Editing Asteroids
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:18 am
So far I've found a way to make the asteroid fields targetable in the player's HUD screen and destroyable. Using MXvTED4.2 editor to keep it simple, on first Statistics tab scroll down the "Craft No." list box on far right and choose "223". This selects the first of six asteroid models; AsteroidHR1.opt. In the "Target Type:" listbox, overwrite the 128 value (makes model un-targetable) to 131 (targetable). Now to make the asteroids destroyable, the best solution I've found so far is to change the "Ship Type:" list box from "10 - Normal Debris" to "8 - Accelerator ring". Then save these settings [Write] button.
However here are the current side-effect issues I can't seem to resolve:
1) The asteroid field looses it's natural random layout and instead populates as a matrix of columns or rows of asteroids.
2) Only the player's craft can destroy the asteroid models. Starships fire right through it.
3) It only takes 1 shot to easily destroy the asteroids. Setting hull rating to high number seems to have no effect, or the sensitivity to enemy fire box. I doubt it's hit zone issue.
4) There is a quick/brief explosion animation, but it would be nice to see a slow animation of smaller rocks or smaller debris (like the containers have when they are destroyed) splitting away. (Part of that is related to .dat files I think, and debris/junk .opt models.)
5) Asteroids no longer spin around slowly, but I don't recall if they actually did in the original engine. Maybe the pilotMesh hook might solve that.
I've tried experimenting with species pointer on the Unknown tab with no effect, and other byte values. Other values CTD. Anyone have ideas?
However here are the current side-effect issues I can't seem to resolve:
1) The asteroid field looses it's natural random layout and instead populates as a matrix of columns or rows of asteroids.
2) Only the player's craft can destroy the asteroid models. Starships fire right through it.
3) It only takes 1 shot to easily destroy the asteroids. Setting hull rating to high number seems to have no effect, or the sensitivity to enemy fire box. I doubt it's hit zone issue.
4) There is a quick/brief explosion animation, but it would be nice to see a slow animation of smaller rocks or smaller debris (like the containers have when they are destroyed) splitting away. (Part of that is related to .dat files I think, and debris/junk .opt models.)
5) Asteroids no longer spin around slowly, but I don't recall if they actually did in the original engine. Maybe the pilotMesh hook might solve that.
I've tried experimenting with species pointer on the Unknown tab with no effect, and other byte values. Other values CTD. Anyone have ideas?