ENDLESS™ Space 2 is turn-based 4X space-strategy that launches players into the space colonization age of different civilizations within the ENDLESS™ Universe. Your Vision. Their Future.
I'm enjoying monkeying around with the vanilla ships. Vamps/Vodyani are my current fave, with the Riftborn not far behind.
When looking at the XML, is there some easy way to determine how many slots each section can have? For example, through hours of testing, I know that for the small ship, the core section can have up to 3 slots, both SectionN and SectionS can have 2 and a couple of other sections can have one.
Is there any other type of slot display between IsLarge/not IsLarge? I'd like to create a different type of 'mount'/slot, but there doesn't seem to be a way to add any title/descriptions, though I have been able to add simulator effects.
Speaking of slots, is there a way to move them visually on the ship designer? The x and z parameters don't seem to do much. It'd be nice to move the slot image a little bit so as to not cover the weapons.
Is the game hard coded to have only three types of Modules (Weapon/Defense/Support) or can you create others (primarily for different filters)?
Is it possible to have more than 2 rows in the ship design screen for modules?
Is there a way to show more data on the panels? Specifically for more of the attributes of the Weapon Modules or maybe Engines? I was thinking about creating an engine module that has increased warp speed, but low on movement points, for example. Or a separate engine that allows for wormhole travel.
Lastly, is there a way to add a build queue to a ship/orbital base?
When looking at the XML, is there some easy way to determine how many slots each section can have?
Yes, you need to take a look at HullDefinition[FactionName].xml (obviously, replace FactionName with the name of the faction you want to mod the ships of)
You'll see a list of the various hulls, each containing a <ShipDesignLayout>
This layout contains the various sections of your hulls
Each section contains slots, this is what you want to look at.
For instance:
<Section Name="SectionN"> This is the name of your section <VisualSectionName>Front</VisualSectionName> <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="ClassSectionWeakSmallSophons"/> <Slot Name="Defense01"> This is the name of the slot that are in the section, you'll often refer to it with a name like SectionN.Defense01 <RestrictedModuleCategory>Defense</RestrictedModuleCategory> This is what defines what sort of module the slot can take, if you added the same line <Direction X="0" Z="1"/> underneath with Support instead of Defense, you could equip both module <UISlotName>UIFront01</UISlotName> types in the slot </Slot> </Section>
Careful though, weapon-able slots need additional info (firing angle, weapon's visuals) to work properly so you should take a look at pre-existing weapon slots.
If you find this line in a slot, it means this slot is only available on enhanced hulls (of course, the Technology name can change, since you have 5 hull improvement techs)
I haven't been working with the aspects that are covered by your other questions so I wouldn't know for sure if it's feasible purely in XML (and I can't really take the time to take a good look at it and tell you, sorry )
I know this answers only one of your questions but I'd rather not misinform anybody.
I hope this still helps,
Cheer,s
Updated 8 years ago.
Report comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancel
Are you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
So, same hull (ShipHull01), same section (CoreSection), same ship size (ShipSizeSmall), but this time, three slots. What I'm looking for is a way to know, by hull and section, how many slots are available. The game engine knows, but I haven't been able to find any definition in the XML files. Also, there's no clear way to tell what the slot names are supposed to be, other than by previous example.
This is the same *visual* hull but they both are very separate hull definitions HullSmall01Vampirilis and HullSmall04Vampirilis
I haven't been working very in depth with hulls and the like so I'll try and see if I can ask other designers. I don't want to spread false information but on a hunch, I'd say what matter is the hull definition and that you could theoretically add Support and Defense slots without too much trouble but that Weapons are going to be annoying since they will probably need to be linked to a turret.
To be fair, I have only worked with the hull system in as a pre-existing thing so I don't know how it works behind the scenes.
Until then, good luck
Edit: I checked, there's nothing that stops you from adding 50 Support or Defense slots in a section when rewriting a HullDefinition. However, since weapons have bindings to 3D elements (turrets, missile hatches etc...) it's trickier but I guess you could technically stack a whole bunch of weapons on top of one another but I presume it would be ugly and unstable.
