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12 years ago
Aug 21, 2012, 9:10:45 AM
Hupailija wrote:




I'm still sure that what he said don't work... then again I wouldn't be surprised, wouldn't be first time.




I said "try adding an unlock descriptor, it should partially do what you want". Bear in mind that ES vanilla doesn't have that kind of behaviour, I'm giving you details on how PathPrerequisite works, that doesn't mean it will make your feature work. I can't test every single demand, recreate it and find ways to make it work if we never thought about that feature before. I can only pinpoint in one direction, give details on how this or that element works, etc. But if it is indeed something major, then I'll look into it.





Again, there's a huge improvement list that concerns non-modding elements of the game and we do add stuff every day to that list. Modding is part of it but there are various demands that come beforehand.
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12 years ago
Sep 15, 2012, 7:51:36 PM
I just tried to change the icons for money (dust). Somehow i cant smiley: frown If i change the images nothing happens. The images ingame dont even disappear. Is the modding of those images even supported yet?
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12 years ago
Sep 15, 2012, 8:41:14 AM
raccoon_tof wrote:
Ah ok, good to hear. I was hoping for one of .obj, .dae, or .fbx for best access from the tools I currently use smiley: smile




yeah im glad to smiley: biggrin and also glad ravine tested my model allready smiley: biggrin everything fine smiley: wink
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12 years ago
Sep 15, 2012, 8:00:57 AM
raccoon_tof wrote:
Any news as to what format the models/meshes will be in?




i have sent ravine testmodel in obj format. But normaly Unity uses fbx. So i guess it will be fbx format.
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12 years ago
Sep 13, 2012, 2:54:00 PM
For all your information. I was emailing with Ravine.



Model and Texture support will be here soon ! he is working on it.



Cross your fingers guys that it will get released soon. Then the Full Conversions can begin to really emerge.
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12 years ago
Aug 21, 2012, 1:05:17 PM
I'm giving you details on how PathPrerequisite works, that doesn't mean it will make your feature work




Exactly this is why I question whether it works.



Saying: "if you add AND to it it works" doesn't help when there has been couple days earlier post which says: "I did try to add and and it didn't work".

I have also noticed that on some cases what is doable and what is said has been different. Namely weapons/defensive modules and so on.



I understand this it's hard to keep in touch what different xml parts do and how they act. Especially if one hasn't itself created those.



It easily makes one want to say: "it's easy, just think it this way and you get it work" BUT it isn't really helpful.

If you have lately read my written guides I try to explain in quite specific ways how to do different things.



And again I don't except this, it would take too much time to answer to every single question via long answer and example...

What I would really wish is that if one answers to coding related questions he would show atleast 1 line example how to make thing work.





Again, there's a huge improvement list that concerns non-modding elements of the game and we do add stuff every day to that list. Modding is part of it but there are various demands that come beforehand.




But modding is huge partition of this game.



It dn't took long before first persons started to complain who boring this game is. (it was just minority, and I myself get pleasure of this game from otherways so I don't find it boring.).



We modders are trying to find ways to make game more enjoyable... and you have given players tools to make this happen.



I wouldn't be surprised if majority of games played would already be on modded versions.



Of course it's quite selfish to ask privileges for modders and quite stupid to think that it's possible to think any possible timetable for any "improvments".



It still doesn't stop one hoping that it would be hope that developers would put these things to list and say approximate answer that when these could come...











and last but not least, why everyone always seem to take just 1 sentence of my written texts -.- I may say stupid things but it usually hopefully hides inside of my thoughts. Sadly it doesn't seem to happen due to people picking exactly those sentences which are negative.
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12 years ago
Sep 15, 2012, 8:37:10 PM
mJrA wrote:
I just tried to change the icons for money (dust). Somehow i cant smiley: frown If i change the images nothing happens. The images ingame dont even disappear. Is the modding of those images even supported yet?


Can you describe what you did? AFAIK the only images we can change are the ones where there is a pathname to the image, listed in the xml. The details are in the pdf linked from here:

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/16353-tutorials-for-modding-es

I don't see anything in there about modifying the icons like dust.
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 7:18:12 PM
'AND'ed dependencies are still a hard requirement for all races' technology trees in Endless Dream. I'm actually impressed that the dev team managed to create meaningful technology progressions just using 'OR'!




What can we say, althought they are silent and don't appreantly read posts... they can atleast do miracles smiley: biggrin



"AND" is also highly difficult to display effectively. If you get the ability to use "AND", please consider how the player will understand the difference between "AND" and "OR".




Actually techtree and how it's build takes care of it.

