Mechstorm: Getting None Functional Vehicles to work in MP

Getting Vehicles that didn't used to work working.

Based in Mercs Vehicles, untested with MW4 or BK.

Ok, to get working tanks in MP is actually quite simple. This method also works to make planes taxi on the ground, but I still haven't figured out how to make them work in the air. I think an airdata grid is needed, but I have no idea how to generate one.

Here's the rundown. You must first start with a vehicle that works in MP, such as the Harasser (you can use other vehicles like the bus, which will look really funny--try modding it to a tank via my instructions for a good laugh), and attach a finished script to it. Close the editor before moving to the next phase.

Open the .contents file for your map, and scroll down the the vehicles section, and start editing lines of your Harraser entry. Most of the time, doing this causes the editor to crash when you rebuild the mission, but I've found certain combination that work.

Armature=vehicles\magi_tank\magi_tank.contents
Subsystems=vehicles\magi_tank\magi_tank.subsystems
DamageObjects=vehicles\demolisher2\demolisher2.damage

This resulted in a Harasser armed with the magi weaponry (2 LL and 2 machine guns, compared to the Harassers 3-SRM4's), which had the damage resistance of the Demolisher tank (it took 3 ERPPC bolts to destroy instead on 1).

The really interesting part is by adding the Armature line (a necessity as otherwise the editor will build the mission fine, but the game will crash when the modded vehicle tried to fire), the Harasser looks just like the Magi tank, but still performs like the Harasser!

I've done further mods, based sorely on the car, boxvan, and bus vehicles, all of which we know work in MP. I started out by adding the following lines to the these 3 vehicle objects in the .contents file:

Armature=vehicles\demolisher2\demolisher2.contents
Subsystems=vehicles\demolisher2\demolisher2.subsystems
DamageObjects=vehicles\demolisher2\demolisher2.damage

The modded vehicles retain their original size model. I found that when shooting at the modified car, my shots would past right through much of the vehicle with no damage, unless I aimed dead center at the vehicle, and thus hit the space occupied by the car model itself. The boxvan and bus have the same problem, but since those models are larger than the car, it's less pronounced. Ironically, the bus--the largest of the 3 vehicles and thus ideal for this type of mod--does not translate well. I've attached a pic--the tank on the left is a modded boxvan, which looks identical to the demolisher. You can see what the modded bus looks like on the right: a combination of the bus and demolisher. This is due to the bus model being longer than the demolisher model. However, the structure itself doesn't look that odd--you could redo the bus texture and append a new one, so it should blend quite well.

Another point is that the destoyed vehicle reverts back to its original model--thus, destroying the modded boxvan shows a boxvan wreckage. Not a big deal in my mind, but something to keep in mind. It appears that as long as the model data in the contents file is left alone, the game sees the vehicles as the unmodded versions, as the movement of my modded vehicles remains true to the model I'm editing. Thus, my new bus-tank moves rather slowly, and my modded Harasser tanks perform like hovercrafts. I was able to do this with any military vehicle: simply add the appropriate lines from the vehicle I wanted (myrmidon, demolisher, bulldog, quad panzer) to the basic car, boxvan or bus data.

There are 3 additional things I'll point out:

1) The modded car, boxvan and bus were not as deadly in MP as they were in SP; they didn't attack as often as they did in SP. Path-finding and navigation seemed about the same.

2) The damage indicators for the vehicles don't register properly. It's actually no worse than the Hrothgar or Talon objects in MP, but the problem does exist.

3) There is a moments pause when a modded vehicle takes enough damage to be destroyed. I don't mean the vehicle stops, or lag occurs, it just seems that it takes a moment after the 'death-shot' has been delivered for the destruction to occur on client-side. The modded vehicle does not attack during this pause, however.

Interestingly, the modded Harasser does not suffer from any of these problems. I suspect these problems stem from me converting non-military vehicles into military vehicles So the next step is for me to identify what other military vehicles I can successfully mod, although I don't know when I'll have the time, as I'm working on a textures and audio mod for MP2.1a.