Outdated Ship Yard 1.0.1 (Tiny Bug Fix)

sorry excuse my horrible english it upgraded to the normal human ship, i upgraded just fine in single player to T2 which was the repaired hallway then i joined the server and upgraded to T3 and it became the starbound human ship, no hallway no station just the human ship

 

Okay. That was actually one of the two things I expected to happen. I'll put up a warning section on the overview page, now that I've got a clear idea of what happened.

Thanks for testing this for me.

 

simulatoralive updated Ship Yard with a new update entry:

Dang Dirty Apex

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

simulatoralive updated Ship Yard with a new update entry:

Teleporters on Every Docked Ship

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

well that's job one done, to celebrate i suggest updating the pictures if you don't mind and i didn't think the tele porters where race specific :/ cool

 

simulatoralive updated Ship Yard with a new update entry:

Ship Yard Now Implemented for All Races!

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

simulatoralive updated Ship Yard with a new update entry:

Tiny Bug Fixx

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

I finally got some updated screen shots from version 1.0.1 up on the overview page.

Due to the massive size of the Ship Yard, I chose to show off mostly just Tier 8 with a Human tour guide. There's also screenshots of the cockpits/bridges for the various races, mostly just to show off the blocks I chose for each race's Ship Yard.

Even with the mod I'm using, it's impossible to get the whole thing in a single screen shot.

If anyone can think of better blocks to use for the Hylotl and Novakid, I'd be happy to hear suggestions.

 

I do like your idea here. Thank you for all the work you put in!

I have a few bits of feedback if you like. You are free to disregard them, as this is your mod not mine. Also I've only dabbled a bit with this, so I may say something incorrect/impossible !


1.

Anyhow while I like the idea, I just don't quite like having my captain's chair, fuel hatch, etc in a hallway. I think that it would be best that we started on the regular (fully equipped) ship itself rather than a hallway. Then as you upgrade it to T3, you suddenly find yourself docked with the station. Essentially it would be the same station you have now. That might sound like a PITA on your end, but I don't think it needs to be.

To do this, you wouldn't necessarily need to change much but to move the spawn point. Each race would have a different spawn point but otherwise would essentially generate the same shipworld file. With that you would add the regular ship accessories(captain's chair, fuel hatch, etc) back where they would go on the ship. I don't believe it presents a problem to technically have multiple of anything except a spawn point. Just copy the same station_blocks files to each race, but with the small modification to spawn point.

I think this mod would be much nicer with these changes. People also should then be able - once upgraded enough to get the station - to fly the thing from whichever docked ship they like. Choices are always nice and I think that is better for immersion to boot.

2.

Another thing that might be possible - and this might be more of a PITA - I think it might be possible to make the station seemingly disappear during FTL. What I mean is look at the default ship assets there is humant8.png and humant8lit.png. Where human8lit.png is the version used while in FTL. If you had the equivalent but didn't draw the station there, it would seem to disappear. Unless I am wrong about this... which is highly likely.

3.

Consider adding the ships from Tier9Ships. You might consider actually distributing that mod inside your mod for this purpose. The mod is marked that you can use the assets without permission, but it would probably be best to ask Ele first anyhow out of courtesy.

Speaking of permission to use other mod assets... if any of my mods would seem useful to you in your own, feel free to include them without any further permission needed. In fact that permission applies to any mod author, not just you. But if you do this, please do leave it in it's own original folder so that people who happen to download it independently don't have 2 copies of the same mod installed(which can only cause problems). Granted I only have one mod out now, but I plan on more.

4.

As for the area where you attach the ships, you might consider using the ship walls that can be build in Madtulip's space ship mod. There are also some other cool features of that mod that would go well with this - although some of them are currently broken. But the zero-G and airless environment outside the station would be cool. That mod is clearly marked that you would need permission. Perhaps you guys might consider working on a combined mod? I think aspects of both your mods compliment each other well.

Yes I know a person technically can sort of do that themselves (as I have) by downloading both and deleting the \ships\ out of madtulip. But an integrated mod would be smoother and cooler.

I have an older folder of Enraged Koala version Starbound if you think that got taken out(as many things did), I might be able to look for it in those assets. I'd be willing to send you what you need if I have it. Tell me if you would like me to look for it. But I'm not going to really do all that looking unless you are interested. But I am willing if you really want it.

What I would say that would make it feel "stationy" IMO would be to have an area like the outpost inside it - probably in the center somewhat to the right of the docks. Would it be possible to just enclose the outpost itself? I don't have the slightest clue if that is even possible, but it could give you a bustling space station right off. It would be one more "can't build" area with the rest of it being modifiable. I don't know how the outpost was put together, or if what Chucklefish did can even be replicated.

