Questions here: an inquiry thread! [Updated Sep 15th, 2014]

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
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NewAgeOfPower
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:03 am

NarnKar wrote:As far as I'm aware, the Zoltan Shield is actually just a greenish tint that's applied in-game, rather than an image that's supplied by a resource. So to get a different colored Zoltan Shield, you'd have to create a differently-colored shield graphic; and even then, if your ship doesn't start with shields, the Zoltan Shield will appear as green as usual.


I tried an golden (normal) shield, and the Zoltan shield is still green. Mayhaps I should try a reddish shield... But basic shields are blue, and they come out greenish with Zoltan shield applied as well...

New Question:

Do offensive drones and weapons with the <burst> tag work? IIRC drones could fire only 1 shot at a time, no matter what the <shots> rating was of it's weapon.
Last edited by NewAgeOfPower on Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Levgre
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby Levgre » Wed Sep 10, 2014 12:47 am

Simply by doing the following steps with FTL dat manager

open original data.dat
Export blueprints.xml
delete blueprints.xml in data.dat
re-add the exported blueprints.xml (no editing, did not open it in any editor/program)
Saving

I get the following fatal error

http://i.imgur.com/5uv8nXE.png

Image

What am I doing wrong? Or is FTL Dat manager messed up?
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NarnKar
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NarnKar » Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:21 pm

What does the <locked> tag on bombs do?
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NarnKar
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NarnKar » Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:39 pm

Actually, how do bomb animations work? The Tutorial doesn't really cover bombs, and there's more animations on them. There's the loading, the firing, and the explosion, and the gun itself--which sheet is which, and what do they do?
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NewAgeOfPower
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:58 pm

NarnKar wrote:Actually, how do bomb animations work? The Tutorial doesn't really cover bombs, and there's more animations on them. There's the loading, the firing, and the explosion, and the gun itself--which sheet is which, and what do they do?


From my preliminary work on bombs, the weapon sheet is the weapons animation sheet, in which you include the loading - weapon firing cycle, the explosion sheet is self explanatory, where you include the bomb as it teleports in and right before it triggers...

Examining the following weapons animation sheet (from an early Captain's Edition resource file) demonstrates more clearly below:

Image

The explosion sheet (the Singularity Projector from Kieve's excellent mod) below here depicts a bomb type weapon going off:

Image

Again, you simply imagine a gun animation sequence in FTL, only that you don't see the bullet travelling, only teleporting.

However, I find bomb-type weapons to be the hardest to balance overall, and completely uninteractive with the staple defensive matrix [Shields & Drones]...
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NarnKar
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NarnKar » Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:09 am

So in the explosion sheet, the frames go from right to left?
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RAD-82
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby RAD-82 » Fri Sep 12, 2014 5:07 am

NewAgeOfPower wrote:the explosion sheet is self explanatory, where you include the bomb as it teleports in and right before it triggers...

That isn't the <explosion>. That is the <image>.

Ion bomb animations:

Code: Select all

<animSheet name="bomb_ion" w="595" h="52" fw="35" fh="52">weapons/bomblauncher_ion_strip17.png</animSheet>
<weaponAnim name="bomb_ion">
   <sheet>bomb_ion</sheet>
   <desc length="17" x="0" y="0"/>
   <chargedFrame>5</chargedFrame>
   <fireFrame>16</fireFrame>
   <firePoint x="20" y="8" />
   <mountPoint x="5" y="34" />
   <delayChargeAnim>0.98</delayChargeAnim>
   <chargeImage>weapons/bomblauncher_1_glow.png</chargeImage>
</weaponAnim>

The name of the weaponAnim goes into <weaponArt>. Vanilla bomb weapons have their bombs drawn into the weapon art, so the bomb that you see appearing on the enemy ship actually has no connection to the bomb that you see in the launcher, since they are two different animations. As a bomb, I think the firePoint doesn't do anything?

