Tutorial Create your own ships - Photoshop template & modding guide

I was looking at the human ship stuff to get an idea of how all this worked and I noticed that there is a giant space station like ship in the folder that is chopped into four parts. How would you get the structure file to use all four and put them together right?

 

Denesta: For that you would have to have all the parts linked in the structure file, with different x,y coordinates so they match up.

 

Very useful, could help me in the future once I have time to get into this lol...

 

Are the position units measuring pixels? So it would be like [1934, 0], [0,0], [0, 1165] and [1934, 1165]?

 

They are measuring the pixels of the dropshipblocks file as far as I can tell. I noticed this when I was messing around in Starstructor (very helpful), that very small increments will move the dropship pic (the ship file) a lot on the blocks. Like I had to use -0.25 and -0.5 or something like that to get it to match up properly... again this was in the starstructor.

I'm not sure if Starstructor is very useful for multiple segment ships like that, but you could download on of the spacestation mods and look at how they did it.

 

Gimp or Paint Tool SAI, both are free.

 

I believe ive seen a ship in the mods list which puts together a bitmap for that huge station etc. You'd use something like this to load multiple images (because there's a size limit).

Code:

  "backgroundOverlays" : [
    {
      "image" : "shipship.png",
      "position" : [0, 0]
    },
    {
      "image" : "shipship2.png",
      "position" : [0, 12]
    },
    {
      "image" : "shipship3.png",
      "position" : [12, 0]
    }
  ],

Obviously you need to align each position for each image. I assume that the order you list them is the order the images are loaded/overlapped.

 

Can you explain how to do platforms? im struggling to add them in the foreground and a texture in the background.

for instance i do this below, but only the platform shows and not the smooth metal behind it.


{
"foregroundBlock": true,
"backgroundBlock": true,
"foregroundMat": "platform2",
"backgroundMat": "smoothmetal",
"value": [
255,
255,
0,
255
]
},

 

use paint like me

 

Problem, I use paint.net not photoshop, I cannot afford 10 bucks a month for simply occasional use of photoshop.

 

Hey I want to start working on a few things but am in gimp will the file you posted work with it Xuhybrid?

 

Get Starstuctor, a lot easier to use with a GUI, and it creates the dropship file...

 

starstructor looked like craw when I tried it last

 

Craw? It's amazing! Next update will be epic!

 

It severely frustrates me and I can't seem to add parts to my ship nor alter the parts present in any shape way or form. I'm ignoring its "value" until said update because it seems like a worthless resource to me right now.

 

I'm quoting this in the hopes we can get a dev to answer or maybe I missed the answer -

Items usually have color states (like Color 1, Color 2, etc...), does anyone know the proper code for this?

Also, I am assuming there a master list of items and their images so we can call the right items in our notepads, can someone point me to this master list? Or is there a program that lets me look at all the items in the game so I can figure this out?

tyvm

 

No, not if you mean the .ship file - that is not the point of the program, the point is to create new ships for starting out, like race mods and te likes (you can create a ship, log in with a new character, back out and replace the .ship file with this new one, to get said ship)

 

very nice guide, i tested it and effective create my own first ship. Thank you, now i understand how its works. Also, nothing needs to create a new game, its so perfect.

 

When aligning the shipship.png file, where do the x/y coordinate start/relate to? Is the coord [1, 1] the upper leftmost pixel of the shipship.png?
If my shipship.png was exactly 8x larger than my dropshipblocks.png file would I want the allignment be [0, 0]?

Figured it out.
The x/y coords are in relation to the dropshipblocks.png
If your shipship.png is the same ratio as your dropshipblocks.png the coords [0, 0] should be correct.

 

Does anyone know if there is a maximum dropshipblocks.png size? I keep getting access violation errors when trying to start with a new character with the ship I've created but not when starting with a different race. The file is 208x224 pixels so it is kind large. I considered separating it into parts but I don't really know how or if it would help so I haven't tried. I started by making the file in paint and then adding tiles with Starstructor and I've gone through the .structure file comparing it with others and it seems pretty okay. Hopefully someone will see this and know what I've screwed up.



Here's the contents of the dropship.structure file if that helps.

Code:

{
  "config": {
    "fuelMax": 1000
  },
 
  "blockKey" : [
    {
      "value" : [255, 255, 255, 255],
      "foregroundBlock" : false,
      "backgroundBlock" : false
    },

    {
      "value" : [0, 0, 255, 255],
      "foregroundBlock" : false,
      "backgroundBlock" : true
    },

    {
      "value" : [255, 0, 0, 255],
      "foregroundBlock" : true,
      "backgroundBlock" : true
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "glass  ",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "value": [255, 255, 144, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "crystalblock  ",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "crystalblock",
      "value": [255, 117, 255, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "ok",
      "foregroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "foregroundMat": "tribalplatform",
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "value": [227, 230, 8, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "88",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "object": "teleporter",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      }
      "value": [130, 19, 157, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "99",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "object": "apexfuelhatch",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      }
      "value": [128, 220, 182, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "1010",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "object": "apexcaptainschair",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      },
      "value": [21, 117, 84, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "mossy",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "mossypackeddirt",
      "value": [31, 79, 196, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "booost",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": false,
      "object": "boosterflamehuman",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      },
      "value": [68, 155, 90, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "dark wood",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "darkwood",
      "value": [154, 193, 200, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "baseboard",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "baseboard",
      "value": [169, 130, 57, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "door1",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "darkwood",
      "object": "hylotlshojidoor",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      },
      "value": [16, 19, 226, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "door2",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "baseboard",
      "object": "hylotlshojidoor",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      },
      "value": [159, 76, 75, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "engine wall",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "ornatewood",
      "value": [223, 60, 223, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "apex",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "apexshipwall",
      "value": [161, 116, 113, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "engine platform",
      "foregroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "foregroundMat": "apexshipplatformplatform",
      "backgroundMat": "rustyblock",
      "value": [117, 118, 110, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "engine wall 2",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "mediummetal",
      "value": [12, 18, 39, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "windshield",
      "foregroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "foregroundMat": "glass",
      "backgroundMat": "glass",
      "value": [147, 36, 235, 255]
    },
   
    {
      "comment": "rust",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "rustyblock",
      "value": [40, 74, 157, 255]
    },
    {
      "comment": "rust2",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "rustymetal",
      "value": [110, 148, 173, 255]
    },
    {
      "comment": "wreck gen",
      "foregroundBlock": false,
      "backgroundBlock": true,
      "backgroundMat": "rustymetal",
      "object": "wreckgenerator",
      "objectParameters": {
        "unbreakable": true
      },
      "value": [209, 171, 99, 255]
    }
  ],
  "blockImage": "dropshipblocks.png"
}

And the dropshipblocks.png (which is by no means finished but I wanted to see if it would work).