Topic: ShipEdit & Orion Pirates problems...

[Pbartender]

So, I've long since played through all the campaigns for SFC II & SFC: OP.  Recently, I dug out my OP CD, and reinstalled it just for the sheer joy of destroying enemy ships (I'm rather fond of the Klingons, as you might guess).

I'd been playing around in the campaign for a while, and discovered that no one particular ship exactly suited my fancy.  I downloaded the latest version of ShipEdit and the Orion Pirates beta addition for it, and installed them both.

I played around with modifying the stats of a few ships...  I save the shiplist file to both the Assests and the MetaAssets folders.  The modifications show up in the Vessel Library just fine, and all the mods works fine during a skirmish battle, but...  None of the modifications seems to work right in the Campaigns.

A few things I've noticed, for example:

- Often, the ship's model appears damaged in battle.  I'm not certain if it actually is or not.
- Changes to the ship's turning rate, movement cost and power levels don't seem to take effect.
- I can change the type of weapon in a hardpoint, but the number of weapons at that hardpoint stays the same, even though the ship status UI graphic shows the number of wepons I added...  (eg. I change a single photon torpedo tube into two missle launchers.  In game, two missle launchers are displayed, but only one missle ever fires.)
- The number of shuttles, marines, mines, etc. doesn't change.

It seems like I'm missing something stupid here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what.

All I want to do is cruise around in my customized, souped-up Bird of Prey blasting the smithereens out of unsuspecting Federation flatheads.    

Can anyone help out this poor Klingon privateer?

[Age]

 You will have to copy and paste it over to your  meta/ assetts folder as well both shiplist and fighterlist and save the stock one in a new folder.I hope you saved the stock one in assetts/specs folder as well.This is so you can play online and only stock shiplist and fighterlist are used on GSA and there are mods for the Dynaverse and stock lists are used there as well.I hope this helps you may want to consider the in the Dynavese 2 forum under a subforum Enhancement projects get 3.2 Enhancement Pack. by Pestalence. I hope this helps

[Pbartender]

You will have to copy and paste it over to your  meta/ assetts folder as well both shiplist and fighterlist and save the stock one in a new folder.I hope you saved the stock one in assetts/specs folder as well.This is so you can play online and only stock shiplist and fighterlist are used on GSA and there are mods for the Dynaverse and stock lists are used there as well.I hope this helps you may want to consider the in the Dynavese 2 forum under a subforum Enhancement projects get 3.2 Enhancement Pack. by Pestalence. I hope this helps

Hrm...    That's exactly what I had been doing.  I saved a backup copy of the original shiplist...  Edited the original...  Saved it in both metaassets/ and assests/specs/ (I don't care about playing online...).

I don't think downloading the Enhancement Pack is an option...  Last time I checked, it was a pretty thick file, and I've only got a dial-up connection.  I haven't even downloaded the OP patch, since it would take hours to download.

I'll try again, and see if I can get it to work.

[Bonk]

Might I suggest http://www.stardownloader.com/ here as well?

Also, I reccomend that you open your modded shiplist in Excel (as tab-delimited text) to see just what Shipedit might have done to it. (it tends to add ships on again on the same line instead of editing them where it should). I reccomend modding shiplists in Excel. Insert a new row in a race and copy a valid ship to it and make valid edits to it. (for advanced shiplist editing and QA/QC, the excel autofilter is your friend... though FireSoul uses perl scripts to validate his OP+ shiplist, more advanced again...)

If you don't have Excel, http://www.openoffice.org/ can do it as well.

[Age]

 You can do want Bonk says which is good idea but I didn't read where you said metassetts.When I mod a shiplist I do it in a separate file not in the Game files of Taldren Software/Orion Pirates just someplace else eg. modded shiplist file make file like that then copy and paste the shiplist in there so you will only mod one shiplist.Then you can go ahead and mod it when fineshed make 2 copines and put them into your assetts/specs file as welll as your meta assetts file.This way they will be the same shiplist  on both sides of skirmish and campaign modes.If you don't understand this then do as Bonk suggested use excel.

[Pbartender]

Might I suggest http://www.stardownloader.com/ here as well?

Also, I reccomend that you open your modded shiplist in Excel (as tab-delimited text) to see just what Shipedit might have done to it. (it tends to add ships on again on the same line instead of editing them where it should). I reccomend modding shiplists in Excel. Insert a new row in a race and copy a valid ship to it and make valid edits to it. (for advanced shiplist editing and QA/QC, the excel autofilter is your friend... though FireSoul uses perl scripts to validate his OP+ shiplist, more advanced again...)

Well, I haven't been adding new ships, just editing the ones that are already there.  But it doesn't sound like a bad aidea to take a look at using Excel...  I'd thought about it once, but didn't, because the hundreads of rows and columns made my eyes go buggy.      