Code: Select all

<animSheet name="bomb_ion" w="315" h="35" fw="35" fh="35">weapons/bomb_ion_strip9.png</animSheet>
<anim name="bomb_ion">
   <sheet>bomb_ion</sheet>
   <desc length="9" x="0" y="0"/>
   <time>0.35</time>
</anim>

The name of anim here goes into <image>. This is the "bomb as it teleports in and right before it triggers" that goes from right to left. I don't know why it goes from right to left, but I have found it to be useful when making new bomblaunchers. I won't say why, since it really depends on the weapon.

Code: Select all

<animSheet name="explosion_big1_ion" w="640" h="64" fw="64" fh="64">effects/explosion_big1_strip10_ion.png</animSheet>
<anim name="explosion_big1_ion">
   <sheet>explosion_big1_ion</sheet>
   <desc length="10" x="0" y="0"/>
   <time>0.5</time>
</anim>

The name of anim here goes into <explosion>. This is after the bomb triggers and it goes from left to right.

NarnKar wrote:What does the <locked> tag on bombs do?

I don't think it does anything.
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Levgre
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby Levgre » Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:29 pm

Is there a tutorial for modding enemy ships, specifically their blueprints lists?

I'm wondering what determines how 'many' weapons they have, and if you just have a blueprints list of 1 weapon, will it just repeatedly pick that weapon, say 4 times if the ship has 4 weapons?
Levgre
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby Levgre » Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:46 am

I've had some success modding autoblueprint.xml, although I've got snagged. When I try to give auto ships only 3 bombs and a missile to choose from, they end up with no weapons. I tried upping the max power, that wasn't it. Do they need some sort of laser/etc. to pick from? When i trimmed it to 2 laser + 1 ion choice, it worked fine.

Code: Select all

<blueprintList name="WEAPONS_AUTO">
   <name>BOMB_1</name>
   <name>BOMB_FIRE</name>
   <name>BOMB_ION</name>   
   <name>MISSILES_1</name>
</blueprintList>

<shipBlueprint name="AUTO_BASIC" layout="auto_basic" img="auto_basic">  <!-- NOTE:   This ship starts with no shields.  that ok?-->
   <class>Auto-Scout</class>
   <systemList>
      <pilot power="2" max="2" room="2"/>
      <shields power="2" max="8" room="3" start="false"/>
      <engines power="5" max="8" room="1"/>
      <weapons power="5" max="8" room="4"/>
      <cloaking power="1" max="3" room="0" start="false"/>
   </systemList>
   <weaponList missiles="10" load="WEAPONS_AUTO"/>
   <health amount="8"/>   
   <maxPower amount ="6"/>
   <crewCount amount = "0" max="0" class="human"/>
   <cloakImage>auto_basic</cloakImage>
</ship>   

<shipBlueprint name="AUTO_ASSAULT" layout="auto_assault" img="auto_assault">
   <class>Auto-Assault</class>
   <systemList>
      <pilot power="2" max="2" room="2"/>
      <shields power="4" max="6" room="3"/> <!-- CHANGED - from 10-->
      <engines power="4" max="4" room="4"/>
      <weapons power="4" max="6" room="1"/>   <!-- CHANGED - reduced weapons and def gave it drones-->
      <drones power="6" room="0" max="6" start="true"/>
   </systemList>
   <weaponList missiles="12" load="WEAPONS_AUTO"/>
   <droneList drones="8" load="DRONES_COMBAT"/>
   <health amount="10"/>   
   <maxPower amount ="7"/>
   <crewCount amount = "0" max="0" class="human"/>
   <cloakImage>auto_assault</cloakImage>
</ship>   
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NewAgeOfPower
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby NewAgeOfPower » Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:43 pm

RAD-82 wrote:That isn't the <explosion>. That is the <image>.
I don't think it does anything.


Herp derp. Oops.

I'm having issues modding Shield Drones; what are the limitations/requirements for altering shield drones? For example, my custom graphics don't appear, and the shield charge speed does not seem to be governed by the <cooldown> tag.

Also, OP has been updated.
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