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

[mr_easy_money]

Is there any hope of a framework or engine rewrite being released that could expand the game's modability? After Overdrive was abandoned last week, I don't think there is.

Well, FTL: Otherspace was recently taken out of development hell. FTL: Otherspace is a rewrite of the game in JavaScript, and they will release the files or something after launch. I'm not the best one to consult about this - the mod's development team is.

Here is a link to the post for more details.

So, yes there is a rewrite in the works, but it isn't planned to be released soon, as the mod is still in its early stages.

[sul]

Can someone explain to me "power usage" by the enemy ? I am kind of lost right now.

Let me give a little context, I am trying to mess around with the enemy ship blueprints (using Slipstream modding tools), giving them less power to use in battle. For this I modified their parameter maxPower. For the player ship, maxPower is the total number of power bars at the start of the game, which is very simple. But for the enemy apparently its not that simple AT ALL.
I made several tests where I edit maxPower in some enemy ship blueprints, then face them in battle with maxed sensors and observe their power use. I dont get it, can someone explain to me what is happening ?
Here is some weird stuff I observe:
- even with maxPower=0, enemies have some power. It seems shields/hacking/engines/weapons are sometimes given some power (not always). Obviously subsystems (pilot, doors) are always on (they dont use power in theory).
- just after battle starts, enemies usually shift power around to most useful systems (to oxygen for example). In that process, power is sometimes "created".
- enemies are never the same (they always receive random weapons/drones, system levels): two random versions of the same enemy dont always have the same "total power" used.
- If you want to quickly test yourself, I do this in CRAZE_TEST.ftl downloadable here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=29027
The enemy ship is BLABLA_SHIP in auto_blueprint.ftl, which can be edited, you must face it at first beacon with Kestral A.

[Sleeper Service]

As you might be aware, enemy systems receive scaling upgrades depending on how far the player progressed through the sectors. For each primary system upgrade they also receive an additional level of reactor upgrade (their reactor can be upgraded to any level as far as I can tell). Even sector one enemies receive some random upgrades, so they will also receive some random additional power. Setting their maxPower to a negative amount might prevent that, but I don't think that has been tested yet.

Another way to prevent enemies from gaining additional power is setting their the max level of all their primary systems to the same as their respective starting levels. But that will also prevent the enemy from gaining additional system levels altogether. The enemy becomes static and no longer scales throughout the game.

In general, vanilla enemy maxPower equals the sum of their primary systems starting levels. That means that they will always have enough power to power all their systems (as each additional system level also grants them additional power). Zoltan enemies have more starting power, which becomes noticeable when fighting them in plasma storms.

Setting max power to a value lower than the sum of the enemie's systems starting power will have them become power starved. The enemy AI will show some basic competence when being power starved, prioritizing offence and relocating power to defence when weapons are damaged for example. CE's auto turrets work that way. This also enables enemies to use backup batteries somewhat competently.

Thanks for asking for all this useless knowledge.

[sul]

Thanks for the quick reply, you are a gold mine of useless knowledge Ok so I will just reduce maxPower to say half its original value, that should get enemies power starved overall even in the last sectors. I wasnt aware of the enemies upgrading rules that looks something cool to look at, thanks.

[Dikdraak]

nvm, fixed

[stargateprovider]

Question! I have an event that should occur multiple times on one beacon (you're out of fuel the whole time. Yes this is for Stations Job). It checks your power level, then loads an eventlist. The eventlist contains 2 events. One is unique and the other is supposed to keep happening when the unique event has already occured.

Problem is that once the unique event has happened, the game starts to load nothing at all often, instead of the other event (FUEL_NOTHING) and sometimes even crashes. The 2 events themselves are otherwise working.

Code: Select all

<event name="SELECT_EVENT">
   <text>texttexttext.</text>
   <choice hidden="true" req="reactor" lvl="1" max_lvl="10" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="MB_LVL1"/>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true" req="reactor" lvl="11" max_lvl="15" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="MB_LVL2"/>
   </choice>
</event>
<eventList name="MB_LVL1">
   <event load="UNIQUE_EVENT"/>
   <event load="FUEL_NOTHING"/>
</eventList>
<eventList name="MB_LVL2">
   <event load="UNIQUE_EVENT_2"/>
   <event load="FUEL_NOTHING"/>
</eventList>

[theDoomBox]

Hey everyone. Been a long time since I attempted to mod anything, and recently got back in to the game and have decided to finish one of my old ships that's been sitting in my documents folder for god knows how long. Anyways, I forgot how exactly to edit augments and can't find the tutorial I used to learn it before. Can someone link me to a good one, or give me a rundown themselves? Thanks!

[stylesrj]

blueprints.xml or dlcblueprints.xml

Copy an augment from there and change names around. Or look at Captain's Edition and the "dummy augments" used like the Teleporter Disruptor or the trade goods.

If you want to edit existing augments... disregard that and go look in those .xml files and change the values around.

[Manters]

Trying to add some new events to the game. I'm trying to add an additional directory (Example; events_new.xml) But the new events arenet getting added to the game, so it crashes when trying to load the sector.

Is there a way to create a new "events" file, or should I just copy+paste into another file (such as events_engi)?

[RAD-82]

Is there a way to create a new "events" file, or should I just copy+paste into another file (such as events_engi)?

You have to add to an existing file. You can't make new files.