Lua Odf?

posted on November 2nd, 2012, 11:22 pm

I know I've posted similar ideas that would be very complicated to implement, so I'm going to try and submit a very, very simple idea. How complicated would it be to put in a single command for all odf classes called something like "script" which references a specific lua script for that odf? Perhaps stored in a "lua" directory?

posted on November 7th, 2012, 12:12 pm

The difficult part is not to add something, but to define and implement what such a script should do. If you are aiming for having the same functionality as odfs, you can just write yourself a compiler if you favor writing LUA instead of odf.

posted on November 7th, 2012, 1:20 pm

I'm sort of aiming at the same functionality as ODFs, but the idea behind having a Lua ODFis to get functionality that would otherwise be unavailable through ODFs. The ODFs will still be used to define ship, station, weapon, etc properties, but when it comes down to modifying those properties, implementing Lua will (at the very least) enable developers (and particularly modders) to get their concepts into the game faster, rather than just finding a limitation and waiting a year for the next version to remove that limitation. If Lua is implemented, then the only limitation would be the application's Lua API. And, if it would be easier, it could be coded directly to the game engine, allowing modders to overcome just about any limitation (resource types, map types, cylindrical sensor footprint, techtree, sprite, ODF, etc) for their mods.

posted on November 7th, 2012, 2:19 pm

..allowing modders to overcome just about any limitation...

No, the features you mention there are just not possible by just exposing some functions within armada. The tools required for that don't exist. Armada wasn't build with that in mind. Look at Megadroid's singleplayer scripting files, then you basically understand what is possible. New Game Types could be done for sure, or even an AI, however there is no foundation to modify basic game mechanics. This would require a lot of stuff to be rewritten. Armada was never designed with a user modifiable script in mind - plus we still don't have to source code, we still need to 'hack' into everything.
--
I'd really like to add some script language to armada to allow for more complex modifications of game mechanics. Megadroid has done a great job by providing the single player scripting files (with LUA) which i recommend you take a look at. We might integrate that functionality directly in Fleet Operations at one point of development (maybe even for multiplayer), and over time extent it's functionality. But this is nothing that will happen soon.

posted on November 7th, 2012, 2:57 pm

I understand now. Thanks. How much would the source code cost?

I remember MMM and I have used it somewhat. Having it implemented as you described would be great. However, I'm willing to wait to get that functionality. I'm sure that your techtree and ODF improvements for the future version will keep modders distracted for quite a while.

Also, I guess I will not be making any more suggestions or feature requests until some time after 4.0 is released.

PS: The guide says that those commands are for FO 3.3. But you (and/or other developers) have said that the next version is 4.0. Can the guide be modified to reflect this?

posted on November 7th, 2012, 3:30 pm

The guide will receive updates for the latest version when it is publicly available.

posted on November 7th, 2012, 3:41 pm

I'm not asking that the commands be changed, I'm just asking that the displayed game version be changed from 3.3.0 to 4.0 on this page http://guide.fleetops.net/guide/modding/odf-commands to reflect the actual version that will be released.