Modding Tool [1.1.0 Released!]

Please post here for questions and discussion about scenario, art and sound modding and the game editor for Distant Worlds.

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Unforeseen
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Unforeseen »

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.
Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

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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Unforeseen
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Unforeseen »

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!
Clogs
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Clogs »

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?
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Shark7
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Shark7 »

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.
Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'
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Capshades
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Capshades »

Image

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
Kothyxaan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Kothyxaan »

Found this by chance. Nice work Sabranan. I will try this when I am home :)
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rjord2021
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by rjord2021 »

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.


Image
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Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

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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rjord2021
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by rjord2021 »

I will do that next time I see it........
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rjord2021
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by rjord2021 »

The issue may be related to problems with Distant worlds..... I checked the validity of the Distant World Files and the report came back that over 600 files were corrupt.

Will test again over next few days.
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rjord2021
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by rjord2021 »

When loading my mod into your tool I get a warning that:

File has too many race biases, the hard limit is 30. No more race biases will be loaded. Please be aware that outputting the race biases form to disk will result in losing any extra race biases!

I have 112 race biases which seem to work fine in Distant Worlds and have not seen anything about race biases being limited to 30.

The manual does state that Race Families are limited to 30..... is this what should have been limited?
Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

Ah, thanks for that. It was actually limited to 100, even though it was saying 30. At some point I must have decided to limit the race number (and by extension the biases) to 100 but I can't remember why, I remember once upon a time it was limited to 50 but I can't find documentation to suggest an arbitrary limit at the moment. I'll push a revision to fix that bug and set it to say 500 for now.
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rjord2021
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by rjord2021 »

ORIGINAL: Sabranan

Ah, thanks for that. It was actually limited to 100, even though it was saying 30. At some point I must have decided to limit the race number (and by extension the biases) to 100 but I can't remember why, I remember once upon a time it was limited to 50 but I can't find documentation to suggest an arbitrary limit at the moment. I'll push a revision to fix that bug and set it to say 500 for now.


Keep in mind ships can only go from 0 to 50 so if you allow number of races and biases to be over 50 that your tool does not allow ships to be 51 or more. With 112 races I have many races sharing common ship sets.
Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

ORIGINAL: rjord1
Keep in mind ships can only go from 0 to 50 so if you allow number of races and biases to be over 50 that your tool does not allow ships to be 51 or more. With 112 races I have many races sharing common ship sets.

That's fine, the tool handles the ship images separately from the hard race limit anyway and I've just checked and they're already set to be limited at 50.
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Darkspire
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Darkspire »

Seems to be something wrong with the validation as this came up:

Invalid character random appearance chance intelligence agent value "" found in Race Information record 0) Ackdarian, value changed to "0"

That is not invalid, the value is 1.0, not altered or edited as it's a vanilla file, changing the value to 0 would mean that the chance to appear would drop from normal to minimum.

Program could save time so I will watch it, see how it progresses and try it again in a few months.

Darkspire

Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

Loading the vanilla race files only generates one validation error, which is the caution value for the Atuuk. As far as I can tell the check is correct... Can you send me a log or paste the input log here so I can have a look at what's going on?

I do agree about the default values though, I've set the character appearance chance defaults to 1 now instead of 0.
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Darkspire
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Darkspire »

ORIGINAL: Sabranan

Loading the vanilla race files only generates one validation error, which is the caution value for the Atuuk. As far as I can tell the check is correct... Can you send me a log or paste the input log here so I can have a look at what's going on?

I do agree about the default values though, I've set the character appearance chance defaults to 1 now instead of 0.

That error was with all the vanilla race files that I had in the theme, not just the Atuuk.
I will PM you a log tomorrow but the data needs to be checked for values above and below the allowed values, only if a value is outside that range should a default value be substituted.

This error I pointed out was one of a quite a few, I picked that one as it was near the end of the readout once the theme was validated, I am very familiar with all the text files for DW as I have been on the beta team for years. For example are you aware of the victory conditions for pirates that are not listed? If not then those too will be throwing out errors, my theme is a complete one, it encompasses all the files, been writing it since Legends, every time I get close to releasing it I end up testing a new expansion and it is back to the drawing board which is what has happened with Universe [8|]

Darkspire
Sabranan
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Sabranan »

Well now I'm really confused lol.

The Atuuk are the only race where the vanilla files have a caution value outside of the range (between 50 and 150). Since the vanilla Atuuk race has a caution value of 40, when I load the default files into the tool I get this:

Code: Select all

Beginning data validation on Race Information
 Invalid caution value "40" found in Race Information record 1) Atuuk, value changed to "50"
 Data validation on Race Information complete, found and corrected 1 values

Which is to be expected, since the value is out of range.

But if you're also loading the default files and getting more errors in the same category, well, that shouldn't be possible!

As for pirate victory conditions can they even be modded? As far as I knew you could only change them by changing the playstyle when you set up the game, and the values themselves were hardcoded.
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Darkspire
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RE: Modding Tool

Post by Darkspire »

Just loaded your editor and got the update.

Don't think you are understanding the problem, as the same file is getting the same error, the values for character appearances are in the range of 0 to 3.0, so a value of 1.3, 2.6 should be valid, a value of 3.2 is not and should be changed to 1.0 not 1.

As the editor does not pick up on the other values for character appearance within the race file IMO this needs looking at, example:

CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader ;2.6
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceAmbassador ;1.2
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceGovernor ;1.4
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceAdmiral ;0
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceGeneral ;2.1
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceScientist ;1.0
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceIntelligenceAgen ;1.9
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceShipCaptain ;2.0
CharacterRandomAppearanceChancePirateLeader ;3.6

All the above values are valid except the last one, that is an error and should be corrected to 1.0 not 1

Sorry but I do not have the time to go through any further problems with your editor.

All the best, I will keep an eye on how things progress.

Darkspire
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