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Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:50 pm
by GAB
Here I am again, this time it is to ask if it is possible to turn a simple prop object into one that you can slice (hack) with a fusion cutter, in the same way you can do with vehicles. My intentions with this is to create the illusion of hacking a panel.
So, is this possible, and if so, how?
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:03 am
by Loopy53
its possible, since you can already repair panels. I just dont know how. sorry I cant be of more help. I would look in and around the common odf folders or in death star folder (the ds has a panel) and go from their.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:17 am
by Marth8880
Are you trying to make a scripted event occur when the panel is "hacked"? If so, it's totally possible: see AQT's Death Watch Bunker 2.0.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 12:39 pm
by Locutus
A destructible building should do it.
To prevent it from being destroyed, you can set its health ridiculously high.
CurrentHealth could be set to, say, 999.900 and TotalHealth to 999.999 so that you only need to repair 99 hitpoints, in this case. Setback would be that the repair would take very long if you shot this object just for fun before.
There are also those special weapons you can find in a couple of custom missions (might be a modified force push) which are used to activate consoles. But I don't know how they work.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 2:35 pm
by Fiodis
Or you could give it a destroyed geometry and only 100 or 10 hitpoints or whatever, so you can still hack it even if it's destroyed.
Or the process of hacking it might intentionally involve repairing it from 0 hitpoints to full.
Those special weapons to activate panels just shoot an invisible short-range bolt that deals very little damage. Then the lua code is set up to execute some functions whenever the proper panel is hit by that particular weapon.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:12 pm
by GAB
Ok, so today I tried something. However, when I attempt to slice the panel nothing happens. I don't get the slice counter (slicing... %)
Here's the object's odf:
Code: Select all
[GameObjectClass]
ClassLabel = "destructablebuilding"
GeometryName = "AL3_prop_panel.msh"
[Properties]
GeometryName = "AL3_prop_panel"
MaxHealth = 500.0
HealthType = "vehicle"
ExplosionDestruct = "com_inf_rechargedroid_exp"
TimeRequiredToEject = "7.5"
EjectResistance = "0.02"
TimeTilReboard = "1e+37"
//AttachOdf = "AL3_light_redflare_strobe1"
//AttachToHardPoint = "hp_light"
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:59 pm
by CressAlbane
I don't think the "Slicing" menu would show up even if you had it correct. The player would be able to measure progress by watching the health bar at the top.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:23 pm
by Loopy53
That slicing % thing is for vehicles only. Look in vehicle ODF's and see if you cant find something of relevance.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:31 pm
by GAB
The only things of relevance I found were the properties TimeRequiredToEject, EjectResistance and TimeTilReboard. I'm pretty sure the Classlabel is relevant too. In fact, before making this thread I had already tried the same setting shown above, but with the Classlabel set to hover and the object set, in ZE, to team 2. But it didn't work, although the fusion cutter kept making sound and playing it's effect even if the object's health was full.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 9:55 pm
by Maveritchell
Is the "slicing" text a dealbreaker? Every time I've used this thing in campaign missions, I've used repair/destroy and not slicing - it's much simpler.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:17 pm
by GAB
No, it's not a dealbreaker. Since when I had this idea, I also considered the destroy/repair concept in case of failure. I'm doing this just for the slice meter. I want it because, while the player "slices" the panel, the slice percentage meter would appear (and you could even localize "slicing.." to "hacking..."), therefore giving the illusion that the player is breaking some sort of security code. I wanted to try something different.
When I had this idea I considered that this might not possible, but I wanted to try and see what other people think before giving up and going to the common way of doing this.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:25 pm
by AQT
Loopy53 wrote:That slicing % thing is for vehicles only. Look in vehicle ODF's and see if you cant find something of relevance.
And to elaborate on this, it has more to do with disabling an occupied enemy vehicle than repairing/destroying an object.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:03 am
by CressAlbane
Could you make the panel an enemy occupied vehicle? Make a new vehicle that can't move, has no weapons, and then force a unit from the other team into it?
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:50 pm
by Fiodis
If you really wanted to, then yes.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:47 pm
by Marth8880
CressAlbane wrote:Could you make the panel an enemy occupied vehicle? Make a new vehicle that can't move, has no weapons, and then force a unit from the other team into it?
The problem with that is the unit will be forced out of the vehicle once the panel vehicle is sliced. An alternative solution to making a panel that can be "hacked" is to just use AQT's method in DWB (basically an unbuilt destructable building) but implement message text "checkpoints" that notify the player of the hacking progress (as well as the health bar, of course, but that can actually be hidden if you so choose using the HideHealthBar ODF parameter), e.g., at 30% hacking progress, you'd tell the Lua to display a message text that reads "Hacking... 30%".
Here's an example block for the checkpoint bit that might work:
Code: Select all
panel1_health = GetObjectHealth("panel1")
-- panel has max health of 1000
if panel1_health > 100 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.10") -- Display "Hacking... 10%"
end -- might need to use 'elseif' for each checkpoint
if panel1_health > 200 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.20") -- Display "Hacking... 20%"
end
if panel1_health > 300 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.30") -- Display "Hacking... 30%"
end
if panel1_health > 400 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.40") -- Display "Hacking... 40%"
end
if panel1_health > 500 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.50") -- Display "Hacking... 50%"
end
if panel1_health > 600 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.60") -- Display "Hacking... 60%"
end
if panel1_health > 700 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.70") -- Display "Hacking... 70%"
end
if panel1_health > 800 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.80") -- Display "Hacking... 80%"
end
if panel1_health > 900 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.90") -- Display "Hacking... 90%"
end
if panel1_health >= 1000 then
ShowMessageText("level.ME5.hackprogress.100") -- Display "Hacking... COMPLETE"
end
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:09 am
by GAB
Ok. I managed to make it work in a similar fashion to what was originally intended.
Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:18 pm
by Loopy53
can you tell us how? Thanks! I could make a campaign for my next release (not afghanistan village) with something like this

Re: Is a Hackeable Panel Doable?
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:22 pm
by GAB
Well, since it is for the Alzoc 3 campaign, I'd like to not reveal details of it yet. After the release of the map, I can answer any question about how something was done.