a million questions, mostly related to overshields

Zanno · Post by **Zanno** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:21 pm

hello, i'm new to the scene and have done some romhacking in the past, so i'm not completely clueless. i've figured out a lot of stuff on my own, got the carbine shooting needler bursts and figured out how to edit the item spawns, but there are some things i'm still stuck on. i didn't post this in the newbie forum because i'm not completely clueless - i just need to be pointed in the right direction.

1) where's the value for ammo in ammo boxes hiding?
2) is it possible to remove or adjust the overshield bleedoff in multi? is it stored in global game constants somewhere, or is it specific to the item?
3) is it also possible to adjust how long it takes for your shield to regenerate?
4) the fact that i can't pick up an overshield until mine is completely run out is getting really annoying. any ideas for a fix?
4) is it possible to adjust how much shield you spawn with. i'd like to be able to spawn with overshield, but not have it regenerate?
5) what about the amount of overshield it grants you?

if i can do the above, i'm planning on making a Yellow OS with one bar, and a Red OS with two bars (or three if i can push it even higher), so we have tiered armors like quake. if i can only adjust the time it takes to regenerate, then i'd like to turn spawn overshield on, readjust the weapon balance, and make the overshields on map more like health packs

6) i've noticed that some of the things i attempt to edit are overwritten by autoupdates. does anyone have a list of what the new values are, or a program that can edit the autoupdate patches themselves?
7) what's the path to the campaign map with the fuel rod gun in it?

what exactly do all the damage types do? i can't figure out the differences between the explosive types
9) in my mod, i made the speed higher, but it makes the lunge on the sword and fist very unreliable. i heard there's a mod called halo 2:ce which removed the zoom. where's the offset for the values for speed/range hiding? if i can only remove it, instead of make it higher, that's okay too
10) i'm using insolence, i saw this xml posted in the files forums but it only works in ADI

<struct name="Scenario" size="992" info="">
<struct name="Collections" offset="288" size="144" info="Respawning objects.">
<value class="" name="Object Type" offset="20" type="short" info="" />
<value class="" name="Collection" offset="0x58" type="dependency" info="" />
<value class="" name="Object Properties" offset="0x0" type="enum16" info="Object Properties">
<option name="Default?" value="0" />
<option name="Suspended" value="1" />
<option name="Vehicle?" value="2" />
</value>
<value class="" name="Spawn one at a time" offset="18" type="enum16" info="">
<option name="No" value="0" />
<option name="Yes" value="1" />
</value>
<value class="" name="Respawn Time" offset="0x0e" type="short" info="" />
<value class="" name="Disappear Time" offset="0x10" type="short" info="" />
<value class="" name="X" offset="64" type="float" info="" />
<value class="" name="Y" offset="68" type="float" info="" />
<value class="" name="Z" offset="72" type="float" info="" />
<value class="" name="Yaw" offset="76" type="float" info="" />
<value class="" name="Pitch" offset="80" type="float" info="" />
<value class="" name="Roll" offset="84" type="float" info="" />
</struct>
</struct>

the formatting and way the offsets are formatted is different in insolence . i tried to convert it myself, and corrupted the map instead. could someone convert this over to an insolence plugin for me, or should i just use a different editor?

Zanno · Post by **Zanno** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:17 pm

cookiecutter · Post by **cookiecutter** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:40 am

i believe all the ammo stuff is stored in the weap tag for the weapon ur editing near the bottom under "clip". (you have to click that and chose clip 0 to make changes).as for the overshield stuff, it would be n the overshields tag but i dunno what that is. ive nvr edited the overshield but there may be a "bleed" depency u can null out and u could probly change the time of the overshield in the tag editor once u found it.

