Modding Tool [1.1.0 Released!]

[Sabranan]

With Revision 5 I'm at a stage where the policies form is looking pretty good. It now works, and even allows you to output data!

[Drybreeze]

I have had DWU working for awhile and have had some success in modding it (just started).
I found this thread and thought I'd give your program a go.
I downloaded and went to install this tool to try it.
Windows began downloading a huge file while installing the Microsoft NET framework. Since I have a very limited monthly internet cap I clicked "cancel" and it informed me helpfully that it would stop once it had finished... useful.
So the NET framework finished downloading and installing, and then prompted me to restart. I can open the launch menu fine by clicking "play" in steam, but DWU won't do anything when I click "Play Distant Worlds" on the launch menu.

I can't uninstall it and re-install it because steam tells me I'll have to re-download all the files again... (again: very tight download limit on my internet plan). So... yeah... I'm a bit miffed. Any suggestions on what I've done wrong or how to fix it?

[Sabranan]

Hi Drybreeze, sorry you’ve had such a bad experience with it!

Sadly, I don’t get much control over how the setup program works because Visual Studio automatically generates it and having the .NET framework is a prerequisite of running the mod tool.

That said it can be interrupted by killing it in task manager or disconnecting yourself from the internet.

Reading the rest of your post though I’m not clear on whether you’ve actually run the tool and had it output files? There’s no way it could have caused an error like that just by installing it so I’ll work on the assumption that you’ve loaded up a mod in it and run the output command.

The situation you describe can happen when DW can’t load up a file, but it should store a crash log in:

%appdata%\Code Force Limited\Distant Worlds\1.9.5.12\DW crash log.txt
or
%systemdrive%\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\my games\Distant Worlds Universe

That file should mention the name of the .txt file that it failed on and the line number of the file, which you can then open to see if it’s done something wrong.

It would be useful to have a copy of the file that caused the problem (you can just zip it and upload it here), the line number it failed on and the exact name of the mod you were using. That way I can fix whatever caused it.

[mordachai]

Great work!

A request: that the form windows be resizeable and that the table-views (or whatever they're called - your controls within them) respond to resizing - which would reduce the issues of large forms. Big monitors require big windows

Really nice. I had a CTD a couple days ago when just playing around to see what the interfaces looked like - some drop-down. Sorry - it happened quickly (CTD without error message - just blink - gone). I wasn't focused on anything in particular, so I don't even recall where in the app I was...

[Sabranan]

Thanks mordachai, I quite agree that it would be better if it was responsive to different sizes but that's something I'll have to do some research on before I can implement. It is something I intend to do, but not until my second pass over all the forms which will start to happen when I get up to 0.2.0. Right now I just want it all functional.

Regarding the crash, I have experienced this a couple times while debugging and I'm honestly not sure what causes it. It's always with the drop-down boxes, but it doesn't seem like anything should be causing it to crash and the debugger doesn't report any error message, it just stops. If you manage to find a way to consistently reproduce that problem, I'd sure like to know about it!

[mordachai]

I'll let you know. I haven't really played with it since - been onto other things for the moment. Resize is nice - but if it's a whole line of research for you - then not worth it - more of a "if it's easy, it'd be nice."

Funny - my code toolbox includes good resize support - but lacks even serviceable drag & drop support.

[Drybreeze]

Hi again,

I have discovered where I went wrong, and it was entirely my own fault (bad modding format in the resource.txt) which causes the game to launch once, show the error, and if the error isn't addressed the next time you run it, it simply doesn't load. The error can be found in the \Documents\My Games\Distant Worlds Universe folder, in the file "DW_CrashDump.txt" which conveniently tells you exactly where the problem is, right down to the last line number and problematic variable. Snaps for awesome mod-friendly programming, Slitherine!

So yeah, total coincidence that it was while trying to install your program Sabranan! Sorry about that!

EDIT > your response and Slitherine's support email both contained the same pointer, so thanks again!

[Sabranan]

Splendid news Drybreeze!

