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WIP BetterMerchants Mod - Adding Variety to your Merchanting Experience

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by Mackinz, Jan 11, 2014.

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  1. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    Go to a Village, find a bunch of merchants selling the same things three feet away from each other.
    Travel around the planet. A bunch of merchants selling the same items out of their carts.
    Travel underground. Spend hours looking for any merchant NPC spawner in a Chest, and their selection is limited.

    The variety is astoundingly lacking.

    Which is why I'm here. I want to fix this issue, and I'll need your help.to do it.

    The goal of this mod is to edit existing NPC Mechants and add a variety of NPC Merchants to the game. These merchants will sell an assortment of items, ranging from Foods, Crop Seeds, Structure Blocks and Items, and virtually anything I can code.

    Current Mod Status: BetterMerchant 0.03 (Landscaper Update)

    Mod Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download/1qd3ud6w3jy6jna/BetterMerchants%200.03.zip

    Installation Instructions:

    Remove any prior versions of this mod before anything else.
    Download and extract "BetterMerchants" folder into your .../starbound/mods/ folder.
    Remove any mods which also change files found within this mod.
    Play.

    In this mod, Chefs sell fully prepared food items. All Chefs select from the following lists to form their shop listings. Sous Chefs sell the recipes of the same items, with a price multiplied by 10.

    Sides = 150 Pixels
    Desserts = 200 Pixels
    Entrees = 300 Pixels
    If Candy, subtract 100
    If Uncommon, add 50
    If Rare, add 100

    Entrees
    Vegetable Stew

    Sides
    Bread
    Corn Cob
    Toast

    Desserts
    Candy
    Carrot Cake
    Chocolate
    Lollypop
    Toffee
    Toffee Apple

    Entrees
    Bananacon
    Battered Banana
    Fish Fingers
    Roast Dinner

    Sides
    Ape Grapes
    Fruit Salad
    Lucky Dip
    Roast Banana

    Desserts
    Avesmingo Ice Cream
    Banana Bread
    Banana Cream Pie
    Banana Split

    Entrees
    Curried Beakseed
    Poached Avesmingo
    Spicy Feathercrown
    Wartweed Stew

    Sides
    Boiled Pearlpeas
    Cornpeckers
    Eggshoot Salad
    Pearlpea Parcels

    Desserts
    Candied Corn
    Carrotbread
    Pineapple Upside-crown Cake
    Pearlpea Pancakes

    Entrees
    Meat n' Marrow
    Meatwich
    Oculemon Stew
    The Special

    Sides
    Boneboo Marrow
    Eyebowls
    Fish In A Bone
    Offal

    Desserts
    Burning Eyeballs
    Hot Bone
    Puss Plum Pie
    Sweet Meat

    Entrees
    Automato Stew
    Bolt O's
    Piodia
    Pizzap
    Stuffed Automato

    Sides
    Corntent
    Nuts n' Bolts
    Smash

    Deserts
    Black Current Crumble
    Candy Automato
    Copper Key Pie
    Sweet Time

    Entrees
    Alien Burger
    Burger
    Chili Stew
    Fish n' Chips
    Soup
    Burrito
    Ham Sandwich
    Meatballs
    Pizza
    Pizza Slice

    Sides
    Garden Salad
    Mashed Potato
    Sweet Corn

    Desserts
    Apple Pie
    Cake
    Candy Apple
    Vanilla Ice Cream

    Entrees
    Coralcreep Curry
    Saltsalad
    Stuffed Dirturchin
    Sushi

    Sides
    Corn On The Blob
    Eggshoot Fried Rice
    Ricecake
    Soggysack

    Desserts
    Brineapple
    Candied Pearlpeas
    Reefpod Surprise
    Rice Pudding

    All Drink Merchants currently sell the same items. This may or may not change in the future.

