New guy saying hello

Hey guys, I just started modding, or should I say I just started learning the basics? I come from StarCraft 2 modding and I also have experience with other games as well. So instead of coming with newbie questions I decided to start by posting some of my ideas and how I can contribute, and that's probably with art. Nothing of my own really, but I'm good at tweaking the games' assets with photoshop, so that's where I started.

Learning how to mod made me think of using alien weapons as a requirement for manufactured weapons, which led me to think that maybe Xenonaut scientists couldn't replicate all the technology in the weapons so they need to adapt the existing ones for human use. Which is great because I love the art for alien weapons and find the human plasma weapons uninteresting. Here is a preview of what I'm doing, a human battle rifle adapted from the alien one.

What do you guys think? I like how the military green color looks on it. I'm also working on other things I may show here, like a small round UFO made from existing assets.

Hey guys, I just started modding, or should I say I just started learning the basics? I come from StarCraft 2 modding and I also have experience with other games as well. So instead of coming with newbie questions I decided to start by posting some of my ideas and how I can contribute, and that's probably with art. Nothing of my own really, but I'm good at tweaking the games' assets with photoshop, so that's where I started.

Learning how to mod made me think of using alien weapons as a requirement for manufactured weapons, which led me to think that maybe Xenonaut scientists couldn't replicate all the technology in the weapons so they need to adapt the existing ones for human use. Which is great because I love the art for alien weapons and find the human plasma weapons uninteresting. Here is a preview of what I'm doing, a human battle rifle adapted from the alien one.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6392[/ATTACH]

What do you guys think? I like how the military green color looks on it. I'm also working on other things I may show here, like a small round UFO made from existing assets.

Welcome soul..

The gun is well made.. If you want to learn how to mod this game, try kabills mods at download sections. They are very clean written.. There are many question topics at modding forum here too..

Thank you. I downloaded some of the mods here and I've been checking their files. I have been able to do most of the changes I tried so far, but I'm struggling with the GC spectres for new weapons and armours. Everything I add to the game makes the soldier "invisible". I already checked one of Kabills' mods and it looks like I have all files in place, so I must be missing something really obvious

EDIT: And here is the UFO, a work in progress for sure. I hope one of the map guys around here will help me put it in maps when its finished.

When you add a new weapon, you need to create a folder same name with that weapon in every armour folder under units/xenonauts.. and you need to put soldier_spectre file from a default armour.. but you need to have "compatibility" version from betas at steam to see every file.. if you got default install, most of the files are compressed..

for example:

you created a weapon named weapon.plasmabeam..

go to units/xenonauts/armour.basic and create a folder named weapon.plasmabeam

go to units/xenonauts/armour.basic/weapon.plasmarifle and copy soldier_spectre file

go to units/xenonauts/armour.basic/weapon.plasmabeam and paste..

now you can see your weapon at GC mission.. this is the basic idea..

Your editing skills are awesome.. just adding new ufo with GC mission is hardcoded for now. Our best interrior maker is kabill (he is best at everything mostly).. if you can make some bigger ufos cruiser sized even a new one for dreadnought, kabill will get enough hype to softcode this ufo adding and can handle the interriors..

New ufos are the main key of the game progress. I try to make a real long game but ufo number is limiting me very badly..

I can make photoshop editing too but mostly clean up and color play.. i liked very much what you did. Me and other ppl want to help you about modding..

I found those files in Kabills' mods and created them for my weapons and armour, still they don't show up in game. Which version of the game should I be using? You are right I'm using the standard version right now and it doesn't show those spectre files.

I could try to make more UFOs when I finish this one. For the Dreadnought I would need at least an image for its shape, door positions and some crude appearance details so I could try to paint everything. Sadly the appearance used by Xenopedia isn't in the correct angle and proportions. I tried to use the Bomber image to make a GC version but it isn't that simple.

I think I could resize the Landing Ship image since it is mostly round like the Dreadnought and go from there.

Thank you. I downloaded some of the mods here and I've been checking their files. I have been able to do most of the changes I tried so far, but I'm struggling with the GC spectres for new weapons and armours. Everything I add to the game makes the soldier "invisible". I already checked one of Kabills' mods and it looks like I have all files in place, so I must be missing something really obvious

If you can upload the mod (even just part of it to demonstrate what you've done) I might be able to diagnose. Seems most likely to be a spectre issue though like drages has suggested.

Also: I like the edits you've done.

Armour adding is another issue.. just handle the weapon for now.

You should have the game at steam.. then right click to game at library for properties, choose betas and "compatibility" version.. i think you should add CE 33 manually..

For dreadnaught, we thought the same, to use landing ship but dreadnought should be much more bigger.. much bigger then battleship..i know its not easy at all.. but you skillz give us hope

If you can upload the mod (even just part of it to demonstrate what you've done) I might be able to diagnose. Seems most likely to be a spectre issue though like drages has suggested.

I will follow drages' instructions for now and change the version I'm using. If the problem persists I'll share the files.

Armour adding is another issue.. just handle the weapon for now.