I'm fairly sure that players understand that 2 lines going to tech means that either a) one needs 1 tech to unlock it or b) player needs both. If A doesn't work they naturally try B... unless player happens to be something like me, who presses alt+f4 goes to read code and then ends up to change things smiley: smile





Hupa, let me know if you find a way to do that. I'll need mutually exclusive technologies for the IHTG (and perhaps Hissho) Warfare tech tree.




I'm still sure that what he said don't work... then again I wouldn't be surprised, wouldn't be first time.
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 7:13:57 PM
davea wrote:
"AND" is also highly difficult to display effectively. If you get the ability to use "AND", please consider how the player will understand the difference between "AND" and "OR".




Different color connecting lines and/or arrows. It'd have to be developed internally. The graphics & research AI 'pathfinding algorithm' don't seem like huge problems, from a black box perspective. I'd expect a capability like this around 1.1 or 1.2, it being of both limited priority and difficulty for Amplitude.



I just want to get in line early and say we'd like this smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 7:02:39 PM
"AND" is also highly difficult to display effectively. If you get the ability to use "AND", please consider how the player will understand the difference between "AND" and "OR".
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 6:58:23 PM
Hupailija wrote:
1) I have tried it with "descriptors" but it doesn't seem to recognize those. Oh well, time to try again




Hupa, let me know if you find a way to do that. I'll need mutually exclusive technologies for the IHTG (and perhaps Hissho) Warfare tech tree.



'AND'ed dependencies are still a hard requirement for all races' technology trees in Endless Dream. I'm actually impressed that the dev team managed to create meaningful technology progressions just using 'OR'!
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 6:52:06 PM
It took just 3 weeks and finally got answer to some questions... one could argue that answers isn't very specific but atleast these are answers.



I'm surprised that you did answer to 6-8... as I said modders have answered to those already (I did on day 4 after release, on day 8 after release, on day 20 after release and so on).



First 5 were the ones which we were wondering...



to 1) I have tried it with "descriptors" but it doesn't seem to recognize those. Oh well, time to try again



3) And these are things I am more anxious to see than some icons... but thats me smiley: smile (as I have said, every feature what is added to game opens dozens for players)



4) Are you going to change this? It would really help a lot. Modders could for example create "better" ground combat system if paths would be changed.







Oh and last but not least, if I seem to be full of hatred and anger, it's because I care about this game. smiley: smile One doesn't feel emotions towards things he doesn't care and anger and frustration are both deep feelings.







I am actually even now trying to find server which all ES modders could use to both upload their files and to have room to both manager and market their mods... I probably wouldn't do such a job for game which I utterly despise smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 3:53:46 PM
LoiCus- wrote:


5) Like I said before in another thread, you can add prerequisites for an improvement. The latter will only be available to build if the two, three , whatever improvements it depends on have been built already. Use classic logic syntax. and,or,!. As there is no need for that kind of behaviour in ES, there is no visual feedback ingame that shows the relationship between the X improvements. In other words, the "unbuildable" tech won't be in grey or something like that.




I think Hupa and I are referring to 'AND'ed technology dependencies here. Is this a confirmation that that is possible? Doing, for example,



[CODE]TechSowerMainWeaponE02 AND TechSowerSecondaryWeaponE03[/CODE]



did not seem to work in the technology view in game, but I didn't research enough to see if researching both dependencies actually unlocked it (with no visual indicator since whatever algorithm does the visual pathing on that screen can't cope). If you're telling me that this does in fact work, it should be enough for Endless Dream's purposes. Or, at least, mine. smiley: smile



Y'all have really done a bang-up job on this game, by the way. I think sometimes we forget we're modding an alpha version smiley: smile I haven't been conceptually struck by a game like this in a long, long time.
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 3:52:34 PM
4. Actually battle cards allow you to access enemy parameters. Look at the implementation of short circuit. (Seriously, look at it. It is completely wrong.) I am planning to add a bunch of evasion-related battle cards for hissho. Of course auto-resolve won't use them, which is another dev time request.



7. The question relates to specializing fleet and system heroes. See these posts mixed into a very useful thread:



/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15776-ai-modding

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15776-ai-modding

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15776-ai-modding



What I do when playing is to specialize each hero as either a fleet heroes with only fleet abilities, or a system hero with only system abilities. For a "hybrid" hero such as pilot/corporate, I will decide when I purchase the hero which role he will play. Then I only pick the related abilities for that hero.