    Basic = 100
    Juices = 125
    Small Alcohol =150
    Fancy = 250
    Alcohol Bottle = 450

    Blueprint: Multiply the price of the item by 10
    Basic
    Bottled Water
    Milk
    Soda

    Juices
    Avesmingo Juice
    Carrot Juice
    Grape Juice
    Kiwi Juice
    Pineapple Juice
    Reef Juice
    Tomato Juice

    Fancy
    Automato Shake
    Battery Acid
    Bloody Puss
    Bolted Milk
    Cyanider
    Dirtea
    Pozest
    Reef Shake
    Tropical Punch

    Small Alcohol
    Whisky Flash
    Wine Glass

    Alcohol Bottle
    Meat Wine
    Rice Wine
    Wart Wine
    Weyene
    Whiskey Bottle
    Wine Bottle


    All Landscapers currently sell the same items. This may or may not change in the future.
    Prices vary by 20% in either direction.
    Blocks: 10 Pixels each
    Seeds: Depends on time taken to grow said seed. Ranges from 20 (for 10 minute seeds), to 300 (for 120 minute seeds)
    Objects: 50 or 100 Pixels less than their 3D Printer costs
    Blueprints: 2000 Pixels each
    Mushroom Block
    Thatch
    Vine
    plantblock
    Mossy Platform
    Bamboo
    Bamboo Platform
    Decorative Cactus
    Fireflower
    White Flower
    Farm Tools
    Hay Pile
    Hay Roll
    Haystack
    Decorated Tree
    Undecorated Tree
    Lily Pad Clock
    Little Lily Pad
    Tiny Lily Pads
    Big Lily Pad
    Bamboo Door
    Small Overgrown Chest
    Floran Lamp Pod
    Floran Light
    Prison Chair
    Plant Desk Lamp
    Door (Plant 1)
    Geyser (Plant, 1 and 2)
    Glowing Orb
    Plant Control Panel
    A Shelf
    planttorch
    A Table
    Volcanic Plant (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)
    Automato Seed
    Avesmingo Seed
    Banana Seed
    Beakseed Seed
    Boltbulb Seed
    Boneboo Seed
    Carrot Seed
    Chili Seed
    Coralcreep Seed
    Corn Seed
    Crystal Plant Seed
    Currentcorn Seed
    Diodia Seed
    Dirturchin Seed
    Eggshoot Seed
    Feathercrown Seed
    Grape Seed
    Kiwi Seed
    Neonmelon Seed
    Oculemon Seed
    Pearlpea Seed
    Pineapple Seed
    Potato Seed
    Pussplum Seed
    Reefpod Seed
    Rice Seed
    Sugar Cane Seed
    Tomato Seed
    Toxic Top Seed
    Wartweed Seed
    Wheat Seed
    Giant Flower Bed
    Giant Flower Chair
    Giant Flower Chest
    Giant Flower Door
    Giant Flower Lamp
    Giant Flower Table
    Shroom Bed
    Shroom Chair
    Shroom Chest
    Shroom Door
    Shroom Lamp
    Shroom Table
    Toxic Chair
    Toxic Chest
    Toxic Lamp (1 and 2)
    Toxic Table


    Introduced NPCs have their own spawners, most with one for each race.
    Can be crafted at the Wiring Station for 1 Pixel (For Testing Purposes). Feel free to abuse them for now.
    • Apex Chef
    • Avian Chef
    • Floran Chef
    • Glitch Chef
    • Human Chef
    • Hylotl Chef
    • Apex Sous Chef
    • Avian Chef
    • Floran Chef
    • Glitch Chef
    • Human Chef
    • Hylotl Chef
    • Drink Merchant
    • Landscaper
    • Apex Villager (BM)
    • Avian Villager (BM)
    • Floran Villager (BM
    • Glitch Villager (BM)
    • Human Villager (BM)
    • Hylotl Villager (BM)

    The recipes for the old race-based Villager spawners have been replaced with BM versions of their spawners to circumvent an annoying racial limitation. In addition, the crafting recipes for Guard Spawners has been changed to the Wiring Station as well.

    Lastly, the icon for Meatballs and Vegetable Soup has been changed from displaying a can to a bowl of meatballs or vegetable soup. Descriptions have been changed to signify this.


