Modding Help I have got 2 questions about ship modding and custom races.

Discussion in 'Starbound Modding' started by Velornar, Aug 29, 2014.

  1. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    Hello everyone,
    To start with i would just say that my english isnt good at all so I'll try my best to make this post understandable, tell me if its really horrible...then I would reformulate my question.
    I really begin at modding and actually I just modify some mods to fit better to my expectations...
    So i have got some problems with modding because even trying to understand how the most complete downloaded mods work, I cant just make mine work. So thats why i require some help.

    1) How to make a very long ship ?
    In fact I'm trying to modify an existing mod (the Gilgamesh cruiser) to fit like a military frigate ship, balanced for multiplayer (a massive ship intead of a space station with personnal quarters for 3-5 members). But now I cant extend more the ship because I'm locked in a single PNG format picture.
    About the ship I will probably not release it because I suck at pixel art and most of the design was taken from all existing human ship mods (so problem of copyrigths and i would understand that many modder would be furious if i do so).
    I know we could make a bigger size ship (as Alsehr's militarus space station) by fragmentaing the hull design in various piece. And there its necessary to enter values at "position".
    But my problem is that I dont really understand how work the coordonate system positionning the picture on te block-file (why does the values have decimals).

    "backgroundOverlays" : [
    {
    "image" : "MitarusUL.png",
    "position" : [0.37, 140.5]
    },
    {
    "image" : "MitarusBL.png",
    "position" : [0.37, 0.6]
    },
    {
    "image" : "MitarusBR.png",
    "position" : [242.125, 0.6]
    },
    {
    "image" : "MitarusUR.png",
    "position" : [242.125, 140.49]
    }
    ],

    Are they pixel mesurement ? from te block-file (so 8 pixels on the ship-file) or the reverse from original pixel size.
    And above all, from wich corner start the scale and coordonate system in order to align perfectly the future tow pieces as ship-files of the ship.
    Thats why the ship is still exactly at the same position to keep the anmated objects at the right place.
    this is a picture of the current progress of the ship to help you see the problem:
    [​IMG]

    2) How to add dialogue to Vanilla's NPC as custom race ?
    I ask this question because I'm really bored of the reaction the starbound vanilla's npc have regarding my character (floran: "ssstrange thing" etc). I know I probaly have to restart a new haracter but for exemple I have been trying under Enraged Koala to add custom dialog in all Npc file but they still dont seem to recognise a custom race and then I gave up.
    My question is also, is it only possible to add those dialogs ?
    Even super mods like Avali or Peglaci seems to have only custom dialog for their own NPC.
    Actually i use a race still WIP (Lombax race, just awesome because of its design), I already added some custom quest not to use the default human race and adding dialog waiting for the time the author will add its own would be even more immersive.

    Thank you very much if you took some of your time to answer its question :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2014
  2. Alsehr

    Alsehr Pangalactic Porcupine

    I can't help but notice that the names of the .pngs are from my mitarus station mod. Though, I'll say that the coordinates are a bit of a pain in the ass to correctly position. I first did it by trial and error, and have since forgotten if it was simply measured from the top left, or if it was in relation to the origin. I could probably figure it out if you had a zip file with your modification in it.
     
    Tsunder likes this.
  3. Velornar

    Velornar Pangalactic Porcupine

    Oh...sorry, I took this part of the .shipfile of your station as exemple in the topic because it one of the few ship componed with various png file put together. Just an exemple to locate the problem, of course, these are not the pictures of my ship. In fact I cant figure out wich kind of coordonate are on this files. Pixels ? eight pixel's .shipblock coordonates ?
    So...You mean that there is no easy way to know wat are these coordonates, excepted by reset and multiple try until the multiples parts will fit together ?
    This version work as a single PNG picture, but fill it entirely and I couldnt extend the design to add specific rooms like ammo storage, hydroponic cultures bay, water tank and various sytems like shield, cloaking and crash box in front of the ship.
    Actually I'm still working on the large version's design and I'm still far from finishing it (because this one is already quite sufficient). At the moment I cant share the version wich is too much WIP...I'll try to finish it quickly the tow part and share it when its ready. Sorry thats not helpfull...But thanks a lot for the answer, this confirm thats the coordinate systeme is quite weird, not really logical...
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2014

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