There are several problems with what the AI does. (a) Abilities are picked randomly, or perhaps by the weight of (labor + wit) vs (offense + defense). So most hybrid heroes have a 50/50 split between fleet abilities and system abilities, which is not useful. (b) We cannot see how the game chooses to assign heroes to a system role or fleet role, but we observe that even pure system heroes (corp/admin) are often placed on fleets, and vice-versa.



We have tried various hooks, such as the education minister variables in registry.xml and the weights in aiparametershero and heroability, but we cannot achieve the effect that I get when playing.
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 3:34:21 PM
1) Inside for example TechnologyExpansion.xml, try adding an unlock descriptor in the PathPrerequisite of your tech. PathPrerequisite works with traits and descriptors. By adding that, it should partially do what you want. Adding the name of a tech won't work and TechnologyPrerequisite is not functional right now(because ES vanilla doesn't need it).



2) You guys have been working on this more than me, I think I answered this before but wormhole unlock is Empire-wide. It would require dev time to allow specific ships to have the tech and not others.



3) It isn't. Heroes and the Academy need a revamp for ES vanilla also. As of now, there's a full random pool of 60+ heroes from which to pick, they're not filtered by type, faction, etc = Dev time.



4) You can only access your fleet & empire. The ability to access the enemy's accuracy for example is hardcoded. Basically, anything that accesses the enemy's fleet (because I can't remember if there's something else) is hardcoded.



5) Like I said before in another thread, you can add prerequisites for an improvement. The latter will only be available to build if the two, three , whatever improvements it depends on have been built already. Use classic logic syntax. and,or,!. As there is no need for that kind of behaviour in ES, there is no visual feedback ingame that shows the relationship between the X improvements. In other words, the "unbuildable" tech won't be in grey or something like that.



6) A simple look at Hero.xml and you can see the levels at the end. Simply add some with the wanted xp to reach them.



7) Question is too vague.
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 11:11:29 AM
@Hupa: I don't understand the semi-hate, I believe we are indeed listening to what the (modding) community is saying. We can't answer every single question and many times, they are so specific that we have to spend a lot of time recreating the demand to see if it is possible. We're giving modding support but like you said, most of it will come from you guys.



We're working on ES vanilla, as well as the modding improvements on the side, and although you might consider allowing people to add their own custom icons "not thrilling", I believe a lot of people do.



Still, I'll try look at what you're asking for "that hasn't be answered yet".




Following questions have been asked several times and there are threads of almost everyone of these:

1) Is it possible to create system where studying technology a denies access to technology b? I haven't heard any answer to this question and I have been asking it several times

2) IS it possible to create starbases? Basically players had to figure out way to do it and still it may not work

3) Is it possible to make race specific heroes and if it is how? This has been asked since beta

4) Is it possible to access to enemy fleet or empire at all? Think that Iblise first time asked this 3 weeks ago

5) Is it possible to require 2 technologies to give player access to 1 specific technology?





Most of these questions are asked quite often and have mostly left modders to wonder whether these are hardcoded or not.



Then there are questions like:

Is it possible to add more hero levels?

IS it possible to change how AI uses heroes?

and so on which players have semi succesfully figured out.



If you ask why I have negative feelings towards developers it is because even though we ask same questions several times we still don't get answers to these.





These questions may be too "specific" but it doesn't change the fact that these has been asked long time ago and still we haven't heard any answer.

Trying to figure what is hardcoded and what isn't is not really as funny as someone might think.
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 5:39:31 PM
@ quaresma7, sorry, I don't know the answer. Can you please start a separate thread for this question instead of jamming the global status thread? I will "send up the bat-signal" on a separate thread to be sure the dev team notices.
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 5:32:26 PM
Okay that's a pity indeed... but, once again, what should I add in the Index file of my mod so that the game uses my custom ship Icon files? smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 4:59:05 PM
I don't believe so davea, I think you've covered all of them. Understandable concerns of course - pity though smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 4:53:47 PM
The dev team has stated that they do not wish to release un-encrypted versions of the 3D ship models. I believe that the small ship icons displayed on the galaxy map are super-low-poly-count versions of the same 3D models. So that may be why these are not included in the resource pack. We have discussed that the "character set" icons such as the dust icon do not seem to be moddable. The only other thing which seems missing from the resource pack is the hand-painted artwork including the loaing screens, and the portraits of the different races and heroes. I suppose it may be that they do not want to release un-encrypted versions of these either due to the artist copyright concerns.



Are there any other resources which are missing from the resource pack besides the above?
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 4:13:28 PM
Thanks EvilTactician,

That'S exactly what I mean... I wanna edit these little Ships that represent fleets on the Galaxy map didn't found the appropriate files.