    Mod Compatibility(!) - Requires better understanding of JSON, __merge functionality, and other aspects of modding. Tips are welcome.
    "Reverse" and Item-for-Item trading - Currently possible, but requires better understanding of LUA.
    Thread Decor and Aesthetics

    Custom NPCs
    Librarian - Sells Books, Codex entries, and Bookshelves(?).
    Landscaper - Figure out how to sell Flower Seeds, Mushroom Seeds and Saplings. Should they sell Plant Fibre?
    Archeologist - Sells items normally found from structure generation.
    Tomb Raider - Sells items and blocks found in Avian Temples, etc.
    Scavenger - Sells items and blocks found in Apex Labratories, etc.
    Plumber - Sells Pipes (block), as well as anything appropriate like Sewer items.
    Furniture Peddler(?) - Sells furniture
    Carpenter - Sells Wood-based items, Unrefined Wood, Rainbow Wood, and Metal Wood.
    Geologist - Sells various ores, mineral blocks, and more! Split into three: Ice, Crystal, and Spaaaaaace.
    Custom lines for all.

    Edited Existing NPCs
    Ingredient Merchant - Inventory varies based upon race of merchant.
    Clothing Merchant and Vanity Clothing Merchant - More variety and better inventories which rewards finding these merchants.
    Blacksmith - Split into Weapon and Armor varieties, which specialize in either. Better organization and management of existing blacksmith shops.
    Doctor - Expanded Medical inventory. All stim packs for sale.
    Stim - Repurposed for... something.
    Tool - In addition to existing inventory, he will also sell various mining and chopping implements, which vary from tier to tier.
    Wizard - Stumped.
    Custom lines if needed.

    Items
    New items as needed to add variety to NPC inventories (ex. Doctor, Stim, Wizard).
    New recipes for Food which lacks it, and a variety of other items as to be decided.
    Changed existing recipes.
    Some blueprints will have a different background (specifically Food items), if possible.
    Various changes to existing items as desired.

    Villages and Dungeons
    Changed NPC generation in Villages to include new NPCs
    Merchant Airship(?)
    Merchant Space-Station(?)


    I'm looking forward to any and all commentary. This is my first attempt at modding. I am taking suggestions if you have them.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2014
  2. JellyBlade

    JellyBlade Phantasmal Quasar

    This is a great mod so far! It works very well, and the chefs have a wide variety of foodstuffs. Great for anyone who wants to have an army of chefs, or just love food!
     
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  3. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    BetterMerchants Version 0.02 is out now.

    Though not much has changed, you can now gain access to the mod's features without Tabula Rasa (though Tabula Rasa still works).

    All thirteen custom spawners have been added to the Wiring Station. In addition, the seven other spawners that could be crafted (*insert race* Villager, and Guard spawners) are also found there. All twenty spawners cost a Pixel to craft (as of now), though you can seemingly only craft the spawners you could craft before (i.e. if you have an Avian character, you'll be able to create an Avian Villager Spawner at the Wiring Station but no other races' villager spawners can be crafted yet). Will look into this and rectify this.

    Also, a bit of sad news. I cannot figure out, for the life of me, how to get a merchant to sell different varieties of saplings or blocks (i.e. Blue Dirt, Red Dirt, etc.). I will continue trying, but I'll have to work on and release the Geologist and Botanists without these options. Still, I should be able to cram enough into their inventories that it wouldn't really matter yet.
     
  4. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    Downloaded and I'll be trying it out in the next few days. One of the mods I'm working on will be introducing spawners and merchants, so I might end up being able to troubleshoot mod compatibility. Also, I'm glad it doesn't need the Tabula Rasa. I'm trying to limit the number of mods I have (and potential problems therein) and I dislike relying on one mod to use another. Might be just me being stubborn, though! =P
     
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  5. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    Just getting into starbound, and upon trying to gain access to the spawners (and looking in the files to find out where/when I can access them) I have a suggestion: You are already restricting access to the spawners by making them craftable on the wiring station. If in the player.config file you make the recipes available at tier one the player won't have to fiddle with their upgrades on existing characters to gain access, and any future additions won't have any issues showing up either.
     
