The Descent Chronicles Uses this FAQ with the Permission of the Author
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- More on weapons.tbl
- More on ships.tbl
- Walkthrough to Add Your Own Weapons
1. Introduction
This is the 2nd edition of this guide. I've added LOTS of extra entries. Now all entries are covered in this document, although some only have a "no
idea what this does" remark. The guide is now more of a general guide to .tbl files with a chapter on adding your own weapons then the 1st edition. Entries marked by *** are entries I am not certain about somehow. I would appreciate any feedback on these. There may be some errors in spelling too, since I'm Dutch and have a Dutch version of Word. If you have any questions or want to submit your own ideas into future editions please contact me at daan@schulp.demon.nl
Credits
Daan Schulpen a.k.a. DreAdFaq - That's me :)
Christopher Haskett a.k.a. Wingnut - Thanks for telling me how to make custom icons.
Revision 2.0 - Last Updated on 12/31/98
2. More on weapons.tbl
Any body who has looked at the tables knows that Volition still left a lot of remarks in there. This section will just deal with things I feel should have been
included also.
NOTE: When making your own weapons, be sure to put primaries in the primaries section and secondaries in the secondary section.
$Name: The name of the weapon as it is referred to by other tables/programs.
All entries marked with '+' are for description only and have no effect on the game.
$End_multi_text: Used to define the end of a piece of text to long to fit on the same line as the entry.
$Model File: Defines the weapons POF file. only needed for 'hard weapons' ie. anything that isn't a bolt of energy
All entries preceded by @ are only needed if $Model File is set to NONE
@Laser Bitmap: The pcx file for the weapon. Don't know what the pcx file is for though. ***
@Laser Color: Defines the bolts color. Values used are for red, green and blue respectively.
@Laser Length: The length of the laser. don't know which units are used. ***
@Laser Head Radius: the radius of the bolt at its head.
@Laser Tail Radius: the radius of the bolt at its tail
$Mass: sets the weapons mass. The higher, the more the victims ship will bounce around. Set this to 3+ for the flail effect
$Velocity: the starting velocity of the weapon
$Fire Wait: Delay in seconds between firing 2 rounds of the weapon in non-linked status
$Damage: The damage the weapon does.
$Blast Force: How much you get shaken by the explosion. (missile only)
$Inner Radius: Radius at which damage is 100% (missile only)
$Outer Radius: Maximum radius where explosion does damage (missile only)
$Shockwave Speed: Speed at which the shockwave travels. 0 for no shockwave (missile only)
$Armor Factor: Damage multiplier versus hull
$Shield Factor: Damage multiplier versus shields
$Damage: Multiplier versus subsystems
$Lifetime: Time in seconds before the weapon dissipates
$Energy Consumed: Amount of weapon energy used when firing the weapon
$Cargo Size: Amount of space taken in ships missile banks. See the section on ships.tbl for the units.
$Homing: Whether or not the weapon has homing ability. Only works on missiles. The following entries preceded by '+' are only needed if homing is set to YES
+Type: HEAT or ASPECT
+Turn Time: Time in seconds the weapon needs to make a 360 degree turn
+Min Lock Time: Minimum time in seconds needed to obtain a lock
+Lock Pixels/Sec: Number of pixels to move per second while locking.
+Catch-up Pixels/Sec: Number of pixels to move per second while turning towards the target
+Catch-up Penalty: Extra Pixels to move when no longer turning towards target. The higher this is set, the more likely you are to "overshoot" your target when turning towards him.
$LaunchSnd, $ImpactSnd and $FlybySnd: The sounds the weapon makes when respectively launched, detonated, and passed by.
$Rearm Rate: number of missiles per second that are rearmed
$Flags: ( "FLAG1" "FLAG2" ) Flags need to be between " (don't know how to call this in English, sorry) and brackets have to be at beginning and end. *** ( how DO you call this: " ) Possible flags are:
"in tech database" Makes the description of the weapon available in the tech-room
"player allowed" Allows weapon to be fitted on player ships. Note that this only concerns Alpha, Beta and Gamma wing.
"puncture" Sets weapon as a puncture weapon. It will only do 75% damage against hull. I believe this is calculated before the armor modifier but I'm not sure. ***
"Big Ship" Sets weapon as a turret weapon. I haven't found a real use for this one yet. ***
"Huge" Not sure about this one either. Think it sets this weapon as an anti-capship weapon for the AI ***
"Bomb" Allows weapon to be targeted using the 'B' key (can only be used on missile weapons)
"No Dumbfire" Makes it impossible to fire the weapon without a lock (missiles only)
"Electronics" Gives the weapon the 'D-Missile' effect. (missiles only)
"Swarm" Weapon fires in packs of 4 instead of 1 by 1. (missiles only)
"Bomber+" No idea about this one, seems to be missile only though ***
"Spawn <missile type> #" spawns # missile of chosen type when the weapon explodes. (missiles only)
"Remote Detonate": Weapon will detonate if the secondary button is pressed again. Not used in the main campaign.
$Trail: Causes weapon to leave a trail of smoke if set to YES. The following entries preceded by '+' are only needed if $Trail is set to YES
+Head Width: Width of trail nearest to the missile
+Tail Width: Width of trail before it evaporates
+Life: Time in seconds before trail evaporates
+Bitmap: Bitmap used to draw trail
$Icon: Icon used for weapon during weapons loadout
$Anim: Animation used for weapon during weapons loadout
$Impact Explosion: Bitmap used to draw explosion
$Impact Explosion Radius: Size of the explosion
3. More on ships.tbl
All entries marked with a '+' are just used for description and have no effect on the game.
$Name: The name of the ship
$Short name: The name of the ship in FRED.
$Species: To what species the ship belongs. Don't know if this actually has any effect on the game.
