Wëap

Wëap (abbreviated form of weapon) is a type of data resource in EV Nova. These weaps tell the game about weapon types.

The wëap resource

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EV Bible text

The following information was transcribed from the Nova Bible, ©1995-2006 by Matt Burch. The original document can be viewed here.

The weap resource, surprisingly, stores info on Nova's weapons. The name of the weap resource is used as the weapon name in the weaponry section of the status display. The first two fields control the duration of different aspects of the weapon:

Reload

The number of frames it takes for one of this weapon to reload. 30 = 1 shot/sec. Smaller numbers yield faster reloads.

Count

The number of frames the weapon's shots travel for before they peter out. 30 = 1 second of life.

Damage

The next two fields, MassDmg and EnergyDmg, tell Nova how much damage to do when one of this weapon's shots hits something. Energy damage does damage to shields only, and mass damage does damage to armor only. Further, if a ship has shields, its armor can't be damaged until its shields are knocked down (unless the weapon is a shield-penetrating weapon).

Guidance

The next two fields tell Nova how the weapon should behave in flight.

The weapon's guidance mode:

• -1: Unguided projectile
• 0: Beam weapon (see below)
• 1: Homing weapon (see Seeker field below)
• 2: (unused)
• 3: Turreted beam
• 4: Turreted, unguided projectile
• 5: Freefall bomb (launched at 80% of the ship's current velocity, "weathervanes" into the "wind."
• 6: Freeflight rocket (launched straight ahead, accelerates to its maximum velocity)
• 7: Front-quadrant turret, (can fire +/-45° off the ship's nose) fires straight ahead if no target
• 8: Rear-quadrant turret (can fire +/-45° off the ship's tail)
• 9: Point defense turret (fires automatically at incoming guided weapons and nearby ships)
• 10: Point defense beam (fires automatically at incoming guided weapons and nearby ships)
• 99: Carried ship (AmmoType is the ID of the ship class)

Speed

The weapon's speed (pixels per frame * 100)

AmmoType

The next field tells Nova how to handle the ammunition for this weapon, assuming it’s not a fighter bay:

What kind of ammo the weapon uses.

• -1: Ignored (unlimited ammo)
• 0-255: Draws ammo from this type of weapon. (Usually, if your Hector Cannon was of ID 131, you'd set the AmmoType to 3 so it'd use Hector Birdseed Pellets or whatever. However, you could conceivably set it to use ammo from another weapon's supply by setting the AmmoType to something else.)
• -999: Ship is destroyed when weapon is fired
• -1000 & below: Weapon uses abs(AmmoType+1000)/10 units of fuel per shot. (example: -1005 = 0.5 units per shot)

The next three fields tell Nova which graphic and sound to use for this weapon, and how to launch it:

Graphic

What graphic set to use for this weapon:

• 0-255: Use this graphic set (i.e. spin resources 3000-3255)

Inaccuracy

The weapon's inaccuracy as it leaves the ship (ignored for guidance-10 point defense beams)

• -1 and below: Fires to the side by this angle (absolute value in degrees)
• 0: Fires straight
• 1 and up: Fires with up to this amount of inaccuracy (in degrees)

Sound

Which sound to play when the weapon fires:

• -1: Silent but deadly
• 0-63: Play this sound (snd ID 200-263)

The next four fields store info on how the weapon behaves when it hits something:

Impact

The magnitude of the impact when the shot hits something

• 0: No impact
• 1 and up: This amount of impact, which is inversely proportional to the ship's mass. (e.g. Missile = 30)

ExplodType

What kind of explosion to show when the weapon hits.

• -1: No explosion
• 0-63: This type of explosion
• 1000-1063: Explosion type 0-63, plus a random number of type-0 explosions around it

ProxRadius

The radius of the weapon's proximity fuse (useful for unguided missiles and bombs)

• 0: Weapon requires direct hit to do damage
• 1 and up: This number of pixels of proximity radius

BlastRadius

The radius of the weapon's blast effect

• 0: No blast effect
• 1 and up: This number of pixels of blast radius

Flags

The next field contains some miscellaneous flag info:

• 0x0001: Spin the weapon's graphic continuously (rate of frame advance is controlled by the BeamWidth field as detailed below)
• 0x0002: Weapon fired by second trigger
• 0x0004: For cycling weapons, always start on the first frame of the animation
• 0x0008: For guided weapons, don't fire at fast ships (ships with turn rate > 30)
• 0x0010: Weapon's sound is looped rather than played repeatedly
• 0x0020: Weapon passes through shields (use sparingly!)
• 0x0040: Multiple weapons of this type fire simultaneously
• 0x0080: Weapon can't be targeted by point defense systems (works only for homing weapons)
• 0x0100: Weapon's blast doesn't hurt the player
• 0x0200: Weapon generates small smoke
• 0x0400: Weapon generates big smoke
• 0x0800: Weapon’s smoke trail is more persistent
• 0x1000: Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the front
• 0x2000: Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the sides
• 0x4000: Turreted weapon has a blind spot to the rear
• 0x8000: Shot detonates at the end of its lifespan (useful for flak-type weapons)

