So, included herein will be several guides regarding topics that are not covered by the documentation. Should there be an issue that requires explanation, I'll update the topic with a new post.
THIS THREAD PERTAINS TO PRE-AE VERSION OF SUPERLUMINAL AND IS NOT BEING MAINTAINED.
Table of Contents:
- How To Create .ftl Packages
- Loading Mods in Superluminal
- Creating Automated (No-Crew) Ships
- Placing Artillery Origin
- Manually Linking Doors
- Creating 0x0 (non-targetable) Rooms
1. How To Create .ftl Packages
First of all, read the "For Developers" description in GMM's thread.
.ftl files are simply .zip files, but with a changed extension. You can change extensions exactly the same way you rename files - however, in order to do this, you need to have extensions shown - here's how. Then, you simply change the ".zip" to ".ftl", and you're done - any warnings about the file becoming unusable can be safely ignored.
(you can also change it from ".ftl" to ".zip" and unpack the archives to get to the mod's contents)
Other than that, the only thing that differs between ordinary zip and ftl is the directory structure - fancy name, but it only means that the archive has to have several appropriately named directories, so that GMM knows where to put stuff.
The diagram below shows the structure of a simple ship mod. The .ftl file - which is the same as a .zip file - contains two directories: data and img.
In order to understand which files belong where, it might be a good idea to unpack the .dat archives that come with FTL - you'll need them anyway if you want to mod anything.
In those archives:
The data directory contains all of the text files, which describe every element of the game and its statistics.
The audio directory contains all of the sounds used in the game.
The fonts directory contains fonts used by the game.
The img directory contains every graphic used in the game.
Now look at the diagram again - see that it also has two folders named data and img? That's because .ftl files simply mirror the structure of the .dat archives - that's why the directories have to have specific names, that way GMM knows where to put their contents.
Same thing goes for files - however, if your mod were to include a blank file named blueprints.xml you'd break the game. This is because GMM would take your modded file and replace the original with it.
In order to deal with this, we have to use the .append extension. Including this after (or before) the main extension (.xml in this case) instructs GMM to merge the two files, by appending the contents of the mod's file at the end of the original file. This allows not only for smaller mod sizes, but also helps to avoid major mod conflicts. You should use it every time you wish to change anything in the orignal data files.