Modding Drone Questions.

[R4V3-0N]

I fear that I may ask some of the dumbest questions regarding Drones but here I go...

Questions 1:

How do you edit the drones power requirement, speed, damage, etc?

Question 2:

Where/ how do you implement drone images?

Question 3:

Where is information about drones stored in the game/ mod file?
I couldn't find it in any xml or anywhere.


Okay questions over, I tried forum searching, googling over and over with different key words, youtube, etc.
the only thing closest I got to about drones is how to make a drone image and how to add/ remove drones, drone parts, and drone slots.

[NewAgeOfPower]

I ran into this myself about two weeks ago, and taught myself how to alter drone behavior through repeated and painful testing.

Drones are entirely governed, XML wise, as follows (code snipped from one of my own drones):

Code: Select all

<droneBlueprint name="PDD_CM">
	<type>DEFENSE</type>
	<level>1</level>
	<title>Point Defense Counter-Missile Drone</title>
	<short>PDCM</short>
	<desc>Advanced Khadarin design, using revolver feed-tech.</desc>
	<power>2</power>
	<cooldown>400</cooldown> <!--- Shooting cooldown for shooting at asteroids/missiles, in ms -->
	<dodge>8</dodge>
	<speed>6</speed> <!--- Superficial change.. just makes it fly faster -->
	<cost>300</cost>
	<bp>6</bp>
	<droneImage>drone_countermissile</droneImage>
	<!---- WEAPON INFO --->
	<weaponBlueprint>D_COUNTERMISSILE</weaponBlueprint>
	<!----- -->
	<rarity>0</rarity>
</droneBlueprint>

The <type> param governs if this drone defends or attacks. Obviously, it must be in allcaps, just like with weapons.

<level> governs whether it can shoot down only MISSILE weapons or every projectile (non-beam, non-bomb) weapon.

<title> is the full name, given in the ship manager (non-combat only) screen.

<short> is the name given in the drone bay section of your UI. Try to keep this short.

<cooldown> is the parameter where how many milliseconds it takes for a drone to shoot down an incoming projectile. Unlike what the comments say, it also governs the rate of fire for Level 2 drones against other projectiles as well.

<power> is pretty damn obvious

<dodge> I believe this is a drone's chance to evade weapons fire, x10%. Not too certain.

<speed> governs how fast a defense drone orbits your ship or moves around in general. Unlike what the comments say, keeping all your defense/attack drones moving together helps you synchronize attacks and maintain an optimal defensive coverage.

<cost> is obvious.

<bp> I believe like the weapons <bp> parameter, this is a obsolete chunk of code.

<droneimage> governs which set of drone images a drone must use. The Drone Image tutorial has already covered how to use said images and the required naming scheme, so I'll point you there.

<weaponBlueprint> governs which weapons system a drone will use. The weapon system will not be displayed on the drone, instead being replaced by <droneimage>'s chosen turret, but it's weapons fire, logic, and animations will still be similar. Keep in mind that beams and bombs do not appear to work on defense drones, and there is no known way of making drones fire multiple shots per charge or use ammunition.

<rarity> if you didn't know, this governs rarity. 1 - 5 is a sliding scale of rarity, with 1 being common and 5 being incredibly rare. 0 = does not appear on randomly spawned stuff or shops.

Anyways, for Defense Drone behavior, larger and faster projectiles seem to have a higher chance to hit the missile, while small slow projectiles may not intercept an incoming shot before it smashes into your ship's hull. And obviously, faster rate of fire is a good thing for the defender.

Just keep in mind balance.

Once I finish banging out the problems with Requiem's campaign, I'll write a balance guideline document. Unfortunately, writing this has consumed my free time tonight, and I'll be even busier the rest of this week : /

Also: Consider asking questions in the questions thread I posted.

[R4V3-0N]

ouch... I remember there was a questions thread but couldn't remember it when I had this question, I will make sure to ask there in the future.

Anyway a lot of thanks for the in detailed post.

Another question, those values for Deffence Drone, do I still need something there or can I remove them if I am doing a Offence drone?

[R4V3-0N]

Yea, I have failed so far to make it work =c
I just don't know what went wrong...

just in case if it helps I'll post what I did for my code bellow.

Code: Select all

<droneBlueprint name="OLD_ION_DRONE">
   <type>OFFENSE</type>
   <level>1</level>
   <title>Old Anti-Ship Ion Drone</title>
   <short>Old I.Drone I</short>
   <desc>Slow moving drone that repeatedly attacks the enemy ship with ion blasts. </desc>
   <power>2</power>
   <cooldown>400</cooldown>
   <dodge>8</dodge>
   <speed>13</speed>
   <cost>20</cost>
   <bp>6</bp>
   <droneImage>old_ion_drone</droneImage>
   <weaponBlueprint>DRONE_ION</weaponBlueprint>
   <rarity>3</rarity>
</droneBlueprint>

Anything I done wrong?