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  6. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    actually restricting it to the wiring station does restrict it much since the default game does the same with the 2 you can make. Of course though I don't remember what level, but it was not Tier 1. For me that would be a bit out of balance anyway. Tier 3-4 is about right when things start to open a lot of options up. That and the wiring station is not as crammed like the other crafting items.

    Good to see this is finally coming. Don't know if I'll use it yet, as I mentioned before; I am on my own modding spree that has not been tested or completed. lol

    just good to see progress. :D
     
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  7. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    What I'm saying is more mechanical then making any real difference in gameplay. Keep it restricted to the wiring station, which is only available at tier 3. But in the player.config simply list the recipes under Tier 1. All it does is make the game not require use of the MK3 to unlock them, so it will always show up on the wiring station once you have it. No need to re-craft the MK3 again and again to update recipes.

    I discovered this with my own testing of mods.
     
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  8. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    btw, I modified it that way in my mod folder. They showed up fine. Every last one of them. Apex, Glitch, Human, Avian, Hylotl and the drink merchant. I think you were having issues having them all show up? I might be thinking of a different thread. xD

    <edit> They are still spawning (I made them all!) and in the initial examination: The avian sous chef (the one with the recipes and no hat) has some Perfectly Generic Items among his recipes. I count 3.
     
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  9. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    ah k, that is what you meant... >< That makes sense I suppose. Wouldn't really help myself though in what I am doing at the moment, but good to know. :D

    was, as it was mentioned in the former thread, but unsure if that was resolved. Don't remember. Well anyway only he knows....
     
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  10. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    All the chefs on my Firefly! I guess I'm full up on passengers on their way to audition for Iron Chef? better-mechants.gif
     
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  11. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    The human recipe merchant has 10 perfectly generic items, 4 on the Hylotl recipe merch, 4 on the avian, 4 on the apex.
    5 on the drink merchant.
    I'm going to take a peek. My guess would be missing/too many commas. That tends to be what messes me up. =P
    <edit> And....I have no idea how the spawners work. I looked in all the files and couldn't find a list within the mod of what they are supposed to sell. lol. At least you know where the errors are?
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2014
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  12. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    hmm.. well the spoiler at the top might help with that. Since I am assuming that is the list. Current state of the mod.

    As for the other thing I wouldn't know...><

    Like the pic, soooo crowded.:D
     
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  13. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    Spoiler? I'm not sure I get your meaning or if you were referring to something else. It might just be getting to that time of night where nothing clicks anymore. =P
     
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  14. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    Better Merchants 0.03 is out now. Now there are Landscapers which sell various plant blocks, objects and seeds with which you can decorate your base with and impress all your Floran friends before they ssstab you in a loving manner. Clothing for the Drink Merchant has been changed to better distinguish it. Finally, I have added six other new spawners which function exactly like the old Villager spawners but without the annoying race-restriction. Now you can populate your base with random Villagers if you so desire.

    And a bit of GOOD news. Though this merchant is not in this version, I have figured out how to make a merchant sell multiple varieties of Dirt!

    [​IMG]

    Still nothing on Saplings, and other mineral block color codes are being recorded.

    Also, I've heard that it is possible to introduce "Reverse" and Item-to-Item trades to the game. It requires more LUA knowledge, so not in my mod for quite a while.

    If you edit merchant.npctype for your mod, there will be definite conflicts. I need to work on that...

    The first thing I realized when I released my mod was that requiring another mod to work would be very annoying. It's not a problem.

    I was thinking about this, actually. If I keep it at the Wiring Station but change it to "tier1", it will save time for existing characters then I won't have to worry about complaints in the future. Will change this for 0.04.

    The old crafting station was the Metalwork Station and Tier 2. I have them all accessible at Tier 3 with the Wiring Station.

    :D

    Definitely not me.

    Okay. Will look into.

    Awesome! I love how that looks on a Computer that isn't mine!

    The errors are not in the spawners, but in the merchant.npctype file which lists the items a merchant can use for their shop. As a bunch of food and drink items do NOT have recipes at the moment, that is likely the issue. I have to make them.

