The Durango

[Quarto]

Jason, you might want to start by reading through this thread. Quite a bit of info in there. I'm not sure if it's all of the research I did - I could swear I looked a bit more into WC3 afterwards, but I wouldn't even know where to look for any notes I might have made...

(come to think of it, if you're gonna go any deeper into this, it might be a good idea to post your findings in that thread - sure, it's from 2006, but this way we can keep all the info in one place)

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Jason, you might want to start by reading through this thread. Quite a bit of info in there. I'm not sure if it's all of the research I did - I could swear I looked a bit more into WC3 afterwards, but I wouldn't even know where to look for any notes I might have made...

That thread was awesomely helpful. I never would have known the ship names (their purposes) or that the RPY settings were listed in a funky order.

(come to think of it, if you're gonna go any deeper into this, it might be a good idea to post your findings in that thread - sure, it's from 2006, but this way we can keep all the info in one place)

Well that kind of brings this all to a point. What am I doing exactly, and what do people want to know?

It seems to me that I can pull the "Core" value for capships out of the game, as well as the RPY settings, the shield and armor settings, and the speed settings. But things like Length and Mass aren't going to be found in these game files, and as you said in the other thread, aren't likely to be either.

1) So should I just focus on accumulating stats for ships missing from the Database so we can fill in the blanks?

2) Is there even a point since some of the data (Mass, Length) will be unattainable?

3) On that note, should I start another thread to accumulate this data in, rather then continue in this one (or in the 2006 one)?

4) Do we still want the values for ships that appear in multiple games (Like the Thunderbolt, which should have values form WC3 and WC4 and WCP)?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

1) So should I just focus on accumulating stats for ships missing from the Database so we can fill in the blanks?

No, we need all of them; the big issue is that the officially published stats are usually (if not always) different from the ones in the game. Hint books and manuals go to press months before the game ships... so much of the balancing process, which occurs late, isn't reflected.

2) Is there even a point since some of the data (Mass, Length) will be unattainable?

Yes - fields like these are entirely "fictional" and can be derived from manuals or prose without any ill effects. (Although it's possible the game does have data for length and mass, since both can affect how the game plays... in terms of how big a model appears and in terms of the effect a collision has.)

3) On that note, should I start another thread to accumulate this data in, rather then continue in this one (or in the 2006 one)?

That sounds reasonable.

4) Do we still want the values for ships that appear in multiple games (Like the Thunderbolt, which should have values form WC3 and WC4 and WCP)?

Yes -- and we need data for different versions in a single game, too. The best example of this is the Kilrathi "ace" fighters in Wing Commander III, which all have different specifications.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Yes - fields like these are entirely "fictional" and can be derived from manuals or prose without any ill effects. (Although it's possible the game does have data for length and mass, since both can affect how the game plays... in terms of how big a model appears and in terms of the effect a collision has.)

Well that brings up an interesting point - aren't much of the WC3 stats available in the Manual? Maybe I can work from those (Don't worry, I have Victory Streak!) to determine which values in the game correspond to things like mass and length. If I understand you, some of these things won't translate directly to values in game, but if I can even find one that's the same...

That sounds reasonable.

Okay, new thread coming up as soon as I have something to report.

Yes -- and we need data for different versions in a single game, too. The best example of this is the Kilrathi "ace" fighters in Wing Commander III, which all have different specifications.

I would imagine this is doubly true for a game like WC4 - which likely has Confederation versions carrying different armament from the BW version.

 

[Quarto]

Well that brings up an interesting point - aren't much of the WC3 stats available in the Manual? Maybe I can work from those (Don't worry, I have Victory Streak!) to determine which values in the game correspond to things like mass and length. If I understand you, some of these things won't translate directly to values in game, but if I can even find one that's the same...

Yes, they are - but they are not necessarily the same as in the game, for the reasons explained by LOAF.

Even when they do seem identical, you can't take them for granted. Take for example YPR - is this data really stored in a different order in the game, or did some programmer simply enter the data in the wrong order for the Dralthi? The latter is definitely a possibility, it's the kind of error that would be very difficult to catch in a non-flyable ship. So, you need to compare it against other ships, and even when they all seem to have the data stored as RPY, you'd be best off testing this by modifying a flyable ship with extreme values.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Well that brings up an interesting point - aren't much of the WC3 stats available in the Manual? Maybe I can work from those (Don't worry, I have Victory Streak!) to determine which values in the game correspond to things like mass and length. If I understand you, some of these things won't translate directly to values in game, but if I can even find one that's the same...

Certainly use the manuals as a guide for finding where the information is, but be aware that it won't necessarily be the same. Another good guide is the game itself, for figuring out things like weapons -- if we know what guns a Thunderbolt actually has, you can use that as a basis for figuring out the guns on a Dralthi and so forth.