Messages

And here we go, the Puma sprited up:

Looks great.

With the Puma done, there's now a sprite for every mecha that has an in-game portrait. 

1. How do you use the loadscreens? do I need to update a file somewhere with the new screen filename?

The load screen only appears when starting a new campaign.

The game searches the image directory for files with the format 'poster_*.*' and loads one at random.

If you name your image something like poster_puma_by_kete.png, then it will show up in-game (for testing purposes, you might want to move or rename the other poster images to make sure that yours is the one that appears).

After some testing, it appears that the alpha channel causes a graphical glitch. Removing the alpha channel or saving the image as a .jpg like GH2's other poster images fixes the issue.

2. My contribution:

Wow, that Puma is a sexy beast! 

This is probably what I remember, but I'm almost certain there's another one with a pixie or something with wings...

Joseph Hewitt has some good stuff in his GearHead photobucket: http://s137.photobucket.com/user/pyrrho12/library/GearHead?page=1

I think this is the Pixie sketch you were looking for. 



There's also a sketch of the Atgeir:



Francisco Munoz has some good stuff in his photobucket, too: http://s289.photobucket.com/user/fmunoz_geo/library/?page=1

For instance, this portrait for the Argos:

Say, could somebody host and post the Chimentero sprite?

Also, you can grab the Chimentero sprite off SharkD's Graphics set.

It is also included in the GH2 image archive at Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gearhead2/files/gearhead2/0.628/gh2-0628-image.zip/download

A lot of the Gearhead Mecha look rather lame with only their neutral standing pose. Hopefully in the future gearhead can be coded with minor animated sprites.

Animated sprites would be so cool! I agree that a lot of GearHead's mecha sprites do look kind of mannequin-esque, but I prefer the ready-for-action poses that you and Kete have been using for mecha over the in-the-middle-of-an-action pose used for the Mebsy. I think it would just look weird to be walking around in the spinners with a Mebsy that is frozen in a perpetual firing stance.

We're running out of mecha with portraits, though.  I think there's only a couple left.

Which ones are left? The Puma and Secutor?

It doesn't have an in-game portrait, but Joseph Hewitt has also drawn the Bargol:
 

Awesome! Between Kete and Phil the mecha of GH2 are really coming together! 

In the meantime here's the Mebsy sprite set, and I've updated my post on the previous page with the updates too

I really like the Mebsy sprite, but its pose much more aggressive than any of the other GH2 mecha sprites. Could you make a Mebsy sprite set where it is posed in more of a 'ready' stance like your other mecha? 

I couldn't find Badass defined anywhere in the source files. But then I realized that in the source it's called Rage. It acts as a modifier for combat skill rolls.

From ability.pp:

Code: [Select]

{ If this is a combat skill, check for RAGE. }
if ( Skill <= 10 ) and ( NAttValue( Master^.NA , NAG_Talent , NAS_Rage ) <> 0 ) then begin
Morale := NAttValue( Master^.NA , NAG_Condition , NAS_MoraleDamage );
if Morale > 0 then begin
SkRk := SkRk + Morale div 20;
end else if Morale < -20 then begin
SkRk := SkRk - 2;
end;
end;
If your Morale Damage is a positive number, then divide it by 20 (rounding down) and that's your skill bonus. I'm not sure, but if Morale Damage maxes out at 100 like reputations do, then that would be a max skill bonus of 5 (and you still suffer all the penalties for being in a bad mood). 

If your Morale Damage is less than -20 (you're in a good mood), then it gives you a -2 skill penalty. 

I made a quick fix to better fit into the sprite sizes.  I used the cha_m_citizen sprite for size reference.

Thanks!

A new sprite as well.  Adventurer/Mechanic I think.

Have I mentioned that you are totally awesome? Because you are. 

These are really cool. 

But the last 3 sprites are significantly larger than the first meganeko sprite. Will they look like giants in-game? 

However, I do like diversity in mecha design and the mech does make sense in story. So rather than delete this mech, the rules should probably be fixed so that artillery pods can do things mounting points can't.

Storage modules already have a couple of rules that make them different from mounting points:

1. Storage modules get a +2 bonus to armor rating.

2. Damage dealt to storage modules doesn't carry through to overkill. The module can be blown off without affecting the structural integrity of the whole.

In a game where half of everything looks like a Buru Buru, I'm not that picky. I went through a while back and made the Chimentero use the Radcliff sprite just so I'd know "That is a big powerful mecha I should pay attention to!" with one glance, for example.

There is a sprite for the Chimentaro in GH2.

If you're looking for mech graphics, it wouldn't hurt to go through GH2's image archive and see if there's anything worth borrowing.

Also, look around the GH1 images folder for monster_robot. As far as I know it's unused by the game, but it's really cool looking and begs to be used by some sort of badass mecha.

The game doesn't use it anywhere. It would be a shame to let the graphic go to waste.

* Can we make Garu Supersoldiers and Stone Dragons not look like generic blonde guys, without recompiling the game?

Of course.

The monster designs are all stored in WMONdefault.txt. Apparently the Stone Dragon was never assigned an SDL sprite. The Dune Dragon is probably the most similar creature and it uses:
sdl_sprite <monster_triceratops.png>
sdl_colors <160 130 90 240 190 100 51 90 161>

Since GARU SuperSoldiers are just humans who have been augmented with a performance-enhancing retroviral agent, they should probably look relatively normal. But if you want, you can go into ANPCdefault.txt, find the GARU code block, and assign them an sdl sprite.

The monster_garu sprite isn't used anywhere in the game, but it was probably intended for humans who have been completely transformed by the draconic complex contained in the GARU serum.

