Modding the Demo

[Wydraz]

I know its probably not official, and likely a waste of time to mod the demo, but I want some practice before the full game appears on my doorstep.

In the 'DEMO!' thread, Aaron Hall said: "Most of the data files are not moddable."

So, which files ARE moddable?

[Wydraz]

Anyway, the non-data files are moddable. The ships are skinnable. I just doubled the size of the player ship bitmap and changed the colors, and that works.

Now my ship can have some detailing!

[ September 23, 2003, 02:51: Message edited by: Wydraz ]

[DeadZone]

You can mod the campaign as I already have
Ive added an extra starting ship and have added a few new systems
Now Im gonna look into making the demo that extra bit harder to play http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ September 24, 2003, 17:12: Message edited by: DeadZone ]

[Wydraz]

Hmm... I wonder what Aaron was talking about, then.

And you want to make the game harder? Sheesh, I thought it was hard enough.

Maybe you can make the planets bigger? Maybe I'm spoiled by Freelander, where when you move close to a planet it fills your screen. SESF planets seem like beach balls by comparison. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Phoenix-D]

heh. There are some exploits that make it easier. Ex: if you're attacking a starbase from close range, you can dock with it, repair, pop out and shoot it some more, then repeat until it dies.

[DeadZone]

It would appear tho that you cannot edit the CampaignData.txt file or the demo wont read the file.
This means that wot you can modify is extremely limited.

Edit: Skip that it is actually almost unmoddable

[ September 24, 2003, 18:02: Message edited by: DeadZone ]

[DeadZone]

Ok the only file that I have successfully modded is Main_PurchaseShipsPlayer.txt
I have given a Cruiser 8000 tonnage
and also I have found that you can survive ramming a ship with high enuf shields. I rammed a terran cruiser and it knocked off just over 1000 shield points (I had over 2500 left)
So we can still have some fun modding the demo while we wait for the full game

[DeadZone]

And here is proof that you can add your own ships to the demo
http://chrisnewton.lfhost.com/gunboat.jpg

[Phoenix-D]

Deadzone, try to buy that ship. When I tried to make 360 degree mounts, they wouldn't work in game. The arcs would never go past 45 degrees, and the center-mounted turrets I made wouldn't fire period.

[DeadZone]

Im finding the same problem with the 360degrees thing and not all the turrents will fire

Also as a side note you can add objects to systems eg. I now have two space stations around Freeport V

[Wydraz]

Originally posted by DeadZone:
And here is proof that you can add your own ships to the demo...[/URL]<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We're on the same page here, more or less.

Click here (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1064451709.jpg)

I'm working on the skybox (and other graphics) as well as ship modeling. you can probably tell I haven't textured the ship yet.

I'm thinking about making a tutorial for ship modeling. But I haven't figured out how to alter the .x file (or the SpaceObjects_XFiles.txt file?) to account for engine glow and weapon hardpoints. Any ideas?

[Captain Kwok]

It's the SpaceObjects file you need to edit for your ships weapon hardpoints and engine glow co-ordinates. This may require some trial and error on your part to figure these out...

[Suicide Junkie]

And that includes the weapon arcs as of this Version.
I'm hoping to convince Aaron that having the arcs determined in the slot layout instead of the Spaceobjects file would be better.

[Phoenix-D]

Well, that explains why adding hardpoints didn't work, and why the arcs didn't change! You might want to make a note of that in your slot modder, SJ. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

On a different story- Deadzone, how did you get SF to display 360 degree arcs? Even if it didn't work, I couldn't even get it to do that.

[DeadZone]

Goto Main_ComponentConfigurationSlotsPlayer.txt
Look for wotever ship (or you can even add your own) and look for the weapons slots which are usually the first X slots

Slot 1 Xpos := 243
(How far to the right component is on the ship display)
Slot 1 Ypos := 7
(How far down component is on the ship display)
Slot 1 Group Name := Weapon (Light) 1
(Weapon type and weapon #no, for use with Main_PurchaseShipsPlayer.txt)
Slot 1 Comp Type Allowed := Weapon (Light)
(Wot type of weapon can go in slot, light or heavy)
Slot 1 Comp Type Abbreviation := W(L)
(Wot you see when looking at you ship components and slot is empty)
Slot 1 Comp Box Color Index := 1
(Colour of slot when looking at component screen)
Slot 1 Ship Section := Hull
(Not completely sure, but I think this is to do wit placement)
Slot 1 Ship Side Facing := 0
(Not sure)
Slot 1 Weapon Firing Point := 2
(This affects how weapon arcs wot I believe)
Slot 1 Weapon Arc Start := 315
(Have this as the higher number as withme when it is lower it causes crashes)
Slot 1 Weapon Arc End := 45
(Have as lower)
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now to get the arcs like I have have the following

Slot 1 Weapon Arc Start := 190
Slot 1 Weapon Arc End := 160 <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This should work but if someone is entered wrong the game will lock up and you may have to do a hard boot

[Phoenix-D]

That did it. And if you want the new turret to fire, you have to set the "hardpoint" number to one the model has. I changed my turrets from 5 to 3 and they fired fine (out of the cruiser's left side)

EDIT: attemping to add another firing point resulted in a crash; I'm betting this is the no-mod code for the demo kicking in.

[ September 25, 2003, 21:49: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[Phoenix-D]

Well, you can definitely change the number of slots on a ship. I mad a 7000 KT cruiser with slot after slot of guns.

Then, to challenge the HMS Ridiclous, I went into Main_EnemyAppearance.txt to the Pirate system entry. Changed the chance of cruisers and destroyers appearing to 100, and cranked the number of repeats to 100 each (I did 500 at first. Starfury was Not Happy.)

Warp in and the butchery begins! Worked fine, though I lost about 15 FPS. As I killed, the FPS went up; apparently all those glittering pods I left behind don't use up as much resources. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[DeadZone]

tut I dunno, whenever I try to change enemy appearance it causes crashes

Anyway post the code you used to get the new(?) turrents to fire

[Phoenix-D]

Its fairly simple. Just copy one of the existing mounts and use that.

Side note: I've discovered that you can survive ramming anything, with enough protection. You keep right on going through (even stars!)

[DeadZone]

Thought I had already posted that

Oh well, its true I have done it often enuf

[iaen]

Thought you might want to know, if you hadn't figured it out yourself yet:

Slot 1 Ship Section := Hull
(Is used for damage allocation. It's either hull, armor, or shield.)

Slot 1 Ship Side Facing := 0
(For armor and shields, this sets which side it's on. I don't think it has effect on weapons but i'm not sure.)

[Hiruu]

Well, when I tried to modify the components, it crashed hard on me. I was trying to negate the effects of those toxic torps, since they are a superweapon in the demo. Anybody have problems modding the components?

[Phoenix-D]

You're not supposed to be able to mod -anything- in the demo. The crash is deliberate.

[Firesite]

If you change the price of a ship to like abot 5, then you go buy that ship you'll have 149,995.
AND all your items (a cheat, well kinda). You could buy the best shields with it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif .