RELEASED Hull Plating Blocks & More 35.0 (Concrete Tileset)

Thanks for the help Unfortunately it hasnt solved my problem, it seems almost arbitrary what I can make work. I got the Valve tool up and running, and a tool for adding literal junk. But any trim tool I makes gets spawned in, icons and all, then just stops when you try to place anything. Not CTD stop, just freezes the position until you change tools.

Here is my junkytool, that works.

{
"itemName" : "junkytool",
"description" : "Adds trim tubing to blocks. Doesn't work on tumbling blocks or platforms.",
"shortdescription" : "^orange;Junky Trim Tool^white;",

"inventoryIcon" : "junkytoolicon.png",
"largeImage" : "junkytoolbig.png",
"animation" : "/items/tools/trim/trimtool.animation",
"animationParts" : {
"trimtool" : "junkytool.png"
},

"scripts" : [ "/items/tools/trim/activetrimtool.lua" ],
"seed" : "junkytool",
"toolSound" : "drill",

"price" : 0,
"maxStack" : 1,
"rarity" : "uncommon",
"tooltipKind" : "tool",
"twoHanded" : true,

"stances" : {
"idle" : {
"armRotation" : 0,
"weaponRotation" : 0,
"allowRotate" : true,
"allowFlip" : true
}
}
}

And here is my Bloodtube, that doesnt.

{
"itemName" : "bloodtubetrim",
"description" : "Adds trim tubing to blocks. Doesn't work on tumbling blocks or platforms.",
"shortdescription" : "^orange;Bloodtube Trim Tool^white;",

"inventoryIcon" : "bloodtubeicon.png",
"largeImage" : "bloodtubetoolbig.png",
"animation" : "/items/tools/trim/trimtool.animation",
"animationParts" : {
"trimtool" : "bloodtubetool.png"
},

"scripts" : [ "/items/tools/trim/activetrimtool.lua" ],
"seed" : "bloodtube",
"toolSound" : "atom",

"price" : 0,
"maxStack" : 1,
"rarity" : "uncommon",
"tooltipKind" : "tool",
"twoHanded" : true,

"stances" : {
"idle" : {
"armRotation" : 0,
"weaponRotation" : 0,
"allowRotate" : true,
"allowFlip" : true
}
}
}

Been busy with experimental stuff this week, and trying to organize before a basic mod release. Trying to get some stuff that would work with your mod done too.
Got some dark copper and foundry based stuff. Would the dark copper be closer too the bronze you where thinking about?




Will keep trying to get the tools to work, but not necessary for the mod release, so no stress.

 

Lemme repeat this back, to make sure I understand. Your tool that's failing to function works right up until you click to actually use it, right? Then the tool stops rotating as you move the mouse cursor?

That's exactly the behavior that happens when the Lua script crashes/throws an exception (I may be thinking in Java-centric terms here; that's the language I normally program in). This may indicate that the material modifier file for the modifier it's trying to place isn't quite right in some fashion. Have you looked at your Starbound log file after this kind of thing happens? I'm sure it will illuminate the issue somewhat.

Hrm. Your dark copper is nice looking. Not quite what I was thinking for the bronze, however. I've got some bronze plating worked up for the project I'm working on, if you want an example of the color scheme (for new bronze; I was going to do something different for old/antique bronze):

Like I've said before, I'm working at a much higher resolution now, with a different block template. That image is a very heavy modification of one of the tiles from this: http://opengameart.org/content/techno-bricks

The license is CC-BY-SA 3.0. To satisfy the attribution clause, my name is Richard Owen Lewis (currently the project is unreleased, so I've got no URL to go with, just yet). I'm being more specific with the licensing for this new project, since my artwork is not based on Starbound assets. I didn't feel comfortable slapping the Creative Commons license on artwork derived from Starbound assets, so I didn't. But this is different... If all you're going to do is sample colors, however, there's no need to worry about the license. As I understand it, no one can copyright a color palette.

