New World Owner Help Manual Project. (Writers required!)

[Mit]

Helloo.. I'm havin another run at doin a new, comprehensive world owners user manual. (In light of the new settings descriptions and various new features, the old manual is mostly redundant, and the knowledgebase needs a rearrangement of topics.)
These things take ages to write from scratch, so Im hoping that people here will help by contributing text for some of the sections - and probably the easiest way of arranging that is if you can reply to this thread with any text you think should be included.. Copy & pastes from existing guides is fine, providing the info is utd and relevant.

As the in-game settings descriptions make a reference manual less useful, this manual should be aimed more at 'How-to' descriptions of each subject, rather than just lists of settings values.

Soo.. if you know a bit about setting up a world and are willing to help others by sharing your knowledge, choose a subject (or subjects) from this list and post a reply with the description that should go in the manual - I'll edit and add any bits as necessary (so if you're unsure on any details just fill out what you know and ill do the rest), and once a subject has been covered i'll remove it from this list.
In an ideal world in a week's time we'll have 100 replies to this thread, each with useful help text to include, and we'll all have a nice new world owners manual to use..
( More likely, of course, we just get 2 off-topic replies and i'll be cursing the feckin lot of ya :] )

Ok.. here's the current subject list... Any contributions will be much appreciated.

- Introduction
Overview
Installation & Setup
Step by Step - First world walkthrough (Done by Mit)
- Gameplay
Overview
Cash
Kudos
Teams
Damage
World Map
Player levels
Default Vehicles
Spawn Zones
Surface Properties
Subgames -- Hornball, ultrakricket, robocrows, CTF, racing, bongosquares, Fishing
Fixed rewards
Trigger buildings
End Sequences - (Done by Mit)
Gameplay items
Skills
Skill progression
Marketstalls
Health, Hunger & Thirst
Map Vehicles
Families
Default Inventory
Player Buildings
- Appearance
Overview
Welcome screens
Change camera views
Models
Change vehicle models - (Done by socom)
Change building models
Landscape Overview - (Done by Mit)
Terrain editor
Auto-terrain gen - (Done by Mit)
Texmaps
Surfaces
Rendering modes
Surface Environment Properties
Sky
Fogging
Sea
Walls
Background models
Trees
Map Objects
Engine Noises - done by fooli
-Controls
Overview
Change camera views - vehicle, robocrow
vehicle control modes
Change vehicle control settings
Change robocrow control settings
Damage
Collisions
- Economy
Overview
Basics
Theory
Health, Hunger & Thirst
Long-term / short-term
Items
Treasury
Families
Taxes
Building Efficiency
Wages
- Buildings
Overview
Building Types
Production buildings
Building editor
Build Zones
Building Tech Levels
Interiors
Towns
- Weaponry
Overview
Weapon control modes
Weapon objects
Weapon script parameters
Weapon Surface Properties
Changing weapon graphics - (Done by Fooli)
- Downloadable Content
Overview
Models & textures
Sound Selector
Building sounds
Radio - (Copied from knowledgebase)
Books + Background text
Newspaper
Web Browser
Audio Messages
Reference -
Items list
Skills list
Building Types (Done by Mit)
Commands list
Appendix
Map editing commands
Server maintenance commands
Economy pitfalls
Running a game server
World promotion

[Magicfinger]

Commands

still a couple of recent ones to add / remove

http://www.theuniversal.net/knowledge/commands.htm

(sheet 3 is the best one)

[mystixs]

WOW Thats alot wish I could help but I dont see anything I can do to help.

[socom]

Heightmaps- I don't know how well some of you understand this but it took me a while to understand when I first got a world. A height map is something you make outside of the universal. It will determine the landscape of your worlds map. First you'll obviously need to make one. You can make one in Microsoft paint PSP, or even hand draw it with a pencil if you have a scanner or a digital camera. You'll want to make one in grey-scale. Which means don't use any colors that aren't grey black or white. It is VERY important that you make sure the heightmap is a 256x256 bitmap image. The heightmap is drawn by making spots you want to be deep on a map (oceans, valleys) black. The darker it is, the deeper it goes. A gray area would be about level to the ocean (depending what the water levels are set to on your world.) And a white spot would be a high point (mountains, plateaus). It doesn't need to be just three colors. It can be any shade between black and white, but must remain grey-scale. Once you've made the map, save the bitmap with a name you'll remember in the "Maps" folder of your client. And on the terrain editor enter the name of your map, without the .bmp. Just the name you saved it as. You might need to re-log to see the changes to your world.
(It's been a while since I've run a world so if anything is wrong, or if anything has changed, feel free to correct me.)
More to come soon.

[socom]

Changing vehicle models- Vehicle models are a type of file called .ATM files. (I think it stands for A tractor model, so don't bother searching the internet for them. They don't exist outside of the game.) The textures for the vehicles are .jpg. All models and textures for the vehicles are saved in the Data/Models/Vhcls folder of your world. There should already be some in there. (Make sure you save the model.texture with a unique name you will remember, try putting a prefix of your world in the name. If players encounter the same name twice coming form diffrent worlds, the one you made wont load. EX: if you name a model car, and on another world there is a model named car, the player will only download and be able to see one of the two.) In the Model Selector for your world, choose a vehicle you want to change the model/texture for. A list on the right should come up listing the things you can change to. If it has .ATM after it, it's a model. If it is .jpg, it is a texture. At the bottom (or top I don't remember) There should be two things listed, the current model, and current texture. To change it just double click a model and/or texture from the list.

[Fooli]

Weaponry

Overview
The Universal lets you set up a huge range of different weapons on your world, and change the way they work according to the sort of gameplay or world environment you’re trying to create.

You can have up to 48 different weapons on your world. Getting some basic weapons working is quite simple. Creating a balanced combat world is a lot more difficult, but still possible. Either way, the weapons on your world are created using a combination of 3d models, settings, and your Weapons Script.