    And there are no excess commas in the current coding. If there was, you wouldn't be able to spawn the merchants in the first place. Enjoy your easy access to Corntent, however.
    Updated for the new release. :v

    Where it says "Current State of the Mod (Open)", click. It's a spoiler which condenses the information within to one line until clicked.
     
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  15. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    We'd gotten into a back and forth so when he mentioned spoilers I thought he was referring to something I'd said. lol. The missing recipes would be the obvious issue with the PGIs. ^^

    Also, glad people like my screenshot. I thought you'd get a kick out of all the merchants packed in one place. =P
     
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  16. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    mineral blocks? you mean like cobble? If so wouldn't it be done the same way that dirt is.

    Saplings on the other hand are like the creatures of the world, except only having 2 parts to them. I am assuming they have each part separate somewhere, but when they put together in the icon I believe it is more like merging halves together. I really don't know the specifics on it; as this is how it appears to me. What I do know for sure is that it is procedurally generated just like the creatures, but with only 2 parts. leaf and trunk I would think...

    And yes I meant the top post thing...lol
    Spoiler tag
     
  17. Mackinz

    Mackinz The Waste of Time

    Dry Sand, Sand, Sandstone, Dry Dirt, Wet Dirt, etc. There is far more than just Cobble and Dirt with different colors.

    I know. This confuses me as to how someone could generate a sapling with different properties, but I'm sure it can be done with some "data" value use.
     
  18. Tamorr

    Tamorr Supernova

    Is what I was thinking... On both things. More likely with the first one the many colored materials you might actually have to go by the name it gives for them in the directory that defines there colors. If that isn't the cast than it is the original name that is needed, which means somewhere in items; materials for some blocks, but for natural blocks I think are in a different place. Regardless the primary name is in a sub-directory in items. Don't remember where the color tagged ones are.

    On the second one, that is probably how they did do it. I mean all that would be is a double value. 1 for trunk and 1 for leaf. I don't know how they went about it. but just makes sense. Unsure you would be able to fit that many saplings in one shop though. Although with a random in mind it might be possible, that is supposing it is possible to do that with shops and in the simple coding we have. LUA maybe, but I don't really know that kind of script unfortunately...
     
  19. LowestFormOfWit

    LowestFormOfWit Pangalactic Porcupine

    For the record, we never intend to have Tabula Rasa feel like it is a forced requirement for anything. Having it as a dependency is merely an option for modders. TR was really intended as just a convenient conduit for mods to simply get into the game. Early on in beta, TR was really a quicker way to get people's mods in game without major conflicts or player.config overwrites, etc. With the changes that have happened since, especially with __merge, TR isn't as necessary. Many use TR exclusively for testing purposes and go through other means for actual releases and that is great.

    As we get more and more mods out there, modding really is coming down to a clutter problem. Either you have a ton of mods with a ton of individual crafting benches for that mod's stuff, and you end up with a ton of physical space clutter, or you go and dump them all through TR (or a vanilla crafting bench) to keep your physical clutter low, but then your menu space is a scroll fest and becomes cluttered also.

    I won't elaborate because I don't want to hijack, but TR changes are coming that are going to address TR menu clutter, allowing modders to filter by mod in an intuitive manner.

    Happy to see how this mod is progressing. Keep up the good work!
     
  20. kittentamer

    kittentamer Existential Complex

    Oh, I didn't mean to badmouth the Tabula Rasa. It is an awesome idea. I contemplated it for a moment with my Firefly mod, but then decided to make my own crafting table for the growing number of things in it. If it clutters a standard station, it would clutter the TR if people had anything else installed too. People can always pick up and store mod-specific crafting stations so they don't permanently clutter things.

    Rather then go in circles: I think the Tabula Rasa is an awesome mod and an awesome idea. It isn't for me, but I still love the ingenuity of it and the flexibility it offers modders. Creativity that helps others should always be lauded. Sorry if it sounded like/I was inadvertantly bashing the TR. Hugs! ^^
     
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