[OVERHAUL] Arsenal+ English Translation

[bamalf]

thing about Arsenal+ Infinite is that it's different from CE Infinite in its main concept I think, but I guess I'll have to translate it anyways..

It is, but there is very little text to translate.

[SaturnCelestial]

so... I stand... corrected? I don't even know.. I'll have to try out that load order Dire_Venom posted.. huh. so I thought if a file doesn't have an append type file extension it overwrites everything in the file, but Dire_Venom mentioned CE events still show up, so maybe that's wrong?

just know that the compatibility was never looked into, so while possible, that's (mostly) uncharted waters. someone should look into that though

I mean... I keep meaning to get into modding some game or other, so, er. What's FTL coded in? Could I do a compat patch? ...I don't know any coding and I'm genuinely scared of trying (I flunked an online Python class for god's sake), but I mean, if I really want to, I've got to start somewhere.

[mr_easy_money]

I mean... I keep meaning to get into modding some game or other, so, er. What's FTL coded in? Could I do a compat patch? ...I don't know any coding and I'm genuinely scared of trying (I flunked an online Python class for god's sake), but I mean, if I really want to, I've got to start somewhere.

(I'm getting rather tired so I hope I didn't miss anything important and it reads okay... but here's modding in a nutshell )

I wouldn't say you need any coding experience, maybe just being able to read XML, but that isn't really coding. a good text editor for reading XML is notepad++. it gives all the tags, attributes, and values different colors. here's an example: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=27399&p=92485.

right now, modding as it stands is severely limited, limited to changing a collection of XML files within the data.dat file. to get an idea of what this looks like, unpack the .dat file using Slipstream. you can also get an idea of what the resources look like by unpacking the resource.dat file.

as you probably know, Slipstream loads '.ftl' files. '.ftl' files are renamed '.zip' files. within those '.zip' files are files with the same names as the ones you find within the data.dat file, and this is because Slipstream patches these files into data.dat (and resource.dat if not data).

things you can't change through this modding is like: how many total sectors there are (infinite uses the testing/crystal sector to sort of get around this, but not really), the power surges of the flagship, adding new types of crew, adding new types of hazards that are actual hazards not event-based (like CE's acid), and the list goes on. mainly you can't really add any new mechanics to FTL.

the main thing people start off with is creating a ship mod, which isn't hard at all to do because Superluminal will mostly do this for you.

then, ya move on to creating your own weapons: this, viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17122, is a fairly decent guide to creating custom weaponry. it's slightly outdated and doesn't cover mechanics and weapon types added in AE, and I'd advise caution when it says some tags are "essential" but it gives details on what every tag is and how to get animations and sound working.

as for events, the first place to start is to add something to the start beacon. the mod Beginning Scrap Advantage included with every install of SMM will show you this if you extract it (.ftl files are .zip files) and look in the file events.xml. this, https://ftlwiki.com/wiki/Events_file_structure, is a pretty good run-down on the structure for FTL events in XML. this is an okay tutorial to adding new events and sectors to FTL, okay because it is rather outdated (skip Step 1) but it does give a general rundown.

in general, you can look through the new files created by unpacking the data.dat file to see how and what the XML structure that mods deal with, starting off with these files: blueprints.xml, events.xml, and sector_data.xml are good places to look to see, and you can also extract a mod to see what events look like.

this was probably rather overwhelming, but it really isn't bad at all once you know how the XML structure works. I hope I covered the basics, that this is informative, and you do pursue modding (but as always, I probably missed something so obviously important ). if you have any questions (if you wish to pursue modding), reply here or ask in the general inquiry thread viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17442 or as a new topic in the Mod Development subforum.

--
I said "right now" because someone is working on developing a script-based API that'll make what modders can do in FTL a great deal more, and the possibilities are quite high, though the stuff that changes the game more will probably be more difficult to make. no news on when it'll release though

some other people are working on something else, a supposed "dev-tool" but I haven't heard any news on that either

[Dire_Venom]

Ive got more of the mods working now, but now Combat Augments no longer work -_-
Probably because I loaded an additional ship mod before Arsenal:?
Please note that my mod load order is in no way based on anything resembling logic XD
Just adding all of the weapon mods would work pretty well I would think. A ton of variety right there.
I know Arsenal includes a lot of CE content, but Im not sure if some of the content I see in game is Arsenal adapted CE or just pure CE a lot of the time:?

