Part Seven: Overview

In this section you will begin setting up the resources.

7.0 Resources

The Resource.missphere file contains every single resource element that we want to use in the map including asteroids, dust clouds and particles. When ships are placed in the ResourceSphere they go under AI control, even when playing with no computer players. There will only ever be more than one of these if it becomes bigger than 64k. Derelicts, mines, crystals and other ships and junk all go in here as well. Crystals we have already spoke about, we will cover mines later when we add in the derelicts, i.e. the station and its defenses.

So, w e know exactly what is going on in the Resources and Distribution Files, we know that not only the resource clusters are here, but also if we want AI controlled ships and other derelicts or scenery then they all go in here too. 

7.1 - Copy the relevant map distribution files to the map folder.

In your DSpiral2 folder delete all the *.dist files. Now, go into the Tutorial Map Folder, you will find three more distribution files called ‘Asteroid.dist’, ‘DustCloud.dist’ and, ‘Tiny.dist’ copy these into your DSpiral2 folder. Don’t worry about the distribution files at the moment, they are simple text files that have the data pertaining to the range of sizes of each resource type, and should we need it; the regeneration rates of these resource types. We will deal with these later, but we add them now so we can jump in and out of the game and see our changes as we make them.

7.2 - Edit the ‘Resource.missphere’ file.

Open up the ‘Resource.missphere’ file now, we will ignore the 3 line header beginning with the semicolon and deal with the rest.

7.2.1 - We are going to delete every line bar the three header lines at the top (the Relic header lines, those three that start with a semicolon. [ ; ]).

We could if we wished keep One Resource line, and One crystal line and delete every other resource lines bar the first two lines. The reason we would want to keep these lines is because it makes a handy template to build our resources from. Copying and pasting away, like there's no tomorrow.

7.2.2 - Okay an average resource line looks like this;

7.2.3 - So lets add some resources in here.

We will work through this using Excel. There are a number of ways to deal with resource addition, although I can't recommend any way other than Excel. If you are thinking along the lines of; "So, Why are we using Excel?", "I don't have Excel how on earth am I going to learn anything?" or even "What other ways can you edit?" Then your in luck, I will explain further my choice and reasons of by illustrating answering these questions thusly;

7.2.3.1 - Working by hand. i.e.; Pen, Paper and Calculator.

Do all the working by Hand. i.e. sit with a drawing of your map and work out the length, angle and co-ordinates of each line by calculator, abacus, fingers or whatever is certainly a possibility. This is as you can imagine extremely long and drawn out and massively boring. I don't recommend it at all. Jump over to the Chapter Seven Notes Page where I discuss how I would go about turning a spiral drawing into a map and doing the entire thing with nothing more than a Pen, Piece of paper and a calculator. Just be sure to return back here and continue off where you left off. Anyway, just because I loath the idea of all that math doesn't mean I've completely neglected all you without Excel. I will be sure to discuss how everything we do with excel can be done by hand, usually I'm gloating, but it will help... Also, every co-ordinate for every line that you will need has been made available to you at no extra cost, I will be sure and make sure everything you need is available if you can't do it for yourself in excel. If you are stuck with doing it by hand then it will save you all that work. I'm nice that way. Anyway if you insist on the pen/paper approach here are three documents that may be of help to you.

Working Resources by Hand	Chapter Seven Notes: Tutorial Notes, they are a bit vague on the actual working, but a good starting place so you can see why you need the trig and exactly what to do with it.
Introduction to Trigonometry	Appendix B: This is an excellent place to start if you are interested (?!) in learning how to use trigonometry. Covers all the basics extremely well and is a good companion to the more in-depth:
Trigonometry: A Crash Review	Appendix B: A more In-depth discussion on Trig, This file covers pretty much every aspect of basic Trig in superb detail. Easily understandable and well written.

7.2.3.2 - Working with MissionMan.

The problem here is, other than it crashes your system every five minutes, and its impossible to use, MissionMan does not lend itself to regular shapes. Rings and such are possible, but they never really look any good. It can make good random streams of asteroids (end to end cylinders), but then Excel does it better and faster, again, not recommended.