Concerning the Ship bitmaps, they're actually included in the resources but I have no idea what I should add in the Index file of my mod so that the game uses my custom files. Would be quite nice to know what I have to add there smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 4:01:52 PM
He does raise one good question - some of the assets are currently not easily obtainable. The downloadable 'resource' pack with icons, doesn't actually include everything.



It's missing things like hero/race portraits, loading screens, ship bitmaps, etc. It would actually be quite nice to know how to change the icons representing fleets on the main galaxy map - especially if you're implementing custom ship sets in a mod. Some people will like going the extra mile and making it look different on the map too.



Having the original material available would be quite helpful.
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 3:57:16 PM
@ quaresma7, please do read the modding tutorial in this forum. Nobody uses the assets files anymore, you edit xml files.
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12 years ago
Nov 12, 2012, 12:31:00 PM
I'm sure sbd asked this before but is it possible to unpack the .assets files? Cause I wanna create a new race look (or at lesat replace one) and I need the "basic files" of the fleet representing ships on the galaxy map and maybe some other files...

Or is there any mod like the CustomShipsAndPlanets to change these features?
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12 years ago
Aug 20, 2012, 11:02:36 AM
@Harel55: We're going to release a set of "rules" for mods present on the forums. As for the Sheredyn, they are indeed available to modders via the XML files, we're going to ask you to not distribute mods that unlock the faction for non-Emperor editions. Otherwise they will be removed from the forums.



@Hupa: I don't understand the semi-hate, I believe we are indeed listening to what the (modding) community is saying. We can't answer every single question and many times, they are so specific that we have to spend a lot of time recreating the demand to see if it is possible. We're giving modding support but like you said, most of it will come from you guys.



We're working on ES vanilla, as well as the modding improvements on the side, and although you might consider allowing people to add their own custom icons "not thrilling", I believe a lot of people do.



Still, I'll try look at what you're asking for "that hasn't be answered yet".
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12 years ago
Nov 6, 2012, 11:31:56 PM
Where is the best place to report a bug with the modding side of things?



PlanetImprovement.xml is not loading properly, as we've demonstrated in this topic.



Edit: I've created a bug report in the appropriate forum section. Let's hope this gets resolved.
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12 years ago
Sep 28, 2012, 9:45:10 PM
kk. But then it should be a little text in the tutorial which says that. smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Sep 28, 2012, 9:12:31 PM
Yes, you have to wait for the Rise of the Automatons release. The 1.0.19 release does not support any of that new stuff.
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12 years ago
Sep 28, 2012, 8:11:10 PM
I tried the new Tutorial for adding custom ship models. Unfortunatly it doesnt work for me. Somehow i still see the original models.



[CODE]

Prefabs/Spaceships/Terran/SS_Terran_Medium_B

Templates/ships/ea/Shuttle

[/CODE]



Thats what i done. I checked the path of course so that shouldnt be the problem. Maybe it isnt supported yet? Do i have to wait for a ES update?
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12 years ago
Sep 19, 2012, 3:24:13 PM
Nycidian wrote:


No .png




ya my mistake but like pleasure said, still no chance to change them
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12 years ago
Sep 18, 2012, 3:07:30 PM
Nycidian wrote:
[CODE]

...



...

[/CODE]



No .png




allready told him that smiley: biggrin still does not work.. but we allready know it is because money,tech icons etc. are not yet editable
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12 years ago
Sep 17, 2012, 10:43:21 PM
mJrA wrote:
ya i done this: Resources

Gui.xml

[CODE]

%MoneyTitle

%MoneyDescription



7704

[/CODE]



And it says resources can be change or am i wrong there?



Edit: I guess as there is no complete path like (gui/dynamicBitmaps/.../....png) i cant change them after all smiley: frown




[CODE]

...



...

[/CODE]



No .png
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12 years ago
Sep 16, 2012, 8:10:39 AM
ya i done this: Resources

Gui.xml

[CODE]

%MoneyTitle

%MoneyDescription



7704

[/CODE]



And it says resources can be change or am i wrong there?



Edit: I guess as there is no complete path like (gui/dynamicBitmaps/.../....png) i cant change them after all smiley: frown
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12 years ago
Jul 9, 2012, 3:23:11 PM
Davea, If you want to clean and consolidate them elsewhere I'll be ok: I agree that mod details/discussion are out of scope here.
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12 years ago
Jul 6, 2012, 12:36:05 PM
This tells me relatively little except that it isn't already done in the exported files. It was mentioned that you can add code to alter effects in game via the XML, it is just limited.



