(I occasionally re-word, clarify or add updates to this post)
ALTERING COLOR OF BLINKING LIGHTS
Spoiler:
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If you prefer coloring the ships in hues other than aqua, the blinking lights that are on several of the ships will still remain blue despite changing the ship hue.
However, you can change the color of the blinking lights to other available colors by altering the color defined on that part in the ship file.
1) Open the ship file that you added to your "ships" folder for editing using a text editor like Notepad/Notepad++ (If you already purchased the ship, browse to your save game's "ships" folder and edit that ship file to edit only the ship you purchased) 2) Near the bottom of the ship file is the "SHIP PARTS" section and this is where the "ITEM" parts that make up the ship are defined. 3) Look over the list of parts to find the "ITEM;light_blue_blinker" parts that are the blue blinking lights 4) Change the "_blue_" part of the name in each instance of the blinking light part to one of other available colors that can be used: "_green_" "_purple_" "_red_" "_white_" "_yellow_" 5) Save your change to the ship file
You do not need to be out of the game to make this change to the base or purchased ship file. If altering the base ship file, the change will be immediate in the shipyard upon (re-)selecting that ship. If you are altering the ship file that you already purchased and you are not currently piloting that ship, the change will be immediate in the shipyard upon (re-)selecting that ship. If you are altering the ship file that you already purchased and you are currently in-game and piloting that ship, I recommend that you either exit to the menu prior to altering that ship file, or that you switch to piloting a different ship before altering that ship file.
_____
RECENTLY WORKED ON I decided to start creating and configuring a trio of hauler ships that would have similar attributes and flight characteristics to the Industrials/Haulers in EVE-Online.
Spoiler:
Show
This is the first Hauler I worked on:
It is available as a Utility 2 ship. This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than an Escort 3 to some being higher than a Cruiser 3.
This is the second hauler I worked on:
It is available as a Cruiser 2 ship. This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than a Utility 3 to some being higher than a Battlecruiser 3.
This is the third hauler I worked on:
It is classed as a Battlecruiser 2 ship. This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than a Cruiser 3 to some being higher than a Dreadnought 3.
I wanted to try to have them as similar to Eve haulers as possible.
While working on these haulers, I found yet another problem with how things work illogically in this game; Cargohold Expansions don't calculate correctly (and likely any module that increases an attribute).
Cargohold Expansions don't calculate correctly:
Spoiler:
Show
With the Basic Cargohold Expansion that increases cargohold by 10% as an example: - A ship has a cargohold of 100. - Each module is installed individually after the previous one has been installed. - The first one is installed and applies a 10% bonus to the cargohold = 110 - The second one is installed and applies a 10% bonus to the cargohold
However, the second one doesn't apply its bonus to the current cargohold amount of 110 (due to already having installed a +10% module), it applies it to the base 100 again as if the first module doesn't exist.
If you install 10x "+10%" cargohold expansions, the game essentially removes all of the modules, combines them into a single module with a "+100%" bonus, then applies that bonus onto the base cargohold amount. So 100 base + 100% (100) = 200 cargohold with 10x +10% modules.
As I noted, they are installed individually and sequentially. Module #1 adds 10% = 110. Module #2 should add 10% of the 110 = 121. Module #3 +10% of 121 = 133 (rounded) Module #4 +10% of 133 = 146 (rounded) ... Module #10 +10% of 236 = 259 (rounded)
Instead of ending up with 259 cargohold due to 10 modules each applying 10% of the current cargohold amount, you end up with only 200 cargohold as all of the modules being added in sequence is ignored and the bonuses are stripped from them and simply added together as a single bonus as if it was a single module adding +100% cargohold.
EVE-Online does it logically and properly of each module applying its bonus onto the current value of the stat.
The way this game applies bonuses is illogical and ignores that they are different modules added sequentially and simply merges their bonuses and applies it all at once to the "base" stat value.
It gets even worse in this game because of skill bonus increases.
The "Ship Cargo Stacker" skill increases your base cargohold by 10% per level. This 10% increase is applied prior to ship module bonuses and overwrites your ship's base cargohold value. So a 100 cargohold ship with this skill trained to level 1 will cause your ship base cargohold to be 110. Then the cargohold Expansion modules are applied and their bonuses get lumped together and then applied not onto the base cargohold value, but onto the base cargohold value after skill bonus increases are applied.
