BASPM, Basic File Modding

[NASAIsAwesome]

Hello, I'm coming up with some proposals and designs for some new modifications for the game (As of now), followed by a tutorial on "How to Do it", followed by downloads...should they be nessessary.
Now, we'll do the most basic modifications (For Windows). Changing the names of programs and spacecraft.

CAUTION: THIS MAY PERMANENTLY DESTROY YOUR BASPM APPLICATION AND FORCE YOU TO ABANDON SAVES OR REDOWNLOAD. BE VERY CAREFUL. I'VE ALREADY HAD TO COPY AND PASTE THE FOLDERS MORE THAN THREE TIMES.

Reference


Spacecraft Description Editing

First of all, go to your BASPM files. Hunt down the folder "SPM-Windows_Data".
Then go to "Scripts", then "Text Scripts", then "General Container", then "EN".
The text containing the program descriptions are located at "Program StringsEN". Open it in Notepad. Hunt down the text you wish to edit/rename (However, you can always go to Edit, go to Find, then type in the name of the pacecraft you wish to change) . In this instance, I will be editing the text of the Micrometeorite to "AEIOU".



Here it is!


Go ahead and get creative!


By the way, fun fact of the day....the lunar spacecraft are, in fact, IN THE FILES, but are not actively in the game. I've found plenty of references to direct ascent Gemini lunar missions, LEMs, and something about a "short-term" lunar habitation module.

(TESTED. NO ILL EFFECTS OBSERVED!)

How to Make A Program Give You More Prestige

Admit it. Sometimes, you just need some Prestige to move to the next level of funding so you can buy that nice new shiny probe and send it to another planet on a nice new shiny big powerful rocket. This is how you could do it.
First of all, before doing anything, head to your BASPM folder/files.
Go to SPM-Windows_Data, then go to scripts, then Data Scripts, and finally, go to General Container. Once you are at General Container, go to MsnCnfg00-01...that's the Sputnik Mission. Once you open it, you'll see the text similar to this.

<MsnCnfgsList>

<MsnCnfg ID='0' NameStringID='0' DescriptionStringID='1' DurationInSeasons='1' MissionControlLayoutID='MC-SATELLITE' FlightCrewLayoutID='FC-NONE'> <!-- Scientific research satellite A -->
<MissionComponents ID1='R-7' ID2='SPUTNIK' NumMissionComponents='2'/>
<PointsEarned FirstTime='425' SecondTime='212' LaterTime='127'/>
<PointsDeducted Value='212'/>
<GoalsAchieved ID1='00_EARTH_ORB_SAT' ID2='00_RADIO_SIGN_LEO' ID3='00_BASIC_SATELLITE_A' NumGoals='3'/>
</MsnCnfg>

<MsnCnfg ID='1' NameStringID='2' DescriptionStringID='3' DurationInSeasons='3' MissionControlLayoutID='MC-SATELLITE' FlightCrewLayoutID='FC-NONE'> <!-- Scientific research satellite A - Extended -->
<MissionComponents ID1='R-7' ID2='SPUTNIK' NumMissionComponents='2'/>
<PointsEarned FirstTime='638' SecondTime='319' LaterTime='191'/>
<PointsDeducted Value='319'/>
<GoalsAchieved ID1='00_EARTH_ORB_SAT' ID2='00_RADIO_SIGN_LEO' ID3='00_BASIC_SATELLITE_A' NumGoals='3'/>
</MsnCnfg>

</MsnCnfgsList>

Take the script, and edit it the bold areas to the numbers you want.
Congratulations! You can now earn 99999999999999999x10 Prestige froma simple satellite mission and buy that nice new shiny probe! But a warning note.

(NOT TESTED)

CAUTION: THIS MAY PERMANENTLY DESTROY YOUR BASPM APPLICATION AND FORCE YOU TO ABANDON SAVES OR REDOWNLOAD. BE VERY CAREFUL. I'VE ALREADY HAD TO COPY AND PASTE THE FOLDERS MORE THAN THREE TIMES.

[HTower]

This looks like it could be a lot of fun. I'm already dreaming big, thinking about adding additional missions and components. It might be possible to greatly expand the space plane program for example, and create an entire scenario soley around improving space planes. From the X-15 and its many variants to SpaceshipOne. Sure, the graphics would be extremely repetitive, but what the heck this is a simulation game, not historical footage.

Nicely done NASAIsAwesome!

[Nacho84]

Hello NASAIsAwesome,

Hello, I'm coming up with some proposals and designs for some new modifications for the game (As of now), followed by a tutorial on "How to Do it", followed by downloads...should they be nessessary.
Now, we'll do the most basic modifications (For Windows). Changing the names of programs and spacecraft.

Great stuff that you had a go at the scripts. Notice that I'm going to include the "Master Spreadsheet" for the game along with all the internal tools I use in order to generate the scripts automatically and check for consistency in a future update. So maybe you might want to wait until then? Modifying the spreadsheet will be a lot easier than editing the XML files.

Cheers,

[N_Molson]

Sure, the graphics would be extremely repetitive, but what the heck this is a simulation game, not historical footage.

