[MOD][COMATOSE] Open Artillery v0.32

[dalolorn]

So I've been designing ship-specific weapons, because that's a lot more fun than trying to figure out the room numbers in the blueprints, and I ran into a problem with this one. Every time it fires, FTL crashes.

Code: Select all

<weaponBlueprint name="ARTILLERY_MANTIS">
	<!-- Pretty much stolen from CE's neural stunner weapon.  Thanks, sleepy. -->
	<type>BURST</type>
	<title>Stinger</title>
	<short>Artillery</short>
	<desc>Stuns crew, damages systems, and breaches hulls, paralyzing an enemy ship. More power means faster cooldown.</desc>
	<tooltip>Artillery: Fires a burst of small particles that can pierce shields and disable enemies</tooltip>
	<radius>100</radius>
	<damage>0</damage>
	<stun>7</stun>
	<sp>5</sp>
	<fireChance>0</fireChance>
	<breachChance>2</breachChance>
	<speed>40</speed>
	<cooldown>40</cooldown>
	<power>1</power>
	<cost>0</cost>
	<bp>5</bp>
	<rarity>0</rarity>
	<projectiles>
		<projectile count="15" fake="false">mantis_artillery_shot</projectile>
	</projectiles>
	<launchSounds>
		<sound>bp_SFX_MantisSpit1</sound>
	</launchSounds>
	<hitShipSounds>
		<sound>hitHull2</sound>
		<sound>hitHull3</sound>
	</hitShipSounds>
	<hitShieldSounds>
		<sound>silence</sound>
	</hitShieldSounds>
	<missSounds>
		<sound>miss</sound>
	</missSounds>
	<weaponArt>artillery_fed</weaponArt>
</weaponBlueprint>

Originally it had 30 projectiles, but even after decreasing that it crashes the game. Is there anything obviously wrong that I'm missing?

Try adding <shots>1</shots>

There's that, and I'm not entirely sure it's safe to shoot so many projectiles. Or... wait, is that a flak-like stun gun?

In that case, may I recommend 3 shots each containing 5 (or 10) projectiles, instead?

[dmi3]

Big update time. All ships except Engi B, Stealth C, and Mantis C can now use artillery I think. I've also added the first batch of weapons; the Engi, Rock, Mantis, Zoltan, and Lanius have custom artillery weapons. The rest have a new standard weapon, meaning that the Federation artillery is unique again. A link will be in the OP in a minute.

EDIT: I figured out that the Mantis problem was related to the custom graphics. It currently uses a standard laser image, but I'll fiddle with it later.

[Russian Rockman]

You can add 1 extra room to the Engi or Stealth ships if you really want to have consistency. I could probably help with that. I think this mod should probably be loaded after all other major mods if you want it to work.

Also, to change the artillery firing point from random space you can place a 5 (or 4th for 3 weapon ships) weapon mount on the ship through the specific .xml file for that ship. You can actually put the weapon mount at the center of the ship maybe? I think the projectiles would come from underneath the ship? But if not, then you may have to just wait for Superluminal 2 to come out and add the weapon mounts that way, guess, or have someone experienced in this field place the weapon mounts, after figuring out where you want to place them that is... And if you add these extra weapon mounts I think there are special tags for slipstream so that you can insert that line without changing anything else other mods may change about the .xml for the player ships.

Keep up the good work. I actually think this will be a very interesting and fun mod. Its adds replay ability to all the ships, since you'll want to experiment with each if the new weapons, and adds even a larger choice element to the game. Now you have to choose artillery over mind control or hacking. And what really interesting with this mid is it may make certain ships want to choose different systems depending on what artillery they come with. And I think the artillery option is also very useful for ships that end up lacking normal firepower in the late game.

And actually the stealth ship probably should really get some artillery since it's cloaking ability synergizes so well with the artillery! I guess balance is the biggest issue here, for all ships, but I think if you make all the artillery about 150 scrap, adjust the weapon cool downs appropriately, and keep the power somewhere between a generic weapon and the fed artillery then there should be no problems at all.

