Transcendence.xml?

[Aeonic]

I just discovered this game about a week ago, and I'd love to get into modding it. I can't seem to get activated on the main forums though, so I'll have to post questions here. A lot of modding information suggests that I look at "Transcendence.xml" for examples of how everything in the game works. Except, there is no transcendence.xml that came with the game. How/where do I get this file?

[wolfy]

Hi! Welcome to modding transcendence!

First off, all the resources that are in the current version of transcendence (0.99c) are here:
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=170
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=499
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=501
http://xelerus.de/index.php?s=mod&id=502

xelerus also hosts a large number of other mods.

Also, check out the tutorials here:
http://neurohack.com/transcendence/forums/viewforum.php?f=8

[Notes]:
1) to get activated by george on the official forums, send him an email to "transcendence@neurohack.com" and tell him what your account name is.
2) before uploading mods to xelerus, make sure the mods comply with the rules in this post:
http://neurohack.com/transcendence/forums/...opic.php?t=2233

Thank you for taking interest in modding transcendence!

[Aeonic]

Thanks. No problem about complying with rules, I have high standards. My first project is to turn my avatar into a proper player ship, since everyone says that's the easiest thing to make (and test!).

Another question though that I haven't found a good answer for yet is where to find a good reference for all the resource IDs. For example:

<Item count="4d6" item="&itHelium3FuelRod;"/>
<Item count="4d6" item="&itKM100Missile;"/>

If I wanted to change those, how do I find out the IDs for all the other items in the game?

[Aeonic]

Is there some way to make ships rotate with a specific number of frames? I'm testing one with 64 frames, but it doesn't seem to align right in the game, and I'm not sure if I can change the settings to make it work and, if so, which ones do I change?

[wolfy]

As far as I know, there is no truelly effective way to get every ID short of searching for it in the resources - I beleive someone may have compiled the ID's of the ships into a single file before on xelerus however.

The number of ship facings MUST be a number that will evenly divide 360 into an integer. The following facings will work:

1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 12 15 18 20 24 30 36 40 45 60 72 90 120 180 360

However, NEVER do a ship with less than 10 facings, and for large ships of over 100x100 pixels, do at least 40 facings (otherwise their rotations become very jagged)

[EDIT] - I updated the facing numbers- those are all of the possible facing numbers that will work

[Aeonic]

Ah, 72 facings should do it then. That's what I was using for most of my ships when I was rendering them for my own projects anyhow.

For those uber-huge ships, personally, I'd be inclined to give them 100+ facings minimum. Only problem is then they'd look better than everything else in the game and it would be awkward.

[Aeonic]

I can't seem to get 72 facings to work either. Is there a variable that I'm supposed to modify to specify the number of facings? Are there any examples of ships that have more than 40 facings out there?

(Err, just re-found the rotationCount variable.)

Now I need to find a decent resource that explains all the ship variables, what they do, their ranges, and how to use them.