7.2.3.3 - Working with Excel

I use Excel and I am going to continue this tutorial using it. It really is massively simple, as you will see. Highly Recommended. We will be using Excel throughout the remainder of this tutorial. I strongly suggest you use Excel. And here's how. Get hold of the HW:C SRD-XL Utility. Try here for a starting point if you don't have it. You have it? Great then open it up now. If you don't/can't/won't use Excel then don't worry , I will supply the co-ordinates you will need to continue using this tutorial, just be sure to have a quick glance at the section on Working Resources by Hand so you know what's going on.

7.3 - Add Resources using Excel to the ‘Resource.missphere’ file.

Right. We have drawn out a concept sketch of our map, which you will have seen in the introduction of this tutorial. What you haven't seen so far is this:

fig One - Top Elevation

I have drawn out the map on graph paper. The map consists of a single spiralling strand of asteroids, here we see a top elevation of the spiral. This spiral will be made up of a long chain of straight cylinders, all lying end to end. I have drawn some of those straight lines in, but just ignore them. Its the spiral you are interested in.

One last thing here: "How did I get the Z axis co-ordinates?" Well, I will tell you dearest reader: I know I want the spiral to drop from top to bottom, and I chose an arbitrary amount of having it drop 128000 (128km) from very top to very bottom. There are 8 half circles in the map, so each half circle is going to drop 16000 (16km). There are eight lines making up each half circle of the spiral, so each line must drop 2000 (2km) from end to end. From this I can get the Z axis values for each point.

To save you the trouble of all this working out, I will supply the co-ordinates you need later, but at this point of writing I am at the same stage as you, and things may well change as we go on. So read on. I will now show you how much easier all this is when you use Excel or some other spreadsheet utility.

7.3.1 - Working with Excel: Using the HW:C Strands, Rings and Distances Excel Utility. (The HW:C SRD-XL Utility)

We are making a downward spiral, and the HW:C SRD-XL Utility does not cover that per se, so we will jury rig the answers we want, because everything we need is already there.

Now, the Utility can do rings, so were set. We could use the Strand Creator and using the graph and simply read off the co-ordinates we want, like I have been talking about so far, but we won't. You see, The strands generator will generate a cylinder of asteroids between the co-ordinates you list. The co-ordinates of a cylinder is the exact cente of a cylinder right? And we know what points we want the spiral to pass through right? The co-ordinates we have. Well, the rings are generated around a single set of coordinates, how handy, we can find the exact centre of each line, as well as the angle of the line between the start and end points of each half circle, and use them to create a correctly tilted ring. How stunningly awesome. That's why excel is so useful.

So, in our map we know the starting and ending locations of the first spiral half (the outermost & Uppermost end of the Spiral), as shown in fig Four below, termed A and B. We will recreate the line AB in the Strand Generator.

Fig Four - Top Elevation (Arc AB)

Line AB will be tilting the same way we want our spiral to be and it will have the co-ordinates of the exact centre of the half circle (arc AB) So, we'll do this by using Rings and editing out the halves we don't need. We know that our spiral is actually drawn out as 8 half circles. That's merely 8 rings, with half the rings deleted. You see? Obvious...

This way we can work faster - there is less for us to do. Also, more importantly, tweaking is a lot easier and quicker and hence less daunting. Another bonus to using rings is that TAKER set his Ring maker up to make 24 sided rings, 24 end to end cylinders in a circle. We will have twelve cylinders making up the semi-circle, instead of 8. The end result will be much better looking.

The map spirals downwards (as I keep saying, I know, I'm sorry), and we know at what rate it does this - well at least I do, but hey, I will tell you too, it will have dropped 16km (16000) every half circle of the spiral.

7.3.2 - Finding the co-ordinates and angles of each ring.

So lets start off using the first sheet, the Strands Generator sheet. Here we will draw in each line to get the exact centre of the ring (which is the same as the exact centre of the line; Pos x, Pos y & Pos z) and the angle we need to create a good looking spiral downwards, (it will be the angle about the Y axis - Rot y on the strands sheet) .

So, while we are here in the Strands Generator Sheet, lets plug in the co-ordinates for all the start/end points of the half circles we require. I'll list them here, although you could easily get them yourselves from Fig One.

7.3.3 - Input the values shown below in the Strand Generator.

