Vega Strike Forums

Well, I searched master_part_list.csv, and found many capship weapons (flak/antimatter/capship missiles) and strange ships (kierkergaaurd/kafka/GTIO) that seem buyable, but I can't find them anywhere!

w03 wrote:Well, I searched master_part_list.csv, and found many capship weapons (flak/antimatter/capship missiles) and strange ships (kierkergaaurd/kafka/GTIO) that seem buyable, but I can't find them anywhere!

If I am not mistaken, you can't buy the ships you just mentioned. I guess you can only hack to get da ride

If they are in the master_part_list.csv they are buyable but the corresponding import cargo entries are missing from base entries in units.csv in other words the job ain't finished

Enjoy the Choice

loki1950 wrote:If they are in the master_part_list.csv they are buyable but the corresponding import cargo entries are missing from base entries in units.csv in other words the job ain't finished

Oh so thats the case...? nice nice. So what ships are not buyable then? And, is there going to be a point when every ship is going to be buyable? Or not for balancing issues?
For instance, will the Agasicles baby be buyable at some point?

One thing I noticed in master_parts_list.csv is, a lot of those ships are assigned to the starships/restricted category, which almost certainly means the player can't buy them. Whether some of these will eventually be moved to buyable categories, I don't know, but I'm hoping.

What I would really like to see is more capships eventually become available, and more "rare" ships that show up either just every now and then at certain types of bases (clues to such would be very cool!), or somehow as rewards for completing special missions. 'twould make things a little more interesting as one wanders from system to system, I think...

Thanks for the answer athomic. As you can see, my Linux partition is already messed up so I can't check master_parts_list.csv

Well, I tried editing master part list and units.csv to make the kafka/GTIO/etc. buyable, and it worked, but only for ships already in the list. For example, if I change "Kafka" "Starships/restricted" to "Starships/Merchant/Light" and edit units.csv so watsons carry kafkas, the code works, and I can buy kafkas. But, if I try the same thing with a Tesla.blank by creating a new row and assigning it to "starships/andolian/light_capship", the Tesla never shows up at the watson. Can anyone tell me how to hack a tesla? Thanks in advance!

w03 wrote:Can anyone tell me how to hack a tesla? Thanks in advance!

That's a good question, to which I have no reliable answer. I haven't started hacking anything. I'm a little afraid to, yet...

That said, I'm going to guess that an entry in master_parts_list.csv requires a matching one in units.csv, which I believe defines all valid units, buyable or not. The two files follow different schemas: the MPL contains just a few columns related to buying an item; the units file defines what it is, what it has, and to some degree, how it works.

Here is (part of) the MPL line for a stock Llama: I cut the last column short for brevity. As you can probably see, it contains the item description. As for the rest, the line starts with the unit's identifier, followed by its category "path", cost, some other number (think it's cargo mass), and cargo volume. Basically, all the data used in the cargo and upgrade screens. Nothing that really tells the engine how it works as a starship; that information is in units.csv: No, I won't even try to explain this mess; not in this post, anyway.

Now, I believe, in order for this to work and let you buy the ship, you need not only an entry in the MPL, but its identifier (like Llama.stock, or Tesla.blank), must match an entry in the units file. Your entry does, so I don't think that's the problem here. Okay, that probably makes everything up to this point a waste of text, but I think I'll leave it. Who knows, maybe somebody will learn something from it...

OOPS!! Strike that. I think your entry might be wrong after all! The only two Teslas I'm finding in units.csv have all lowercase identifiers! If the line you added really starts with "Tesla.blank", try changing it to "tesla.blank". That just MIGHT do it, assuming a watson actually carries Andolian light capships. That was one of the alternative suggestions I was going to make. I was also going to suggest the system ignores *.blank ships entirely in the cargo and ship lists, but I see no reason to believe so, at this point.

The category issue is a lot more likely to throw you. According to my units.csv, the only ships a Watson does carry are various Confed models: Heavy, Light, Medium, and Milspec. I would suggest putting the Tesla into one of those categories, though I don't know if that will be enough. If the system checks the Tesla's cargo volume against the Watson's hold volume, it might not ever give you one, unless you cheat on that, too.

You also need a ship.csv file in the relevant serialized_xml save folder for each ship you own

Enjoy the Choice

loki1950 wrote:You also need a ship.csv file in the relevant serialized_xml save folder for each ship you own

Oh, HEY! That's good to know! I think he's probably going to buy the ship, rather than try to hack it in, so he probably doesn't need this info, but that's VERY useful!

Thanks for posting!

Thanks, it worked this time and the tesla is buyable now (for 750000000 credits because it's blank). I'll try this for the H496 as well.

Hey, cool! Was it the lowercase identifier, or something else?

Keep us posted on the H496, eh?

I'm curious to know, from anyone who does: What's the difference between 'blank' and 'stock' models, anyway? I'm thinking it has something to do with basic upgrades that come with the 'stock' version, whereas the 'blank' is typically bare? Is that right, or is it something else?

That's the basics and the .blank version is used when a new flight-group is spawned with the upgrades appropriate to the role of the group.

Enjoy the Choice

loki1950 wrote:That's the basics and the .blank version is used when a new flight-group is spawned with the upgrades appropriate to the role of the group.

Does that mean the system generates the new ships from the *.blank files, and then upgrades them just before deployment? That's interesting...

Yes thats the way it works have a look at the logs just after loading a new game some upgrades don't work so lots of messages in the logs.

Enjoy the Choice