Before you start it helps to have a rough idea of what you’re trying to achieve. Are weapons and combat going to form an important part of the gameplay on your world? Will they be restricted to certain vehicles, or will everyone have them? Will weapons fire be allowed everywhere? With a basic aim in mind, you can use the flexible tools included with the game to set up pretty much anything you like.

Ok. As far as weapons are concerned there are a few main things you need to consider:

1. Whether your world allows weapons, or not.
To enable weapons on your world you need to set a global World Setting called Fighting. You’ll find that in the settings menu. While you’re on your world, type *settings, then choose World Settings, then scroll down to Fighting.

If you set it to 0, weapons will be disabled.
If you set it to 1, weapons will be enabled.

2. Whether weapons work everywhere or just in certain places.
This is determined by the Surface Properties of your world – see Weapon Surface Properties, below. By default, weapons will be allowed everywhere as long as you have set Fighting to 1, as above, and you haven’t altered any of the surface properties.

3. How people on your world are allowed to use weapons.
You have two options. You can make the weapons people can use depend on the vehicle they are currently in. Or, you can let anyone use any weapon as long as they own the relevant weapon ammo. This is determined by a global World Setting called Weapon Selection Mode, and is set in the usual way through the settings menu (type *settings, choose World Settings, and scroll down to Weapon Selection Mode).

If you set it to 0, the weapons a player can use will depend on which vehicle they are in.
If you set it to 1, players will be able to use any weapon item that is currently in their inventory.

4. Which vehicle uses which weapon.
This only applies if you have Weapon Selection Mode set to 0 (see above). By default, each vehicle on your world can have two weapons: a Primary and a Secondary. This is set for each vehicle in the Vehicle Settings menu. On your world, type *settings and choose Vehicle Settings. Scroll down to the relevant Primary or Secondary weapon setting for each vehicle, and set it to a number between 1 and 48. That’s the weapon number it will use. The number corresponds to the weapon numbers in the Weapon Script – see below.

There are also some more advanced modes that allow more than two weapons per vehicle. These are explained in Weapons Control Mode, below.

5. Which controls a player must use to fire different weapons.
By default, a vehicle will fire its Primary weapon when a player presses the Tab key, and fire its secondary weapon when a player presses Shift + Tab at the same time.

There are a few other options for setting the “fire” key for weapons, as well as other modes that allow more than two weapons per vehicle. Which mode you use depends to a large extent on what kind of game you’re trying to create. These options are explained in Weapons Control Mode, below.

6. How each weapon works and what effect it has.
How quickly does a weapon fire? How much damage does it do? What’s the reload time? All this and more is determined by the parameters set in your Weapon Script – see below.

7. What each weapon looks like.
This is determined by a combination of the settings in your Weapon Script and the 3d models and textures you assign in your world server. See the sections on Changing Weapon Graphics, and Weapon Script Parameters, below.

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Weapon control modes

By default, a vehicle will fire its Primary weapon when a player presses the Tab key, and fire its secondary weapon when a player presses Shift + Tab at the same time. There are a few other options for setting the “fire” key for weapons, as well as other modes that allow more than two weapons per vehicle.

Which mode you use depends on what kind of game you’re trying to create. For example, do you want players to be able to fire the same weapon while running (holding Shift) and walking (not holding Shift?) – or is it ok to have some weapons that can only be fired while running? Do you need a jetpack on any vehicles, or can you use the jetpack key (Delete) for a weapon?

All of these things are determined by the global Weapons Control Mode setting, which you can find in the settings menu under “Subgame Settings”. On your world, type *settings and choose Subgame Settings, then scroll down to Weapons Control Mode. Enter a number between 0 and 6, corresponding to the following settings:

0 - Tab fires your primary weapon; Shift+Tab fires your secondary weapon (default)

1 - tbc

2 - tbc

3 – Tab fires your primary weapon; Shift+Tab fires your secondary weapon. All vehicles can also use Shift+Delete to fire Weapon 1 (ie, the first weapon in your Weapon Script), if they have enough ammo. This might be used, for example, to give all vehicles access to a generic third weapon, like grenades.

4 - Tab fires your primary weapon; Shift+Tab fires your secondary weapon. All vehicles can also use Shift+Delete to fire Weapon 1, and F5 to fire Weapon 2 (ie, the first and second weapons in your Weapon Script), if they have enough ammo. As above, this can be used to give all vehicles access to two additional generic weapons.

5 – Tab OR Shift+Tab fires your primary weapon; Shift+Del fires your secondary weapon. This is useful when you want each vehicle to have two weapons, but you don’t want different weapons to fire just because you’re running (which would normally happen with the default setting). For instance, you might have a soldier with a machinegun: whether he’s walking or running he’ll fire his gun, but he also has grenades, which he fires with Shift+Del.

6 – Tab OR shift+Tab fires your primary weapon; Ctrl fires your secondary weapon. As with mode 5, this is useful to make weapons fire consistent whether you’re walking or running, but by using Ctrl as the secondary weapon key, you can still have jetpacks and other extras that normally use Delete. Ctrl might also be an easier key for players to hit. However, with this mode, all menus normally accessed with Ctrl (building menus, for example) become inaccessible – so don’t use it if you want people to have building access.

Other factors affecting which keys fire which weapons
If the “SpeedBoost” field is used as part of the Weapon Script (see below), that weapon will always be activated by pressing F3. This is because of the regulations laid down in 2364 by the Subspace Galactic Council.

