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

[Sleeper Service]

One question, that added "none" choice at the end, if I'm reading it right it'd give me the choice to not kill the human and get a ghost, right? Leaving that out won't break the rest of the code, will it? I specifically don't want the player to get the choice to not remove the human. And eventually there'll be a check for every non-ghost race, so you'll have to whittle down your crew.

Uhm, events that only consist of blue options tend to cause problems, so I'm not entirely sure if it works without the "none" option. It might work if there is an option for every single crew race in the game. I think the engine can't handle events well when not a single requirement for all the choices is met. But I'm unsure about that.

[LehGogh]

I have a question regarding ship images.

How would I make a ship_glow image out of a ship_noglow image (using GIMP 2.8)? I'm sure there's a function for it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it...

EDIT: Found a solution here: http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 798#p92798

[Crazybat]

My previous inquiry was nothing - simply image artefacts playing up, heh.

But now, I have an actual problem! Hooray! And it is one I can't figure out, no matter how I look at it. I'm in Superluminal, and I'm trying to create Layout C of my Sovereign Class mod. It's my intention for it to start with a Clone Bay - but of course be able to switch to a medbay if one is purchased. Now, if I only assign a clonebay in Superluminal, the ship starts with one. If I also assign a medbay to that same room, and then reselect the clone bay, save, and load the mod - it's still a medbay. I have gone over this again and again, done the process in a myriad of sequences - the end result is the same. Can anybody speak from experience and help me out? I'm soooo close to getting this mod done...

[kartoFlane]

Did you set the "available at start" property for the medbay to false? If both systems have it set to true, then the latter one will always be available (due to the order in which SL writes sytems, I think it'll always be medbay)

[Crazybat]

...I could kiss you right now.

[5thHorseman]

Uhm, events that only consist of blue options tend to cause problems, so I'm not entirely sure if it works without the "none" option. It might work if there is an option for every single crew race in the game. I think the engine can't handle events well when not a single requirement for all the choices is met. But I'm unsure about that.

Yeah, that would explain the weirdness I'm seeing. Sometimes, I don't get a ghost, even though I have non-ghost crew on the ship (I did add an entry for every race in the game except ghost). And I NEVER get a ghost when I've no other crew. It's kind of an interesting mechanic, taking people and stuffing them in the medbay until I get to sacrifice them for ghosts, but it's not what I wanted.

In the end I suspect that I just can't get the game to do what I want. Maybe I'll edit the Lanius crew to make them less... something. On this ship they're just super OP.

[RAD-82]

One question, that added "none" choice at the end, if I'm reading it right it'd give me the choice to not kill the human and get a ghost, right? Leaving that out won't break the rest of the code, will it? I specifically don't want the player to get the choice to not remove the human. And eventually there'll be a check for every non-ghost race, so you'll have to whittle down your crew.

Uhm, events that only consist of blue options tend to cause problems, so I'm not entirely sure if it works without the "none" option. It might work if there is an option for every single crew race in the game. I think the engine can't handle events well when not a single requirement for all the choices is met. But I'm unsure about that.

When the game doesn't meet the requirements for any blue options and there are no non-blue options, the game will just put a generic "Continue..." option that ends the event. Leaving out the "none" choice should be fine.

Code: Select all

<event name="TESTBED_EVENTLOADER">
   <text>Living beings are not suitable for this ship. One must be removed and replaced with a ghost.</text>
   <choice hidden="true" req="human">
      <text>The Human</text>
      <event>
         <text>The human dies...</text>
         <removeCrew class="human">
            <clone>false</clone>
            <text>Your crewman's neuro-backup has disappeared from the clone-log as well. No trace of his existence remains aboard your ship.</text>
         </removeCrew>
  	 <choice hidden="true" req="human">
     	 <text>Continue...</text>
    	  <event>
       	  	<text>...and a ghost appears.</text>
         	<crewMember amount="1" class="ghost"/>
     	 </event>
   	</choice>
      </event>
   </choice>
   <choice hidden="true">
	<text>None.</text>
      	<event/>
   </choice>
</event>

You removed the human the first time you used req="human", so why do you still have a req="human" on the second part? That should be removed, since that would cause the game to not give a ghost unless there is another human available. (Unless the game is still detecting the removed human, but that would just be bad programming in the game engine.)

Maybe I'll edit the Lanius crew to make them less... something. On this ship they're just super OP.

