[Modding] R&D and current findings

[Whale Cancer]

There must be something hardcoded. The Pirateships are defined like this:

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<blueprintList name="SHIPS_PIRATE">
	<name>JELLY_BUTTON</name>
	<name>JELLY_CROISSANT</name>
	…
	<name>ZOLTAN_FIGHTER</name>
	<name>ZOLTAN_BOMBER</name>
</blueprintList>

These are the names of the normal ships. There is nothing to explain the different skin for the pirate ships in the xml.

And that's ... fantastic. Except that SHIPS_PIRATE isn't in the string table; SHIPS_REBEL is, but that's rebels. Which is also used for something related ...

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<ship name="PIRATE_SLAVER" auto_blueprint="SHIPS_PIRATE">

I think you may be looking in the wrong place with resolving this. Just trace the strings back and you should find it pretty quickly. I'm not saying it's *not* hardcoded, but if it is, it's not to SHIPS_PIRATE, but to something else higher upstream. Even then, default crewing isn't something they appear to have hardcoded anywhere.

It appears to be that using _PIRATE in a the blueprint names list ends up appending it to the img tag (and perhaps elsewhere).

I've since renamed all the pirate stuff I am using OUTCAST and am experiencing no unexplained crashes.

[a__gun]

This may seem too simple, but how do you change your starting ships to have your choice of weapons/augmentation at the beginning?

I've gone through a lot of modding threads and they have discussion of elaborate things like adding in your own custom weapons with customized stats, but how about just giving your ship already pre-existing weapons at the beginning of the game?

In data.dat is a file called blueprints.xml. This contains all the starting details of every ship, as well as weapon and augment details. From this you can get the names of weapons and augments and add them to a ships loadout.

[chronial]

And that's ... fantastic. Except that SHIPS_PIRATE isn't in the string table; SHIPS_REBEL is, but that's rebels. Which is also used for something related ...

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<ship name="PIRATE_SLAVER" auto_blueprint="SHIPS_PIRATE">

I think you may be looking in the wrong place with resolving this. Just trace the strings back and you should find it pretty quickly. I'm not saying it's *not* hardcoded, but if it is, it's not to SHIPS_PIRATE, but to something else higher upstream. Even then, default crewing isn't something they appear to have hardcoded anywhere.

SHIPS_PIRATE is not in the strings table, but "_pirate" is. And if you look at the data files, you will also find stuff like

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<blueprintList name="SHIPS_ROCK">
	<name>ROCK_SCOUT</name>
	<name>ROCK_FIGHT</name>
	<name>ROCK_ASSAULT</name>
</blueprintList>
<blueprintList name="SHIPS_ROCK_PIRATE">
	<name>ROCK_SCOUT</name>
	<name>ROCK_FIGHT</name>
</blueprintList>

This is not about crewing, but about styling. The blueprint for ROCK_SCOUT names "rock_scout" as it’s base image, and looking for images with that name yields these results:

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img/ship/rock_scout_gib3.png
img/ship/rock_scout_gib1.png
img/ship/rock_scout_base.png
img/ship/rock_scout_gib2.png
img/ship/rock_scout_gib4.png
img/ship/rock_scout_cloak.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_cloak.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_gib3.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_gib4.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_base.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_gib1.png
img/ship/rock_scout_pirate_gib2.png

I’d say it’s rather obvious what’s happening here

[piper82]

im currently working on a ship so i need to find out some things.

1. is it possible to adjust thruster position?

2. is it possible to change number of thrusters?

3. i know there is a thruster sprite sheet but is it possible to make another one and assign it to ship without messing with the original one?

thanks

[Whale Cancer]

im currently working on a ship so i need to find out some things.

1. is it possible to adjust thruster position?

2. is it possible to change number of thrusters?

3. i know there is a thruster sprite sheet but is it possible to make another one and assign it to ship without messing with the original one?

thanks

Sadly: (1) no, (2), no, and (3) no.

[piper82]

im currently working on a ship so i need to find out some things.

1. is it possible to adjust thruster position?

2. is it possible to change number of thrusters?

3. i know there is a thruster sprite sheet but is it possible to make another one and assign it to ship without messing with the original one?

thanks

Sadly: (1) no, (2), no, and (3) no.

well, there goes my four engine ion propulsion idea
im going to take a ship without visible thrusters and fake it on the ship image

thanks

[Whale Cancer]

im currently working on a ship so i need to find out some things.

1. is it possible to adjust thruster position?

2. is it possible to change number of thrusters?

3. i know there is a thruster sprite sheet but is it possible to make another one and assign it to ship without messing with the original one?

thanks

Sadly: (1) no, (2), no, and (3) no.

well, there goes my four engine ion propulsion idea
im going to take a ship without visible thrusters and fake it on the ship image

thanks

Here's to hoping this gets changed in a 'modder's update'; I couldn't imagine moving the code that only has to control (1) thruster sprite and (2) offsetting to the XML would be that much of an effort.

[Rivers]

This may seem too simple, but how do you change your starting ships to have your choice of weapons/augmentation at the beginning?

I've gone through a lot of modding threads and they have discussion of elaborate things like adding in your own custom weapons with customized stats, but how about just giving your ship already pre-existing weapons at the beginning of the game?

In data.dat is a file called blueprints.xml. This contains all the starting details of every ship, as well as weapon and augment details. From this you can get the names of weapons and augments and add them to a ships loadout.

Yes, I get the concept/logic I think.

This is what I did:



Is it that simple? Am I missing something else I need to do?

As I said, after saving the data.file and starting the game it only reach up to the loading screen then crashes, with a message along the lines of C++ runtime error etc.

[Kieve]

What's the "|"in your Weapon_PreIgnite line? Is that the cursor or did a typo slip in while you were adding that?
As I discovered tonight, all these XML scripts are hypersensitive to bad syntax. Forget one forward-slash closing tag or include an extra quotation mark and suddenly the whole game goes to hell in a handbasket.

[swixel]

SHIPS_PIRATE is not in the strings table, but "_pirate" is. And if you look at the data files, you will also find stuff like

So it is ... I've been looking at the Mac binary (for various reasons), and it's not referenced. Looking at Windows and Linux builds it would appear that the one you really want is just "PIRATE". In any case, while it's in the CreateShip member function, in which _pirate is appended, and random is assigned (next string reference). While, yes, there's something hardcoded, it's hardly useful unless you want to detour the function.