[kartoFlane]

Code: Select all

   <type>OFFENSE</type>

Should be COMBAT

[R4V3-0N]

Cheers again, I only did what I biased on superluminal and the game files, everything was 'offensive/ offense" so I thought that was it.

I will go fix that up and see if that works.

BTW how can you make system, AP, and Boarding drones? I won't really be making those but I am just interested.

Edit: now I got the 'black box of death' flying around instead of my drone. I will try and google to help me with this problem.

[NewAgeOfPower]

Okay dude, I didn't realize you would only look at my one tutorial and ignore the examples given in the in-game files... This is like trying to learn how to code by copying code without building and testing your own...


<type>BOARDER</type> sets the type to Boarding drone.

<type>BATTLE</type> sets the type to Anti-Personnel.

<type>SHIP_REPAIR</type> sets the type to Hull Repair.

<type>REPAIR</type> is system repair.

Anyways, the fastest way to learn how to mod is to dissect the in-game files and other player's mods. I highly, highly recommend Kieve's Obsidian mod as a excellent study aid for beginning modders.

[R4V3-0N]

Okay dude, I didn't realize you would only look at my one tutorial and ignore the examples given in the in-game files... This is like trying to learn how to code by copying code without building and testing your own...


<type>BOARDER</type> sets the type to Boarding drone.

<type>BATTLE</type> sets the type to Anti-Personnel.

<type>SHIP_REPAIR</type> sets the type to Hull Repair.

<type>REPAIR</type> is system repair.

Anyways, the fastest way to learn how to mod is to dissect the in-game files and other player's mods. I highly, highly recommend Kieve's Obsidian mod as a excellent study aid for beginning modders.

I couldn't find the information about drones anywhere, I tried google, youtube, bing, yahoo answer, forum, both searching, threads, asks, etc. and I found nothing (must be my bad luck, or bad choice of key words) and for information regarding drones I looked mainly to the wiki to see there drone value stats and speeds and stuff. I do apologise.

When I tried to look for drones in other peoples mods I couldn't find them anywhere besides only the images, I checked and I checked, before I posted this thread I devoted I think 2 or 3 days to trying to find those bloody drones... when I looked at examples I sort of looked to Superluminal ship editor... there is a "Offensive" and "Defensive" drones, so I thought that is what I put, Offence (which proved wrong) and defence...

I couldn't find anything in the in-game files (besides images when I used the search function).
I couldn't find any other guides/ tutorials besides this http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16922
And the wiki doesn't have any weapon or drone information besides what would be in the ship blueprint...

I do apologise again, I'm sorry. I guess I wasted your time...

Also I did kinda experimented with what I learned so far... how ever I couldn't make a costume image/ change the image at all, I did manage to make the drones have different weapons and stuff, speeds, turn time, etc.


Edit: google failed me again... still not sure how to make a image into a weapon/drone mod via codding...
I checked the O. Cruiser and some other places for the information and I don't quite understand how/why they got that names...

eg 1 image for the obsidian cruiser is 'krs_gravbombFX' but there is no image in the mod called laser_light2 .

[NewAgeOfPower]

Er. You look inside the game's unpacked XML files. Use notepad++ for readability.

There is a image tutorial on this forum which helped me make drone images work in only two tries. Read it.

Also, Karto built a powerful debugging tool. Before finding it, I'd have to run ~5 tests n' edits before I'd get a heavy change working, now, I just hit the tool and any CTD errors will probably be detected, saving me half the trouble. Of course, the other half of the trouble is that much more irksome now...

[R4V3-0N]

I used notepad to, what I ran into is there is no blueprints.xml or anything like that, only that position xml and the txt, (I am using windows 8 and I have noticed tons of BS problems when doing some stuff, eg no visible extensions (I was trying to mod in a zip folder, then I tried to rename it to have .ftl on the end, which in reality it was
"[mods name].ftl.zip" which still didn't work, etc)

I can't find that tutorial =l sorry, I only find weapon tutorials when I search it on the forum.

Is that image tutorial still up or is it taken down?

Am I supposed to make another blueprint thing for more drone details off the normal blueprint thingy?

I named my drones "old_Ion_drone_base" and also a engine, an on, etc.
am I supposed to for the <image> write old_ion_drone or do I write

old_ion_drone_base
old_ion_drone_engine
old_ion_drone_charge
old_ion_drone_on

etc?

Edit: if it also helps somehow, these are the 3 (out of 4, didn't upload engine due to it being a renamed vanilla and recoloured) pictures of my drone



Edit Edit 2: just had a we brain storm... do I put old_ion_drone.png?