FTL Captain's Edition 1.308/Inf 1.301b/EL 1.308

[Russian Rockman]

Gunna ask in this thread too in the hopes that someone can actually help me out. I can't Better Backgrounds working on my laptop at all, and it's the only mod that won't work. Everything else works just fine, so I have no idea what's causing it.

I was in that boat too and couldn't figure out the problem at all. I would do what the Troubleshooting info says in the OP and try Better Planets and Backgrounds version 1.2.1. That's what I did and it worked for me.

It doesn't have all the Hubble images 1.3.1 has, but I've actually learned to like 1.2.1 more now.

[FortunaDraken]

Done most of that, but I haven't tried 1.2.1 yet. I'll see if I can get that to work. Any version of it working would be fine by me, I just miss the shiny backgrounds and am tired of the vanilla ones |D;

[Sleeper Service]

I recommend you read through the troubleshooting section at the beginning of this thread...

A few people reported problems with version 1.3.1. of BPaB. But version 1.2.1 seems to work for everyone.

Have your tried if 1.2.1 works for you?

/Edit: Ha, Rockman beat me to it.

So I'm thinking that you could have either a bunch of pre-made flagships that the script would just choose from, or you could have different files for layouts, weapons/equipment, events, etc... Which could be combined together. Changing each of these things separately wouldn't necessarily make the flagship more difficult hard or more easy, just different.

Yeah thats pretty much what I'd aim for as well.

[FortunaDraken]

Tried 1.2.1, doesn't work. I don't get any errors or anything, it just doesn't show up when the game loads. So far tried...

- 1.2.1 instead of the latest
- All files verified on Steam (which isn't running while I try to get this working in case it was the problem)
- Deleted back-up files

I'm only loading BB at the moment, with occasional trying to see if CE can make it co-operate. CE has loaded every time, BB hasn't. Re-downloading SMM at the moment.

EDIT: SMM redownload hasn't done anything. I think I'm going to have to go for a total reinstall, because I have no idea what's causing this.

EDIT 2: And total reinstall does nothing! I have no idea now ._. Why is this one thing being such a pain? Is there any other way I might be able to force install it?

[kartoFlane]

@FortunaDraken
Looking at the BPaB thread... Have you extracted the 7z file, or renamed it to .ftl? Because you should extract it, the .7z contains the proper .ftl file :X
Other than that it could be missing CE-BPaB compatibility patch, or incorrect mod order.
Those are the only reasons I can think of for it not to work *shrug*

@Flagship discussion
While having multiple .ftl files with different mod: tags is appealing, I think getting all of those to work in every combination might be problematic.
IMO it might be a good idea to have a custom xml (or any other format) file that describes each component and what it does to the whole. Kinda like the EL blueprint script works now, I guess? (though I haven't actually seen it)

For example:

Code: Select all

<!-- If the script picks clonebay for the current flagship variation, it also reduces crew by 2 -->
<system type="clonebay">
  <crewCount amount="-2">
</system>

<layout name="flagship_0.txt">
  <!-- some sensible way to map room IDs for the systemList tag -->
  <!-- or just take care when designing the layouts to eg. have the room inteded for piloting always be ID 0 -->
</layout>

<!-- A tag to pick a set of images: _base, _cloak, etc... -->
<image name="flagship_alternate">
  <!-- have subtags define offsets, etc -->
</image>

[FortunaDraken]

I...no. I didn't even think about that, since all of CE's stuff is saved as .ftl files and I haven't had to extract something in ages. Huh.

If it's that simple, I'm going to hate myself a tiny bit.

Also, I have no idea how modding works, but the idea of different types of Flagships is both exciting and terrifying.

[rannl]

Flagship discussion
While having multiple .ftl files with different mod: tags is appealing, I think getting all of those to work in every combination might be problematic.
IMO it might be a good idea to have a custom xml (or any other format) file that describes each component and what it does to the whole. Kinda like the EL blueprint script works now, I guess? (though I haven't actually seen it)

Sure think KF. After the work done on EL, I'm thinking of a tool which receives an xml input which indicates which directories (flasgship images, layouts, weapons, systems, etc.) contain the files which will be used in the random generation of the .ftl flagship file. In each directory, along with all the relevant files, there will also be an xml file in the same style which you posted (how each selection effects future selections).

Still thinking about the design and use cases of this tool, will probably start working on it in the next couple of days.

[Sleeper Service]

While having multiple .ftl files with different mod: tags is appealing, I think getting all of those to work in every combination might be problematic.

Yeah, I also believe that it should mix different parts of the flagship and create ready to use file with it. Here are my thoughts I sent to Rann:

Hey Rann

Here are my thoughts on the ship randomization mod.

Accessebility
I agree that the process of creating a ready-to-use random flagship mod should be as easy as possible to not confuse the player. That's why I'm a little sceptical if the command line stuff is of any use. I don't really understand what will be possible with that but in my opinion the mod should be as simple as possible. I'd prefer if the user can follow a simple, short procedure to create a randomized flagship mod. In my opinion it would be ideal if the player just has to drop an executable into the mod folder and execute it to create the mod, then patch it in regularly via SMM.

