Scribblenauts-esque system for making simple modded items.

[Call me Arty]

 For those who aren't familiar with a not-overly popular children's game from six years ago.

What I'm proposing, essentially, is a tool for making simple mods, similar to the creation of objects and creatures in Scribblenauts. It's really not too much more complicated than moving around shapes and setting-up some "if this, then that" processes.

I've always wanted to go and make some simple mods for the game, though simply lack the coding knowledge to do so (I tried, trust me). That being said, the system that Scribblenauts came-up with is one I'd love to see in Rimworld somehow someway.

How would it work? I could see the various parts of Rimworld split into various categories ( Weapon - Ranged, animals, plants, stone types, etc ) with various ways to modify them. For example, let's say you select "Weapon - Ranged."  Then, you could set the range, damage, velocity, cooldown, etc. After that, maybe you could export an image from another program or even an in-game one to apply to the item and it's projectiles.

This would, of course, take a lot to work to make. However, I could see it doing a lot for the community. Having to look through lines upon lines of code to try to make your own weapon can be real prohibitive to people who lack the time or just the right tick in the brain. Credit to the people who worked to make them with all of their interesting and original ideas, but a system like this could give anybody who understands cause and effect the ability to make their very own Rimsenal, Vegetable Garden, and Cosmic Horrors (again, credit where it's due, but these are essentially really neat guns, armor, plants, and animals)!

[Jibbles]

I'm not totally against the idea.  It's just that I also don't see why spending such time on a project would be beneficial.  What if players need to update the mod but doesn't comprehend xml due to the program? What about compatibility? I would also think it wouldn't encourage anything unique.  It would be nice to see some kind of simulation tools though, such as: the rate of the weapon that is fired and range, damage, accuracy, etc, so you have better idea how the weapon acts without having to boot up the game.  Overall, xml isn't difficult and don't need to have experience in coding to make a simple mod.  Honestly, I don't see how it would be that much different than the program itself. 

You would be doing basically the same thing inside the tool as you would be doing in xml.
You'd still have to scroll through lines of tags or questions and answer them in order to make a proper weapon/item.
I imagine it would be more tedious. 

What if you want the weapon to shoot glue? You'll need to create your own damagedef and effects etc.  Such tool would probably overlook those kind of tags since you'll be needing create a custom one, which is why it probably wouldn't help with creating something unique.

I replied in this thread about modding. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=41394.0
Maybe check that if you're having a hard time as I know beginners usually overlook those resources/tips.  Can always post in help section if you're stuck on something. 

[Call me Arty]

 The reason I'm suggesting this is because I have looked into all of that line of code. I spent a full day a couple months back trying to make the 2019 LAPD Pistol from Blade Runner, and there wasn't one thing I did that didn't crash the game or produce an unplayable amount of red errors. There are half as many scenarios on Steam as there are mods, and it sure as hell ain't because they're twice as hard to make. The only reason there's more than a couple - I believe - is because the scenarios are so easy to make. No worrying about lines of text to find the lines to set any specific item value, no toggling if something is "true", it's a simple case of picking categories and values. Rather than reading through dozens of lines of text and knowing codes to translate to get "start with item: True, item: turkey meat, item amount: 458", it's just "Start with item -> Turkey meat x458".

Additionally, the intention wasn't for "unique", it's specifically for simple items. A gun that shoots glue? That's real neat, but not what this potential mod-creator is made for. Want a new time of stone to go with the five we've got? I just checked the wiki. You've got a name, description, and three values. That sounds as simple as a couple drop-down menus and text boxes. Something like a new animal seems complicated, but it's also just a series of values on an image, when you get down to it. A process like that could make nearly every animal mod that I know about, and it would allow for anybody with the patience to make a scenario (plus a venture into MS Paint or Photoshop, maybe).

I'm not sure how much time goes into .xml coding, but I'd imagine if it had the addition of better readability in addition to red-error proofing, who'd have an issue to speed-modding say, penguins into the game after only about an hour of work? "Man, I wish I had a golf club as a weapon." Make a texture, and fill maybe six text boxes or so. Point is, you could get almost any of the basics covered for near any idea you have without needing to spend a while researching and proof-checking your code. Hell, even if you were making one of those complicated mods that needed more than a forum post to make, it would probably be appreciated. Cosmic Horrors? Buncha standard animals who have odd names for their anatomy and turn into weird things when you butcher them; when you break things down to their lowest level (heh). Getting all of that out of the way before working on things such as the sanity system or the special summoning requirements.

[Jibbles]

The fact that you posted in suggestions made me think it's a feature you want implemented by Ludeon.  XML is what they chose to simplify the modding process.

A good starting tutorial would be furniture or a building.  Weapons, animals, plants. those are more challenging, so I hope it doesn't discourage you from not trying it out again at some point.  Once you fully understand the weapon tutorial, you're good to go for the most part.  The fact you had so many errors pop up makes me think you messed up something simple such as the folder structure or something.  Post it up if you have that problem again.