These values I have read directly from the drawn out map above using a scale of 1cm=10000 (10km). Here's how I named the rest of the Points. So, we will be looking for data on: Line AB, BC,CD,DE,EF,FG,GH and HO. This is pretty straight forward right? Just remember that the direction of the line is important.

Fig Five - Top Elevation (Arcs BC & CD)

Spiral Ring Co-ordinates
Use in this order and add these co-ordinates into the Strands Generator sheet.

U	-100000, 0, 72000
A	80000, 0, 64000
B	-80000, 0, 48000
C	60000, 0, 32000
D	-60000, 0, 16000
E	40000, 0, 0
F	-40000, 0, -16000
G	20000, 0, -32000
H	-20000, 0, -48000
O	0, 0, -64000
T	-20000, 0, -80000

7.3.4 - Whoah!! Where the HELL did Points 'U' and 'T' Come from!!!

Don't worry about these, I have had a little look at the results so far and based on starting positions and so on, have taken the quick decision to add an extra half circle at the top (U) and an extra half circle - a Tail at the bottom (T). I got these co-ordinates by simple mental arithmatic, extrapolating up from point A and down from point O. Basic stuff.

7.3.5 - So what have we got now?

Take a look at the results churned out in the workings box next to these inputed values. Looking at the results for line UA first.

Line UA Results from the Strand Generator:

Cylinder	1-2
Pos x	-10000.0
Pos y	0.0
Pos z	72000.0
Length	180709.7
Rot Y	185.1
Rot Z	0.0

You know all this but to summarise; Inputting in the co-ordinates of U; (-100000, 0, 80000) and the co-ordinates of A; (80000, 0, 64000) will give you the angle that the halfcircle will have for it to drop 16km from start to finish.

What it's actually doing is generating the co-ordinates for a cylinder (a straight line) stretching between these two points. The results for this cylinder are actually ready to be used, if you check out the ResourceSphere sheet you will find the results are outputted here and you only need to save this sheet as a *.csv file and then copy the *.csv data directly into your ResourceSphere.missphere file and thats that. We are just using the math thats gone on here like we would a calculator...

Looking at the results we got on the Strands Generator sheet;

Cylinder
This is just telling us that it is lines 1 and 2 from the lines you have added to the strand generator.

Pos x, Pos y & pos z
The central co-ordinates required for a cylinder, (a straight line) that will start and end at the co-ordinates you have added.

Length
The distance between the two Points is shown at 180709.7 . We will use this number for our radius, or rather we will use half this number as it actually gives us the diameter of the circle we will have and we want the radius...

Rot Y
The rotation about the Y axis (Rot Y) which the our up/down angle we will require our ring to have (although we will only use half the ring). Now typing in these numbers gives us the angle we seek, namely 185.1° tilt. Because 180° is just a half-rotation and is a 2D object, this would be the same as saying a 5.1° tilt. Right?

Rot Z
The Rotation about Z axis (Rot Z - which will be 0°, although it will tell you its 180°, it doesn't matter although you will know this, its really basic trig) we will ignore this.

7.3.6 - Input the values generated by the Strand Generator into the Rings Sheet.

In the Rings sheet, We will fill in the boxes with the numbers we have just generated.

Radius-X
The size of the ring we want, it's radius. From the strands sheet this is half the length of the distance between the two points (Length) which is; 80399

Tilt X (deg)
From the strands sheet this will be our Rotation about the Y axis value (Rot Y), which reads 185.1, but as 180° is just be effectivly turning the ring upside down, the actual angle we need is; -5.1

Shift x,y and z
These values will be the co-ordinates that designate the centre of the ring (or the 'origin', or on our map 'Point O' or even 'co-ordinates 0,0,0', heh). From the strands sheet this will be the centre of the line, the actual co-ordinates of the cylinder generated there, (Pos x, Pos y & Pos z). Pos x is -10000, Pos y is 0 and Pos z is; 72000

- Repeat this For All 5 Ring Sheets, using the co-ordinates/angles generated from the Strand Generator sheet. We have 5 ring sheets at our disposal, so set up the first 5 Rings.

Remember though; the second line will be measured in the opposite direction, it drops in the opposite direction, and so although it says the angle is 185.7 you would not read it as -5.7 but as 5.7, you can see this easily on the line as the Rot z is 180°. Reverse the ring tilt for alternate Rings (i.e. Lines UA, BC,DE,FG and HO will have negative Tilt X (deg) values).

