units.csv file

Post by **klauss** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:58 pm

Probably a balance bug, I've seen missions paying 200K, against fleets of capships, but never 1.5M. Anyway, only 8 ships... 8 capships?

I gather the only trouble is that capships are way too vulnerable as it is, and so a raid against 8 capships seems a big undertaking but it isn't in reality, as you can kill them relatively easy. But they were kinda that vulnerable in the original Privateer, so I guess raids against capships shouldn't happen, rather than make them happen and pay a lot.

Or make them happen and pay less.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:15 pm

In fact, capship have improved since the original Privateer, thanks to the 360Â°-turrets. The old capships could only fire forward guns which made them easy victims even for the beginner tarsus.

I remember the capship fleet missions, but that was in PR1.1. Those hardcore missions are gone now. Sadly, it was fun afterburning between the ships until their turrets had hit each other often enough to start fighting each other... Still there are clean sweep missions paying up to 200k but I think that's okay if you look at your damaged reputation afterwards.

Cargo missions pay definitively too high, no matter if it's in a paradigm or in a stiletto. Depending on the ship's cargo hold, you earn about 1000 to 10000 credits per flown cargo unit. I could understand if it was a food run into a blockade system, but running PlayThing to Perry? Which confed officer is so damned horny???

feeltheat · Post by **feeltheat** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:23 pm

klauss wrote:Probably a balance bug, I've seen missions paying 200K, against fleets of capships, but never 1.5M. Anyway, only 8 ships... 8 capships?

I gather the only trouble is that capships are way too vulnerable as it is, and so a raid against 8 capships seems a big undertaking but it isn't in reality, as you can kill them relatively easy. But they were kinda that vulnerable in the original Privateer, so I guess raids against capships shouldn't happen, rather than make them happen and pay a lot.

Or make them happen and pay less.

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

just one kamesh and a few guards in nav 1 but this one there were some bounty hunters on them when i got there and i went straight against it since it cant kill my centurion with 8 stealtek guns, and one lone Centurion and 3 talons as guards and 1 gothi and 2 drathis in nav 3. so in total i killed a capship and 7 ships and earned 4.5 millions. i think definitely a bug.

Sligor · Post by **Sligor** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:26 pm

Ah well, those capships...Killing a Kamekh is easier than destroying a Demon or Dralthi, just takes more time...sometimes not even this. The proud of the Kilrathi Space Navy is vapourized after 3-4 minutes with a 4 tachyon Centurion, and a Galaxy GS with 2 Plasmas doesn't need even that long.
I made some tests with changed stats in the units.cvs for the Paradigm, improved armor, shields and reactor etc. I'm not satisfied yet. I'll open an own thread for that, maybe someone has some good ideas or suggestions.

Actually, I never received the promised 1,8 or even the 2,2 mios for a cargo run. Only a third or so (though I never calculated the actual sum). Often some cargo was left I could sell. The whole economics doesn't work too well. But I don't care much for trading anyway, except for the beginning to get the first few bucks for a better ship.

GAlex · Post by **GAlex** » Sat Jan 13, 2007 1:34 pm

a new and bugfixed win32 version of csveditorv2 is ready for download ad the devtools & userutils forum.

check this out.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:59 pm

I've also been trying to figure some stuff out in units.csv, and am concluding there must be other files or code that operates for some lines.

I tried to modify the "cargo" line (line 271 in units.csv) to see if I could have other types of cargo floating in space. I thought it would be interesting, for a side campaign I'm working on, to have a variety of cargo floating around a wrecked ship. The column entries all seem right--directory, name, hud image, bxfm mesh, scaling factor--and they pointed to a directory .\objects\cargo (under \units) that had matching names. But, when I changed the pointers, nothing happened. (I tried to make lots of little ejected pilots, or asteroids.) I did verify that the generic_cargo.bxfm mesh is used--I was able to change the texture overlaid on it, and it showed up nicely when I ejected 100 home appliances.

Does anyone know where floating cargo is defined? Am I just missing something, or is this actually hardcoded somewhere?

Edit: figured it out--it isn't the "cargo" line that's used; it's the "generic_cargo_upgrades" line (270 in units.csv). Will update the "How to Add Cargo" Wiki.

It does look like all cargo containers floating in space have to look the same, though. Oh, well.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:44 pm

And, while on the subject of "What does this line do?"--

Where is the link made between planet/base type and the script that is launched when you land? I thought it was probably units.csv, because there are entries for bases and planets, but there's no script for a "refinery," and the link for an agricultural planet points to "m_class" but the .png graphic is named "agricultural." I thought I'd be able to figure it out, but hours of searching have left me confused.

Time to ask the experts.

I get the feeling there must be another file somewhere, creating an abstraction layer, but I can't find it. (Maybe because I'm wrong and it doesn't exist.

)

Post by **loki1950** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:34 pm

try looking at the .system files they define whats in a system.

Enjoy the Choice

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 5:40 am

Well, looking at Perry.system, for example, the system file defines a unit named Perry and a unit named Anapolis. There is a \unit folder "Perry," with sprites and graphics. There is a \unit folder "refinery," with sprites and graphics. The "file=" in the Perry.system unit tags appears to point to these unit folders.

