Hard Light Productions Forums

Hosted Projects - Standalone => The Babylon Project => Topic started by: mark12 on June 02, 2008, 09:39:03 am

Title: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: mark12 on June 02, 2008, 09:39:03 am
1st of all I want to thank all those people who created this absolutely amazing mod, I was simply blown away with your efforts. thankyou

What I would like to know is how do I change weapons on ships, I used vpviewer and extracted the files to the "tables"
directory from the b5-core-3-4 file. and go in using notepad and change a weapon, only to have it not change in the game.
It seems to still get the information from the vp core file.  Is there a program that allows you top list a vp tables file and then edit it, and then use it in the game and fred editor.  I also started an excel file listing all weapons and ships stats in the babylon5 project game and intend to offer it to the forum when complete, thanks , Mark

Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 02, 2008, 09:44:32 am
Nope. You need three different programs.

VPView 2.0 to extract.
Notepad to edit.
VPMake to rebuild.

Oh and distribute your modified tables to other players and I will personally kill you ;). If you're doing this for your own entertainment though knock yourself out and have fun.
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: terran_emperor on June 02, 2008, 01:39:24 pm
Actually id recomend VP Mage for extraction. Using Vp view on the TBP core results in corrupt files
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 02, 2008, 02:37:23 pm
VPMage won't work.
Using VPView 1.3 results in corrupt files.
Using VPView 2.0 results in perfectly extracted files.

Check your facts.
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: mark12 on June 03, 2008, 07:21:39 am
Hi again, thanks for the responses but I need more help,

when I use vpview to extract it won't select entire directories, only the tables, so using your above suggestion
I would extract the tables directory, use notepad and change ships, ok, but how do I put it back together
do I have to extract every directory one by one, what command would put it together with the other existing tables, any help
is greatly appreciated, and yes this is for my own use, however I will publish in excel form the changes I
did since I am a long time player and fan of babylon5 wars miniature game, thanks, Mark

Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 03, 2008, 08:09:14 am
when I use vpview to extract it won't select entire directories

True.

do I have to extract every directory one by one

Yes. But there's only about ten of them. Stop being lazy :P.

, what command would put it together with the other existing tables,

To rebuild the VP, or build a new VP, use VPMake. Next question? Where do I download VPMake. Good question. I don't know. Do a search for it in the forums.

But why build a VP, if you are just hacking the tables for your own use then drop your modified tables in the data/tables directory and they will override the official tables in the VP file.

As you are not sharing your modified tables with other people this solution is fine. Just don't complain when things break due to changes you have made :P.
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: mark12 on June 03, 2008, 08:15:37 am
this is the whole problem, I don't want to make vp files, but when I put the tables in the data/tables directory it does not
seem to use them, or at least when I use fred it does not grab the changed defaulted weapons for the ships, thanks, keep the suggestions coming, Mark

Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 03, 2008, 08:21:53 am
Then you're doing it wrong. Since the dawn of time itself placing a table file in data/tables has overridden those in the VP. I remember it causing the original TBP team leader, Adam (of Eve fame), no end of support problems.
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: terran_emperor on June 03, 2008, 08:26:43 am
@IPA
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,53863.0.html

Okay...VPView 2.0 crashes when attempting to open the Core Vp. using 1.3 resulted in my problems in the thead on the other end of this link.
Also, attempting to open Additional-shp.TBM after using 1.3 resulted in the files being in gibberish

Using QuickVP, on the other hand worked fine when extracting files, meaning i didnt get these problems
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 03, 2008, 08:34:30 am
Okay...VPView 2.0 crashes when attempting to open the Core Vp.

Really? How strange. I could have sworn I used VPView 2.0 repeatedly to extract all the files from the VP in order to rebuild new versions of the mod. Thus resulting in the core file you see in your directory.

I guess that was all a dream.

 :eek2:

 :shaking:
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 03, 2008, 08:35:42 am
Maybe you should ask for a new extractor program?  :nod:
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: terran_emperor on June 03, 2008, 08:42:52 am
QuickVP allows extraction of files within the VP. it can also be used to edit existing VPs or make new ones
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 03, 2008, 09:10:46 am
Never even heard of that one. Where can I download? :)
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: mark12 on June 03, 2008, 07:54:33 pm
ok, so now i used quickvp and deleted the ships.tbl and advships.table that fred2 uses in the b5-core-3-4 file, and set them up in the data/tables directory, fred2 still calls up the info from somewhere else, I went in and modified the vorchan to have no weapons
other than twin arrays as a test and it always comes up using fred2 as ion cannon and palos missiles, just where is this info being pulled from if I deleted the tables, and adjusted the other tables in data/tables, any help is GREATLY appreciated., Mark

Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: terran_emperor on June 03, 2008, 08:29:44 pm
QuickVP view can be found here:

http://scp.indiegames.us/download.php?view.124

Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: IPAndrews on June 04, 2008, 04:02:53 am
It's loading a different ships.tbl file.
Title: where in gods green earth does fred2 get its ship weapons files from?
Post by: mark12 on June 04, 2008, 08:41:11 am
ok, so after the last post, I extracted all files to their data directories, erased the b5-core-3-4.vp file, checked all other
vp files, and have the ships.tbl and advships.tbl files in the data/tables directory, now everytime I load up fred2 and select vorchan
it displays the same old weapons everytime, it's driving me crazy, I need your help, please, Mark
Title: Re: need help with babylon project 3.4 changing ship tables please
Post by: karajorma on June 04, 2008, 09:32:51 am
Which one are you editing? Cause the game won't pay the blindest bit of notice to advships.tbl.

EDIT : And while I'm at it, why are you editing the tables just to change a capships weapons? You can do that from in FRED you know.