Also, I'm not sure why I didn't tell you this before, but artillery energy level/power/upgrading works like this:
So in case you didn't figure this out already, say that an artillery weapon in the blueprints.xml has a base charge time of 20.
1 artillery power= 1.25x cooldown (25 seconds)
2 power= 1.00x (20 seconds)
3 power= .75x (15 seconds)
4 power= .5x (10 seconds)

A few other things. You could actually make an animated weapon, that charges properly and everything, for each unique artillery if you got the weapon mounts right. Once you get this working in every other major way I may be able to get somebody to make some custom weapon images. Wouldn't it be cool if the artillery attached to the outside of the ship? There's actually was a mod that makes the fed artillery animated. Adds a glow to the front where the beam is.

And for each of the artillery rooms you may want or need to make some custom floor images for the artillery system room. And don't forget that when you think this mod is "working" you can move it to the working mods page.

This is a really good mod for you to start out with. It'll introduce e you to so many different aspects of modding.

[dmi3]

You can add 1 extra room to the Engi or Stealth ships if you really want to have consistency. I could probably help with that. I think this mod should probably be loaded after all other major mods if you want it to work.

I would really appreciate help with those ships. If you send me edited versions I can incorporate them. I don't know much about mod order, but this overwrites every ship, so I think it's best to put it before custom ships.

Also, to change the artillery firing point from random space you can place a 5 (or 4th for 3 weapon ships) weapon mount on the ship through the specific .xml file for that ship... And if you add these extra weapon mounts I think there are special tags for slipstream so that you can insert that line without changing anything else other mods may change about the .xml for the player ships.

I think I came up with a workaround for the weapon mounts: superluminal can still load vanilla ships, so I'll try adding 5th mounts there and copying them to the class C xml's, since the shapes are the same. That would just leave the Lanius to do manually.

And actually the stealth ship probably should really get some artillery since it's cloaking ability synergizes so well with the artillery!

Artillery currently works fine on the stealth A and B ships, but I can't think of a good weapon for them. Any suggestions?

I guess balance is the biggest issue here, for all ships, but I think if you make all the artillery about 150 scrap, adjust the weapon cool downs appropriately, and keep the power somewhere between a generic weapon and the fed artillery then there should be no problems at all.

I didn't know you could change cooldowns. This will be very useful for balancing.

A few other things. You could actually make an animated weapon, that charges properly and everything, for each unique artillery if you got the weapon mounts right. Once you get this working in every other major way I may be able to get somebody to make some custom weapon images. Wouldn't it be cool if the artillery attached to the outside of the ship? There's actually was a mod that makes the fed artillery animated. Adds a glow to the front where the beam is.

Yeah, I'm a fan of that mod. Now that I think of it, OA probably looks completely messed up with it. Shouldn't be hard to fix. Weapon images would be nice, even if there are bigger (as in, game-breaking) priorities at the moment.

And for each of the artillery rooms I could make some custom floor images for you if you need. And don't forget that when you think this mod is "working" you can move it to the working mods page.

Artillery (at least on the Osprey) doesn't have a room image in the system lists, but it might be possible to add one. My current plan is to fix the mounts and the crashing, call it released, and then finish adding weapons and graphics. Thanks again for the help.

[RAD-82]

I guess balance is the biggest issue here, for all ships, but I think if you make all the artillery about 150 scrap, adjust the weapon cool downs appropriately, and keep the power somewhere between a generic weapon and the fed artillery then there should be no problems at all.

I didn't know you could change cooldowns. This will be very useful for balancing.

Problem here is that they all use the same UI graphics for the cooldown bar at the bottom and the same text on the upgrade screen. It would be best to just leave the cooldown at 40 for all of the weapons.

In terms of power usage, I don't think that actually has any effect when used as an artillery weapon. The original beam says 1, while the new flak artillery says 3, but they both charge the same. Artillery system power and cost are all tied to the system, so you can't limit one weapon without limiting them all.