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Weapon objects

tbc

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Weapons script parameters

Weapons script parameters for your world are held in a text file called "GameScript.mts" which should live in your world's /data folder. In it you set the various properties and behaviours for each weapon. The script is a simple text file – you can create it with Notepad or a similar text editor

Here’s the basic format for the script:

Weapon1
{ #Spear
Fire=Javelin
Control=Javelin
damage=3
graphic=2
item=NONE
prox=20
param=2000
delay=1000
object=ExpProjectile
sound=503
anim=AnimFire
Speed=1000
Expiry=2000
VelEffect=1
}
Weapon 2
{ #Machinegun
Fire=BasicAim
Control=MG
damage=50
item=NONE
prox=20
param=2000
delay=1000
object=ExpProjectile
sound=502
anim=AnimFire
Speed=100
Expiry=200
subexpiry=500
VelEffect=1
}
Weapon 3
{

...etc. You can have up to 48 different weapons defined in your script. Each weapon is separated by curly brackets as in the example above.

It is expected that you'll sometimes require weapon script features that aren’t currently available. Also, a few of the features described here are not working, or not working properly, but there's plenty of flexibility already to create a wide range of weapon types. If you have a specific request, please send it via the feature request pages in the bugtracker or via the forum, and we'll try to get it added as soon as possible.

Each field in the script, for each weapon, tells the game to do something different to that weapon when it is fired. There are lots of different options. You don’t have to use them all, but note that some combinations (or some ommissions) will cause unexpected effects, and/or cause a weapon not to work at all.

Here goes:

The 'name' field
It's not really a field, because it's ignored by the game. As long as you use the format above - ie, you put a hash sign # then the name, and put it after the opening bracket of the weapon you're editing, you can call it what you like. Makes no difference in the game but it makes it an awful lot easier to remember which weapon is which when you're editing the script.

- The ‘Control’ field
This affects how the player fires the weapon. You can use it to make weapons that need a quick keypress to fire, or weapons that increase their fire strength the longer the key is held down. All of these modes generate a 'parameter' value from 0 to 1 that is passed to the Fire function below - by combining different Control and Fire functions you can make weapons where holding the key down controls the fire angle, or range, or type, etc. Options for the Control field are:

Control=Basic - When the key is pressed, the weapon is fired once. (As long as the delay between firing time has passed). If the key is held, the weapon continues to fire at the regular delay intervals. The Fire parameter is always 1.

Control=BasicPlane - Same as Basic but the weapon cannot be fired when not in flight mode.

Control=HoldStep - When the fire key is first pressed, a timer is started. The parameter sent to the Fire function depends on how long the player holds the key down. The weapon is fired when the key is released. The length of the key press is grouped into 3 bands:

Keypress Fire Parameter
< 1/2 sec 0.5
< 2 sec 0.8
> 2 sec 1.0

Control=MG - Acts the same as Basic but a strobe lighting effect is added whenever the key is held down (and there is ammunition available).

Control=MGPlane - This is the same as MG but the weapon cannot be fired when not in flight mode.

Control=Javelin - A bar is displayed on screen, which increases in value as the player holds the key. The Param field (See below) is used to specify the length of time (in 1/1000th of a sec) the key needs to be held for before the bar gets to full strength. Once past this time, the bar resets back to 0 and begins to increase again. The Fire parameter sent is the scale of the bar - varying from 0 when at the lowest point to 1 when full.


- The ‘Fire’ field
This field controls how the weapon object is launched once it is fired. It is used to define things like the initial trajectory and speed of the weapon object, and defines how the Fire parameter (described above) is interpreted. In a similar way, each Fire function generates a further parameter that is applied to the Object you specify below. Current acceptable values are:

Fire=Basic - Weapons are fired in the direction the player is looking. The fire parameter is not used. The object parameter passed is the script Param field.

Fire=BasicAim - Weapons are fired in the direction the player is facing. The fire parameter is not used. The object parameter passed is the script Param field.

Fire=Lob - Weapons are fired in the direction the player is facing with a slight additional upward angle. The Fire Parameter controls the speed the weapon is launched at. The object parameter passed is the script Param field.

Fire=VariablePitch1 - Weapons are fired in the direction the player is looking but at a pitch determined by the Fire Parameter. If it is 0, the weapon is fired at 10 degrees to the horizontal, if the Fire Parameter is 1, the angle is 70 degrees.

Fire=Rocket - This is basically the same as Basic, however it includes a number of default 'helper' speed setups when the Object used is one of the 'Rocket' objects. (e.g. If you use this combined with a 'Rocket2' object - instead of firing in the line ur looking, it fires the weapon straight up.

Fire=EvilEye - special homing ‘evil eye’ weapon which homes in on the nearest enemy, hovers above them, and drops a bunch of cluster bombs while laughing evilly. No idea why.

Fire=Bomb - tbc. In theory should fall from your vehicle in a bomb-like way.

Fire=Static - weapon stays where it’s dropped.

Fire=Flametorch - special Republic-style flaming torch ?weapon?. Also related is special animation control when player has a torch (it triggers fire_weap1 for standing and fire_weap2 for walking)

Fire=SpeedBoost - subspace-style rocket speedboost, activated by pressing F3

Fire=Spread - subspace-style ‘burst’ weapon that fires out in a circle from the player

Fire=Jumpjet - makes the vehicle jump when pressed. The strength of the jump is the 'Speed' field combined with the weapon param passed in from the ‘Control’ field

Example
The most simple combination of Control and Fire is setting them both to Basic. This means that the weapon is fired when the key is pressed, in the direction the player is looking. The launch speed of the weapon is controlled solely by the Speed field (See below) and the Object parameter is the Param field.


- The ‘Object’ field
This field defines the physical properties of the weapon being fired - some bounce, some have gravity applied, some don’t, etc. The behaviour of some of these objects is affected by the parameter passed in from the Fire function (see above). In most cases, this comes from the script Param field.

Object=Projectile - Object is an unpowered projectile. Model used depends on the graphic setting.

Object=ExpProjectile - Object is an unpowered projectile which explodes on contact with the floor, player or building. The model used depends on the graphic setting above.

Object=Sticky - Object sticks to the player who fired it, until the expiry time is reached (Determined by the object parameter in milliseconds)The model used depends on the graphic setting above.

