Questions here: an inquiry thread! [Updated Sep 15th, 2014]

[mr_easy_money]

I'm that dude in the middle of translating Arsenal+, but I was wondering why there are spaces missing from things that have spaces in the misc.xml file.

for example:
purchase comes with a freedefense drone (no space)
(when you look at levels of your system) level1 (no space)

so I was wondering how come this is happening? I copied all the stuff from the vanilla misc.xml folder and replaced all the Russian translation of vanilla stuff with vanilla stuff with all the spaces and stuff and tried adding more spaces but that didn't fix it either.

an idea occurred to me while writing this: make the misc.xml file into misc.xml.append and keep only the weapon tips that are new (since it is append, it should keep all the existing stuff from vanilla and add on these other weapon tips), but I'm not sure if that is going to fix it...

EDIT: I tried that and it didn't work. so... maybe it's a font issue or something? maybe something wrong with the misc file (again?). I don't know... too tired to think straight...

EDIT 2: can't be a font issue (as in fonts in the resource folder, as the base Russian mod (untouched) has its stuff right? is this a common issue, feel like I've seen it before. so then, what is the problem? maybe this time I'll try without the misc file? I don't know anymore

EDIT 3: getting rid of the misc file seems to have worked. what was wrong with it in the first place? I had spaces in front of "comes with a free" as well as "level"

LAST EDIT: so that's what the rawappend/rawclobber file type is useful for. I followed the way CE did it (rawappend) and remembered how the base Arsenal+ all Russian thing did it and it had rawclobber. so now that this ordeal is over I ask the question (and maybe this should more appropriately be placed as a reply to SMM):

What does SMM do when given.xml.rawappend or .xml.rawclobber? How did making the misc.xml file end in this file extension fix the issues described herein?

I also noticed that Arsenal+ used rawclobber for every non-ship .xml file in its /data/ folder. If using rawappend/rawclobber is the right thing to do for the misc.xml file, should I use rawclobber/rawappend for other files too? Why?

[meklozz]

I don't really know the exact details, but, basically, there is a structure to normal xml files, and slipstream follows that. Part of that is not having spaces at the beginning/end of a tag. It will normally check and 'fix' (rebuild) the whole file if you do anything at all with it. So rawclobber/append just replaces/appends the file completely as-is.

As for the other ones, there may be something in the russian version of files that needs it? You should try patching a file like that, then opening data.dat, copying the relevant bit and using an online comparison tool to check. That may not be enough, I guess (other changes, you could unpack the data and try other stuff), but it's a start. And since you're translating it anyway, there shouldn't be any difference from how they are usually handled around here.

You could also ask the creator, of course.

[bamalf]

Also there are spaces in beginning <powerList> tags in blueprints.xml. I just did all extensions *.rawclobber for easy sorting by file type

[Jimli_]

Have you checked dlcblueprints.xml.append (or created one) because that might also be your issue.

For example, this is Mind Control.

Code: Select all

<systemBlueprint name="mind">
   <type>mind</type>
   <title>Mind Control</title>
   <desc>Temporarily turn enemies into allies.</desc>
   <startPower>1</startPower>
   <maxPower>3</maxPower>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <upgradeCost>
      <level>30</level> <!-- level 2 -->
      <level>60</level> <!-- level 3 -->
   </upgradeCost>
   <cost>75</cost>
   <locked>1</locked>
</systemBlueprint>

The <rarity></rarity> tags need to be at 0.

As for blueprints.xml.append, let's say you want to get rid of Drone Control because it's a smug asshole who pops up when no one wants it around...

Code: Select all

<systemBlueprint name="drones">
   <type>drones</type>
   <title>Drone Control</title>
   <desc>Powers all of the ship's drones. Drones are automated robots that perform tasks like attacking enemy ships or repairing systems.</desc>
   <startPower>2</startPower>
   <maxPower>8</maxPower>
   <rarity>0</rarity>
   <upgradeCost>
      <level>10</level>
      <!-- level 2 -->
      <level>20</level>
      <!-- level 3 -->
      <level>30</level>
      <!-- level 4 -->
      <level>45</level>
      <!-- level 5 -->
      <level>60</level>
      <!-- level 6 -->
      <level>80</level>
      <!-- level 7 -->
      <level>100</level>
      <!-- level 8 -->
      <level>120</level>
      <!-- Imaginary level 9 -->
   </upgradeCost>
   <cost>60</cost>
</systemBlueprint>

A rarity of 0 should shut it up and tell it to stay away from stores.

Thanks, I did that with the drone control earlier but it didn't seem to work. I'll try copy and pasting this into the blueprints file, as well as moving mind control and such into the dlcblueprints file.

EDIT: For whatever reason changing the value to 0 doesn't do anything, but changing the cost of the item works. Any ideas?

[fdagpigj]

EDIT: For whatever reason changing the value to 0 doesn't do anything, but changing the cost of the item works. Any ideas?

For drone control or also mind control? Drone control might be hardcoded to have a 2/3 chance of showing up, similarly to how shields have a 100% chance.

[Biohazard063]

For drone control or also mind control? Drone control might be hardcoded to have a 2/3 chance of showing up, similarly to how shields have a 100% chance.

Yeah, there is definitely something odd about drone control as well. I used it as reference when I did the shields experiment and despite 6 systems besides shields still being available, drone control showed up 66/100 (66%) system selling stores. That's a bit far of the average of 10/35 (28,57%) if it were indeed to be random. So it's pretty reasonable for it to be hardcoded as well.

[Auron1]

I'd have a question.
I apologize if it was asked before but when I tried to search for it, the result was "no words recognized, yours are too common".

Well, I just wanted to know if it would be possible to have 2 weapons systems or 2 drones systems on a single ship. Thanks

[elijahdb]

Nope. Can't be done.

However, you can have two Artillery systems on one ship. NarnKar's ASB artillery ship is a great example. Sadly, having two Artillery systems is glitchy... I don't know the exact details.

[Auron1]

However, you can have two Artillery systems on one ship. NarnKar's ASB artillery ship is a great example. Sadly, having two Artillery systems is glitchy... I don't know the exact details.

So having a Rebel-cruiser like ship with multiple single weapons is a no-go? Oh...

[GianTell]

Can we control the firing animation time..? Seems it has a fixed length of how long it will be played, no matter the number of frames