[Ship] The Tinstrel - Christmas in FTL - Under Development

[stylesrj]

I decided to take upon BrenTenkage's request for Christmas-based ships:

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26518

I'm in the process of making the Tinstrel, a Kestrel in green and red and meant to be armed with all sorts of Christmas-based weapons. Well actually just the one - a Hot Coal Bomb. Designed to start fires and punish those who have been naughty. Because BrenTenkage loves fire.

Anyway, here's a preview of the ship I'm working with:



Here's previews of the Hot Coal Bomb:



And it's launcher:



I'm having issues implementing the Coal Bomb into the ship blueprints itself. I tried copying the Fire Bomb template and changing the names to match images (and include sound effects) but all I get is an invisible bomb, the default laser artwork for the gun itself and it's silent.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/49n5c ... nstrel.ftl

The following is what I've got so far. The floorplan is messed up, because that's how Superluminal likes to put it as, so I might need to push that around a bit.

I also had to replace the blueprint folder as I realised some doors were missing for half the ship and I haven't put the Coal bomb blueprints back in so the 4 firebombs are sort of placeholders. Here's what I've tried:

Code: Select all

<weaponBlueprint name="BOMB_COAL">
	<type>BOMB</type>
	<tip>tip_bombs</tip>
	<title>Coal Bomb</title>
	<short>Hot Coal</short>
	<locked>1</locked>
	<desc>Self-teleporting package to punish those who have been naughty and light fires. Can target your own ship.</desc>
	<tooltip>Bomb weapon; doesn't require a missile; does no damage but lights fires. Can target your own ship.</tooltip>
	<damage>0</damage>
	<sysDamage>0</sysDamage>
	<persDamage>2</persDamage>
	<missiles>0</missiles>
	<shots>1</shots>
	<sp>0</sp>
	<fireChance>10</fireChance>
	<breachChance>0</breachChance>
	<cooldown>15</cooldown>
	<power>1</power>
	<cost>50</cost>
	<!--was 55-->
	<bp>5</bp>
	<rarity>0</rarity>
	<image>Coal_Bombs</image>
	<explosion>explosion_random</explosion>
	<launchSounds>
		<sound>Hohoho</sound>
	</launchSounds>
	<hitShipSounds>
		<sound>Sleighbells</sound>
	</hitShipSounds>
	<weaponArt>Coal_Bomb</weaponArt>
	<iconImage>bomb</iconImage>
</weaponBlueprint>

Can anyone help me make the Hot Coal Bomb work? It's supposed to be a slow-charging, missile-free weapon (and because its Christmas, the launcher shouldn't require explosives to run. Santa's got a lot of coal).

I'm probably doing something so facepalmingly wrong with the code.

On an added note, this ship is best used with Gencool's Christmas sprites:

http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=26554

Finally, how do I add Engine glows? Because I want to add this to the thrusters:

[kartoFlane]

BY THE WAY: Thruster images are hardcoded into the game. Its extremely difficult to mod for a ship, and dat files can't be redistributed anyways.

They are hardcoded to appear on the Kestrel and (IIRC) Federation ships. That doesn't mean that you can't replace the images themselves, though. The thruster sprite sheet is located in img/effects/thrusters_on.png

Can anyone help me make the Hot Coal Bomb work?

Well, the blueprint itself is not enough, we'll need to see contents of your animations.xml.append too. Generally if the bomb itself (ie the projectile) is not visible, then this means that you've entered the wrong name for the animation in the weapon's blueprint, or that the anim itself has incorrect sprite sheet name, or number of frames, etc.

[stylesrj]

Well, the blueprint itself is not enough, we'll need to see contents of your animations.xml.append too. Generally if the bomb itself (ie the projectile) is not visible, then this means that you've entered the wrong name for the animation in the weapon's blueprint, or that the anim itself has incorrect sprite sheet name, or number of frames, etc.

That's probably what the issue is then. I don't have an animations.xml.append.
I just thought animations were provided by the weapon images, hence why there were all those frames.

[stylesrj]

I've tried making a stab at the Animations.xml and still, no hot coal bombs appearing.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<animSheet name="bomb_coal" w="595" h="52" fw="35" fh="52">weapons/Coal_Bomb.png</animSheet>

<weaponAnim name="bomb_coal">
	<sheet>bomb_coal</sheet>
	<desc length="17" x="0" y="0" />
	<chargedFrame>5</chargedFrame>
	<fireFrame>16</fireFrame>
	<firePoint x="20" y="8" />
	<mountPoint x="5" y="34" />
	<delayChargeAnim>0.98</delayChargeAnim>
	<chargeImage>weapons/bomblauncher_1_glow.png</chargeImage>
</weaponAnim>

<animSheet name="bomb_coal" w="315" h="35" fw="35" fh="35">weapons/Coal_Bombs.png</animSheet>
<anim name="bomb_coal">
	<sheet>bomb_coal</sheet>
	<desc length="9" x="0" y="0" />
	<time>0.35</time>
</anim>

I've also updated the base file with the animations.xml.append.

Yes, I know the coal bomb launcher and the coal bomb have the same animation name. I was copying what the Firebomb did and that's what they did as well. I tried doing it separately, but still nothing.

[RAD-82]

Did you update your weapon blueprint? From your first post, you have <image>Coal_Bombs</image> and <weaponArt>Coal_Bomb</weaponArt>, but those don't match your animations, both of which you named bomb_coal.

[stylesrj]

Yay! It works! Thanks!
Now all I need is to get the sounds working properly. Does FTL only understand .ogg files?

And if so, is there any way to convert a sound file to .ogg for free and without going to a virus-laden website or running 30-day trial software. Because chances are I might have already downloaded it at some point and the trial period is over.

[Gencool]

The game can also use .wavs, although they're a heavier filesize.
With conversion, I think VLC media player (a free download) has .occ conversion. I was hoping to try it myself later on, but googl'es your friend on that until then.

[stylesrj]

With conversion, I think VLC media player (a free download) has .occ conversion. I was hoping to try it myself later on, but googl'es your friend on that until then.

It's only now I realise that VLC has that feature! What have I been doing with my life!?
So I've converted hohoho and sleighbells to .ogg files.

But I can't get those sounds to actually show up in-game. What am I doing wrong now?

[Gencool]

Not sure on that- I imagine you've already checked out the audio.xml? Just double check that your paths and filenames are correct (they're referenced from the folder 'audio', so if your file was, say, yourmod.ftl/audio/weapons/hohoho.ogg, you'd have <soundname volumetag>weapons/hohoho.ogg</soundname>

[stylesrj]

There's an audio.xml.append now!?

Where's the smiley for slapping myself in the face for being so stupid?