Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

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Anistuffs
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Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 12:32 pm

Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby Anistuffs » Sun Dec 27, 2015 2:58 am

Hi all. Let me get straight to the point. I've started working on a new mod that will overhaul the story of the game, but not any of the mechanics. I've already asked (read: pestered) veteran modder Biohazard063 for help adding new sectors and events. But he's a shipwright, not a verse-wright so he's somewhat stumped (for lack of a better term) by some of my questions. So I figured I'll ask here for more help.

I'm using the code from CE to understand how to add custom sectors but it won't be a complete overhaul so some of the older sectors will be there and I won't use any custom naming thing that CE does. So I'm only taking CE code as a guideline.

So here's some of my questions:

1. I'm using <mod-append:sector> to add new sectors in sectorType. But how do I remove an existing sector? Yes, I'm a noob at this.

2. Is it possible to change the colours of the green, red and purple circles in the sector map (not beacon map)? If so, how? If not, :'(
That there's kind of crucial for what I've currently got planned and I can't seem to find anything in the resource folder. I'm really hoping it's not hardcoded.

3. Is it possible to control the fleet advance rate for a beacon? Like, can I, say have the fleet slow down when I'm in an asteroid field or something? Or the fleet speed up when I'm at a store? Also, can I control the slow down and speed up rates, not just halving and doubling?
Also, is it possible to have a nebula event that doesn't slow down the fleet?

4. Is it possible to control the fleet advance rate for a normal sector? Like, can I have the fleet slow down in an abandoned sector but speed up in a rebel controlled sector? And also, can I control the slow down and speed up rate, not just have it at 80% like in a nebula sector?

5. Is it possible to have like a counter like the flagship on each sector (without any actual flagship ofc) so that you'd have to reach the exit beacon within a set number of jumps or fail the game?

6. Where do I set how many nebula beacons are in a particular sector? Is it the

Code: Select all

<event name="NEBULA" min="0" max="8"/>
line in the description of a sector? Guessing yes, just making sure.

Obviously, there will be more questions in the future in this thread as I start breaking the game. But for now, here's a start. Thank you all for taking your time to read this and answer :)
Anistuffs - The Indian Let's Player.
Here's my Youtube channel with over 1500 LP videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/Anistuffs
Why not pop over and say hi :)
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RAD-82
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Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby RAD-82 » Sun Dec 27, 2015 4:15 am

1. Example of removing a sector:

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorType" name="CIVILIAN">
   <mod:findLike type="sector"> <mod:selector>CIVILIAN_SECTOR</mod:selector> <mod:removeTag/> </mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>


2-5. Sorry, but I don't think you can do any of that.

6. Looks to be right. Example for changing the nebula count in a pirate sector:

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="PIRATE_SECTOR">
   <mod:findLike type="event"> <mod:selector name="NEBULA_PIRATE"/>
      <mod:setAttributes min="2" max="6" />
   </mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>
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Junkyard has FTL mods, mostly ships and a few other things.
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Anistuffs
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Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby Anistuffs » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:17 am

RAD-82 wrote:2-5. Sorry, but I don't think you can do any of that.

That sucks. #2 was kind of a crucial part of my plan. Really sad that's hardcoded. Is it possible to change the words then? Like rename the word Civilian next to the green spot to something like Peaceful or whatever.
Anistuffs - The Indian Let's Player.
Here's my Youtube channel with over 1500 LP videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/Anistuffs
Why not pop over and say hi :)
stargateprovider
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Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby stargateprovider » Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:19 pm

Anistuffs wrote:
RAD-82 wrote:2-5. Sorry, but I don't think you can do any of that.

That sucks. #2 was kind of a crucial part of my plan. Really sad that's hardcoded. Is it possible to change the words then? Like rename the word Civilian next to the green spot to something like Peaceful or whatever.

You could try editing the circles and words in the sector map image (box_text_sectors.png) and see if it does anything.
Some of my FTL mods you may like, or hate, or... yeah:
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fdagpigj
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Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby fdagpigj » Thu Dec 31, 2015 8:24 pm

I don't have much experience with sector modding either, but I will try to do my best to at least help you find where to look. Also really nice to see you, crabbro (for lack of a better term), making a story mod, those feel awfully rare and I think you should be able to pull it off.

