.ini

add this at the base you want, use Li01_01 for now

MarketGood = ge_s_scanner_01, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1
MarketGood = ge_s_scanner_02, 0, -1, 10, 10, 0, 1

Now you got 2 different scanners added. done.

***************************
I'll add some more info later.

When you add powerplants for sale, does it list their stats in game (including the stats of whatever power plant is on your own ship?).

I would love to create some "custom" power plants that are super expensive (500,000 to 1,000,000 credits) to really give people something to spend their money on.

bump because people ask about this frequently

I set the Deep Scanner range to 1,000,000 and as far as I could tell, all it changed was I could click at objects on the screen that were farther away than I normally could. So if I moved the mouse around on the screen (not contact list) really slowly, I could click on bases 100k away or more. They weren't on the list; you just had to mouse around at the cockpit window. No change in Nav Map range either. So not very useful right now...

Heh. That's an interesting find George.

So the scanner's "detection" and "scan" range seem to be hardcoded, but the ability to click on things in the main window seem to actually reflect the modifiable scan range of the scanner.

Weird.

It is moderately depressing to see that so many things were coded in such a hodgepodge way.

I imagine the scanners were hardcoded because the game probably doesn't process too much outside of that range. For instance, it probably doesn't even keep track of rogues/bandits/other random NPC ships outside of that range.


-V