Newbie Question about adding ships

[Akuma]

I have created a .mag of a new ship I would like to implement in to the game. How do I proceed step by step, to see a .dat in the MOD options in the game?

[Dragonlead]

If all you have done is create a .mag file, you don't actually have a new ship. The .mag file is just the eye candy. The real meat of a new ship is the .def text file that defines the ship and any weapons it has.

Before you worry about a .dat mod, you should add the "-filesys" extension to your command line prompt. This allows you to add new ships, etc to the game. That way you can change things around as much as you like first. I highly recommend hunting up some of the modding guides for newbies out on the Net. Also, the starshatter home page has a very good beginning guide to what you will need to know to make an actual ship.

good luck

V/R

[Akuma]

Allright, I think I got it down.

Now I find the major problem here being the lack of integrated examples of a fully functional mod. I read about the B5 Hold the Line mod, is it still available somewhere, in non-.dat format, for download? Or any non-.dat, functional mod at all will help greatly.

[DamoclesX]

the galactic mod.. what small parts were done, is being uploaded to ssc right now its un-datted, I dont have time to finish it.

The b5 mod would be nearly 800 megs upcompressed
totaly insane as a download.

[Akuma]

Great! Can you specify the exact location of the Galactic MOD pieces at the SSC? Tried to browse for it, but to no avail.. [&:]

Though I can gladly settle for the b5 mod transfer as well, got a 100/100 server at my disposal with ssh ftp capability. [8D]

[DamoclesX]

if you can set it up Ill upload both to you.

I tryed uploading to ssc but it wouldnt take, that server is usless for uploading

[Akuma]

Excellent. I PM'd you the specs of the server.

[&o]

[Kuokkanen]

Mehrunes has hacked out plenty of parameters and has few DEF examples:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/Mehrunes/ ... dding.html

[Akuma]

Yeah, I've seen Mehrunes's page... However, it does not offer an integrated demonstration of an actually functioning mod, which is absolutely necessary for me. An open-source mod will help a lot more.

For example, it says nothing about mod_info.def. I guess there are a lot of other things that I don't yet know of that stand between me and a functioning mod. And, these other things no-one talks about, I could easily locate in a functional mod.

[;)]

I wonder what happened to Mehrunes' Freespace project..

[Jumppoint]

Ok, found an old ship on my drive, freedom figher. I did not make it but all the files you need are there is it uncompressed as there was not a compression util until afterwards. I downloaded it from an old StarShatter site about a year or two ago. Send me an email at john.limbacher at gmail.com and I will send you the file. Oh if you played the old game Total Annilation it is a fighter from that game.

[Diabolico]

Can I have it please?
Please zip it and e-mail it to starshattercentral@mariopaz.com.

I will convert it and put it for download if you like!

=S=

[Jumppoint]

Three big files are on there way to you.

[Akuma]

Urgh, I guess my school addy has limited attachment capacity, so I created you an FTP account to my computer. I PMed you the specs as well. [:)]

[Diabolico]

I will see to it that they will be hosted properly on SSC! [:D]
Thanks for your work!... All of you!!! [&o]
[:-]We will keep this community alive!!! I make a personal point out of it![:)]

=S=

[Jumppoint]

Just to make it clear, this are ships made by several different people. One is from good old Pheagey and is almost 3 years old, and it is quite powerful. One is from John Edmunds and I am figuring is as old if not older, and the last one I have no clue who built it as there is no readme. Hope you enjoy.

[Akuma]

I would enjoy them, if they just started working when I click to enable them in the MOD config screen. That is the core problem. I don't have a working mod skeleton.

[Jumppoint]

Copy the Quick start shortcut and add -filesys after " that will allow you to run it. I played with it until needed to do some things, I should be asleep but it isn't happening right this moment.

[Akuma]

allright, so i just unzip this freedom package into the root of the starshatter as a directory (~/starshatter/freedom/) and hit "stars.exe -filesys" in the prompt? [&:]

[Jumppoint]

/Starshatter/Mods/Freedomfighter that would do everything you needed. Also Orthadox is a very over powered ship. Fun to fly. Just put your shields up to 100% and almost nothing can kill you. Heck, I sent 20 and I mean 20 Freedom fighters one with heavy ship strike and they only did 50 percent damage to the dang thing.

Your shortcut target should be something like : "C:\Matrix Games\Starshatter\Stars.exe" -filesys
Keep the quotes, they are required.

[Akuma]

I have the MOD unzipped in ~/Starshatter/Mods/Freedomfighter/ , and I ran the game with the string you gave, and excluded the filesys outside the quotes on the command line. I get into the game, klick on options, I see Mods/Freedomfighter/freedom.dat there, I just click on it and enable, apply, and go back to check the Mission screen. Suddenly there are six classes of missions, two of each three - Single Player, Single Player, Multiplayer, Multiplayer, Custom Missions, Custom Missions. However, the "test" mission doesn't appear anywhere. When I go check if the mod is still active, it has been disabled - with a message "Could not deploy 'Mods/Freedomfighter/freedom.dat' - disabling" in the errorlog. What am I doing wrong? [:(]