Ships with 4 drone slots and 2 weapons

[alextfish]

Hi all. I'm having problems with a couple of my custom ships. I want the ship to start off with 4 drones and be able to power them all at once. I'm able to get it all playing correctly as desired, but it has a nasty graphical glitch that I can't find any way to fix.

The problem is that the "Weapons" box is still sized big enough for 4 weapons, although it only displays slots (grey boxes with a keyboard shortcut number) for two of them. The "Drones" box is only big enough for 2 drones, although all 4 do appear and are selectable. The 4th one goes behind the subsystems box! So it's just a cosmetic flaw, but quite an annoying one.


(context image: http://imgur.com/a/rCZuB)

I've specified <weaponSlots>2</weaponSlots> and <droneSlots>4</droneSlots>, and made sure the raven.xml file only has two <weaponMounts>.

I'm sure it must be possible to avoid the standard 4/2 sizes, because the Engi ship has 3/3. Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?

[GreenZanbato]

I've had this problem as well. I think it mat be hard-coded for each ship unfortunately. If not though, I have no idea how to fix it.

[Whale Cancer]

I've had this problem as well. I think it mat be hard-coded for each ship unfortunately.

This is what my experimentation reveals as well.

[vacantmind]

Oh hey I've actually solved this one.... ummm lemme find the files.

[vacantmind]

So the way it works is 3 slots gives a length 3 bar, everything else gives a length 4 bar. both types: weapons/drones.

So ships can be 3/4 or 4/3, however 2 will still call up the longer bar, so 2/3 will work fine, 2/4 long bars.

If you want to make it look prettier for 2/4, it should be a fairly simple matter to edit these sprites (use paint.net) just make it something a little less obtrusive (or entirely transparent would work)

Hope I did this right, I've been modding other games recently. =)

[alextfish]

Oh, yeah, I meant to come and mention this myself. It's almost what you describe, but slightly more subtle:

* 3 weapon slots gets a length-3 weapons bar; any other number gets length 4
* 3 drone slots gets a length-3 drones bar; any other number gets length 2

I tried adding versions of the sprites you mention, named box_drones_bottom4.png and box_weapons_bottom2.png, but the game ignores them.

And worse, if my mod wants to allow 2-drone ships to exist, then I can't just blank the length-2 drones bar image entirely. I guess I could erase part of it so it doesn't actually overlap the drones, like erase the top and right-hand edges kinda thing.

[vacantmind]

Oh, yeah, I meant to come and mention this myself. It's almost what you describe, but slightly more subtle:

* 3 weapon slots gets a length-3 weapons bar; any other number gets length 4
* 3 drone slots gets a length-3 drones bar; any other number gets length 2

It's been a while, but I believe that is how the game works by default. Slightly more subtle indeed. =)

The game only differentiates on the number 3, with a max space of 7 slots. My suggestion is that if you want 2 weapons 4 drones for balance reasons, simply build an uncrewable weapons room.

Essentially limitations like these are what caused me to stop playing/modding this game, hoping for a future update that opens up the game or FTL:Overdrive.

[LordAshram]

Hey guys,

Okay, sorry to bring this up again... so there is no way to do a four drone slot ship, right? Just want to double check.

Thanks!:)

[UltraMantis]

Sure you can. 4 drones will work but the 4th drone may not be easily visible.

[LordAshram]

Ah okay, yes, sorry I should have been more clear... I mean that there is no UI ability for four, although you can HAVE four:)

Thanks Mantis, I appreciate the patience with a newbie!:)