Modding LU and XRM

[Stucy0071]

Hey guys, I'm running LU and XRM with not too many issues. Alont with the pirate guild and a handful of other scripts/mods. I have about 20ish extra ships (from Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.)... Any who, I haven't noticed any major issues yet (since its a new game). BUT I have ran into one issue, its with the Pirates, most of their ships seem to be indestructible lol.. At least with the frieghters and some fighter ships. Their shields go down, but it's as if any weapon has almost no effect (even from M1/M2s) on the hull!!! Haha it's just a tad annoying that a M2 can't take out a freighter lol
I'm running X3AP and it's upto date. I* can give more info if needed!! Thanks for anyone that can help out!!!
Haha I am aware that you run into more problems when merging mods lol

[Azher23]

BlackArchon i'm am hoping u can help me out i'm trying to Bring over the PBP, and a few other weapons and ships for the Spilt and Xenon how i don't know how to add them to factories or shipyards for the pbp i want to be able to build a Factory to product them oh this is Form XRM to LU anyways can u let me knoe on how i can get this done. Thank You

[BlackArchon]

This isn't too difficult, I tested this with the PALC. What have you got so far? Or what do you want to know exactly?

[Azher23]

Well i wan to get the weapon over just as they have in Xrm with the bullet effect and a factory to produce them them. and i want them in the Equipment Docks to buy. i know i have to make a new XML script For the Weapons and other items i Merge over. and i think or i'm hoping i can get the race resistances on the Weapons by making some changes to the Tcockpit files. my problem is that i can't fine any guides to setting up a factory for custom weapons production so i don't have to cheat them into my game. also how to i get the bullet effects to stay the same

[Azher23]

NVM i Found out what i need to Do in order for the Factory to Work now if u can help me with tansfer of the weapon including effects and sound from XRM into LU that would be great it's the Plasma Brust Projector that i'm truning to bring over i Always hated that the spilt did not have their own Cap weapons

[BlackArchon]

The weapon is defined in TLaser and TBullets. In the following example, I speak about the files from XRM 1.30d. You should read also these explanations about the fields in TLaser and TBulets: http://www.argonopedia.org/wiki/TLaser.txt_%28X3%29 and http://www.argonopedia.org/wiki/TBullets.txt_%28X3%29
It is the line with SS_LASER_PBP in TLaser. On index 6 you find 80453 which is the text ID (this points to "Plasma Burst Projector") in one of the *-L044.xml language files.

The visual weapon effect is stored in its TBullets entry SS_BULLET_PBP on index 0. This points to "effects\weapons\bullet_pbp". You find this file in objects\effects\weapons\bullet_pbp.bob in the VFS. This contains the projectile itself. Now either use a programm which is able to open these files directly to get all further dependencies, or simply open it with a text editor. The first line contains some additional textures which are also responsible for the visual effect. You will find here bullet_pbp.dds and NON_WHITE.DDS. Copy these files from the dds directory of your VFS to your target mod.

Now we have the projectile itself. The projectile's trail is in index 19, 20 and 21 of TBullets. These are indexes for the file types\Effects.txt. Find the corresponding lines there and append these to the Effects from your target mod and change these indexes according to their new position.

The weapon sound effects can be found also in TBullets at index 24 and on index 8 in TLaser. These are indexes to types\Sounds.txt which should also be copied over to your target Sound.txt, and don't forget to change the indexes (this is quite similar to the steps for Effects.txt).

In summary:
For the TLaser and TBullets entry, I suggest to copy both of them to your target files. Don't forget to increase the entry counters at the beginning of all files you change.
After that, you change the indexes of the effects and sounds as I said. Then copy over the weapon effect and its dds files.
Also create a text file entry with the text id for the ingame text.
If everything is right, have a look at some capital ship capable of using Split weapons. You will now see that the "Ion Shard Railgun" weapon entry has an additional entry for "Plasma Burst Projector".

I know that this is an extremely short description of the necessary steps. Please ask more specific questions when you need more detailed information.

[Azher23]

i will and thank u for the response. and what about praticles do i need to pull any info from there.

[Azher23]

i Have the Weapon in Game but i can't seem to get rid of this green tint on the trail it bugging me. Other then that the weapon works almost. i used X3 Editor 2 for the effect/weapon/bullet_pbp i'm Wondering if it left out and of the Extra Effects.

[BlackArchon]

Have you re-checked your Effects.txt and the index numbers from TBullets pointing to the entries there?

[Azher23]

Yes I've checked them three times the tint bugs me but i can get use to it now i'm working on getting the factory running. I think i have to change some of the needed resources to ones LU reconizes one thats done i'm going to work on adding the fac to a shipyard.

[Azher23]

On hind sight the Tcockpits file does not help with limiting the weapon to there on race if u find out how Xrm was able to go it can u let me know where to look and what to look for. i feel that each Race should have something to offer the player as to Play-style and how u would use that races ships.

[BlackArchon]

You have to create turrets (TCockpit file entries) which only uses the weapons of a race you want (like Split weapons only) and then use this turrets on the Split ship entries in TShips.

It sounds as you got the right idea. Just look at XRM's TCockpit and TShips files, there isn't any advanced magic involved.

[Azher23]

Weird when i looked it did not feel like that will do the trick mostly because of the small fighters

[BlackArchon]

Fighters (M5, M4, M3), most M6 and some M7 have a front gun instead of a turret. The weapon compatibility of the front gun is directly defined in TShips, while the turret's weapon compatibility is indirectly defined (index to TCockpits) by the turret ID in the ship's TShips entry.

[Azher23]

I failed At Modding i got the PBP to work but could not get the Anaconda to appear in Game i tried .bob, .pbd, .pbb, and .bod and nothing worked. Or u Modding LU and if so have u been able get a new ship ingame ?

[BlackArchon]

Can you create your ship with Cycrow's cheat package?

[Azher23]

No because LU dos not work with the Plugin Manager. so i just made the script in the Editor. When i loaded the Ship only the docking and Launching Bays Will Appear with the Engine Effects however the hull will Not show.

[Zaitsev]

Comment from the sideline - It's only the plugin manager itself that's incompatible with LU. The cheat package works fine, apart from some station cheats that won't function properly, and if I'm not mistaken you can use the plugin manager to unpack the cheat package .xsp and extract the script and t-folders. Install them as with any other script, and you should be good to go.

Edit: I did a bit of digging, and it appears the most common cause for invisible ships is an error in either the scene file or the textures. I have no idea if that's the case with your ship, but I figured it would be worth a shot.

[BlackArchon]

I also had this effect when I did something wrong with editing Components.txt. I forgot to change the length of an entry there.

[Cycrow]

There is no reason the Plugin Manager should not be compatible with LU, i've had the latest version running perfectly fine with LU when i was testing it