This is absolutely fantastic! Thank you for doing it and I hope you keep going. :)
[Edit] In the 'ship editor' section I recommend adding a link to the ship editor, as its an external piece of software and there are a couple different, more and less up to date programs floating around the forum.
Hey there, I have dived into modding star systems and markets a bit and made my own small mod on those so I might as well add what I dug to your tutorial? It wont be full but it will let you make your own star systems, write the planets in the system yourself or make planet generating script for it and add whatever market conditions you want to the planets you make.
I found this tutorial really helpful and it made modding seem a lot more approachable to me. Massive kudos for working on this!
The only problems I ran into turned out to be related to me trying to use the incorrect version of the ship and weapon editor, and those respective threads cleared up the issue. It was a very nice way to get started and I really appreciate including the links to kit-bashing and art tutorials as well.
Either I'm misunderstanding what 8 bit per channel means, or that's an error, as 8-bit depth results in a ship that just doesn't display for me (whereas 32 does).
Ah! Well, until this I didn't know what a channel even was, so I guessed :PEither I'm misunderstanding what 8 bit per channel means, or that's an error, as 8-bit depth results in a ship that just doesn't display for me (whereas 32 does).
8 per channel is 32! R + G + B + A. :) (unless I'm misunderstanding you now...)
I'm glad people are using and enjoying the tutorial - maybe I'll add a third section soon!
JSONObject["id"]
Adding to my previous comment.
Would a new ship data file of a modified vanilla ship automatically override the core vanilla ship file in-game?
5921 [Thread-4] ERROR com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain - java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "
"
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "
"
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.ShipHullSpecLoader.o00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.ShipHullSpecLoader.Ò00000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.SpecStore.ÒO0000(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.loading.ResourceLoaderState.init(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.state.AppDriver.begin(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.combat.CombatMain.main(Unknown Source)
at com.fs.starfarer.StarfarerLauncher$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)Hello there...Hey, I checked your ship data files. Check inside your file, "galaxytigers_midtech2x_cv.ship". I noticed this out of place line in there:
Hello there...Hey, I checked your ship data files. Check inside your file, "galaxytigers_midtech2x_cv.ship". I noticed this out of place line in there:
"coversColor": "\r",
the \r can sometimes be added by the Ship and Weapon editor, iirc. Try removing it and see if it works then.
"coversColor": "",
Hey again! You can definitely do that, but Tartiflette already has a collection here at the bottom of the Kitbash Database, if you want to speed things up a bit.I've got another question even though it is not topic related. Do you know where I could get the weapon mounts pictures? I guess you know what I mean, those "holes" we see when no weapons are equiped. I wasn't able to find them anywhere in the core files nor on the Internet. Must I "extract" them from ship pictures?Hello there...Hey, I checked your ship data files. Check inside your file, "galaxytigers_midtech2x_cv.ship". I noticed this out of place line in there:
"coversColor": "\r",
the \r can sometimes be added by the Ship and Weapon editor, iirc. Try removing it and see if it works then.
"coversColor": "",
Is there any way to do this on a Mac? Because Wine hasn't worked for several versions, and the Ship and Weapon Editor is evidently necessary.it is not necessary by any stretch
I feel like a school teacher. All the stuff that I marked in red are areas that you need to learn more.SpoilerSo I can’t get a ship to load in game,I tried adding my ship to an existing mod to circumvent the “creating a faction” part.But no luck. I think I’m having trouble with the .data sheets. So I got the free spreadsheet program it suggested (even though it seems confusing compared to others I’ve used) now in the tutorial it’s saying to open an existing similar ship to compare numbers and edit.But I though you could create a new set of .data through the ship editor?So if I open the ship editor set bounds, shields, ship data etc. Then save it, should that be the ship data I need for in game?
When I go to load a mod like I’m the tutorial none of the ships show up. I can only see “skins” in the folder and that’s for variants right?Speaking of variants do I NEED a variant for it to show up in game?Or if I do the base ship can I just summon it with console commands?
So to summarize I think I’m having issues with whatever the spreadsheet program is called. Any different recommendations? And any suggestions for editing and saving the ship data would be amazing because it’s frustrating and if I screw something up and the game won’t load (this has happened)I can’t fix it because I know nothing of code.I just have to reinstall the mod haha….. ohhh sad face.
Thanks y’all![close]
now in the tutorial it’s saying to open an existing similar ship to compare numbers and editThis line makes me worried that you opened a ship that already existed, made your changes and saved it. If true, you modified an existing ship instead of created a new one.
But I though you could create a new set of .data through the ship editor?I don't know. Never tried to change .csv through that tool. I had thought the tool was supposed to create a .ship and .variant file only.
