I was wondering if someone could either point me in the right direction to find some info, or maybe just throw the info at me. In short, I was trying to figure out how to edit things like the starting equipment (SP game). Just for giggles, let's say I wanted to add an assault rifle and 100 rounds for the player, either in his inventory or the escape pod. I am COMPLETELY clueless on how to do that stuff in Empyrion. Thanks for reading, and CHEERS!
This is set up in the starter planet's playfield_static.yaml, below the POIs sections. As an example, if you look in the game's templates files in Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Content\Playfields\TemperateStarter\playfield_static.yaml, you will get to a text block that looks like this : ================================================================== FixedPlayerStart: - Mode: Creative SubMode: Empty Armor: ArmorLight Pos: [ -1177, 37.6, 1452.6 ] RotY: 105 - Mode: Creative SubMode: Normal Armor: ArmorLight Pos: [-1114.4, 44.9, 1476 ] RotY: 150 - Mode: Debug Armor: ArmorLight Pos: [ 0, 147, 0 ] RotY: 160 - Mode: Survival Spawn: EscapePod Pos: [ -350, 0 ] # fixed x,z position of escape pod start (Equator) # Spawn: Structure # Armor: ArmorMedium # PlayerArmor: ["ArmorMedium, ArmorLight, None, #FreshStart:ArmorHeavy"] Status: [ "Food: 400, Health: 400", "Food: 250, Health: 250", "Food: 150, Health: 150", "#FreshStart:Food: 250, Health: 250" ] # NEW Items: [ "PowerBar:10, BioFuel:3, MobileAirCon:1, Bandages:5, AntibioticOintment:3, AntiToxicOintment:3, SurvivalTool:1, Medikit04:3", "PowerBar:5, MobileAirCon:1, Bandages:3, AntibioticOintment:3, AntiToxicOintment:2, SurvivalTool:1, Medikit04:2", "PowerBar:2, MobileAirCon:1, Bandages:2, AntibioticOintment:2, SurvivalTool:1, Medikit04:1", "#FreshStart: PowerBar:5, Bandages:3, AntibioticOintment:3, AntiToxicOintment:2, SurvivalTool:1, Medikit04:2" ] =============================================================== The part in green is where the starter inventory is set. You can see there are 4 groups of items separated by quotation marks (I put different colors) and these represent the starter inventory for each of the difficulty settings, but... only the last one starting with "#FreshStart" I have no clue what it is for... I feel that I will learn about it pretty soon. Edit : it must be "creative" but that's just a guess. Would make sense though...
Awesome! Thank you so much. (Wonder if "FreshStart" was the tutorial stuff). I'd ask where to find the IDs for the different stuff, but want to find as much as I can for myself. Again,, Thanks a whole lot - I owe you one. CHEERS!
You're welcome! Here, check this cool tool : https://empyriononline.com/threads/tool-empyrion-playfield-designer-v2-0-6-exp.37581/ With this you can edit the playfields files more easily, and avoid indentation errors and such. It's pretty easy to work with, and to edit the playfield's starter inventory you can choose items from dropdown lists, which is much easier than looking for IDs in the configs or localization files. The tool lack some tooltips, it has not been updated to the latest game version, but it should work OK for the most part. If you have any questions just ask.
Ok, time to admit that my brain is just not firing on all cylinders or something. I know that it's bad form to change the game files without a backup, and best practice would be to make it a custom scenario (is that right?). Here is where the brain disconnect occurs. If I'm only changing the one file mentioned above, what all do I need to do to get it set up? <I have played with the playfield designer, and it is perfect for what I was wanting. I just don't want to screw my game files up.> I promise to get through this brain fart, just asking for another little push. CHEERS!