[SaturnCelestial]

mr_easy_money:

Mm.. I didn't realize it was quite that limited. I was always curious why CE worked around things the way it did. I assume then that the game itself, or the codebase rather, is somewhat more difficult? It's good to know that this is easy enough to get into, I suppose. Is there anything that could be done to help power up FTL's modding community, or a dev tool like that itself?

I don't know if you missed anything, except the main thrust of my query; how compatibility patches work, their difficulty, what would I need to know to make one for all the mods being talked about here?

Having said that though, that's a very detailed and thorough response. I'm very appreciative.

Dire_Venom:

I guess it depends on what you've got showing up. I noticed in your screenshots the enemy ships didn't have name modifiers as enemies tend to have in CE, like Ace or Jammer Refit or Sturdy or whatever they were. I'm also aware CE adds a lot of blue events for a variety of weapons and augments, and of course the trading system (which, admittedly, I have never used because I always needed the augment space)

Incidentally, you're using slightly outdated versions of the CE mods. Also, I'm using the Randtrel mod; the randomized player ships one?

Final question: My mod load order is only CE's stuff and some weapon mods. What are those other ones you've got? And what kind of load orders are you using / should I try in order to achieve the infinite goal, or at least a functioning normal game?

[mr_easy_money]

i̶n̶b̶4̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶l̶e̶a̶r̶,̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶k̶s̶.̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶.̶
huh, not sure what happened, looks like it cleared this time.

mr_easy_money:

I don't know if you missed anything, except the main thrust of my query; how compatibility patches work, their difficulty, what would I need to know to make one for all the mods being talked about here?

a compatibility patch would need to simultaneously get all the sectors and events working together, all the lists that give enemies their weapons and players the ability to use weapons in events, all the sounds working together, and all the weapons working together. by working together I mean not overlapping and being able to be used side by side.

to get sectors and events working together, know how sector_data.xml works, one of the tutorials I linked in my previous reply goes over making a custom sector. basically you gotta get all the sectors across overhaul mods in the lists containing sectors. maybe even making different names for sectors in different overhauls, might work then.

to get the enemy and player lists going, look in autoBlueprints.xml and dlcBlueprintsOverwrite.xml, and dlcBlueprints.xml for DLC_ITEMS. basically you need to get all the weapons across mods in the lists they should be in. I'm not completely sure what you should do here for compatibility, guess it sorta depends what you want by compatibility. the enemy lists detail what weapons the enemies get, which makes a pretty big difference.

to get all the sounds working together, be sure nothing overlaps. look at sounds.xml and dlcSounds.xml, and also the audio folder

to get all the weapons working together, make sure the weapons and weapon animations don't overlap; look in blueprints.xml, animations.xml, dlcBlueprints.xml, dlcAnimations.xml

and there's probably something else you'd need to for compatibility, such as looking in the misc file, make sure events don't overlap (as in, the names of the events) and eventLists, and make sure ship files don't overlap in file name. there's probably something else to do with the actual data concerning enemy ships, but I haven't looked into that much.

get all that done, and my oh my that'll be one helluva compatibility patch. it'd be a complete compatibility patch, but you probably don't need to go that far. at the very least do the sectors thing, but I haven't looked into it enough to say that just doing that will make things work better. as I said someone should look into these "uncharted waters".

Final question: My mod load order is only CE's stuff and some weapon mods. What are those other ones you've got? And what kind of load orders are you using / should I try in order to achieve the infinite goal, or at least a functioning normal game?

these are ALL of them on Dire_Venom's mod order list. uh, kinda went overboard but almost all of what's on that mod order is here

• Better Planets and Backgrounds: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9241
• CE stuff including Endless Loot: viewtopic.php?t=15663
• LTO-AE.1.1: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27212
• Arsenal+ stuff: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=29891 (I made this!)
• Expanded Limited Time Offer! for CE: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30272 (I made this!)
• GianTell's Armament: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=29873
• Crystal Catacylsm: viewtopic.php?t=24317
• C&C Weapons Pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27573
• Extended Pursuit Indicator: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26289
• Disable Fleet: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2593
• nono's weapon pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=28901
• RAD-82's Weapon Pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25968
• Anomaly Weapons Pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30318
• Sleepz Wepz: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=29048
• Steamtex Weapons Pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30332
• GO BALLISTIC! 1.2 GAUSS WHAT!: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26840
• MLAS Assorted Weapons Pack v1.0: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30294
• Blueprint Crafting 0.01b: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24872
• diversityMod_0.5: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=29975
• randomFlagship: bamalf mentioned Arsenal+ has its own version and you know where the original is...
• The Stowbud v03/Gencool's Bizarre: viewtopic.php?t=29068
• Pliou (2)/Pliou's AE 20 ship pack: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27588
• Beginning Scrap Advantage: should be in your mods folder
• Event Assistant: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27072
• Randtrel: you must know what this is...
• Engi Scrap Advantage: should be in your mods folder
• Enemy Cruiser Mod 1.2: viewtopic.php?t=6114 ***Might not even work, might be pre-AE
• FotF stuff: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3637 ***Looks pre-AE, but who knows? maybe it works? no idea
• Something is not right: uhh... no idea
• Expand Weapon and Drone Slots to 4: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=30346 (I made this!)

