Questions here: an inquiry thread! [Updated Sep 15th, 2014]

[R4V3-0N]

Damn... It took me forever to fix 1 hiccup and it still exists for the store image for some unknown reason... it's making it harder for me as I planned to release that mod yesterday...

[stylesrj]

I can't remember where the tutorial is for creating cloak images on GIMP. I know it's a few hundred pages back but that's about it.

[steamtex]

I can't remember where the tutorial is for creating cloak images on GIMP. I know it's a few hundred pages back but that's about it.

My method:

Colors:
Grey (goes on top) - c6c6c6
Blue (goes on bottom and is blurred) - 1c8795

Directions:

Make/acquire your ship's outline somehow. I won't help you with this part.

Make the outline of the ship the grey color provided above. Easy enough.

Duplicate that layer which should just have the grey outline. Recolor the duplicate with the blue color.

Apply Gaussian blur (15 x 15 pixels) to the blue layer. Duplicate it and merge the two blue layers.

Apply Gaussian blur (15 x 15 or 20 x 20 pixels) to the blue layer. Move the grey layer to the top.

Export/save the image.

[TaxiService]

The first sector is always a Civilian Sector, right? What if i were to change the Civilian Sector to something else, then? What if i want to start the game in the Crystal Sector?

Here is what I tried to do to accomplish this:

• Rename CIVILIAN_SECTOR to ORIGINAL_C_SECTOR
• Rename CRYSTAL_HOME to CIVILIAN SECTOR
• Append ORIGINAL_C_SECTOR to the CIVILIAN sectorType list.

This is the code that does it, in that order.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="CIVILIAN_SECTOR">
   <mod:setAttributes name="ORIGINAL_C_SECTOR"/>
</mod:findName>

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="CRYSTAL_HOME">
   <mod:setAttributes name="CIVILIAN_SECTOR"/>
</mod:findName>

<mod:findName type="sectorType" name="CIVILIAN">
   <mod-append:sector>ORIGINAL_C_SECTOR</mod-append:sector>
</mod:findName>

So i'm all like "fuck yeah let's do this" but... guess what? It didn't work.

I use SMM's XML sandbox to double check my code, and it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's just as if the game doesn't give the littlest crap of my changes. More things i tried:

• overwriting CIVILIAN_SECTOR with a copy of the crystal's. No dice.
• move CIVILIAN_SECTOR after ENGI_SECTOR, to check if the game considers the first sector after FINAL as the starting sector. Nada.
• to change the string "Civilian Sector" in the CIVILIAN_SECTOR's sectorDescription. I did this to check if i could modify anything about the first sector, but the string didn't change in-game.
• Added CRYSTAL_HOME to the top of the CIVILIAN sectorType list.

Nothing works! Just how hardcoded is the first sector???

PS: i've also tried messing around with the unique= attribute. Both settings fail.

[RAD-82]

The first sector is always a Civilian Sector, right?

CIVILIAN_SECTOR

Actually, I believe the first sector might be STANDARD_SPACE because that is where you can set the start of game beacon. I could be wrong, because STANDARD_SPACE is supposed to be named Federation Space, but it doesn't get called that in the game.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="CRYSTAL_HOME">
   <mod:setAttributes name="CIVILIAN_SECTOR"/>
</mod:findName>


So you renamed the ID of the CRYSTAL_HOME. What happens when you try to access the secret sector now that it no longer exists?

[Fremdkörper]

(Sorry for my bad english) Hi, im new, can someone help my with my weapon? i read the "New Guide on creating weapons" by Metzelmax and i followed all steps but my gun does not appear in the game or in the ship editor, can someone help me?
Here is a link to download the gun and see if you can help me: https://www.dropbox.com/s/22wzqndtx1vb9l1/Test.ftl?dl=0

[RAD-82]

{custom weapon stuff}

Looks like it should randomly show up in the game. I can't say how to use the ship editor since I've never used it.

You have problems with your animation, specifically the chargedFrame and fireFrame. The first frame of the animation is 0, not 1, so you need to decrease the numbers on these two values by 1.

One way to see your weapon in the game is to reward it to the player at the start of the game. Create a file named events.xml.append inside the data folder and place this code in it.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="event" name="START_BEACON">
   <mod-append:weapon name="FK_CANNON_1"/>
</mod:findName>

edit: Ouch, my eyes must be blind since I missed what kartoFlane says.

[kartoFlane]

In addition to what RAD said, it looks like you named the blueprint file wrong -- it's supposed to be blueprints.xml.append, not blueprint.xml.append

[Fremdkörper]

{custom weapon stuff}

Looks like it should randomly show up in the game. I can't say how to use the ship editor since I've never used it.

You have problems with your animation, specifically the chargedFrame and fireFrame. The first frame of the animation is 0, not 1, so you need to decrease the numbers on these two values by 1.

One way to see your weapon in the game is to reward it to the player at the start of the game. Create a file named events.xml.append inside the data folder and place this code in it.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="event" name="START_BEACON">
   <mod-append:weapon name="FK_CANNON_1"/>
</mod:findName>

edit: Ouch, my eyes must be blind since I missed what kartoFlane says.

In addition to what RAD said, it looks like you named the blueprint file wrong -- it's supposed to be blueprints.xml.append, not blueprint.xml.append

Thanks, I'll try what kartoflane says

[TaxiService]

@RAD: by the way, thank you a lot for the heads up! STANDARD_SPACE is indeed the first sector. I had thought it was just a fallback sector because of its comment....

Code: Select all

<!--default to prevent crashes if bad sector names are loaded-->

The first sector name seems to be hardcoded to always read "Civilian sector", but i'm okay! I don't need to change it.
(it could possibly be defined in some other .xml, but i haven't looked for it)

>What happens when you try to access the secret sector now that it no longer exists?
I just ran a test, and It loads STANDARD_SPACE! It seems that comment is true, then!