Editing weaponmoddb.ini

unless if you want some weapon, that does more than two different damage values or you want to have values really different from 1.0. in that case, in order to keep the vanilla weapon balance, it is useful sometimes to create new weapon types.

I just meant the three types within each weapon type, but you’re right, I was a little myopic - they’re entirely configurable. But whilst weaponmoddb lists three variations, only the one is actually used by vanilla.

I noticed that afterwards, yeah. I just wanted to make sure people knew you could create entirely new types, not just edit existing ones.

adoxa wrote:

… change its [Munition] weapon_type from W_Laser01 to W_Laser02. Go to weaponmoddb.ini, where you should immediately see nickname = W_Laser02, so change shield_mod = S_Graviton01, 0.8 to 0.9. Now the normal weapon will do 80% damage, whereas the clone will do 90%. (At least I hope so, never actually tested it.)

Indeed I’m very curious whether then W_Xxxx02 and W_Xxxx03 entries will work, or whether they are just artifacts in the WeaponModDB.ini file (from DA’s original ambitions with the game)

Did someone test if the W_Laser02, W_Laser03, W_Plasma02 entries etc. work? If so, please share it with us!

Why wouldn’t they work? You know, sometimes there’s nothing hidden or complex about things. The 02 and 03 entries are like the 01 entries? Then yes, they will work. Simple as that.

FriendlyFire wrote:
Why wouldn’t they work? You know, sometimes there’s nothing hidden or complex about things. The 02 and 03 entries are like the 01 entries? Then yes, they will work. Simple as that.

There need not be any mystery. It might be that the game simply won’t stomach these entries.

In fact I did try to use them once - the game crashed. That could have easily be caused by my own clumsiness, but as Adoxa said he did not test it, it motivated me to ask whether someone did succesfully use them.

You did, I understand from your reply. So thanks for the feedback

It’s nothing against you, it’s just that sometimes people have a tendency to follow this:

1. Think about something they’d like to do.
2. Ask right away about it, not bothering to look for tutorials or to actually try for themselves.
3. Get an answer and use that as a guideline (the worst of the lot will require step-by-step info while others can go along broad help).
4. If anything comes by that they don’t know about, ask again instead of trying themselves.

It’s alright to ask your peers for help, it’s alright to feel a little lost at first, but this kind of behavior stifles progress. I find that people who only follow tutorials without experimenting themselves end up following instructions, but if dropped in a situation unknown to them are entirely lost. To become a good modder, you need to have curiosity, some “daring” to be able to go where no modder has gone before and lots of patience.

There hasn’t always been reference material for all the stuff we currently know, yet we managed to find them. I’m not asking you (impersonal “you”, not directed at anyone) to figure out the ALE format again, but surely you can figure out how to do a gun by yourself? It may take you twice as long as if you followed a tutorial, but trust me, the experience and know-how you get is well worth it. And if you mess up, what’s the problem? Make frequent backups and just revert and start over.

And this has become a rant, so I’ll end this /rant

(In short though Moonhead it’s nothing against you, it just felt like you didn’t even try making new weapon types before asking, which is the kind of behavior that irks me a bit; seeing as you did try, I’ve no problem with you asking)

FriendlyFire wrote:

[…]

(In short though Moonhead it’s nothing against you, it just felt like you didn’t even try making new weapon types before asking, which is the kind of behavior that irks me a bit; seeing as you did try, I’ve no problem with you asking)

Haha that’s okay. I understand your point.

Problem for me is: all the knowledge I build thru looking into the files and trial-and-error, has sunken away a bit (it has been some years), and nowadays I use three computers. I did copy most of my FL archives but it’s a bit messy to be honest. I still have alot of cleaning up to do, so at the moment I just cannot try everything on the spot (the weapon_02 and _03 thing is relatively simple and not much work, so I can understand it triggered your rant).

I admit I do ask a lot though. Maybe too much. I guess I’m a bit weary to re-invent the wheel again I promise will get a hold on myself.

As long as you get answers I guess you aren’t bothering people just yet

My point really is that if you can do it yourself, do it. You’ll thank yourself for it in the end when you reach a point where tutorials don’t exist on what you want to work on (for example, ALEs).

lemme interrupt this on that point: ALEs
why nobody, who can do them properly (and we all know, there are great effect masters out there), does post a tutorial? is it such new, that noone wants to share his secrets aiming for doing the best mod?
and how, goodness, did the aleers learn to do such amazing effects if there is no significant support out there? by trying and checking? why shall we all invent the bycicle from humble beginnings, if there is someone who knows how to build it?

1. Making tutorials is incredibly time-consuming.
2. Most people making ALEs still do a lot of trial and error, even after they’ve done dozens of effects.

There is no easy method to make ALEs, and a tutorial would likely only end up making lots of people following one tutorial to the letter (IE you’d suddenly see a thousand variations of THAT specific effect, but not much else). ALEs are the kind of place where you need to learn by yourself if you want to understand them. If you don’t or can’t, well I’m afraid to tell you you probably wouldn’t be able to work on them anyways as ALE making is very frustrating, time-consuming and ineffective. If you don’t have the dedication and patience to learn, you won’t have it to make more ALEs because each new ALE is a learning process, in a way.

Of course, that’s not to say there’ll never be a tutorial, but I just don’t think it’d be that good anyways.

Anyone tried using the XML Project to edit ALEs? It’d be nice to know how the “pairs” relate, so I can name it something more meaningful, along with the 32768 value. (It’d also be very nice if someone could decode the 0xEE223B51 CRC, buggered if I know what it is. Don’t forget to use case sensitive.)

Well ALEs aren’t really UTF files, so I doubt you’d get much out of it…

Plus the ALE Editor works just fine.

I beg your pardon, but I got everything out of it (and you were the one complaining about people not trying things for themselves). I also decoded all the .anm, .dfm and .sph data. I guess saying “handles everything” wasn’t enough…

I just didn’t expect you’d actually decrypt the entire format all over again as the ALE editor already existed. It’s great to know you’ve got it though!