TShips Discoveries and Listing

[nuclear_eclipse]

UPDATED: 2005-12-22 - Added info, cleaned everything up, and made sure everything is 1.3 compatible.

After spending most of the day working with the TShips file testing and experimenting, I have come to some monumental conclusions that will rock the socks off all you X2 Mod veterans:

1 - There is no specific, required, or hardcoded order of ships or ship types.

This means you can throw your M3 into the slot previously used by an M1 or M2, or vice versa, with absolutely no ill effects! Unlike X2, X3's TShips file is not hard linked to an OBJ file, so TShips slots are no longer directly linked to a specific ship class or anything else!

2 - There seems to be no upper limit on how many TShips slots are available.

Simply increment the second number on the first line, and put your new TShips declaration ANYWHERE in the file, and you are good to go! This is absolutely dazzling news, and means that modders out there can add as many entries as they want to the TShips file without needing to do anything but change the numbers at the top to match!

I have tested this with upwards of 100 extra ship entries, and each and every one of the entries has appeared in the script editor for use in the game!

This means there is no more patchXX business required at all for modding ships into X3. I am hoping that this also extends to TMissiles, TLasers, and TBullets as well, but I won't be able to look into that for another couple days at least. But the importance of this discovery is of great magnitudes!


TShips Entries

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Body ID    
Picture ID
Yaw (1.00000 being 360%)
Pitch (1.00000 being 360%)
Roll (1.00000 being 360%)
Ship Class (*)
TFile Entry (ReadText 17-xxxxx)
Velocity (xxxx / 5  = base, base * 0.10 * tunings = max)
Acceleration (xxxx/10)
Engine Sound
Reaction Delay
Engine Effect
Glow Effect
Reactor Output (xxxx MW)
Engine Volume Low (0-255)
Engine Voulme High (0-255)
Ship Scene File
Cockpit Scene File
Laser Mask (See Below)
Laser Count
Laser Energy (Independent of Reactor)
Laser Recharge Rate  (Independent of Reactor)
Shield Type (*)
Shield Count
Missile Mask (See Below)
Missile Count (when equipping ships)
Engine Tunings (0+)
Rudder Tunings (0+)
Default Cargo Space
Max Cargo Space
Cockpit Body
Turret 1 Body
Turret 1 Name
Turret 2 Body
Turret 2 Name
Turret 3 Body
Turret 3 Name
Turret 4 Body
Turret 4 Name
Turret 5 Body
Turret 5 Name
Turret 6 Body
Turret 6 Name
Docking Slots (+ Internal, - External)
Cargo Type (*)
Race (*)
Hull Strength
Explosion Definition
Body Explosion Definition
Particle Emitter (1)
Ship Variant (*)
--- (50)
Class Description (*)
--- (1)
--- (1)
Turret Count

  //Maulkye's Notes -----------------------------------------

#Gun Mounts    //always +1 for front guns, even with empty
    //Repeat the following for each mount
    Mount#
    Mount#-1
    BodyID
    Path
#Gun Mounts    //always +1 for front guns, even with empty
    //Repeat the following for each mount
    Next Gun Index #
    Number of Guns for this mount
    Mount#
    Number of Hard Points Defined For this mount
        //Repeat the following for # of Hard Points Defined
        Gun Index
        1
        Body1
        Path1
        Body2
        Path2

    //End Maulkye's Notes -----------------------------------------
Volume (0)
Price (~ xxxxx * 50 = ingame price)
Price Modifier 1 (25)
Price Modifier 2 (1)
Ware Class (Keep at 0)
Price again
Race Recognition Required for Purchase
Video ID (0)
Pirate Ship (0=No, 1=Yes)
TShips Entry Name (SS_SH_...)

* TShips Notes

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--- Ship Class ---
- 0=TL
- 1=TS
- 2=M0
- 3=M1
- 4=M2
- 5=M3
- 6=M4
- 7=M5
- 8=Pirate TL
- 9=Pirate TS
- 10=Gonor M6
- 11=M6
- 12=TP

--- Shield Class ---
- 0=1MJ
- 1=5MJ
- 2=25MJ
- 3=125MJ
- 4=1GJ
- 5=10GJ

--- Cargo Type ---
- 0=Tiny
- 1=S - Small
- 2=M - Medium
- 3=L - Large
- 4=XL - Extra Large
- 5=ST - Station

--- Ship  Race ---
- 1=Argon
- 2=Boron
- 3=Split
- 4=Paranid
- 5=Teladi
- 6=Xenon
- 7=Kha`ak
- 8=Unknown
- 9=Gonor
- 15=Race 1
- 16=Race 2
- 17=Race 3
- 18=Terran
- 19=Yaki

