[Save Manager] FTL Homeworld AE -v3.1

[UltraMantis]

How did you solve the problem?

[Pelia]

How did you solve the problem?

Judging from the problem itself, the problem might have been between the monitor and a chair. He just couldn't find the homeworld.sav, which is located in the ...\Docs\My Games\FasterThanLight\. If you launch the app for the first time, there is none, of course, so he pressed cancel. The thing is the program makes a new HW.sav in that case, and it notifies you about this in an error message, which can be confusing. A warning sign could be better.

[Darkpaladin109]

How did you solve the problem?

I don't quite remember how I solved it, but I believe I just checked a couple of pages on this thread to see if I could find a fix. None of the fixes I found worked, so I just restarted my computer and tried to install it again.

[dalolorn]

I've been thinking about the end goal highlighted in the OP, and I think the underlying code would basically do this:

Select items from the Cargo Bay, write it into a blueprint, then patch the blueprint and any necessary hull images (assuming it loads additional graphics from an .ftl file or somewhere) into the game as a starting ship (Kestrel A, for example).

However, you would require a method of keeping track of such custom-made ships in order to make sure you can load ships via Spacedock. To that end, Homeworld would have to keep a copy of the files it patches into the game in addition to the savegames, so that when it loads a savegame, it automatically resets FTL's files to a set of backups (just like Slipstream and GMM do), then patches in the required files.

So what if somebody uses a preset ship from another mod? Simple. Just make it capable of keeping track of whatever mods you were using by either collaborating with Slipstream (unlikely) or having the user patch its files in through Homeworld.

Pros:

• Fully flexible ship construction based on assets from any mod owned by the player, including equipment.
• Homeworld becomes capable of adjusting player mod lists, skipping the part where the player has to remember and patch in his mods.

Cons:

• Considerably increased HDD usage due to all the new backup files Homeworld has to create.
• Quite complicated to code in for various reasons.
• Requires code from Slipstream.

However, the pros considerably outweigh the cons in my opinion.

Edit: Oh, I forgot a pro (or con, depending on perspective - but trying to be optimistic here ):

• Tools such as Slipstream become somewhat obsolete, several parts of Superluminal's functionality also become useless.

[ArmedKevin117]

Hey, sorry if this has already been shot down, but:

I was looking at the previous post and thinking wouldn't it be simpler if this program just kept backups of the data and resources present in the game directory when a save is transferred, then put those back in with the save? That way a restored save would always have the right mods installed (providing the user didn't change mods between saving the game and moving it to the hanger). As for transferring weapons/drones/augments that are mod specific, would it work to associate a given item with the mod it comes from, then refuse to transfer them to a ship that didn't have that mod?

Some stuff from what dalolorn said, just mixing my own 2 cents in. I really like this mod's idea.

[dalolorn]

Hey, sorry if this has already been shot down, but:

I was looking at the previous post and thinking wouldn't it be simpler if this program just kept backups of the data and resources present in the game directory when a save is transferred, then put those back in with the save? That's what I said. That way a restored save would always have the right mods installed (providing the user didn't change mods between saving the game and moving it to the hanger). As for transferring weapons/drones/augments that are mod specific, would it work to associate a given item with the mod it comes from, then refuse to transfer them to a ship that didn't have that mod? That, or let the user choose between:

A: Patching the mod in question in as a whole.

or B, and this is a bit more complicated, as both options take place within Homeworld's programming: Figuring out what the dependencies (if any) of the items being transferred are, and appending those fragments of code to the saved game's files. This would PROBABLY work if implemented correctly.

Some stuff from what dalolorn said, just mixing my own 2 cents in. I really like this mod's idea.

Comments are in red.

[ArmedKevin117]

When you mentioned backing up resources and stuff, my (tired) brain thought you were saying go digging into the .dat files and pull out resources. Then it said "hey, what if..." instead of "is that really what he's saying?

As for patching in specific weapon resources, I think that would indeed work, but it would have a lot of room to mess up during testing.

[dalolorn]

When you mentioned backing up resources and stuff, my (tired) brain thought you were saying go digging into the .dat files and pull out resources. Then it said "hey, what if..." instead of "is that really what he's saying?

As for patching in specific weapon resources, I think that would indeed work, but it would have a lot of room to mess up during testing.

Well, now that I took a closer look at it, the idea seems to have been to create backup versions of whatever mod files were used, NOT the .dat files themselves. In other words, instead of wasting space on fully built .dat files, you'd pull the .xml files and whatever images/sounds/whatevers you needed out of the backups, and append them to a backup copy of the original .dat files, then replace FTL's current .dats with the result.

Patching specific weapon resources isn't as hard as you think. You just need to find the blueprint for the weapon/drone, which references the required animations, which reference the required sprites. Piece of cake.

Edit: Oh, and the blueprint also tells you what sound you need to use.

[slvr611]

I would like to install this mod, but when I run it it says that it cannot guess the path to Homeworld.sav, and it asks me to find it manually. Then it says that if I cannot find it, it will create one. If you could tell me either where to find the Homeworld.sav, or how to get it to create one, that would be great. This looks like an awesome mod, and I would love to try it.

Edit: I saw that the problem had already been addressed above, but when I cancel it says "Error parsing FTL data files". So I relaunched it, same problem. I tried restarting it as mentioned above and it still didn't work. Any advice?

[Idren]

Hi! First off, I'd like to say what an awesome program this is! I find myself constantly wanting to be able to have multiple save files going at once!

Unfortunately... For some reason, I am unable to launch FTL from the Homeworld program, and (I suspect) as a result, I can't get the program to "board"/"dock" ships because every time I start a new game, FTL deletes the first ship, which also deletes the continue.sav file that Homeworld uses.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue, and if I'm correct in that FTL Homeworld only works if launched from the Spacedock in the program??

Thanks for the help!