there's also HighRes Backgrounds & Planets you can use in place of Better Planets and Backgrounds, and I recently posted a CE compatibility patch for it. I see Dire_Venom isn't using the CE BPaB compatibility patch

[SaturnCelestial]

I've tested a few load orders. It's a matter of overwriting, right? It definitely seems like they don't play well; You can get either Arsenal or CE content, but not really both in a meaningful sense.

So a compat patch is definitely a good idea. Probably, it'd also be good to do Infinite Loot patches for the various weapon mods and also for the weapons in Arsenal. And then enemy ship modifiers as well, though I don't know what mod that was. Also infinite loot?

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but basically what I need to do is extract all the data from CE and Arsenal (And the weapons mods!), compare the code in each of these various files, and get it all agreed-upon on ONE list per file, and then wrap that up as an overwrite patch for all aforementioned mods? Not sure which of them would go first before the patch though. Either way, that doesn't sound like it requires me to know the code so much as it requires patience and attention; either that, or at least the majority is patience-type.

And then I guess I need to do... Something?... to make sure all weapons and ships have those IL modifiers. And then, uh, something else to make sure CE Infinite can actually be a thing with Arsenal without breaking the game, which I did get it to do a few times. Breaking, that is.

By compatibility, I mean it should appear to be seamless; everything should play nice together, blue events included. Enemies should have access to all the weapons and various modifiers thereof, as should players, within their rarities of course. And all the enemies from CE and Arse should be able to show up, have modifiers, have their little events, and then DIE. The way they ought to.

Oh, hm, that means I'd have to add all these lists to Randtrel and Randflagship, too, huh? Wow.

[mr_easy_money]

before I say anything, FearTheBlaziken notified me that they're no longer working on an English Translation, partly because they lost interest (hey, I can vouch for that. there is a LOT of russian text) and also because it would have split the player pool (their version reflected sMPK's style). their work isn't lost, and they gave me it so that I can make this translation of mine better.

Arsenal+ v1.24.1, English Data v1.0

so.. there's finally a v1.0 release! This marks getting all of the Russian text into English, and also, this update has a significant chunk of content, including:

• the rest of the HAL events
• the Border Sector events
• the events in events.xml. I don't know which sectors these go into, but they're special.
• made the credits include everybody correctly
• the drone control roulette thing no longer jumps around when cycling through the drones
• made a full range of new weapon and drone descriptions, to make the weapons have some real description
• revised text in other places to read better

while a 1.0 release is all fine and dandy, the mod will still get updates, because there's still a good amount of work left to do. the event texts may be translated, but translated well is another matter altogether.
also, I really wanted to make more of the weapons read better, but an update was due, so here it is. at least now you'll be able to read everything, instead of being confused and doing guesswork on Russian text.

you might also notice that the title image is different. I combined the original mod's title screen with a crisper version by FearTheBlaziken

Arsenal+ v1.24.1, English Resource Pack v3

a minor update that translates a Russian image into English, used in one event, and removes some fonts that just make weapon descriptions and titles hard to read in English.
to me, the vanilla weapon description fonts look just fine, plenty of space between words and letters. this does also mean there's less space, but if that's the price so be it. FearTheBlaziken suggested using the sMPK fonts, but those look a bit too crammed to me (not JustinFont8!)

I suppose I should look at some other overhaul mods for fonts, gonna have to look into that

---------------
------
in other news, I'll endeavour to release the Arsenal+ A+, A-, and Infinity Arsenal add-ons, and a very slightly modified version of the Arsenal+ Flagship Randomizer very soon.

expect more updates soon! until then, have a great time with this new update

[Dire_Venom]

Awesome job, that looks pretty promising :3
I eagerly await more mods to add to my convoluted list

[bamalf]

Good work and expect a new update soon