It is completely illogical for ship module bonuses to be applied after the pilot skill bonuses as a ship being outfitted with modules to increase cargohold will apply their increases to the cargohold amount even if there is no pilot and it is just sitting there in a dock.
The pilot having certain skills trained that increase the cargohold should only apply after they step onboard a ship and put their expertise into action to increase how much cargo the ship can carry. The pilot skill bonus should apply after the ship module bonuses are applied to the ship, not before, as it is the pilot's skills that further increases the amount of cargohold space beyond how the ship is physically configured and what modules physically exist on the ship.
As it is now with a ship that has a 100 base cargohold value: - 10x +10% Expansions would give a cargohold of 200 (100 base + 100% bonus since all bonuses are combined and applied as a single application on the base value). - Training Ship Cargo Stacker to level 2, a +20% cargohold bonus, would cause the bonus to be applied before ship modules. - The base cargohold would increase to 120 (100+20), so the +100% module bonuses would be 120 + 120 = 240
That would be a cargohold of 240 with a +20% skill bonus and 10x +10% modules. 100 + 20% = 120 120 + 100% = 240
If it were all calculated properly, a ship that has a 100 base cargohold value would be: - 10x +10% Expansions would give a cargohold of 259 (as each module would add 10% of the current cargohold after the prior module affected the value) - Training Ship Cargo Stacker to level 2, a +20% cargohold bonus, would apply after ship modules, so 259 + 20% = 311
That would be a cargohold of 311 with 10x +10% modules and a +20% skill bonus. 100 + 10% = 110 110 + 10% = 121 121 + 10% = 133 133 + 10% = 146 146 + 10% = 161 161 + 10% = 177 177 + 10% = 195 195 + 10% = 214 214 + 10% = 236 236 + 10% = 259 259 + 20% = 311
That's 71 less as it currently is now than what it should be.
- Now do it with the ships that have much larger cargoholds than 100. - Now do it with Prototype Cargohold Expansions that each add +50% and not 10%. - Now do it with Artifact quality Prototype Cargo Expansions that add an additional +50%. - Now do it with Ship Cargo Stacker skill trained to level 10 and not merely level 2.
That's many, many thousands of cargohold that the player should have with such modules and skill training but do not due to the illogical and improper calculations.
Now look at all of the other stats that are modified by skills and modules and how those are calculated.
It's all mindbogglingly illogical and extremely poorly-done.
Now I understand why I've been finding issues all throughout the game relating to stats not being accurate for what they should be, and stats being different even from what is displayed on-screen. Example: - Equipped harvester tooltip displays a max range of 1700m after bonuses are applied to the base and are shown highlighted in green text next to it. - Equipped harvester activates and mines a rock that is 2400m away.
Everything is calculated so horribly in this game.
And now I'm also very aware of how your ship has the exact same turn rate, engine burn and mass while it is fully empty as it does when it is completely full of cargo as if all of your cargo had zero mass.
All items should have a mass attribute and not just a volume attribute. Adding an item into your cargo should add its mass onto your overall mass. This should likewise affect your ship's handling as more power is needed to move the ship's mass through space, and a higher mass should equal a slower turn rate due to turning more mass, etc.
It is now one of those "can't unsee it" things for me now that I am very aware of this big hole in item/ship design with them lacking more realistic and logical item attributes and effects.
_____
REGARDING AN NPC SHIP VERSION
Spoiler:
Show
Offering the optional NPC/Merc configuration file is indefinitely delayed.
This delay is due to ship part scaling introduced in 0.136 not being fully implemented in the game and NPC/Merc ships completely ignoring scaling despite the scaling values being present in the files.
The V-CORE ship collection configured as NPC/Merc ships is fully completed, but offering it is postponed until after these issues in the game are fixed and scaling works properly in all areas.
As of 0.143, ship part scaling on NPC/merc ships is still not functional.
_____
REGARDING NEW SHIP ADDITIONS
Spoiler:
Show
With the 0.139 game version, the dev repositioned all of the ambient light sources in the ship editor into different positions prior to implementing the ability to reposition them ourselves.