 

I recently discovered this mod, and was horrified to find that your abandoning it. I'm not upset that you are, I'm a little sad, but I"m more fustraited at the... "people" who are to lazy to search in their crafting stations to look for a block, and insistantly DEMAND you make a table... What I have to say to them is "Learn to mod, I hear starbound makes it painfully simple. Make your own texture for a table, minimally code the GUI (IE: take hints from the default one), and add all the recipes into it form this mod, and make it an add on... you lazy" but yea... from what Ive seen it looks like NorthernFreeze is taking over, and I can't wait to see what he does.

I don't know how mod pages work here on the starbound modpages, will he be able to directly take over, or would he have to make a new thread? If he does make a new thread, do you, Simulatoralive, plan to link to his page so people who look up this mod can find the new thread if one needs to be made?

And finally, this mod is absolutely perfect to go with the Super Magical Island Mod since the FCS mod isn't updated (but a friend told me it still works? either way i'm playing it balanced and safe ). Thanks for all the time you have put into this mod so far Simulator... I hope you find something that makes you want to mod again, and hopefully people arn't winy...... anyway... Hopefully you don't completely give up modding... it would be a terrible loss to loose someone as creative as you!

P.S. is there any tutorials for adding something like a block? and I don't know if you would know... but... what about tutorials for new crafting stations (well isn't that a somewhat awkward question ).

 

There's no way to hand off admin-ship of a mod to another user, so we'll have to do that the same way I did with my Ship Yard mod. Basically, the guy that continued it posted a new mod and I linked to it on the mod's main page. I believe SivCorp was planning to update this mod when Starbound 1.0 releases, to make it compatible again. NorthernFreeze seems intent on making new stuff. If the two were to work together...but that isn't up to me.

There is no hope of getting me to mod Starbound again. You may see me cough up some new art from time to time, but what if anything is done with it in Starbound is not my problem or concern. Frankly, between this forum, the poisonous behavior of the Starbound devs (we reap what we sow: this forum is a reflection of them), their lack of caring about forum maintenance and the limitations of Starbound itself, I don't want to mod for it anymore. When there's some kind of real (official) support for modding Terraria or a Terraria spin-off, I will likely mod that, because I freakin' love that game and it's forums are far more pleasant to read. The only reasons I'm still hanging around here at all is to offer advice and possibly some minor help in getting a next-gen Hull Plating mod going.

I'm currently working on an (unreleased, open-source) block-based game of my own, which is what the bronze tile I posted earlier is from. It already displays blocks with Starbound-style overlapping edges, along with my equivalent to material modifiers. If all goes according to plan this weekend, I should see tumbling blocks tumbling and maybe I'll get started on flowing liquids.

As for modding tutorials, I'd look here: http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/modding-guides.34001/

I would NOT take my instant mail catalog as a good example. I did some freaky stuff with it, because I wanted it to be more like a store than a crafting station.

Amusing you should mention the Super Magic Custom Island. This mod was designed to complement it... My Ship Yard mod was derived from it, as well.

 

That's a shame that you won't be coming back... I've only recently started playing Starbound again myself because I was like "eh... why the ... not! Its bee a while" plus I'm using my new lapttop which runs the game a million times better (when not near large dungeons or specific areas for some reason I know not why....). I've also made it so my laptop DOES use my Nvidia graphics card... last time I was just using the built int gpu on my Processor and was lucky to get 20fps at 4x zoom... and the loading time for the world was horrendus... but now everything is much nicer! I havent been following the game much in that time so I'm unaware of... things that have been going on apparently... All I know is that I still preffer Koala over Giraffe... some of the features I was used to are now gone, and some are even removed!

Although one thing I will say, is that the wiki is... fustrating as all hell... Its updated for the current Nightly build, while some players are still on Stable, but most probably are playing with the newer features... It makes it IMPOSSIBLE for players on Stable to look up ANYTHING anymore... it kinda pisses me off... I wish they had different versions of the wiki... rather than just keeping the most current version only... kinda a dumb decision in my opinion...

Anyway, Thanks for helping me out, I wish you luck in your game (you've also got my intrest, I would like to see more details if you have them available!). And here's to a Mod API for Terraria (I have it, it is fun... I just don't like that you HAVE to fight monsters and do a bunch of stuff to get anything good... not to mention its not very friendly to players who like to take a slow, somewhat relaxed take on the game... I'm sure there's a mod or something that allows for more casual gameplay... but otherwise I find it to dificult...)

