[WIP] Help for a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Based Mod

[NixDaGeek]

HOLY SHIT! IS THAT A MOTHERFUCKING JOJO REFERENCE?

Hey, Baby!

It's my First ever mod and also my first time posting on the forum (or any forum, actually), so sorry if I'm doing it wrong or not in the appropriate channel...
Also, I'm french, so don't pay attention to some errors I may make (even though everything should be pretty much OK)

SO! I was browsing the forum for some JoJo mods and couldn't find any satisfying one, I only found these two:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=48098.0
http://catalogue.smods.ru/archives/29784

And I was wondering why anyone would just create a fully functionnal One.. So I decided to start Making one during my Summer Holiday (btw, I just completed my first year in a 2 years long university degree, to give you a vague idea of my "coding knowledge")

Then, while thinking about how I would try to Code evrything and make it all work together, I started to understand why noone made it: every single stand is a whole new gameplay mechanic and is a pain-in-the-ass to dev.

I'll start with the basis: Hamon, Vampires, Zombies, PillarMen, ... (First Two Parts Content)
If you haven't watched/read JoJo's Bizarre Adventure yet, then do it, for your own sake. But what I need you to know is that a mask can turn humans into vampires, vampires have abilities and die in the sun without the mask. They can turn Humans or animals into vampires or zombies (less powerful undeads). There is also Pillar Men, a super humans race that has some vampire abilities and also fear light. those Pillar Men (and only them) can use a special Mask to become an "Ultimate Being". Hamon, or Riddle, is an energy a human can master that is effective against these undeads/pillarmen.

I really want to develop this mod, I'd like to include every apparel, haircut, add spin, rock people, ..., and all possible stand, including spin offs ones, and maybe even progonal ones and make a random stand generator, with mixed abilities and random shape/color/name (that could be deactivated in mod options)

What I would like to know is if what I'm about to start developing is possible or not, how I should proceed, and what tools I would need (I already know JecsTools is required, and maybe the Humanoid Alien Framework)

How I intend to proceed:

   
• I would like to Make "Vampire" and "Zombie" Hediffs. When we get that Hediff, wich boosts stats, the pawn unlocks a "Zombie" or "Vampire" Menu, along with "Needs" or "Bio" Tabs. making these Hediffs would make it, I think, useable by animals. In this menu, I'd like to make a level system to unlock abilities (I'm reading the source code of StarWars - The Force for this). Problem: I wonder if it can be absolutely devinitive, and prevent the other hediff to be applied.
  
  The Two following skills may be impossible to code, depending on how flexible RimWorld is:
  
  
        
  • I want one of the Vampire abilities to add a hediff or a body part on the target (Flesh Bud), forcing recruitment, and adding a "master" on the social tab, and if the part/hediff is removed/broken, the pawn gets back to its faction. But I would like to make something like: if the vampire dies, all the pawns with this hediff/part dies and become a "mutant" (referring to part 4's nijimura father). Mutants would be whether an animal or a pawn kind, so is it possible to change Pawn Kind? that would help me a lot.
  
        
  • Another Ability would be to take a dead body's... well, body, and change the vampire's appearance to match the dead's one, except it's head, and copy all headiffs (except head), too. And maybe create a whole new pawn, if it's possible to change pawn kind, with just the head.

   
• I want to make the Pillar Men a Race, like humans, but with a Horn. They Should be unable to get the above hediffs and the "Hamon Wielder/Master" Traits. They can't activate the mask, but cant activate the mask with super aja and turn into a perfect being. These Ultimate Beings would have Wings, or grow them, but do I need Alien Framework if I don't change appearance (Body + Head + Hairs)


• "Hamon Wielder" and "Hamon Master" Traits: both gives access to another menu, giving some other abilities, with a leveling system. I'd like to give the possibility to change from wielder to master, and skills damage to depend on pawn's respiration, master giving some additional abilities. If someone with this trait recieves an undead hediff, I want it to disappear, along with the menu. I also want their abilities to apply a special hediff, thats makes some harm, but is extremely effective if the pawn has a zombie/vampire hediff or is a pillar man, can a hediff access these informations?


• I Intend to make, in the future, the "Stand User" a hediff too, so animals and vampires alike could have one (it would also give access to a new tab). But is it a good Idea?


• I made a "joestar" trait, but I want it to be transfered to all children, along with a "star birthmark" hediff (and a "stand user" one).
  In fact, if the body stealing ability works, if a pawn steals a body with the birthmark, I'd like all future children to have the joestar/birthmark, event if the pawn doesn't (refering to DIO's children)


• Another Tricky thing for the PillarMen Skills: I want an ability to put a special hediff on the target and give a map event lasting a few days. At the end of the map Event delay , the hediff would kill the pawn, and the event would be a challenge with the pawn that placed the ring. If this pawn dies (during the event or not), I'd like all the hediffs he applied to disapear. Is there a way to "track" who made a hediff and make it work "both ways" (I'm not clear, sorry )


• Also: Is it possible to make a "craftable" animal, like a bill on a crafting spot summoning a pawn? and can a body part just "grow" for a few second and then disappear, like it never existed?

Finally, If you know any good photoshop tutorial to make fine RimWorld-Friendly Art, let me know xD

What I have right now is 3 useless traits, 2 stats boosting hediffs, a wearable mask, and an about file...

I know I asked a lot of questions, but I just started to read rimworld source code, in C# and XML, and some mods's too (mostly SW-TheForce, LordOfTheRims and RimOfMadness-Vampires), and everything is hard to apprehend, even more while I can't really start to Dev right now, because I don't know how to start...


Thank you for taking the time to read and answer me

[Albion]

Hey,
I don't know the franchise but I got some insights into Rimworld modding and let's put it this way:
The project you got before is quite a big one. Even as an experienced modder I would estimate the development time to exceed 2 months easy, probably more like 6 months or more, depending on the amount of time you're able to dedicate to this.
Just want you to know what you're getting into. Maybe start with something smaller/easier to understand the concepts before starting this beast of a project. I have seen many people start with ambious ideas, never to be heard from again... There are exceptions but they are rare. The ones that start with something small and grow from there are usually the ones that tend to stay...
Also try to compartmentalize and start with specific features which you can develop one after another.

I too started with a very small mod and just some xml stuff but eventually graduated to more complex features including C# code.

But if you still want to develop the whole thing here is some advice and some pointers:
- As you already figured out, you'll probably need the Humanoid Aliens Framework for the custom races. It works wonders and erdelf can probably help you with questions.
- On the same note: Get onto the Rimworld discord! There are various other modders there that can help you with questions and can give you advice.
- Jectools is not necessarily required in my opinion but it can provide various useful methods.
- Get a reader for dll files if you don't have one already. You need it to check out vanilla code and access code from other mods if they didn't provide the source code. I personally prefer dnSpy.
- Just as a note regarding the above: If you copy code from other mods, credit the authors!
- Craftable animals/pawns are certainly possible but probably not easy.
- Growing and disappearing body parts are even more complex though. Maybe there is an easy solution but I would abandon the idea, sorry.
- Looking at other peoples mods/code is the best and easiest way to understand how to create your own mod. It's how I started out too. Try to start with an easy/small mod and work your way up from there. Understanding a huge mod and how it all interacts is obviously more difficult than with a small mod. Again: Credit authors if you use their work.