These new positions have caused ambient lighting in the editor to now essentially not exist and ships are in the dark from nearly all angles and the lights that remain have changed from how they were.
This has made it so a decent ship thumbnail image cannot be taken from within the editor from any angle, let alone my preferred angle used in my ship images.
(UPDATE 2023-2-27: I had tried to load and position some new ships in-game in a well-lit star sector and then manually edit out everything so only the properly-lit ship remained. Doing this was a lot of time and effort where a whole evening was resulting in somewhat decent images of only two ships.
I had stated that I wasn't going to do this task again for new ship releases and that I put new ship additions on hold until the ship editor light positions were either reverted to normal or the ability to manually reposition lights finished.
However, I recently had a large chunk of time available to me that I put toward doing this for some of the ships I have created, as well as time to do additional texture work to offer alternate texture variations of released ships.
_____
OTHER THOUGHTS
Spoiler:
Show
Each game update that the dev puts out adds things that are great and useful, but they also include other changes and additions that seem nonsensical, are unfinished and/or outright broken, or they break something that worked previously.
This mixed bag of changes has continually decreased my enjoyment of the game since the 0.129 update where the dev broke sandbox sector generation completely and which has been left in the broken state for over 11 game updates despite the dev stating he'd fix it.
I've long since lost any real reason to load the game up to try to actually play and I really only load into the ship editor to make custom ships for a long time now - and that has also now been messed with nonsensically.
Hi. Not every ship uses the blinking light part on them. There are actually only a few that do where you can then change the color of the blinking lights in the ship files. You can change the color of the blinking light parts on ships that do use that part, but if a ship does not use the blinking light, that part will not be listed in its file and thus the color of the non-existent blinking light parts cannot be changed as there is nothing to change the color of.
3 comments
ALTERING COLOR OF BLINKING LIGHTS
However, you can change the color of the blinking lights to other available colors by altering the color defined on that part in the ship file.
1) Open the ship file that you added to your "ships" folder for editing using a text editor like Notepad/Notepad++
(If you already purchased the ship, browse to your save game's "ships" folder and edit that ship file to edit only the ship you purchased)
2) Near the bottom of the ship file is the "SHIP PARTS" section and this is where the "ITEM" parts that make up the ship are defined.
3) Look over the list of parts to find the "ITEM;light_blue_blinker" parts that are the blue blinking lights
4) Change the "_blue_" part of the name in each instance of the blinking light part to one of other available colors that can be used:
"_green_"
"_purple_"
"_red_"
"_white_"
"_yellow_"
5) Save your change to the ship file
You do not need to be out of the game to make this change to the base or purchased ship file.
If altering the base ship file, the change will be immediate in the shipyard upon (re-)selecting that ship.
If you are altering the ship file that you already purchased and you are not currently piloting that ship, the change will be immediate in the shipyard upon (re-)selecting that ship.
If you are altering the ship file that you already purchased and you are currently in-game and piloting that ship, I recommend that you either exit to the menu prior to altering that ship file, or that you switch to piloting a different ship before altering that ship file.
_____
RECENTLY WORKED ON
I decided to start creating and configuring a trio of hauler ships that would have similar attributes and flight characteristics to the Industrials/Haulers in EVE-Online.
It is available as a Utility 2 ship.
This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than an Escort 3 to some being higher than a Cruiser 3.
This is the second hauler I worked on:
It is available as a Cruiser 2 ship.
This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than a Utility 3 to some being higher than a Battlecruiser 3.
This is the third hauler I worked on:
It is classed as a Battlecruiser 2 ship.
This ship has a mix of attributes that range from some being lower than a Cruiser 3 to some being higher than a Dreadnought 3.
I wanted to try to have them as similar to Eve haulers as possible.