I'm now done on first pass for the policies form, so I've just published 0.1.2. Next up is characters. Should be a fairly simple form, each line only has 15 variables as opposed to the 162 that the policy files have!

As always I'll publish new revisions as I get new bits of the characters form working, but it won't be included in the output to disk until it's actually functional.

[Sabranan]

Published revision 3 for 0.1.2 today, so you guys have a look at how the characters form is coming along. No file output yet but I'll get there! The form itself works pretty nicely, although I do find it a little annoying that you can only examine one line at a time. Will have to come up with something so you can at least see the names of the others.

[Shogouki]

Even with Stellaris on the horizon I'm extremely excited about this. Excellent work Sabranan and thanks!

[Sabranan]

Just published revision 4 and the Characters form is now about done. It now outputs along with everything else and I've made it so when you open up the Character ID drop down box it'll show you the names of your characters. That should make it easier to switch between them if you've got more than a handful of characters per file.

[Sabranan]

Finally found some time to do some debugging, and pleased to say that the characters form seems to be working perfectly. If anyone finds any issues with it please let me know, but as it is I present 0.1.3 in the OP.

As always, you shouldn’t need to re-download the setup if you have a previous version that’s at least 0.0.6. Just run the program from your start menu and it’ll auto-update.

I've not been able to get online as much as I'd like due to working a lot of extra hours (my manager being on holiday this week), but the nice thing is I’m on holiday next week, so plenty of time to work on the dialog form for 0.1.4!

[Sabranan]

Ok, just published revision 1 of 0.1.3, there's no actual form or code changes but it targets .NET framework 4.0 instead of 4.6.1, so there should no longer be a need for a large download as long as you're running Windows 8 or 10. Windows 7 comes with the 3.5 framework so that or any prior OS will still require an update, but targeting those frameworks causes lots of issues to show up.

Thanks to Drybreeze for getting me to think about that!

I suspect you'll need to redownload the updated setup in my OP to be able to skip the .NET download, but the setup is only ~500 KB so it shouldn't cause any issues with metered connections.

For those of you who have already got the 4.6.1 framework, you don't need to do anything. It's entirely backwards compatible so it should continue to run as per normal.

[Drybreeze]

Hotness.
/me downloads and trials.


EDIT > Just installed fine (super fast) no issues whatsoever.

Feedback:
Wow. Just wow.

First of all, it immediately notified me of an error in the Picard Era Mod that I pointed at, which is in Benzite.txt (race folder) - the variable:

CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader ;0.6

was incorrectly written in the file as

CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader 0.6

Very convenient - I haven't looked at this file at all yet, and your program directed me to exactly what the problem was and how to fix it. Nice work.

Then I've opened up research.txt to view it, and the way your editor allows me to cross-link parents and set resources and all this stuff from pop-down menus. Yeah, wow. Thanks soooo much for making this, it's going to make life so much easier.

EDIT 2 > One bit of improvement feedback - your program only allows 5 resources per component. I know that the TXT file says "maximum of 5" and no doubt that's why you've done it, but trust me when I say that the maximum is in fact 6. On every component. If you could please adjust it to allow that, otherwise my component.txt would in fact go backwards using your program. Over half my components use 6 resources (and honestly I wish I could have more but sadly the game actually doesn't allow more than 6). I have no idea why the text file remarks say there's a max of 5 when in fact it's 6, but test it, it's true.

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Drybreeze

...First of all, it immediately notified me of an error in the Picard Era Mod that I pointed at, which is in Benzite.txt (race folder) - the variable:

CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader ;0.6

was incorrectly written in the file as

CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader 0.6

Hello Drybreeze;

Just FYI, the aforementioned error was in an early test version of our Picard Era Mod version one, based on
DW Universe version 1.9.5.6a. If you've used any files from that mod version as a reference model, I suggest
you download the latest current version of our Picard Mod here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/wkok33ub14ouixv/DW+Universe-STPE+Ver+2.zip

I wouldn't want to see you waste time hunting an error from an outdated mod file you may be using for reference in the
fine work you're doing.