Zanno · Post by **Zanno** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:57 am

i found out the ammo box size is just equal to one clip, but then i also discovered the ammo boxes are really ugly and hard to tell apart, so i just replaced the boxes with their respective weapons again. it was a nice idea, but it'd require me to inject some new models (which i do not wish to deal with)

i'd still like to know what the new values in the patch data are, so i can can delete the autoupdates off my xbox and mod them in myself

if nobody knows about the overshield, oh well. plasma weapons are so powerful on my map that getting OS has turned out to be little more than a license to spawn kill.

my map has made a lot of progress since i first posted this thread, but i've hit two more walls.

1) the fact that i cannot mod frag grenades at all is pissing me off. i try changing bounce, explosion radius, damage, nothing works. does anyone know if there's a way to modify which projectile tag is thrown, so i can just duplicate something else and modify that instead? i was able to do this as a workaround for other values overridden by patches, but nades work different than weapons

2) i'm still looking for a fix to the sword. i've ended up toning down the damage and turning it into a secondary spawn weapon, because the only way to connect with it is to get someone pinned in a corner, or catch them from behind - it's so easy to sidestep. i need the force the sword sends you forward increased, but this value doesn't seem to be located in the weap or jpt! tags at all.

is there some way to backtrack this sort of stuff that i have not stumbled into yet short of going wild in a hex editor? does anyone know a good site that has extensive documentation on what appears to do what? i found one in google cache, but the full site was gone. even if half of them are still unknown, at least it will give me a starting point

i don't want to do all the work over again if someone's already done it

Snaku · Post by **Snaku** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:43 pm

If the autoupdate is pissing you off that much, you should just delete it and add the dlc maps to your mainmenu.map. Or, you can go to xbins and get the ap that lets you select update on or off.
1. I think getting rid of the AU will fix the first problem.
2. I'm not positive, but I think the lunging distance is contained in the bipd tag for each character. At least for the regular melee. The sword is probably different. Just had a thought. Try decreasing the aquire target distance for the sword. If it can't acquire, it shouldn't make you lunge.

Zanno · Post by **Zanno** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:36 am

snaku wrote:If the autoupdate is pissing you off that much, you should just delete it and add the dlc maps to your mainmenu.map. Or, you can go to xbins and get the ap that lets you select update on or off.
1. I think getting rid of the AU will fix the first problem.
2. I'm not positive, but I think the lunging distance is contained in the bipd tag for each character. At least for the regular melee. The sword is probably different. Just had a thought. Try decreasing the aquire target distance for the sword. If it can't acquire, it shouldn't make you lunge.

I want to make it lunge MORE. Increasing the acquire range didn't do anything.

I don't want to get rid of the autoupdate until I know what the autoupdate is changing. Can any of you people read?

joeschmoe · Post by **joeschmoe** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:19 pm

Zanno wrote: Can any of you people read?

What does that say??

Hey no need to be a a$$hole about it, snaku was just trying to help.

n00b

btw, maybe its not US PEOPLE who cant read, because everybody else at halomods understands each other, maybe its just your typing skills

hellknight · Post by **hellknight** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:20 am

The AU has changed the sword lunge distance so cheaters couldnt fly around the map like gods in this game remove the AU and then u can have your cheat swords

Theshadow18 · Post by **Theshadow18** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:57 am

not sure about this but when i edited the plasma grenade in tag editor to make it have a 2 minute wait before it blows up, i tried it and nothing changed. I left it as is and played another game for a while then came back to play the same mod and the plasma grenade worked. I think u have to clear your cache for any grenade changes exept for if u change the projectile of them.
To change the proj of agrenade look in the dependancies of the matg tag

Zanno · Post by **Zanno** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:00 pm

TheShadow18 wrote:not sure about this but when i edited the plasma grenade in tag editor to make it have a 2 minute wait before it blows up, i tried it and nothing changed. I left it as is and played another game for a while then came back to play the same mod and the plasma grenade worked. I think u have to clear your cache for any grenade changes exept for if u change the projectile of them.
To change the proj of agrenade look in the dependancies of the matg tag

thanks

does anyone know exactly what values the patch changed on the frag grenades? the way they bounce makes me sad >:|