You should have the game at steam.. then right click to game at library for properties, choose betas and "compatibility" version.. i think you should add CE 33 manually..

For dreadnaught, we thought the same, to use landing ship but dreadnought should be much more bigger.. much bigger then battleship..i know its not easy at all.. but you skillz give us hope

I will try that, thank you. I can try to make the Dreadnought the size it should be, I just need a base image file with the door slots in the correct place and general guides to the size it should be in the image. Can you or Kabill do that for me? I can't promise I will make it good enough to be used in game but I can try.

but I'm struggling with the GC spectres for new weapons and armours.

As drages said, modding GC spectres is one of the hardest things to mod (or rather most tedious, since the game has animations for every single combination of armour+weapon). AFAIK, people who mod weapons normally just edit the large picture as you did and then reuse animations from a different weapon.

I'm also working on other things I may show here, like a small round UFO made from existing assets.

In case you'd be interested, you could work even on this which could end up being included in the game itself (the community edition, to be specific). For example, each crash-landed UFO has only one image (see e.g. in assets/tiles/UFO/lightscout), but it would be a nice touch to have more images with variations in the damage. Another thing I've wanted to include but don't have the graphics skills for would be a separate image with ground damage (see e.g. the picture in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenonauts).

I did what drages suggested, but I downloaded the community version directly from Steam, and it didn't fix the issue.

AFAIK, people who mod weapons normally just edit the large picture as you did and then reuse animations from a different weapon.

Yeah, that is what I saw. I may try to at least change alien weapons from red to olive green for these, which should be easy.

In case you'd be interested, you could work even on this which could end up being included in the game itself (the community edition, to be specific). For example, each crash-landed UFO has only one image (see e.g. in assets/tiles/UFO/lightscout), but it would be a nice touch to have more images with variations in the damage. Another thing I've wanted to include but don't have the graphics skills for would be a separate image with ground damage (see e.g. the picture in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenonauts).

Those are very nice ideas. I think it wouldn't be hard to add damage variations, I need to give it a try.

EDIT: Here is the file to check the flamethrower weapon and colossus armour I made. Last time I tried it the armour appeared in game (it uses the predator images) but at some point it turned to the darker jackal, and when I killed the soldier there was no corpse item. I also replaced the Light Scout with my new UFO graphics so you can check how it looks in game.

First of all, you dont use the mod system right. You edit the main files.

There is a modmerging system to make proper mods rather then adding to main game files. It's a bit confusing first, but then you use to use it...

For that reason i advised to check some mods. If you check them you will see some modmerging commands in them. You can download kabills weapon and armour mods to see exactly what you should have for that kind of modding. So get them and start modding with editing them rather then main files.

Editing main files can cause many problems.

Are you overwriting the vanilla game files or setting up the mod in the /mods folder? It looks like you're doing the latter (based on looking at the Xenopedia file you've included) in which case the issues you're having will be because you've not used the modmerge functions to make some of the files work. (There's also no modinfo.xml file so it really shouldn't do anything at all, actually).

Your best bet, for weapons, would be to look at my mod Expanded Armories (available in the download tab) as that adds in loads of new weapons. But the key things:

1) To make changes to existing unit spectres, you should use MODMERGE="replace" in the very top element of the file. For example, if your text example you'd add it here:

<spectre MODMERGE="replace" id="farmer" version="1">

That will result in the entire vanilla file being replaced by the one you're including in your mod.

2) To add new GC weapons, you should only include in weapons_gc.xml the weapons you're adding/changing. To add a new weapon, include the whole entry for the weapon and use MODMERGEATTRIBUTE="name" MODMERGE="insert" in the top element for the weapon to add the new item. Eg.

<weapons><Weapon MODMERGEATTRIBUTE="name" MODMERGE="insert" name="weapon.NEWGUN" bulletType="normal" emptySound="Empty Click 1" >	<props range="30" hands="2" recoil="0" weight="7" isHeavy="0" clipSize="10" reloadAPCost="30" reloadSound="Weapon Precision Rifle Reload" reactionModifier="0.5" disableShortRangeHitBonus="1" disableDamageScaling="1"/>	<SingleShot sound="Weapon Sniper Single" delay="0.6" suppressionValue="25" suppressionRadius="1">		<Set1 ap="38" accuracy="60" />		<Set2 ap="49" accuracy="105" />		<Set3 ap="65" accuracy="165" />	</SingleShot>	<BurstFire/>	<GUIImage name="gui/weapons/PrecisionRifle.png"/>	<GroundImage name="grounditemimages/ballistic_precisionrifle.png"/>	<Ammos>		<Ammo name="ammo.ballistic.sniper" type="kinetic" damage="35" mitigation="10" isHypervelocity="0">			<Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1500" delay="2.5" showAfterDistance="60.0"/>			<Impact spectre="particles/bulletplume/bulletplume"/>		</Ammo>	</Ammos></Weapon><Weapons>

To make changes to an existing weapon, do the same but use MODMERGE="update" instead. When doing this, you only need to include the elements/attributes you want to mod for the item. E.g.

