AtomicTorch Studio Forums

VoidExpanse => Mods => Topic started by: BeLugh on August 10, 2014, 04:55:42 AM

Title: Miners Heaven V0.0.1 available
Post by: BeLugh on August 10, 2014, 04:55:42 AM
Miners Heaven

Download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7nqpxM9uS_wZV92eUVtSTZJYTg/edit?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7nqpxM9uS_wZV92eUVtSTZJYTg/edit?usp=sharing)

How to install the mod?
-Click on the download link above
-on the upper edge of the website click on download
-select download location
-open the downloaded zip-file
-open your Void Expanse installation folder (For Windows it is by default: "C:\Users\%YourUsername%\AppData\Local\AtomicTorchStudio\Launcher\Games\VoidExpanse")
-create a backup of your "ModsConfig.xml" (E.g. rename it to "1ModsConfig.xml")
-unzip the downloaded zip file into this folder
-start the game
-have fun! :)

Title: Miners Heaven
Author: BeLugh
Mod version: 0.0.1
Game version: 0.9.6c
Game mode: SP/ MP (untested)


Description

Miners Heaven is a mod for void expanse which extends the mining part by a large scale making the prospector class really fun to play.

Here are some key features:
-exchanged the 6 ingame ores with 16 real resources:
silicon, nickel, copper, iron, zirconium, silver, gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, water, manganese, helium-3, uranium, iridium and osmium.
-you will not be able to start extracting all minerals. The civilian mining device is only capable of extracting silicon ore and the first real mining lasers are only able to extract silicon, nickel and copper. You should try to find asteroids containing all of this 3 resources to level up faster!
-mining ranged is reduced alot when you start the game. You have to get quite close o the asteroids until you enhance your mining range skill
-mining lasers require a lot of energy to work, this way your fuel tank is not useless anymore!
-The skilltree for mining is exclusive now. It got a complete makeover with some new icons and very special abilities. The ability i pefer most is "silan generator". It converts all freshly extracted silicon into fuel, which extends your mining trips by minutes and always frees your cargo from this cheap ore
-10 different rocky asteroids, 3 ice and 3 lava ones can occur in every system now
-asteroids differ much more in size, although it is not possible yet to make the mineralhold depending on scale as one variable (ResQ) is not working yet
-When mining minerals the amount you extract is random (0.25+random(0-1)^2*0.75) (highest chance for 0.25, lowest chance for 1.00 realized by a square function)

(http://thumbs.picr.de/19168839wj.jpg) (http://show.picr.de/19168839wj.jpg.html) (http://thumbs.picr.de/19168840tv.jpg) (http://show.picr.de/19168840tv.jpg.html) (http://thumbs.picr.de/19168841pe.jpg) (http://show.picr.de/19168841pe.jpg.html)

Plans for next versions:
-adding skills to improve ice/lava asteroid mining (right now i can't differ the types in scripts)
-skills for improved ice/lava asteroid extraction
-more hulls and generators, level resriction for geneators
-higher level equipments and some more skills (to fill the skilltree being able to spend all skill points until lvl 99 in it.
-anomalies: random events when mining. Getting bonus xp, gold, finding special items, spawning pirates, etc...
-debris collector: finally you can collect all those debris and convert it into ores! they have a much higher concentration of metals
-consumable which will spawn a turret to your aid
-cruisers will get a skill to produce turrets which you can spawn. Producing those turrets will cost some ores.
-maybe adding the first heavy cruiser to the game (cargo ship)

Right now the game has enough content to be played up to about level 55

When you have more ideas i can try to add them earlier or later :)
Suggestions are always welcome!!!
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Hellwarlord on August 10, 2014, 10:02:45 AM
Greetings.

This is way better than the default Asteroid-mining system. Awesome work!! I am eager to test that.

