Define Bullet Types

HOW TO:

					Define Bullet Types
					===================
					
	No doubt you will want aliens to shoot at you and vice-versa, and before you can make them do
	this, you have to define some bullet types. Aliens fire selected bullet types, as do the player's
	guns, and ammo you collect also gives you specified ammounts of each bullet type to shoot.
	The term 'bullet' is a bit of a misnomer and should really be 'projectile' since it can refer
	to bullets, mines, grenades, rockets, and, curiously enough, the bits of splatch that aliens
	spurt when shot.
					
	Load your link file into the game linker as usual.
					
	Select BULLETS -> DEFINE BULLET DATA
	
	To define the NAME of a bullet, click on the existing name with the LEFT mouse button and
	type in your new name. You can now click on 'EDIT BULLET STATISTICS' and begin creating your
	projectile.
	
1. DAMAGE TO TARGET PER BULLET
------------------------------

	This refers to the amount of damage the target (ie an alien, an object or you yourself) will
	take on being struck directly by the projectile. A value of zero disables collision with
	other objects, useful for stuff like the blood which spurts out of aliens.

2. VISIBLE BULLET OR INSTANT EFFECT
-----------------------------------

	Bullets can either be visible, like grenades or plasma bolts, or invisible and instantly
	effective like shotgun blasts or rifle bullets.

3. GRAVITY VALUE
----------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS
	
	This indicates the effect gravity has upon the projectile. Grenades should have a value of
	about 20 or so, with 0 representing gravity having no effect. NOTE that negative values are
	possible, and will cause the bullet to fall towards the roof!
	
4. BOUNCE OFF WALLS Y/N
-----------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS
	
	Toggles bouncing off walls on/off. NB: Bullets which are subject to gravity will be slowed
	down by contact with walls, but those unaffected by gravity (Gravity Value = 0) are assumed
	to be some sort of lazer weapon and are not slowed down.
	
5. BOUNCE OFF FLOORS/CEILINGS
-----------------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS
	
	Toggles bouncing off floors and ceilings. Slowdown rules same as above.
	
6. BOUNCE NOISE
---------------

	NOT IMPLEMENTED IN THIS VERSION.
	
	This setting has no effect at present, although updates may rectify this absence.
	
7. BULLET LIFETIME
------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS

	Bullets may last forever (a value of -1 denotes this) or may fizzle out or detonate after
	a certain time. This value is measured in 50ths of a second. Projectiles not defined as 
	bouncing will detonate or fizzle prematurely if they strike a wall, and will detonate in
	any case if they strike an enemy target (either you or an alien depending upon who fired it).
	
8. EXPLOSIVE FORCE
------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS

	When the bullet runs out of time or hits an alien or wall, it may explode. A value of zero
	represents no explosion, with about 40-50 representing a reasonably powerful blast.
	NOTE: The visual effect of an explosion is created by producing several copies of the
	'impact' frames of animation around the central blast area, so if you have an explosive bullet,
	ensure that the impact frames are of a suitable type to look right when the explosion occurs.

9. MOVEMENT SPEED 0-7
---------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS

	The speeds of bullets are not measured linearly, but in powers of two. Thus '0' is very, very
	slow (in practice, not movement at all, particularly if you use it for mines which drop and hit
	the ground, slowing down and therefore stopping entirely) and 7 is, well, 128 times faster than
	that! A speed of 7 is extremely fast, with speeds of 5 and 6 more suitable for standard fireballs
	and so on.

10. IMPACT NOISE
----------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS

	Click on this and you will be presented with a list of the currently loaded samples. Select one
	to make the bullet trigger that noise when it hits, or click at the top of the screen to select
	'none'.

11. [ DEFINE BULLET ANIMATION ]
-------------------------------

	ONLY AVAILABLE FOR VISIBLE BULLETS

	Here you can define the animation of your protectile. Bullets are not 'sided'; ie they look
	identical from all directions, and hence you only need define one animation sequence for each
	of them.

	Clicking here will present you with, initially, a single, incomplete frame description and
	some extra buttons. These are the values you can change in each frame:
	
	GF:	Graphic file to read the frame of animation from. Click on the number to pick
		one of your object-graphic filenames.
		
	FN:	Frame to draw from within the selected graphic file. Click here with the LEFT mouse button
		to simply type a number in, or click with the RIGHT mouse button to be shown the
		ANIMATION FRAME SELECTION SCREEN. See the document
		
		'HOW2-Use_Animation_Frame_Selection_Screen'	
		
		for details, as this screen is re-used several times in the program.
		
	SW:	Scaled Width and Scaled Height of graphic on-screen. Values similar to those defined in
	SH:	the animation frame in the graphic file are about right, although you can squash any 
		size and shape of graphic into any size and shape of box. SW and SH have a maximum value
		of 255.
		
	VO:	Vertical offset. By varying the vertical offset, you can make bullets weave up and down
		as they animate. For this to work, you will need several frames of animation.
		
		HINT: If you want to create an effect similar to that seen in Breathless, define only
		one frame of animation for each bullet.
	
	BV:	Brightness Value. Bullets can be defined to 'glow', lighting up their surroundings.
		A value of 20 gives a reasonably bright glow.
		
	ADD FRAME:
		Adds a frame to the end of the list, copying all the values from the previous last in
		the list to the new last in the list. It is therefore a good idea to set up the first
		frame with the graphic file, scaled width and height and so on, then add more frames and
		just tweak the values you want to change afterwards.
	
	DEL FRAME:
		Removes the last frame in the list.
		
	The bullet, when fired, will cycle through these animation frames until it explodes, or fizzles,
	or otherwise expires, at which point it will proceed into:
	
12. [ DEFINE IMPACT ANIMATION ]
-------------------------------

	Same as above, except the animation will be played through only once, before the bullet disappears.

13. BULLET GRAPHIC TYPE
-----------------------

	There are three options, which should be selected according to what sort of graphic you have
	drawn:
	
	BITMAP:
		Simplest option of the three, this just draws the frame onto the screen scaled appropriately.
	
	GLARE:
		Uses the 'GLARE/SHADOW' rules to either brighten or dim the screen behind. See
		
		HOW2-Draw_And_Convert_Glare_Graphics
		
		for instructions.
	
	ADDITIVE TRANSPARENCY:
		Uses a different routine again to 'add' the graphic in a transparent fashion to the
		graphics already on-screen, thus giving a 'firey' or 'smokey' or 'blazing plasma death
		bolt' impression. See
		
		HOW2-Draw_And_Convert_Additive_Transparency_Objects
		
		for instructions.
	
14. IMPACT GRAPHIC TYPE
-----------------------

	Same as above, but for the impact frames.