If the user is allowed to add video files, animation sequences would not be that hard to do. With something like Orbiter : a free Space Flight Simulator (Martin Schweiger) you can have great real-time 3D views of a bunch of historical or fictionnal spacecrafts added by the community over the year. You could record a bit of liftoff, of ascent, re-entry, etc, and assemble the whole in a short .avi file with a blend between sequences using simple open source movie-editing freewares.


Screenshot of an addon for Orbiter 2010 I'm currently working on.

[professorel]

Last night I was messing with the scripts some (trying to jury-rig a program category 29(to no success)), and though I think I understood most of what the scripts did individually, I was a bit confused how they related to each other, and to other relevant information (ie assets, and I think someone mentioned the videos were xml scripts also, but I couldn't find those). Admittedly I only spent an hour or two on this at the most, though. I suppose I could try to look through your main assembly for hints, but I'd rather just ask first. Though I'm not exactly sure what I'm asking.
I think generally though, what I want to know is, especially in light of this 'master spreadsheet', what exactly can and cannot be controlled via these scripts?

[Nacho84]

If the user is allowed to add video files, animation sequences would not be that hard to do. With something like Orbiter : a free Space Flight Simulator (Martin Schweiger) you can have great real-time 3D views of a bunch of historical or fictionnal spacecrafts added by the community over the year. You could record a bit of liftoff, of ascent, re-entry, etc, and assemble the whole in a short .avi file with a blend between sequences using simple open source movie-editing freewares.

I'm going to Slitherine's HQ next Friday. We'll surely discuss this, I think it's a great idea.

Screenshot of an addon for Orbiter 2010 I'm currently working on.

Very nice!

Cheers,

[Nacho84]

(ie assets, and I think someone mentioned the videos were xml scripts also, but I couldn't find those).

For the moment those scripts are embedded in the big binary file located inside the data folder. I could extract those out, but the problem is that the images we use are stored in a special type of files called "asset bundles", which can only be created inside Unity 3D (the game engine we're using). I intend to tackle that problem at some point so that anyone can create their own animations, but I have so many things on my plate at the moment that it will have to wait a few weeks I'm afraid.

I think generally though, what I want to know is, especially in light of this 'master spreadsheet', what exactly can and cannot be controlled via these scripts?

With the master spreadsheet you'll be able to do many things, such as define the costs of the mission components, which goals get accomplished on each mission, how are prestige points distributed along all mission steps, etc. In theory, you will at some point be able to add new programs and mission configurations as well by adding data into the master spreadsheet and then running the conversion tools. And I said "in theory", because I need to sort out some technical issues first, which are pretty much related to the things I mentioned a few lines above.

Cheers,

[professorel]

Yeah, I figured that's where everything was.
But yeah this all sounds awesome! I'd say I can't wait, but seeing how many things are on your plate, as you said, I wouldn't want to rush you. How about instead I say that it's worth the wait?
Thanks.

[NASAIsAwesome]

(ie assets, and I think someone mentioned the videos were xml scripts also, but I couldn't find those).

For the moment those scripts are embedded in the big binary file located inside the data folder. I could extract those out, but the problem is that the images we use are stored in a special type of files called "asset bundles", which can only be created inside Unity 3D (the game engine we're using). I intend to tackle that problem at some point so that anyone can create their own animations, but I have so many things on my plate at the moment that it will have to wait a few weeks I'm afraid.

I think generally though, what I want to know is, especially in light of this 'master spreadsheet', what exactly can and cannot be controlled via these scripts?

With the master spreadsheet you'll be able to do many things, such as define the costs of the mission components, which goals get accomplished on each mission, how are prestige points distributed along all mission steps, etc. In theory, you will at some point be able to add new programs and mission configurations as well by adding data into the master spreadsheet and then running the conversion tools. And I said "in theory", because I need to sort out some technical issues first, which are pretty much related to the things I mentioned a few lines above.

Cheers,

A few weeks?
Mother of god, you people update faster than any development team I've seen.
As of now, I'm messing around with the files in Unity. Hopefully we'll get something out of it.

[NASAIsAwesome]

I'm going to upload a tutorial for this soon. Savefile editing, coming up!
Or, to put it in less "cheaty terms", I gave each of my mission controllers a manual, a coffee machine, and tons of notepaper and told them to memorize it all or face dismissal. As you can see, it works wonders

Now, if you think this is bad, I'm making my researchers at SET look like I genetically engineered them for the sole purpose of making and studying spacecraft.

EDIT: Also managed to change the game date, and set ti back by a year.
HOORAY!

[Imperator]

I am finding all of this so interesting and nodifying loads of files with real names etc just for my one use.
I can also change the money and quartlerly budgets - that can be found in :-
SPM-Windows_Data/Scripts\Data Scripts\General Container\and Constants-NASA,Constants-GSA etc
Just change the monetary values that makes the game easier to play for you.

Perhaps one day there will be an all-in-one editor for this excellent sim - like they have for Geoff Crammonds F1GP3 - GPEdit etc