As the person who wrote the manual I may not be the best person to answer this, but I'll give it a try.
I think rather than you having poor explanation skills it's me lacking deeper background knowledge
For me your post definitely cast quite a lot of light on the problematic. Previously I thought that you only define one type of hardpoint (i.e.: turbolaser, heavy turbolaser) and then reuse it again and again on various ship without altering it. Now I dug a a bit in the xml files and I see every single hadpoint has its own definition!
My steps were folloing:
- I located Star Destroyer segment named <SpaceUnit Name="Generic_Star_Destroyer"> in Remnant_Space_Units.xml file which among other contains list of all 20 hardpoints (16 weapon placements + engine, shield gen., hangar and tractor beam).
- Then I headed to HardPoints_IR.xml file and searched for individual hardpoint names. Their segments contains recharge times, pulse delays and pulse counts values. One more important tag was Projectile Type.
- Last but not the least I opened Turbolasers.xml file and located Projectile types refered in hardpoint file. Here I find damage values.
Anything I missed?
One curious thing I found in SpaceUnit Name="Generic_Star_Destroyer" was <Armor_Type> Armor_Frigate </Armor_Type>. Is that corect? Isn't it supposed to be Capital? I alsonoticed every single ISD hardpoint has the same health (tag: <Health>250.0</Health>) is that intentional? Or is it required by engine for example? Which leads me to a question about general health of ship? Is it consisted of shield plus a sum of hardpoints health?
With that regard, any explanation of XML basics floating anywhere around EaW modding community? I run across lot of tag I can imagine what they mean but I am damn not sure
For example:
<Scale_Factor>
<Mass>
<Armor_Type>
<Shield_Armor_Type>
<Max_Speed>
<Max_Rate_Of_Turn>
<Max_Thrust>
<Hyperspace_Speed>
<Maintenance_Cost>
<Damage> (in Remnant_Space_Units.xml)
<Autoresolve_Health>
<Shield_Points>
<Tactical_Health>
<Shield_Refresh_Rate>
<Energy_Capacity>
<Energy_Refresh_Rate>
<Targeting_Max_Attack_Distance>
<Fire_Range_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Projectile_Max_Flight_Distance>
<Projectile_Does_Energy_Damage>
<Projectile_Energy_Per_Shot>
Thanks in advance for any help.