[A16] Rainbeau's Other Mods - Editable Backstories, Smooth Stone Walls, and More

Started by dburgdorf, February 22, 2017, 01:01:16 PM

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dburgdorf



Last update: 4/15/2017

"Editable Backstories Lite" is a trimmed-down version of my "Editable Backstories" mod. It allows you to add new backstories and names to your game, but doesn't allow you to edit or delete anything from the default backstory database.

- Rainbeau Flambe (dburgdorf)


Steam Workshop Link

Dropbox Link

Compatibility:

"Editable Backstories Lite" can be safely added to a saved game, but if you remove it from a game in progress, every pawn in the world with one of your new backstories will end up with a randomly-assigned backstory to replace it.

So far as I know, it should be compatible with any other mod out there.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



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AngleWyrm


Quote from: dburgdorf on April 02, 2017, 06:32:35 PM
- Added a TraitDefs file with a revised def for the Pyromaniac trait, making it much less common.

Way to go on a major update!

Can the traitDefs system be used to reveal all the available traits?
And probably harder, can the traits added by enabled mods be gathered into such a set?
If such a file existed, it could become part of a drop-down selection box so that backstory authors could choose a valid trait.

P.S. Added the skills adjustments section to the backstories editor tool
My 5-point rating system: Yay, Kay, Meh, Erm, Bleh

dburgdorf

Quote from: AngleWyrm on April 03, 2017, 04:13:48 AMCan the traitDefs system be used to reveal all the available traits?

Traits are all defined in XML files, so they're not hard to locate. Vanilla traits are all listed in the new, improved documentation for "Editable Backstories." If a particular user has other mods that add traits, they can find those traits' names in the XML files of the mods that add them.

As far as your question about automatically adding traits to some master list, I'm sure it's possible, but it'd require reading through a lot of files in subfolders of both the workshop and mods folders, looking for anything that adds traits, and probably cross-referencing the sources of those traits against the mods list file to figure out what's currently active and what's not.  Far simpler, I think, to just let users add any traits manually that they actually want to include in backstory defs.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



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Pokk720

Quote from: dburgdorf on April 02, 2017, 09:00:25 PM
Quote from: Pokk720 on April 02, 2017, 08:03:43 PM
Is there a way to change the rate at which thin body types show up? I've disabled it from every back story yet still half of my colonists show up with it.

At the moment, no. The body type thing was a change I made sort of on a whim when I started working on this update, then forgot about in the midst of working on other stuff. It doesn't really work as well as I'd hoped it would. If I don't revert it completely, I'll at least make sure that the random body type assignment only applies to backstories with legitimately undefined body types, and not to those with generic "male" or "female" body type definitions, which is what's happening right now. I'll try and get that done tomorrow.

Cool beans. I had it set up where adult males never got the thin body type, I wanted it to be reserved for women and teenagers but the randomization makes it a little hard for me to differentiate between genders and adults or teens again..

Dragoon

Quote from: faltonico
I truly can't understand that sense of balancing a LOT of modders have, pouring more resources on something doesn't make it more difficult, but more annoying. It is not engaging, even if i'm swimming in silver at late game ¿why to bother?, why all the effort to get there?.

AngleWyrm


Quote from: dburgdorf on April 03, 2017, 09:36:35 AM
Traits are all defined in XML files, so they're not hard to locate.

Searching through the dark and mysterious mods folder for the elusive duck-billed <TraitDef> netted 80 hits in 9 files on my current loadout. Quite a haul.

This may be a task I can accomplish through xsl.
My 5-point rating system: Yay, Kay, Meh, Erm, Bleh

dburgdorf

Editable Backstories and Editable Backstories Lite have both been updated.

Update to "Editable Backstories":

- Pawn body types, if not defined in backstories, will now simply default to "male" or "female," rather than being randomized. (Vanilla behavior has been restored.)

Update to "Editable Backstories Lite":

- It is now possible to create linked name-childhood-adulthood sets.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



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Pokk720

Just to clarify, you got rid of the randomization entirely? I think it's a good feature, just the rate at which it randomized was too high and it also seemed to heavily favor one body type over the rest. I appreciate this patch, however I would like to see the randomization return again later if you work out a way to make it more customizable or something.

