How to : create new region links

[Supreme Cmdr]

In order to create new links, you have to:

1. Edit the region .3D file and add the jump anomaly in the file.

2. Add the anomaly links in STATICS.SCR

3. Do a PREPALL

eg. to put a new jump point called JMP-100 which links Earth to Majoris, you would use these steps:

1. Fire up TEDWIN and from the FILE menu, change directories to REGIONS.

   Note:

   • Be sure you remembered to edit BCTOOLS.INI to match your install paths before running TEDWIN.

   • Be sure you backed up the GBS files.

2. Now that you've changed folders, from the UNIT menu, select Terrain Mode Toggle so that the actual region is not zoomed. For normal .3D models, you don't need to do this, but you do when editing region .3D files.

3. Since EARTHZ.3D already contains the jump anomaly sub-group objects, you would simply use call up group from the GROUP menu, load the jump.3d object from the menu list and just plonk it anywhere in the scene with a left-click.

   Note:

   • You will notice that the FLUX.3D and WORMHOLE.3D model groups are not in the groups list for EARTHZ - this is because there are no flux fields or wormholes in the Earth space region. If you wanted to put these kind of entities in there, you would need to use the MERGE GROUPS command to load them in.

4. Now, use the create identifier command, type in JMP-100, press enter and then double-left-click on the jump point you placed in the file. It will now be renamed.

   Note:

   • any group that you now place in this scene, will have the name JMP-100!! To clear this identifier, use the command again but press ESCAPE at the prompt. This will clear it.

   • I color code all my entities just for readability. So if you want to match the color of this entity, left-click in color 4 (red), use the copy attributes and left-click on the JMP-100 entity to change the color from Green to Red.

5. From the right-click menu, SAVE, the file

   You now have a jump point in the Earth region. Now to match it..

6. From the FILE menu, load up MAJORISZ and use the same method to put another instance of JMP-100 in this file. But...

   you will notice that this region does not currently contain jump points, so you would need to use the MERGE GROUPS command to load in the JUMP.3D object from the prompt. Just type JUMP.3D from the *.3D prompt because if you press ENTER, it will list every model in the REGIONS list and you will take awhile to find JUMP.3D.

   Then, use the method above to place it in the scene and color it.

   Note:

   • If you cleared the JMP-100 identifier when you did EARTHZ, you would need to repeat those steps

   • Notice that since MAJORISZ contains flux fields and wormholes, you will see these list if you do a GROUP LIST. You won't see the JUMP.3D entity because by default, it does not contain any jump points and there was no need to merge that object in it.

7. Exit TEDWIN. You're all done here.

Now, on to STATICS.SCR. Load it up in a text editor, eg Notepad

1. Go to the Earth section around line 114 and after the last entry (fld-03), enter this:

   jmp-100,j,earthz:To..Majoris

2. Go to the Majoris section around line 1275 and after the last entry (fld-73), enter this:

   jmp-100,j,majorisz:To..Earth

3. Run PREPALL and copy the BC3LIB4.RES file to your BC3K runtime folder. And if you did everything right, you should now have a jump point that takes you clean, clear across the galaxy to Majoris.

It is important to note that:

• jump points and wormholes use the same technology internally. I differentiate them in order to maintain the integrity of the galaxy by saying that jump points link regions and wormholes link systems. Which is why, above, though I would have told you to use a wormhole instead, I used jump point to show you the flexibility of the design and technology. So, if you want to maintain the integrity, you may want to use a wormhole instead of a jump point, just be sure to take a look at the STATICS.SCR file because they both use different parameters.

  Fluxfields are a whole different ballgame - go experiment.

• The named identifier of all anomalies must be unique. I used JMP-100 as an example only, there may be one already in the STATICS.SCR file. When in doubt, check for the last highest number for JMP-, FLX- and WRM- entries in that file.

• And don't even think of putting in planets, moons etc (by merging in the PLANET.3D and/or MOON.3D files). While it will work (you can put another planet in the EARTHZ region), without modifying the PTE .CFG files, entering this new region will either cause a crash or it will fall back to using the default values - meaning that all your surfaces will look the same. Creating surface regions is a lot more complex.

[This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 03-19-2000).]