After getting quite a few requests to help with code that I have come to accept as basics I decided it would be easier to just write tutorial.

This tutorial covers the following areas:
-Basic Setup of the Mod's Folder Structure
-Disection & Discription of most lines in the Blueprint File
-How to Modify Existing Units & Projectiels
-How to Create a New Unit (Step by Step)
-How to Create a New Weapon/Projectile
-How to Create a New Beam Cannon
-Packaging Instructions for distribution

This tutorial also comes with the following:
-mod_info.lua (Sample file for new modders w/ link for UID Generation)
-blankweapons.lua (weapons.lua file with all the locals needed for weapon creation)
-blankprojectiles.lua (same as blankweapons but for projectiles)
-blankdefaultcollisionbeams.lua (same as previous blanks)

This tutorial is 40 pages long and consists of 11,194 words. Do not be alarmed by this. And to think I wrote this in two days. Got bored at work lol.

I guess by now everyone wants to know where they can download it right? Well here it is.
http://www.hyperimpact.net/downloads/SupComModTutorial.zip

Tutorial is originally written in Microsoft Word however I included an RTF (Rich Text Format) file for those who do not make use of Microsoft products to view text/image combunation files.

sweet, no my mini-s can have proper projectiles, you done really good with this thing buddy.

thanks, now I can make some custom projectiles that actually work.

Wow, that must have been a lot of work! This really is worth a sticky. Cudos, big thanks and a virtual beer for you, Exavier Macbeth!

Nice job, thats a lot of stuff in there.

very good tutorial but why are you using notepad?

For those who do not have WORD, here is the official freeware WORD-Viewer from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

By the way, some pointers of things that youve said you dont know:

"Damage is how much damage is done to the target when it hits. Damage Radius is the splash damage that is caused. DamageType, well can't say much I have only seen it as Normal."

The other type is Overcharge. Overcharge against ACU's is the ONLY example of the armor system being used. It occurs nowhere else in the vanilla game. I think there is also Light damage, but the thing is that all of the damage types do 100% damage (not more or less) against all the armor types, except Overcharge vs Command.

"FiringTolerance = 2,

Firing Randomness deals with the inaccuracy of the weapon over longer ranges. FireingTolerance is used as a firing assist system that allows the weapon to fire before it’s perfectly lined up on the target. I believe it is there to assist slower tracking turrets in being able to shoot properly."

O (or one of the other mods here) said that this is used for artillery and its a judge of how close it has to be before it has fully aimed at its target. This means that for a weapon with a certain FiringRandomness, it could still hit the target if it isnt properly lined up and as such could be firing.

"VerticalOffset allows you to adjust where the center of the shield is, this just helps with centering of the shield on the unit (as the bubble is a sphere)."

Just some clarification: All shields need a VerticalOffset to be on the ground, otherwise the sphere is slightly raised and you get it curving inwards at the bottom on flat terrain, which is obviously not much use. So, the shield is NOT centered on the unit, thats done already, but Offset is used to make it centered on the ground instead of in the air. You could raise this to make the shields levitate.

"Description = '<LOC uea0102_desc>Interceptor',

This is essentially the unit’s description. The link code points to another file where the full in game description is stored."
Actually, the LOC file is simply to do with what language the game is installed in. The string after that is simply a backup plan. As people release mods mainly in English, this doesnt actually need filling in except with a basic string.

"TechLevel is a rule set of some form for the unit for which I have only really seen Basic, Secret, & Experimental."
Basic = T1. Advanced = T2. Secret = T3. Experimental .. yeah. I don't know why its here either since the Tech level is already given in the Categories section.

"First the Category, Honestly I never looked at this section and just duplicated what was there on similar units. Classification again I duplicated from similar units so I am not sure what it’s used for. "
I believe that the Category here is just a generic category used for the unit and is a general description of what it does. Unlike the previous categories, it is unique and mainly used by the AI I think. Same for Classification.

Double post.

Did I say I love you Exavier?

Exactly what I was searching yesterday =)

Alright You Mods and Admins, now you have no excuses!

Give this guy an award Already!

Many thanks Exavier Macbeth, you given the Modding Community a huge boost.

Mike

There is a armour system? , I was vaguely wondering about whether one could be added in a mod but are you telling me that it is already there but is unused?

Great work Exavier!THANKS!!!!DamageType is if you want to affect a unit in a certain way.LIke stun for example,DamageType = Normal,affects all units.And thanks again Exavier,I vote we should all request a rank promotion for him for this.

That isnt true PureVenom, the stun is used via the Buffs system which is due an overhaul, the armor system is purely % damage increase or decrease.

Thanx guys. Good to know it turned out well. I tend to end up in ramble fits during long typing projects so I wasn't sure if it would be understandable

@ Saya: lmfao whats wrong with notepad? Just an old habit really.

@ Aralez: hehe nice link. Though there is an RTF version in the zip. Its a little bigger but its supported by alot more reader programs than a DOC file

@ Disto: There is an armor system though it doesn't get used too much. All aircraft usually have Light armor, everything else has Normal. I gave my Wildfire Tank heavy just out of curiosity, I don't see much noticable difference so it may be just leftover code a modder can manipulate if they want to.

@ DeadMG: Thanx for the comments. I may do an updated version later on (after I get over the shock of typing it to begin with). Though one I did want to point out. My Discription for FireingTolerance was actually a reworded version of what I read in the GPG Tip Thread dealing with weapons properties. Its basicly how I understand it. And actually I have actually seen this ingame when changing the tolorance to higher levels

Not true. UnitWeight is (I think) used for calculations used for physics-based movements of units, such as putting a force on a unit when it gets hit by a shell.

CapCost is the cost to the Population Count. It's only used for the walls, so you might have missed it.


Also not true. These only affect the size of the collision box, thus why you have to change them when you change UniformScale.

The effect of armor on different damage types is defines in /lua/armordefinition.lua. The only only one that is actually used is commander and that is to stop a person from overcharging an enemy commander. You can change the values if you want.

Stun is buried in the buff section of code. It is actually referred to as a debuff in the code.

Stickied.

wow, this is fantastic. Thanks for all your hard work, it will most definitely help the supcom modding community grow.

Hehe I don't think it saved

I meant it was added to the primary "Useful info" sticky.

I can't find the thread where I read this, but I distinctly recall a GPG dev saying that UnitWeight was used by the AI to determine threat positions or some such, and that all units were set to 1 since they never got that portion completely integrated before release.

Very good tutorial.
If you want to make another tutorial, make it. It will be excellent for sure.

if you'd like, i can put this online in html form, on my site, along with namrog's old unit tutorial and some others. let me know.

http://solfire.com/~iii_demon/supcom/supcommod.html

Just a little bump to get this back up to the first page

Als to let everyone know that after the next release of my mod I am gona come back to this and give it a good revising. I have a few corrections to make as well as some new content to add to it.

@ III_Demon: Your welcome to convert it to html format if you really want to. I released it in this format because I am treating this like my mod... an ongoing project untill I move on to another game. So everytime I learn something new thats relevent I add it to a list for inclusion the next time i revise the thing

This format also allows me to package helper files & examples if i need to and makes sure they are easy to find