Modding Tools--Component Creator

[Gimboid]

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
Another MODDING tool that would be of great help would be one that allowed use to modify ships. Right now in order to mod a ship you have to do it manually by opening VehicText. A program that works like the component modder but only for ships would be a great addition to the modding tools already availible.

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Once ive gotten the component modder working fully then i'll give your idea a go

Since the vehicles.txt file is likely to be quite similar in layout to the other data files i think it should be quite easy to add that extension to the program

[PsychoTechFreak]

This looks like a damn good and useful tool. Just some questions: If I edit organic armor or cryst. armor, I see a

Value1 = Amount of minerals generated

Instead of something like Amount of damage repaired. I guess this is just a cosmetic problem ?

And if I edit a component, you always add the change to the end of the list as far as I have seen for now, so I have to edit/add something and afterwards delete the old comp., I guess this is a kind of insurance.

@Atrocities: You are talking about other already available modding tools, would mind to list them for us modding newbies ? I know there is a special tools forum for it, but maybe some of them are not posted there, or hidden in Posts of this forum?

Thanx a lot, guys.

[Gimboid]

Heres the virtually completed component modding program.

Features added since Last update (0.48)

- Program now updates listing of components after a new component is added (or edited), so that program does not need to be restarted to continue the modding process. All data fields of newly added component are saved properly. (Continuos modding now enabled in other words )

- If you edit a components details the data is saved with the edited component, and not added to end of list as before.

- All new components are added to the end of the list.

- Ability to copy and paste component details for easy extension of existing component series. I like this feature personally, quite useful to have

- Components can now be deleted from the list of components.


Besides adding a preview of the image selected and make the component list sort when adding a new extension of an existing component set, i cant think of anything else to add to this.

And once i get Gold Version in the mail next week ill check over data file compatability and compile a gold Version if need be


If anyone has any suggestions or comments about the program then post them here, i'd like to hear them

Program Version 0.61
Filesize: Zipped - 29 Kb, Unzipped - 92 Kb

Component Modder Version 0.61

Gimboid

[Gimboid]

quote:

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Originally posted by PsychoTechFreak:
This looks like a damn good and useful tool. Just some questions: If I edit organic armor or cryst. armor, I see a

Value1 = Amount of minerals generated

Instead of something like Amount of damage repaired. I guess this is just a cosmetic problem ?

And if I edit a component, you always add the change to the end of the list as far as I have seen for now, so I have to edit/add something and afterwards delete the old comp., I guess this is a kind of insurance.

Thanx a lot, guys.

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That Value 1 = thing u mentioned was a display bug and has todo with the index of the descriptions array lining up with the actual ability currently selected. It is now fixed, as were a number of other slight bugs that were known of

[EDIT] Hmmm, i just checked out crystal and organic armor and u are right, not all the value 1 descriptions are correct for it. Strange, the components i tested it on (such as engines which has 3 abilities, and SY which has 4) show it correctly... I will look into this, thanks for spotting it.[/EDIT]

Also, as i added in the Last message i didnt get around to changing how it added to the end of the list yesterday. As it was i posted that Version at midnight Last night... so i ran out of time yesterday.

The latest Version fixes that as well, edited data fields are saved with the actual component that was selected for editing. Only new components are added to the end of the list


Gimboid

[ 10 March 2002: Message edited by: Gimboid ]

[PsychoTechFreak]

Great , I am impressed. If you plan to create such tools for the AI txt files... research ... design_creation...

I guess these could be some Goodies for the SEIV Platinum Version.

[Urendi Maleldil]

If you could make it so a person could copy and paste whole entries between different instances of the Component Creator program that would greatly speed up mod compiling.

Say person A does the first 1/2 of components.txt
and person B does the second, I could just open up two instances of Component Creator and copy and paste entries into one of those or even a third instance from the component list. Tadaa, super fast compilation.

Also the ability to move components up and down would be helpful.

P.S. the component list automatically scrolls back up to the top again after the edit component details window is closed. This could be a pain for modders who have to continually open and close windows.

[ 10 March 2002: Message edited by: Urendi Maleldil ]

[Gimboid]

quote:

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Originally posted by Urendi Maleldil:
If you could make it so a person could copy and paste whole entries between different instances of the Component Creator program that would greatly speed up mod compiling.

Say person A does the first 1/2 of components.txt
and person B does the second, I could just open up two instances of Component Creator and copy and paste entries into one of those or even a third instance from the component list. Tadaa, super fast compilation.

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Alas no, this is not a feature the program would be able to support without doing a massive overhaul and changing the design process to make use of threads for data transference. I will probably not be doing anything like this to the program

But, there is a way todo exactly what you want it to do. If person A and B have completed their designing for their respective halves of the components.txt file (what they have done would be saved to the COMP.txt files they both would have created upon using the program), then a simple copy+paste job in notepad would suffice provided it kept a one line gap between the first component in the 2nd list, and the Last component from the first (this is the same gap that all components must have in the components.txt file).

Once pasted into the components.txt file, reloading the component modder would display all the entries present.

quote:

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Originally posted by Urendi Maleldil:
Also the ability to move components up and down would be helpful.

P.S. the component list automatically scrolls back up to the top again after the edit component details window is closed. This could be a pain for modders who have to continually open and close windows.

[ 10 March 2002: Message edited by: Urendi Maleldil ]

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Its not a hassle to set the current selection back to the one that you just finished editing. This will be included in the next revision for sure

As for moving entries up and down, this would be useful as well, thats definately going on the todo list