Before I started this thread, I saw a post with a download link for a 'ShipEdit Checker' program...  It might have been Firesoul's.  Unfortunately, the link was old, and the file was no longer at the address.  Anybody know of a similar program?

If you don't understand this...

My apologies for being short, but I understand perfectly and it is what I have already been doing.... without success.  Your repeated answer doesn't help.

To add a little data on the problem...  I began testing editing ship's one by one (I'm doing Science!), and so far found the following...

- Edits to the ship's Power shows up in the Vessel Library, but take no effect in the Campaign.  Additionally, changes to the power systems often cause the ship to appear damaged in battle.
- Move Cost changes work fine.
- Turn Mode changes work fine.
- Shield changes work fine.
- Changes to the number of Tractor Beams show up in the vessel library, but do not take effect in the Campaign.
- Changes to the number of Transporters show up in the vessel library, but do not take effect in the Campaign.

I've not had the chance to test any other systems.

[3dot14]

- Edits to the ship's Power shows up in the Vessel Library, but take no effect in the Campaign.  Additionally, changes to the power systems often cause the ship to appear damaged in battle.

Did you start a new campaign everytime you modify something?

[Bonk]

- Edits to the ship's Power shows up in the Vessel Library, but take no effect in the Campaign.  Additionally, changes to the power systems often cause the ship to appear damaged in battle.

Did you start a new campaign everytime you modify something?

Bingo! I think we might have a winner here...    thanks 3dot14!

Shiplist checkers:      

NuclearWessels' (Evil Dave's) shiplist checker:
http://www.dynaverse.net/downloads/sfc2_op/utilities/shiplistchecker.zip
Unzip it in your OP install folder (where StarfleetOP.exe is) and run it.

FireSoul's Models checkers: look under "SFC:OP Models Tester" on http://klingon.stasis.ca/sources_and_utils/

But as 3dot14 suggests, one should start a new campaign with each ship specs modification as ship data is stored in the savegame database. (not necessary for models changes)

[Pbartender]

Did you start a new campaign everytime you modify something?

Not lately.  I had thought of that earlier, and tried it, but don't remember it working.  Lately, I've been modifying a ship available for sale in my save game, since that was the easiest way to check.  I'll modify one of the starting ships for the Klingons or Federation, and try a new campaign again.

Shiplist checkers:      

NuclearWessels' (Evil Dave's) shiplist checker:
http://www.dynaverse.net/downloads/sfc2_op/utilities/shiplistchecker.zip
Unzip it in your OP install folder (where StarfleetOP.exe is) and run it.

FireSoul's Models checkers: look under "SFC:OP Models Tester" on http://klingon.stasis.ca/sources_and_utils/

Thanks for the links...  maybe they'll help shed some light on the problem.


By the way...  I tried Stardownloader.  Even with it, it'll take 12 hours (!)  for my poor dial up connection to download the Enhancment pack.  Oh well.

[Bonk]

By the way...  I tried Stardownloader.  Even with it, it'll take 12 hours (!)  for my poor dial up connection to download the Enhancment pack.  Oh well.

Yes, but you can pause it at will, shutdown the PC and resume the download next time you're online. You can even schedule it to start while you sleep and have it hang up the connection when done... lol, you'd think I was a saleman for these guys... I just like the app.  (I set mine to only initiate one download stream per file as no acceleration is really achieved anyway - just being resumable and immune to random disconnects is worth it)

I downloaded XP SP2 (273MB) with it over my 28.8K connection in several sessions over a couple of days. 

[Pbartender]

Aha!  I now realize why I wasn't seeing changes when I started a new campaign...

I think I was making too large changes.

If I changed the power output by one point...  Increasing the total power of a F-FFL+ from 16 to 17, for example, it works just fine.  More than that, and the Federation game starts you off with a FFG, instead of a FFL+, and you don't see the changes...  Duh!   

I can now confirm that (very small  ) changes to the engine power, transporters and tractors work, when starting a new campaign.  I'm confident any other changes will take place as well, assuming I can convince a shipyard to build my custom ride, and I happen to have enough prestige at the time its built.

Now...  Does anyone know how the Balance and Ship Cost parameters work?  There's only a vague description in the ShipEdit 'manual'.

[Pbartender]

Now...  Does anyone know how the Balance and Ship Cost parameters work?

To partially answer my own question, Balance simply adds or subracts from the BPV, increasing or decreasing the value of the ship, and thereby also adjusting the price of the ship in the campaign.

[FA Frey XC]

Try this:

Make your changes, then launch into a multiplayer game.

Launch as a host and choose an AI.

Choose the ship you modded.

See if the changes are there.

That will confirm your shiplist edits are, indeed, being done.