Seeker

The next field contains flags that control how a guided weapon (Guidance = 1) behaves, as well as some misc flags for other weapon types:

• 0x0001: Passes over asteroids
• 0x0002: Decoyed by asteroids
• 0x0008: Confused by sensor interference
• 0x0010: Turns away if jammed
• 0x0020: Can't fire if ship is ionized
• 0x4000: Loses lock if target not directly ahead
• 0x8000: May attack parent ship if jammed

SmokeSet

Which cicn set to use for this weapon’s smoke trail, if any. 0 = cicn’s 1000-1007, 1 = 1008-1015, etc. Note that the smoke icons themselves can be any size, but if you use ResEdit’s cicn editor to make each icon only as large as it needs to be, game performance will likely improve.

Decay

How fast to decay each shot’s power

• -1 or 0: Ignored
• 1 and up: Remove one point of mass & energy damage every time this number of frames goes by (1 frame = 1/30 sec.)

Particles

Number of particles to generate per frame. Set to zero for no particles

PartVel

Particle velocity, from 1 to about 200 or so. Experiment to find useful values.

PartLifeMin

Minimum life of a particle from this weapon, in frames.

PartLifeMax

Maximum particle life, in frames.

PartColor

Particle base color, encoded the same as HTML colors. (RRGGBB)

BeamLength

The length of the beam created by this weapon, if applicable.

BeamWidth

Beam width (actually, radius) in pixels. A BeamWidth of 0 will have no center beam, just corona glow.

Note: Lightning beams require a BeamWidth or 1 or greater.

Note: For sprite-based weapons that spin continuously, this field controls the time between frames, in 30ths of a second.

Falloff

The corona falloff. Higher numbers make the corona fall off faster. This value must be between 2 and 16. (since lightning beams have no corona, this is ignored for lightning beams)

Note: For sprite-based weapons, setting this field to a value of 1 will cause the sprite to fade out over the final 32 frames of its life. Higher values will fade out faster.

BeamColor

The color of the beam center, encoded as a 24-bit RGB value (00RRGGBB).

CoronaColor

The color of the beam corona, encoded as a 24-bit RGB value. Note that since the corona is translucent, it will appear approximately half as bright at its maximum as what you specify in this field. (since lightning beams have no corona, this is ignored for lightning beams)

SubCount

The number of submunitions to create when the shot reaches the end of its life or detonates because something wanders into its proximity radius. Set to 0 or -1 if unused.

SubType

The resource ID of the weapon type to create as submunitions. Anything except beams and fighters is handled.

SubTheta

The angular error of the submunitions as they are launched, as expressed in degrees error from the carrier weapons' heading. If this value is negative, submunitions will emerge from the parent shot in a starburst pattern, with angular separation between the submunitions equal to the absolute value of this field in degrees.

SubLimit

If you have defined a recursively-submunitioning weapon (i.e. one which splits into more copies of itself) this field will allow you to limit the number of recursive splits that happen. This field is ignored if the weapon is not recursively submunitioning.

ProxSafety

A time delay for the weapon's proximity fuse, in 30ths of a second. Set to zero for immediate arming on launch.

Flags2

• 0x0001: For cycling weapons, keep the graphic on the first frame until the weapon's ProxSafety count has expired
• 0x0002: For cycling weapons, stop the graphic on the last frame
• 0x0004: Proximity detonator ignores asteroids
• 0x0008: Proximity detonator is triggered by ships other than the target (for guided weapons)
• 0x0010: Submunitions fire toward nearest valid target
• 0x0020: Don't launch submunitions when the shot expires
• 0x0040: Don't show weapon's ammo quantity on the status display
• 0x0080: This weapon can only be fired when there is at least one ship of this ship's KeyCarried type aboard
• 0x0100: AI ships won't use this weapon
• 0x0200: This weapon uses the ship's weapon sprite, if applicable
• 0x0400: Weapon is a planet-type weapon, and can only hit planet-type ships or destroyable stellars
• 0x0800: Don't allow this weapon to be selected or displayed if it is out of ammo
• 0x1000: Weapon can disable but not destroy
• 0x2000: For beam weapons, display the beam underneath ships instead of on top of them.
• 0x4000: Weapon can be fired while cloaked.
• 0x8000: Weapon does x10 mass damage to asteroids

Ionization

The amount of ionization energy to add to the ship that gets hit by this weapon. When a ship is ionized it becomes nearly immobilized until the ionization charge dissipates.

HitParticles

The number of particles to generate when a shot of this type hits a ship or asteroid. Set to zero if unused.

HitPartLife

The average life (in frames) of the hit-particles.

HitPartVel

The speed of the hit-particles; a value of 100 is one pixel per frame.

