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

[stylesrj]

What would happen if you applied a negative number to a weapon's firing speed?

Would the gun fire backwards in on itself or go even slower? Or does it just go back into the positives, so a speed of -30 is the same as +30?

In fact, what would negative numbers do to certain stats? Negative hull makes you invincible?

[FearTheBlaziken]

I want to make a mod where the first two phases of the Final Boss are two Different ships (Last phase is a Full Version of the Flagship), will the enemy window stay the same if i changed the stats and art of the boss blueprints? ("BOSS_1_DLC", "BOSS_1", etc.)

Also is the Flagship's Jumping Animation Hardcoded?

[LehGogh]

Take in this chunk of example code:

Code: Select all

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST">
   <event>
      <text>Here's a reactor upgrade!</text>
      <upgrade system="reactor" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>Here's an engine upgrade!</text>
      <upgrade system="engines" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>Here's a cloaking upgrade!</text>
      <upgrade system="cloaking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

Would the game pick the cloaking upgrade event from the list if the player did not have the cloaking system installed? If so, is there a way for me to make an event's selectability dependent on the presence of a system? (This would be the equivilent of the requirement tag for choices. By the way, does the requirement tag work on events?)

[stylesrj]

I think it'd pick one at random and if you already have it, they won't install it.

You know those fights or missions where you have to escort a ship or save a ship and they're like "Thanks for doing that job for us. Have a Repair Arm" or "Thanks for saving our lives. You took no damage from the fight, but let us patch up your hull!"
If your reactor is maxed out, they'll still try and fail to do so.
So even if you don't have the system they wanna upgrade, it will not affect the odds of getting that outcome.

I don't think adding requirement tags will solve the issue as they only work on <choice> tags.

[meklozz]

It's even got it's own pretty text and all!



It shouldn't be too much of a problem to hide a requirement in a choice before loading the event, as long as there is at least one. You'd likely have to create event lists for every possibility, though. Maybe there is some other workaround, depending on what exactly you want to do.

@
It might indeed be too much of a problem. Even a 3 system choice would probably be.. troublesome with just one choice, maybe with more as well.

@@
Actually not too much of a problem as long as you don't try to check for maxed out systems (it won't upgrade beyond full, similar message to the one in the screen), just their existence. You could do this with additional choice check or two in the eventlists, though.

There are some quirks to making the choice req tags work like you want them (under a single 'Continue...' is best, I guess?), but I could throw some ready events your way if you want.

[LehGogh]

Thanks for your feedback. I'm just going to stick with upgrading the omnipresent systems (piloting, engines, reactor).

Also, can I make the PDS environment attack both the player and enemy ship? (This would be used with the <fleet>battle</fleet> tag.)

[stylesrj]

Also, can I make the PDS environment attack both the player and enemy ship? (This would be used with the <fleet>battle</fleet> tag.)

Code: Select all

<environment type="PDS" target="all"/>

You can change the target to either player, all or enemy but the code should make it so that the ASBs are firing on both targets.

[meklozz]

Not sure if fleet does anything other than backgrounds, but pds goes like this:

Code: Select all

<environment type="PDS" target="all" />

If you wanted the other systems, here's something you can try (will launch on game start so you can test against ships, upgrades cloak, hacking, boarding):

Code: Select all

autoBlueprints.xml.append:

<blueprintList name="allsystems">
   <name>teleporter</name>
   <name>cloaking</name>
   <name>hacking</name>
</blueprintList>
<blueprintList name="notpclo">
   <name>teleporter</name>
   <name>cloaking</name>
</blueprintList>
<blueprintList name="notphack">
   <name>teleporter</name>
   <name>hacking</name>
</blueprintList>
<blueprintList name="nohackclo">
   <name>cloaking</name>
   <name>hacking</name>
</blueprintList>


events.xml.append:

<mod:findName name="START_BEACON">
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="allsystems" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTHING"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="notphack" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTCLOAK"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="notpclo" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTHACKING"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="nohackclo" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTTELEPORTER"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="teleporter" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTELEPORTER"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="hacking" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOHACKING"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="cloaking" lvl="0" max_lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOCLOAK"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
   <mod-append:choice hidden="true" req="dummy" lvl="0" max_group="0" blue="false">
      <text>Continue...</text>
      <event load="TEST_EVENT_LIST_ALL"/>
   </mod-append:choice>
</mod:findName>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_ALL">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_ALL</text>
      <upgrade system="hacking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_ALL</text>
      <upgrade system="teleporter" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_ALL</text>
      <upgrade system="cloaking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOCLOAK">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOCLOAK</text>
      <upgrade system="hacking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOCLOAK</text>
      <upgrade system="teleporter" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTELEPORTER">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTELEPORTER</text>
      <upgrade system="hacking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTELEPORTER</text>
      <upgrade system="cloaking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOHACKING">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOHACKING</text>
      <upgrade system="teleporter" amount="1"/>
   </event>
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOHACKING</text>
      <upgrade system="cloaking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTTELEPORTER">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTTELEPORTER</text>
      <upgrade system="teleporter" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTHACKING">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTHACKING</text>
      <upgrade system="hacking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTCLOAK">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_JUSTCLOAK</text>
      <upgrade system="cloaking" amount="1"/>
   </event>
</eventList>

<eventList name="TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTHING">
   <event>
      <text>TEST_EVENT_LIST_NOTHING</text>
   </event>
</eventList>

[IONASPHERE]

How would I go about making a custom cloak for my ship? I've made the ship and the gibs, and this is it so far: http://imgur.com/G0a7VLw

How is a cloak made, is it transparent, partly transparent etc?

If anyone could help me, that would be great

[kartoFlane]

I have a PSD from back when I made my Auto-Cruiser here -- the cloak layer has settings that should create a cloak image that is pretty damn close to the ones in the game. The only thing you need to do is draw the black outlines of your ship on that layer.

Sadly, from what I recall, it doesn't quite work in GIMP...