Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Distribute and discuss mods that are functional. Moderator - Grognak
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Sat Nov 12, 2016 12:22 am

Go to the temp folder of the Flagship Randomizer, compress it's content into a .zip file, rename it to .ftl. Now you have a mod that contains all the assets the FR can use. You can now either load that mod directly via superluminals load mod function, or patch it into your game via SMM. Either way, Superluminalt will then detect the weapons and have them available.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:58 pm

Yeah, Superluminal seems to have some trouble interacting with the flagship. I think I got around that by creating a ship mod that contains the files relevant for the flagship and loaded that into the editor. Parts of the flagship are hardcoded I think, so I wouldn't pay that oddities too much mind. Also a systems being present in Superluminal does not mean that they are there ingame, they can be set to 0 levels and stuff and I think that prevents them from appearing at all. Look at the player ships to see how that works.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:13 pm

Hm ok looks like the temp folder doesn't do what I though it does. In that case you'll have to look at FlagshipGeneratorSource/Weapon Data and FlagshipGeneratorSource/Weapon Source and turn the stuff there that makes up the weapons into a mod. You can take animations.xml.append as is, but you'll have to convert meta_weapon_pool into usable weapon blueprints for the mod to work. Just compare the stuff in that file to a usual weapon blueprint file and make the required changes.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:11 am

Gidoza wrote: Getting each Flagship set to function properly in the game as a set, because I don't know how to make the linkages work.
Examin Flagship mods generated by the Flagship randomiser to see how those mods are structured and how assets link. The modding reference thread might also explain things further: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17135

Gidoza wrote:Developing a Randomizer that just picks one of the 26 (and more if others contribute) and boost it into FTL for a random experience each time.
Well I already mentioned that you can do that simply with folder structures and cryptic mod names:
Sleeper Service wrote:You can make those mods, release a pack that has a couple dozen of copies of each, given a cryptic name or better a number and have the player choose randomly by himself this way. You don't even need a randomize program to make this a reality

But if you want to code that functionality that shouldn't be too difficult, your call.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:50 pm

Gidoza wrote:(that is to say - if we do it this way, then once the player gets to the end, the player would see what the Flagship is, and could play again knowing exactly what it is - which is what I wanted to avoid)
That will always be the case, even if you use a coded solution. The player can always replay with the same mod if they chose to. You wont get around this unless you'd hardwire the randomization into the FTL executable somehow (which isn't really practicable right now).
meklozz
Posts: 350
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 9:11 am

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby meklozz » Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:01 pm

Sleeper Service wrote:
Gidoza wrote:(that is to say - if we do it this way, then once the player gets to the end, the player would see what the Flagship is, and could play again knowing exactly what it is - which is what I wanted to avoid)
That will always be the case, even if you use a coded solution. The player can always replay with the same mod if they chose to. You wont get around this unless you'd hardwire the randomization into the FTL executable somehow (which isn't really practicable right now).

Well, theoretically, you might be able to get around that with a custom slipstream build that would just pick for you.

Not that I'd know how to do that at this point, but open source java is better to deal with than FTL exe.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Fri Nov 25, 2016 8:36 pm

Yeah but that won't help if the goal is to prevent the player from fighting the same random boss twice, Or at least it would require the FTL executable to force execution of Slipstream as well. If the player doesn't execute Slipstream again then the boss would not be randomized again.

Both options seem rather overkill and out of reach for something as simple as a random flagship mod. Essentially you can't force the player to randomize the boss each tine FTL launches. But if people use this mod then they probably want to randomize the boss any ways, so they'd probably comply? And even if a player would want to fight the same boss again, I don't really see why this would have to be prevented at all cost. Well it definitely doesn't seem practicable.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Wed Dec 07, 2016 12:10 pm

Please stop derailing my threads. I'd politely request you post your content in your own thread.
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Wed Dec 07, 2016 2:36 pm

I find there is a difference between discussing this mods content/mechanics and publishing your own content. The later is which I find derailing. Again, I'm not really interested in feedback for your mod being discussed in threads for my mods. It's just common practice, look around the forum, no one is publishing their own ship mods in other peoples threads. :|
User avatar
Sleeper Service
Posts: 2305
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:49 pm

Re: Flagship Randomizer 1.29 for AE, ACE and ACE Infinite

Postby Sleeper Service » Wed Dec 07, 2016 5:36 pm

I'm sorry if this came across as rude. But ultimately I'm not involved in the creation of your content, I just commented on your enquiries regarding the topic of this thread. The way I see it you are making a separate mod. If you publish it here then people will discuss it here, which hasn't really much to do with the mod that the thread is about. Then again I somewhat misread your post as being an actual mod launch, instead of the enquiry that it was. Sorry, my bad. :( But overall you might still get more feedback from other if you post your files in the mod development section. If you still want my feedback, here you go:

Gidoza wrote:(Would something like forgetting to include a console in a room cause the game to crash...?)
That particular scenario should be fine. If loading a thing causes crashes than that might be connected to the game not being able to find ids referenced in the asset. Like if the boss calls a weapon ID that doesn't exist. Maybe double check if all ids are spelled right. The crash behaviour extends to child objects, so if a weapon the boss uses references a wrong animation or projectile id that might also cause crashes.

If you can't locate the problem you could also try rebuilding the mod piece by piece, adding elements one at a time to see whether they function. Maybe start by just changing the boss weapons to verify that those work, then add in the room layout. Also remember that you can edit ship blueprints outside of superluminal, that's often fast to correct small stuff or make minor changes. If you absolutely want to make sure the mod works you could start by making minor changes to the vanilla boss blueprints, without using superluminal.

Gidoza wrote:However, different problem - I have my list of weapons from Flagship Generator, and I've loaded it with Mod Management in Superluminal. However, after I've done that, I cannot find the weapons anywhere in the weapons list when trying to pick them for the Flagship. What am I doing wrong? (kind of hard to test if things work if I can't even get to stage 1)

EDIT: Actually here is the link and EMBED of the .ftl file I'm trying to use that contains all the weapons (and graphics and such) so you can see if I did something wrong.
I think you already fixed this, but in general the mod files have to mirror FTLs actual file structure. The mod you posted did not work because the game folders where inside another "data" folder. "Data", "Img" and so on should be the top most folders you zip to create mod files.

Gidoza wrote:EDIT 2: Last question - the Flagship C has a weird offset in it's outer skeleton graphic. How do I know if the rooms are placed properly and why is it like this, anyways?
I'm not sure about that either and I'm not even sure the skeletal layout works correctly ingame. If I remember correctly boss gets offset wrong if you'd where to change the overall x size of the boss. If you wanna be save you'd be better of not messing with that in your layouts, meaning don't make the boss less wide than it originally was.