Modding Help Modifying Boss Drop Pools

Hello! I'm currently making a mod that involves adding rare drops (Weapons and techs) for bosses and certain enemies.
I'm just wondering how to make modified in-game content (Drop pools) easily distributed (I don't want to require people to replace some of the files to install my mod)

It might also be useful if someone could tell me where to find the boss drop pools

Apologies if these are stupid questions, fairly new to modding and whatnot.

 

Chucklefish came up with something called merging that addresses this exact concern. Basically, you can add code without overwriting the entire file. Code example to follow shortly.

 

Sounds like just what I need. If one deletes the mod, will it delete said merged files?

 

I read a few, but OH MY GOD HOW DID I MISS THAT ONE.

I read through it and now I think I'm ready to start working on it

 

Ah hell, sorry, irl stuff came up.

Yeah, merges are done externally.

As an example, if you wanted to tool around with default.treasurepool (which you will be), you'd create another default.treasurepool that just contains your new JSON code.

If I wanted to do it, here's the code I would try:

Code:

{
  "__merge" :[],

"boss2Treasure" : [
    [1, {
        "fill" : [["item1", 1], ["item2", 3]]
      } ]
  ]
}

item1 and item2 are, obviously, the names of the items your boss will drop. The values afterward are the amount. In this case the boss will drop one item1 and three item2.

"fill" is one types of treasure, another I've seen is "pool". "fill" items always drop - the whole list. Pools are based on chance and are governed by the RNG - random number generator.

Aside from thoroughly checking out the Mollygos' guides thread, the first thing you should do when adding new content to Starbound is check if someone else has done something similar so you can see how they did it.

 

I tested this with the first boss. New character and everything, I hacked myself a good sword and killed the first boss, he didn't drop anything different.

I put the following code in
Mods/More_Boss_Drops!/treasure/default.treasurepools:

Code:

{
  "__merge" :[],

"boss1Treasure" : [
    [1, {
        "fill" : [["torch", 1], ["bomb", 3]]
      } ]
  ]
}

If it matters, I used notepad++ to do this.
I dunno if I just am an idiot or there's something wrong with the fact i'm in unstable build. Tell me if you can figure it out, and apologies if it's a stupid mistake.

 

I tried both templates and changed the respective pools and such. It wouldn't work. I thought maybe it wasn't reading the files in the first place, so this happened
I tried to crash the game and it worked, so it can read the file.

If there's one thing I know how to do, It's crash a game.

 

1. I know that wasn't the error message I was supposed to read if it crashed. I just wanted to make sure that the game was using my code, because the game wouldn't crash, but the UFO boss wouldn't drop the items I told him to drop.
2. See 1.

==
I changed your code a little bit so that it would drop the different items from the first boss. It just wouldn't work to me, because i'm stupid or whatever. Sorry I guess?

 

Sorry about that then. I've done a bit more testing and such (to no avail), and I've gotten it to not crash again. The code I used is:

Code:

{
  "__merge" : [],
  "boss1Treasure" : [
    [1, {
        "pool" : [
          [0.5, [ "whiskeyflask" ] ],
          [0.5, [ "money", 50 ] ]
        ],
        "poolRounds" : [
          [0.01, 0],
          [0.99, 1]
        ],
        "levelVariance" : [0, 0],
        "allowDuplication" : true
      } ]
  ]
}

It might be worth noting that in "boss1Treasure", there is no "pool", but rather a "fill" action.

Code:

"boss1Treasure" : [
    [1, {
        "fill" : [["moltencore", 5], "bossdreadwingCodex"]
      } ]
  ],

Would I need to merge the files in the first place or is the pool being treated seperately?

Also, would it be easier to overwrite "boss1Treasure" in the first place?

(Sorry for the large number of questions, but I have a bit tighter of a grasp on it now.)

 

Thanks for the help so far!

Code:

{
    "__merge" : [
    ["overwrite", "boss1Treasure"]
],
    "boss1Treasure" :[
      [1, {
        "pool" : [
          [0.5,["whiskeyflask"]],
          [0.5,["money", 50]]
        ],
        "poolrounds" :[
          [0.01, 0],
          [0.99, 1]
        ],
        "levelVarience" : [0,0],
        "allowDuplication" : true
      } ],
[2,{
    "fill" : [["moltencore", 5], "bossdreadwingCodex"]
} ]
]
}

In game, the penguin ufo either drops 1 whiskey, or 50 pixels.
It never drops the magma core or the dreadwing lore.
What am I doing wrong?
(And can I use

Code:

{
"poolrounds" :[
  [1,1]
],
}

to make it only do 1 pool round?)

Btw, the game DOES NOT crash, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

 

1: I added code to make it drop. You can see it in the above post

2: Ok. Thanks!

 

Never-mind, that was dumb of me.
On a side note: Success!

The code I used, for anyone struggling, is:

Code:

{
  "__merge" : [
  [ "overwrite", "boss1Treasure" ]
],
  "boss1Treasure" : [
    [1, {
        "pool" : [
          [0.5, [ "whiskeyflask" ] ],
          [0.5, [ "money", 50 ] ]
        ],
        "poolRounds" : [
          [0.01, 0],
          [0.99, 1]
        ],
        "levelVariance" : [0, 0],
        "allowDuplication" : true,
       
        "fill" : [
          ["moltencore", 5],
          "bossdreadwingCodex"]
}]]
}

Now to work on tech and weapons