Conversions

[BIOMECH]

Under the guidance of hellfy and supreme I've been trying out unreal conversions in something closer to the MHM style, somewhere between DK and spam. I add none or very few extra monsters, but they have double health, triple melee and a better projectile. I've also been cleaning the maps up a bit by removing those pointless flares and dispersion powerups that tend to litter other conversions.

I have a couple of maps that are just about done except for a couple of things...
Yes, here we go...

Spawned enemies, such as those summoned by an alarm, don't benefit from the modifications given to their friends. It's not a big problem, but it does ruin the theme if some monsters have boosts and others don't.

The other thing is that monster's melee attacks are unpredictable to say the least. Sometime a manta will do 1 damage, and sometimes about 80, even though I set both to 60. Brutes and tentacles don't do anything in melee, regardless of the numbers I set their attacks to, and as for the Skaarj...Despite being set to 42, their claws do nothing, while their 48 damage spin attacks inflict heavy damage and often kill me instantly. I know the Hardcore game setting will be causing the high damage ratings, but the times where they do 1 or nothing are just wrong.

So on the bright side, unreal conversions somewhere between too easy and spam do exist! On the dark side, the monsters don't share statistics like they should. Despite a complete lack of good reasons to do this, I decided to make a post instead of asking on MSN. The community deserves to know!

[gopostal]

The MH mod adjusts monster damages:

Code: Select all

function SetPawnDifficulty( int Diff, ScriptedPawn S )
{
	local int DiffScale;

	switch (Diff)
	{
		case 0:
			DiffScale = 80;
			break;
		case 1:
			DiffScale = 90;
			break;
		case 2:
			DiffScale = 100;
			break;
		case 3:
			DiffScale = 110;
			break;
		case 4:
			DiffScale = 120;
			break;
		case 5:
			DiffScale = 130;
			break;
		case 6:
			DiffScale = 140;
			break;
		case 7:
			DiffScale = 150;
			break;
	}
	S.Health = (S.Health * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.SightRadius = (S.SightRadius * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.Aggressiveness = (S.Aggressiveness * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.ReFireRate = (S.ReFireRate * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.CombatStyle = (S.CombatStyle * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.ProjectileSpeed = (S.ProjectileSpeed * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.GroundSpeed = (S.GroundSpeed * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.AirSpeed = (S.AirSpeed * DiffScale) / 100;
	S.WaterSpeed = (S.WaterSpeed * DiffScale) / 100;

	if (S.IsA('Brute'))
		Brute(S).WhipDamage = (Brute(S).WhipDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Gasbag'))
		Gasbag(S).PunchDamage = (Gasbag(S).PunchDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Titan'))
		Titan(S).PunchDamage = (Titan(S).PunchDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Krall'))
		Krall(S).StrikeDamage = (Krall(S).StrikeDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Manta'))
		Manta(S).StingDamage = (Manta(S).StingDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Mercenary'))
		Mercenary(S).PunchDamage = (Mercenary(S).PunchDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Skaarj'))
		Skaarj(S).ClawDamage = (Skaarj(S).ClawDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Pupae'))
		Pupae(S).BiteDamage = (Pupae(S).BiteDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Queen'))
		Queen(S).ClawDamage = (Queen(S).ClawDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Slith'))
		Slith(S).ClawDamage = (Slith(S).ClawDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	if (S.IsA('Warlord'))
		Warlord(S).StrikeDamage = (Warlord(S).StrikeDamage * DiffScale) / 100;
	
	if (S.Shadow == None)
		S.Shadow = Spawn(class'MonsterShadow', S);
}

If this looks obtuse, take the warlord line right above here. It's saying:
The warlord's strike damage is now: (normal strike damage <times> the diffscale) and all this divided by 100.

In a nutshell you can end up with negative damage meaning it won't hurt you, and massive positive damage in certain situations, depending on stuff like monster drawscale.

In short, changes in ed will almost never convert exactly into a map.

[BIOMECH]

Rats.

Does diffscale mean the creature's size or the changes I made to it? I was wondering if I could get around it by using the right damage number.

14 multiplied by whatever the diffscale is...such as...50? So that's 700...Would that mean the creature would do 7 damage?
If I wanted it to deal 36...Then could I set it to 72? But then why don't myy....errr..

Aaaaaaaa!
Oh man, I'm out of my depth here. The idea was just to have some fun conversions for the server, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Considering my lack of solid technical skills in any game, I'm probably beaten.

I'll still make the maps if just for the singleplayer, but getting them added to the server suddenly seems difficult, especially now we've met 3s coop server. Okay, enough of my pessismist ramblings, thanks for the explanation

[gopostal]

DiffScale is set by the mh.ini. You see the line setting the difficulty level? Thats what sets the stage for this set of adjustments.

3 is a heck of a guy. Tell him I said hello and to stop by. I'd like to talk to him.

[Fuzz_Ball]

What is this DiffScale of which you speak?
I searched my ini files for anything containing DiffScale and found nothing.
It would be nice if I can find this DiffScale and experiment with it.

[gopostal]

See the setting for MonsterSkill= in your ini? This controls the switch for the DiffScale. Now when Shrimp made MH he never accounted for mappers screwing with the drawscale (making monsters larger than normal). This has all kinds of consequences and can directly impact the sliding scale of damages and adjustments MH will do if you alter that setting.

It's best to leave that alone and adjust using an outside mutator like the StrongMonsters mod. Otherwise you could get into situations where monsters cannot hurt you or have other zero settings.

[BIOMECH]

Oh I'm going to try again.

I'm not changing their size or anything, I really am just doing 'Select All' on a monster and giving it double health, triple melee, and a differant ranged projectile.

3 is a heck of a guy. Tell him I said hello and to stop by. I'd like to talk to him.

Will do!

[gopostal]

B, I know you have the best of intentions here but PLEASE don't do this. It's just going to create map confusion and it is not going to work the way you want it to. If you were going to run an unmodded MH server, this could work but any UTJ based server mod is going to screw this so badly it will not be what you want at all. Not to mention there will be all these new versions of the same maps floating around.

This can easily be done via mod and I'd suggest you pursue that route. I'll help if you need it.

[BIOMECH]

B, I know you have the best of intentions here but PLEASE don't do this. It's just going to create map confusion and it is not going to work the way you want it to.

Again, will do...

This can easily be done via mod and I'd suggest you pursue that route. I'll help if you need it.

Well, I'm so unskilled and, let's be honest, generally lazy, that that's unlikely to work out.

Just for single player fun and/or editing practice I'll keep up with it, but I won't press on with the fully working or balanced versions for the server. Let's say I gave up, but the idea still appeals to me as a personal project.