 

If you really are interested: https://plus.google.com/111654265718969346498

That's a link to my Google+ profile. I've been (and will be) making posts there for my current projects. There's one screenshot from the game engine, along with some of the source images, a shell script wrapper to launch it under Linux, updates related to my data storage library, etc. I'm finding it a useful alternative to a blog.

As for a relaxed pace in Terraria...um...I spent over 1200 hours on my first character. I'm not sure you can get any more relaxed than that. Of course, some percentage of that was while I was actually asleep and running some mechanisms to collect materials in an automated fashion, mostly from activated statues.

Yeah, Terraria has more than a few modding APIs, but none of them are officially supported and Terraria is really at the limits of what it can do. They've already maxed out the number of background tiles the game can handle.

Starbound's wiki is definitely not a good approach to working on a wiki. I never found it to be a useful thing, to be honest. Everything in it is either too old or otherwise screwed up in some fashion.

 

That looks great! I am really interested in following your project going forward.

If you want me to, I will work the schema for the bronze into tiles, do you want me to use the darkcopper base or one for the original Hullplating bases? Both? For antique bronze, where you thinking verdigris or buffed? Both? (Green statues or dark polished busts)

For the LUA error, you where right, found this in the log file:

[11:44:44.064] Error: Exception while invoking lua function 'update'. (LuaException) Error code 2, [string "/items/tools/trim/activetrimtool.lua"]:40: (StarException) Unknown mod name argentenergytube

Looking at the LUA file now, but I am really not familiar with programming of any kind. The ArgentEnergyTube is in the game though, under that material and item name. Rework of a gemspark trim.

This is the tube:

@Drakoflame I am off to do some stuff now, but I will see if I can make a quick armatures guide to how to add blocks, but crafting recepices and craftingtables are my next headache. Will have a quick show on this post later today hopefully, but most likely tomorrow.

For some good info though, suggest starting here:
http://community.playstarbound.com/resources/unofficial-modding-ebook.2930/

 

You don't have to do anything with my bronze tile. I was just trying to satisfy your curiosity, since you asked a question about what I'd planned for the bronze tileset. Feel free to use it or not, whichever you like.

According to that error message, there's got to be something wrong with your material modifier's file. The problem shouldn't be in the script, which has been pretty thoroughly tested by this point. I'd say look very closely at your modifier's file; it's easy to make very, very subtle mistakes that read into Starbound correctly, but don't actually work as expected.

The relevant line in the script is this one:

Code:

world.placeMod(position,"background",self.seed,0,false)

All it does is place a material modifier on a background block.

When Starbound tries to place a bad modifier via that script, it'll throw out an error just like that, because a bad file CAN result in Starboand acting as though there was no material modifier.

Edit: For the antique bronze I was thinking a much darker color, like some of the bathroom garbage cans and toothbrush holders I see in the store I work in. They're very nearly black, but they still have a kind of semi-golden look to them due to sparkly flecks. I'd go somewhat lighter, because everything looks a bit darker, once you factor in lighting conditions.

 

Well, now I feel slightly stupid... I didnt know there was a material modifier file. So that problem is solved.
Thank you for the quick response, I can really say that I would never have worked that out myself

Here the Bloodtubes pump through this frozen station.


I will keep on plugging, the bronze question was more if you would object if I made a new block to compliment your mod. I was thinking about making a bronze tile have another yellow-green metal, and make the brass colder, bronze warmer in tone. I think my production will narrow down a bit, so I can get a "full" set of tiles for making stuff ready for a mod, recipes and all, but metals are relatively easy to make.
After getting a base mod out, then expansion of the mod would bring in new sets, like you did. I remember checking every day for updates, so I could have new toys to play with

 

Yeah, material modifiers are a very poorly documented feature that the Starbound devs never seem to have thought of as being for anything other than grass-like stuff and ore. According to Zoomah, they used to be quite buggy and somewhat hard-coded for such purposes. They work much more generally now.

