Author Topic: Modding This Version Of Aurora  (Read 6411 times)

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Offline Hydrofoil (OP)

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Modding This Version Of Aurora
« on: June 26, 2017, 06:25:42 AM »
Hi question for @Steve Walmsley How moddable will this version of aurora be? Will i be able to go into some of the source code and add in my own feature and mechanics or things like that?
 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2017, 11:59:54 PM »
I might have skimmed through relevant information in the various C# discussion threads, but for the life of me I can't find it now so I'm bumping this topic.
Will the interface, background, fonts, theme etc be easily (within limits) moddable?
I just came across the star trek LCARs screensaver and it reminded me that some people might like custom interfaces based on whatever empire theme they're running.
" Why is this godforsaken hellhole worth dying for? "
". . .  We know nothing about them, their language, their history or what they look like.  But we can assume this.  They stand for everything we don't stand for.  Also they told me you guys look like dorks. "
"Stop exploding, you cowards.  "
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2017, 04:54:23 AM »
I might have skimmed through relevant information in the various C# discussion threads, but for the life of me I can't find it now so I'm bumping this topic.
Will the interface, background, fonts, theme etc be easily (within limits) moddable?
I just came across the star trek LCARs screensaver and it reminded me that some people might like custom interfaces based on whatever empire theme they're running.

It won't be moddable in the same sense as Skyrim or XCOM. It would be possible (probable) to have different background and text colours. Fonts are trickier because they aren't all the same length for the same text, which can screw up the UI (in he past I have worked on multi-lingual products and you run into a similar problem with layouts). For a commercial product, it would be possible (for example) to go through all the potential fonts and ensure the UI can cope with any of the variations. For a hobby project, it would use a lot of time that I could spend on more interesting areas.
 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2017, 06:44:29 AM »
Well. If i could make minor changes with a hex editor and some kind of raw extractor which may or may not require someone who knows what they're doing to construct ill be fine with that.
It was good enough for my quickly abandoned X-com (the original) Stargate mod project.
At least the pistols looked different :/
" Why is this godforsaken hellhole worth dying for? "
". . .  We know nothing about them, their language, their history or what they look like.  But we can assume this.  They stand for everything we don't stand for.  Also they told me you guys look like dorks. "
"Stop exploding, you cowards.  "
 

Offline Hydrofoil (OP)

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2017, 12:41:54 PM »
It won't be moddable in the same sense as Skyrim or XCOM. It would be possible (probable) to have different background and text colours. Fonts are trickier because they aren't all the same length for the same text, which can screw up the UI (in he past I have worked on multi-lingual products and you run into a similar problem with layouts). For a commercial product, it would be possible (for example) to go through all the potential fonts and ensure the UI can cope with any of the variations. For a hobby project, it would use a lot of time that I could spend on more interesting areas.

Would it be possible to expose some of the files such as research files and maybe even the files that hold stats on different weapons, would love to be able to add in new weapons and tech?
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2017, 05:52:59 PM »
Would it be possible to expose some of the files such as research files and maybe even the files that hold stats on different weapons, would love to be able to add in new weapons and tech?

Adding new weapons and tech isn't just a case of having weapons stats in the database. There is a lot of code around different weapons and tech within the program.

Making Aurora moddable in that way isn't a high priority and would require substantial rewrites.
 

Offline obsidian_green

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2017, 08:50:22 PM »
I know ship hulls can be added in Class Design, but is there currently a way to delete unwanted hulls? And when we add hulls, do we get to select the abbreviation the game uses?

If that's not currently possible, I wouldn't mind C# Aurora giving me such modding options.
 

Offline Barkhorn

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2017, 10:52:06 PM »
...do we get to select the abbreviation the game uses?
Yes.  I've added a bunch to mine to fit the Kriegsmarine.
 

Offline serger

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2017, 01:12:17 PM »
C# Aurora will have an option to edit (not only add) hull types.
 

Offline obsidian_green

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2017, 06:34:05 PM »
C# Aurora will have an option to edit (not only add) hull types.

Looking forward to that. No way to delete unwanted hull types currently, I take it?
 

Offline serger

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2017, 11:35:02 PM »
Yep.
 

Offline Father Tim

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2017, 04:08:54 PM »
Looking forward to that. No way to delete unwanted hull types currently, I take it?

Correct.  And if you could, it would crash the game when you deleted a hull type that an NPR was using.
 

Offline ZimRathbone

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2017, 05:12:58 PM »
hmm,   perhaps a facility to HIDE hull types?  ie not remove them from the game but just not display  them.  In fact you could make this a generic thing for each racial profile. 

The problem would be identifying all the things that could legitimately be hidden, then setup a table for the program to know what items a particular race was able to see or not, then create an interface to handle changes (perhaps make hiding/unhiding an SM only function). NPRs would normally not have anything hidden, only player races.

I suspect tho that this would require major rewrites to existing interface code and will not really be pracitable even in the C# revisioning.

Slàinte,

Mike
 

Offline obsidian_green

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Re: Modding This Version Of Aurora
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2017, 06:16:11 PM »
hmm,   perhaps a facility to HIDE hull types?  ie not remove them from the game but just not display  them. 
Good idea and not really not much of a problem: the game already hides ship components when we tag them as obsolete. This could work similarly.

Correct.  And if you could, it would crash the game when you deleted a hull type that an NPR was using.
Good point, but it shouldn't be a problem prior the start of a new game. If only there was a text file I could go snip before I started. I guess there might be; I'm playing through my first game and haven't really taken a look at what I can tinker with. I considered trying to set up some themes for ship names, but since I started adding prefixes to my ships I figured it wasn't too much of a burden to just type out from ship-name lists I put together for an older space empire game.