3. For stores, open data.dat and search for "store/", and you'll find all events that open a store. Then you can just add <modifyPursuit amount="1"/> or whatever in all those places. A bit clunky but in theory it should work. I don't think you can change how it behaves in nebulae, though, nor that you could adjust it more finely...

5. Pretty sure you can't, but... what if... theoretically speaking, you might be able to give the player an augment (make it cost -100000 or something so they can't get rid of it) and then modify every single event to switch out that augment for another one, and continue until they get the countdown 0 augment at which point you deal 30 hull damage to their ship. Then modify the exit beacons to get rid of that augment... there are a few problems with this approach (although I think they could be overcome): The player can't have more than two other augments (although I suppose you could do this with a weapon or drone blueprint instead of augment so at least there'd be a bit more cargo room but that only delays the problem a bit), else they would either have to get rid of one or they could cheat and not take the countdown augment (unless you make it a requirement to be able to move to the next sector in which case you need to make sure they have a chance to get it... unless you can do something fancy with the quest system, I dunno), which is solvable by trusting the player to always take it. The second problem is removing the augment afterwards, which is not really a problem (I hope?) since you can force them to keep picking an option until you can find out their exact countdown (although tbh this would be extremely clunky I imagine) and then when their cargo fills up they can just choose to scrap one of them (right?). Okay, that's probably too impractical to pull off but whatevs.

I think 2 and 4 are impossible to pull off (except maybe you could try something similar to what I described for number 5 for number 4 but with the thing given at the start of the sector and having a random chance each jump to pursue the fleet), sadly.

But, you have reminded me I need to get back to work on the thing I was working on! Sadly I've been procrastinating over the entire holiday thus far and might need to start doing some schoolwork again... so many essays and shit :cry:
iwx11470
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Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:51 am

Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby iwx11470 » Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:08 am

Anistuffs wrote:Hi all. Let me get straight to the point. I've started working on a new mod that will overhaul the story of the game, but not any of the mechanics. I've already asked (read: pestered) veteran modder Biohazard063 for help adding new sectors and events. But he's a shipwright, not a verse-wright so he's somewhat stumped (for lack of a better term) by some of my questions. So I figured I'll ask here for more help.

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So here's some of my questions:

1. I'm using <mod-append:sector> to add new sectors in sectorType. But how do I remove an existing sector? Yes, I'm a noob at this.

2. Is it possible to change the colours of the green, red and purple circles in the sector map (not beacon map)? If so, how? If not, :'(
That there's kind of crucial for what I've currently got planned and I can't seem to find anything in the resource folder. I'm really hoping it's not hardcoded.

3. Is it possible to control the fleet advance rate for a beacon? Like, can I, say have the fleet slow down when I'm in an asteroid field or something? Or the fleet speed up when I'm at a store? Also, can I control the slow down and speed up rates, not just halving and doubling?
Also, is it possible to have a nebula event that doesn't slow down the fleet?

4. Is it possible to control the fleet advance rate for a normal sector? Like, can I have the fleet slow down in an abandoned sector but speed up in a rebel controlled sector? And also, can I control the slow down and speed up rate, not just have it at 80% like in a nebula sector?

5. Is it possible to have like a counter like the flagship on each sector (without any actual flagship ofc) so that you'd have to reach the exit beacon within a set number of jumps or fail the game?

6. Where do I set how many nebula beacons are in a particular sector? Is it the

Code: Select all

<event name="NEBULA" min="0" max="8"/>
line in the description of a sector? Guessing yes, just making sure.

Obviously, there will be more questions in the future in this thread as I start breaking the game. But for now, here's a start. Thank you all for taking your time to read this and answer :)


Out of curiosity, have you tried moving the notches on the bar and the fill? Does the game recognize that? Cause this really feels like an actual oversight, like the notches should haven been where the color changes occur or vice versa.
Last edited by iwx11470 on Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Krazyguy75
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Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:54 am

Re: Working on a story overhaul mod. Need help.

Postby Krazyguy75 » Sat Aug 13, 2022 7:00 am

You do know this post is 7 years old... and hadn't been bumped once in that time?