Tuesday, April 17, 2012

New modding tool

NOTE: This is still in its very early stages



Fellow modders,



I recently started modding Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and was surprised at the lack of modding tools that are readily available to you. I am an enthusiast programmer who has programmed several other smaller modding tools.



I am in the process of creating a modding tool that will:



1. Dissect the blueprint file and dynamically lay out all the different options that you can have. (An example is here: http://www.freewebs.com/people_pound/hek.jpg (i.e. For the different CATEGORIES that you can have for a unit, there would be many different check boxes.))



2. Still in beta testing... Not sure if this will work. Allow you to directly edit .SCD files without having to extract them and re-compress them.



3. For different paths that link to other files I would have a browse box that would quickly allow you to link to new files.



4. Duplicate an existing unit/structure but with a different ID. (So you don't have to go through and manually do this.)



Please let me know all of your ideas.



The object of this modding tool is for quick more flexible modding.



-Hosdank|||Awesome if it works, though the image doesn't seem to be for FA, but i guess it's just an example.

This would make modding a lot easier, and more fun for beginners to get into, not having to start by coding etc...



Good luck in development.



GreetZ ThaPear|||Yes, that is just an example from an entire different game.



And as a general note: if anybody has any questions or ideas then please post them.|||This sounds pretty cool!

I am actually looking into modding FA (for myself for now -- since I don't have much programming experience and have never modded anything before). I'd love to give this a shot (though for now I'm still trying to learn what all the stuff in the blueprints do heh)



Quick question, would this allow you to modify muzzle speeds and projectile velocities?



Also, would this be more of a edit-a-unit tool or would it also have applications in making completely new units?|||Yes, this would allow for that.



It will allow you to modify everthing in the blueprint file and I am pretty sure those are in the buleprints.



And yes there would be a way of creating entirely new units. (I haven't quite thought that part out yet, so if you have any suggestions then please let me know.)|||Sweet! Sounds awesome :)



Unfortunately I don't have any ideas since I'm new to modding :P|||That's fine.



One more public announcement. I'm gonna want some beta testers sometime, so if you want to help, then pop me a PM or just post. I don't really care what your skill level is... But I would like at least some good modders.|||I like :)|||If you can put in a batch add attributes or categories; or apply mathematical functions to certain values across a set of files at the same time, then I will thank you forever.|||shadow, the engine can do that for you now.|||hosdank|||+1 support :D|||Yes as Exavier said essentially all you would need is notepad, but this sounds like something that would help new people get into modding without feeling like coding.



Still, as it would be nice to get even these new people accustomed to the .bp workings itself, could there be a feature where you can click some small icon next to each entry in this editor and it opens that blueprint and highlights the entry for you so you can easily learn where they go and what they do.|||Quote:|||Could somebody find all the different types of buffs for me?



Armor, regen... ect...|||You may want to think about just adding support for the buff structure rather than looking for specific buff types. After all buff types arn't technically hard coded and mods like TV add quite a few new ones.
But if you need them for reference all the buffs can be found in Buff.lua file :P|||Exavier Macbeth|||If you need some help testing it hit me up, don't do anything besides making silly mods anyway so this tool is awesome for me :D|||If you've got a version up and running, tell me, i'll test it for you.
GreetZ ThaPear|||Haha, I actually just started coding it recently, so I don't have any pics up.
HOWEVER... it is coming along very well, and I hope to have pics soon.|||hosdank|||C# visual studio does lighten the burden ALOT, although it still is a pain. :P
NOTE: Who wants beta pics? Should I bother? They're prolly' gonna be really BORING.|||This sounds pretty nifty! If you need, here is a link that contains the unit blueprint information. It doesn't have many descriptions yet, but I shall be getting to that eventually ^_^
http://supcom2.wikia.com/wiki/Unit_Blueprint|||Pretty sure he's doing this for Forged Alliance man.|||Gah, my mistake.

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