Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 12

Author Topic: [0.91][UTILITY] EZ Faction 0.6a  (Read 52472 times)

Jay2Jay

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 60
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2017, 04:32:28 AM »

NOOOOOO!

NOW I HAVE NO EXCUSE!  >:(
Logged
"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters." ~Ghengis Khan

TheDTYP

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 136
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2017, 08:04:18 AM »

So... as a person who has virtually zero experience with this kind of thing aside from installing other people's mods and just wants to make a small faction using vanilla ships for myself, what is a step-by-step process of getting started? Which files do I use, how do I create an ezfaction file? Forgive my ignorance.
Logged

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2017, 11:34:27 AM »

Quote
So... as a person who has virtually zero experience with this kind of thing aside from installing other people's mods and just wants to make a small faction using vanilla ships for myself, what is a step-by-step process of getting started? Which files do I use, how do I create an ezfaction file? Forgive my ignorance.
EZ Instructions:

1.  Write or change a .faction file.  Example .faction files can be found in the example mod project in data/world/factions and in Starsector's starsector-core/data/world/factions directories.

If you're just, say, remixing what ships show up for a Faction, this is pretty straightforward.  First, give your Faction a unique ID:

Code
id:"example_faction_id",

Then see the lower sections, like this one:

Code
		"combatSmall":{
"wolf_hegemony_CS":10,
"lasher_CS":10,
"lasher_Assault":10,
"vigilance_Standard":10,
"vigilance_FS":10,
"vigilance_Strike":10,
"brawler_Assault":10,
"fallback":{"escortSmall":1},
},

You can enter new Variants in there.  Variants and their IDs can be found in the data/variants directory.

2.  When you've completed your .faction file, you then just need to write an .ezfaction file (this is just a text file, like the other JSON-format text files SS uses).  See the example mod for that; essentially, it's a little text file in the data/ezfaction folder, named the same as your faction (the word you put into the ID, not the capitalized name).

Basically, this is all pretty simple text-file modding, with one little step (building the ezfaction file) added, to make your new Faction automatically populate the SS world.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2017, 03:39:42 PM »

Quote
Hmm - gave this a try; wanted to test the impact of markets on performance etc. Mods enabled: lazylib, EZ faction, Explorer Society. New game starts, but I'm not seeing any populated systems aside from the vanilla core. What am I missing?
Ah.  I was a bit sloppy with the last Explorer Society update and didn't test it before release, apparently. 

I've looked and found out the that the name of the .faction files for both the Persean League and the Remnants aren't consistent with one another.  I've fixed the release; it tests as advertised now.

I'll note that down as a bug I need to figure out how to log so that modders can see if that error occurred.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

Jc

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2017, 07:10:47 PM »

can this mod be used to update an old outdated mod to current version? im trying to update an old mod but i just have no idea where to start or how to begin. i installed intelli j ive tried putting in the ezfaction file but it just crashes.

its extremely frustrating. the mod is from a time when ballastic weapons still had ammo. so i dont know what to change how to change it or what anything means. im not a coder and everything just crashes

all of the assets are there the sounds graphics etc., i just dont know what im supposed to code to make things work. i dont know how to turn those assets into a fully functioning mod
Logged

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #20 on: May 31, 2017, 10:18:20 PM »

First off, I've updated this mod.  This update does two things:

1.  It adds the key-word "everybody" to lovedFaction / hatedFaction.  This will, naturally, cause "everybody" who is not the Faction to be loved or hated.  Essentially, it supports "xenophobic" cultures that just hate everybody (think Pirates, etc.).

2.  It addresses some very minor things about how certain data is obtained on Planet types.  More improvements to this are planned.

Quote
can this mod be used to update an old outdated mod to current version?
Essentially, yes :)

I'm in the process of restoring some older mods now, actually (with permission from the authors).

However, it's not magic; broken file-types need to be rebuilt, etc.

The core areas that are (probably) broken and need replacement are:

1.  You need to remove all of the Java files in data/scripts/world (and possibly other places, depending on how sloppy people were being).  This code causes crashes, because it's using outdated methods that aren't supported any more.

2.  You need to write a modernized .faction file.  See existing .faction files for guidance, either in the Explorer Society example mod, or in Vanilla.

3.  If the mod had fancy scripted weapons, Systems, etc., it might be necessary to fix that code.  Usually not; this is actually an area of SS that's remained pretty stable. 

4.  Fighters / Wings and Carriers need to be updated to the modern format.  Unfortunately SS Ship Editor doesn't (yet) support this, so you need to do some hand-editing of .variant files to address this problem.

That's essentially it; while ship_data and weapon_data probably need a few new columns entered into them to be fully modernized, that's easily done with Google Sheets- import the CSVs, insert the columns, export the CSVs. 

I'm not sure if any of the new columns are required or not to prevent crashes; probably not?

But basically, this is all pretty straightforward text-file editing work.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

Jc

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #21 on: June 01, 2017, 03:27:53 PM »

First off, I've updated this mod.  This update does two things:

1.  It adds the key-word "everybody" to lovedFaction / hatedFaction.  This will, naturally, cause "everybody" who is not the Faction to be loved or hated.  Essentially, it supports "xenophobic" cultures that just hate everybody (think Pirates, etc.).