If that is not possible/worth it, then I'd say you are right to just leave it to us. I might try to make some standardized station modules that can be printed in Base-in-a-box/madtulip's spaceship mod. That could make building a large station far more pleasant and quick.

 

Your #2 is indeed wrong. The lit image is a mask to cover parts of an image and only allowing bits "shine" through so they appear to glow when dark.

 

I do have a few more ideas. I can see this mod going further than its current scope. And I'm personally willing to help it get there if you like. I've learned more about how ships work since my last post, and I think I know enough to be of use. I'd probably PM you to offer my help, but these forums don't seem to have that functionality. I'm guessing you are putting more time into the hull plating blocks mod(which I think is pretty cool as well), so I think that arrangement would work out well for all.

1. I think the layout could change a bit. By that I mean having every ship bay equal in size. Space stations would not likely be build with a bay build specifically for each ship, but rather standardized bays that could accommodate any(up to a certain size class anyhow). More importantly, it makes adding to the mod much easier going forward.

You make a single bay, select that area in any image editor, copy, and paste as many copies of it as you want(also expanding image dimensions as needed). There would be minor wall editing where the bays connect. After adding in all the necessary bays, you add ships back in. Which is more copy/paste(I know you changed the vanilla ships slightly). Then the airlocks.

2. The reason I would want more bays is that there are some neat (mostly outdated) mod ships out there too. With the ship builders' permission, I'd like to add them in too. I can(and will) do this for my own usage anyhow, but it is nice to let others enjoy it too. Probably I would only add them in the highest ship tier - except for those that actually have multiple tiers.

3. I can see why you have done things the way you have - starting in the hallway and just giving people the ship furniture to place themselves. Different races have different versions of ship furniture, but their respective blockkey.config files use the same color values. So some modifications are in order to have the right racial furniture placed in the right ship. It is something of a pain. But it certainly can be done, and I will - at least for my own purposes - but it makes sense to commit those changes to the mod itself... if you will accept them. It is your mod, and I do respect that.

4. You might consider using some of your blocks from your hull plating mod in this one in substitute for vanilla blocks. Some of those look pretty nice. The obvious downside being that if you did so, this mod would require that mod. That could be a pretty big downside for those that want to keep things fairly vanilla flavored.

Let me know what you think.

 

Sorry for the long wait on a reply. I totally forgot about this post. I was focusing on the Hull Plating while I was off the internet. This mod hasn't been a priority for me since I started the other. I'd be happy to hand this project off to you if you like. I'm just not sure how. I'll look into it.

The only condition that I'd ask in exchange is that this mod always remain wide open on it's permissions, so anyone can choose to modify it and/or use it's bits in other mods.

Edit: Also, I had an idea for the mod to completely re-vamp it. Given: we've got existing art-work for the ships. Why not turn them into regular objects? Then they can be placed and moved as needed, by the end user of the mod. Some customization of where the solid and empty spaces are would be required. Alternatively, a place-able invisible block could be used, while treating the image as simply a background. I did some odd little experiments with this not long ago as a possible addition to the Hull Plating, but didn't go very far with it. It's too big a project on it's own and I didn't like some of the nasty side effects, since objects display over the top of background blocks... It would probably require cutting the internal backgrounds out of the ship images and kill the vanilla multiplayer compatibility.

 

I don't need to "take over" per say. I don't want to take credit for your mod. It is a neat idea... your idea. If I ever did though, yeah I agree with keeping the mod wide open. Those are my own preferences as well.

I could do something like throw up files on dropbox/google drive/etc and you could use them. I've done a little work but not anything beyond a re-layout of the bays. I haven't placed the vanilla ships back into the new bays yet even... mostly because I assumed you where not too interested in the idea so I was gonna drop it. I'd be glad to get back to it.

I kinda like the idea of ships-as-objects so people could place them as they like. But then I still want people to be able to fill these ships with their furniture. I worry that they can't do that when the ship is a solid object! Unless I am mistaken. I don't know enough to say with authority that it isn't possible.

Turning the ships into Base in a box modules might be do-able though! That would probably mean breaking the ship exterior up into a few objects, and having those objects plus other blocks placed by Base in a box's building printer. That might be better - with some slight modification to have the building printer build to the left of themselves instead of the right. Also I'm not sure how to retain the backgrounds while doing this, but there may be a way. If objects can exists solely in the background (and I "think" they can), then the background image itself becomes another object which is placed. This method allows fully functioning furniture inside the ship, and allows people to decorate it how they like.

