Nomads content pack

Treewyrm

A screenshot of the issue would be helpful to determine what’s happening. It is possible you had given the effect a wrong type, usually it should be EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED_LARGE or something similar.

Dromedary

I’ve left all your code exactly as you had it, so the effect type is the same, but for some reason i’m getting this. Check out the tentacle lengths on the battleship. Oddly they show up ok on the Nomad Elite and the bomber

Treewyrm

Interesting. I had not encountered this sort of bug. While I’m not sure if this will help you can try tweaking buffer sizes for particles in [Alchemy] section of EXE\dacom.ini.

Dromedary

It’s definitely to do with buffer sizes. I’ve slowly increased them, doubling each value, and more of the FX have become visible. It also made the internal fx of the ships show up better as well. Only issue now is the view distance of the fx which seem to disappear after about 2k distance. Really appreciate your help on this Treewyrm, only problem now is the last thing i mentioned about the 2k distance thing

Treewyrm

You can increase view distance by modifying radius property in DATA\FX\effect_types.ini for types used by associated effects. But beyond a certain number you’ll need to add space_farclip to [SystemInfo] to extend view distance even further.

p.s. don’t forget to add turrets, there are several custom models for each capital ship class.

Dromedary

All going well so far, visual range increased on the fx to 8k, will try to push it a bit more to 10k, think that will do for me. I increased the radius properties in effect_types as suggested which really helped. I’ve been using the space_farclip in a number of systems in my mod, just not in the one i’ve been testing in, but i’ll try it there and report back.

Once i have all the ships working, I’ve done all of them up to the battleship so far, I’ll give the custom turrets a go as they do look rather cool, be a shame to not use them. Truly a great package. Not modded for years but glad i got back into it with these ships, been fun ironing out the problems with your assistance.

J.R.

@Dromedary

Regarding “space_farclip” in System-inis:

I actually stumbled over some issues with it in the past… i.e: “Planets are suddenly fully visible through nebulas” when your ship isn´t IN the nebula (on the other side of it… but OUTSIDE of it) and the like… so maybe you should be a little bit careful with this entry in system-inis and doublecheck the effects ingame… Just a warm and friendly advice…

Greetings
J.R.

Dromedary

To be fair not come across that issue with planets and their visibility through nebulas. Might be down to the value used in farclip, as i don’t set it insanely high. Guess there’s one way to find out but thanks for the tip.

Treewyrm

Luckily farclip setting is per-system, as far as I see it’s mostly useful for some very large effect that is meant to be seen across an entire system.

Originally I also had effects for weapons that would go along those ships, but some of them are quite specialized, like gun/missile timings and timings within effects need to be in sync. If there’s an interest perhaps I could update pack with some extra goodies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nklQzYfmbrE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVzdLhoFD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7KvN0cygfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMNAgelyiUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Svh-taCQ0M (explosion effect was a placeholder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIV7VI7vmE (effect simply simulates lots of bullets)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ9qSpVNBzo (more of ale trickery)

There were also some new structures too and a base or two I think, gonna have to dig up backups to see first though. Some discarded concepts as well.

Dromedary

Those fx look good, liking the cruiser main gun especially and the swarm missile. They are all different and to be fair the first new nomad ships and fx i’ve seen in years, which makes them special.

eagleclaw

That would be cool with a update for this pack. Nice work Treewyrm.

Dromedary

Finally got to try adding the boss ship or Dreadnought as i call it, utterly bonkers ship, it’s beyond huge, totally dwarfs an Osiris which is near the rear of the ship in this shot. Animation is gorgeous, love the fx on this ship. Treewyrm did an an awesome job on this

Dromedary

While we’re on the subject of Nomads, any reasons Nomad base turrets won’t fire? Maybe one for adoxa

adoxa

Is that the same as turrets not firing in general, or something different? I’ll need something in/for vanilla to test.

Dromedary

I need shooting, I left off the BEHAVIOUR = NOTHING line. All working as intended, thanks for the assist

Treewyrm

Hmm. In your screenshot it seem missing two of the three materials used in the model. I recall someone mentioned having this bug as well but never encountered it myself, so I’m not aware of the fix details. Also main engine effect seem have an extra offset, probably it is attached to a wrong hardpoint. Normally those big engine effects should be attached to the first HpEngine. See this image for reference.

Dromedary

Treewyrm, I’ve only used what was in the pack. I’ve attached the engine effect

[Engine]
nickname = NDREngine01
ids_name = 0
ids_info = 0
volume = 0
mass = 10
max_force = 3000000
linear_drag = 100000
reverse_fraction = 0.1
flame_effect = dsy_no2_bossengine01
cruise_charge_time = 5
cruise_power_usage = 20
rumble_sound = rumble_nomad
rumble_atten_range = -5, 0
rumble_pitch_range = -25, 25
cruise_start_sound = engine_no_cruise_start
cruise_loop_sound = engine_no_cruise_loop
cruise_stop_sound = engine_no_cruise_stop
indestructible = false
outside_cone_attenuation = -3
inside_sound_cone = 90
outside_sound_cone = 270

[AttachedFX]
nickname = Dreadnought_Claw
particles = dsy_no2_bossengine01_claw

[AttachedFX]
nickname = Dreadnought_Wing
particles = dsy_no2_bossengine01_wing

[AttachedFX]
nickname = Dreadnought_Light
particles = dsy_no2_bossengine01_light

The attached fx i’ve put on the HpGlowLight hardpoints, engine onto the HPEngine01 hardpoint.

If i’m doing something wrong, please tell me lol

Treewyrm

Hmm. That ini chunk seems to be okay. I guess it’s the missing textures and perspective that gave me wrong impression of effect offset. Not quite sure what’s the deal with that though, all materials and textures are in a single shared .mat file. Unless you’ve had a typo when referencing the file in ship archetype definition, so be sure that all ships have correct reference to no2_playerships.mat. Granted main textures used there are 1024x1024, if all else fails try to scale them down perhaps.

If you want to make them look even nicer try make custom attached lights (light_equip.ini) and put them on runninglight hardpoints, some are on same spots used by turrets. Because of surface material blending mode they aren’t going to visibly clip into geometry unlike on regular objects.

Dromedary

I haven’t touched the textures, same as in the original download, so i’m a bit stumped myself atm. Because of the boss ship size, i’ve turned it into a giant turret and that works ok. It’s just those lattice lines on the fin. for the engine fx which you normally can’t have on a static object, i added an extra fx hardpoint where the engine one is and attached the engine effect to that. Don’t know if that makes a difference

Treewyrm

ALE effects used for engines are just like any other effects, you can make [AttachedFX] out of dsy_no2_bossengine01 and apply it to arbitrary hardpoint (including HpEngine01) of a static solar object. That’s how I tested things without making them full-fledged ships as solars are much easier and quicker to define and put in system.