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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Design and Modding >> RE: Modding Tool

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RE: Modding Tool - 4/7/2017 9:50:53 PM

Sabranan

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The race biases form entirely depends on the entries in raceBiases.txt (or it will until 1.0.7.0 when I sort out on-load data validation for it, then it should be able to pick up on missing entries and give you some default values).

If it's loading your races, but not your race biases that would suggest that the raceBiases.txt file you're loading is missing entries for said races. If the file is missing entirely, it'll default to the DW one which would also explain this behaviour.

It would be unusual since if you were modding by simply editing txt files you would generally create new race bias entries as you built races, and if you create a new race in my tool it automatically generates new race bias entries. Could definitely technically happen though!

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RE: Modding Tool - 4/11/2017 10:39:25 PM

Shark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sabranan

The race biases form entirely depends on the entries in raceBiases.txt (or it will until 1.0.7.0 when I sort out on-load data validation for it, then it should be able to pick up on missing entries and give you some default values).

If it's loading your races, but not your race biases that would suggest that the raceBiases.txt file you're loading is missing entries for said races. If the file is missing entirely, it'll default to the DW one which would also explain this behaviour.

It would be unusual since if you were modding by simply editing txt files you would generally create new race bias entries as you built races, and if you create a new race in my tool it automatically generates new race bias entries. Could definitely technically happen though!

No missing entries for the race biases file, it was all there. Just saved under the old plain biases.txt instead of the DW:U racebiases.txt. I must have missed the filename change when I ported over the mod into the new DW:U file format.

And that does explain why my races didn't love/hate each other as much as they should have in tests. Since the theme worked as it was, it never occured to me to check to see if file names had been changed in the last expansion.

Anyway, simple fix, just renamed the file. And now the editor realizes is there and works fine.

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Post #: 302

RE: Modding Tool - 4/12/2017 5:33:07 AM

Sabranan

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Awesome, glad you've sorted that Shark7.

Version 1.0.2.0 is out now, and the tool can now do on-load data validation for the components.txt file. I've been spending a few hours testing the data validation on component values with various mods, I "think" I've got them all right now but I wouldn't be too surprised if something has slipped through. If you spot it catching anything that it shouldn't, please let me know here and I'll push a revision to fix it.

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Post #: 303

RE: Modding Tool - 4/14/2017 6:30:32 AM

Shark7

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Hmm, when editing race files and trying to add 'Disallowed Governments' I keep getting an unhandled exception. If you need the debug report, just tell me how you'd like to get it.

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Post #: 304

RE: Modding Tool - 4/14/2017 4:22:17 PM

Sabranan

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Bah, I swear I fixed that problem ages ago!

Oh well. It's sorted now, thanks for reporting that Shark7!

I've also set the lists for the disallowed governments/components (same bug was present with them) to always be visible, making it much easier to clear them by just double-clicking the entry you want gone.

Edit: Oh and for the future, you can either post on the forum or email me, I'm not bothered how people report stuff as long as they do!

As for logs, use the "Send Log File on Close?" button on the main menu. If you've ticked that box then when you exit the application it'll pop up asking if you want to include a message, stick your forum username or email address in it (so I'll know who you are) + anything else you think I'll need to know. You don't have to do anything else, as soon as you hit ok it'll send me a log file automagically.

< Message edited by Sabranan -- 4/14/2017 4:27:47 PM >

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Post #: 305

RE: Modding Tool - 4/17/2017 12:08:06 PM

Sabranan

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1.0.3.0 is up now, with the facilities.txt file being data validated on input.

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Post #: 306

RE: Modding Tool - 4/18/2017 1:58:27 PM

Sparviero

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This tool is wonderful, thank you very much!

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Post #: 307

RE: Modding Tool - 4/22/2017 4:41:58 PM

Sabranan

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Thank you Sparviero!

1.0.4.0 is now up, with the fighters.txt file being validated.

As per this thread, I've elected to make it simply warn the user if they're using luxury resources as component resource requirements. The game loads and as far as I can tell works well, but if anyone finds a good reason why this shouldn't be allowed then please let me know!

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Post #: 308

RE: Modding Tool - 4/22/2017 7:06:36 PM

Sabranan

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Skipping a version number tonight, since race families is absolutely dead easy (there's literally 3 variables). So 1.0.6.0 has both the race families and race family biases being data validated.