Object=Static - Object stays exactly where it is fired from. The model used depends on the graphic setting above.

Object=StaticGrav - Object has no lateral motion, but falls to the ground. The model used depends on the graphic setting above.

Object=ExpLinear - Object is unpowered and unaffected by gravity or friction. It explodes if it hits a target or the landscape

Object=ExpLinear2 - Object is unpowered and unaffected by gravity or friction. It explodes if it hits a target but will track the landscape height rather than hitting it.

Object=Plasma1/Plasma2/Plasma3 - These are weapons with a special 'sprite' graphic (Graphic field is ignored) - each is a different colour. They move in a straight line and are unaffected by gravity or friction.

Object=GravPlasma1/GravPlasma2/GravPlasma3 - Versions of the plasma weapons above but they are affected by gravity.

Object=Rocket1 - A powered rocket.. It accelerates in a straight line to a fixed speed, leaving a flame trail, until the Expiry time - from then, gravity is applied and it falls to the floor. (If it hasnt hit the floor 10 seconds after the expiry time it explodes anyway). 'Rocket' objects all use Weapon Model 2, irrespective of the Graphic value.

Object=Rocket2 - A 'tomahawk' stylee missile - It goes up to a certain height above the landscape, before flattening out then trying to target a player. If a player is in the view cone of the missile, it directs itself towards the player. 'Rocket' objects all use Weapon Model 2, irrespective of the Graphic value.

Object=Rocket3 - Air-target missile - Once fired, it attempts to lock on to an airborne target.. If it finds one it accelerates and steers towards it (until the Expiry time is reached). If it does not find a target it behaves as a normal explosive projectile. 'Rocket' objects all use Weapon Model 2, irrespective of the Graphic value.

Object=Rocket4 - Cruise missile - Accelerates and then follows the terrain at a fixed speed until the Expiry time is reached. 'Rocket' objects all use Weapon Model 2, irrespective of the Graphic value.

Object=Rocket5 - Cluster rocket. Powered flight till the Expiry time is reached, then it falls to the ground. Just before it hits, it explodes and launches 8 grenades in a circle. 'Rocket' objects all use Weapon Model 2, irrespective of the Graphic value.

Object=MG - Machine gun burst. This is a special weapon that fires a burst of individual bullets in sequence each time it is fired. (This allows for more rapid fire bullets without vastly increasing the bandwidth use). It uses a special graphic and the Graphic setting in the script is ignored.

When using MG as a weapon object, the Parameter field controls how frequently (in 1/1000ths of a second) the bullets are fired, the Expiry field controls how long the burst goes on for, and the SubExpiry field controls how long the bullets last before they expire. For instance, if you set the Param to 200 (1/5th of a second), and Expiry to 100 (1 second), and SubExpiry to 500 (1/2 a second) - your weapon would fire bursts of 5 bullets over the course of one second, and each burst of bullets would remain in-game for ½ a second, or until it hit something.

Object=Grenade - tbc

Object=EvilEye - special homing ‘evil eye’ weapon which homes in on the nearest enemy, hovers above them, and drops a bunch of cluster bombs while laughing evilly. No idea why. Evil eyes don’t use a Weapon Model graphic, they use a hard-coded sprite.

Object=Repel - subspace-style repulsor weapon. Pushes other players away from you when fired.


- The ‘Param’ field
This is a global parameter value that can take on different meanings depending on the Fire and Control type chosen. It is often ignored, but it’s essential for MGs and a few other weapon types, for example. E.g. param=400

- The ‘Damage’ field
This is the damage rating for the weapon - i.e. how much harm it will do to a player or building when it hits em. The value is on a scale such that 6500 would kill a player (with normal armour - 50) in one shot. If omitted, the default damage of 500 is set. E.g. damage=4000

- The ‘Graphic’ field
This is the graphic used for the weapon. Note that the validity of this field depends upon the type of object used. (See below). Some objects, like plasmas, machine guns etc, use a specific model or graphic for their effect, which overrides the graphic setting you enter here. In normal use however, the graphic value should be a number from 1 to 8 - which refers to the Weapon Models 1 - 8 that you can set on the Server Menu -> Tools -> Model Selector page. E.g. graphic=4

– The ‘Item’ field
This is the item (ammo) required to use the weapon. If set to NONE, no ammo is required. (This is the default if this field is omitted).

- The ‘MaxCarried’ field
The amount of a weapon item that can be carried. E.g. maxcarried=50

- The ‘Pitch’ field
The pitch in degrees that the weapon fires at. For instance, pitch=30 means the weapon fires at an upwards angle of 30 degrees. Pitch=90 would fire straight up; pitch=180 would fire the weapon backwards.) If omitted, 0 is default.

- The ‘Speed’ field
This is the overall speed of the weapon when it is fired - it can be modified by your Fire settings. If the Fire parameter affects the speed, then this value is the maximum speed of the weapon- i.e when the Fire Parameter is 1. A value of 1000 launches the weapon at (very roughly) 100mph.

- The ‘Expiry’ field
This is the expiry time of the weapon (where appropriate - some Objects do not have an expiry time applied). It is set in 1/100ths of a second, so 500 means the weapon expires after 5 seconds If omitted, this defaults to 1000 (i.e. 10 seconds). E.g. expiry=1000

- The ‘Subexpiry’ field
This field is used to control the expiry time of bullets, in 1/100ths of a second, only when the 'Object=MG' type is used (because with MGs the 'expiry' field is used to determine the longevity of the burst). E.g. subexpiry=500

- The ‘Prox’ field
This is the proximity range for the weapons u fire - i.e. how far away from a player they need to be to be considered a hit. Because of the nature of lag on the internet, adding a proximity range on the collision detection of weapons helps to ensure that lag does not overtly affect the fairness of the game. A typical value for this field is 10. Smaller values mean smaller prox range. Default is 20. E.g. prox=20

– The ‘Delay’ field
This is the number of milliseconds that must pass before the weapon can be fired again. (i.e. 1000 = player can fire once every second). This value must be above 100 (Lower values are ignored). If omitted, this defaults to 1000. E.g. delay=500

– The ‘Sound’ field
This is the sound played when this weapon is fired. The value given corresponds to the 'Assignable Sound' number that you choose on the server's Tools -> Sound Selector dialog in the following way: sound=500 would play assignable sound 1. sound=501 would play assignable sound 2, etc.

