Hi guys,


You seems to be real freaks


Can you help me to build a FA(patch 3599) mod that can be used for FAF ?
Or at least explain me how to do it.


I don't really know how to build a mod .. I don't even know where to begin


Regards

dstojkov, don't Hijack other people's threads, especially when they have nothing to do with what you're asking about

Thread Split.

Mike

?????


I only ask for help in mod doing ... What is wrong with that ? this guys seems to know about it so i asked ...

First step would be to find Exavier Macbeth's modding tutorial.

Second step would be to read that, because it covers pretty much everything a basic modder needs to know.


That other thread was by another person, and had its own purpose and use. You came along and asked an unrelated question. Online, this is called a hijack, and is frowned upon fairly harshly in technical/serious parts of forums.

Hi guys,



The mod system seems to be so powerful ... Such a pain that I began that only now ...
I am installing FA new on my laptop an will make a GIT resository on the source code in order to be able to see which change has been made from all the patch 1.5.3596 to 3599.


Can you mates try to give me a global view how the scripting interact with the engine .. I mean where are the entries or better said the interface to interact with the engine.
Is the engine only function working like let's say some trigger (event) or something bigger ?


Thx for your future post



Regards

This sounds like a very sensible plan.


What do you mean?

Yes it's ... I am doing it now.
We have to provide a complete standalone mod for 3599 because 36XX is constantly changing no possibility to make a merge of the bp.

The repository is actually only for me to get a view of what change and how the changes have been done.


Also I don't have a clear picture of the mechanics of the game
My questions are
1 how interact the scripting with the engine ?
2 what does the engine actually ? draw triangle ? generate events ? what is his role and what is the limit in the sens what can the engine do and also what can the engine not do

Also not in each detail but only to have a global picture of the architecture


Regards

Heh you don't have to understand the engine to code. Heck even I don't understand most of it (granted there are days looking at the scripts that I sometimes wonder if the devs where on the same page when making things).

All of the stuff you can mod are found in the .scd files within the gamedata folder. This includes Units, Projectiles, Effects, UI, AI, Control Schemes, Campaign, and a significant ammount of background processes. All of them follows pretty much the exact framework (though alot of the advanced librarys are missing) as standard LUA coding. The engine interprets & processes those scripts.

For a 3599 rebalance mod you won't really need advanced scripting anyway. All of the non-balance stuff in the patch (3603 for the Official version) is stable. For that all you would need to really do is make BP merge files for the units to revert any unit changes that effected balance.

Hi,



This is actually the part of interest ... How is it roughly works it is a event based mechanism ? Has the engine some logic in there or the logic comes exclusively from the scripting(lua) part ?


I began to read a book explaining lua .. i am a java native programmer ... though there is luajava

Do you know guys which version of blender can open .scm file ?

And ... can gimp open .dds ?

Why would you need those to make a 3599 mod?
Blender needs a plugin to open .scm files I believe but don't quote me on that.
Same for Gimp and .dds.

If your curious how a game engine works I recommend you do some research into C#/C++ as I think thats still the common language used to make large game engines. As to how they actually function in the background, Its not something I ever fully researched (mostly due to not finding a decent beginners book on C++).

As to your graphic editing question you may want to check out the Models & Animations forum as they have all that type of information there. This forum is pretty much for the code side of things.

You can get the most current model/animation converters for 3DS Max & Blender from the other forums, though I think people still have issues with the Blender one... They are user created, not official tools. The only graphics program I know can natively open the games dds files is Paint.net. I believe all the others require a plugin, generally free and easily acquired but still a step that sometimes frustrates people.

Thx for the info !!!

I found this link that simply explain how the bridge could have been done between lua and the engine

http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_ ... -lua-r1932

Now is missing the link between the scm file that actually should be some kind of animation and the engine ...

Hi,

I think your reading to much into what actually has to be done to make a balance mod,

basicly you just need to set up the mod folder and mod_info.lua file, this is easy enough,

then you need to create a merge folder
in this merge folder create a new lua file and call it
uef_merge.lua

in this uef_merge.lua file create this table,



this will change the commanders economy to be the same as 3599 patch commander..

you can add as many MERGE tables as you want to this lua file.
you can add what params from the original blueprint to this merge table
and those table entries will be used on the unit when it is built.

its as easy as that.
reading all these lua language pages from the web will confuse you,
dont even bother with those for modding FA, just look at similar mods.

as an example mod look in the mods.scd for the campaign branch mod,
this is a pure balance mod for the campaign, it will serve to help you out alot here.

well take a look on the vanilla mode i mad for FAF well its not perfect (far away from that ) but it works but its lots of work changing all the blueprint files and some other small things you find the vanilla mod in your faf mod directory (C:\ProgramData\FAForever\gamedata) just open it with something like winrar or winzip or so on maybe you need change file extension to .zip if there is no vanilla than just because you never played one in faf

Hi,


Where can I find your mod ? I take a look to the install folder, in the folder ~/My Games/.... but I found nothing.


Regards

well thats why i addedt the path where FAF saves its mods
C:\ProgramData\FAForever\gamedata
if you just see a faf / blackops / lab wars or whatever than just because you never played vanilla so just start a game with it and it automatically downloads it.

Hi guys,


Is there any possibility to use a compressed version for the mod file needed especially that I use a /shadow directory in my mod
instead of let's say units directory to use units.scd ?


Regards

There is no Shadow directory in FA is there?

It's there, just scarcely used (and buggy).

Hi there !!!!


So just for information the mod is almost done i wanted to fix as much as possible bugs that every one bother ....

I added navy wreckage .. try to fix the bug that some weapon inflige damage through a shileld and so on ....


Wanted to make some improvement to unit like restore the hp's transporter like in 3596 to make the ghetto a viable strategy like it once was

If you have some wish go on guys it's now or never !!!!

forgot to say that shadow works perfect

Hi guys,


Do you know how exactly works this TypeClass when you hook a Class ? I can not figure out where is this defined.


I also try the provide the GC the ability to drag navy(up to tech 2) and sub whatever if you are in water or not like unit on land but no matter what i try this don't work ...

Have you some idea how to do this ?


Regards

Ok guys the mod 3599 is finished for FAF


But I have to update it for each new patch because this is not a featured mod

Look at the version in the mod_info.lua

version: 3620001

where
3620 is the patch version
001 the 3599 version

here the link to find the mod
http://www.fileden.com/files/2012/12/1/3372095/3599.zip


Regards