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Post #: 309

RE: Modding Tool - 4/30/2017 1:13:20 AM

Sabranan

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Just pushed a revision with an experimental new feature that I'm hoping will solve an issue I've been having.

Basically, I get a log report every now and then with enough info to tell me there's an error, but no message from the user and no way of contacting them if the information in the log isn't enough to diagnose the issue. So it could be a bug in the tool or it could just be something silly the user has done, but I don't know either way.

So, I've set up a means of replying to a users log report. If you've got a reply, a message box will appear as soon as the main menu appears. The message should only appear once, and generally it'll ask you for more info about whatever you've reported.

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Post #: 310

RE: Modding Tool - 5/5/2017 4:19:42 PM

Sabranan

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1.0.7.0 is up, with the tool now doing data validation on the plagues.txt file.

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Post #: 311

RE: Modding Tool - 5/6/2017 8:04:40 AM

Shark7

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Ok, new issue.

When utilizing the race information category, once you write your changes to the mod folder, the game will no longer start but instead CTD before the splash screen shows up. Probably a syntax error in the race text file when its written, as reverting to a backup of just the race file that was changed fixes the CTD issue.

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Post #: 312

RE: Modding Tool - 5/6/2017 3:07:45 PM

Sabranan

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I've just edited a race and it works for me (incidentally, if you output races it recreates all the race files, not just the changed ones). What exactly did you change? If you have a copy of a race file that's causing it to crash that'd be helpful too.

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Post #: 313

RE: Modding Tool - 5/7/2017 8:59:24 AM

Shark7

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OK, finally got smart about it and changed the theme back to default when I got it working again, then made the changes and loaded game. Got to the main menu and when I hit change theme, it crashed and this time generated a bug report. Turns out, there was a syntax error in line 118 of just one of the race files. It had a comma where it should have had a period.

Now, my original hand built file had this error, so it was on my end. However, why my original file with the error in it would work, but the editor generated file with it wouldn't is beyond my comprehension. Also, it is now clear to me that the editor can't fix my pre-existing errors.

Either way, it appears to be working now, just like it was before. Though it should have been crashing before and wasn't. Strange.

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Post #: 314

RE: Modding Tool - 5/7/2017 9:21:14 PM

Sabranan

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Ah ok, that would certainly cause it yeah.

It's true that the editor can't fix pre-existing issues with the race files... Yet.

Expect that to be introduced with on-load data validation for races in 1.0.11.0 (1.0.7.0 is the current release), with race biases following in 1.0.12.0.

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Post #: 315

RE: Modding Tool - 5/8/2017 5:58:39 AM

Shark7

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The ability to validate the old files will be a very welcome addition.

I am still astonished that the game would even work at all with that old file and its error in it, when the new one wouldn't. Validation would have caught that for me, because I obviously didn't and with it working without any apparent problems, likely never would have.

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Post #: 316

RE: Modding Tool - 5/9/2017 12:36:30 AM

Sabranan

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Well yeah it... Shouldn't? Out of interest, what was the actual variable you had the period in?

In other news, I've just published 1.0.8.0 which does the resources.txt file, I learned something new about the game while working on that. Turns out there's more than one asteroid type, so I've made a few data validation corrections to the resource form too. It'll now enforce choosing correct sub-types depending on what you've set the type to for resource locations.

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Post #: 317

RE: Modding Tool - 5/9/2017 3:22:34 AM

Sabranan

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1.0.10.0 is now out (yep, skipped a version again) which has the governments.txt and governmentBiases.txt files being checked. Since I used the same code method for all 3 of the bias files it's just a copy and paste job to check them. It's also got a bit of improved code for both the biases files that are done so far, it'll find any bias entry that doesn't match a race family/government name and flag it in the input log as an error.

It also has a little addition to the Character form, now it'll prevent you from accidentally setting character traits to be the same, as well as prevent "opposite" traits from being set on the same character.

Next up will be races, but that is a bit of a bigger job due to the 137 different variables!

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Post #: 318

RE: Modding Tool - 5/10/2017 8:19:28 AM

Sabranan

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1.0.12.0 is done, with the raceBiases.txt and races folder being validated. I'm loving this particular release because before, going through the races of a mod in the tool would inevitably lead to a crash sooner or later. Generally this was caused by incorrect victory condition data being set. Now this along with everything else gets fixed before the race form opens, which makes it much nicer to use.

Got Policies, Design Templates and Characters left to do (Dialogues won't benefit from this, the only things that can be wrong with a Dialogue file are already accounted for) and that'll be that.