That said, you did just remind me to update my combat guide with XML-ripped data when I have time.
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12 years ago
Jul 6, 2012, 5:52:09 AM
Ketobor wrote:
Will it be possible to adjust how certain effects are calculated?



Combat damage operations

Accuracy

Tax rates

A non-linear evaluation of approval.

Buy-out costs

Retrofit costs

etc.


I don't think so, but I encourage you to read through all the xml files which have been posted on my nearby thread.
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12 years ago
Jul 5, 2012, 8:29:55 PM
Will it be possible to adjust how certain effects are calculated?



Combat damage operations

Accuracy

Tax rates

A non-linear evaluation of approval.

Buy-out costs

Retrofit costs

etc.
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12 years ago
Jul 5, 2012, 9:48:10 AM
davea wrote:
@ everybody else, go look into the xml!

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15656-all-your-xml-are-belong-to-us




Didn't have the time yesterday but now that I look at it, great! Implementing my modding ideas might not be as hard as I expected, I might even be able to do the majority of things myself. I'll start organizing myself now.
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12 years ago
Jul 4, 2012, 10:07:39 PM
@ amplimath, I am tremendously impressed by the contents of the xml files. It seems like quite a lot of stuff will be moddable. What we need to get started is a tool to unpack and repack the assets file. Also, please let us know if you have a strategy for combining mods, when two modders have changed *different* xml files. Is there a load order capability, for multiple mods?



@ everybody else, go look into the xml!

/#/endless-space/forum/37-modding/thread/15656-all-your-xml-are-belong-to-us
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12 years ago
Jul 4, 2012, 7:37:25 PM
My priority goes to be able to tweak the actual gameplay system, hence the planet types, population size, planet design, system design, galaxy design, et ceterra...

I want to be able to mod this because I'm quite honestly not content with having a tiny planet being better than a medium sized one, and changing this has already been definitely denied so a mod will have to fix this for me.



I already plan to raise a team of modders for that if possible but of course only once the basic modding can begin, that's why my vote goes to this.
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12 years ago
Jul 4, 2012, 6:15:49 PM
Hello everyone:



I would like to know if it's possible to mod the game interface (system, galaxy view, etc...), just tunning here and there and cleaning/adding stuff (yeah, I'm being a lazy git and still didn't look at the xml files smiley: stickouttongue)



Salutem plurimam
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12 years ago
Jul 3, 2012, 8:56:35 PM
Please embed the google V8 JavaScript Engine into the game and allow us to write AI (especially AI) scripts and other stuff using JavaScript. This language is easy to learn, has tons of already existing code, is well known to a lot of people and the most important: It can manipulate itself, that means the code can modify the code using eval or new Function() and serialize itself (toSource). This is helpful for real AIs that are able to learn using the latest machine learning algorithms. V8 is open source, can be embedded into any C++ project and under BSD license, so you can embed it into closed source projects. The only thing you would have to do is to export a couple of methods that allow to read/write temporary files in a pre-defined mod foldes and some controls over the game (it comes with a nice garbage collection as well).



P.S.: What do you think is more easy?



























or



{

SimulationObjectDescriptor: {

Name: "StarSystemImprovementIndustry1",

Type: "StarSystemImprovement",

SimulationObjectPropertyModifierDescriptors: [

{TargetProperty:"Industry",Value:10,OperationType:"Addition",Path:"../ClassStarSystem"},

{TargetProperty:"Industry",Value:1,OperationType:"Addition",Path:"../ClassStarSystem/ClassPlanet,PlanetTypeArid"},

{TargetProperty:"Industry",Value:1,OperationType:"Addition",Path:"../ClassStarSystem/ClassPlanet,PlanetTypeTundra"},

{TargetProperty:"Industry",Value:1,OperationType:"Addition",Path:"../ClassStarSystem/ClassPlanet,PlanetTypeDesert"},

{TargetProperty:"Industry",Value:1,OperationType:"Addition",Path:"../ClassStarSystem/ClassPlanet,PlanetTypeArctic"},

{TargetProperty:"Upkeep",Value="2",OperationType:"Soustraction",Path:"ClassStarSystemImprovement"}

]

}

}



And the best is: Copy that into a browser and execute it aka:

var data = {...above...};

and you can use standard libraries default browser debugger to manipulate it and then:

console.log( JSON.stringify(data) );

To copy it back to the app. You can even offer a web based editor for that stuff and other people can do that as well, just in normal web pages. There is a reason why everybody goes to HTML 5 ;-).



my 2 cent
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12 years ago
Jul 3, 2012, 1:19:46 PM
As a modder I'd say : Generalize ! IMHO, while generalization might delay the release of new stock features for the game, hard-coding these features and generalizing them might be harder than creating the generalization system and then developping the feature as the default implementation.



