[MOD-WIP]Star Wars Complete Overhaul Project

[Jatayus Outbound]

Hello everyone,

Starting a complete overhaul project for FTL. After a couple of playthroughs the game loses a little of it's re-play-ability so we are looking to completely overhaul the game. Currently we are working on changing everything to be Star Wars themed from the Old Republic era. We already have a working Ebon Hawk and are working on the Endar Spire, Harbinger, and plan on having 18 full ships with custom achievements and methods of unlocking other ships. So far most of the stuff we want to change is rather simple although time consuming but that's half the fun. The First obstacle we seem to have hit right now though is limiting different ship's ability to upgrade. We want to do this because we are going to modify the game mechanic by adding in capital class ships and want to have capital class ships have the ability to upgrade to 8 shields instead of four while prohibiting frigate class ships from upgrading that far as well as allowing frigate class ships to upgrade their engines while limiting the level capital ships can upgrade their engines. This is to facilitate a new mechanic we will be coding in to change the way hit chance and evasion operate. If anyone knows of a way to limit upgrading capabilities, any information will be welcome. Also keep an eye on this thread as we add updates to the progress of our overhaul.

[Kieve]

From your post, I'm not sure you're aware of this fact, but core game mechanics are hardcoded. It'll take some kind of wrapper or injection utility to overwrite them. Shield maximum is 5 (10 bars), although this has been known to cause horrible things to happen in asteroid fields. Achievements and unlock functions are likewise fixed in the executable, as is hit/evasion. While I admire the ambition, I get the sense you haven't actually spent much time with the game's files to see what is/isn't possible by modding*.

*Changing the game's resource and data files. Currently, there are no mods that alter the executable's core functions.

[Jatayus Outbound]

From your post, I'm not sure you're aware of this fact, but core game mechanics are hardcoded. It'll take some kind of wrapper or injection utility to overwrite them.

No I was not aware that the game mechanics were hardcoded. Is there any way of decompilling the .exe? I'm fairly familiar with xml and the .dat files and my buddy that will also be working on this with me has a degree in programming and used to work for a company designing apps so he will be handling most of the C++ work.

Shield maximum is 5 (10 bars), although this has been known to cause horrible things to happen in asteroid fields.

I have already successfully modified shields to have an unlimited maximum. Simply extended the class to include multiple levels for the shields to be upgraded to however the asteroid problem is interesting, I haven't had the chance to test this yet and will get back to you on how it goes.

Achievements and unlock functions are likewise fixed in the executable, as is hit/evasion. While I admire the ambition, I get the sense you haven't actually spent much time with the game's files to see what is/isn't possible by modding*.

I am pretty new to modding FTL however it really isn't all that hard a game to mod for since all it's essentially just a C++ coded .exe that pulls from classes built in xml and changed into .dat. Thanks to the slipstream mod manager there is a lot that can be changed without having to do any modification at all to the .exe.

*Changing the game's resource and data files. Currently, there are no mods that alter the executable's core functions.

So far I have found that most of the changes we want to do are capable of being done through the data.dat and resources.dat files, although you have brought up some very valid points and shed some light on some things that I hadn't gotten around to yet, particualrily finding where the hit/evasion system and unlock system were coded.

Thank You

Ifyou know of anyone who, or anyone reading this, knows how to decompile the .exe into a format that can be edited and then recompilled for modding purposes it would be much appreciated. Any information helps.

[Kieve]

Ifyou know of anyone who, or anyone reading this, knows how to decompile the .exe into a format that can be edited and then recompilled for modding purposes it would be much appreciated. Any information helps.

There were some discussions on it in the "early days," when we were all still figuring out what could and couldn't be done. I remember a few successful tests with injection-type programs, with the caveat that they didn't work with the steam version because reasons. I'm not much of a programmer myself, so I sorta skimmed those posts but the general idea is, if you get something working it's likely to be only functional for the DRM-free versions, Steam users are SOL.
I think the discussion was here, but it's been over a year and my memory's a bit hazy on the subject.

[Jatayus Outbound]

Thanks, I checked that out and some of it proved to be useful. Pretty much the .exe is a dead end for now. Although I have thought up a couple workarounds that modify the values I need modified through other means but the problem I run into there is I can't figure out how to limit ships to only being able to upgrade systems to a set level. For example if I had the Ebon Hawk it should be able to upgrade it engines to a higher value than the Harbinger should be able to and the reverse would be true for the Endar Spire's Shields.

[Kieve]

Thanks, I checked that out and some of it proved to be useful. Pretty much the .exe is a dead end for now. Although I have thought up a couple workarounds that modify the values I need modified through other means but the problem I run into there is I can't figure out how to limit ships to only being able to upgrade systems to a set level. For example if I had the Ebon Hawk it should be able to upgrade it engines to a higher value than the Harbinger should be able to and the reverse would be true for the Endar Spire's Shields.

That is not a change you're going to be able to get out of .XML modding. System edits are an all/none proposition.
You might also find some of this useful, though again, systems are all-or-nothing situations.

[Jatayus Outbound]

Ya most of that was stuff I had already discovered on my own while playing with the XML files. Do you know if there is any plan from either the devs or the modding community to take modding FTL any further than just the XML files? I mean, the XML files add a decent amount of modding capability to the game but all of it is really just superficial like changing textures.

[Kieve]

Ya most of that was stuff I had already discovered on my own while playing with the XML files. Do you know if there is any plan from either the devs or the modding community to take modding FTL any further than just the XML files? I mean, the XML files add a decent amount of modding capability to the game but all of it is really just superficial like changing textures.

Matt and Justin have both said on different occasions that they had no expectations for game modding at all, and don't have any plans to support it. As for the modding community, that was the stated goal of "Project Overdrive," though nothing useable has come of it so far.
Don't be discouraged though - there is a lot you can do just by changing events, blueprints, and graphics. At its core, FTL will operate the same, and you'll beat your head off any number of hardcoded walls, but it's still within our power to reshape the game into something new and different.
While I'm offering up reference links, I may also throw this one out there - Shark may not have been the most agreeable or tactful modder, but he did a heck of a job pushing the limits of what we could do. Sleeper's CE is also worth studying extensively, there's a lot of unique ideas and clever work-arounds present in Captain's Edition. And of course, FTL:AE will open up even more doors once it's released.

[English Narwhal]

As Dalolorn put it recently, we can't actually legally mess with the .exe file for FTL and distribute it. It's against the ToS, ToU, or EULA.

[kartoFlane]

ToS = ToU
ToS mostly relates to free-to-use services, I think. EULA applies to proprietary software, which also covers video games.

The exe modifying stuff is a little fuzzy legally, but as far as I understand it, as long as you only distirbute the code you've written yourself (even if it is meant as a patch), you're completely fine.