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Weapon Editor - The Quartermaster's Armory


Quartermaster

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8/28/2012

XenoArmory is now updated to function with V14 with a couple of other updates. You can load the current data that Xenonauts is using, edit them, and update the working files for Xenonauts. It is still a bit limited, but for those that want to modify the parameters of the existing weapons it works just fine.

You can download the installable version here: https://www.box.com/s/86qhy7knbmm3a96vccyg

You can get the code here (In VB.Net 2010): http://www.box.com/s/1bc1cf349d327c993d62

Before Using: Replace the current strings, weapons, and weapons_gc files with the ones in the zip file that you can download here: Fixed Files

What it can do: This program can load the current data from Xenonauts, display it, allow editing, and can replace the existing files that Xenonauts uses to run.

What it can't do (yet): You cannot add weapons, delete weapons, nor change the name of weapons. Adding weapons will not likely come anytime soon, because you have to generate spectres and that will take some time to implement.

Steps to getting the Xenonauts data up:

1. After starting the program click on "Forms... -> Weapons". An empty form will pop up.

2. Once the form is open click on "Load -> Current Values" which is the top left of the form that just opened. You will now see all of the weapons listed on the left and the values displayed of the first weapon in the list.

3. To edit a specific type of ammunition (certain weapons have multiple types) click on Select Ammo and then whichever ammo you want to work with.

4. To flip between weapons click on the name of the weapon on the left side.

"Save -> Save As..." will allow you to save a data file with a root name of your choosing. For example if I select a file location and typed in "QM" the resulting files would be "QM.xml" and "QM_gc.xml" that correspond with the weapons and weapons_gc files.

"Update -> Replace" replaces the files that Xenonauts is currently using with new ones based on the data for the weapons that you are currently manipulating.

In case of error...... The files that are replaced by the program are sent to your computer's recycling bin.

Edited by Quartermaster
Updated to display current information 8/28/12
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I'm impressed - that's awesome. It's better than anything we've got at this end!

One quick suggestion for what might be a useful function - maybe allowing an export file for your data that people can just plug into your editor? That way it'll be easy to exchange weapon balance mods on the forum - Sathra's, Belmakor's, your own custom one etc. Possibly you could have several sitting on your hard drive, and you can update all the related game files with just a couple of clicks in your editor (rather than manually copying across all of the related files each tile). Up to you if you think it'd be worth it though.

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The only other change I'd make is having the Single Fire Mode shot accuracy levels (of which there is up to four) as seperate lines with checkboxes for each one (although a checkbox can only be ticked if the preceeding one is checked). Then I'd have the AP cost and Accuracy value for each line beside the checkboxes, with them greyed out of the checkbox is not selected.

Right now the scrollbar-box looks a bit difficult to use. Also, bear in mind some weapons like the machinegun cannot single-fire and there doesn't appear to be a way to manually disable single-fire right now :)

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Looks like a nice piece of work there.

Can you import and export to different files with it?

As Chris says it would be useful to be able to open up the normal weapon files but save to your own separate file.

Also is it possible to add a whole new weapon to the files using this?

A "New Weapon" button to add a weapon.newpistol entry, for example, for you to then alter into whatever you wanted.

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The first step that I am using in this process is to get it to the point where one can edit existing weapons easily. I will release that and then I will begin working on the ability to add new weapons.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I wasn't thinking about the quick load/save method of files yet, but it sounds like an excellent idea which I will include. I'll redo the single shot approach to as I think that will be easier to get values from and ensure that the values are good.

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Holy crap, that's amazing!

This should be made into part of the game proper. The ability for users to fine-tune every weapon to their liking with ease and speed would be a huge advertising point. How many other single-player games grant you that level of control over your game experience?

I'm not sure that would be a good idea. It's an editing tool, if it was bundled in the finished prduct a lot of people would overpower their weapons (to get through the game faster and easier) and lose a large bit of the enjoyment.

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I fail to see the problem with that, personally. It's a single-player game; if you get the most enjoyment out of it when your pistol shots can tear apart walls, more power to you.

Everyone's free to play single-player games their own way, and something like this would only enhance that freedom.

