Trouble with getting mods to work

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Zeke
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Thanks for the info.

I'm using the 1.7 xml's because that was the latest on Xelerus. Where can 1.8 be downloaded?
Ferdinand
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You can decompile your copy of Tanscendence by using Transdata. Detailed explanation is given here: https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8060
NMS
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Zeke wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 12:13 am
I'm using the 1.7 xml's because that was the latest on Xelerus. Where can 1.8 be downloaded?
Links here: https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8737
Zeke
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NMS wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:18 pm
Zeke wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 12:13 am
I'm using the 1.7 xml's because that was the latest on Xelerus. Where can 1.8 be downloaded?
Links here: https://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8737
No, not the game. The source code xmls. I'm not going to decompile the game.
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AssumedPseudonym
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 This will decompile Transcendence.tdb, not Transcendence.exe. The TDB files decompile into the assorted XML files (plus whatever graphic or audio files are included).
Image

Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
Zeke
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AssumedPseudonym wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 8:03 am
 This will decompile Transcendence.tdb, not Transcendence.exe. The TDB files decompile into the assorted XML files (plus whatever graphic or audio files are included).
Still trying to sell me a plan I didn't want. I just wanted to dl it like the older versions on Xelerus.
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AssumedPseudonym
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 Sorry, but that really is your best option if you want to look at the XML files; to my knowledge, they’re not uploaded anywhere. You might be able to find the 1.8 files in the Git repository if it keeps a history of old versions, but you may have to dig a bit since it’s currently on the 1.9 stream. To be honest, I’m amazed that the 1.7 files were uploaded to Xelerus. Xelerus has been dying since years before its release.
Image

Mod prefixes: 0xA010 (registered) and 0xDCC8 (miscellaneous)

My mods on Xelerus: Click here!

Of all the things I’ve lost in life, I miss my mind the least. (I’m having a lot more fun without it!)
Zeke
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AssumedPseudonym wrote:
Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:37 am
 Sorry, but that really is your best option if you want to look at the XML files; to my knowledge, they’re not uploaded anywhere. You might be able to find the 1.8 files in the Git repository if it keeps a history of old versions, but you may have to dig a bit since it’s currently on the 1.9 stream. To be honest, I’m amazed that the 1.7 files were uploaded to Xelerus. Xelerus has been dying since years before its release.
I guess I just might need to, in order to "cheat back" at this game.

Most of the difficulty is produced from cheap tricks that come off as petulant. An economy that the player can only overcome by being a murderhobo because without a large supply of blood loot the player would be dead broke. Which means the player should win by default because none of the npc ships could ever make a thin dime. Or the never ending supply of enemy replacements to ensure you can't pick apart the opposition. LOL at a band of pirates having this huge reserve of the same pattern of ships, or that killing a capital ship somehow makes two appear every time. The fiction of both of these examples is really how the humans are even holding on anywhere. The little enemies that miraculously find you in any system is absurd. I'll never use an auton or companion anymore because of that. I tire of having to lose mules and the contents from these cheap shots.

And then the expectation that to win you must be deft at shooter games to get ahead. Forget strategy, intuition, common sense, or a willingness to slog through the details. I had the Lamplighter, Taikon 200, omni thermo cannon , advanced ithalium armor, endless gotha 400 missiles, 10 million in creds, all the toys, 400K rin, etc, but I still can't go head to head with a Phobos and just trade punches. If you can't dance the flight and fire buttons all at once then you die. If you might get lucky once then your reward is now having two of them because only kids with fast reflexes are supposed to win.

Honestly, I can accept an enemy being Phobos hard. But for the game to punish me for killing it by sending more is absurd. It displays a lack of depth for strategy.

So I guess it really is decompile time. I either need to delete all the petulance that masquerades as challenge or I need to have an equal share of cheap shot advantage. It's not like I'm ever going to get a lot younger and have the resulting reflexes. When I was that age I simply wasted all those reflexes on stupid things no one is actually willing to do now, like being a defender of my nation and then later a first responder. Geez, why would I do that when I'd use up my only chance to play games that mandate deftness of hand? Well, I still have a brain and it says fix the game so that more ages and physical capabilities can play.
relanat
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ROFL, love the writing style! :D
Zeke wrote:
Fri Jan 10, 2020 8:15 am
I just wanted to dl it like the older versions on Xelerus.
I put some of the 1.7 xmls up on xelerus because it is a PITA to use command line code to decompile the tdbs. A few people were having trouble, including me, but once the "Decompile.bat" file became widely known it wasn't really worth doing any more. The .bat file replaces command line code with a double click! Much easier.

Ideally the whole lot including the resources could be uploaded for easy access but xelerus has a 5MB limit so that can't happen there. I have suggested somewhere that the whole decompiled game be available on the Multiverse 'Mod Collection' somehow to make it easier.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
Zeke
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OK, I decompiled it. I basically hate using the command prompt for anything other that OS fixes, especially 3rd party software.

My new issue is trying to combining mods. In particular a playership mod where I wanted to add gear from another mod to the playership stating inventory. Obviously if I just slap the item into the inventory and it was from a different mod, not core game items, then I'm looking at an unrecognized item warning because it doesn't look like this game nests mod loading order. So I'm thinking to paste the code of the item into the playership mod. But obviously there are mismatched unid prefixes. I can usually muddle through this kind of mod stuff by just staring at convention long enough, but it would be nice to see someone's discussion of mod merging. I already did a form search on combining mods but the search results weren't helpful. Any suggestions, or better yet links to an existing discussion, would be appreciated.
NMS
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I think you can just copy the entity definition (<!ENTITY someEntity "0xnnnnnnnn">) from the mod with the type you want to use to the mod where you use it. Or use the hex UNID (0xnnnnnnnn) rather than the entity (&someEntity;). But then your mod will only work if the mod containing that type is also loaded.