- The ‘BuildDamage’ field
This is the damage rating for the weapon when it hits a building. If omitted, the main Damage setting is used instead. E.g. builddamage=20

- The ‘VelEffect’ field
This controls whether the speed that the player is moving it is included in the speed that the weapon is launched at. 0 means it isn’t (default), 1 means it is. E.g. veleffect=1

- The ‘Anim’ field
This is the animation played when this weapon is fired. If omitted, the player will use the normal generic weapon fire animation where applicable. Options for this field are: AnimFire, AnimFireMG, AnimFirePlasma, AnimWeap1, AnimWeap2, AnimWeap3, AnimWeap4, AnimWeap5, AnimWeap6, AnimWeap7, AnimWeap8. E.g. anim=AnimFire

- The ‘Muzzle’ field
This determines whether muzzle flashes appear from a vehicle model’s weapon attach points. E.g. muzzle=0.5 (must be a float value, eg 0.1 or 1.5, that determines the size of the flash)

- The ‘Rotoffset’ field
Not working at the moment. Adds an offset so weapons fire out at different angles. E.g. rotoffset=90 means weapons fire from the left hand side of a vehicle. Rotoffset=270 means they fire from the right.

Editing the script
Setting up your weapons involves a lot of sitting about on your world with the game running in one window and your script running in Notepad (or similar) in another window. You're not going to break anything seriously by messing about with the script fields, so try something, save the script, and test the results.

The script is reloaded each time a player joins your world. You can also reload it without having to leave and re-join your world using the command *refreshweap (this also works for other players, not just world owners). So the basic process goes: change something. Save the script. Type *refreshweap. Test the results. Repeat until bored :)

Another useful command is .debugweap 1. This runs through your current script and prints a list of error messages, if it finds any problems.

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Weapon Surface Properties

Surface properties are quite a complex but very powerful system for changing various aspects of gameplay according to what type of surface a player is standing on. You can define a number of different types of surface properties on your world, and some of these effect whether or not weapons will work. For example, you can have surfaces that prevent weapons fire completely, or allow weapons fire but do not allow players to take damage (in order to create “safe zones”) – and so on.

Surface properties are defined in the Surface Settings menu....

tbc
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Changing weapon graphics

Weapon graphics – ie, what a weapon looks like when you fire it - are determined by two things: your Weapon Script, and the graphic files you assign to a weapon in your world server (ie, model and texture files). Let’s start by assigning those graphics.

Assigning weapon graphics
First off, get the weapon models you want to use – make them, download them from the Web (please don’t use copyrighted materials) or download them from the model library (free to use in this game). If there’s something specific you’re looking for it’s always worth asking on the forums – if he has the time, and it’s not something incredibly complex, and you ask nicely, Fooli might make it for you.

1. Ok, so you have a bunch of models and their textures. Copy them to your world’s data/Models/Objct folder.

2. Next, run your world (if it isn’t already running) and go to the Tools menu. Choose Models Selector. You should see two windows appear – one on the left, starting with “Vehicle Model 1” (yes, this is also where you assign vehicle models, and lots of other stuff) and one on the right, which should list a load of .atm model files and texture files.

3. Scroll down the left hand window until you see ‘Weapon Model 1’ … displayed. There are 16 Weapon Models in the list. At the moment you can only assign graphics to the first eight of them.

4. Click “Weapon Model 1” to select it. Now scroll through the right-hand window until you find the model file you want to assign to that weapon. Double-click it. Do the same with the texture file – find the one you want to use for that weapon, then double-click it. The name of the model file and texture file you just chose should be displayed just above that right hand window.

If you can’t find the models and textures you want in that window, try clicking the “refresh directory list” button. If you still can’t see them, you probably put the files in the wrong folder. Go back to step 1 and try again.

If all’s well, and you can see the name of the model file and texture you want when “Weapon Model 1” is highlighted in the left hand window, that’s it: you’ve just assigned those graphics to that weapon. Cool. You can go through the first eight weapons in just the same way. Note that you can assign any model and texture to those Weapon Model slots – cars, trees, whatever you like. As long as the models and textures are in the right folder, you won’t have any problems.

How the Weapon Script affects the graphics that are displayed
The Weapon Script tells the game which weapon model graphic to assign to which weapon number. As you’ve seen above, it can include a parameter called Graphic with a numeric value (eg, Graphic=1). This assigns a specific weapon model to that weapon in the script.

For example, if I include the line ‘Graphic=1’ for weapon 6 in my script, then weapon 6 will display Weapon Model 1 when it fires.

There are a few exceptions created by the following:

Weapon Script ‘Fire’ parameters:
- ‘SpeedBoost’ fire parameter uses a special graphic that can’t be changed.
- ‘Spread’ fire parameter uses a special graphic that can’t be changed.
- ‘JumpJet’ fire parameter doesn’t use a graphic.

Weapon Script ‘Object parameters:
- ‘Plasma’ weapon objects use a special graphic that can’t be changed.
- ‘Rocket’ weapon objects always use Weapon Model 2, regardless of any Graphic= value in the script
- ‘MG’ weapon objects use a special graphic that can’t be changed.
- ‘EvilEye’ weapon objects use a special graphic that can’t be changed.
- ‘Repel’ weapon objects use a special graphic that can’t be changed.

