[TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.95 11th Jan] Open source!

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
curlsworth
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:38 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby curlsworth » Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:20 pm

Hey. I'm trying to use this to add ships that you can encounter. *Not replace the ones in the hanger.* Unfortunately my understanding of how all this works is.. well, I don't understand how this works. Jesus, I don't understand much at all frankly. And thus I have troubles making the editor do things that it wasn't expressly designed to do.

If you think you can help, that'd be great. Thank you.
ne0_c0ltz_zer0
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 4:00 am

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby ne0_c0ltz_zer0 » Fri Nov 23, 2012 4:06 am

im trying to edit some of the ship. and as i check the text file on the data (which holds the rooms and doors) i found out that some of the rooms and doors are mis a lined or based on the text file data i have negative values on it. it always happens every time i edit the ship.


Is there a work around for it?
alextfish
Posts: 184
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:24 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby alextfish » Fri Nov 23, 2012 4:05 pm

curlsworth wrote:Hey. I'm trying to use this to add ships that you can encounter. *Not replace the ones in the hanger.* Unfortunately my understanding of how all this works is.. well, I don't understand how this works. Jesus, I don't understand much at all frankly. And thus I have troubles making the editor do things that it wasn't expressly designed to do.

If you think you can help, that'd be great. Thank you.

So basically, if you want to mod the game, you're going to have to do some exploration. You're going to need to poke around in the data and resources directories, see what you can see, and have a go at figuring things out.

For example, read all through blueprints.xml. You don't need to understand every line in it, but take a look at each section, have a look at the info that's specified for each ship.

If you're wanting to add enemy ships, you'll want to have a look at autoBlueprints.xml as well. Take the example of the Auto-Assault ship. Find all the files with "auto_assault" anywhere in their name, and all the XML files which mention "auto_assault" anywhere in their text. If you want to add an enemy ship seen in the same kind of way the Auto-Assault is seen, these are the kind of things you'll need to duplicate.

Take a look in particular at autoBlueprints.xml, the section starting <shipBlueprint name="AUTO_ASSAULT">; and the other data files auto_assault.xml and auto_assault.txt.

FTLEdit will produce the .txt file corresponding to your ship. And it'll produce an XML file containing shipBlueprint, but one designed for a player ship. To make it work as an enemy ship, you'll need to modify the XML file to look like the shipBlueprints you see in autoBlueprints.xml.

And then to make the ship something you actually encounter, you'll need to add it either to some ship listing like <blueprintList SHIPS_AUTO, or modify some events in one of the events*xml files to create your ship.

The first rule of modding a game like this is: explore. Have a look at the XML files, the images, the data that we're given to work with. That'll give you an idea for what you can modify and what you can't.
The .txt file matches what's produced by the FTLEdit Ship Editor, but the .xml file you'll have to make yourself.
Many years ago I created the FTL Starcraft mod: 18 new challenging ships to fly through the FTL universe!, and wrote a tutorial on creating your own FTL ships. They haven't been updated for AE though.
Sprite99
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:51 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby Sprite99 » Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:57 pm

Great looking app, yet when I try to run it in MONO on my Mac I get this error

Code: Select all

Unhandled Exception: System.DllNotFoundException: csfml-graphics-2
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) SFML.Graphics.Transform:sfTransform_create ()
  at SFML.Graphics.Transform..ctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SFML.Graphics.Transform.get_Identity () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SFML.Graphics.RenderStates.get_Default () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at FTLShipEdit.Game..ctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at FTLShipEdit.Program.Main (System.String[] args) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
[ERROR] FATAL UNHANDLED EXCEPTION: System.DllNotFoundException: csfml-graphics-2
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) SFML.Graphics.Transform:sfTransform_create ()
  at SFML.Graphics.Transform..ctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SFML.Graphics.Transform.get_Identity () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at SFML.Graphics.RenderStates.get_Default () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at FTLShipEdit.Game..ctor () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at FTLShipEdit.Program.Main (System.String[] args) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

It would be great if you could try to resolve the error because I am dying to try using this.
curlsworth
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:38 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby curlsworth » Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:11 pm

Hey alextfish. Thank you for taking the time write a helpful respond to me. While I had figured out conceptually most of what you told me, I clearly I haven't figured out all the specifics yet. You've given me the hope that I'm heading in the right direction. I think I'm struggling with the formatting. Whatever, I'll keep banging my head against the wall until I get it.

Basically, I'm trying to add in ships that you can play, without changing any of the ships in the hangar. Before you tell me that is impossible, which I already know, allow me to direct you to http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5242 where Vhati came up with a way to swap your ship with almost any other ship in the game by editing the save file. So if people want a mod that gives them extra ships and a different set-up, but don't want to lose the other ships, you can distribute the mod with save files that start the player in the appropriate new ships.

I was able to do it with ships already coded into the game, but I don't know how it will/won't work with modded ships. To make things more difficult, I'm not sure how to test if the ships I'm trying to add in game are showing up. I know I'm not able to swap them via save file yet because I keep crashing the game.

Oh, and if you're interested in trying out the ship swap, you'll have to add in Vhati's code yourself. ComaToes hasn't released version 12 yet, which presumably will include Vhati's improvements. Seeing as I don't know anything about coding, I'll let you guess how long it took me to make that happen.

At any rate, thank you again. I really appreciate it.
Darkfrost
Posts: 92
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:11 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby Darkfrost » Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:04 am

Hey all, I'm still up for finishg FTLEdit off, but I'm a pretty busy with some other real-life stuff at the moment, if I made a public repo on github or somewhere, would anyone be up for helping to improve it?

It's written in C#, using SFML, and the code is a bit off a mess here and there, but not terrible

Also, should have a version with a few fixes up soon, including actually letting the program close on the starting window ._. (I am a silly man)
Love FTL? Wish you could fly around in the USS Enterprise, the Tardis, or a ship that looks just like your own face? Check out FTLEdit, a ship editor for FTL, so you can create your own custom ships and play them!
Don't forget to share them too! :)
Mr. n
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:50 am

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby Mr. n » Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:50 am

I thought that might be the case, Darkfrost.

By all means, upload the new version here and source somewhere! I don't know second thing about C#, but I'm sure many people around here somewhere do and would be able to pick it up and continue, while you deal with your real-life duties.

I, for one, would very much like a ship editor which would give me all necessary output files, so I could port it into the game with GMM immediately - no such ship editor for now, but yours comes pretty close and I'm sure it someday will achieve the goal of no-hassle shipmaking.

Good luck with your endeavours :).
Slade
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:11 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby Slade » Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:16 pm

Awesome mod. If I have some spare time, I might work on a Starbug-1 ship from the excellent series Red Dwarf.

Going to lurk a bit more here since the 25 pages are full of content.
Lock Vesh
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:44 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby Lock Vesh » Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:47 pm

The FTL edit won't save my path ways and I cannot download ftl.dat be because it red flags my virus proctection and I cannot close the editor.

Looks like it would be wonderful, I just can't use it TT^TT.
filip15100
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 6:25 pm

Re: [TOOL]FTLEdit: FTL Ship editor [v0.88] (Please test!)

Postby filip15100 » Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:18 pm

therunawaybros615 wrote:Hello! I haven't tried this Ship Editor yet, but it is so tempting that I might end up downloading it. But I must ask: Can you save your ships as a .ftl file? If not, here's a suggestion. :D?


Yes you can, you can find the button in the ship options screenshot.