Far as I know, my mod was the first to use artificial modifiers as a decorative flourish. It gives a cool build that extra something. Seems to be something that caught a lot of attention when I added that feature. I still love the way the spray paint turned out. I just wish I'd gotten the multi-tools finished, which would have combined similar tools (trim, gems, etc.) into one item. Oh well, perhaps someone else can finish that script I posted a discussion page or so ago. It was almost done.

 

@Drakoflame Here is a quick tutorial, from a dummies perspective. I might have gotten some things wrong, and quite a bit of spellingerrors, but I hope you might get some use out of it.

First off, this only makes you able to add and change blocks in the game, not craft them or making objects. Or making a mod. Just adding tiles, via another mod. These block can only be produced by admin command. Enter chat in singelplayer, type /admin. Then type /spawnitem BLOCKNAME AMOUNT so /spawnitem smileyblock 100 give you 100 Smileyblocks



To start with you will need two programs:



Txt editor, to change the function of the files. I use Notepad++ which is free. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ You can do it in Notpad txt that comes with most OS systems, but it is much easier to do it with a proper program.



Second you will need a graphical program. This will change the actual tiles. I use Gimp, which is also free. https://www.gimp.org/downloads/



You will also need access to the assets of the game, if you dont intend to mod... mods? I am doing a bit of both. Heres the resources for Starbound, and a good tutorial for it. http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/how-to-successfully-pack-and-unpack-pak-files.66649/



Get your OS version off all programs, and lets get cracking!



Now for the first example, I used a block you need to unpack form the main game, the goldblock tile.



First you need to find the two components, the tile and the item. One is in the world, one in your inventory. You will need both.



Make a new folder, call it Smiley (dont worry.) and make two sub folder sets:

Smiley/tiles/materials

Smiley/items/materials



This can be wherever, this is not a mod, just the workspace for the mods. Here we keep the files we are working at, so you can remove files from the mods if they cause problems, and have an original file in backup. You do you though, do whatever suits your work style, but this simple tutorial will assume you do this.



The tile is in your unpackedassets folder in your Starbound folder.

So go in Steam, go to your library, alt click on starbound, select properties then local files on the popup. Then select Browse local files. (I assume you know this, because you have modded the game, but you never know who will read this later.)



In the unpackedassets folder, right in the game folder for me, you need to go:



unpackedassets/tiles/materials

To get the .material file and its texture file. In this case goldblock.material and goldblock.png.

Copy these to:

Smiley/tiles/materials



Then we need the item files:

unpackedassets/items/materials



Copy the goldblock.matitem and the goldblock.png files into:

Smiley/items/materials



Now, I would suggest opening four folders.

Smiley/tiles/materials

Smiley/items/materials



and a mod that has extra blocks, like Hullblockmod! Find its corresponding

/tiles/materials

/items/materials



of the mod, so we have a open structure to test the files in going forward. Or just make the modstructure yourself, but I havent gotten to that yet myself.



Now lets look at the .material file for the goldblock:

{
"materialId" : 33,
"materialName" : "goldblock",
"particleColor" : [227, 174, 47, 255],
"itemDrop" : "goldblock",
"description" : "A whole block of solid gold.",
"shortdescription" : "Gold Block",
"glitchDescription" : "Statement. A golden block.",
"floranDescription" : "Ssshiny gold.",
"footstepSound" : "/sfx/blocks/footstep_composite.ogg",
"health" : 6,
"category": "materials",

"renderTemplate" : "/tiles/classicmaterialtemplate.config",
"renderParameters" : {
"texture" : "goldblock.png",
"variants" : 1,
"lightTransparent" : false,
"occludesBelow" : true,
"multiColored" : false,
"zLevel" : 3000
}
}

This is pulled directly from the Notepad++ text format, but you can NOT copy it back. It has something to do with programming languages and text pharsing, not a problem with Notepad++ or any other program. Dunno, but it wont work, type it out instead. But you can copy from two files in the Notepad++.



