HowTo:Edit Communications

In-game communications (unit-to-unit chat) are implemented as finite state machine - each state has a set of possible nodes, each node has a text and deltaRelation value. Conversation are faction-dependent and are defined by XML files in data/communications.

Nodes basics

Their default positions and purpose we can see in the function creating the default set and following ones. It have only basic text and relationship adjustment values:

#	Node text	Value	Hardcoded	Comment
0	"welcome to cachunkcachunk.com"	0	(starting node: Don't link here)	Its edges list starting nodes (depending on relations).
1	"I love you!"	+.1
2	"J00 0wnz m3"	+.08
3	"You are cool!"	+.06
4	"You are nice!"	+.05
5	"Ya you're naled! NALED PAL!"	-.02
6	"i 0wnz j00"	-.08
7	"I hate you!"	-.1
...	Built-ins:
N-16	"Docking operation complete"	0	On being udocked.	Usually set to 0.01 or so: you do business with them, they like you.
N-15	"Please move into a green docking box and press d."	0	docking operations
N-14	"Docking operation begun."	0	docking operations
N-13	"Clearance denied."	0	docking operations
N-12	"Clearance granted."	0	docking operations
N-11	"No."	0	rejecting FG order
N-10	"Yes."	0	obeying FG order
N-9	"Prepare To Be Searched. Maintain Speed and Course."	0	contraband scan
N-8	"No contraband detected: You may proceed."	0	contraband scan
N-7	"Contraband detected! All units close and engage!"	0	contraband scan	Usually is set to -.125 or so. It's in addition to hardcoded "close and engage!" orders and relations. See also variables - AI/ContrabandMadness, etc.
N-6	"Your Course is deviating! Maintain Course!"	0	contraband scan	The patrol also gets upset.
N-5	"Request Clearance To Land."	0
N-4		0	(killed)
N-3		0	(dealt damage)
N-2		0	(got damaged)
N-1	"*hit*"	-.2	(got hit)	Not a communication, just reaction on damage. Still supports friendly/neutral/hostile edges.

XML schema description

• <comm> ... </comm> -- Marks the beginning and end of the XML file.
• <node> ... </node> -- basic data.
  • text [string] [""] - What they say.
    • (see above)
  • text1, etc [string] [""] - Variant text (to be chosen randomly).
  • relationship [float] [0.0] - relationship adjustment.
    • (see above)
  • <edge> ... </edge> -- connection to other nodes. Typically, there are 3 (good-neutral-bad) entries at the top level.
    • index [int] - linked node's number.
  • <sound> ... </sound> -- voice. Sound nodes corresponding to text, text1, etc are simply added in this order
    • file [string] [""] - OGG file name, relative to data/ ("communications/sounds/lihw/lihw_good-day.ogg")
    • gain [float] [1.0] - relative volume.
    • sex [unsigned small int] [0] - FIXME Support for variant sounds, doesn't seem to be used yet.