It'll be no less available here than it would be as part of the actual game, so you might as well include it, because the ability to implement your own balance tweaks would absolutely be a huge selling point for the game. How many other games can boast the ability to allow the player to tweak the experience to directly match their own personal tastes and sensibilities?

An editor like this represents an ideal way for Xenonauts to make itself a more attractive option in the face of the Firaxis X-COM remake.

This also offers the potential to "crowdsource" balancing the game, which is something I imagine would take quite a load off of the Xenonauts team themselves.

Edited by TheTuninator
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It'll be no less available here than it would be as part of the actual game, so you might as well include it, because the ability to implement your own balance tweaks would absolutely be a huge selling point for the game. How many other games can boast the ability to allow the player to tweak the experience to directly match their own personal tastes and sensibilities?

True, but if its not bundles people will have to seek it out still. Less chance of people destroying their ejoyment becasue they simply can't balance it. I'm just worried about the marketing effect that will have if people can't properly manage such an effective/powerful tool and give illthought thrugh bad reviews for it.

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True, but if its not bundles people will have to seek it out still. Less chance of people destroying their ejoyment becasue they simply can't balance it. I'm just worried about the marketing effect that will have if people can't properly manage such an effective/powerful tool and give illthought thrugh bad reviews for it.

I honestly don't see how that can lead to a bad review. The only possible scenario I can see is,

"I made some human or alien weapons way stronger in the weapon editor and the game was too easy/too hard as a result", in which case it is clearly the reviewer's fault and not the game's. Any reviewer worth his or her salt would note this, and if they don't the reader can easily deduce that it's entirely the reviewer's fault.

Just add a little popup disclaimer saying "making human weapons noticeably stronger is likely to affect your gameplay experience adversely, proceed with caution" along with a "return to defaults" button, and you're completely fine.

In any case, I think the potential positive PR far outweighs any negative PR that could result from including this editor in the game. Just look at how popular mods are for games like Fallout; people like to have personal control over the game, and this is just about as personal as it can get.

Xenonauts is going to need things which make it an attractive option in comparison to Firaxis' X-COM, and I think this is a great way to start.

Edited by TheTuninator
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I personally think that its their problem if they ruin there gaming experience by making pistols do 1000 damage with blaster bomb explosions or maybe they would enjoy that I believe its a good idea to include it in the package with the previously stated disclaimer.

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I have made some progress since the last showing. I have adjusted the format to remove the table for single fire and it instead presents a series of checkmarks. On the less visible side of things I now have the program loading the sound data and correctly displaying that as a selectable drop down menu. Although I currently have it displaying the speaker next to the sound combo boxes to show that these will be able to be played from this application, this will be one of the last part of this program that will be completed. The next step will be adding the data loading from the weapons.xml and possibly items.xml for the geoscape side of the data for weapons.

Thanks to everyone for the support of this project and I hope that I can make swift progress on this application.

New Look:

RifleDisp_1_6_2012.png

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I'm not sure we'd necessarily include it with the game (unless we put it in a seperate folder somewhere perhaps); but I'm sure we can host the files on the wiki or something so it's easily available for all. Once it's fully-functional, of course :)

But it's certainly looking good so far, Quartermaster! One more piece of logic I'd suggest - if a weapon type is set to normal, the 'Recoil' attribute should be greyed out as this only applies to heavy weapons.

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But it's certainly looking good so far, Quartermaster! One more piece of logic I'd suggest - if a weapon type is set to normal, the 'Recoil' attribute should be greyed out as this only applies to heavy weapons.

At this point, none of the weapons have the 'heavy' type. For example the machinegun is 'normal'. I can't pull them apart until they are delineated that way. Does the engine handle 'heavy' weapons at this point?

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If you don't include it as part of the base game, I'd definitely still suggest that you guys work this into your marketing in some way; a tool like this will be a very nice selling point, as I seriously doubt Firaxis' X-COM will have anything near this level of accessible modding capability.

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So.. when can I download it? :D I just had a peek at the weapon sheet and it seems odd at first glance that lasers have a tenth of the range, but 100x the accuracy of ballistic equalents. I assume this has something to do with how the engine works or some other coding wizardry. That, or the result is largely the same, the very short range doesn't affect it because of the incredible accuracy.

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