Here it's not a big change, and you can back up just the playfield you modified, and even just the part you modified. When the game gets a new update/ patch, if that playfield is overwritten, then you can simply re-do your modifications with a simple copy-paste from your backed-up text block. Just watch for indentation. There could be a problem regarding some specific "default scenarios" if the game checks into your inventory for some items, and is you already have those before doing the quest then you might have a small problem. Apart from that, it should not have consequences, since you just want to modify starter inventory. I sometimes mod the default game's files (ecf configs) but I keep it small, just a few items/ weapons to make things more fun/ less grindy. For playfields, because of these ecf modifications, I don't have to worry about the playfields contents so much. You can make a custom scenario if you want, but just for modifying the starter inventory in one or two starter playfields, I don't think it's necessary. Also note that if you make your starter playfield in a separate scenario, then you might miss any mission that is part of the default game's starter playfield. I have one question that may help you make a decision : why do you feel you need to change the starter inventory ?
First, thank you for the information. I really do appreciate it. To be completely honest, I don't feel like I NEED to change the starter stuff, it's more along the lines of WANTING to do it. In most (single player) games I play, I like to kind f "get under the hood" and poke around. My thought process was that editing the starting inventory would be the easiest way into personalizing the game for myself. Whether I continue with doing it or not is rather a moot point, as the fact that I CAN do it, combined with the tools/knowledge to do so, satisfies my curiosity. (I'm the kind of guy that back in the early 90's, during the days of DOS 5.0, edited my command.com file to say "Bad command or file dude". Not for any purpose other than because I found out how. I went so far as to learn a bit of assembly language programming "just because". In short, I think it could be summed up by saying that I'm a tinkerer. <I'd go into that a bit more, but it gets into some very personal stuff I don't want to share openly.> My entire grand plan in this was to find out how to do it, and then MAYBE (on the easy setting only), give myself a drill, a multi-tool, and one or two charges for each just to make it easier on myself in the early days of playing. And, as I only play SP, and only for relaxation and "chilling", I thought this the best way. Now that I've checked it out, I may or may not carry through...the curiosity has been pretty much satisfied. That isn't to say I won't decide at some point to do this more, just that RIGHT NOW I'm good. I plan to play 1.5 as pure vanilla when it comes out, and will probably check out Reforged Eden when it's completed for 1.5. TLR? I wanted to see if I could. And since I SUCK at building stuff in this game, I figured what the hell, let's try. CHEERS! (edited for grammar)
Modifying the ecf files can achieve the same goal, provided you know the game well enough. For example, in many games the 1st weapon, although among the weakests, has infinite ammo (no "melee attack" in Empyrion - unfair), and sticks with the player until the end. Not all games, but many, and more "old school" style games where dying was not a "cheaty way to get through difficulties" like some players do in Empyrion. So a player can just mod the 1st "pistol" to have infinite ammo, tweak damage multipliers a bit so it can affect blocks, then mod one or two of the basic food item (like energy bars) so they yield a bit more, maybe add a buff or two to a basic medic item and boost its recipe's yield, and that should already make things a lot less frustrating. At a later stage these changes become insignificant, when player has access to mass production and powerful weapons and healing devices, but then when facing very bad situations players can still step back and recompose from anywhere easily. The advantage of modifying ecf files over modifying playfields is that no custom scenario is required, and it doesn't affect the base game's templates and files : the modded ecf files can be put in the Empyrion\Content\Mods folder and they will not be overwritten with updates/ patches.
The example scenario listed in my signature might be useful if you do decide to create a custom scenario. Just follow the directions on the workshop page and you'll have a template to use to add your own changes.
@Kassonnade I had begun to look at the ecf files when I started this thread. I'm not ready, yet, for the kind of stuff you mention. I WILL look into it, though. @ravien_ff I had found a link to a post where you mentioned that scenario. It was late last night, so I didn't really look into it, but will keep it in mind should I do more than mess around with it. Thank you both. I think it's time to let this stuff percolate in my brain for a bit before going further. Big thumbs up to you! CHEERS!
In a SP game you can activate the Item Menu (Console: im) and give yourself whatever (H). Along throw away stuff that makes the start too easy. So see little point in fiddling with cfg files for SP starter equipment (and many other adjustments possible). For me waste of time, also since different starter conditions often give different requirements of items. Of course can want to learn the workings for maybe later use for servers and scenarios. Good luck!