Weapons Control Mode settings:
- mode 3 – Shift+Del always fires weapon 1 – the first weapon in your Weapon Script
- mode 4 - Shift+Del always fires weapon 1 – the first weapon in your Weapon Script – and F5 always fires weapon 2 – the second weapon in your Weapon Script

Vehicle Settings:
- if you have Primary or Secondary weapon set to 0, you won’t fire anything. In these cases its possible to set up horn noises and other sounds, depending on the Vehicle Type each vehicle is set to. See Vehicle Settings for more info.


…ends

[Mit]

Right then. Thanks fooli, magic and socom.
All feature requests from anyone else will now be ignored

[socom]

My memory and knowledge of world owning doesn't really go much farther, but I think anyone would be a bit intimidated to post after that extensive review Fooli gave.

[Fooli]

Heh. Well, they shouldn't be. It just so happened I'd been helping a couple of people sort out some weapons stuff, and trying a few new things on my world... it just made sense to do it all at once while it was fresh in my head. Also, I write for a living - it's fairly easy for me to write endless reams of this sort of nonsense :)

For other world owners: even if you just had to spend some time sorting out one lil' issue and you can post a guide on a single topic, it's worth taking the time to do it. Particularly new world owners - you're much more likely to provide the sort of perspective we need.

It might be worth noting that I, or one of the staff, will be happy to edit anything you provide into shape, as long as it basically makes sense. Just tell it like it is, and if you can help... that's great. Otherwise I'll have to do it, and I imagine no-one wants to read another War & Peace :)

f

[theseer]

Assuming they've been dealt with, shouldn't the posts be deleted or... atleast shortened? Especially Fooli's?

[Fooli]

No. At least I hope not: I'm still writing mine.
f

[theseer]

Welcome Screens
Information:
Settings -> Graphic Settings -> While you were gone screen.
Welcome Image: serverdir/data/images/welcome.jpg.
Ruleset: [don't know]

Objective
To have ONLY recent events show upon landing:
Change your "While you were gone screen" setting to 1.

To have ONLY the ruleset show upon landing:
Change your "While you were gone screen" setting to 2.

To have ONLY your centered welcome image show upon landing:
Change your "While you were gone screen" setting to 3.

To have ONLY your fullscreen welcome image show upon landing:
Change your "While you were gone screen" setting to 6.

To have ONLY your half-screen welcome image show upon landing:
Change your "While you were gone screen" setting to 9.

Combinations:
4 : Centered welcome image and recent events.
5 : Centered welcome image and ruleset.
7 : Fullscreen welcome image and recent events.
8 : Fullscreen welcome image and ruleset.
10: Half-screen welcome image and recent events.
11: Half-screen welcome image and ruleset.

[morbydvisns]

ok its my turn.. time to go crashout so ill cover a shortie

Book Items

Book items are inventory items that are accessed from the player's inventory list, page
down to item and hit the END key to open onscreen and display book1.txt - book8.txt.

Theuniversal\data\text folder are where these files are stored. You may rename
the items, however the .txt files must remain the origional book#.txt.

[Whirl]

Lovely little introduction / overview that I wrote. Pick and choose as you wish.

----------
Overview
The Universal is a free third-person online multiplayer game comprised of a virtual universe that parallels real life, with a few twists. Utilizing the combined world concepts of authors Neil Stephenson, William Gibson, and Douglas Adams, this “universe” – if you will – is far different than the one you may be familiar with. Inside satire relating to monkeys, chimps, and other primates – with a little alcohol thrown in for good measure – will leave your head spinning but your inner gamer satisfied with an all-around inclusive game. The Universal has everything in this world, and seemingly everything in any other world imaginable.

This game of mind-boggling complexity and humor is independently developed, both by selected staff members and the community at large. It began as a basic game concept involving a single primitive island, where every resident would make a living owning stores, being employed, and staging war against other players. Since then, it has evolved into a multi-level economy game, with land-sea-air-space war, and intergalactic trade.
----------

This may be a little too introductory for someone who is interested in running a world, so it may be better suited later for a proper "new users guide" or such.

-W

[theseer]

Looks more like a marketing release then an intro to a new users guide

[Whirl]

Helloo..In preparation for next month's marketing bit

It is quite captivating, eh? (:

-W

[zaroba]

Item List:
http://www.tuwr.net/pmwiki.php?n=Lists.Items

Skill List:
http://www.tuwr.net/pmwiki.php?n=Lists.skills

Commands:
http://www.tuwr.net/pmwiki.php?n=GameCo ... meCommands


will post links to the settings info once i update it
feel free to use anything else you want off the site for the world owners manual.

[Fooli]

Engine noises

You can assign engine noises to vehicles on your world. At the moment the list of engine noises you can use is very small. This will be expanded as time goes on, and eventually engine noises will become dynamic - that is, you'll be able to assign any noise to a vehicle, and players will simply download it when they connect to your world.

How to assign an engine noise to a vehicle
You do this through the vehicle settings menu. On your world type *settings, then choose Vehicle Settings. Scroll down to the "Engine Noise" setting and enter one of the following numbers to choose the noise you want. You need to do this for each vehicle:

0 - no engine noise
1 - generic engine noise. A basic jeepy sort of sound.
2 - truck. A more throaty sound.
3 - tank. More rumbly and industrial.
4 - hovercraft. Sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner.
5 - helicopter. Whirling chopper blades.
6 - large aircraft. Deep propeller noise.
7 - small aircraft. More weedy propeller noise.
8 - footsteps. For humanoid characters.

How the sounds work
Each setting, apart from 'footsteps', actually uses three unique sounds: an 'engine start' noise, a looped engine noise, and an 'engine off' noise. The engine start noise plays whenever you start your engine (funnily enough), and the engine off noise plays when you turn the engine off - both of which are done using the F9 key. The looped engine noise plays whenever the engine is running. It has a starting pitch - the 'idle' speed, if you like - and increases its pitch in line with your speed. It's a very simple system at the moment :)

The footsteps sound is different - it simply makes footstep noises whenever you move around. These are actually timed to match the animation of the standard Druid model. The chances are they won't really correspond to any other humanoid character (this will be fixed in the future).