AngleWyrm


Quote from: Pokk720 on April 05, 2017, 01:14:26 AM
Just to clarify, you got rid of the randomization entirely? I think it's a good feature, just the rate at which it randomized...

Personal taste differs between players, and so the best thing we can do is place the ability to make such adjustments in the hands of those who have a wish one way or another. Such is the nature of modding.

It's also useful where demands are made irrespective of audience, which comes up in arguments over censorship and artistic expression, half-baked opinions on copyright and licensing issues, and variants on the theme of my way vs your way.

The mechanism of *.XML files makes it easy to edit values, so that is a great way to provide opportunity to customize the experience. A more expensive way if there's only a small handful of settings is to provide input controls on the Options/Mods menu.
My 5-point rating system: Yay, Kay, Meh, Erm, Bleh

dburgdorf

Quote from: Pokk720 on April 05, 2017, 01:14:26 AMJust to clarify, you got rid of the randomization entirely?

I'm afraid that's the case.

What I'd done originally was set it so that any background attached to a normal male or female body type would end up randomized. Roughly half stayed at the default, about 40% became thin, and the others became either fat or hulk. But that obviously wasn't optimal, as there are plenty of cases where you might specify a default body because you *want* a default body, and not because you don't care what body type the pawn has.

What I'd planned to do in the update was just set it so that backstories without a body type definition were randomized, but others stayed as they were assigned. The problem I ran into trying to do that, though, is that when I tried to read backstories from XML into the game's actual database without making sure that body types were all defined, my error log got spammed with "no body type defined" messages. And the game imposed defaults, such that when pawns were actually created, there *were* none with undefined body types.

I'll dig further and see if I can come up with a workaround, but for the moment, yeah, the randomized body types are completely gone.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



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Lethe

So, I marked a wall for smoothing. Then I changed my mind and marked it for mining and I forced a pawn to mine it. A granite chuck appeared in the stone's place. It still had a smoothing icon in it. A pawn came by and smoothed the wall, a granite wall appeared in its place. The was granite chuck still there.

Free wall.

Tried repeating it and it's repeatable. You can mark a wall for both smoothing and mining, if it's mined first and even if there's nothing left in it's spot (completely empty) it doesn't matter and a wall will be magically made in place resulting in a free wall.

Just figured I'd mention it to you. While materials like granite, etc can be plentiful on a lot of maps and exploiting them hardly matters, this could ostensibly work on plasteel and gold, etc which would be a bit more of a worthwhile exploit.

Minnigin

can you smooth a mineral ore though? imma check this now

you cannot smooth anything that isnt stonewall so no you cannot exploit metal ores with this mod

Lethe

Quote from: Minnigin on April 08, 2017, 09:11:29 PM
can you smooth a mineral ore though? imma check this now

you cannot smooth anything that isnt stonewall so no you cannot exploit metal ores with this mod

Well, looks like I derped in my thinking. For some reason, I thought you could smooth plasteel/gold/steel veins directly into walls without mining them with this mod. Ah well, assuming wrongly happens to us all, I guess.

I'll edit my comment to strike out that last sentence. 

dburgdorf

Quote from: Lethe on April 08, 2017, 09:00:16 PMFree wall.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm working on an update to the mod tonight, anyway, and that should be an easy bug to squash.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



Buy me a Dr Pepper?

dburgdorf

Smooth Stone Walls has been updated:

- Smoothed walls are now a distinct wall type, slightly more durable than stone walls constructed with blocks. When deconstructed, smooth stone walls don't yield blocks, but have the same chance as mined stone tiles to drop stone chunks.

- Squashed a bug which yielded "free" granite walls when a tile was set to be both mined and smoothed.
- Rainbeau Flambe (aka Darryl Burgdorf) -
Old. Short. Grumpy. Bearded. "Yeah, I'm a dorf."



Buy me a Dr Pepper?