4DFAF Uploaded

Resin_Smoker

@krapougnak there is litteraly too much to write about, as Domino rescripted the entire game prior to FAF.

I'd recommend playing a vanilla SC-FA with DMS and 4DC. If you think what I've done was good, prepare to be shocked.

Resin_Smoker

@blackrobe sad thing is that doing so, would break the UI ban on using SIM data. It's why UI mods are allowed in ranked matches, and why most sim-side mods are not. Being able to bridge that gap would enable rampant cheating and a huge amount of desyncs.

Jip

A UI mod can not interfere with sim code, except through tailored engine calls and sim callbacks. The user layer is in a separate Lua context. You can import even sim files and make edits - the simulation wouldn't notice because it runs in a separate Lua context.

@resin_smoker said in 4DFAF Uploaded:

Unfortunately this means that it will NOT be possible to have the units ShieldMaxHealth shown on the UI, if the unit received its shields from anything other than a blueprint.
Only possibility is to figure out how to alter the UI from the SIM such when the drone shield is created this gets added somehow. Not sure how this would be possible, as the UI triggers on mouse over, not on the shields creation.

We'd probably need to use a unit statistic that is synced from the sim to the UI. And then update the UI code in FAForever to read from that statistic and use the blueprint as a fallback. I'm not entirely sure about the solution because I've not investigated what the exact problem is.

But there's solutions if you really want them, just ask for help of the game team and maybe there's something we can do for you .

Krapougnak

@resin_smoker said in 4DFAF Uploaded:
If you think what I've done was good, prepare to be shocked.

I am prepared, shoot !

Resin_Smoker

@jip I'm down with that... I only need the shields:GetMaxHealth() to be passed to be able to update the UI. Otherwise, the drone custom p-shield, would never be able to display without hijacking the SIM in some game breaking way.

Edit: Just rubbed two neurons together and made coherent thought.

Some smart guy, could during the game startup, use blueprint.lua to go through the units that would be drone shield capable. Then assign, what the max shield value would be as a hard value. This is effect would allow me to pass the MaxShieldHealth into the blueprint to be later used by the UI !

Resin_Smoker

Half way there! Here is the Blueprint.lua script to merge the data that i needed...

##########################################################################################
## --Add drone shield max health into unit bp so UI can use it
##########################################################################################

function Custom_Drone_MaxHealth_Blueprint(bp)
	if not bp then return end
	local id = bp.BlueprintId
	local bpDefense = original_blueprints.defense[id]
	
	-- Check to see if the gUnit has a Cloak, BuildRate or Economy, if so return false
	if bp.Intel.Cloak or bp.Defense.Shield.ShieldMaxHealth > 0 or bp.Enhancements.Shield or bp.Economy.MaintenanceConsumptionPerSecondEnergy then
		return false				
	end
	
	-- Unit Categories to exclude
	local excludedCats = {
		-- Primary unit retrictions, basicly anything that build, upgrades or makes ammo
		'COMMAND','SUBCOMMANDER','ENGINEER','OMNI','FACTORY','ECONOMIC','SILO',
		-- Custom unit restrictions
		'DRONE','MINE','PHASING','TRANSFORMABLE',
		-- Misc unit restrictions
		'POD','SATELLITE','UNTARGETABLE','SHIELD','WALL','PROJECTILE','OPERATION','CIVILIAN','INSIGNIFICANTUNIT','UNSELECTABLE','BENIGN','PROP',
	}
	local cats = bp.Categories
	for k, v in excludedCats do
		if table.find(cats, v) then
			return false
		end
	end

	-- Calc the drone shield max health based on the unit cat
	local droneShieldHealth = bp.Defense.MaxHealth
	if table.find(bp.Categories ,'EXPERIMENTAL') then
		droneShieldHealth = 10000
	elseif table.find(bp.Categories ,'TECH3') then
		droneShieldHealth = droneShieldHealth * 0.3
	elseif table.find(bp.Categories ,'TECH2') then
		droneShieldHealth = droneShieldHealth * 0.5
	else
		droneShieldHealth = droneShieldHealth * 0.75
	end
	
	WARN('Custom_Drone_MaxHealth_Blueprint for unit ID: ', bp.General.UnitName or 'no unit name found')
	
	local unitBp = table.deepcopy(bp.Defense)
	if unitBp then
		unitBp.Merge = true
		unitBp.DroneShieldMaxHealth = droneShieldHealth
		bp.Defense = unitBp		
	end		
end

Repr of a units "self"... Look for the "Defense" and then "DroneShieldMaxHealth"...