Other settings that affect engine noise
General client audio settings: in the 'general options' of the client software (hit F1 to enter small mode, choose Options, then General Options) there's a checkbox for "Sounds On" - this must be checked for engine noises to work. There is also a checkbox for "Engine Noise" - this must also be checked.

And - in the audio options of the client software (hit F1 to enter small mode, choose options, then audio options) there's a checkbox called "sounds on" - this also needs to be checked on for engine sounds to play. Yes, there's some duplication there. It's work in progress :)

"But I want to make my own engine noises!"
Brilliant. If you can make something good it might get included in the game. Have a look at the engine noises included in your client (they're in /clients/data/sounds/engine) to get an idea what sort of thing works. We use .wav files for the engine sounds. The main challenges are: finding a loop that works at a constant pitch without having to use a massive wav file; setting its pitch so that 'idle' and 'flat out' both sound ok (some of the current engine noises kind of fail at that); and matching the end of the 'start' and the beginning of the 'die' sound to that pitch, so it all sounds reasonably seamless in-game.

[DvdGStwrt]

I would like to add a couple of points about grayscale terrain maps.

First would be what type of Bitmap(s) work and which ones don't (256 color bitmap will work) I know I accidentally changed that and ended up with a world of water.

Second would be to settle on a 10 point (Red, Green, Blue) change for height (elevation) to rough in the terrain features on the road to a “natural” looking world.

EXAMPLE: shore lines (with the default game settings) is at the setting of 48. That means that if you are using Paint to adjust grayscale map Red, Green and Blue would all be set at 48. At that point water will "lap" over the land. 54 and higher pulls the land out of the water. If you have adjusted your water height you will need to adjust your grayscale color to match.

I prefer to open up a blank paint window, set my colors as shades of grey starting with black (Red: 0 Green: 0 Blue 0) which is deep water, the next one at R: 25 G: 25: B: 25 - (middle depth water) Shore/beach at R: 48 G: 48 B: 48. Then minimal land at R: 54 G: 54 B: 54. Then I set the rest at tens, 64, 74, 84, 94... to 254 (nearly white highest peaks). In .settings you can set deep water to “drown” a person – thus having shallow water and deep water comes in handy.

Drawing lines as in a topographical "line map" that shows the contours of the land, filling in those lines once you have the outlines. This gives a “rough” stepped terrain which saving as a COPY in Jpeg format will smooth out a tad. A neat "trick" for simple "blurring" or smoothing of the landscape is to save a COPY of the grayscale map to Jpeg, open that and copy/past to your set grayscale - you will note a "blending" between depths (shades) of grey.

If you have a photo editing program save a COPY of your rough contour map – in the photo editing you can “blur” “fix scratches” and some have filters like “chalk” which do interesting texturing to the picture which makes for interesting “natural” terrain. I believe that XP comes with Windows Photo Editor (Picture it) it may be there and you just never knew it

I would suggest keeping earlier copies of your map in case you decide you want to cut out bits and pieces to put back into terrain. i.e. if you had a nice bay for your first town you can cut that and paste it on a blended map in the right area.

Map size must be 256 x 256 pixels. Which is the same size of the Island (.mapedit to see the grid)

There are loads of grayscale maps on the net. SimCity4 fan sites is a good place to look – SimCity4 can use grey scale maps to make terrain for the game. However they will all be larger (1025 x 1025 and greater) simple calculations of image attributes will help. Example: 1025 divided by 256 = 4.0039 then 100 divided by that number = 24.97564874248 However since PAINT does not accept decimals, in this instance round up to 25 – that number is what you would use on stretch – which will reduce the image to ¼ its size.

The formula therefore:

Original map size divided by 256 then 100 divided by the sum, rounded off to the nearest whole number. In some instances you might find the end attribute of your map is 254 or 257 you can readily change that to 256 in the Attribute function.

As a hint: Auto-terrain textures can be set in .settings landscape to height – I believe there is a correlation between the grayscale color depth (R, G, B) and the default settings of the map. Thus if your shore is at R,G,B, 48 and land is at RGB 52 – setting the “sand” texture at 50 will result in a merging land and sand.

[Fooli]

Walls

Overview
Walls can be an important part of the design of a world – so The Universal gives you a simple way to lay down 4 different types of wall. You can use walls to make areas inaccessible, or to create paths; to create arenas for crowfighting and war games, or just to decorate your landscape.

Walls are generated by the game code, which means you have to accept a certain amount of compromise in the way they look, and the way they join together. If you want complete control over the way walls look and join together, you’ll need to make your own and use them as background models, which is a lot more fiddly. For most purposes, though, you can get by using the in-game walls. They’re quick and relatively easy to lay down and texture.

Wall settings
There are three main wall settings you need to think about. They all live in the Landscape settings menu (*settings/Landscape Settings).

The first two are Wall Height and Wall Width. You can set unique heights and widths for four different types of wall on your world. So you might have one that’s low and wide, and another that’s high and thin, and so on. These settings affect new walls you build and also walls already on your world – so you can lay some walls down and play with the settings afterwards to get the effect you want.

The third setting is Wall Rendering Mode. This controls how textures are drawn on to your walls. It’s a global setting – it applies to all walls on your world. There are two options for Wall Rendering Mode – 0 and 1:

0 – each wall is drawn as a single block: one block per tile on your world. The texture mapping is fixed so that a third of the texture appears on each side and the top of the wall.

