posted 06-02-2000 06:03 PM               

(P.S.- No dynamic goals doesn't always work for this.)

posted 06-03-2000 09:07 AM            

when the ship has so much damage let's say 20% make a sexp protect ship then when the message has been said unprotect ship. However you might notice it when there aren't that many fighters going around but with a few wings of fighters on each side I doubt someone would notice.

Just thought of another one

When you make backgrounds just keep adding untill you have like 7 or 8 bitmaps and then give them some random numbers, you'll be ammazed by the result sometimes.
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Don’t ignore hidden desires
Pay attention you’re playing with fire
Silence must be heard, noise should be observed

It is said, that in every age there is one singular event that forever changes the world around us.

posted 06-05-2000 10:34 AM            

Here's what I do when I want something to NOT be evaluated until the end of the mission.

Create an event that looks like this:

JumpOrderGiven:
when
...key-pressed "Alt-J"
...do-nothing

This event only becomes true when the players jump out

Then for whatever you want to test at the end of the mission (say an objective) simply AND this into the conditions like this:

ObjectiveName:
when
..and
...is-event-true-delay
....."JumpOrderGiven"
.....0
...whatever_else_you_want_to_check

posted 06-05-2000 04:49 PM            

Couple of things... first, there are certain SEXPs that do to how they evaluate must have their evaluation postponed. In the case of the other thread I originally put this "trick" in, the person wanted a BONUS OBJECTIVE to be true if a CAP ship's hull was above a certain level at the end of the mission. Thus the check HAS to be postponed until the end of the mission (otherwise it becomes true as soon as the CAP ship appears). The second part of this is that as someone recently found out, there is a limit to the "event tree". By placing the check IN the objective itself, rather than creating an event that is then checked by the objective, you save yourself "entries" in the "event tree". From my perspective, it also makes it easier to organize and modify missions if the conditions of OBJECTIVES are actually placed in the objectives themselves, rather than having an event that is then checked by the objective. It also takes a wee-bit less space (you don't have the extra "if-event-true" in the objective, instead the "conditions" that would go in the event are directly placed in the objective).

Oh, just in case "what" the trick is wasn't clear, it was the ability to check for the "Alt-J" command to qualify and postpone evaluations until the end of the mission.

posted 06-05-2000 08:01 PM               

That seems unnecessarily "clever". I prefer to have each objective evaluated as its own event, and then the event which decides when the mission is over chains to a when -> has-departed-delay -> Alpha 1" (this is what most of the V missions do).

posted 06-06-2000 03:20 AM               

You can pilot a capship (and this, I suppose, everybody knows it) only because of the amount of turrets, the game will crash if you take damage (the turrets status will attempt to fit on your hud, and the game will crash) . Still, if your ship is invulnerable, it works, and it's not crashing. This can be interesting for some stuff like:

You're piloting a freighter or an argo transport docked with something important (another ship, a cargo...) through an asteroid belt... See what I mean?

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Does it breath? KILL IT!

posted 06-06-2000 03:02 PM               

In the first mission in FS2, you see a beam fire right through the NTF ship. How do you do that in FRED2? Is it even possible?(I would think so). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

posted 06-06-2000 06:19 PM            

Here's the solution I came up with before for this and has helped others... this example is where the "mother ship" is destroyed before all waves are launched. For other "wave stopping" events, simply change the "cue" to check for "distance":

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eth
There is a way to do what you want... ( have it so that all the ships in Cancer wing THAT HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED must be destroyed _and_ STILL be able to have them launch from the docking bay of the Sathanas ).

This is "kind of ugly", but it's the only way I've found to get it to work...

when
.or
..if-destroyed-delay
....Cancer
....0
..and
....if-destroyed-delay
......Sathanas
......10
....not
....<
......distance
........<any friendly>
........Cancer
......50000

This becomes true under two conditions... all of the ships in all of the wings of Cancer are destroyed ... or ... if the Sathanas is destroyed all of the ships in the present Cancer wing (if there is one) must be destroyed < unless somehow ALL friendly ships run away from the remaining Cancer wing and get 50,000 meters away... possible if there are no friendly caps, but very unlikely >. Notice I have a 10 second delay for the destruction of the Sathanas. This is to insure if a wing is launching just as the Sathanas is destroyed, no strange timing related glitch causes a false "true".

---

Just me

posted 06-08-2000 08:56 PM               

Set a support ship to be used as reinforcements (its just easier to call it in this way)
SEXPs:
Repair:
when
and
<
hits-left
Alpha 1
69 (cause u shouldn't be able to be fully repaired)
<
Distance
Alpha 1
GTS Repair
5
Repair-Subsystem
Alpha 1(gotta edit this 1 manualy)
Hull
2 (cause its a nice #, mess around w/ it if u think its too slow)

Repair Cue:
When:
Key-Pressed
Alt-R
Add-Goal
GTS Repair
Ai-dock
alpha 1
Lower Ring
Rearming Dock
89
Key-Reset
Alt-R

Repair-End
when:
Key-Pressed
Alt-R
Add-Goal
GTS Repair
Ai-Undock
89
Key-Reset
Alt-R
Clear-Goals
GTS Repair

Repair During (last 1)
When:
has-docked-delay
GTS Repair
Alpha 1
1
0
Add-goal
GTS Repair
AI-Play-dead
89

posted 06-09-2000 04:02 AM               

I was willing to find a way to do such a thing, but you were faster. Thanks for the job.