I don't know how you would edit a Lanius. The only thing I can see is to make them not exist, which would require the removal of the Abandoned Sector so that they would never be seen.

This code in a sector_data.xml.append should do just that. Lines would have to be added for CE Lanius sectors, but I don't have that data in front of me right now.

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorType" name="OVERRIDE_HOSTILE">
	<mod:findLike type="sector"> <mod:selector>LANIUS_SECTOR</mod:selector> <mod:removeTag/> </mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>

edit: ...or you could go the more complicated route of making it so you can't receive Lanius crew in the Abandoned Sector. I suppose that would be the preferred method so that you can still fight against Lanius ships. Maybe I could post some code later for that, since I'm not really up to it right now.

edit2:

sector_data.xml.append

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="LANIUS_SECTOR">
	<mod:findLike type="rarityList">
		<mod:findLike type="blueprint"> <mod:selector name="anaerobic"/> <mod:removeTag/> </mod:findLike>
	</mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>

That code should make it so you can't buy Lanius in shops or get them randomly from events in the Abandoned Sector. It will also prevent them from being part of pirate crews. Now I'll go search for events that specifically give Lanius and come back with more code.

edit3:

dlcEvents_anaerobic.xml.append

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="event" name="LANIUS_TRADER_TRANSLATOR">
	<mod:findWithChildLike type="choice" child-type="text">
		<mod:selector>Decline but ask about their translation device.</mod:selector>
		<mod:removeTag/>
	</mod:findWithChildLike>
</mod:findName>

<mod:findName type="event" name="LANIUS_BEACON_EATER">
	<mod:findLike type="choice"> <mod:selector req="SHIP_REPAIR"/>
		<mod:removeTag/>
	</mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>

I could only find two events that give a Lanius, so this code will remove the choices that lead to that outcome.

[5thHorseman]

Maybe I'll edit the Lanius crew to make them less... something. On this ship they're just super OP.

I don't know how you would edit a Lanius.

It's been a long time since I modded at all, and longer since I've actually looked over any of this stuff. I thought that things like HP and movement speed were in the xml but I see now that it's all hard coded.

sector_data.xml.append

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="sectorDescription" name="LANIUS_SECTOR">
	<mod:findLike type="rarityList">
		<mod:findLike type="blueprint"> <mod:selector name="anaerobic"/> <mod:removeTag/> </mod:findLike>
	</mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>

That code should make it so you can't buy Lanius in shops or get them randomly from events in the Abandoned Sector. It will also prevent them from being part of pirate crews. Now I'll go search for events that specifically give Lanius and come back with more code.

dlcEvents_anaerobic.xml.append

Code: Select all

<mod:findName type="event" name="LANIUS_TRADER_TRANSLATOR">
	<mod:findWithChildLike type="choice" child-type="text">
		<mod:selector>Decline but ask about their translation device.</mod:selector>
		<mod:removeTag/>
	</mod:findWithChildLike>
</mod:findName>

<mod:findName type="event" name="LANIUS_BEACON_EATER">
	<mod:findLike type="choice"> <mod:selector req="SHIP_REPAIR"/>
		<mod:removeTag/>
	</mod:findLike>
</mod:findName>

I could only find two events that give a Lanius, so this code will remove the choices that lead to that outcome.

You ROCK. I never actually thought to edit the events. I don't know why. With Lanius taken care of I can let you keep any other crew you find. If you really want them camping the medbay until they die, or clogging up the clone bay (my preferred with this ship, cloning ghosts is pretty frickin' cool)

I also seem to have totally missed the addition of the "mod" tag. I assume that's a Slipstream thing and will be reading into it. Seems to really clean up code when you're editing events that are already present, which I do a lot with the Potential. I never liked that I had to include the whole event with one little change.

[Chrono Vortex]

I've been examining the original hull art of several ships and I can't seem to pin down just where the imaginary light source is relation to the ship is, does anyone have an approximate idea? Also, parts of the ship at a higher elevation could be slightly brighter, right?

[LehGogh]

I've been examining the original hull art of several ships and I can't seem to pin down just where the imaginary light source is relation to the ship is, does anyone have an approximate idea?

As far as I can tell, the light source comes in these directions:

Player ships: Bottom-right going up and to the left.
Enemy ships: Top-right going down and to the left.

Also, parts of the ship at a higher elevation could be slightly brighter, right?

Yes.