However the big issues modders will encounter trying to mod HullDefinition is that some components, particularly the UI slots (to equip modules in the ship design screen) are defined not in XML but in the Unity prefab directly. I'm not a tech guy but I doubt prefabs will be openly editable in a shipped version of the game. I'm going to ask around some more.
Edit 2: Indeed, modders will not be able to openly edit prefabs, which locks them out of going too wild with the hulls since they can't properly reference and add new slots
Sorry
Updated 8 years ago.
Report comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancel
Are you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
Edit 2: Indeed, modders will not be able to openly edit prefabs, which locks them out of going too wild with the hulls since they can't properly reference and add new slots
Sorry
No worries, I kind of expected that given the link to turrets in many cases. Boiling it down, all I'm really looking for is information about the existing ship models/prefabs so that when I'm modding them, I'll know already how many slots they have and their id. A breakdown like such would be fantastic:
At the moment, I'm only guessing, based on the examples in the XML files. For example, I don't really know how many slots the ShipFactionVampirilis.ShipHull02 has. As there's only one example, the only way to find out if there are more is to add slots in the XML, load the game and see if they show up on the shipmodel or off. As you might imagine, this can be rather time consuming.
I do agree with you that I could add non-visible slots, but then there wouldn't be any way to interact with them through the UI.
On your other point:
WeaponizedCaffeine wrote:
This is the same *visual* hull but they both are very separate hull definitions HullSmall01Vampirilis and HullSmall04Vampirilis
The visual hull is really what I'm mapping to in a hull definition. So, while you're right, there are two hull definitions in my example (and in the vanilla game currently), there's really only one underlying object that's being modded, the ShipFactionVampirilis.ShipHull01 object. Knowing what options are available helps me to make information choices about what I can and can't do with that object/definition.
I happen to really like that visual hull, so I've created multiple hull definitions that use the ShipHull01 model, each with different numbers of attached slots, variably sized slots (regular and IsLarge) and different ShipRoles.
So, for tl;dr - My request is for more information about existing visual hulls, a quick and dirty run down of how many slots each has and their visual slot name(s), if applicable.
Hello and sorry for the late (and incomplete) reply - since this is not part of my tasks, the only way I have to do this is by taking time after work hours.
I'm not done compiling everything (lot of data to enter write down manually) but I'll update the list and bump the thread at every update, so you'll have everything eventually!
Edit: It's done I've everything, I just hope I didn't make any mistake
You know, I just do my best to help the community and support modders in general
Now, I can't do this for everyone every time since I am doing this after work hours: a man needs to go home at some point , yaknow (especially on a Friday night)
However, I'll be glad to help the modding community again in the future, so don't hesitate to ask anything and I'll see what I can do
Now, go and mod at your heart's content!
Cheers,
Report comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancel
Are you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
You'll be happy to see that I've already added my first mod, and I'm looking forward to using this new information going forward on some other ideas I've been playing around with.
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
7 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report Knyghtefall?
Are you sure you want to block Knyghtefall ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock Knyghtefall ?
UnblockCancelDEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
DEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
33 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
UnblockCancelKnyghtefall
Enthusiast
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
7 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report Knyghtefall?
Are you sure you want to block Knyghtefall ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock Knyghtefall ?
UnblockCancelDEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
DEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
33 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
UnblockCancelKnyghtefall
Enthusiast
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
7 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report Knyghtefall?
Are you sure you want to block Knyghtefall ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock Knyghtefall ?
UnblockCancelDEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
DEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
33 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
UnblockCancelKnyghtefall
Enthusiast
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
7 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report Knyghtefall?
Are you sure you want to block Knyghtefall ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock Knyghtefall ?
UnblockCancelDEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
DEVWeaponizedCaffeine
Addict Rocketeer
33 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report WeaponizedCaffeine?
Are you sure you want to block WeaponizedCaffeine ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock WeaponizedCaffeine ?
UnblockCancelKnyghtefall
Enthusiast
Knyghtefall
Enthusiast
7 800g2g ptsReport comment
Why do you report Knyghtefall?
Are you sure you want to block Knyghtefall ?
BlockCancelAre you sure you want to unblock Knyghtefall ?
UnblockCancel