Or keeping the current way means people still see the ships in various phases of upgrade, and that is nice too.

 

I know that objects can be customized, so that you can set what areas are solid/platform and what areas are simply cosmetic. The purely cosmetic areas can have blocks and/or other objects placed over them, though I'm not sure which object is rendered on top. My idea of cutting the interiors out of the ship, leaving a hole where the Player walks around would completely side-step the issue.

As for my interest in the Ship Yard, it's kind of gone. My current thinking is to do the ships-as-objects thing and include it in the Hull Plating mod. After that, anyone can set it up however they like using whichever block-based ship mod they prefer. I've also been thinking of building some modular space station parts, similar to the ships, just more open-ended: some hallway tubes, intersections, habitat modules, etc, all built on the same standardized scale. After all that, the Ship Yard would be fun to re-do with those parts, but that's a long-term pipe dream, to be honest. I've got many bigger fish to fry first.

That's why I felt it would be a good idea to hand the project off to you. You seem more interested in it than I am.

 

Well in that case, I'd be willing to take over.

 

Do you know how to add another forum member to a mod, so they can make releases? I've been looking for a way and found no solution.

I suspect that you're going to have to start a new mod for it. I'll gladly edit the main page for the Ship Yard and redirect people to the new one, when you're ready.

 

I'm not going post anything until I have something worth posting, but I am working on this. I'll let you know when I have it.

Of course I'm working on a few other things as ideas hit me. I probably should focus

 

And now you see why I haven't worked on the Ship Yard, eve though I've got ideas for it, eh? Focus is everything.

 

Have any great tips on positioning those ship images? Maybe something more productive than -
1. change numbers
2. start new character
3. upgrade to see results
4. return to 1 until satisfied
5. move onto next tier or species

I feel I'm wasting far, far too much time doing it this way.

Also to update you:
I would also say that I've decided to make 2 versions. One more vanilla flavored, one incorporating(thus requiring) more mods. I just couldn't make my mind up, and decided choosing both(thus giving people a choice) was the best option. I would have you link to the vanilla-ish version, and I'll add the link to the better version from there.

With the new vehicle system coming... I think I'm gonna have to make an elevator that goes in either of 4 directions too! In the mean time the heavier modded version is going to use something like graviton rails to move people around fast, and also include some prebuilt base-in-a-box modules for rapid station expansion. Walking huge distances is boring. Flying around the station with graviton rails is actually pretty fun.

Also once I get my hands on and see what the new vehicles are really capable of - what you can and can't do with them - maybe the ships themselves can become vehicles? That might be too ambitious and maybe not even possible, but would be highly cool. I'll definitely need to add some sort of small "service shuttle craft" to fly around the outside of the station.

The greatest enemy though seems to be lag at this size(it has grown considerably). I don't really understand why since essentially this is like a dungeon and those are often much bigger. Perhaps a bug is being triggered? I have found that editing sbboot.config and changing "loadThreads" : 1, to something higher like 8 (I have 8 cores) "seems" to help load time considerably, but that isn't something a mod can change, and I don't expect most end users will feel comfortable doing so. Nor have I actually timed it to make sure that the improvement isn't just in my head. There has to be a better way to get a handle on it.

Anyhow I'm still working on this, and I think the end result will be really cool.
:edit
I just found a major cause of lag. Those red(invisible wall) blocks. My bays where full of them. By replacing most of them with white(nothing there) blocks, lag is noticeably reduced! I might experiment with replacing the remainder of them with a new block that is nearly invincible and has essentially a blank graphic - to see if that is an improvement in terms of lag.

 

That list of yours is about what I was doing, though I'll note that I was using admin commands to spawn ship upgrade items. The time consumption is the main reason I finally settled on the layout the Ship Yard has at the moment. It took too long to test, otherwise.

I'd suggest putting the two versions of the mod in one zip file. Let the end user decide which they want to use. You don't need to treat them as entirely separate mods, since they'll likely be sharing many of the same files, anyway.

As for the lag on ship upgrades, all I can say is limit the area you're using. That's another reason for the Ship Yard's layout.

Basically, what the layout came down to in the end was limitations of the game engine.

Hrm. I hadn't thought about making the ships into actual vehicles. I like that one. Too bad I have to wait... I can only imagine making the weapons functional, too. Muhaha! On the other hand, the resources required for a vehicle that massive ought to be pretty hefty.