I can only see “skins” in the folder and that’s for variants right?No, a skin is a separate hull that bases itself on another hull, then defines its own changes from its base. Like XIV is based on normal ships but with bonuses and different png. The variants are in a different folder.
Speaking of variants do I NEED a variant for it to show up in game?Absolutely. The .csv entry line is the first part of a ship, the .ship file is a part, the .png is a part but a ship is not complete until it has at least one .variant file.
I feel like a school teacher. All the stuff that I marked in red are areas that you need to learn more.SpoilerSo I can’t get a ship to load in game,I tried adding my ship to an existing mod to circumvent the “creating a faction” part.But no luck. I think I’m having trouble with the .data sheets. So I got the free spreadsheet program it suggested (even though it seems confusing compared to others I’ve used) now in the tutorial it’s saying to open an existing similar ship to compare numbers and edit.But I though you could create a new set of .data through the ship editor?So if I open the ship editor set bounds, shields, ship data etc. Then save it, should that be the ship data I need for in game?
When I go to load a mod like I’m the tutorial none of the ships show up. I can only see “skins” in the folder and that’s for variants right?Speaking of variants do I NEED a variant for it to show up in game?Or if I do the base ship can I just summon it with console commands?
So to summarize I think I’m having issues with whatever the spreadsheet program is called. Any different recommendations? And any suggestions for editing and saving the ship data would be amazing because it’s frustrating and if I screw something up and the game won’t load (this has happened)I can’t fix it because I know nothing of code.I just have to reinstall the mod haha….. ohhh sad face.
Thanks y’all![close]
- There are at minimum 4 files required to define what a ship is: ship_data.csv , shipnameplaceholder.ship , variantnameplaceholder.variant , and pngnameplaceholder.png . They are found in /data/hulls , /data/variants and /graphics/ships folders respectively.
- There is 1 file required to define to the AI what to expect from a ship in context to fleet composition: default_ship_roles.json . It is found in /data/world/factions .
- There is 1 file per faction required to add the ship to that faction: factionplaceholdername.faction . It is found in /data/world/factions as well.
now in the tutorial it’s saying to open an existing similar ship to compare numbers and editThis line makes me worried that you opened a ship that already existed, made your changes and saved it. If true, you modified an existing ship instead of created a new one.But I though you could create a new set of .data through the ship editor?I don't know. Never tried to change .csv through that tool. I had thought the tool was supposed to create a .ship and .variant file only.I can only see “skins” in the folder and that’s for variants right?No, a skin is a separate hull that bases itself on another hull, then defines its own changes from its base. Like XIV is based on normal ships but with bonuses and different png. The variants are in a different folder.
When the tool is trying to Load a Mod, it only needs a pointer to the parent folder of that mod. I.E. a folder that, at minimum, includes mod_info.json file, data folder and graphics folder.Speaking of variants do I NEED a variant for it to show up in game?Absolutely. The .csv entry line is the first part of a ship, the .ship file is a part, the .png is a part but a ship is not complete until it has at least one .variant file.
Thank you so much! This is really helpful. I was apparently WAY off and now realizing there is a lot more to it than I thought. I’ll have to just start from scratch I guess. Man I wish I just had someone who knew what they were doing over my should for just one ship! Anyways I appreciate it. Oh and when I opened the data file I’m always sure to return it as normal and not alter and save. It’s just what the tutorial suggest…. I think.Do you Discord? From this page: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11488.0 there is a link https://discord.gg/a8AWVcPCPr which adds you to the unofficial discord. From there, hang out in the modding channel and ask your questions conversationally.
Thank you so much! This is really helpful. I was apparently WAY off and now realizing there is a lot more to it than I thought. I’ll have to just start from scratch I guess. Man I wish I just had someone who knew what they were doing over my should for just one ship! Anyways I appreciate it. Oh and when I opened the data file I’m always sure to return it as normal and not alter and save. It’s just what the tutorial suggest…. I think.Do you Discord? From this page: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=11488.0 there is a link https://discord.gg/a8AWVcPCPr which adds you to the unofficial discord. From there, hang out in the modding channel and ask your questions conversationally.
Go to this mod : Starseeker Enclave - Baby's first mod edition (https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=22246.0) and save a copy https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdY0QQQYnwumEX9Z9_XdBwox90cd7mfh/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HdY0QQQYnwumEX9Z9_XdBwox90cd7mfh/view?usp=sharing). That mod describes itself as 'Baby's first mod' because it only adds 3 ships and does nothing else. It removes all the excess of other mods so there is much less confusion.