Regards,

Hellwarlord.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 10, 2014, 02:27:22 PM
Im sorry to inform you that i decided to polish it up before releasing its first alpha :-) I got stuck with using effects from skills in functions and today i tried playing it. there are still several bugs. also i try to improve the gameplay by adjusting the mining device prices resource prices and experiance gain/ fuel consumption. Btw i made "asteroid mining" to be the only skill a prospector starts with but it costs 100points to purchase to prevent other classes from getting into this skill tree. also i need to create icons for the skills and adjust/expand them.  i also hope to find a way to get rid of glepsite etc in shops without crashing the game
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Hammish on August 10, 2014, 05:37:46 PM
For the last bit, and not getting stuff to show up in stores... should be able to just set the shop level to something high, like 99.  Then shops will no longer attempt to stock it unless it has a special flag (like civilian, ect).
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Lurler on August 10, 2014, 08:37:43 PM
Wow, that seems like fun. Definitely will try it myself when you release it :)
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 10, 2014, 09:50:24 PM
Im honored :-)
Lurler can you please help me with the function problem i have so i can release the mod earlier? i have crated a new effect and wanted to fix the mining experience. both values are changed (i tried it with percent and value) but when i try to read then with getcurrentvalue or getfinalcachevalue they are always 0 i got no chance to read them out after they got increased by skills. but i need to fix at least the mining experience. or is it possible to read out the skoll level in functions?

can you create an example how to do something like this? i bet several modders will get this problem in the future without a tutorial. i know that in calculateship.js you can maximize a value if it is a sum of others to create a current value of their finalcachevalues. bt then the finalcachevalue should be possible to read at least. first i tried mining experience as special like it was and now as instance but both dont work. calculate also didnt work. can you explain it please? :-/
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Lurler on August 11, 2014, 02:47:09 AM
Sure.
Can you show me what exactly you do which isn't working?
Then I will be able to tell you how to fix it to make it work.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 11, 2014, 03:52:55 AM
Sure. Right now i am not at home, so i can't uplaod the script and the xml.

I hope you can help out somehow, Lurler.
I have added an effect  energy_consumption_mining. I have added it to effect definitions (first i tried calculate, then special as well as instance). A skill is created which should decrease the energy consumption of mining by % so i have said it for like 10 levels, each level it should reduce by 2.5%
On the skill summary it is showing correctly, but when i try to use it in a trigger GetCurrentValue(ship_id, "energy_consumption_mining") it always retrieves the value 0 (i even tried to multipaly by 100 as it might be possible that during the GetCurrentvalue it is rounding to integer somehow. As it did nto work i tried GetFinalCacheValue, but it is 0 again.

The same thing i tried for mining experience (as it is not fixed yet ingame, it is not included in the experience calculation, only in skills and effects definitions) GetFinalCacheValue(ship_id,"mining_experience") even mining_experience_special, every try i always received 0. When you fix mining_experience as it is needed anyway and post the script of 0.9.6 for modulemining.js here or on pm i might get the rest on myself, except when something else blocks it.
So either i am missing something, i am using the GetCurrent/GetFinalCache or something in a wrong way or there is even someting else.

I hope you can help out somehow. The earliest time i can upload my files would be in about 5 hours from now.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Hecter94 on August 11, 2014, 05:47:21 AM
I've been waiting for a good mining mod, Prospector seems to be the only real way to play at this point, what with Traders not being able to get Xp, and fighters making such pitiful cash.

It'd be awesome to see the mining system fleshed out a bit.
Now, a question....can modders add ships in?
Because right now, the Endeavor seems to be the best mining ship available....and since you can get it practically instantly....there's no incentive to ever upgrade your hull.

I'm not sure if this is something you could do as a simple modder....but more mining ships would be nice.
I seriously want like....this massive superheavy Planetcracker with thousands of Cargo space and like....six mining lasers that can stripmine asteroids in seconds. :D
That'd be sweet.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 11, 2014, 01:03:05 PM
I have send you an e-mail with the download link Lurler, i hope it helps you to figure out my problem and how to fix mining_experience as well as energy_consumption_mining
i just cant read out those values, they are always 0 no matter what i do. I even tred to make it 1 with a skill, when i read it, it was still 0... so strange. I guess have to insert it in a different way in the bracket of GetFinalCacheValue(.....).
Also i found a bug which noone mentioned so far if i am not wrong.

-When you are out of fuel you do not generate any more energy, thats right. But you can still travel at normal speed and even go in crusing mode....
In my mod fuel is consumed in like a minute and later even faster... There is no point right now in saving some fuel to get back as it only influences your shields and how long you can still go for ore extraction :/

I guess there is no function right now to lower speed/prevent cruising when you are out of fuel.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Lurler on August 11, 2014, 08:14:19 PM
I did check the mod, but couldn't see right away what is wrong.
What I suggest to do, to identify the problem is to run it in server mode to see all the errors.