Current Stat Configurations and EVE Comparisons
Bestower: 4800 m3
Iteron: 5800 m3
TU2: 5229
TC2: 8889
TBC2: 16001
Only T1 Expanded Cargohold (6x 17.5%):
Bestower: 15790 m3
Iteron: 16238 m3
TU2: 9412 (8x 10% Basic Cargo Expansion) (4183)
TC2: 17778 (10x 10% Basic Cargo Expansion) (8889)
TBC2: 35202 (12x 10% Basic Cargo Expansion) (19201)
TU2: 13595 (8x 20% Improved Cargo Expansion) (8366)
TC2: 26667 (10x 20% Improved Cargo Expansion) (17778)
TBC2: 54403 (12x 20% Improved Cargo Expansion) (38402)
T1 with T1 rigs:
Bestower: 24014 m3
Iteron: 24696 m3
_____
Only T2 Expanded Cargohold (6x 27.5%):
Bestower: 25776 m3
Iteron: 24428 m3
TU2: 17779 (8x 30% Advanced Cargo Expansion) (12550)
TC2: 35556 (10x 30% Advanced Cargo Expansion) (26667)
TBC2: 73605 (12x 30% Advanced Cargo Expansion) (57604)
T2 with T1 rigs:
Bestower: 39202 m3
Iteron: 37152 m3
T2 with T2 rigs:
Bestower: 42685 m3
Iteron: 40453 m3
TU2: 21962 (8x 40% Premium Cargo Expansion) (16733)
TC2: 44445 (10x 40% Premium Cargo Expansion) (35556)
TBC2: 92806 (12x 40% Premium Cargo Expansion) (76805)
TU2: 26145 (8x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion) (20916)
TC2: 53334 (10x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion) (44445)
TBC2: 112007 (12x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion) (96006)
TU2: 28760 (8x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L1 +10%) (23008)
TC2: 58668 (10x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L1 +10%) (48890)
TBC2: 123207 (12x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L1 +10%) (105606)
TU2: 52290 (8x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L10 +100%) (41832)
TC2: 88890 (10x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L10 +100%) (71112)
TBC2: 160010 (12x 50% Prototype Cargo Expansion, Cargo Stacker L10 +100%) (128008)
_____
While working on these haulers, I found yet another problem with how things work illogically in this game; Cargohold Expansions don't calculate correctly (and likely any module that increases an attribute).
Cargohold Expansions don't calculate correctly:
- A ship has a cargohold of 100.
- Each module is installed individually after the previous one has been installed.
- The first one is installed and applies a 10% bonus to the cargohold = 110
- The second one is installed and applies a 10% bonus to the cargohold
However, the second one doesn't apply its bonus to the current cargohold amount of 110 (due to already having installed a +10% module), it applies it to the base 100 again as if the first module doesn't exist.
If you install 10x "+10%" cargohold expansions, the game essentially removes all of the modules, combines them into a single module with a "+100%" bonus, then applies that bonus onto the base cargohold amount. So 100 base + 100% (100) = 200 cargohold with 10x +10% modules.
As I noted, they are installed individually and sequentially.
Module #1 adds 10% = 110.
Module #2 should add 10% of the 110 = 121.
Module #3 +10% of 121 = 133 (rounded)
Module #4 +10% of 133 = 146 (rounded)
...
Module #10 +10% of 236 = 259 (rounded)
Instead of ending up with 259 cargohold due to 10 modules each applying 10% of the current cargohold amount, you end up with only 200 cargohold as all of the modules being added in sequence is ignored and the bonuses are stripped from them and simply added together as a single bonus as if it was a single module adding +100% cargohold.
EVE-Online does it logically and properly of each module applying its bonus onto the current value of the stat.
The way this game applies bonuses is illogical and ignores that they are different modules added sequentially and simply merges their bonuses and applies it all at once to the "base" stat value.
It gets even worse in this game because of skill bonus increases.
The "Ship Cargo Stacker" skill increases your base cargohold by 10% per level. This 10% increase is applied prior to ship module bonuses and overwrites your ship's base cargohold value. So a 100 cargohold ship with this skill trained to level 1 will cause your ship base cargohold to be 110. Then the cargohold Expansion modules are applied and their bonuses get lumped together and then applied not onto the base cargohold value, but onto the base cargohold value after skill bonus increases are applied.
It is completely illogical for ship module bonuses to be applied after the pilot skill bonuses as a ship being outfitted with modules to increase cargohold will apply their increases to the cargohold amount even if there is no pilot and it is just sitting there in a dock.