2.  It addresses some very minor things about how certain data is obtained on Planet types.  More improvements to this are planned.

Quote
can this mod be used to update an old outdated mod to current version?
Essentially, yes :)

I'm in the process of restoring some older mods now, actually (with permission from the authors).

However, it's not magic; broken file-types need to be rebuilt, etc.

The core areas that are (probably) broken and need replacement are:

1.  You need to remove all of the Java files in data/scripts/world (and possibly other places, depending on how sloppy people were being).  This code causes crashes, because it's using outdated methods that aren't supported any more.

2.  You need to write a modernized .faction file.  See existing .faction files for guidance, either in the Explorer Society example mod, or in Vanilla.

3.  If the mod had fancy scripted weapons, Systems, etc., it might be necessary to fix that code.  Usually not; this is actually an area of SS that's remained pretty stable. 

4.  Fighters / Wings and Carriers need to be updated to the modern format.  Unfortunately SS Ship Editor doesn't (yet) support this, so you need to do some hand-editing of .variant files to address this problem.

That's essentially it; while ship_data and weapon_data probably need a few new columns entered into them to be fully modernized, that's easily done with Google Sheets- import the CSVs, insert the columns, export the CSVs. 

I'm not sure if any of the new columns are required or not to prevent crashes; probably not?

But basically, this is all pretty straightforward text-file editing work.

That's way to complicated for me. It sounds like you are speaking another language. I can install mods just fine and do some small simple edits. But reowrking the whole thing is not something I know how to do.
Logged

c0nr4d1c4l

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 103
  • Local forum transient
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #22 on: June 01, 2017, 04:05:44 PM »

@Jc what faction are planning to update?
Logged
"Slap slap slap, clap clap clap"

Head salesman and CEO of the Discount Shipyard

Jc

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #23 on: June 01, 2017, 05:07:27 PM »

@Jc what faction are planning to update?

i was planning to update the batavia shipyards faction. it was a really fleshed out faction too
Logged

Harmful Mechanic

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1340
  • On break.
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #24 on: June 01, 2017, 06:26:17 PM »

What a funny definition of 'essentially, yes' you have there, xeno.

What Xeno isn't saying is that the steps he's describing are most of the work of updating a faction. His mod just takes care of the very rudiments of campaign implementation.

Don't forget that in addition to his list above, OP on ships will need to be rebalanced, weapons that were balanced around vanished features like the high-flux boost to energy weapons, or default ammo-limited ballistics will need to be redone (in accord with vanilla balance, not... whatever's going on here) - EZ Faction will just take care of, frankly, one of the easier tasks; systems and markets can be implemented pretty painlessly with almost no knowledge of Java, just by observing and duplicating the structure of existing system files.

Which is not to say that's nothing; anything that takes the load off in any area is good. But if you want to do a good job, you're still in for a lot of work. And maybe I'm weird, but I think the opportunity to learn to program a bit was one of the benefits of getting into modding.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2017, 06:28:39 PM by Soren »
Logged

adimetro00

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 127
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #25 on: June 01, 2017, 06:32:33 PM »

You should use comments and readmes to help the newbies understand how to do it
Logged

Ryu116

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 56
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #26 on: June 01, 2017, 07:23:06 PM »

NOOOOOO!

NOW I HAVE NO EXCUSE!  >:(

Logged

Az the Squishy

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 469
  • I'm but a woman with a pencil.
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #27 on: June 01, 2017, 08:24:09 PM »

NOOOOOO!

NOW I HAVE NO EXCUSE!  >:(



Technically, no one has an excuse if they can find the people to put together a team that actually functions or able to scrap a mod together from simpler mods. (EG Metelsons was pulled heavily from Nuetrals and ASP at first.)
This- EZ Faction -is just a nice jump-start I'd figure. Really don't know how it'll exactly work and help in reality. Though, it might cause a lot of shovel-ware AT WORST. this is worst case thinking, at best. It helps people mod into the game for personal or public (as in posting for intent of fun for everyone to enjoy and/or criticize.)

On that note, this is speculation on my part as I have no inclination to use this. But, i see the idea and merit in the spirit of said idea.

cjuicy

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 353
  • Figuring out how the hell to wear heels (She/it)
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #28 on: June 02, 2017, 09:45:05 AM »

@Jc what faction are planning to update?

i was planning to update the batavia shipyards faction. it was a really fleshed out faction too
Yes! I loved Batavia! Now I can get my space Germans back.
Logged
It's been a long time, but I still love ya!

- Pfp done by Sleepyfish!

c plus one

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 170
  • 'Make Jumpgates Great Again!'
    • View Profile
Re: [0.8][UTILITY] EZ Faction
« Reply #29 on: June 02, 2017, 10:31:43 AM »

@Jc what faction are planning to update?

i was planning to update the batavia shipyards faction. it was a really fleshed out faction too
Yes! I loved Batavia! Now I can get my space Germans back.

Those were space Dutch/Netherlanders, methinks. Only Erick Doe knows for sure.  ;)
Logged
Quote from: Lopunny Zen
you are playing them wrong then..

Don't tell me I'm playing anything wrong in a singleplayer sandbox game. Just don't.
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 12