1. run the server executable, enter "new 1", for example. This will start the game and create a new server world.
2. See if there are any mistakes in data files. Server will notify of any such problems. Fix these if present.
3. When there are no mistakes you can then run the game.
4. Check the mining script, because from looking at it there could be some issues, but that should not crash the game, though.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 11, 2014, 09:39:46 PM
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7nqpxM9uS_wRXlCTkg2UENrVkU/edit?usp=sharing
Thats the log i got when i mined, then i increased skill level of energy_consumption_mining which reduced it by percentage and mined again.
I cant see any error except:
"12.8.14 06:34:20.7485: Important: Input update ignored for the not ready player: ID: 2, Name: BeLugh, ShipID: 15708"
But then it does not explain anything :/
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: Lurler on August 12, 2014, 08:03:59 PM
I simply can't help here. I would have to actually investigate this fully myself in order to help, and that would take away time from development. I simply can't do it.
I can only give my suggestion - try rewriting the script with proper formatting and check against some IDE which will show compile errors if there are for example typos or type mismatch or something similar.
Title: Re: Minerals of the universe (working title) [Miner(Prospector) Mod]
Post by: BeLugh on August 12, 2014, 09:05:17 PM
Ok. just tell me when you guys fixed collisionscipt to include rammish or moduleminingscript to include miningexpertise (+miningexperience%) or addeda function to check level of a skill
Title: Re: Miners Heaven
Post by: BeLugh on August 16, 2014, 03:14:34 PM
Uploaded alpha 0.01 of Miners Heaven, have fun testing :)

Hope to get some suggestions soon!
Title: Re: Miners Heaven
Post by: BeLugh on August 17, 2014, 09:48:14 PM
It would be really nice to get some feedback so i know what to change/improve :-)


I will add some media later in the evening (european time)
Title: Re: Miners Heaven V0.0.1 available
Post by: Lurler on August 18, 2014, 01:49:27 AM
I think it is a very neat mod :)
But now to reinforce the reward-ness of mining you could add some rudimentary crafting system.
For example for the best mining gear or mining busters you might need to talk to some NPC and give him the ore in exchange for these devices.
Title: Re: Miners Heaven V0.0.1 available
Post by: BeLugh on August 18, 2014, 03:46:50 AM
Thanks :)

That is a great idea, i wanted to add some quests lateron anyway and your idea fits best to fill it! It could even be a mining campain to have an alternate ending.
About crafting i had some ideas yet, but only for really basic stuff. But quests could really be used to implement an indirect crafing system.

Adding a workshop on several stations which are accessible like the terminal having quests to offer which represent a crafting recipe.
Additionally you could have a campaign at the terminals contacting people from companies that require certain amount of minerals. Going this way it would even be possible to implement those companies as factions where you gain reputation (relation) until you get higher level quests.

For example:
-First company sometimes grants you access to special (better) crafting recipes
-second one gifts you experimental mining lasers
-third one just pays off in money and experience (but significantly more)

Second example:
Better relation to a company->better devices
-one company could go for energy saving lasers
-second one has better extraction rates
-third one offers mining laser which could also be used in a military way
-...etc
Title: Re: Miners Heaven V0.0.1 available
Post by: Hammish on August 18, 2014, 03:53:29 AM
Quote from: BeLugh on August 18, 2014, 03:46:50 AM
-third one offers mining laser which could also be used in a military way

The most direct way to mine metal, right?  Just strip it off another ship. :D

BTW, one of the things that I always miss seeing in games in this general genre is that it always seems to be a 'mining laser'.  Think you could be enticed into looking at something like mining explosives?  Chuck some on a 'roid and it gives a higher yield over time in exchange for limited charges, if that's possible, or a massive energy cost.  It doesn't matter to me; I just want to throw TNT on space rocks!
Title: Re: Miners Heaven V0.0.1 available
Post by: BeLugh on August 18, 2014, 03:59:55 AM
Hahaha i can try to get that work :)
It won't be that easy but will definitely be fun (even when you would not use tnt in space i guess as you could not collect the minerals anymroe at all then)
But it could be something similar which still gives explosion animations and higher yield ;)