Mod Idea: Alternate Starts

[ThePrivateer]

Hey, I've come up with an idea for a new mod, but it's been a while since I last did this kind of thing, and the Trans API has changed a fair bit.

I'm going to create a mod, that comes with several Adventure Extensions inside -- each one can be chosen manually from the New Game menu, each one gives the player a choice of three unique ships, and each one starts the player in a chain of four unique systems, that eventually drops the player back into Rigel Aurelius, where the player can continue forward, or backtrack to Eridani etc.

But poking around a bit, I'm confused as hell with all the <SystemMap> stuff, and I don't know where <SystemTopology> vanished to.
Obviously I need to import nearly all of the base game's topology, but I don't know what file to be copying that stuff from...

Plus I need to create my own <Node>'s, for my unique systems. I just need a few pointers on how to get the ball rolling here, but the XML is confusing and really poorly commented. (sorry George! )

Thanks in advance guys!

[RPC]

Here's another advanced start:
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=684

What I was thinking for an alternate advanced start would be to give a player a "breather" system and 100000 credits and a trading post with infinite amount of orders. Then I'll send the player to St. Kat's.

Here's Uncharted, the mod that supersedes Network:
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=1211

Here's the post I used to make it:
http://www.neurohack.com/transcendence/ ... tor#p48490

[ThePrivateer]

Here's another advanced start:
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=684

What I was thinking for an alternate advanced start would be to give a player a "breather" system and 100000 credits and a trading post with infinite amount of orders. Then I'll send the player to St. Kat's.

Here's Uncharted, the mod that supersedes Network:
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=1211

Here's the post I used to make it:
http://www.neurohack.com/transcendence/ ... tor#p48490

Thanks for that RPC, that link really helped.

I've got everything rolling along fine now, working on some custom systems and custom enemies etc.

I think it should be a good mod when it's finished. Unlike the advanced start, the Alternate Starts will allow the player to choose between one of three adventure-specific craft, and go on an alternate start of four systems, that feeds them back into the Main chain of the New Beyond. At the moment, I don't think the player can go back from Battle Arena to Eridani, and also, I get weird errors if I allow Elysium to be in the Topology. But I think they're some acceptable losses.

I'll keep you posted, and hopefully will get this out for December.

[RPC]

Bleh, yeah, adding Elysium to topology is pretty hard >:(

[FourFire]

I look forward to playtesting the results of this