To avoid that, you can copy the type definition to your mod. Or, if the mod it's in uses a library, you can declare <Library UNID="&someLibrary;"/> under <TranscendenceExtension...> . But only a few big mods do this.
Zeke
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NMS wrote:
Sat Jan 18, 2020 7:21 am
I think you can just copy the entity definition (<!ENTITY someEntity "0xnnnnnnnn">) from the mod with the type you want to use to the mod where you use it. Or use the hex UNID (0xnnnnnnnn) rather than the entity (&someEntity;). But then your mod will only work if the mod containing that type is also loaded.

To avoid that, you can copy the type definition to your mod. Or, if the mod it's in uses a library, you can declare <Library UNID="&someLibrary;"/> under <TranscendenceExtension...> . But only a few big mods do this.
So I'm reading that to mean that I can just add the unid entity definition up at the top and insert that along with the other entity definitions in the ship mod I'm using, then underneath add the actual item description for the item, and then finally add the item to the ship's inventory, right?

No need to worry that the unid prefixes don't match as long as they don't conflict with other things in the game?

While placing things in the right spot on the mod xml, I'm effectively copy pasting the content of item mod into the content of the ship mod and then adding the item into the inventory.

I guess since I don't add many mods I could just combine them into one player mod. My biggest concern has been about the unid up top.

Meh, it's all going on a fresh game start so I should just try it, instead of worrying too much in advance.
relanat
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I'll simplify it a bit for new modders referring to this topic.

3 steps to get access to the item.

1. Copy the ENTITY declaration from the other mod into your playership mod.
It will look something like this:

Code: Select all

<!ENTITY itTheItemZekeWants		"0x????????">
This goes with the existing list of ENTITY declarations in the playership mod.

2. Copy the entire item code from the other mod into the playership mod.
It will start with something like the first line of code here and finish with the last line shown here.

Code: Select all

<ItemType unid="&itTheItemZekeWants;">
	---
	lots of lines of code in here
	---
</ItemType>
This needs to be outside the ShipClass unid.

3. Add the item to the playership at game start.
This can be done several ways but generally somewhere in the ShipClass UNID there will be a block of <Items> code with '<Item...' subelements.
Add the item to the playership using code like this:

Code: Select all

<Item count="1" item="&itTheItemZekeWants;"/>
That should work. If not let us know. Make sure the other mod isn't in the Extensions folder after you do this (not sure if it will give an error).

Also as a courtesy to the modder who wrote the item code it is nice to add a thanks or credit for them. This also helps other modders who like the item and want to check other items from that modder.
This can be done in two ways.
Either use a semi-colon at the beginning of a line of text in the .xml file. The game will ignore most alpha-numeric text after a semi-colon.

Code: Select all

	;This item code copied from the (insert mod name) mod by (insert mod writers name).
Or enclose the thanks text within these two code groups:

Code: Select all

<!--
and

Code: Select all

-->
The game ignores everything between these. Using an xml editing program such as Notepad++ will highlight this sort of text in a different color so you can tell what is being excluded.
Stupid code. Do what I want, not what I typed in!
NMS
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It shouldn't be a problem for more than one mod to define the same type. I think the one with the highest UNID will be loaded last and overwrite the other(s).
Zeke
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It appears that I got the playership mod and two other mods to merge. The stuff is parked in inventory. There might be other problems later because this items are not for early use. But since I've used at least one of the other item mods before and it worked fine, I'm not too worried about them working as projected. The concern about merging several known working mods seems solved. I just needed to carefully put the code in the right place. In the future, as long as it's just an item added to the game, I can just toss it into a playership mod. That way I know I'll get the item and have it ready when I need it, as well as reduce the overall list of mods. I just need to drag the item around with me until later in the game. I'm already doing that with loot as it stands. I keep medical supplies and higher ore grades until I meet the "neglected" star carrier and ringers respectively. If I'm willing to do the detail work with dragging ship components up and down the gates to get a buyer, plus learning to feed factories what they want until I end up with foodstuffs for hotels then I don't have to sell meds and better ores early.

In any case, my mod list has shrunk. I'm down to the wrench mod, a mod that adds a xenos arms dealer late game, an EI industries dealer mod for middle game, and my now inclusive playership mod. Now if I could ditch the useless official playership mods. Once you approve them for the universe they never go away. All you can do is uncheck the boxes. It's not a big deal now, but as more get added to the official catalog link site this may grow from irritation to hassle. Seems like something I need to put in the suggestion box.

Well, I'm good for now and I appreciated the hand holding. Sometimes you just have to do it, instead of fretting over it in advance.

I'm down to one last thing I'd like to fix for the moment. That being the constant reminders about toggling tab for missiles, D for docking, and A for accelerating time. I don't need to be reminded all game. I don't see a spot in the settings xml to toggle the noob reminders off. Either I'm not identifying that on the settings list or it isn't in there. If it's not in there I'm not going to look for a mod. Someone mentioned a ticket suggestion to put settings into the game interface and I'm fully on board with that idea. That would be the best time place to toggle key hints.
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