Code: Select all

For instance, every faction’s rocket launcher class weapon was linked to a “parent” rocket launcher. We knew we wanted to keep all of the rocket launcher classes balanced the same, for the most part, so there was no need to change how much damage each rocket would be able to inflict from one faction to another. Rather than giving each of the faction’s ODF files its own unique “MaxDamage” function, we instead placed “MaxDamage” within the parent file. When we decided that rocket launcher classes were doing too little damage, this let us change one file rather than having to update four files. Since the parent was changed, everything that linked to the parent would change as well. As you could imagine, this allowed us to save a lot of time.

So, how do you get this working? Let me run you through an example of how the hierarchy is currently being used.

•	Go to your … \data\Sides\imp folder.
•	Open up the ODF file: imp_weap_inf_rocket_launcher_ord.odf.
•	Notice up top, the “ClassParent” – you will find these commonly shared (“com”) files in …\data\Sides\Common
•	Open up the ODF file: com_weap_inf_rocket_launcher_ord.odf.

Now you’ll have these two ODF files open side by side. Notice that the child file (imp_weap_inf_rocket_launcher_ord) only contains the information necessary to distinguish itself from another faction’s rocket ordnance – the trail effect ODF file, the color it displays, and the explosion ODF file it references. The rest of the functions you’ll file in the parent file (com_weap_inf_rocket_launcher_ord). All of these functions are shared between the four factions in SWBFII – Republic, CIS, Alliance, Imperial. If you make a change in this file, it will affect every rocket launcher class’ ordnance.

Let’s say you want one class to have a different “MaxDamage” than another class. Keep this in mind; any function put into the child file will overwrite the function in the parent file. It won’t overwrite it for everything it’s linked to, just the child file you placed “MaxDamage” in. So, if you wanted to make the Imperial rocket launcher’s damage value different than everyone else’s, add the function “MaxDamage” to imp_weap_inf_rocket_launcher_ord and change the value to whatever number you’d like it to be.