Making simple edits like you suggested would only takes a few minutes in xml.  It's the texture bit that would require more time.
I was thinking that in order for the tool to be versatile and useful for many players, then you'd be dealing with just about the same amount of tags as you would in xml, even if it's just a simple mod.  You can point to that wiki and say how there are only three values, but you know as well as I do there are more stats/differences involved in-game among those stones. I guess my original concerns of the topic are a bit silly.  I'm not against it if it would indeed help out the modding community.

[tmo97]

I totally agree with this. It shouldn't be hard to mod in a material that you can make tools out of.
It should be as easy as the in-game UI describes it.
If the UI can interpret code, then you can use the reverse to make code.
The red errors, the XML confusing stuff.
The modders saying "It's easy ... idk what your problem is, look at this tutorial that's not gonna help you."

I want modding to become easier and more available.
Seriously, if anyone dares, tell me that I'm stupid because I can't make a material work.
It's that simple. The modding is too hard, because it shouldn't be this difficult just to add an inert item to the game.

Idk how many arguments I have to give, I want this 'system' or 'program'.
I'm not lazy. It's not that I don't want to spend the time to learn XML. Please leave all your alpha male modder arguments out of it. It's simply too difficult and whenever something goes wrong there's just too many factors to figure out what's even wrong.


V-- THIS BIT --V
A picture of the item.
A description of stats.
It's a material and can be made into tools and soforth and gets treated as a material would.
Here's a recipe, and it can be made in a campfire from these ingredients.

^-- This, instead of 50 XML files with confusing ;:,.;:>?><>¿ symbols and modders question-marking you as if they really, actually, can't imagine it being difficult and confusing.

To exaggerate my point so that nobody will swipe it;
http://prntscr.com/jpx8wa
http://prntscr.com/jpx9iq

I made this for another game written in a language I don't even know the name of. I'm not lazy.
It's too difficult and tedious. XML isn't easy. Make something that interprets something closer to English and make it convert stuff into XML. XML isn't receptive. It may be an easy language for modders but it's still tedious and confusing.

I also didn't like writing that language, but at least it's easier to do since it allows you to create an element WITHIN THE SAME FILE AND NOT SPREAD OUT THROUGH A FILESYSTEM.
Considering that game receives no money whatsoever and isn't thoroughly being worked on, this is kinda disappointing from Rimworld. I'm sure I proved to you that I'm not lazy and that it's not because I don't spend enough time trying. I'm sure this proves to you that you should stop sending modding tutorials to people saying the modding is too difficult.

http://prntscr.com/jpxasg

^-- this picture describes my problem with it.
One more complaint is that even though I specified exactly that it takes 1 steel at a campfire to make this, it still requires me to go to another file in another folder to specify the exact same thing in its own recipe file, and even though that's exactly the same, it still gave me an error and it wouldn't produce the amount of metum I said it should!

BOTTOM LINE IT SHOULDNT BE THIS TEDIOUS!
I dare you to imply that it shouldn't be simple because crappy mods are gonna be made.

Thanks for reading the load of thoughts I've had on this in the last months.
P.P.P.P.P.S.
If modding becomes easier, I promise to make every element in the periodic table, including reactions with them, alloys of various kinds, and basically a huge variety of stuff.
I PROMISE! I would absolutely LOVE to make stuff. I would just churn out mods like crazy if I could do it. I'm sitting here dying to make a chemical tree in Rimworld but I can't because the modding is /just/ too difficult.

[Call me Arty]

The fact that you posted in suggestions made me think it's a feature you want implemented by Ludeon.  XML is what they chose to simplify the modding process.

Making simple edits like you suggested would only takes a few minutes in xml.  It's the texture bit that would require more time.
I was thinking that in order for the tool to be versatile and useful for many players, then you'd be dealing with just about the same amount of tags as you would in xml, even if it's just a simple mod.  You can point to that wiki and say how there are only three values, but you know as well as I do there are more stats/differences involved in-game among those stones. I guess my original concerns of the topic are a bit silly.  I'm not against it if it would indeed help out the modding community.

I will say that I greatly appreciate your continued attempts to be grateful to the guy who's asking for the world to change around him rather than adapting to it himself. I understand that I look a bit like a punk. I also have the issue of poorly expressing my ideas in an initial post and only really getting it across in later posts. Lastly, kinda screwed-up on that stone part, I'll admit. Stone blocks are very simple, name, description, a few stats, texture, that's about it. Breaking it's different, though. Thirteen different stats not counting texture or color is something else.

I still feel strongly for my original post, however. Yes, it's still just pointing-out numbers, but there are thirteen different links in the post you suggested (yes, some redundant, or covering different things). After looking through some of those, I'd say that they alone can link to about double that, and others are a great many pages. Read through that, absorb all of it, still go back any difficulty you might have, test, track down errors if you screw something up in the .xml-wall-of-symbols-and-numbers, and then you have a mod. I just can't keep up with it. Maybe I'm lazy, maybe I'm just not committed enough, I don't know. Despite this, I made a couple functional (though not very pretty) things in Scribblenauts, and am very proud of my stockpiles. A system like that - at least for me - is far more welcoming and noob-friendly for someone without those big-picture ideas.