So in order of preference :

- Release XML files, if (relatively) final. The community will probably put the effort to understand and document them (how about you provide a modding wiki ?)

- Put together an asset import system (for 3D models & stuff).

- Generalize existing components :

-- New XMLs if needed

-- New DLLs like the galaxy generation one

- Develop new features by changing existing default XMLs or implementations of generalized components, add generalization features if needed



I'm not mentioning documentation / tools development in the list as the community may provide these.



As for deployment, a Steam Workshop probably would be a nice option. I have no idea of how the workshop works, but maybe you could create a directory structure where we could install mods manually, and later use the workshop to install mods in that same directory ?
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12 years ago
Jul 3, 2012, 7:25:04 AM
Since the most prevalent concerns in my gaming group are balance issues which could be easily solved by editing some xmls, I would love to see an easy ability to edit these stats and share mods with friends!
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12 years ago
Jul 3, 2012, 6:03:06 AM
can we add our own race picture into the game,to create custom factions? do we need to edit some specific file for this? smiley: ohh
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12 years ago
Jul 2, 2012, 6:22:21 PM
I would like to have more control over AI improvement build order, tech order, ship design, and retrofit. (Actually I want the game to handle it better, but if there are xml hooks I can do it myself.)
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12 years ago
Jul 2, 2012, 6:12:17 PM
Priority number one is to get Star Trek ship designs and weapon animations. Copyright be damned!
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12 years ago
Jul 2, 2012, 5:43:17 PM
TL: DR Generalization (customizable ship / weapon / def stats and race picks)



As far as I can tell from the last version I have seen (0.51.2) there will be need for balancing things. So my vote goes to Generalization. My main concerns are about race picks / playable factions / combat. Altering those parameters enables the community to help narrowing the gap between imba picks and useless or op weapons etc. (level 3 Administrator (+25 production flat) on Turn 3-4 for example or those glasscannons).



Beside that I would like to see hardcoded features with a possibility to turn them on / off at game creation. Random events come to mind where if you play a multiplayer game and a player gets that nasty -90% scanrange he is practically blinded for so many turns.



Regards

Mimic
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 9:52:54 AM
LoiCus- wrote:
We are currently working on allowing modders to add their own tech icons, custom faction portraits, hero portraits...something tells me it should come very soon... smiley: smile




Can you wait atleast 2 weeks? If possible I want to release 1.0 version of Endless Dream before smiley: smile



Can you add to list: "we release technologies to further tinkering, from now it's possible to hide technology from view depending your actions / choices in game", pretty please :P
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12 years ago
Aug 18, 2012, 6:43:49 AM
I'll try that, thanks!



Edit: It worked, thanks a bundle. On an unrelated note, a found a (likely illegal) file edit that unlocks the Sherdyn even though I have the admiral version. I promise not to distribute it or tell anyone how I did it, but any competent modder could probably do it, so I suggest adding some sort of security even though I wasn't able to get the G2G codes or the Sherdyn ship skins (I think, it may be that I had them and didn't realize it).
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12 years ago
Aug 18, 2012, 6:39:32 AM
Please take a look at the index.xml file in one of the released mods, such as the community balance mod. There are a few fields you should edit after copying index.xml, such as "name", "description", and so forth. If you did not edit these fields, then probably you have left the default value from the original. That is where "Endless Space" would come from.
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12 years ago
Aug 18, 2012, 6:21:42 AM
I'm probably increibly stupid, but I made my first mod and I have the files in Document/Endless Space/Modding/MOD_NAME, but it's not showing up in-game. I am, however, getting four different mods, all apparently identical, named Endless Space.
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 4:26:37 PM
davea wrote:
This makes me wonder why I bother replying to your posts.




And our conversations makes me wonder how I still respect you... it's small miracle, I mean when we end up to same topic it ends up to arguing.

Anyway to say something positive, usually after we have argued I feel awful.



Though there is something I really would like to rise up:

I am hugely disappointed to developers.

Of course it's modders responsibility to figure out how to do things and thats half of fun.

But when someone asks question 5 times and didn't get answer, it starts to get just annoying.





Game itself is great (hey, I last time got to even turn 9 before pressing alt+f4 !) and not many game has this great modding possibilities or this easy to mod... it's just that you start to feel like you have to do all the work.



