Help needed Fixed Playfields

Discussion in 'Custom Playfields & Systems' started by Escarli, Aug 8, 2020.

  1. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Commander

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    OTGGaming is the author. It stands for Old Time Gamers. Which, I definitely qualify for :) , but i'm not the author. Just a user. So, I have no idea. Sorry. But I can ask!
     
    #21
  2. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    As long as it uses a playfield.yaml and has a valid seed set in the play field it should work.
    Also need Usefixed true set in the play field if you want fixed POIs.
     
    #22
  3. Kassonnade

    Kassonnade Rear Admiral

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    What is a "valid seed" ?

    For example, in the Tutorial's space playfield.yaml the seed is "-2147483648". In the Default Creative scenario's Temperate playfield.yaml, the seed is " 0 ".

    I used regular templates (from the main Playfields folder) in the EPD to generate a "playfield.yaml" in which I the set the seed, but the terrain changed at each game start.
     
    #23
  4. Escarli

    Escarli Rear Admiral

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    all creative seeds are 0, you can however used a fixed playfield in a creative scenario....that's the one thing I have managed to do ;)
     
    #24
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  5. Kassonnade

    Kassonnade Rear Admiral

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    I did that too, but if it's a "copied" playfield from a survival scenario, the terrain will change slightly.
     
    #25
  6. Escarli

    Escarli Rear Admiral

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    was exactly the same for me :/
     
    #26
  7. Kassonnade

    Kassonnade Rear Admiral

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    There's a trick to have the exact same terrain : run your survival game first, save/ close, then run a new Creative game with your playfield.yaml/ terrain.ecf, exit/save, then replace all contents in your (Creative last save) Saves\Cache\NewGameX\Playfields\WhateverName\ (biomes.dat, splat.dat, map.png and terrain.raw) with the same content from your survival savegame's cache. :)
     
    #27
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2020
  8. OldTimersGaming

    OldTimersGaming Ensign

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    The Escape from Purgatory "series" started with Escape from Purgatory Alpha 11.5, then progressed to Escape from Purgatory - Galaxy Edition and Escape from Purgatory - Reforged Galaxy. I originally created the Alpha 11.5 version late in Alpha 9. I started by copying the Default Akua-Omicron scenario (which you can no longer easily do, as it has changed in structure). But from there, I used several tools to build my sectors.yaml file and modify each playfield. Yes, they are all static and use the playfield.yaml files.
    Over time, I did pull in other planets, such as many from Monroe's Planet Pack I
    https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1717457072&searchtext=monroes

    If you do choose to use other people's playfields or scenarios, please first ask permission, then if you get it, try to change them significantly enough - and give the original author(s) credit.

    The tools I currently use are
    Empyrion Playfield Designer v2.x
    https://empyrion-homeworld.net/tools/ewssc

    Note that the original Default Akua-Omicron scenario included at least one of each planet type, snow, lava, temperate, etc., which made it a good choice, but that is no longer the case.

    You could start with the _TestScenario, but it only has a few playfields.
    Each playfield folder should contain
    playfield_debug
    playfield_dynamic
    playfield_static

    You then delete the dynamic and static yamls and rename playfield_debug.yaml to playfield.yaml. then edit it. From there, you can modify any settings to get the desired results, plus add your custom POIs. This takes many, many...many, many starts to test each playfield until it all works the way you intended (in theory). Then you move on to the next playfield.

    BTW, I did try the option of setting all starting playfield.yaml seeds to '0' so that the seed could be correctly selected at start time. That worked a few times for me before Eleon released V1. It would allow me to set a random seed I selected, then correctly applied it a start a few times. Each start resulted in POIs in different locations and different terrain.
    But that did not work for someone that was helping me test the exact same test version.
    And now I get a coq everytime, so I never published that test version publicly.

    I do wonder if I would have to set ALL playfield yaml's to '0' (instead of just the starter planets) in order for that to work correctly (including orbits and moons), but frankly, that is a lot of work and so I have not tried that yet. Maybe @ravien_ff can weigh in on that?

    When Alpha 12 rolled out, I did add the 'GalaxyMode: true' at the top of my sectors.yaml file, which enabled the random gen galaxy beyond my static solar system.
     
    #28
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2020
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  9. Escarli

    Escarli Rear Admiral

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    Regarding other people's scenario's I've just been looking into them to see how they work, reverse engineer so to speak but that's it. The scenario(s) I'm working on are one's I've done, the starting point for me is usually the default multiplayer scenario but none of the playfields it has are what I'm currently using. 1 completely new playfield and two customised versions of vanilla planets (barren metal and dessert). For me though, I'm just having difficult with having a fixed playfield starter using the solarsystemconfig.yaml file. I did look at the sector file from the invader v defender scenario but when I tried to replicate it....just couldn't get the damn thing to work.

    It stems from the seed which we used to be able to specify in the playfield static file, but it no longer seems to work.
     
    #29
  10. OldTimersGaming

    OldTimersGaming Ensign

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    I have not done this yet because the scenario limit is 100MB, mine is 99MB, and the RandomPresets folder is currently 2.16 MB, but you may be able to do the following:
    Include this at the top of your scenario sector.yaml file:
    GalaxyMode: true
    That then uses the SolarSystemConfig files in the RandomPresets folder, which currently is 2.16 MB.
    I think if you copy the RandomPresets folder into your scenario 'Content' folder, you can then custom each SolarSystemConfig files in it without it getting overwritten by Eleon updates (or might have to be the scenario top level folder). Or worse case, you modify them within the default RandomPresets folder, keep an updated backed-up copy of that and its contents elsewhere so that when Eleon does an update, you can overwrite the RandomPresets folder with your backed-up customized copy.
     
    #30
  11. ravien_ff

    ravien_ff Rear Admiral

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    Project Eden uses both fixed sectors and random galaxy generation if you're looking for an example of how to do both.
     
    #31
  12. Kassonnade

    Kassonnade Rear Admiral

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    What @OldTimersGaming wrote up here is working : just make your sectors.yaml file to have the " GalaxyMode: true " at the top, and it will get the systems settings for the rest of the galaxy from the default random presets, without affection the systems in your sectors file.

    You can use the "tutorial" scenario as an example to setup your sectors file.
     
    #32

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