Basic playership mod

Freeform discussion about anything related to modding Transcendence.
gunship256
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pixelfck wrote:Transcendence 1.5 Beta specs
pay attention to the: Dock Services Screen -> Modding Considerations for info on the new/old dockscreen behaviour.
Thanks! I'll have to go through and read the news posts so I can better understand what's going on.

When I used apiVersion = "25", the game uses the new dockscreens when I dock at a station, but it still uses the old dockscreens when I use the Ship Configuration menu option while not docked. I added these attributes to the PlayerSettings tag to solve the problem:

Code: Select all

  dockServicesScreen=	"&dsRPGDockServices;"
  shipConfigScreen=	"&dsRPGDockServices;"
But it seems like there should be an obvious, better way that I'm missing.
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digdug
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When I used apiVersion = "25",
Transcendence 1.6.1 uses apiVersion 27, did you try that ?
gunship256
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digdug wrote:
When I used apiVersion = "25",
Transcendence 1.6.1 uses apiVersion 27, did you try that ?
I did, but setting apiVersion to 26 to 27 caused other problems. Here's the full text of the comment I wrote to myself in the mod, trying to figure this out:

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<!-- Using apiVersion = "25" because setting apiVersion to 27 results in an error message in Transcendence 1.6.1 that says this mod has
  invalid entities. Setting apiVersion to 25 results in the new dockscreens being used when docking at stations, but the old dockscreens
	still pull up when not docked through the Ship Configuration menu option. To solve this problem, I followed the lead of the Sapphire/X 
	mod (posted on Xelerus 2015 07 11) by adding the following attributes to the PlayerSettings tag:
	
	  dockServicesScreen=	"&dsRPGDockServices;"
		shipConfigScreen=	"&dsRPGDockServices;"
		
	The Sapphire/X mod can be found here:
	
	  http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=1433
			
  Setting the apiVersion to 25 does seem to have solved the UI problem with armor dockscreens discussed on this forum thread:
	
	  https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7289
	
	-->
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AssumedPseudonym
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 Starting with API 26, if you call anything used in HumanSpaceLibrary, you have to specifically either declare the entities or include the library. The easy way to do it is, first thing after the <TranscendenceExtension> opening tag, add this:

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	<Library UNID="&unidHumanSpaceLibrary;"/>
 That should fix the problem.
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gunship256
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EDIT: Worked like a charm! Thanks for your help. It makes logical sense that I would have to include the library so I can see all the entities I'm bringing in and prevent conflicts with my own entity names.

I updated the mod to remove the band-aid fixes I had in place. Here's the new version in case anyone wants to check it for errors before I make it generally available.
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Basic Playerships.xml
(15.9 KiB) Downloaded 178 times
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digdug
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gunship256 wrote:EDIT: Worked like a charm! Thanks for your help. It makes logical sense that I would have to include the library so I can see all the entities I'm bringing in and prevent conflicts with my own entity names.

I updated the mod to remove the band-aid fixes I had in place. Here's the new version in case anyone wants to check it for errors before I make it generally available.
looks great !
If you make this available on Xelerus, I will remove my own "just the playershipz" mod, which was basically done for the same reason as this.
gunship256
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Thanks for the feedback! Before I post the mod, I'd like to make a PDF file with links to the wiki so that someone building a new ship doesn't have to look that information up from scratch.

Also, I'm waiting for confirmation on my UNID request before I move forward.
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gunship256 wrote:Thanks for the feedback! Before I post the mod, I'd like to make a PDF file with links to the wiki so that someone building a new ship doesn't have to look that information up from scratch.

Also, I'm waiting for confirmation on my UNID request before I move forward.
You don't need to wait for the UNID confirmation to start work, IIRC. So long as nobody's reserved it first, it's yours the moment you request it.
gunship256
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OK - here's the PDF file with links to basic modding information. Please let me know if I can fix or add anything to make the document more helpful.

EDIT: The forum won't let me submit a PDF file or a .doc file. Nothing happens when I try to attach the file, and there's no error message.

Here's the text of the PDF file. The links show up as plain text and are not clickable here. Once everything's finished, I'll post the PDF with clickable links to Xelerus along with the mod.
Modding a Basic Playership: Helpful Links
Last updated 2015 August 08 by gunship256

Have you always wanted to create a mod ship for Transcendence but didn't know where to start? If so, take a look at the information here.

The mod file in this folder, with the file extension .xml, re-creates the three basic playerships in the game. The Transcendence wiki has a page describing how to install mods.

The mod in this folder is named 'Basic Playerships.xml'. Notepad++ can open and edit XML files. Try making changes to the code, saving the file, and then closing and re-opening Transcendence. The links below provide some information about what the code does and what changes you might be able to make.

Tutorial on writing a playership mod (VERY helpful)
Beginner's Guide to Modding
UNID database forum thread
TranscendenceExtension tag
ShipClass tag
PlayerSettings tag

The members of the Transcendence forums are very helpful. Post modding questions in the Shipyards area.

The Transcendence wiki is a useful source of information. If there's code in a mod you don't recognize, try looking for it using the wiki's search box.

You can also download other mods on Xelerus and open them with Notepad++ to look at the code. There is a Last Modified date (in parentheses on each mod's Xelerus page) that's useful to check, as most of the mods on Xelerus have not been updated for the latest version of Transcendence.

Editing code can be an intimidating but rewarding process. I'm a beginner at it, and hopefully this document will save you from some of the frustration I've experienced. Please find me on the forums (gunship256) if you notice anything I can fix or add to this document to make it more helpful.

Credits
Thanks to:
AssumedPseudonym for help in setting the Basic Playerships mod up correctly
DigDug for checking the code for errors
George Moromisato for creating Transcendence, which includes the code the mod is based on
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pixelfck
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gunship256
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pixelfck wrote:maybe take a look at https://transcendence.kronosaur.com/gui ... exm?id=938
~Pixelfck
I linked to that guide, but unfortunately, I can't upload a PDF or MS Word file to the forum, so I had to quote the text, and the links disappeared.

Everything is ready to upload now (I've made some changes since my last post), but the last time I tried to upload to Xelerus, it didn't work. I'll try again later.
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digdug
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it didn't work.
I don't know where is the problem with xelerus, many people reported that.
All that I know is that Xelerus used to be picky with the MIME encoding of the ZIP file to upload.
Winzip and WinRAR zip function should be ok, unless it changed with the most recent versions. I'm not sure for other compressors.
gunship256
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The Basic Playerships mod is now on Xelerus. Any feedback is appreciated!

http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=1502
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digdug
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Awesome ! Nice Xmas present for modders there :D

(btw, I deleted my old one)
gunship256
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Xelerus working was a great Christmas present for ME, too. (BTW, it immediately stopped working after I uploaded the file yesterday. I couldn't upload the alpha of either of my other two mods!)
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