--- Ship Variant ---
- 0=Normal 
- 1=Vanguard
- 2=Sentinel
- 3=Raider
- 4=Hauler
- 5=Miner
- 6=Super Freighter
- 7=Tanker
- 8=Tug
- 9=Luxury Cruiser
- 10=Slave Transport
- 11=Military Transport
- 12=XL
- 13=Extended
- 14=7
- 15=6
- 16=1
- 17=2
- 18=3
- 19=4

** Ship Variants do function properly.  Variant 15 is used for BIG super freighters **

--- Class Description ---
- 2016 - Station
- 2020 - Super Battle Ship M0
- 2021 - Battle Ship M1
- 2022 - Destroyer M2
- 2023 - Heavy Fighter M3
- 2024 - Medium Fighter M4
- 2025 - Light Fighter M5
- 2026 - Cruiser M6
- 2030 - Passenger Transport TP
- 2031 - Small Transport TS
- 2032 - Large Transport TL
- 2035 - Pirate Transport TS
- 2039 - Goner Ship
- 2064 - Astronaut
- 2065 - Nav Sat
- 2066 - Squash Mine
- 2067 - Fighter Drone
- 2068 - UFO
- 2080 - Nav Sat MkII
- 2083 - Puller
- 2131 - Kha'ak Cluster

Info about Laser & Missile Masks:

These are binary bit masks, created from a long string of 1's and 0's representing which of a list of lasers/missiles are enabled (1) for this ship. For mods with custom weapons, you'll have to look at the TLasers or TMissiles files to get the exact weapon each number enables, but I've listed all the numbers corresponding to normal X3 weapons. Every line in the TLasers/TMissiles file is represented by a power of two, and for every weapon you want to enable, add its power of two together with that of other weapons you wish to enable, and that sum is your laser/missile mask.

Laser Bits

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1 - AIRE
2 - BIRE
4 - APAC
8 - BPAC
16 - AHEPT
32 - BHEPT
64 - TUG (useless)
128 - AFAA
256 - BFAA
512 - APSG
1024 - BPSG
2048 - GPSG
4096 - Mining Laser (works, but mining doesn't =\)
8192 - AKYON
16384 - BKYON
32768 - GKYON
65536 - Mass Driver
131072 - Ion Disruptor
262144 - APPC
524288 - BPPC
1048576 - GPPC
2097152 - OL (Unknown)
4194304 - X2 M0 KYON (End Fight)
8288608 - Repair Laser
16777216 - APBE
33554432 - BPBE
67108864 - ATERRAN (Unknown)
134217728 - BTERRAN (Unknown)
268435456 - Goner PBE (From Mission 2)

Missile Bits

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1 - Mosquito
2 - Wasp
4 - Dragonfly
8 - Silkworm
16 - Hornet
32 - Disruptor
64 - Mosquito ?
128 - Mosquito ?
256 - Mosquito ?
512 - Firefly
1024 - Thunderbolt
2048 - Tempest
4096 - Hurricane
8192 - Blizzard
16384 - Cyclone
32768 - Tordnado
65536 - Typhoon
131072 - Firestorm
262144 - Aurora
524288 - Remote Guided?
1048576 - Mosquito ?
2097152 - Mosquito ?
4194304 - Rapier
8288608 - Firelance
16777216 - Wildfire
33554432 - Windstalker
67108864 - Banshee
134217728 - Mosquito ?
268435456 - Mosquito ?

[BobVila]

The wondrous accomplishments of our valient modders never fails to amaze me. I look forward to seeing our heroic modders, such as nuclear_eclipse, turn X3 into the game it should have been. Please, keep up the good work.

[StormSinger]

Great news, thanks for all your work.

[Lothmorg]

Wow! That's great news!

Thanks for providing a clean version.

[Sandalpocalypse]

Nicely done.

[AalaarDB]

I've done both scripting and modding of X2. I think it would be much better to leave the tships in the original order, so that all scripts that don't rely on a certain mod will work with all mods. The news that it is appendable is great, and modders should append new ships, even alter old ships, but not replace old with new. I hope you intended your cleaned tships file for viewing purposes only, and am just posting this to clear it up.

[jlehtone]

The most important thing is that it (rearranging) can be done.

I have tried to work with a spreadsheet to import as CSV, but the damn thing has a column limit and the M2 have way too many turrets. Well, import concatenated, transpose and split, skip turret section and transpose back, and lookup humanreadable names results in sort-and-filter view. Naturally, putting it all back together should not be a problem either. I am happy with the read-only version, although checking out some 'typos'/'omissions' is tempting.

