[MOD][WIP] FTL: Overdrive

[thomasfn]

Hi guys, sorry it's been so long since I was last active here. Hope you've all had a good christmas and happy new year etc.

It's great to see lots of interest in the project still remains even after the lack of updates. Unfortunately I've been busy with a number of things (coursework and such for uni, as well as steam holiday sales ) so I've not really had much time to work on overdrive, but I have been checking in every now and again.

Now, I still don't have much time for actually programming stuff but I might be able to do some documentation or suchlike.

I know a little code - not enough to be useful rebuilding the game, mind, but enough to tweak minor things post-release probably.
The one major achievement would be an engine that isn't hardcoded down to its bones and will actually recognize additional races, put their core stats like HP, combat abilities, repair speed, etc. into the XML sheets to be easily tweaked. Same for augments, if slightly trickier. A hangar menu that'll register new ships (suggestion: anything "PLAYER_" prefixed), replacing the original 18 only if the ship names match. That way GMM's .append won't cause it to freak out if the game is reading two entries for a Kestrel.

I read earlier in the thread that Thomasfn was aiming for LUA script support - that, or any other scripting ability would be supremely useful for adding in new custom augments or weapon effects. DOT poison bombs, for instance (Mantis would be immune? Or bugspray - they take double damage! ) *ahem* ... anyway, I'm not sure how you'd go about creating hooks for mod-scripts, but I'm more than willing to learn how to use 'em once they're in place. I would suggest the first priority mod-wise just be pushing core game stuff from engine to XML.
So glad to see this being worked on again...

The project already has Lua support, and via Lua scripts, you can already add new weapons, ships and systems (although not much of it is functional yet). Everything in the game currently is loaded in the form of a mod called "vanilla".

[Arovix]

Hello gents, getting settled into the new semester here at school.

Arovix: According to GitHub, you are updating at lightning speed. Other than the new races you added, what else did you update the code with and what do you plan to do in the near-future?

All else, I'd like to have a general discussion about features before planning.

Thomasfn wanted this mod geared towards open mod-ability. I would like to deconstruct the game down to its very variables to the point where modders who know enough code can customize almost anything, down to the races and the ship's systems. Once I have everything settled in my daily life, I'll begin drawing up a proposition.

What would you like to see implemented?

My goal was to finish the new game screen, but I realized I couldn't test a lot of the elements without updating the vanilla .Lua file so I started with the races. I think the only things missing on races at the moment are the lists of random names and health point amounts, both of which are fairly trivial to add once we need them. Next I was going to add weapons and drones, of which drones will be harder because the C# class that handles their library is not yet implemented yet. Basically I want to get it to the point where you can start a game and move through the map before I start on things like combat, events, and stores. I'm trying to set my sights low here as I recently got a lot busier and don't know how much time I'll be able to put into this.

As for other changes I made, I fixed a few rendering bugs in the Ship Render-er and the Crew Render-er that I noticed while testing the animations and I re-positioned some buttons for better alignment. Also, just because all the animations are in now doesn't mean you can actually control crew yet, that will require a lot more work which I'm leaving until after the new game screen is working.

You can already add pretty much all of the things you mentioned in your last paragraph through the Lua files fairly easily. That's why I was able to add the races in so fast, and I hope that anyone who wants to mod in more in the future will just be able to look a the vanilla.lua file in the mod folder for examples of crew, ships, and weapons (and maybe events in the future) and be able to create their own NAME.lua file to add whatever they want. (Side Note: I think DOTs and effect that treat different races separately would require support functions from outside the lua, which is definitely possible but I'll focus on vanilla stuff first.)

Edit: I forgot, I also normalized all of the line endings in the project and set up GitHub to automatically take care of it in the future, so don't worry what OS you use to make changes anymore.

[John Luke Pack Hard]

Gents. After a week, I have made a proposition for this game. Feel free to make suggestions and/or comments.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... slide=id.p

Before we start dedicating time to this project, we'll have to know who's working on this project and make sure all who are coding are all on the same page.

[KuroSaru]

It would be useful for all active coders in the community who would like to work on this project to have a meet up via IRC and discussion about what they can contribute and want to work on.

[spikeof2010]

Is the project still active? :c
EDIT: Also, I have no clue how to use this. Any way of installation?

[John Luke Pack Hard]

It would be useful for all active coders in the community who would like to work on this project to have a meet up via IRC and discussion about what they can contribute and want to work on.

That won't be necessary until two or more coders start working concurrently.

Until then, all that is needed is a simple roll call and some agreement on a plan of action.

Is the project still active? :c
EDIT: Also, I have no clue how to use this. Any way of installation?

Project is active and incomplete. To run it you'll need to have Visual C# Express 2010 installed. Come back to me once you have that down.

[jagged]

Why you are using Visual C? It is only for Windows? What about Linux, Mac, iOS, Android? You can write this game in javascript + html with webGL? After that you can run this in a browser or in a encapsulate nativ app.

[KuroSaru]

jagged, even made in c# it can be ported to osx/linux via c# mono, alternativly it could be ported to JAVA.

at present im focusing on all files in the data.dat archive and what they do, as well as making a collection of tools for editing each one (except the ships as thats already handeld).

[UltraMantis]

a ship editor exists, but afaik is only for windows, so if you belive you could create a Java ship editor it would be great. Not necessarily the best use of your time atm , but maybe later on.

[John Luke Pack Hard]

at present im focusing on all files in the data.dat archive and what they do, as well as making a collection of tools for editing each one (except the ships as thats already handeld).

To clarify and expand on what he said, our first priority in the FTL:OD project is to document the data.dat files so we can establish support in FTL:OD for existing mods already made for FTL.

I've messed around with them myself (had a little too much fun with four 1-power-only Mk. III Burst Lasers on the Red-Tail). So far, I've discovered that the currently mod-able parts of FTL are:

Sector beacon events

Weapons and drones

Existing ships

New ships can't be added; existing ships can only be replaced. This of course, is knowledge the modding community already knows. I'm still not sure if additional events, weapons, and drones can be added.

Essentially, we need to write down existing knowledge already used by the modding community. If any modders wish to contribute knowledge to what can be modded and how, feel free to contact me over IRC. I will be idling under the username "JLPH".

http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=ftlgame