Program Assets
What will the program need to work? Well, 1st) the code it uses to randomize the flagship obviously. But it will probably also need the 2nd) parts that can be randomly added, like weapon blueprints for example. While the EL tool can create a brood variety of gear I'm not sure if it is suitable to generate randomized flagship weapons. Of course it could easily create variations of them, but for balance and style reason I would prefer to create fewer possible flagship guns that each have a clear profile and strongly differ what the flagship has so far. My idea that the program generally randomizes the flagship by choosing assets from predefined pools of possible modifications. The random gear will also need 3rd) image components to work, mostly custom weapon images we could create for the randomized flagship.

Extend of Randomization
How far do we want to go? New guns are probably the first thing to put in. Adding augments is also possible. If we want to go all the way we can also randomize the layout, having the program choose from a list of predefined room-plans. Adding and removing systems is also possible, but not all systems will work. Beyond that not much is possible. Power surges are a no go for example. Crew could be changed, but to me that appears a little fishy lore-wise.

Cherry on the Pie
I absolutely love Russion Rockmans idea to enable the player to look at the secret data at gamestart and know beforehand how the flagship will be equipped. A big part of being able to beat the flagship is being prepared for what it will throw at you. By telling the player (to some extend) what he/she will be up against we allow him/her to prepare for the final battle during the entire run and create a unique "meta-mission" for each playthrough. Awesome!

Program Functionality
This is my non-programmer idea of how the program could handle all this.

The program has a template of how the final flagship mod will look like, with most of the randomization parts filled with placeholders. The template would most likely include the modified starting event, flagship blueprints and layout files as well as all the possible weapon blueprints, anims and images the flagship coulld use. These exact parts could for example be:


Layout
(needs a new set of layouts for all possible flagship variations, depending on phase, difficulty and AE enabled true/false)

Weapon 1
(needs a weapon blueprint in blueprints.xml that overrides the original gun, also needs the weapon visuals and animations)
Weapon 2
(needs a weapon blueprint in blueprints.xml that overrides the original gun, also needs the weapon visuals and animations)
Weapon 3
(needs a weapon blueprint in blueprints.xml that overrides the original gun, also needs the weapon visuals and animations)
Weapon 4
(needs a weapon blueprint in blueprints.xml that overrides the original gun, also needs the weapon visuals and animations)

Systems Phase 1
(needs to replace or add one or more systems in the all phase one flagship ship blueprints)

Systems Phase 2
(needs to replace or add one or more systems in the all phase two flagship ship blueprints)

Systems Phase 3
(needs to replace or add one or more systems in the all phase three flagship ship blueprints)

Augment 1
(needs to insert an augment into the flagships ship blueprints for all phases)
Augment 2
(needs to insert a second augment into the flagships ship blueprints for all phases)
Augment 3
(needs to insert a third augment into the flagships ship blueprints for all phases)

The program has asset pools, possibly in the form of xml files, for each of these randomizable parts. For each randomizable part it chooses an asset from the respective pools and inserts it into the mod template, or directly generates the mod by putting the assets together. Then it outputs a ready to use .ftl file directly in the mo folder. Weapon 1-4 would all draw from the same pool for example, but the program should probably never choose one weapon more than once. If we want to tell the player how the flagship will look like, we also need each of these assets to have a small text snippet tied to it. The program will have to use insert these into the game start option that allows the player to have a look at the data. Probably by to override certain placeholders (BOSS_ASSET_AUGMENT_2_TEXT and so on) with these texts upon choosing the each flagship asset.

Yeah, that are my initial thoughts on how this could work. Again, just from a non-programmer perspective. Your thoughts? If this is feasible I could create a mod template to visualize how the output would look and then id put together asset to fill the pools. For augs that would obviously just be a simple list. But the guns would require some spriting as well...

What do you think?

[FortunaDraken]

...huh.

Quick question, where should the Vanilla Portrait Addon be in the loadout order? I got BB working, but now I have an interesting bug where some races are displaying properly, but others (I noticed humans, Engi and Rock from the initial glance) are big blurred blotches of colour (from the edited portraits by the look of it) and their sprites are one solid colour. I have everything else in the right order but the Vanilla Portraits Addon isn't on the first post list, so it's probably that being in the wrong spot that's error'ing it.

EDIT: Some interesting notes, if they help anyone at all. I'm loading in BB, CE, resources, music, Infinite and vanilla portraits.
- Having it at the end of the list made everyone but the Mantis and Zoltan bug out
- Having it after CE made the Zoltan bug out as well. Mantis still are fine.
- Moving it after the BB compatability patch makes the Engi, Mantis and Zoltan be fixed. Everyone else is bugged. EDIT: No wait, I lie. Rock, Crystal and Lanius are fine. So Slug, Humans and AI are bugged.
- After music bugs out everyone but the Mantis and Lanius. Zoltan are blank rather than blotched.

EDIT 2: Interesting. I ran the mod without BB in it, but with the compatibility patch in, and it looked fine. Odd.

[META_mahn]

wow, we've hit page 400 for this thread ovo