* Can I modify TS_Story_RobotWarriors to make it harder at the top end?

By my calculations, Robot Warriors would take around 40 victories to max out the difficulty, where the opposition would have a PV of 216,750,000 .

If you can already handle that much PV, I don't know if upping the enemy PV will make it any harder.

* Why does PLOT_Justice never activate for my really really godlike character?

Well, there are criteria that must be met:

First the game has to find a Bounty Hunter who has a mecha and is Lawful. If there aren't any, or if the Bounty Hunters who would fit that criteria are all dead, then this plot will never activate.

If it does find a suitable Bounty Hunter, then the game checks your reputations:

1. The game picks a random number between 1 and 80. If your renown is greater than that number and if your Villainous rep is at least 10, then PLOT_Justice will activate and you will face a difficult battle (150% of normal renown-based PV).

2. The game picks a random number between 1 and 50. If you Chaotic rep is greater than that number, then PLOT_Justice will activate and you will face an easier battle (80% of normal renown-based PV).

If there is no suitable bounty hunter, or if you fail both of the above reputation checks, then PLOT_Justice won't activate.

That sprite doesn't look very helicoptery. I shrunk the Quetzal, let me know what you think.

I think your shrunken Quetzal (there's a joke in there somewhere ) looks more like a SF:1 helicopter than the aer_bee does. Good job!

Eh, I guess I'm just inordinately fond of energy weapons. I'm a Mecha Artillery fan, and much as I like a good cannon, I find the energy weapons tend to be more my style, with missiles for bombing runs.

When it comes to powering big energy weapons, High-Output engines* are much more useful than high class ones. Aside from the legendary Argoseyer, the best engine in the game is housed in the OvaKnight, which is constructed around a light spaceship engine to power its devastating core cannon.

*These are pretty rare and can only found in the Anubis (class 4), the Longman (class 5), the OvaKnight (class 7), and the Argoseyer (class 8 ).

It appears that the GHWiki pages documenting OverLoad were never archived on the Wayback Machine, so I'll do some code diving and see if I can explain how OverLoad works in GH1:

The OverLoad Capacity of a Mecha is equal to the Mecha Size multiplied by 10 (note: the Engine Class must be the same as Mecha Size, so this number will be the same as Engine Class times 10).

Mecha lose one point of power overload every 10 seconds.

OverLoad accumulates with every energy weapon (EMelee or BeamGun) attack and is calculated as follows:

1. OverLoad equals the weapon's Damage Class + Burst Value. (Since BV is added rather than multiplied, this makes Beamguns with BV rather energy efficient for their damage potential  )

2. If the weapon has the Hyper attribute, then OverLoad is multiplied by 3.

3. If the weapon has an area of effect (the Blast, Line, or Scatter attributes), then OverLoad is multiplied by 2.

4. If the Mecha's scale is greater than the weapon's scale (e.g. a SF:2 mecha firing a SF:1 beamgun), then OverLoad is divided by 4.

5. If the Mecha has a High-Output engine, then OverLoad is divided by 2. (This effectively doubles your engine class  )

6. The Mecha's Size (Engine Class) is subtracted from the OverLoad.

OverLoad Penalties:

If the accumulated OverLoad minus the OverLoad Capacity is greater than 10, then TR penalties equal to (OverLoad - OverLoad Capacity)  / 10 will be incurred.

If the accumulated OverLoad minus the OverLoad Capacity is greater than 14, then MV penalties equal to ((OverLoad - OverLoad Capacity) - 5) / 10 will be incurred.

and the Gladius is a Chimentero-like custom Savin, which means a Chimentero which acts like a Savin.

Aside from their Size and Gyro Class, they have almost nothing in common.

Technically, the Gladius is a custom upgraded Reaper Savin:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110702125256/http://gearheadrpg.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mecha:Gladius

I play GH1 with a modified version of TS_Story_RobotWarriors.txt so that the Gladius has the Savin sprite instead of the default BuruBuru sprite.

Awshit, it uses aer_bee.png, which isn't GearHead standard. I haven't the vaguest idea where I got it, to be honest, though it's GearHead material. Do you have that in your Images? If not, use the image for the Rover and just laugh at the flying cars.

aer_bee.png is a GH2 graphic, so it should just be a simple copy & paste (everyone has GH2 right?).

Alternatively, aer_drone.png which comes with GearHead is about the same size and shape as aer_bee.png, so it is a reasonable substitute.

Lessee if this works:
aer_bee.png

Works for me.

*raises eyebrows* Good point about wing armor. Now, aerofighter, hoverfighter, gerwalk, or ornithoid...? What is its role? Combat, surely, but why? We have the Wraith already for air superiority.
Assuming the Gigas is a bomber, do the FedTer have any dedicated bombers?

Addendum: I want to know how to justify this one because I'm genuinely interested. Pinnacle torsoes need only premises. This winged heavy needs a real raison d'etre.

Maybe a ground-attack aircraft, like the A-10 Thunderbolt II? They tend to be more heavily armored than other combat aircraft, since they are likely to face stronger low-level air defenses.

From Wikipedia:
"The A-10 is exceptionally tough. Its strong airframe can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm. The aircraft has triple redundancy in its flight systems, with mechanical systems to back up double-redundant hydraulic systems. This permits pilots to fly and land when hydraulic power or part of a wing is lost. Flight without hydraulic power uses the manual reversion flight control system; this engages automatically for pitch and yaw control, and under pilot control (manual reversion switch) for roll control. In manual reversion mode, the A-10 is sufficiently controllable under favorable conditions to return to base and land, though control forces are much higher than normal. The aircraft is designed to fly with one engine, one tail, one elevator, and half of one wing missing."

Thanks!