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Post #: 319

RE: Modding Tool - 5/11/2017 1:59:58 AM

Overlord015

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Just wanted to thank you for making this. Using this to work on my personal mod, incredibly useful. Kinda hoping that this and Bacon's mod can give this game's modding scene a second-wind, its been rather dull around here for some time (been lurking about for the longest time). Lets hope that DW2 is even more open than Universe when it comes out.

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RE: Modding Tool - 5/12/2017 1:33:36 AM

Unforeseen

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I feel like I'm doing something wrong. I'm getting this error when I try to run setup.exe...

* Activation of C:\Users\Kek\Downloads\2E9327D20DA34CE597FC6FEB669107CC\Distant Worlds Mod Editor.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
+ The deployment identity at the deployment provider is not the same as the original deployment identity.

Edit: Nvm. Apparently I wasn't supposed to extract the files from the archive.

< Message edited by Unforeseen -- 5/12/2017 1:39:05 AM >

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RE: Modding Tool - 5/12/2017 4:54:35 AM

Sabranan

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I think some zip utilities (WinZip at least) automatically extract the files to a temp folder if you run a setup.exe file in an archive, but the files definitely need extracting!

When I release 1.1.0.0 I'll update the setup.zip with a readme.txt file, should probably have done that at some point before now...

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RE: Modding Tool - 5/12/2017 7:45:27 AM

Unforeseen

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It was just weird, it gave me that error message right up until I ran the file directly from the archive rather than manually extracting. This is really nice btw, makes things ALOT easier. So thanks!

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Post #: 323

RE: Modding Tool - 5/14/2017 9:27:55 AM

Clogs

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This tool is amazing. Really nice looking interface for a windows form application.

Small feature request, could you add a picture of a ship from the ship family that the race uses when viewing a race?

< Message edited by Clogs -- 5/14/2017 9:30:30 AM >

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RE: Modding Tool - 5/16/2017 2:53:47 AM

Shark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Sabranan

Well yeah it... Shouldn't? Out of interest, what was the actual variable you had the period in?

In other news, I've just published 1.0.8.0 which does the resources.txt file, I learned something new about the game while working on that. Turns out there's more than one asteroid type, so I've made a few data validation corrections to the resource form too. It'll now enforce choosing correct sub-types depending on what you've set the type to for resource locations.

This line right here, copy/pasted from an old backup file:

ResearchColonizationCostFactorOcean ;3,8

obviously that should have been a 3.8, and it should have crashed the game but didn't.

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RE: Modding Tool - 5/16/2017 10:50:39 PM

Capshades

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Got express permission to redo the WH40K mod if you want, also have the latest version if you need it (v13).

Might need to be remerged with the OEM graphics mod though

< Message edited by Capshades -- 5/17/2017 11:06:05 PM >

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Post #: 326

RE: Modding Tool - 5/30/2017 10:36:32 AM

Kothyxaan

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Found this by chance. Nice work Sabranan. I will try this when I am home :)

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Post #: 327

RE: Modding Tool - 6/9/2017 10:08:27 PM

rjord2021

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From: Sydney, Australia
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There is a minor bug when generating the races files in the races folder.

I have 114 races and this bug is not happening in all 114 files created by the tool.
Only 9 of the 114 files actually had this bug.

What is happening is that the original file is read, a new file is created and the last 6 lines of the new file do not have any values added at the end of each line.

See below
On the right is the original file, on the left is the newly created file missing values for last 6 lines starting with Freetradeincomefactor.

As stated, only happened 9 times in the 114 total files but always the same 6 lines being created without values

This bug will prevent Distant Worlds Universe from switching to the theme with these files missing the values for these 6 lines.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by rjord1 -- 6/9/2017 10:10:56 PM >

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Post #: 328

RE: Modding Tool - 6/10/2017 7:15:15 PM

Sabranan

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Hi rjord1,

I haven't been able to reproduce this issue using my race files, so can you upload or PM me a race file that causes this (assuming it's the same files each time)?

Might also be worth sending me a log report (option on the main menu) after outputting files where this error occurs so I can see if it's data validation screwing up somewhere.

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Post #: 329

RE: Modding Tool - 6/11/2017 5:22:42 AM

rjord2021

Posts: 1992
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From: Sydney, Australia
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I will do that next time I see it........

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by rjord1 -- 6/11/2017 6:21:23 AM >

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Post #: 330