<Weapons><Weapon MODMDERGEATTRIBUTE="name" MODMERGE="update" name="weapon.flamethrower">	<props range="20" />	<SingleShot MODMERGE="update">		<Set1 ap="60" accuracy="50" />	</SingleShot>	<Ammos>		<Ammo MODMERGEATTRIBUTE="name" MODMERGE=update" name="ammo.ballistic.flamethrower" type="energy" damage="50" mitigation="20">		</Ammo>	</Ammos></Weapon><Weapons>

In the example above, the flamethrower is changed to have range 20, a 60% TU shot with 50% accuracy, do 50 energy type damage on a hit and ignore 20 points of armour. All other parameters will be based on the vanilla flamethrower item. Note as well that the elements <SingleShot> and <Ammo> should use additional modmerge functions as indicated in the example as both these elements have have their own properties and child elements.

Hope some of that is useful. There's more that you'll not doubt need to know but in combination with the documentation found in the modding subforum and examples in other mods you should be able to get your head around it.

Welcome! Nice to see new faces here.

Also, great art so far.

Thank you guys for the help. It is a mod, not planned to be compatible with anything else by this point, I'm just testing several ideas together. I even forgot to send some of the files like modinfo, but they are in the mod. I'll take a look at these modmerge functions if I don't get too busy with art, I really want to see that UFO finished.

Welcome! Nice to see new faces here.

Also, great art so far.

Thank you. I see you guys already made so much for this game, its like I'm light years behind, so it will be hard to catch up

EDIT: I managed to fix the issue with the armor, but not the weapon. I left only the flamethrower entry in weapons_gc file, added modmerge and all that, still soldiers are invisible.

Thank you guys for the help. It is a mod, not planned to be compatible with anything else by this point, I'm just testing several ideas together. I even forgot to send some of the files like modinfo, but they are in the mod. I'll take a look at these modmerge functions if I don't get too busy with art, I really want to see that UFO finished.

Thank you. I see you guys already made so much for this game, its like I'm light years behind, so it will be hard to catch up

EDIT: I managed to fix the issue with the armor, but not the weapon. I left only the flamethrower entry in weapons_gc file, added modmerge and all that, still soldiers are invisible.

Just my silly tip here... but has helped me, sometimes you have the folder names wrong for the weapon, if this happens and the game cannot find a folder with the correct name with spectre file in it then generally display a soldier (visible) with no equipment.

However if the soldier is invisible then you generally have the folder named correctly but the soldier_spectre.xml file is missing completely or is pointing to a sprite that is missing.... or sometimes more annoyingly you have a tiny little syntax error that is very hard to spot.

Just my silly tip here... but has helped me, sometimes you have the folder names wrong for the weapon, if this happens and the game cannot find a folder with the correct name with spectre file in it then generally display a soldier (visible) with no equipment.

However if the soldier is invisible then you generally have the folder named correctly but the soldier_spectre.xml file is missing completely or is pointing to a sprite that is missing.... or sometimes more annoyingly you have a tiny little syntax error that is very hard to spot.

I think I copied the file from Kabills' mod, but I'll check everything, thank you.

Hey guys, I just started modding, or should I say I just started learning the basics? I come from StarCraft 2 modding and I also have experience with other games as well. So instead of coming with newbie questions I decided to start by posting some of my ideas and how I can contribute, and that's probably with art. Nothing of my own really, but I'm good at tweaking the games' assets with photoshop, so that's where I started.

Learning how to mod made me think of using alien weapons as a requirement for manufactured weapons, which led me to think that maybe Xenonaut scientists couldn't replicate all the technology in the weapons so they need to adapt the existing ones for human use. Which is great because I love the art for alien weapons and find the human plasma weapons uninteresting. Here is a preview of what I'm doing, a human battle rifle adapted from the alien one.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6392[/ATTACH]

What do you guys think? I like how the military green color looks on it. I'm also working on other things I may show here, like a small round UFO made from existing assets.

I really like the look of your weapons and am looking forward to seeing your mod.

I am also putting converted alien weapons in my mod..

But I am keeping mine red so I can use the existing sprites...

Hi Soulfilcher. I see you have some interesting ideas for what you'd like to mod. You'll find a lot of knowledge spread about the modding forum.. the problem is it's very scattergun! I'll point you towards a guide I still need to finish, which should help a bit with understanding the modular mod system.

I really like the look of your weapons and am looking forward to seeing your mod.

I am also putting converted alien weapons in my mod..

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6401[/ATTACH]

But I am keeping mine red so I can use the existing sprites...

That is nice, I still have to finish the images, as it has been a headache to decide how to change them. I'm also planning a recolor of the sprites (it would be easy for me but I'm worried about file size).

Hi Soulfilcher. I see you have some interesting ideas for what you'd like to mod. You'll find a lot of knowledge spread about the modding forum.. the problem is it's very scattergun! I'll point you towards a guide I still need to finish, which should help a bit with understanding the modular mod system.

Thank you. I know I need to read more, instead of just trying to do every idea. I came from StarCraft so I thought the XML way of adding/replacing stuff would be very similar, and it is, just not as easy to get working.