But, in \bases, there's a script for Perry--"perry.py". There isn't a script for "refinery". That's where I'm getting confused--I can't figure out what script defines the room layout for a refinery, and what specifies that that script is to be used.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:41 pm

You're on the right way.

/sprites/bases/refinery
Here you see all graphic files for the refinery, as well as further py redirections.

New planets need additionally to be added to /universe/wcuniverse.xml

New non-planetary bases have their entries in units.csv, because they have shield and armor settings and are not part of the "natural" universe itself.

/bases/unit.py
This file is what you are looking for, similar to perry.py in the same folder. It is not named refinery.py because it is also used when landing on a human capship unit.

feeltheat · Post by **feeltheat** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:54 am

hey my ship disappear in the docking bay. why? it is a centurion. i can still fly it but there is no picture in docking bay. how to get the picture of the ship to show up?

Neskiairti · Post by **Neskiairti** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:44 am

O.o thats odd.. what did you do?

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:01 am

Example for Pleasure Bases:
/sprites/bases/Pleasure/Jolson_LandingBay.spr (whereas Jolson stands for any Pleasure Base):

bases/pleasure/Jolson_LandingBay.png 0
3.104 2.4832
0 0

Line 1 is the file allocation, the 0 stands for a not changed stretching.
Line 2 stands for how the ship is rotated xyz, default is from above (no room error). By altering y (not defined here), you can make the ship bigger or smaller (negative).
Line 3 is the ship's position in the picture, whereas xy=0 stands for the ship centered within the image.

You most likely changed something around here.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:49 am

Dilloh wrote:You're on the right way.

/sprites/bases/refinery
Here you see all graphic files for the refinery, as well as further py redirections.

New planets need additionally to be added to /universe/wcuniverse.xml

New non-planetary bases have their entries in units.csv, because they have shield and armor settings and are not part of the "natural" universe itself.

/bases/unit.py
This file is what you are looking for, similar to perry.py in the same folder. It is not named refinery.py because it is also used when landing on a human capship unit.

Ah! Now it makes sense.

Hmm...so, that leads to a follow-on question. Is there any way for a capship to call a different Python script (i.e. not unit.py)? Where is the tie made between "refinery" and "unit.py" or "mining base" and "mining_base.py"? I couldn't find any reference to unit.py in units.csv or master_parts_list.csv, but can't think of where else to look.

My thought is to create different artwork for different capships. Is the tie somewhere in the VS code itself? (Similarly, where is the tie between a "biodiverse" planet and "agricultural.py"?)

Related question--is there documentation about the meaning of the fields in the .spr files?

So many questions...so much to learn.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:29 am

It is indeed units.csv where the tie is made, though you won't find any entry refering clearly to py files.

Open units.csv with csveditor. The first and the third column (I'm not exactly sure which does it) carry a key and a name. The key is how ships and subclasses are assigned, the name at least shows the object's name in game. One of those is your tie for the py file, e.g. either drayman.blank or drayman. It is most likely the name, so your py file should be named drayman.py. If there is no tie, the game will automatically refer to unit.py or in case of planets to the rocky surface.

So if you want to give e.g. paradigms a new py, just create paradigm.py.

The spr file entries just define:
- The filename to refer to
- The center point of the image (0 0 is the middle of your screen, 1 1 is the upper right edge, -1 -1 is the lower left)
- The zoom factor for the image (I don't no too much about that - just experiment)

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:19 am

I must be missing something. When I try to change columns 1 or 3, nothing happens, other than the text in column 3 appears in the HUD as the name of the unit.

Does the milita concourse png work in canonHUDS1.31a? I'm still getting the mountain landscape scene, not the new city scene, but I have made other changes to units.csv as part of my cargo mod, so I might be causing my own troubles. When I land on the DraymanCVL, I get the no room error.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:10 am

No room error is an indicator for a python error (at least I've been told lately), but I've also encountered this error with a hacked savegame. Try a stock planet and watch if you also get this error, so your savegame is damaged.

Heimdall and Speke have been tested by several users and should work fine, so the error should be due to another reason. If you made changes into units.csv you might have corrupted other lines below, and those two bases are the very last two lines. 1.32 will be available in a few days, so you might want to use this one as a base for rebalance, though there'll be no (or at least a few unimportant) units.csv changes.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:37 am

With the new patch, it's working great. And, the new units.csv gives me a clear example of what works, so that helps a lot--I see I was overlooking the "unit name=" versus "file=" in the *.system file, for starters.

One thing I haven't figured out is the significance of the dot in some of the directory strings (such as ./drayman_cvl) but not in others (such as /TarsusMk2).

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:20 am

./ doesn't always have the same meaning. In case of ships, it's the /units folder. In case of planets, it's /sprites/bases, and so on. Again, just figure it out by looking at the examples in units.csv and the referred files.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:25 pm

I understand that the directory strings are partial entries and may come off different roots; I just can't figure out when to use the dot before the first slash and when not to use it, or if it matters at all.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:54 pm

Uhm... never thought of that. My hottest guess:

use ./ to rely on the current directory, e.g. in case of units.csv it'd be units/, so you'd not need to assort your files and could place all of your mod content into one folder.

use / to rely on the directory which the engine would choose, as posted above.