1 – each wall is drawn as a single block: one block per tile on your world. The texture mapping is determined by the height and length of the wall – so the height and length values determine what percentage of the texture is applied to the sides and top of the wall. For example, a wall 45 high and 10 wide would use the top 45% of the texture for one side, the bottom 45% of the texture for the other side, and the middle 10% of the texture for the top.

How to put a wall on your world
So, you’re on your world and ready to build some walls….

1 – first you need to make sure the Wall Height and Wall Width settings are something other than zero, or else you won’t be able to see the walls you lay down on your world.

2 - next, you need to enter the construction menu (click the pickaxe icon on the left of your screen, or hit Ctrl twice).

3 - next, you need to select “Start Line”. Walls are always laid down in lines, using the Start Line function. When you select “Start Line” you’ll see a little stick appear at your current position. This is the starting point for your wall.

4 - next, move to the position at which you’d like the wall to end. You’ll see the Start Line expand to follow you as you move. When you’re happy with the end position for your wall, highlight the “Build Wall” option. As soon as you do you’ll see a wall displayed along the line you’ve just drawn. This is like a guide wall - the game always uses Wall 1 to display this.

If you got the position wrong or something, that’s ok: at this point you can still move around to extend or reduce the length of the wall you’re building.

5 - assuming you’re happy with the position, make sure “Build Wall” is highlighted, then press the End key. You’ll see another menu appear asking which wall you want to build: Wall 1, 2, 3 or 4. Highlight the one you want and you’ll see the wall being displayed change to match the height, width and texture of that particular wall type. At this point, you’re still not committed to actually building the thing – to quit out you can use the Home key to go back up a level in the construction menu, or just hit Esc to quit the wall building process altogether.

6 - If you are happy with everything, and you’ve selected the wall type you want to build, confirm it with the End key. Your new wall will be built along the line you chose.

[hint] You might find it easier to do the following. First, activate the Start Line, as above. Next, choose “Build Wall”, and then move to the end point – you can see the wall being built as you move. Then confirm Build Wall with the End key and choose the type as above. This makes it easier to spot when the start line isn’t really where you want it to be… see below for an explanation.

How wall positions relate to tiles and Start Lines
You might just find this obvious, but just in case… your world is made up of square tiles, and walls are always drawn along the edges of tiles. So sometimes, you might initiate a Start Line and find that a wall isn’t being displayed where you expected – it might be one tile to the right or left; it might start or end one tile early or late. This is just something you’ll get used to, and it’s not generally a problem unless you’re trying to make walls connect with each other. If you follow the [hint] above it makes it easier to spot these sorts of errors before you go to the trouble of laying down an incorrect Start Line.

How to set your wall textures
Worlds use a standard grey wall texture by default, but you can use your own textures instead – one for each of the four wall types on your world.

1 - download or make your textures, then save them to your world server’s /data/textures/misc folder.

2 - go into your server’s Tools/Texture Selector menu. Scroll down the list on the left until you see “Walls 1… Walls 2…” and so on. Click one to highlight it, and you should see the list of texture files available in your server’s /data/textures/misc folder on the right hand side.

3 - Double-click the texture you want to assign it to the highlighted wall.

How to remove walls
Stand near the beginning of a wall and use the command *removewalls. The server will confirm the number of walls removed. You will need to relog to see the change.

Wall collisions
Walls obey the global collision setting on your world (*settings/World Rules/Collisions).

Advice on making wall textures
When the game draws a wall, it puts a simple cuboid shape on the edge of each tile on your world. So if you have a wall that’s one tile long, you’ll get one block. If you have a wall 100 tiles long, it’ll draw 100 blocks. And your wall textures are mapped onto each individual block.

As far as making wall textures is concerned, that means you need to use a texture that will tile, left to right. And it means the eventual look of each block of a wall will depend on how long each tile is on your world (which is determined by the Landscape Scale setting in Landscape Settings. In other words… if you have a very small Landscape Scale, a wall texture might look very squashed compared to the same texture applied to a wall on a much larger Landscape Scale.

In general, wall textures have to be fairly simple, just because they’re tiled over large distances with no variation in the same wall. Complicated textures tend to look messy unless your Landscape Scale is very large. Just play with it until it kinda works.

Incidentally, the texture mapping on each wall appears to be reversed left to right, so bear that in mind if you want to put text on them or something.

Advice on making geometric wall patterns
Sticking random walls on a map is easy enough, but what if you want to build something specific, like a maze or an arena? At some point in the future there will be a simple bitmap-to-wall converter that’ll make the whole process easy. In the meantime, the best way of doing it is probably as follows:

1 – load the heightmap for your world into the paint program of your choice. You’ll need a paint program that supports layers.

2 – create a new layer and paint it a darkish grey. Reduce the transparency/opacity on the new layer so you can see the heightmap through it.

3 - use whatever features your paint program has to select a one pixel brush, and paint your wall shapes in a lighter grey colour onto the new layer.

4 – when you’ve finished and you have your wall outline completed, save the wall layer only as a heightmap in your world’s /maps folder. It needs to be standard heightmap format: 256x256x256 greyscale.

5 – select the new wall heightmap in your world server’s Tools/Terrain Editor menu, and confirm the settings (Ie, change the heightmap on your world to that wall heightmap). Get rid of any smoothing settings you’ve got in the terrain editor too (make a note of them if they’re important)

6 – enter your world. In theory, you’ll see the wall outlines as raised lines on the map… you can use these lines as guides to lay down your walls. If you set the landscape rendering modes to display a single outline tile as the texture, tiled across the whole world, it gets even easier to see the lines the walls will appear on. You might need to change your world’s height scale setting (also in Landscape Settings) to make the wall outline high enough to be visible, but not so high you can’t work on the map. You can achieve the same effect by tweaking the relative dark grey/light grey colours on the wall heightmap too.

7 – when you’re done building walls on the outlines, revert to the previous heightmap/smoothing settings in your world server. Voila… walls in the shape of your choosing on the landscape of your choice.