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

[NarnKar]

Make it really fast or make it a bomb.

[WhiteWeasel]

Make it really fast or make it a bomb.

Eh, I guess being able to bypass defense drones I's are good enough. Now for another meissile launcher I made what does it mean when you can't see the projectile sprites? (despite using vanilla images). EDIT: NVM. I made a typo.

[WhiteWeasel]

Is there a way to edit the width of a beam like how the glaive beam is thicker than the normal beam weapons?

EDIT: Also I keep getting this error when trying to make a custom artillery weapon for the federation cruiser.

~ Strict XML Parser Issues:
! Fix this and try again:
org.jdom2.input.JDOMParseException: Error on line 942: Attribute name "artillery" associated with an element type "mod-overwrite:systemlist" must be followed by the ' = ' character.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
<mod-overwrite:systemlist artillery power="1" room="6" weapon="ARTILLERY_FED" />
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

! Sloppy XML Parser Issues:
! Fix this and try again:
org.jdom2.input.JDOMParseException: Error on line 942: At line 942, column 2: Strange attributes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
<mod-overwrite:systemlist artillery power="1" room="6" weapon="ARTILLERY_FED" />
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="shipBlueprint" name="PLAYER_SHIP_FED">
   <mod-overwrite:systemList= artillery power="1" room="6" weapon="ARTILLERY_FED_MISSILE" />
   </mod-overwrite:systemList>
   <mod-overwrite:weaponList count="1" missiles="5">
      <weapon name="LASER_RAIL_2"/>
   </mod-overwrite:weaponList>
</mod:findName>

[RAD-82]

The width of a beam is based on the damage it does. You can't alter it without altering the damage.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="shipBlueprint" name="PLAYER_SHIP_FED">
   <mod:findLike type="systemList">
      <mod-overwrite:artillery power="1" room="6" weapon="ARTILLERY_FED_MISSILE" />
   </mod:findLike>
   <mod-overwrite:weaponList count="1" missiles="5">
      <weapon name="LASER_RAIL_2"/>
   </mod-overwrite:weaponList>
</mod:findName>

[WhiteWeasel]

The width of a beam is based on the damage it does. You can't alter it without altering the damage.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="shipBlueprint" name="PLAYER_SHIP_FED">
   <mod:findLike type="systemList">
      <mod-overwrite:artillery power="1" room="6" weapon="ARTILLERY_FED_MISSILE" />
   </mod:findLike>
   <mod-overwrite:weaponList count="1" missiles="5">
      <weapon name="LASER_RAIL_2"/>
   </mod-overwrite:weaponList>
</mod:findName>

Thank you. just curious, Is there a tutorial on how to make an artillery weapon?

[NarnKar]

There's not really a tutorial on Artillery Weapons, since the Artillery system is basically just a tiny bit of code wrapped around a weapon.

But the artillery system basically works like this: you stick it on a ship somewhere, and specify in the system tag which weapon it has as a...weapon. 1 power bar is 1.25x the cooldown listed on the weapon's blueprint, 2 power bars is 1, 3 power bars is .75x, 4 power bars is .5x, 5 power bars (impossible without modding) is .25x, and 6 power bars is instant fire.

[WhiteWeasel]

As for sound editing, what do I do if my custom weapon sound is too loud/quiet? EDIT: Resolved with the amplify function in audacity.

EDIT2: So just change this like I would any other weapon?

Code: Select all

<weaponBlueprint name="ARTILLERY_FED">
   <type>BEAM</type>
   <title>Artillery Beam</title>
   <short>Artillery</short>
   <desc>Powers a slow, high-powered beam that pierces all shields and does one damage per room hit. More power means faster cooldown.</desc>
   <tooltip>Artillery: Beam that automatically fires a 1 damage beam that pierces all shields</tooltip>
   <damage>1</damage>
   <sp>5</sp>
   <fireChance>1</fireChance>
   <breachChance>0</breachChance>
   <speed>13</speed>
   <cooldown>40</cooldown>
   <power>1</power>
   <cost>0</cost>
   <bp>5</bp>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <image>beam_contact</image>
   <length>500</length>
   <launchSounds>
      <sound>beam1</sound>
      <sound>beam1_2</sound>
   </launchSounds>
   <weaponArt>artillery_fed</weaponArt>
</weaponBlueprint>

EDIT3: So is the artillery weapon limited to one projectile? I wanted to make one that fires a large volley of missiles.
EDIT4: Awwww Damn, it's true. I put the same blueprint as a regular weapon and it did what I wanted it to.

[redstonetorches]

I'm trying to make some custom weapons for a mod and I've finished the code and stuff, but when i try to patch it SMM gives me this:

Patching failed: org.jdom2.JDOMException: While processing "Engi Weapons.ftl:data/animations.xml.append (wrapped)", strict parsing failed, then sloppy parsing failed: Error on line 2: At line 2, column 1: Strange attributes.

Here's my animations.xml:

Code: Select all

<animSheet name="ENGI_ACCEL" w="1254" h="59" fw="22" fh="59">weapons/Engi_Accelerator.png</animSheet>
<animSheet name="ENGI_DISRUPT" w="161" h="33" fw="23" fh"33">weapons/Engi_Disruptor.png</animSheet>

<weaponAnim name="ENGI_ACCEL">
   <sheet>ENGI_ACCEL</sheet>
   <desc length="57" x="0" y="0"/>
   <chargedFrame>51</chargedFrame>
   <fireFrame>54</fireFrame>
   <firePoint  x="12" y="10"/>
   <mountPoint x="3" y="44"/>
</weaponAnim>

<weaponAnim name="ENGI_DISRUPT">
   <sheet>ENGI_DISRUPT</sheet>
   <desc length="7" x="0" y="0"/>
   <chargedFrame>1</chargedFrame>
   <fireFrame>2</fireFrame>
   <firePoint  x="16" y="8"/>
   <mountPoint x="5" y="26"/>
</weaponAnim>

I'm not too great at finding errors in code, and I'm not sure where line 2, column 1 is... (It might be how big the accelerator strip is)

[kartoFlane]

Line and column refer to the position of the offending character(s) in the specified file. Though sometimes it points slightly wrong, as is the case here.

Your problem is that in the second <animSheet> tag, there's no equals character ( = ) between fh and "33".

[NarnKar]

<animSheet name="ENGI_DISRUPT" w="161" h="33" fw="23" fh="33">weapons/Engi_Disruptor.png</animSheet>

Somehow the = sign went missing, and that's the only reason your mod failed to load.

However, I think it's good practice to name your weapons Engi_Disruptor_stripX, where X is the number of frames. That's how FTL does it. I'm not sure if it has any effect or not, but you should try it, just to be safe.

EDIT: Ah, damn, kartoFlane beat me to the punch while I wasn't looking. :U