I don't mind writing 3000+ lines on my freetime, I don't mind trying to implement new weapon systems, I mind about colliding constantly to "features" inside of code which prevents certain things.



And last but not least, I apologize my last post, I have been almost 1 hour try to figure out why game acts like it does and it starts to get annoying.







Patches are always nice, I just am not thrilled when one markets patch with: "we let you put some pictures" when there is higher problems
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 3:51:05 PM
davea wrote:
Then don't request them to wait before releasing a new version with capabilities you want.




You are ofcourse right, I shouldn't ask absolutely anything from developing team... after all if they don't answer to modding related question or show any interest towards anything other than most simplest mods who am I ask anything.

You know, maybe I just stop modding this game completly... after all what would anyone lose?





Especially when there is you who in all gloriness and mightiness produce game changing mods with thousands of fans wanting new versions.





I try to remember that what I'm doing is only mod and therefore "fan" image how game should be... all it does is gives race specific tech trees, various new weapons, various new ships and so on...

And because it's mod (even though it's biggest made so far and probably biggest made ever) I don't have any rights to ask anything from anybody.





I don't ask them to postpone release of patch because of me... I ask them to add to patch features we all could use
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 3:04:44 PM
Then don't request them to wait before releasing a new version with capabilities you want.
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 3:01:23 PM
davea wrote:
I disagree. I am working on tech tree mods, and it is very painful that I cannot add new icons.




aren't we all? I mean I have to in during next weekend add atleast 112 different technologies and in next 9 days something like 200.
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 1:51:36 PM
Hupailija wrote:
Can you wait atleast 2 weeks?


I disagree. I am working on tech tree mods, and it is very painful that I cannot add new icons.
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12 years ago
Jul 2, 2012, 3:36:48 PM
Hi all,



Here is a small status update on where we stand regarding modding. I have already given some hints previously, but I propose to restart here.



First of all, modding has always been crucial for SpaceTroll and myself, and we had it in mind all along the game development. Modding will not be easy on release (unless you are experienced hackers smiley: smile), because we have focused a lot on the last content, features, optimizations and tuning. There are also some people dying to get a Mac version, and that is also a big priority and something we set aside to achieve the PC release. Obviously, we want to restart our work on modding after release, and I think there will be several steps.



The first thing I want to point out is that there are already lots of possibilities for modding. All the game data is architectured around xml files, which describe simulation effects, AI parameters, localisation (texts), gui images, or 3D graphical assets. So the game is potentially ready to change / replace / add : technologies, improvements, ship modules, ship hulls, heroes, etc...



But the main first effort we will have to push will be the ability to read these xml files (or their graphical counterparts) outside of the Unity archive. It is not impossible, we just have to rewrite asset reading methods. Actually we use some of this already for some assets which stand outside (user preferences, galaxy generator output). This should not be too hard, but I want to do this right and find the correct architecture. Once this is done, editing game content should be easy for the xml part, a bit more complex for the 3D assets.



The XML file are generaly structured in too parts. The first is a definition in the database, which declares the element, specifies its title/description and gui image. All the game elements use a localisation key system to make the game easy to translate (these keys start with "%"). Here is an example for a system improvement:

[CODE]

StarSystemImprovementIndustry1





%StarSystemImprovementIndustry1Title

%StarSystemImprovementIndustry1Description





[/CODE]



The second part is the descriptor of this element, which defines its simulation effect:

[CODE]



















[/CODE]



Those are simple examples, and the rational behind the descriptor is to have some kind of microcode with various operations. So we do not open C# code directly (which could lead to malicious code), but this is not limited to changing values only. Most of the game simulation is performed this way in a generic fashion. I think we will need to prepare a documentation / digest for the possiblities of the system.



Regarding hard coded stuff, as I said there is lot you can do to change the game content (once the game can read it). But there are some hard coded implementations in some specific parts of the game. Some features are so specific that we had to specialize the code for it. Was it a bad choice? Well it is difficult to determine. When you develop an all generic game from start, you tend to move around the real objective, especially as the objective can be unclear until the users have validated the interest of the gameplay. While we prepared modifications of in-game data with the xml-descriptor system, we also developed some elements directly for the final game. Where do we go from there? Well we can make the game more generic now that is has become stable, or we can hard code some new possibilities, depending on your needs and feedback.



