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

Discuss and distribute tools and methods for modding. Moderator - Grognak
gg911
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Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 4:30 pm

Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby gg911 » Mon May 12, 2014 2:36 pm

featherwings wrote:
The Legacy wrote:
gg911 wrote:[snip]


[snip]

I may research "quest marker" quests, and see how it works; if, for example, you wanted to gather a fleet (something that my mod will be doing), though your fleet would never directly intervene, if it's possible to forward variables or situations, perhaps it's possible to shorten the final fleet fight that one has to fight, per ship you recruit? Hopefully someone can answer for both our sakes. :P


There are very few "variables" you can pass around with FTL's xml, sadly. Quests in game work by simply changing one of the beacons in a system to be the quest event.

For instance, the merchant delivery quest simply calls "<quest event="MERCHANT_DELIVER"/>" to create the quest beacon, and that beacon works just like any other event - it's simply guaranteed you've seen the first half of the quest line.

I'd LOVE for someone to correct me on this, but the only "variables" you have to work with are the ones you see on screen - fuel, missiles, drones, scrap, etc. I've given a lot of thought to making all missile weapons use no missiles so I can use the player's missile count to track something else, such as morality (if you pirate a ship, you lose missiles, if you want to ally with someone, it sees how "trustworthy" you are - by checking your missile count.) You might want to look at captain's edition, which does a lot of clever things with dummy augments (although the whole trade goods system is pretty bad, since it not only lets the player cheat, but it also requires the player to take action to AVOID cheating.)

EDIT: Also, you can't spawn more than one ship in a beacon. FTL doesn't like it. You'll notice that none of FTL's default events ever have you see more than one ship. If you try, it'll just end that event right there.


is there no way to add new variables then have an if statement in a encounter? i would think you could but you are not actually ever controlling or fighting more then one ship... it is just invisible rooms connecting them. and to answer the other person that answered maybe having artillery would not be quite so bad as in scifi movies when there are fleets do the ships generally target individual ships? no the just shoot randomly at the other fleet. what if (hypothetically) your "flagship" has regular weapons?

would it be possible to decrease the artillery cool down? then i see no problem with using artillery
The Legacy
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby The Legacy » Mon May 12, 2014 6:49 pm

gg911 wrote:is there no way to add new variables then have an if statement in a encounter? i would think you could but you are not actually ever controlling or fighting more then one ship... it is just invisible rooms connecting them. and to answer the other person that answered maybe having artillery would not be quite so bad as in scifi movies when there are fleets do the ships generally target individual ships? no the just shoot randomly at the other fleet. what if (hypothetically) your "flagship" has regular weapons?

would it be possible to decrease the artillery cool down? then i see no problem with using artillery


As far as I know, there's no way to add new coding to the game; the XML files are pretty much the only way.

The best way to track variables through instances, is through using Missile count as a tracker. Of course, this would require a massive rework of both weapons and events in the game, if you removed all usage of missiles (the munition) in the game, it could be used to track a number.

To remove munition usage from weapons, you'll need to add/change the missile's usage to <missiles>0</missiles>.
The Legacy
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 2:24 am

Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby The Legacy » Tue May 13, 2014 3:27 am

Silly me, I forgot to add about artillery! >.<

For the first Artillery gun, you can upgrade it ingame, and the maximum/minimum is between 50 seconds and 20 seconds per shot/volley/etc, with level 4 being 20 seconds. Whether the game supports shorter cooldowns by further boosting the artillery level to 5 or beyond, I'm not certain, but I'll test it out for you. Just keep in mind that if you have more than one artillery cannon on your ship, only the first one can be upgraded/onlined/offlined/etc.
dalolorn
Posts: 532
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:06 am

Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby dalolorn » Tue May 13, 2014 3:33 pm

The Legacy wrote:Silly me, I forgot to add about artillery! >.<

For the first Artillery gun, you can upgrade it ingame, and the maximum/minimum is between 50 seconds and 20 seconds per shot/volley/etc, with level 4 being 20 seconds. Whether the game supports shorter cooldowns by further boosting the artillery level to 5 or beyond, I'm not certain, but I'll test it out for you. Just keep in mind that if you have more than one artillery cannon on your ship, only the first one can be upgraded/onlined/offlined/etc.


You've got the artillery cooldowns wrong. It's between 125 and 50% of the standard cooldown.
gg911
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby gg911 » Tue May 13, 2014 6:11 pm

well only having control of one kinda makes sense as you are the captin of one ship... also is it possible to have the multiple medbay/shield or what ever?
The Legacy
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby The Legacy » Sat May 17, 2014 2:18 pm

gg911 wrote:well only having control of one kinda makes sense as you are the captin of one ship... also is it possible to have the multiple medbay/shield or what ever?


Unfortunately, no :( I already tested multiple shield rooms; as far as I know, the only rooms you can have multiple of is artillery.
Pax_Empyrean
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 12:48 pm

Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby Pax_Empyrean » Mon May 19, 2014 12:50 pm

Question: is it possible to mod the dodge bonuses given by each engine upgrade level?
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kartoFlane
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby kartoFlane » Mon May 19, 2014 1:40 pm

Nope
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL
Pax_Empyrean
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby Pax_Empyrean » Mon May 19, 2014 2:00 pm

That sucks. Thanks for the speedy reply.

I suppose this means I get to dig through the executable with a hex editor and see if I can find a pattern that looks like the dodge values. If I'm not back in a week, send a search party.

Another question: is anyone messing with the executable via a hex editor, or is it strictly .xml editing around here?
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kartoFlane
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Re: Questions here: an inquiry thread!

Postby kartoFlane » Mon May 19, 2014 2:20 pm

Pretty much exclusively XML editing. There were some attempts at a rewrite, and an odd person trying to mess with the executable, but nothing ever came from it.
However, anything that makes the game more moddable is more than welcome, at least IMO...
Superluminal2 - a ship editor for FTL