All entries preceded by +: used to describe the ship. Has no effect on the game.
$End_multi_text: Marks the end of a long piece of text. Needed for every description that needs more than the line used by the entry.
$POF File: The file that contains the ships 3d model
$Detail distance: Sets the distances at which the detail level changes.
$Show damage: This defines whether or not the ship has a fiery trail when it is badly damaged.
$Density: It has something to do with collisions but I don't know what. Every ship has this set to 1 except the PVT Isis and the SB Nephilim, which have it set to 2. ***.
$Damp: This affects how fast your forward vector changes when you turn. example: If set to 0.0 you would immediately change course when you
turn. If set to 100.0 you would face the directing in which you turned but you would continue to move in your old vector.
$Rotdamp: How fast the ship reacts to your turning, the higher the slower.
$Max velocity: The maximum velocity. Has 3 numbers but I believe only the 3rd one works, since FS doesn't support sideways movement. ***
$Rotation time: The time in seconds it takes to make a 360 degree turn in the given direction. First is for pitch, second for heading and third for bank.
$Rear velocity: The max velocity in reverse thrust. Don't think this one is supported. ***
$Forward accel: The damp factor for forward acceleration. 0 means instantaneous, 100 means you don't really change speed.
$Forward decel: Same as accel but for deceleration.
$Slide accel and $Slide decel: Same as forward but for sideways movement. Think this is not supported. ***
$Expl entries: These deal with the explosions. Haven't figured them out yet. ***
Except for $Expl propagate: This sets if ship explodes like a cap-ship. Lots of smaller explosions before the big bang.
$Shockwave speed: Speed of the shockwave. Set this to 0 for no shockwave.
$Allowed PBanks: Sets which primaries the ship can carry. Refers to the weapons.tbl file. Use the same rules as for flags when setting this. NOTE: This refers to the name of the weapon, not the title used in the description.
$Default Pbanks: The default Pbanks to use for this ship.
$Allowed SBanks: Same as for Pbanks only for secondaries.
$Default Sbanks: Same as for Pbanks only for secondaries.
$Sbank capacity: How much missiles can be carried. 1 unit equals 1 hornet. NOTE: This is not a total value, but a separate value for each
Sbank.
$Shields: The damage the shields can take before collapsing. This is for 1 full charge.
$Power output: Energy/s produced by the ships reactor.
$Max oclk speed: Max speed when all energy is going to the engines.
$Max Weapon Eng: Maximum amount of weapon energy that can be stored.
$Hitpoints: The damage the ships hull can take.
$Flags: Same use as for weapons, only different entries. Possible flags are:
- "player_ship" Allows this ship as a player ship.
- "default_player_ship" This refers to FRED. Ships with this flag will be available on team loadout as a standard.
- "in_tech_database" Puts the ship description in the tech-room.
- "fighter" and "bomber" and "freighter" and "cargo" and "cruiser" and "capital" and "transport" and "sentrygun" and "escapepod" Don't know what these are for. I think they are for the AI somehow ***
- "repair_rearm" Means the ship can act as a support ship.
- "ship copy" Haven't figured this one out yet. Think it is used for ships that look the same but have different stats, like dragon, dragon#2 and dragon#3. ***
$AI Class: The default AI class for the ship.
$Afterburner: Whether or not the ship has afterburners. The values preceded by a + have to be present when afterburners are being used. otherwise delete or quote them.
+Aburn Max Vel: Same as $Max velocity but with afterburners.
+Aburn for accel: Same as $Forward accel but with afterburners.
+Aburn fuel: The amount of afterburner fuel that can be stored.
+Aburn Burn rate: Fuel/s consumed by afterburners.
+Aburn rec rate: Fuel/s recharged when engine energy set to normal.
$Countermeasures: # of countermeasures
$Scan time: Time in ??? it takes to scan the ship ***
$Enginesnd: The sound of the engine. Refers to the sounds.tbl file
$Closeup_pos: Defines where the camera is when looking at a close-up of the ship, like in the tech-room or in the target box in the HUD. Value is given in x,y,z where x=left,right y=up,down z=in,out. For this entry to function is its supposed to do, x and y need to be 0.
$Closeup_zoom: Defines the zoom factor of a close-up view. usually set to 0.5
$Shield_icon: This describes what icon to use to display the shields in the HUD.
$Ship_icon: The icon to use to display the ship in ship selection
$Ship_anim and: The animation used during ship selection
$Ship_overhead: The picture used to display the ship in HUD
$Score: Default score to award for killing the ship
$Subsystem: Used to describe the various subsystems, including turrets has 3 values. First is the name, 2nd is the % damage, and 3rd is rotation speed for turrets(same notation as for ship itself). Turrets also need a $Default Pbanks entry.
4. Walkthrough to Add Your Own Weapons
This will handle the basic steps to add your own weapons as player weapons.
First you have to make your own weapon. This is done by making a completely new entry in the weapons.tbl
Make sure all entries are present. Make sure you have the "player allowed" flag set.To create your own icons, first use VPView to extract
the IconGun01.ani file from the main FS VP. Use AC to convert it to a bunch of .pcx files. Then use Paint Shop or a similar program to design your own icon. Remember to save to a different filename. NOTE: You need to use the EXACT same palette used by the original icons. Use AC to convert the .pcx files to .ani format and put the .ani file in your DATA \ INTERFACE directory. Edit the weapons.tbl and set the $Icon entry to IcongunXX where XX is the number of the .ani file you used.
Next open the ships.tbl and pick the ships you want to be able to use the new weapons. Go to their $Pbank allowed or $Sbank allowed entries (depending on whether its a primary or secondary weapon) and add your new weapon to the list.
Finally, use FRED to create a mission and make sure your new weapon is allowed in the team loadout.
Back to FS1 MODing