As far as the galaxy generator is concerned, it is an external DLL, so it can be reprogrammed by the advanced users. There are still some possible evolutions we want to achieve soon after release, but I guess you could work on this already. The generator itself works on configuration parameters and files. An xml file defines the global generation parameters, probabilities, and there is also an xml and generation images for each galaxy shape. It is very easy to change the generation image (basically a 256x256 surface which specifies star density and regions) to obtain innovative generation shapes. Changing the 3D skybox behind is more complex thought, but maybe you dont need that right now. Regarding the number of stars, it is easily changeable in the global generation parameters (although we were cautious because of simulation and AI processing times). I imagine you could create your super galaxy by changing the generation image to a cluster of smaller regions, and then change the number of stars.



Concerning the packaging and delivery of mods, that is also a subject we have not started yet. I think users will have first to download files and place them in a special directory, but we can look into Steam Workshop to ease up installations and updates. This will take more time though.



Were to start from here? Maybe we can start sharing some of the xml assets, so that you get a first look of all this works? Let me know your preferences.



Thanks
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12 years ago
Aug 17, 2012, 9:37:33 AM
We are currently working on allowing modders to add their own tech icons, custom faction portraits, hero portraits...something tells me it should come very soon... smiley: smile
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12 years ago
Aug 15, 2012, 9:20:01 AM
Any news or a date when the next modding phase will start? Would be great to know
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12 years ago
Jul 23, 2012, 3:19:54 PM
davea wrote:
@ amplimath, I am tremendously impressed by the contents of the xml files. It seems like quite a lot of stuff will be moddable. What we need to get started is a tool to unpack and repack the assets file. Also, please let us know if you have a strategy for combining mods, when two modders have changed *different* xml files. Is there a load order capability, for multiple mods?]




Any news on this?



I would love to create some mods but without the ability to easily access some of the contents of the asset files they are unbearable to create. The best thing for us modders would be if things that are as of now hard coded in the asset files or dll files like for example the content of the galaxy sizes menu are moved to xml files. If I am not wrong the asset files will get recompiled if a patch comes along that changes stuff that is referenced in them. This makes it very difficult to maintain a mod that changes something in an asset file as well.



Addition:

In case of the galaxy sizes, I want to add additional sizes but whatever xml files I edit they do not show up. A search through all game files revealed that information is not only stored in the xml files but also in the files: sharedassets2.assets, Assembly-CSharp.dll, GalaxyGeneratorPlugin.dll. Do we have to change these files as well to mod in things like additional galaxy sizes?



Have Fun
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12 years ago
Jul 22, 2012, 9:47:36 AM
lastpick wrote:
I've been think of a mod that would simulate an outbreak of a plague that starts randomly on a planet and starts to spread outward from that system. Players would all be notified of the plague's origin, and a new tech would be added for players to research a cure. All ships passing through a system would become infected and have a little symbol indicating infection and any systems the ship passes through would become infected. Players could attempt to slow this plague by blockading an infected system or by destroying it. Would something like this be possible with the planned modding capabilities?




In theory yes, maybe, probably.



I (which doesn't mean that someone else wouldn't know) yet don't know how to chain events with technology opening. Then again I assume that it's quite easy.



Why you don't try smiley: wink
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12 years ago
Jul 14, 2012, 11:58:52 AM
I've been think of a mod that would simulate an outbreak of a plague that starts randomly on a planet and starts to spread outward from that system. Players would all be notified of the plague's origin, and a new tech would be added for players to research a cure. All ships passing through a system would become infected and have a little symbol indicating infection and any systems the ship passes through would become infected. Players could attempt to slow this plague by blockading an infected system or by destroying it. Would something like this be possible with the planned modding capabilities?
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12 years ago
Jul 14, 2012, 4:06:16 AM
Combat damage operations: yes this can be modded

Accuracy: absolutely modabble

Tax rates: yes moddable

A non-linear evaluation of approval.: can adjust how approval ramps up but not on a complex math level

Buy-out costs: totally doable even globally adjustable

Retrofit costs: not certain on this one

etc.
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12 years ago
Jul 12, 2012, 3:59:33 PM
Ketobor wrote:
Will it be possible to adjust how certain effects are calculated?



Combat damage operations

Accuracy

Tax rates

A non-linear evaluation of approval.

Buy-out costs

Retrofit costs

etc.




this comes way too late most likely



Lets see:

Combat damage operations: doable, can paste code smiley: wink

Accuracy: isn't it already?

Tax rates: I just pasted code for that

A non-linea evaluation of approval: hmmm, doable but maybe bit hard.

Buy-out costs: god only knows, I only see value printed to buildings smiley: smile

Retrofit costs: don't really know.





Basically as long as person devotes enough time for datadigging almost everything can be changed (well ok, I can't find sowers affinity nor got any ideas how to make similar).
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