HitPartColor

The color of the hit-particles, encoded as a 24-bit HTML color (00RRGGBB)

ExitType

The type of weapon exit point to use for this weapon:

• -1: Ignored - weapon will fire from the center of the ship
• 0: GunPosX/Y

1. TurretPosX/Y
2. GuidedPosX/Y
3. BeamPosX/Y

BurstCount

The number of shots this weapon can fire before having to endure a burst reload. Set to 0 or -1 if unused. For weapons that do not fire simultaneously, this value will be multiplied by how many of this weapon the firing ship has - for example, a weapon with a BurstCount of 4 on a ship with 3 of that weapon will be able to fire 12 times before entering the burst reload period. For weapons that fire simultaneously, this value is independent of how many of the weapon the ship has.

BurstReload

The reload time that is imposed when the weapon has fired >= BurstCount shots. Ignored if BurstCount is 0 or -1.

JamVuln1-4

The weapon's vulnerability to the four different types of jamming, from 0 to 100%. Ignored if the weapon is not a guided weapon.

Flags3

• 0x0001: Weapon will only use ammo at the end of a burst cycle
• 0x0002: Weapon's shots are translucent
• 0x0004: Firing ship can't fire another shot of this type until the previous one expires or hits something.
• 0x0010: Weapon fires from whatever weapon exit point is closest to the target
• 0x0020: Weapon is exclusive - no other weapons on the ship can fire while this weapon is firing or reloading

Durability

For guided weapons, this is how many point defense hits a shot from this weapon can take before it is destroyed. Set to 0 for weapons that are immediately destroyed by any PD hits. Ignored for non-guided projectile weapons or beams. (PD damage to guided weapons is calculated as 100% of mass damage plus 50% of energy damage)

GuidedTurn

For guided weapons, this is the turning speed of the weapon. Higher values yield more maneuverable missiles. Ignored for anything but guided weapons.

MaxAmmo

For ammo-using weapons, this is the maximum amount of ammo per each instance of this weapon. (so, if you have two of these weapons, the max amount of ammo for that weapon type would actually be twice MaxAmmo, and so on) Set to 0 or -1 if you want the ammo quantity to be constrained by the oütf resource's Max field instead.

Recoil

The amount of recoil force to apply to the firing ship when this weapon is used:

• 0 or -1: No recoil
• Positive values: Thrust the ship backwards
• Negative values: Thrust the ship forwards

(note that the resulting change to the ship's velocity is inversely proportional to its mass)

LiDensity

For a beam weapon, entering zero in this field will make it a normal, straight beam weapon. Entering a value greater than zero will make the beam a lightning beam, which has no real effect other than to make it look cool. The number you enter here is the number of zig-zags the beam will make per 100 pixels. Higher numbers yield more convoluted beams. Note also that lightning beams can't have a beam corona, and so will only use the CoreColor and CoreWidth fields above.

LiAmplitude

The amplitude of each zig-zag of a lightning beam, in pixels. Higher numbers yield more jagged-looking beams. Don't overdo this or you will have screen redraw problems. In fact, don't overuse lightning beams period, as they are much more processor-intensive to draw than normal beams!

IonizeColor

The color that a ship hit by this weapon will appear after being sufficiently ionized (encoded the same as an HTML color value). A value of 0 here will be interpreted as a default bluish color. Using fairly bright colors here is probably the best, as low-intensity colors tend to look odd when used as the ionization color.

Special beam functionality

Please note that if you've set the weapon to be a beam (Guidance of 0 or 3) the following fields have different functions:

Count

The number of frames the beam stays onscreen. Note also that if the beam has a positive Decay value entered (see below) the actual time the beam will exist onscreen will be Count + 16 - CoronaFalloff, so adjust the Reload value accordingly to ensure that the universe doesn't get filled up with overlapping beams from a single ships.

Impact

Functions normally, with one exception: if the impact is set to a negative value, the beam acts as a tractor beam. Smaller ships will be pulled towards the firing ship with a strength proportional to the Impact value, while a small ship firing a tractor beam at a larger ship (or asteroid) will "latch on" to it and be dragged along. Note that you cannot enter hyperspace if held by a tractor beam from a ship that's larger than you are. Note also that inertialess ships are not affected by tractor beams.

ProxRadius

Ignored

BlastRadius

Ignored

Decay

If Decay is greater than zero, the beam will "shrink" before it disappears from the screen. The actual time the beam spends on screen will be Count + 16 - CoronaFalloff in this case, so adjust your Reload value accordingly (otherwise you'll get too many beams onscreen at once).

Make an outf for each weap

Another Note: If you don't create an oütf resource for each weapon type, your ship's weapon loadout will be corrupted when you land on a planet. (specifically, Nova will mistakenly remove any weapons for which you didn't create oütf resources) Also, having multiple outfit items that bestow the user with the same weapon type can cause weird things to happen.