[killface]

Hey all,

Just downloaded the VPs for 3.6.10.  Everything looks FANTASTIC all of a sudden.  But here's my problem.  I made a bunch of changes to ships.tbl, but those changes no longer seem to work in-game.  I have the .tbl file in the mediavps directory with the 3.6.10 stuff.  But no dice.  Anyone have a hunch as to what is going on?

Keep up the awesome work, you guys.

-killface

[eliex]

Did you put the tbl. file in /mediavps/data/tables folder?

[Wanderer]

What did you change and for which ships?

[Droid803]

Make a tbm that overwrites the MVPs, I guess. That's what I had to do.

[killface]

Tried moving the tbl file to data/tables.  It actually caused a crash, so undid that.

I changed names, speeds, weapons, everything.  Really gutted all of those tables, and now none of them are having any effect at all.

Droid, how do you go about making a .tbm file that overrides the MVPs?  I used VPVIEW to took at the tbms in the MVPs and there didn't seem to be anything in particular I could hack...

[Droid803]

Well, read up on Modular Tables, make a xxxx-shp.tbm and copy-and paste your changes there. (Be sure to use +nocreate on things that aren't additions).
You're going to have to put it somewhere (most likely mediavps/data/tables, or your own mod).

[killface]

What's the "xxxx" in that equation?  The wiki article makes it seem like it can be anything, is that right?

[Droid803]

Yep, it can be anything you like.
Given that it is a valid file name, of course.

[killface]

OK, but from what I'm reading, it seems like tbm files merely let you modify or extend existing ship entries.  How do I ADD or RENAME a ship?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Same way you would using a table. 

[killface]

This is driving me bat****!  So I copy and pasted a renamed ship from my old ships.tbl into a file called xxxx-shp.tbm.  I have this modular table in the mod folder, in its data subfolder, and in the main freespace 2 folder for good measure.  No matter what I do or where I put this file, I CANNOT get the renamed ship to show up in Fred2 or in the game.  BUT, if I run fred2 3.6.9...everything still works.  WTF???  What am I doing wrong?

[Wanderer]

Can you post the contents of the tbm (as well as the name of the file) here? (use code tags for example)

[killface]

Alright.  This is file "Alpha-wep.tbm", the example shown on the wiki page.  This DOES work for me:

#Primary Weapons
$Name:              @Subach HL-7
     +nocreate
$Velocity:         650.0   
$Trail:
     +Start Width:      0.4
     +End Width:        0.0
     +Start Alpha:      0.35
     +End Alpha:        0.0
     +Max Life:         0.2
     +Bitmap:           Contrail
#End

And THIS is "Alpha-shp.tbm", my attempt to import a made-up ship for the purposes of testing.  It's located in the same folder as the example above, /data/tables.  This DOES NOT work for me:

#Ship Classes
$Name:                          CIF Spitfire
$Short name:                    TFight2t-03
$Species:                       Terran
+Type:                          XSTR("Interceptor", 2981)
+Maneuverability:               XSTR("High", 2982)
+Armor:                         XSTR("Average", 2983)
+Manufacturer:                  XSTR("Rock in the Sky Defense", 2984)
+Description:               XSTR(" ", 2985)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR("Blah", 2986)
$end_multi_text
+Length:                  17 m
+Gun Mounts:               1
+Missile Banks:               2
$POF file:                      fighter2t-03.pof
$POF target LOD:      0
$Detail distance:            (0, 80, 300, 900)
$Show damage:               YES
$Density:                       1
$Damp:                          0.20
$Rotdamp:                       0.40
$Max Velocity:               0.0, 0.0, 195.0                  ;; in x/y/z -- z only specified forward.  use special tokens for backward movement
$Rotation time:               3.5, 3.5, 3.5
$Rear Velocity:               0.0
$Forward accel:               1.8
$Forward decel:               1.3
$Slide accel:               0.0
$Slide decel:               0.0
$Glide: YES
$Expl inner rad:            50.0
$Expl outer rad:            150.0
$Expl damage:               50.0
$Expl blast:               1000.0
$Expl Propagates:            NO                       ;; If set to Yes, then when the ship dies, the explosion propagates through it.
$Shockwave Speed:            0.0                      ;; speed shockwave expands at, 0 means no shockwave
$Allowed PBanks:            ( "CMI 71-KEC" "CMI 71-KECWEAK" "CMI 71-KECMISS" "Akheton SDG" "Morning Star" "Prometheus S" "Prometheus R" "UD-8 Kayser" )
$Allowed Dogfight PBanks:         ( "MorningStar D" "Prometheus D" "Maxim D" "Circe" "UD-D Kayser" )
$Default PBanks:            ( "CMI 71-KEC" "CMI 71-KEC" )
$PBank Capacity:            ( 1000, 1000 )
$Allowed SBanks:            ( "CDC Stinger"  "Tempest" "Harpoon" "Trebuchet" "Stiletto II" "Infyrno" "Hornet" "Tornado" "Hornet#Weak" "EMP Adv." "TAG-A" "TAG-B" )
$Allowed Dogfight SBanks:         ( "Tempest D" "Harpoon D"  "Tornado D" )
$Default SBanks:            ( "CDC Stinger" "Harpoon" )
$SBank Capacity:            ( 5, 5 )
$Shields:                          0
$Shield Color:            100 100 255
$Power Output:               20.0
$Max Oclk Speed:            218.0
$Max Weapon Eng:            150.0
$Hitpoints:                        295
$Flags:                         ( "player_ship" "default_player_ship" "fighter" )
$AI Class:                      Captain
$Afterburner:               YES
   +Aburn Max Vel:         0.0, 0.0, 531.0
   +Aburn For accel:       0.8
   +Aburn Fuel:            330.0
   +Aburn Burn Rate:       40.0
   +Aburn Rec Rate:        1.0
$Countermeasures:         15
$Scan time:                 2000
$EngineSnd:               126                   ;; Engine sound of ship
$Closeup_pos:            0.0, 0.0, -30
$Closeup_zoom:            0.5
$Shield_icon:            shieldft-03
$Ship_icon:                 iconfighter2t-03
$Ship_anim:                 ssfighter2t-03
$Ship_overhead:            loadfighter2t-03
$Score:                  14
$Max decals:         10
$Trail:
   +Offset:      6.51 -1.76 -3.37
   +Start Width:   0.25
   +End Width:      0.05
   +Start Alpha:   1.0
   +End Alpha:      0.0
   +Max Life:      1.0
   +Spew Time:      120
   +Bitmap:      Contrail01
$Trail:
   +Offset:      -6.51 -1.76 -3.37
   +Start Width:   0.25
   +End Width:      0.05
   +Start Alpha:   1.0
   +End Alpha:      0.0
   +Max Life:      1.0
   +Spew Time:      120
   +Bitmap:      Contrail01
$Trail:
   +Offset:      0 -4.30 -5.08
   +Start Width:   0.25
   +End Width:      0.05
   +Start Alpha:   1.0
   +End Alpha:      0.0
   +Max Life:      1.0
   +Spew Time:      120
   +Bitmap:      Contrail01
$Subsystem:                     sensors,                        10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     communications,         10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     weapons,                        10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     navigation,                     10,0.0
$Subsystem:                     engine,                         35,0.0
#End

[Wanderer]

Have you enabled more ships? As there is a limit for ship classes in the game and after all the various fs2 ships there is not much room left (there is room for couple of ships though). Also did you actually enable the ship in the mission file?

[killface]

Yeah, the ship is among those listed in the mission file.  The bigger issue is, that when I open FRED2 or Freespace 2 3.6.10 versions, neither program recognizes ANY changes I've made to ships.tbl or the tbm file.  Nothing I add, delete or edit has an effect, it's just pulling stuff straight off the original, unedited versions and I can't figure out why.

[Wanderer]

Use the launcher to select debug build.  Run your mod/mission (just enter the mission and quit). Find 'fs2_open.log' file from the data directory of the main freespace dir. Post it here (prefereably with code tags).

[killface]

OK, apparently the log file is too large to attach?!?!  (1435 KB) I didn't even get into the mission anyway, it just crashed on the attempt.  The log file does seem rather large, though, I'm not sure what can be gleaned from it.  Is it supposed to be 2100 pages long when pasted into Word?  I doubt it.  I'd love to post the code tags, but, uh, what are those and how do I find them?   

[Droid803]

They're [-code-] (minus the dashes)

[Jeff Vader]

Or alternatively one of the buttons above all the smilies. The one that has a #.

[Wanderer]

Or make use of pastebins

like... http://www.hard-light.net.pastebin.com/