In the DW release version onward I used (1.9.5.10), the section of the Benzite race text file you reference shows:
"'random character appearance chance: Minimum=0, Normal=1.0, Maximum=3.0
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceLeader ;0.2
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceAmbassador ;1.2
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceGovernor ;1.2
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceAdmiral ;0.8
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceGeneral ;0.8
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceScientist ;1.3
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceIntelligenceAgent ;1.1
CharacterRandomAppearanceChanceShipCaptain ;1.2
CharacterRandomAppearanceChancePirateLeader ;1.0"


During DW Universe beta testing, we found out that syntax errors such as the aforementioned (missing semi-colons
or commas for instance), causes game crashes if/when a command request requires interaction with a bad text file
(particularly within the 'biases', 'character' and 'races' file).

Please keep your excellent modding ongoing! [:)]

[Drybreeze]

Oh I had no idea I was using an outdated mod!
The current one must be amazing because the one I'm using is already excellent.

Thank you for your kind words... I hope I can produce a mod even a fraction as nice as yours.

[Drybreeze]

After having tested your modding tool for awhile today, I have noticed a few things as potential improvements for your tool:

1) It likes to add the following line in research.txt entries

COMPONENT IMPROVEMENTS ;3,

For example:

PROJECT ;6, Cyclic Firing Sequencing, 3, 1, 0, 19, 0, 0.0,
COMPONENTS ;3
COMPONENT IMPROVEMENTS ;3,
PARENTS ;379, N

...and also blanks which the game doesn't like:

COMPONENT IMPROVEMENTS ;, , , , , , , ,

...which I must manually edit out of each entry it's added it into before the game will launch.

2) It doesn't add a comma after resource #9 in resource.txt, which means again I have to manually go through and add this on any entry that I've made 9 distrubution points for.

3) The modding tool outputs files (over-writing my own) even if I haven't edited them in the modding tool... for example resources.txt. It would be nice if it only output files that I actually modified in the tool, so that I didn't need to manually correct any issues it's written into files that I didn't use it to edit in the first place.

Even with these minor issues your tool makes things far simpler to address... just with a bit of "after editing" cleanup. It's a very nice tool.

[Sabranan]

Hey Drybreeze, firstly, thank you so much for providing actual feedback! I've only had one other user do anything similar via PM, and this has been an issue. I've been the only one who really tests the tool and naturally I end up biased or missing potential opportunities.

1) Can you upload a research.txt file that ends up outputting the behaviour you describe? My own ones don't seem to do this.

2) I've changed a bit of code that could well be responsible for this, but again, in my own resources.txt I don't see this behaviour. Can you try it out and if it's still leaving out the comma let me have a resource.txt to play with too?

3) Done! I’ve stuck checkboxes next to the form buttons on the main menu, and some buttons to manipulate them on mass (select all, none or invert). For now, they automatically check themselves when you open a form, but you can manually alter them for any form that’s loaded into the program.

I will at some point deal with the components being able to accept 6 resources too, but that’ll require more work and will have to wait until Monday. I’ve got to get ready for work now!

That gives us revision 2 of 0.1.3, which I’ve just published. When you next run the tool it should ask you if you want to update, do so and it’ll let you see what I’ve changed.

[Capshades]

Oh I'd be happy to help with feedback, I was just going to wait until you have all components of the mod building process finished before trying to use it to work on my own mod.

[Sabranan]

Well, I couldn't sleep so I've gone ahead and sorted the component form so it can accept 6 resources and published it as revision 3. Couple bugfixes I noticed in the research form too, but sadly I still can’t reproduce the issue with it putting random COMPONENT IMPROVEMENTS lines in. If you can find a way to consistently reproduce that behaviour I’d like to know!

@Capshades

I understand that, I don’t expect that people will use it to build mods just yet. Still, as I’m building it is an ideal time to get in there with feature requests or feedback on ease of use etc. Ultimately it’ll be you guys using it, so it’s in your own interest to let me know what would make things easier for you to actually mod!