[SadisticSid]

Maybe I didn't do enough searching, but I couldn't find anything on the forum about modularity for third party mods. I had a look at Bridge Commander the other day - some team had replaced all the static structures with a system that loaded in script files for each ship, weapon, script and audio/visual data. Could the same be done for Freespace?

It would mean, for example, that modders could make TBL files for each individual ship or weapon, thus eliminating the need for users to edit their files and introduce hard-to-find typos which broke the parser. If the tables could be broken down into smaller files, and only the error-free ones loaded, it would make problem diagnosis a lot simpler. And of course, it'd be great for newbies to integrate small, single-ship/weapon mods into their existing game.

[Killfrenzy]

The point being?

[diamondgeezer]

He explained the point. Read the post again.

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Diamond Geezer lives in Leicester, England

[Killfrenzy]

I did. Three times. He just seems to be making more work for everyone and this method clutters up the hard drive.

[karajorma]

You`d need a way to turn certain mods on or off and you`d need a way to script that or installing something like TBP would take you ages turning mods on and off.

[Killfrenzy]

Exactly - more work.

[LtNarol]

Good idea for people who play solo missions that use various mini-mods.

Really - and I mean really and truely - hideous notion for larger campaigns which rely on specific mod sets.  Good example: Inferno.

[diamondgeezer]

Originally posted by Killfrenzy
I did. Three times. He just seems to be making more work for everyone and this method clutters up the hard drive.

Oh, absolutely. It's a daft idea for the most part. But he did explain what the point was. It was just a pointless point

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Diamond Geezer can't write C++

[KARMA]

wasn't there the possibility to load mods from different data folders using a commandline? i don't see why you should spend ages installing/disinstalling mods with this system, if you put each mod in a specific directory
this specific tables system would probably make easyer the editing. question is, instead, if this gain is worth the work to make it possible

[karajorma]

To be honest I doubt we need this system. It works fine in I-war II where it lets you replace the ships already in the game but in FS2 a new ship isn`t supported unless someone writes a mission for it (in which case the mission writer will probably distribute tables for the campaign) or if it replaces an existing FS2 ship (which would probably cause all kinds of problems for this system.

To be honest I think it's a huge amount of hassle for the SCP and for the campaign designers and it will only benifit a few transient players (cause most of us already know how to install a mod and for those who don`t I spent several hours working on a section of the FAQ that would explain it).

[LAW ENFORCER]

Oh please stop beating around the bush! And that sheep Stryke9!

Take his idea and put it into large MODs context....
(which im sure someone sugested before)

Just add support from mulitple .tbls in a 'ships folder or somthing, big mods could still use single .tbls/.vps but small mods and testing/mini-mods could use this generic, total and 'copy&paste' less addon function.

Any old (or young in my case) Jedi Master could see the possiblitlitys....

[karajorma]

I disagree. It takes 5 seconds to cut and paste a new table entry. It would take the SCP guys several man-hours if not days to implement this. Time better spent elsewhere I think.

[LAW ENFORCER]

The reson I dont DL much stuff is becasue to get it working I have to spend ages putting it in the .tbls and with weapons, ship, stars, music, etc etc on some things *looks around* ,mabey, this would be nice

It IS much better for bug testing

Your just jelous you didn't think of it first....



if 500,000 people used 5 seconds to cut and apste - thats 2.5 million seconds which is 700 hours.....

if only 10,000 people d/l the MOD thats 13 hours! well worth it!:yes:

if only 1 person d/ls th MOD - its crap... ah damn!:doubt:

P.S. I dont care if you prove me wrong or say anything about relative time and coder's absolute time!

[diamondgeezer]

By the gods, you're an arrogant bugger aren't you?

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Diamond Geezer's favourite colour is grey

[Goober5000]

I'm speechless...



I'm seriously wondering if we should start restricting access to the SCP forum.  Not exclusive to coders only, but rather a permission system, where you have to get permission from an admin for posting access.  Permission would be based on the member's maturity and sensibility elsewhere, and would only affect posting, not viewing.

[diamondgeezer]

Maybe Shrike would allow the 'moderators must approve posts' option? But that'd be a fair bit of bother for Inquisitor and IceFire...

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Diamond Geezer can't work Truespace for love nor money

[LtNarol]

Most ship mods only require that an entry be added to ships.tbl and perhaps sounds.tbl, weapons mods usually only require pasting entries into weapons.tbl and again possibly sounds.tbl.  Unless you're installing a full blown mod pack (in which case you can usually just use tbls they provide), theres nothing to it.

As for debugging, you comment entries out until you isolate the error.  Simple isn't it?  

[CP5670]

How about having something like mission-specific table data? In other words, there would be a section in the mission file itself that specifies any table changes for that mission only, and these settings override anything in the master tables. How easy this would be to implement really depends on how FS2 reads the table info (which I have no idea about); perhaps it could be done in a manner similar to the special explosion or texture replacement functions (or the hitpoint feature that I have been whining about ). The C&C games all have this sort of feature, if any of you are familiar with mission designing for those games.

[Grey Wolf]

CP, do you mean the ability to make a modified ship within a mission? For example, have an Ace's custom modified Herc or something have an extra bit of speed or armor?

Implemented within Fred, that could potentially be a powerful feature for people making campaigns.

[Galemp]

Sounds great. It can be used just like the special explosion editor: special properties. You can set the armor and shield HP and a whole bunch of other stuff...