If my mind wasn't so cluttered, I would help out more. I have made five different ships with custom artillery, and am fairly proficient in using advanced SMM tags to add/change things without completely overwriting everything. The concept of making this CE-compatible without the use of an alternate version should be completely possible with the things SMM is capable of. Again, my mind is too cluttered to actually focus on helping right now.

I don't know much about mod order, but this overwrites every ship, so I think it's best to put it before custom ships.

Huh? If I'm using a custom ship, why would I use this?

[dmi3]

Problem here is that they all use the same UI graphics for the cooldown bar at the bottom and the same text on the upgrade screen. It would be best to just leave the cooldown at 40 for all of the weapons.

Dang. So if, for example, you add an artillery weapon with a 20 second cooldown, the bar will only fill halfway before firing?

In terms of power usage, I don't think that actually has any effect when used as an artillery weapon. The original beam says 1, while the new flak artillery says 3, but they both charge the same. Artillery system power and cost are all tied to the system, so you can't limit one weapon without limiting them all.

I left all that stuff alone, so the new weapons have 1 power usage. I'm afraid that taking the tag out would break something. I haven't tested this, but it seems like you can edit the system's starting power -- how much you get when you buy it -- on a ship-by-ship basis.

If my mind wasn't so cluttered, I would help out more. I have made five different ships with custom artillery, and am fairly proficient in using advanced SMM tags to add/change things without completely overwriting everything. The concept of making this CE-compatible without the use of an alternate version should be completely possible with the things SMM is capable of. Again, my mind is too cluttered to actually focus on helping right now.

The mod currently includes an edited copy of every ship's blueprint. I imagine that SMM allows for a more elegant way that won't overwrite as much (specifically CE's new layouts). It's worth trying, at least.

[kartoFlane]

Dang. So if, for example, you add an artillery weapon with a 20 second cooldown, the bar will only fill halfway before firing?

Yup

I haven't tested this, but it seems like you can edit the system's starting power -- how much you get when you buy it -- on a ship-by-ship basis.

That's my suspection as well, though I haven't actually tested that, either...

The mod currently includes an edited copy of every ship's blueprint. I imagine that SMM allows for a more elegant way that won't overwrite as much (specifically CE's new layouts). It's worth trying, at least.

Check out readme-modders.txt in SMM's directory, it explains the advanced tags in relative detail. SMM itself also has an XML sandbox that allows you to practice the advanced tags without having to patch mods and restart FTL every time you change something.

[Russian Rockman]

Dang. So if, for example, you add an artillery weapon with a 20 second cooldown, the bar will only fill halfway before firing?

Yup

You could, i suppose, just remove or edit the actual UI charge bar, it may be difficult to determine exactly when the artillery would charge then though. Another issue is that the artillery upgrade menu will not display the correct cooldown unless it is the standard 40, i thought the game would "steal" from whatever weapon it was attached to, but that seems to not be the case.


For the room floor images you can go into the bueprints.xml file, find where the artillery is for a ship, and just and the img="" to that line directing it to an image in the ships\interior folder.


AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, attached is your requested blueprints for Engi B and Stealth C, they are changed only slightly enough to add one room for artillery. Just add the artillery to the new room id (14). And place these files in the data folder of your mod.

[dmi3]

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, attached is your requested blueprints for Engi B and Stealth C, they are changed only slightly enough to add one room for artillery. Just add the artillery to the new room id (14). And place these files in the data folder of your mod.

You're the best. These are included in version 0.2. I also redid all the ships with slipstream tags, cutting over 1000 lines from blueprints.xml.append and making it compatible with CE. Next update should fix the floating lasers.

Re: floor images: If you can make some and send them to me, that would be great. The default one looks kind of weird in some ships.

[Russian Rockman]

I noticed one issue with the new room for the Engi B. One of the doors was still not connected properly. I have fixed this issue and will send you the new file tonight.

Also, progress on the new artillery room images is coming along good. I am trying to give each room a slight glow that actually matches the type of artillery that ship uses!

Your lanius artillery made me chuckle.