Has there been any changes in the content between 1.0, 1.2, 1.2.01?

[JonusITA]

so the only limit on the number of ships in the game is our fntasy... this is absolutely one of the best news so far

like aalaardb i think too that is better to use a stock tships just with the added ships, at least to have the modders speaking of the same object when they say something

[Galaxy613]

Would this be the place to post my findings on the layout of each tShip line?

[nuclear_eclipse]

Would this be the place to post my findings on the layout of each tShip line?

If you could do so, that would be great, and I'll attach it to the first post with credits to you, and I'll get Burianek or someone to sticky the whole thing or put it in the tutorial thread. Then if anything changes with TShips, or more info is found, I'll update the OP with pretinent info.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Updated OP with detailed information on TShips entries, including Laser and Missile masks.

[Galaxy613]

Then my findings won't be needed. Bring on the tShips editor(s)!

[DeadlyDa]

Nuke,

Great work, mate

However, I have to agree with aalaardb on the re-ordering. Basically, anyone who writes a script referencing ships using the type files supplied by Egosoft should feel confident that his work will run on any X3 setup.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the only apparent benefit of reordering TShips is "cosmetic"...to make things prettier for the modder. As you will recall, Doubleshadow's X2Editor would visually re-order TShips to make editing convenient, but leave the structure intact (and compatible with the Egosoft "standard").

I'm not complaining, and the work you have done so far is of huge benefit to every one interested in modding X3. But for myself, and in the interest of keeping my mods compatible with others, I think I'll stick with the original ordering of TShips.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Then my findings won't be needed. Bring on the tShips editor(s)!

Is there anything you found in your experimentations that I don't have specified (namely the --- ones, etc)? If so, I'd like to know so that I can complete the listing as best as possible.

@Deadly, Jonus, and aalaardb, the idea of putting the file into a mod just as I have it was mainly meant for the purpose of learning, although I was also just mentioning that it could be put into a mod if theperson didnt want to deal with the original TShips. But I agree with all of you that maintaining a common set of ships is very important, and I will continue to use original TShips for all of my future mods, including the Syndicate.

[jlehtone]

Updated OP with detailed information on TShips entries, including Laser and Missile masks.

Is this correct?

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Velocity (xxxx / 5  = base, base * 0.10 * tunings = max)

That would be mathematically equivalent to

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Velocity (xxxx / 50  = base2, base2 * tunings = max)

However, when I use

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Velocity (xxxx / 5000  = base3, base3 * (10 + tunings) = current max)

I seem to get correct values.

[Corin93]

nm

[Galaxy613]

Then my findings won't be needed. Bring on the tShips editor(s)!

Is there anything you found in your experimentations that I don't have specified (namely the --- ones, etc)? If so, I'd like to know so that I can complete the listing as best as possible.

@Deadly, Jonus, and aalaardb, the idea of putting the file into a mod just as I have it was mainly meant for the purpose of learning, although I was also just mentioning that it could be put into a mod if theperson didnt want to deal with the original TShips. But I agree with all of you that maintaining a common set of ships is very important, and I will continue to use original TShips for all of my future mods, including the Syndicate.

All I know that you didn't get is that values 49 and 50 are Explodsion and Explodsion particles... the rest of the values are still not known.

[LimeCooler]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this site and bought X3 only several weeks ago. I have an idea for a ship I want to try, but I cannot find these files that are being discussed (Tships, ect) so that I can do the modifications. Where do I look for these? Any help would be nice. Thanks.

[Galaxy613]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this site and bought X3 only several weeks ago. I have an idea for a ship I want to try, but I cannot find these files that are being discussed (Tships, ect) so that I can do the modifications. Where do I look for these? Any help would be nice. Thanks.

First you'll need to extract the 04.cat file (and now because of the patch, the 05.cat file too), if you can't find one look in the X2 scripting and modding stickies. Once extracted look in the new folder "\types", and the tShips.txt file should be there. To see your changes, you need to make a new folder, any name can do, then put a new "types" folder in the one you just created, put your edited tShips.txt file in it, pack it into a .cat/.dat (usually you can do this with the same tool that you unpacked the 04 and 05 with) then put the new cat/dat into the mods folder, select it as a mod when you start up, and play.

Thats just a overview. Please look at all the stickes in this forum and if all else fails look in the X2 Scripting and Modding section stickies about cat/dat unpacking/repacking.

[LimeCooler]

Thanks Galaxy613 for your reply. I will explore the possibilites and have some fun trying.