7.3.7 - Copy the results generated by the Rings Generators into the Resource.missphere file.

OK once you have filled in the data required, jump over to the Rings Resources sheet where you can see the co-ordinates are all ready for you, and in an easier order to read than on TAKER's Rings sheet. Now save this sheet as a comma delimited file(csv) which can be read with any text file, and is happily saved in exactly the format HW:C requires, with commas separating the values. Save the sheet as Rings Resources.csv in your DSpiral2 folder.

Now open up this csv file using Textpad (or note pad or indeed any other text editor, if you want things to be difficult and fiddly for yourself). Copy the entire five sets of Ring co-ordinates, directly into your Resource.missphere file.

Save the file and go and have a little shufty at the results so far, in Cataclysm. You should have five rings on top of one another, each successive ring dropping in the opposite direction to the previous one. And looking not unlike this:

7.3.8 - Create the last few rings using a separately saved XL Spreadsheet.

Save your open XL Spreadsheet as Tutmap1.xls. We already have all our data inputted so we will keep it handy and not copy over it. Open up the original copy of the HW:C SDR-XL again.

Copy/paste the co-ordinates you inputted in the Strands Generator on the Tutmap1.xls spreadsheet, into the newly opened, original SRD-XL, Strands page.

Set up the last 5 rings in the same way you did in 7.3.6, use the results to make the rings from Lines FG, GH and HO).

Save this second Excel spreadsheet as Tutmap2.xls. Now, in the same way you done it in 7.3.6, add those rings into the map and take another look.

7.3.9 - Tweak the ring so it becomes a spiral.

We will tweak our ring from Excel, again this allows any global changes we need to be made easier in the future. Go into the Rings ResourceSphere sheet and lets delete all the lines we don't need. Well, we won't actually delete them because you never know, we may suddenly need them in the future (Sod's law dictates we will). What we will do is get the game to ignore specific lines by the usual way of adding a semicolon in front of each line we don't want.

Now, if you have been following me closely you should have the same set up as me, I will summarize all 10 rings below in case me and you differ somewhere, it should make the next bit easier.

Tutmap1.XLS

Tutmap2.XLS

7.3.9.1 - Okay Blank out the lines by using the semi-colon in front of the lines you don't want on your map, you want rid of the lines as indicated in the 'Delete Quadrants' box of the above tables.

7.3.9.2 - Next we want to point each resource line at the ‘Asteroid.dist’ distribution file, so delete ‘Tiny.dist’ and replace it with ‘Asteroid.dist’, for every line.

7.3.9.3 - Deal with the resourceNum and radius for each cylinder. We want a seamless spiral very thick at the top and very thin but not completely sparse at the bottom.

Using the pos z value as an indicator of where I was on the spiral, i found it easier to keep an eye exactly what point of the spiral I was dealing with.

7.3.9.3.1 - Radius
By starting at a value of radius=400 at the very lowest point of our spiral and ending with a radius of 6000 at the uppermost part of the spiral I gradually incremented as i rose up the spiral.

7.3.9.3.2 - numResources
Set up the resources, starting at the very bottom at 3 and ending at the uppermost part of the spiral at 60. Try to make an even increment all the way up the spiral.

Where the different rings meet, you will notice a change in the length of each cylinder, what I do is; with a calculator work out the average 'density' of asteroids against the average 'density' of the next cylinder in line and try and get a ratio similar.

i.e. the lowest ring ends with a length of 3344, it joins to the next part of the spiral with cylinders of length of 5623, 5623/3344=1.68, the first cylinder of length 5623 has resource density of 50, so 50/1.68=30, I therefore give the last cylinder of length 3344 a resource density of 30 and work down from there. And so on. This helps make for seamless joins between two differently lengthed cylinders. I just plucked these numbers out the air to illustrate this, but you get the idea..

Note:
I saved each Rings Resources sheet from Tutmap1.xls as Rings Resourcesphere1.csv and Tutmap2.xls Rings Resourcesphere2.csv. They have been included in the HW:C Tutorial Map Files Folder, so those of you without Excel, or if you have got hopelessly lost somewhere before here, you can copy and past all the co-odinates for our spiral direct from there.