So I change up the file abit, to make it into a Smiley block! Most important are:

materialId

materialName

itemDrop

texture

{
"materialId" : 13033,
"materialName" : "smileyblock",
"particleColor" : [227, 174, 47, 255],
"itemDrop" : "smileyblock",
"description" : "A whole block of solid smiles.",
"shortdescription" : "A Smiling Block",
"glitchDescription" : "Statement. A happy block.",
"floranDescription" : "Sssmiley block.",
"footstepSound" : "/sfx/blocks/footstep_composite.ogg",
"health" : 6,
"category": "materials",

"renderTemplate" : "/tiles/classicmaterialtemplate.config",
"renderParameters" : {
"texture" : "smileyblock.png",
"variants" : 5,
"lightTransparent" : false,
"occludesBelow" : true,
"multiColored" : false,
"zLevel" : 3000
}
}

Here is what changed, and what stuff does. I suggest looking up what you are most concerned about at the time because it is a wall of text.:

{
"materialId" : 13033,

(CHANGED THIS, IT IS NOW NOT IT CONFLICT WITH ANY BLOCK IN THE GAME. EVERY BLOCK HAS A SPERATE ID AND NAME. OF THEY OVERLAP ITS CRASH TIME)
"materialName" : "smileyblock",

(SAME CONCEPT, BUT THIS IS ALSO WHAT THE BLOCK IS CALLED IN GAME, SO IF YOU WANT TO SPAWN IT TYPE THIS.)
"particleColor" : [227, 174, 47, 255],

(WHAT COMES OF THE BLOCK WHEN YOU HIT IT, THIS CASE YELLOWISH GOLD. MOST STARBOUND SYSTEMS USE RGB SCHEMA, SO I AM NOT SURE WHAT THE 4 NUMBER IS, MIGHT BE LIGHT.)
"itemDrop" : "smileyblock",

(IF YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT. NOW YOU GET A SMILEY BLOCK BACK FOR EVERYONE YOU BREAK.)
"description" : "A whole block of solid smiles.",
"shortdescription" : "A Smiling Block",
"glitchDescription" : "Statement. A happy block.",
"floranDescription" : "Sssmiley block.",

(I CHANGED THE DESCRIPTIONS, MOSTLY FOR FUN, THIS SHOWS UP IN YOUR INVENTORY, AND WHEN YOU EXAMINE THE BLOCK INGAME)
"footstepSound" : "/sfx/blocks/footstep_composite.ogg",

(THE SOUND IT MAKES WHEN YOU INTERACT WITH IT, THIS IS IN THE ASSETS FOLDER ASWELL, NO CHANGE HERE FOR ME)
"health" : 6,

(DAMMAGE BEFORE BREAKING.)
"category": "materials",
(DESCRIBES ITS PLACE IN THE GAME, NOT RELEVANT NOW, BUT PLATFORMS FOR EXAMPLE, HAS A DIFFERENT CATEGORY)


"renderTemplate" : "/tiles/classicmaterialtemplate.config",

(HOW IT IS PLACED INTO THE WORLD, IN THIS CASE, ONE BLOCK AT THE TIME. HULLBLOCKMOD USES THE PIPETEMPLATE TO EXPAND EACH TILE TYPE FOR EXAMPLE, AND PLATFORMS ARE DIFFERENT, LOOK AROUND AND LEARN.)
"renderParameters" : {

(EVERYTHING BELOW HERE AFFECTS HOW THE BLOCK IS RENDERED IN THE GAME.)
"texture" : "smileyblock.png",

(THIS IS THE ACTUAL “TEXTURE” OF THE BLOCK, IT DETERMINES WHAT YOU WILL SEE, AND IS PART WHERE YOU ACTUALLY CHANGE THE APPEARANCE OF THE BLOCK.)
"variants" : 5,

(HOW MANY DIFFERENT APPEARANCES DO YOU RENDER PER BLOCK. THIS SHOWS HOW MANY VARIANTS YOU WANT THE GAME TO LOOK FOR AND RENDER. IN THIS CASE THERE WILL BE FIVE DIFFERENT BLOCKS, THE ORIGINAL ONLY HAD 1)
"lightTransparent" : false,

