Potential engine solutions and fun stuff

[mlangsdorf]

Shade tree mechanics have been installing superchargers for about as long as there have been cars. If a survivor can install a second engine and transmission at Mechanics 8, she can figure how to adjust the pipes to add a supercharger.

That said, it would be easier to add supercharged engines as single installations. Separate turbo- or superchargers would require some code support to adjust the fuel consumption and engine power, but a single engine that included those numbers could be done in JSON immediately.

Anyway, almost all those things you want to add can be done in JSON, and there’s advice for adding them in the Guide to adding new content to CDDA for first time modders. So please go ahead and add them.

[Melen]

Just curious, but could turbo/super chargers be treated as a seperate engine for installation, then somehow not be considered an additional engine if you were to add another actual engine (so not to change skill reqs for 2nd engine install)? Was thinking that way you could activate from vehicle controls screen just as you would a backup engine.

[mlangsdorf]

You can set in JSON whether an engine is harder to install if you already have an engine installed. So yes, you could make turbo-/superchargers into extra engines.

The problem is that you could then turn off the primary engine and just run your supercharger, which would be weird.

Really, there’s no good way to have separate 'chargers without adding some annoying code support. None of it would be hard, it would be just something you’d have to change.

[Melen]

Ahh I never thought of the turning off the main engine bit. Thanks and good point!

[ootdega]

Engines are currently black boxes with the exception of maintaining them, and that’s a great state for them to be in. If an engine already has one, it’s factored into its stats, there’s no need to support them as a separate part.

That said, it would be easier to add supercharged engines as single installations.

Hey, even simpler. Just more diverse and flavorful engine types. Sounds good to me.

This just requires variations on the base engine definitions, it’s already supported.

Yeah, I know this part. The older wiki pages list engines to have variable displacement. I’m not sure why if they’re not in the game, though. Was it like that before, or is it just ripped from the code?

Anyway, almost all those things you want to add can be done in JSON, and there’s advice for adding them in the Guide to adding new content to CDDA for first time modders . So please go ahead and add them.

Junkyards would be super fun loot sites. I’d suggest trying your hand at making one… Map generation is actually really easy.

Oh dear. That’s an intimidating prospect. I have absolutely no coding knowledge, but alright, I might as well give it a try. Maybe my experience with localizing Darkest Dungeon mods will come in handy. And if that’s successful, maybe I could add some mutations myself as well.

Keeping it up to date and fixing it is a scary thought, though. Depression would make that very difficult to do. Half of my apartment space is filled with unfinished projects. This computer is pretty much the only one I have finished, and even that took 6 months.

Wow, that’s…an unpleasant realization.

[Erk]

Mapping is straight JSON, which is markup rather than coding. It’s not too bad. Maps have two components, a palette where you define what a letter means, eg.

".": "t_floor",

Means that a period symbol in your map corresponds to a floor time

And then it’s got a 24x24 character block of text that places the tiles. Pop open a map file and check it out, they’re in /data/JSON/mapgen and are pretty easy to figure out. The toughest part is item placement.

[TheZoneWizard]

I keep seeing the comment, that JSON isn’t coding. It isn’t a specific language, but it is by definition programming.

[Mantar]

If you can’t insert logic into to it, it’s not programming IMO. It’s just a specialized text format.

[TheZoneWizard]

Options in dialog and branching quests = programming.

It isn’t elaborate. But if I get to interact with it, having multiple paths. Yep! It is a program. =D

[anothersimulacrum]

Junkyards already exist, so you don’t need to add them, but might need to adjust vehicle spawns there.

[TheZoneWizard]

Wonder if adding wreckage would work better. That way if any overlaps occur and make the vehicle look like crap. Nobody would notice, heh

[Erk]

There exist definitions of these terms. JSON is not a programming language, although it can be used for some scripting.

It’s not even actually a markup language, really, although that’s an easier way to think of it. Technically it’s just a human legible file format that c++ can be made to understand fairly easily.

[ootdega]

Junkyards already exist , so you don’t need to add them, but might need to adjust vehicle spawns there.

I’ve never seen one, and I’ve mapped about two thousand square miles.

In fact, I haven’t seen half of these. This seems to be somewhat out of date as well. All 5-ish cemeteries I’ve seen have been larger than listed here. I believe all of them are 2x2.

This isn’t an update, it’s a request, so apparently not all of these were implemented.

(Why does “cemeteries” have four e’s in it???)

Wonder if adding wreckage would work better. That way if any overlaps occur and make the vehicle look like crap. Nobody would notice, heh

I get the feeling that’s what wreckages are to begin with, actually…

Pop open a map file and check it out, they’re in /data/JSON/mapgen and are pretty easy to figure out. The toughest part is item placement.

Thanks, I’ll do that. Probably tomorrow, I’m burnt out today. What would you think the odds or frequency of having to update it would be? Because I probably wouldn’t be able to.

[Mantar]

Options in dialog and branching quests = programming.

By that definition, writing a CYOA book is programming too.

> If you'd like to try to defeat the wizard Zalboz by scribbling new entries in the dictionary, turn to page 73.

[TheZoneWizard]

As a matter of fact it is. I hope you were serious. That is how computers began, friend =D

Analog was a fun time. The imagination begot everything we use today ^_-

@ootega

Well, what I meant was the normal car propagation is not something we usually would expect in a junk yard. The car crash/ aircraft crash wrecks are different if I am not mistaken. =)

[Mantar]

Computers began with Charles Babbage designing a theoretical machine, based on formal logic and mathematics, and not with the publication of The Golden Sword of Dragonwalk.

[Melen]

I thought computers came from the soil… Uh, server farms, hello?

[TheZoneWizard]

That wasn’t literal. I meant…nevermind. Good day.

[ootdega]

This thread:

Anyway.

I would like to give modding this a try, but it won’t be worth the effort if it becomes broken or obsolete and I’m unable to solve that.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[mlangsdorf]

ZhilkinSerg is already working on railroads.

There’s been some tentative discussion about adding larger engines for tanks and other large vehicles.

I’m not exactly sure what your question is. The developers try to avoid to obsoleting or breaking stuff, but things change all the time.