7.3.9.4 - The property value for this sphere is not set at anything, this is cool as we don't want them to do anything, like regenerate. We have the propertiesParam set at the default of ‘?’, this is fine, we will leave them be.

And that’s it. Save your results and copy them into the resource.missphere file. Away into HW:C again. Your map should look a little like this;

7.4 - Edit the Asteroid.dist file.

This file contains the information on the size and amounts of each size of the resource you have in a cluster. They are very simple files giving the relative sizes of asteroids/dustclouds of the resources named in the Resourcesphere file. There can be any amount of distribution files in the folder.

We now know that the range of sizes of each resource type, and the range of regeneration are found in the distribution file that each resource line names. Lets give a slightly higher emphasis to the ratio of asteroids found in the Asteroid.dist file. Change the Asteroid.dist file lines to match this;

Asteroid0    5    1
Asteroid1    2    2
Asteroid2    3    2
Asteroid3    3    1
Asteroid4    1    0

The second column of numbers is the regenation distribution ratio values. As we have not switched on regeneration (property value 2048), these are redundant here. If you wanted you could quite happily delete them.

Lets finish up the Resourcesphere by cleaning up and finishing off the resources.

7.5 - Edit the ‘Resource.missphere’ file and it's associated distribition files.

OK, after taking a look at the spiral I think I would like to have huge asteroids at the top and teeny ones at the bottom. Gravity is getting dense down there right? Also we will add in our crystals down at the bottom as well.

In the HW:C Tutorial map files folder you will have noted that I also added in a folder called HWC Dist Files. These came directly from the game itself, they can all be found in a number of maps BD have produced, as well as all the singleplayer maps if you'd care to look. They can be split into three different groups, and from smallest to largest those groups are;

Mixed Asteroids
01bluerare; 02rare; 03mediumrare; 04medium; 05mediumwell; 06well; 07verywell and cata (has full range)

Single Asteroids
type0; type1; type2; type3; type4 and even (has 1 of each type)

Dustclouds
Dustcloud and dustcloudcentre (has 1 of each type)

They are nothing special, really, just handy to have around. handy for you as well as you don't need to go and create them.

7.5.1 - Delete every dist file in your DSpiral folder, then open the HWC Tutorial Map Files/HWC Dist Files folder and copy all the Mixed asteroid dist files except the cata.dist file into your DSpiral2 folder. That's 01bluerare to 07verywell on the list above.

7.5.2 - Now, in your resourcesphere, delete every line hidden from the game by a semicolon, if you haven't already. You should be left with a huge long list of lines. 108 lines to be precise. Save the file.

7.5.3 - Next open up Excel again and open up the Resource.missphere file in Excel.

If you are wondering how on earth to open up your resourcesphere file in excel, well don't worry, its pretty simple, you can see a note on exactly how to to it here.

7.5.4 - You have a lot to do here now. I want you to change the distribution files in each line. Starting with the top add 07verywell.dist, after 10-15 lines change to 06well.dist and so on all the way down to our last few entries which i want you to have as 01bluerare.dist.

Once you have finished, check the radius of each cylinder, this is its thickness, do they match well where the rings join, or could you afford to tweak them? You can save the file as Resource.missphere (in .csv format) and then jump into Cataclysm, take a look and jump back to excel and tweak that way. just try and make it look as smooth as possible.

Once you have finished save the file as a *.csv formatted file, calling it Resource.missphere. And then close the file.

7.5.5 - Jump back to Textpad. I want you to now open all the new distribution files you added. Change Asteroid0 to 5 for every one of them, then close them up again. The stock files we are using look a little dense, so I want to thin it down a little without reducing the total amount of asteroids present.

Take a look at the results in Cataclysm. Not bad eh? I have included the file as I have it at this stage as Resource2.missphere in the HW:C Tutorial map files folder. If you need it it is there, you can copy the entire contents directly into your Resourcesphere.

Summary

Take a look at the results in Cataclysm, a lot, lot better huh? We are finished with the resources, I am happy, if you are not then you know what to do, and how to do it.

Lets move onto the more fun stuff that HW:C has to offer, namely Mines, Meteor Storms, Slipgates and Crystals.

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