(DOES LIGHT SHINE THROUGH IT, LIKE GLASS OR PLATFORMS. IN THIS CASE NO, SO ITS FALSE.)
"occludesBelow" : true,

(DOES IT BLOCK OUT WHAT IS BELOW? IF PLACED IN THE FOREGROUND WHERE YOU CAN WALK ON IT, IT DOES NOT ALLOW THE BLOCK BELOW TO BE RENDERED. IN THIS CASE THE BLOCK COVERS THE TOTAL SIZE OF ONE GAME BLOCK 8X8, SO IT IS NOT RELEVANT, BUT IF YOU MAKE GLASS OR BLOCKS THAT ARE LESS THAN 8X8, THIS WILL STOP THE BACKGROUND MATERIAL FROM SHOWING THROUGH IF SET TOO TRUE. SO FOR GLASS AND WINDOWS, SET IT TO FALSE FOR EXAMPLE)
"multiColored" : false,

(CAN IT BE PAINTED, IN THIS CASE NO, SO FALSE. IF YOU WANT IT TO BE PAINTABLE, SET IT TO TRUE, BUT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE IMAGE SET UP FOR IT. OR YOU WILL GET NONSENCE GLITCHES ON SCREEN )
"zLevel" : 3000

(HOW “HIGH UP” THE BLOCK IS. THE LOWER, THE FARTHER DOWN IT WILL BE COMPARED TO THE BLOCKS AROUND IT. SO A LEVEL 1 BLOCK IS BELOW A LEVEL 2 BLOCK. IT WILL BE RECESSED INTO THE WALL OF LEVEL 2 BLOCK IF THE LEVEL 2 BLOCK HAS AN OVERLAPPING TEXTURE)
}
}

Whoa, that was messy.



Now lets look at the .matitem for the goldblock. The most important parts are:

ItemName

inventoryIcon

materialId

{
"itemName" : "goldblock",
"price" : 10,
"rarity" : "Common",
"inventoryIcon" : "goldblock.png",
"description" : "A whole block of solid gold.",
"shortdescription" : "Gold Block",
"glitchdescription" : "Statement. A golden block.",
"florandescription" : "Ssshiny gold.",

"materialId" : 33
}

Here is the changed Smilyblock:

{
"itemName" : "smileyblock",
"price" : 10,
"rarity" : "Common",
"inventoryIcon" : "smileyblock.png",
"description" : "A whole block of solid smiles.",
"shortdescription" : "A Smiling Block",
"glitchDescription" : "Statement. A happy block.",
"floranDescription" : "Sssmiley block.",

"materialId" : 13033
}

Here is what I did:

{
"itemName" : "smileyblock",

(SAME NAME AS THE MATERIALNAME)
"price" : 10,

(WHAT IT IS WORTH, NOT SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT. PRINT, CRAFT OR SALE RELATED)
"rarity" : "Common",

(AGAIN, NOT SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT, IT AFFECTS ICON BORDER COLOR AND MAYBE DROPRATE?)
"inventoryIcon" : "smileyblock.png",

(WHAT APPEARS IN YOUR INVENTORY AND HANDLING, THIS HAS THE SAME NAME AS THE MATERIAL BLOCK, BUT IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT MIXING THEM UP, CHANGE IT TO SMILEYBLOCKICON.PNG, AND THE FILENAME TO THE SAME OFCOURSE. THE ADVANTAGE OF TWO DIFFERENT FOLDERS IS IN HANDLING THIS, AND MIRRORING THE STRUCTURE OF THE GAME FOLDERS.)
"description" : "A whole block of solid smiles.",
"shortdescription" : "A Smiling Block",
"glitchDescription" : "Statement. A happy block.",
"floranDescription" : "Sssmiley block.",

(AGIAN, DESCRIPTIONS. UNLESS YOU CHANGE THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHARSING, COMMAS AND WHATNOT, YOU CANT REALLY SCREW THIS UP UNLESS IF YOU ONLY CHANGE THE FLAVOR TEXT)
"materialId" : 13033

(THIS HAS TO BE THE SAME AS THE .MATERIALFILE AND NO OTHER TILE.)
}

Now we got the paper work out of the way! Lets get cracking on the block.