WARNING:  - Defense: table: 11FB39D8
WARNING:  -    AirThreatLevel: 0
WARNING:  -    ArmorType: Normal
WARNING:  -    DroneShieldMaxHealth: 235.5
WARNING:  -    EconomyThreatLevel: 0
WARNING:  -    Health: 314
WARNING:  -    MaxHealth: 314
WARNING:  -    Merge: true
WARNING:  -    PersonalShieldThreat: 0
WARNING:  -    RegenRate: 0
WARNING:  -    Shield: table: 11FB36B8
WARNING:  -       RegenAssistMult: 1
WARNING:  -       ShieldSize: 0
WARNING:  -    SubThreatLevel: 0
WARNING:  -    SurfaceThreatLevel: 13
WARNING:  -    UnknownWeaponThreat: 0
WARNING:  - Description: Heavy Tank
WARNING:  - DesiredShooterCap: 3

Resin_Smoker

Got the shield info to display, but dam it displays for everything, when it should only display when the drone-shield is active. the problem is becoming a circular one.... I need info from the sim to activate or deactivate an ability but i can't. Not without using a sim.sync.

Notice that the unit is showing a shield stat, without it having a shield on it...

Sure I can pass the data to the units blueprint, but there isn't any way that i can figure to tell the UI that the shield is active or not.

Question: Isn't the shield data already in Sync somewhere ?

Blackrobe

How's the progress going? Its been a while since you were quite prolific on the forums. Looking forward to your next iteration.

EbolaSoup

Just found this forum. I haven't played in a long time, but I have recently gotten interested again. I was part of the 4thD team and really enjoyed that. I mostly created units with some light script hacking that went along with that. Resin Smoker was the mad coder, always coming up with clever and sometimes far out concepts. Optimus was the game balancer, mod founder, and early unit maker. Some others got involved too.
The reason I came here was, once I started getting interested again, I wondered how the modding situation was on FAF and thought that I would maybe release my unit creations to encourage someone to use them in a mod since last I checked 4thD was dead.
Glad to see Resin is back at it! Good to see you. Thanks for taking this on.
I'd love to see that crazy worm in the ground thing you made and the micro black hole weapon that you were testing out. Those came along too late to be in 4DC, I believe, but they were very cool. People would love those.

Units I created:
UEF: Balrog, Caiman, Mine,
Aeon: T1 bot (Artemis?), Tarantula, redesign of Sniper Bot
Seraphim: T3(?) Flying Assault Walker (Kyhkyu Oss)
Probably something else I'm forgetting

Blackrobe

Hey @EbolaSoup. Resin was quite active in the FAF Mod community last year in 2024, but went MIA in August last year I think. He updated the 4DC Mod from 4thD Mod to be compatible with FAF. So his crazy worm is indeed available to use - as I have seen. I think all your units are there to. I particularly like the Flying Assault Walker (Kyhkyu Oss), as it is the only "transformer" unit ever created in any mod - as far as I'm aware; but I could be wrong. I for one would love to see more "transformer" units in SC FA. Maybe your could release your units in a small mod pack? Otherwise you can use his 4DFAF Mod which is downloadable in the FAF Client, to play the game.

Resin_Smoker

I'm still alive but going through some RL issues that limit what I can do atm.

@EbolaSoup I'm currently in Germany, having given up on life within the Un-united States.

Side note: Are you aware that units can be spawned and then attached to other units? Thus its possible to spawn in custom turrets and attach them to specific mounting points on the Fatboy. The Cybran Vulcanizer uses this technique for its mini-turret, and is "likely" one of the few units ever released in a mod to do this. With the greater Idea being having a large tentacle bot, where the weapon arms could be destroyed separately from the mainbody. For those of you having experienced the Seraphim beam tentacle, then you've a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about here. Unfortunately, the development group fell apart shortly before the tentacle weapon was completed. Thus leaving us without the experimental to mount it upon.

CDRMV

@Blackrobe
My Unit Pack Commander Survival Kit Units (short CSK Units) will include Transformer Units in the Future. I have several Interesting Concepts related to this topic, which I want to release.

@Resin_Smoker
Hey nice to See you again. I work with the Function to Spawn Units on another Units as well. For example the Air Transports, which can be called as Air Reinforcements from the Air Reinforcements Manager in the Commander Survival Kit have attached prebuild Land Units. The Idea/Technic to use this Function on the Seraphim Worm is really Interesting and could be useful for my own Cybran Worms as well. The only two questions, which I have is what happens If a Middle Segment Unit of the Worm is getting destroyed? Does the cutted half stay in the Air or will the Unit fully destroyed as well? Since CSK Units introduce Underground Units into the Game what do you think about to add your Seraphim Worm into CSK Units and expand it to be an Mobile Underground Unit instead of an Stationary Defense as an alternative Variation?

Blackrobe

@Resin_Smoker Hope you can sought out RL stuff mate. Glad to have you back.

@CDRMV Thanks for letting me know. Keep up the good work.