Two things that make editing transcendence harder, and maybe ridiculous.
Redundancy in unique strings. Its a pain in the bunghole, and I should hope it is not necessary. Anything other than a unique number that associates an entity with an extension. Asi from the fact that extension entities can't reference eachothers custom rules anyways, the only player/editor information carried by the 0xaaaabbbb number is already resolved by the uniqueness of the file.xml it resides in. =) I don't understand why the 0x* can't just be picked out of a series (e.g., for ABCD.xml, entities are added ABCD0001-ABCD1FFFF by order of occurance. eh.
The hash check on he the .tdb file is irksome.
At the very least, please comment the Transcendence.tdb at the top or just below the DTD, explaining the screwy use of of the 0xaaaabbbb, and whatever short-sweetness editing tips. (e.g. commented Test.XML sample (with examples of all attributes o.O ), default/unecessary values...
Modding should be friendlier
Whoa, slow down.
You've put a heap of 'problems' in together and it's hard to make sense of exactly what you're complaining about.
Firstly, this game was written and developed by the Chief (George Moromisato) for the enjoyment of others. The way the .xml's are parsed are for his convenience, not yours. If you have a valid question, perhaps a little more tact would be a better approach.
Secondly, the official site is only just beginning to gear up. There is a wealth of data about all Transcendence matters at the UTF (Unofficial Transcendence Forums), which you can find a link to on the official site's home page.
Thirdly, as the developer has previously stated, and reiterated, the best way to learn the coding involved is to first read the Transcendence.xml or the various player made extensions.
Finally:
Why are you touching the Transcendence.tdb at all? If you want an assured 'clean' copy of the Transcendence.xml, either download one from this site, or use the TransData utility provided at this site to extract both it and the audio/graphical resources from the .tdb.
As for even using the Transcendence.xml, unless you wish to make changes to the topographical layout of the transcendence universe, etc., use an extension instead, for it is highly likely to continue working in further updates.
The following sections will be parsed in extensions:
Globals
Images
Sounds
ItemTypes
ShipClasses
StationTypes
Furthermore, there are workarounds to get things like Encounters working. See the excellent Salvager mod here - http://www.transcendencemods.er1.be - for an example, and for a lot of other great mods to boot.
You've put a heap of 'problems' in together and it's hard to make sense of exactly what you're complaining about.
Firstly, this game was written and developed by the Chief (George Moromisato) for the enjoyment of others. The way the .xml's are parsed are for his convenience, not yours. If you have a valid question, perhaps a little more tact would be a better approach.
Secondly, the official site is only just beginning to gear up. There is a wealth of data about all Transcendence matters at the UTF (Unofficial Transcendence Forums), which you can find a link to on the official site's home page.
Thirdly, as the developer has previously stated, and reiterated, the best way to learn the coding involved is to first read the Transcendence.xml or the various player made extensions.
Finally:
Why are you touching the Transcendence.tdb at all? If you want an assured 'clean' copy of the Transcendence.xml, either download one from this site, or use the TransData utility provided at this site to extract both it and the audio/graphical resources from the .tdb.
As for even using the Transcendence.xml, unless you wish to make changes to the topographical layout of the transcendence universe, etc., use an extension instead, for it is highly likely to continue working in further updates.
The following sections will be parsed in extensions:
Globals
Images
Sounds
ItemTypes
ShipClasses
StationTypes
Furthermore, there are workarounds to get things like Encounters working. See the excellent Salvager mod here - http://www.transcendencemods.er1.be - for an example, and for a lot of other great mods to boot.
- the_holy_thom
- Commonwealth Pilot
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:55 am
- Location: England
- Contact:
Modding is on the whole quite easy. George has made the extension system a lot easier than it could be. If he hadn't, then there is little chance I would be able to mod.
Aside from the fact that extension entities can reference each others UNIDs, there are several flaws in your argument. If you try asking questions more instead of calling things ridiculous, you may get a nicer response.
Aside from the fact that extension entities can reference each others UNIDs, there are several flaws in your argument. If you try asking questions more instead of calling things ridiculous, you may get a nicer response.
Need a mod? Transcendence Mods
Oh my God. Newbie discussion. Reminds me of the childish 'fight' I saw today between 5th graders. Then I remember how I was in 5th grade.... Anyway, anyone saying bad things about the difficulty of modding Transcendence should see a C++ Structure.