The pilot having certain skills trained that increase the cargohold should only apply after they step onboard a ship and put their expertise into action to increase how much cargo the ship can carry. The pilot skill bonus should apply after the ship module bonuses are applied to the ship, not before, as it is the pilot's skills that further increases the amount of cargohold space beyond how the ship is physically configured and what modules physically exist on the ship.
As it is now with a ship that has a 100 base cargohold value:
- 10x +10% Expansions would give a cargohold of 200 (100 base + 100% bonus since all bonuses are combined and applied as a single application on the base value).
- Training Ship Cargo Stacker to level 2, a +20% cargohold bonus, would cause the bonus to be applied before ship modules.
- The base cargohold would increase to 120 (100+20), so the +100% module bonuses would be 120 + 120 = 240
That would be a cargohold of 240 with a +20% skill bonus and 10x +10% modules.
100 + 20% = 120
120 + 100% = 240
If it were all calculated properly, a ship that has a 100 base cargohold value would be:
- 10x +10% Expansions would give a cargohold of 259 (as each module would add 10% of the current cargohold after the prior module affected the value)
- Training Ship Cargo Stacker to level 2, a +20% cargohold bonus, would apply after ship modules, so 259 + 20% = 311
That would be a cargohold of 311 with 10x +10% modules and a +20% skill bonus.
100 + 10% = 110
110 + 10% = 121
121 + 10% = 133
133 + 10% = 146
146 + 10% = 161
161 + 10% = 177
177 + 10% = 195
195 + 10% = 214
214 + 10% = 236
236 + 10% = 259
259 + 20% = 311
That's 71 less as it currently is now than what it should be.
- Now do it with the ships that have much larger cargoholds than 100.
- Now do it with Prototype Cargohold Expansions that each add +50% and not 10%.
- Now do it with Artifact quality Prototype Cargo Expansions that add an additional +50%.
- Now do it with Ship Cargo Stacker skill trained to level 10 and not merely level 2.
That's many, many thousands of cargohold that the player should have with such modules and skill training but do not due to the illogical and improper calculations.
Now look at all of the other stats that are modified by skills and modules and how those are calculated.
It's all mindbogglingly illogical and extremely poorly-done.
Now I understand why I've been finding issues all throughout the game relating to stats not being accurate for what they should be, and stats being different even from what is displayed on-screen.
Example:
- Equipped harvester tooltip displays a max range of 1700m after bonuses are applied to the base and are shown highlighted in green text next to it.
- Equipped harvester activates and mines a rock that is 2400m away.
Everything is calculated so horribly in this game.
And now I'm also very aware of how your ship has the exact same turn rate, engine burn and mass while it is fully empty as it does when it is completely full of cargo as if all of your cargo had zero mass.
All items should have a mass attribute and not just a volume attribute. Adding an item into your cargo should add its mass onto your overall mass. This should likewise affect your ship's handling as more power is needed to move the ship's mass through space, and a higher mass should equal a slower turn rate due to turning more mass, etc.
It is now one of those "can't unsee it" things for me now that I am very aware of this big hole in item/ship design with them lacking more realistic and logical item attributes and effects.
_____
REGARDING AN NPC SHIP VERSION
This delay is due to ship part scaling introduced in 0.136 not being fully implemented in the game and NPC/Merc ships completely ignoring scaling despite the scaling values being present in the files.
The V-CORE ship collection configured as NPC/Merc ships is fully completed, but offering it is postponed until after these issues in the game are fixed and scaling works properly in all areas.
As of 0.143, ship part scaling on NPC/merc ships is still not functional.
_____
REGARDING NEW SHIP ADDITIONS
These new positions have caused ambient lighting in the editor to now essentially not exist and ships are in the dark from nearly all angles and the lights that remain have changed from how they were.
This has made it so a decent ship thumbnail image cannot be taken from within the editor from any angle, let alone my preferred angle used in my ship images.
_____
OTHER THOUGHTS
This mixed bag of changes has continually decreased my enjoyment of the game since the 0.129 update where the dev broke sandbox sector generation completely and which has been left in the broken state for over 11 game updates despite the dev stating he'd fix it.
I've long since lost any real reason to load the game up to try to actually play and I really only load into the ship editor to make custom ships for a long time now - and that has also now been messed with nonsensically.