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Does it breathe? KILL IT!

posted 06-09-2000 11:32 AM               

------------------
Interested in the Tech aspect of Freespace? Check Tech Freespace out!

posted 06-15-2000 04:57 AM               

You should NOT give it a repeat count. If it has a reapeat count, it will try to respect this constraint the first time you press Alt-R (try to dock 1000 times), and ontly this time.

Try it without a repeat count. You may find a way to make the event true everytime your hull is below 69 (I can't tell you since I don't know how, but I trust you'll find it easily )

posted 06-23-2000 10:43 PM               

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FreeSpace Coordinator, Descent Chronicles

posted 07-10-2000 11:46 AM               

Here's a new one, very fun.

You can pilot a capship. That's no news. But you can also have its weapons firing, INCLUDING beams, without using any mod, just a little cheat with FRED2 elementary rules... Do the following, to experiment a little:

-Have Alpha1 be a capship, no matter which one. The one you like.(The current example will take a Hecate)

-Insert a hostile capship, say, a sathanas, place it at MORE THAN 10000 units from your ship and create an event for it using the "Beam-free-all" sexp, so it will fire at you.(Not an obligation, but having a Sathanas firing its beams directly at you is a great sensation... Believe it! )

-Now, comes the trick: you cannot use the beams (or any other turret) as a normal weapon. So if you fly in your capship, you won't be able to fire at anything.
The trick is to make them "independants". Just create the following event (this is just an example):

(Event name)

-When

--<
---distance
----alpha1
----Sathanas
---10000

-fire_beam
--alpha1
--Sathanas
--turret 1 (the turret that has a beam cannon)

-fire_beam
--alpha1
--Sathanas
--turret 2

ETC... This will cause "your" turrets to automatically fire at the Sathanas at and under the distance of 10000.

When you have specified all the turret to be fired, give the event a huge repeat count, and an appropriate interval (this is also a way to set your firepower).

Now, make alpha1 invulnerable. This is VERY important, otherwise the game will crash.
Finally check if your capship is still considered as alpha1 by fred2, and save. Don't bother about Fred2 protests.

Play your stuff, and enjoy the sensation of standing toes to toes with a Sathanas!!!

This is also true for flaks, lasers, and the rest, to get rid of fighters or bombers. Since you're invulnerable, you don't take too much risk, but at least you can use this for escort mission, for instance.

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Does it breathe? KILL IT!

posted 08-17-2000 09:54 AM               

First up - Making the 'called in' support ship repair the player's hull! You need two events:

first event
when
-has-time-elapsed
--0
-set-training-context-speed
--0
--0

second event
when
-and
--<
---distance
----Alpha 1
----<any friendly>
---15
--and
---speed
----2
---<
----Hits-Left
-----Alpha 1
-----50
-Repair-subsystem
--Alpha 1
--Hull
--1

Give the second event a repeat count of 9999 and a repeat delay of 1 (or 2 if you're stingy). Now when the player has stopped for more than 2 seconds and another friendly ship (namely the support ship) is within 15 metres (might need yo make that bigger for bombers) the player will be repaired up to a max of 50%. Cool eh.

Second trick: Conematic death sequences for the player. Remember how in 80's hollywood, anything that exploded would explode about five times from diffeent angles (mostly cos they couldn't afford to blow things up twice). Well now you can do that in FS2. All you need is this event somewhere in your mission:

when
-Is-Destroyed-Delay
--Alpha 1
--1
Sabotage-Subsystem
-Alpha 1
-Hull
-1

Give the event a repeat count of about 5 (or however many different angles you want( and a delay of 1 (or two if you're feeling daring) and then play the mission and die. It's the 80's all over again

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"I am a bomb disposal technician, if you see me running, try and keep up"

posted 08-17-2000 11:53 AM               

Sorry, couldn't resist...

posted 08-17-2000 01:13 PM               

Pah, should've kept the tricks to myself.

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"I am a bomb disposal technician, if you see me running, try and keep up"

posted 08-17-2000 02:29 PM               

How's this for a trick (or glitch)--

If you make a beam fire at something on the far side of a cargo container (no matter how large), and the container is set invulnerable, the beam will go straight through the container!

posted 08-17-2000 03:45 PM               

Besides, that's not really a trick is it. Let's face it. That's a bug.

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"I am a bomb disposal technician, if you see me running, try and keep up"

posted 08-18-2000 10:52 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Slasher:
Wow, I hope the newbies are reading this thread because you [b]can learn something from it.

Here's a "trick" to use when doing send-message-list sexps without voice acting. Type in the message you plan to use and then read it in your head while timing yourself with a stopwatch. Use that time for the "time" entry in the sexp. For example, if you get 5 seconds on a message enter 5000 for the time on that message in the sexp. I've found a lot of missions where the authors just guess at how long it takes a player to read a message. Either they think we're mentally handicapped gamers or genius speed readers. [/B]

---

Speed reader!

posted 08-19-2000 02:27 AM               

My little bro was palying FRED. He made some stuff then shut FRED off. I go and start FRED up. For no reason when fred loads up I press ctrl-Z (undo) and somethin wierd happens. I load a different mission then go to the edit menu. It says undo editing and I click that. I go back to the edit menu and it says undo nothing and a click that. Suddenly the stuff that my bro had made earlier popped up on the screen. An Orion, colossus, and 4 ursas on the Orions "runway".

So if you are ever editing and you get an illegal operation or somethin, start up FRED 2 and keep Undo-ing stuff and if you are lucky your mission will come back.

posted 01-23-2001 08:11 PM               

Just doing my part to keep this thread from getting eaten alive by The Purge™.

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I am Skittle Boy!

posted 01-23-2001 10:48 PM               

Here's something, although it's not really a TRICK, it's something obsessive people would find out.