Veterancy buff for LifeBarSize

[dippydoop]

Hi,
I'm trying to create a buff that grows the size of a unit's life bar upon gaining veterancy levels so that they're easier to pick out in a crowd.

For more context, I'm editing another mod, Endless Levels, which allows unit veterancy to go on indefinitely. Of course, I will keep this private, but this thread might be a useful resource for future original modders.

I've never coded in lua before, so the I've tried reverse-engineering existing code for my own purposes. Currently, I've come up with the following additions:

*BuffDefinitions.lua

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BuffBlueprint {
    Name = 'VeterancyLifeBar',
    DisplayName = 'VeterancyLifeBar',
    BuffType = 'VETERANCYLIFEBAR',
    Stacks = 'ALWAYS',
    Duration = -1,
    Affects = {
        LifeBarSize = {
            Add = 0,
            Mult = 1.1,
        },
    },
}

*Buff.lua

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        elseif atype == 'LifeBarSize' then
         
         local val = BuffCalculate(unit, buffName, atype, unit:GetLifeBarSize())
         unit:SetLifeBarSize(val)

The game does work, and the existing buffs also work, except for my addition. I suspect there's a problem with my Buff.lua entry, and I may be missing another reference entirely.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Franck83]

Hi Dippydoop,

Welcome in the mod section

There are a limited number of affects and LifeBarSize is not one of these. You can find the complete list in the buff.lua file.

Spoiler: show

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-- Vanilla affects :
--- Damage (ALL)
--- RateOfFire (ALL)
--- DamageRadius (ALL)
--- MaxRadius (ALL)
--- MoveMult (ALL)
--- WeaponsEnable (ALL)
--- VisionRadius (ALL)
--- RadarRadius (ALL)
--- OmniRadius (ALL)
--- BuildRate (ALL)
--- EnergyActive (ALL)
--- MassActive (ALL)
--- EnergyMaintenance (ALL)
--- EnergyProduction (ALL)
--- MassProduction (ALL)
--- EnergyWeapon (ALL)
--- Stun (ALL)
--- MaxHealth (ALL)
--- Health (ALL)
--- Regen (ALL)

You can edit the lifebar size in the unit bp. But i don't know if you can do it in real time.

Maybe you should think using overlays (see idle engie mod).

[dippydoop]

Hey Franck,
I was getting the impression that I was missing something; is there no way of adding a new affect? It seems all it would have to do is pull an existing value from a blueprint file, modify it, then set the modified value as the new value for that unit.

Thanks for the idea, I've downloaded the mod you suggested. It seems like there's potential there, but it will take me a while to poke through it and understand what's going on.

[Franck83]

Yes you can add a new affect, but you need to link it with an effective sim command.

is unit:SetLifeBarSize(val) an effective command ? Don't know, maybe but never seen before.

What you want to do is a UI thing not a sim one.

Overlays will grants you much more control and option with what you want to do. Maybe some dev can give you more info on overlays use.

[dippydoop]

Yes, I suppose I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I don't suppose you know a good resource to prime me on overlays, do you?

[Franck83]

Don't know much about it, but i will take a look when i have little time.

If you want to mod, i recommend you to install Notepad++ or a software of this kind. There are search functions that are very useful.

So you can type 'Overlays' to access to all FAF files about it.

[dippydoop]

Thanks. It seems all references to 'overlay' are in two files (one of which seems to be a duplicate). I'll admit, this is getting a bit beyond my abilities.
I'd need some kind of function to pull the veteran level from all units, then apply a particular bitmap at certain milestones (perhaps the stock veterancy icons could be used for that).
Perhaps a less performance-intensive way would be to run the check upon levelup, but I'm not sure if that would come with its own problems, like in the removal of overlays upon unit death.

[Uveso]

I'd need some kind of function to pull the veteran level from all units

Please no

In older days we used a programmroutine/thread to scann every unit for a single variable.

But now we are using events ^^.

Take a look into the file:

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\lua\sim\Unit.lua

and search for:

SetVeteranLevel = function(self, level)

There you can add your function to do something at a higher veteran level.

Maybe for testing, giving the unit a unitname with self:SetCustomName('I am a veteran!')

[Uveso]

Just in case you want to hook the function without destroying the original file;

create a blank file inside your mod:

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\YourMod\lua\sim\Unit.lua

and paste this into the file:

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-- Save the original Unit class
local oldUnit = Unit

-- Crate a new unitclass with all functions from the old Unitclass
Unit = Class(oldUnit) {

    -- Noe we are overwriting the original SetVeteranLevel  function.
    SetVeteranLevel = function(self, level)

        -- first lets call the old original SetVeteranLevel function.
        oldUnit.SetVeteranLevel(self, level)

        -- now we can add our own stuff
        -- Maybe add a Name to the unit with Vetaran Level:
        self:SetCustomName('Veteran Level '..level)
    end,

}


This way you have an non destructive hook, and it will work also after FAF updates.

[dippydoop]

Thanks for your input, Uveso. I am learning new things, slowly!

Could you explain this line a bit more, please?

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        self:SetCustomName('Veteran Level '..level)


I get that we're setting a new name for the unit as 'Veteran Level', but what does the "..level" part do? Is it an argument of some kind?