I am using Gimp for these examples.



Now I have changed the name of the .material and the .png file so I alt click it and edit it with Gimp.

http://imgur.com/sRB6tdF][/url]



Here is what it looks like on my screen.

http://imgur.com/h44NZSt][/url]



The grey and white blocks represent transparent backgrounds, IE: nothing, it will not show up ingame. The borders on the top represent what will show up when the block is not in contact with anyting else. This explains it better.

http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/how-tile-textures-work.44646/





Now the tools you will be using is the:

Pencil: set it to 1pixel and change the size to 1.

Eraser: Set it to 1pixel, size 1 and hard edges.

(All other tools... same principle.)



I suggest you look up tutorials online, since I have no idea what level you are comfortable at, and it is beyond the scope of this tutorial.



Now I have drawn a happy smile on the block:

http://imgur.com/dgjsyzl][/url]



Also show is how you turn the file back into a .png file. This is file that will be use by the game, if you only save, you get a .xcf file, wich contains much more info, but cant be used by the game.



Next, when I changed the .material file there was now 5 variants in block. But there is only one in the .png file. The file is 80x24 pixles large, so it is 80 long and 24 tall. So each “box” for each tile is 16x24. Now I mark out 16x24 with the rectangle selection tool, and make a guide.



http://imgur.com/swAVrDu][/url]



After the first guide, I prefer to make a second, but it is not necessary. You select the 16x24 part that is the original block, copy it (Ctrl-C) and paste it (Ctrl-V).

Move it with the mouse until it matches the first block. Now select both and copy them again. You will now get two copies, and can overlap the one furthest out so you are sure it is in the right place.

If the blocks are outside the 16x24 frame, they will not appear correctly in the game. I can make a more detailed picture set for this if it is confusing.



Here are the five blocks, with variations, in the right positions.

http://imgur.com/wBL1FbJ][/url]



Now lets start messing with the .matitem`s .png file, this is a singel block. It is what you see in your inventory what is dropped in the world when you break the tile.

http://imgur.com/QuBCxm0][/url]



Now, I am just gonna copy one of the smiley's over, so we get a nice happy block.





Export it and you now have a set of.

Item:

smileyblock.matitem

smileyblock.png



Materials:

smileyblock.materials

smileyblock.png



Lets copy them into a exiting mod with blocks, and start up the game!

Spawn some blocks, place them and...



http://imgur.com/jOoK0ue][/url]



A much happier dark planet!



Any questions?

 

Wow. While I didn't need a tutorial, I glanced through and saw the smiley face blocks. I love them! I'm going to have to borrow that idea...

 

Go for it! The tutorial was in response to Drakoflame at reply #263. Figure I would polish it up, make a PDF with the pictures and release it with the mod in the future. Would have loved to have something like that when i started.

 

For the curious, I just put another screenshot up for my current project on my Google+ account. You can see my posts related to my block game here (I gave them a collection).

 

I know this mod is abandoned, but has anyone shown interest in continuing this pack?

 

Before 1.0, it was looking like SivCorp and NorthenFreeze might just do that. At the moment, it looks like interest has waned.

You could always do so yourself. If you want suggestions on where to start, I'll be here. At this point, it should largely be a matter of fixing recipes (unfortunately, hundreds of them), but I really don't know that for sure. I've done no testing.

I've not touched Starbound since before the 1.0 release. The last time I started the game was to take a serious look at what water in Starbound looks like in comparison to Terraria, so I could decide on how to make liquids look in my own game.

 

Yea... I have a sever that really enjoys these and I'm going to do it by hand. However several other mods out there have been abandoned as well so it will be awhile before I even get to to.. But... Eventually I'll get there I'm sure...

 

All-right, just drop in if you want some advice. That's the whole reason I've still been lurking here. I may be able to help.

 

Still here, just no time. one day...

 

Realistically being a Rp sever we are only wanting the actual blocks from it. So it's more a matter of sorting out the blocks and fixing the recipes as far as I can tell just time consuming.