New Races

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nataryeahbuddy
Posts: 176
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:37 am

New Races

Postby nataryeahbuddy » Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:28 am

How do you create new races in mods? Thanks!
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GreenZanbato
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:31 pm

Re: New Races

Postby GreenZanbato » Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:36 am

You can't. Sorry.
nataryeahbuddy
Posts: 176
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:37 am

Re: New Races

Postby nataryeahbuddy » Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:37 am

GreenZanbato wrote:You can't. Sorry.

Is there a way to create some sort of AI that doesn't require crew?
My most popular mod! Over 290 Downloads!
Advanced Weapons and Shields!
My second most popular mod! Over 240 Downloads!
Advanced Battle Systems!
An awesome ship with custom graphics and two new weapons!
F-22A Raptor for FTL
thashepherd
Posts: 194
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 11:45 pm

Re: New Races

Postby thashepherd » Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:51 am

nataryeahbuddy wrote:
GreenZanbato wrote:You can't. Sorry.

Is there a way to create some sort of AI that doesn't require crew?


Yup, and according to what I've read it works for both player and non-player ships.
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Baldwebby360
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:46 am

Re: New Races

Postby Baldwebby360 » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:31 am

nataryeahbuddy wrote:
GreenZanbato wrote:You can't. Sorry.

Is there a way to create some sort of AI that doesn't require crew?

Just set crew to zero
Kestrel A, Kestrel B, Stealth A, Stealth B, Mantis A, Mantis B, Engi A, Engi B, Cruiser A, Cruiser B, Slug A, Slug B, Rock A, Rock B, Zoltan A, Zoltan B, Crystal A, Crystal B.
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KuroSaru
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 2:36 pm

Re: New Races

Postby KuroSaru » Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:13 pm

Id like to add one addition.

It is not possible to add new races but if you'd like there to be another race in-game and keep all current races you can.
The race ghost is not used, and thus its possible to make use of that instead.

Example Addition to blueprints.

Code: Select all

<crewBlueprint name="ghost">
   <desc>Ghostly Things</desc>
   <cost>40</cost>
   <bp>2</bp>
   <title>Ghost</title>
   <short>Ghost</short>
   <rarity>1</rarity>
   <powerList>
      <power>They are already dead?</power>
   </powerList>
</crewBlueprint>


:!: Technical Overview:
Why cant you add another race? well here is a more technical explanation why its not possible.

There is few a functions within FTLGame.exe repsonsible for races, the two most important are responsible for loading a race and working out what a race can do, apart from description and which animation to use stored in blueprints.xml all the rest is hard-coded into these two functions.

FTLGame.exe - Sub_4A6B92
Image

FTLGame.exe - Sub_4A54571
Image

These functions are important because if you wishes to add a new race you'd need to modify them, this would require, these functions and a few others to be converted to inline ASM within a .dll , and replace all the code in FTLGame.exe with code to load the dll pass it data but allow the DLL to access its memory.

Thus anyone who wants to add a new race use the ghost race its ingame but not used. However if you really want more races wait for FTL Overdrive to be completed, or maybe the Dev of FTL will reconsider there hard-coded functions? and release a patch/update? who knows, but for now as previously stated use the ghost race.

Hopefully this has given a very clear picture why its not possible to simply add a new race.
Last edited by KuroSaru on Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jonfon
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:35 pm

Re: New Races

Postby Jonfon » Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:56 pm

This is pretty much what I did with my robotics cruiser. Set Crew to 0 initially and use the Ghost already in game to represent Holograms and add them via a starting evening in events.xml.

Once the ship starts with 0 crew it is counted forever more as an AI ship so all stations are manned, you cannot lose due to all crew members onboard dying and systems with automatically slowly repair themselves (very slowly).

Since Oxygen is only needed to keep non-ghost crew alive you don't particularly need that either. I've often let some random new crewmember suffocate just because I wanted to use the O2 power or quickly vent to deal with boarders or a fire breaking out.
nataryeahbuddy
Posts: 176
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:37 am

Re: New Races

Postby nataryeahbuddy » Fri Jan 25, 2013 6:10 pm

Jonfon wrote:This is pretty much what I did with my robotics cruiser. Set Crew to 0 initially and use the Ghost already in game to represent Holograms and add them via a starting evening in events.xml.

Once the ship starts with 0 crew it is counted forever more as an AI ship so all stations are manned, you cannot lose due to all crew members onboard dying and systems with automatically slowly repair themselves (very slowly).

Since Oxygen is only needed to keep non-ghost crew alive you don't particularly need that either. I've often let some random new crewmember suffocate just because I wanted to use the O2 power or quickly vent to deal with boarders or a fire breaking out.


Thanks!
My most popular mod! Over 290 Downloads!
Advanced Weapons and Shields!
My second most popular mod! Over 240 Downloads!
Advanced Battle Systems!
An awesome ship with custom graphics and two new weapons!
F-22A Raptor for FTL