Goods Building Blocks discussion

[Jancsika]

I got into the "Goods BB_s a little, and realized that once there is a sample to go by and have the proper components, it is not very difficult to assemble one. I took Lowell's Florida FPK-s (sorry Lowell), and made an “Orange Good”. I have not tested yet, so there is nothing to brag about. I have several questions in mind, before proceeding: (Here comes the numbers)

1. How the authors of the original materials feel about it? It took Lowell a lot of his time and talent to make those files.
2. If everybody is going to make and upload BB files, there will be a lot of confusion, duplication and conflict out there. I suggest that the creators of the BB-s (That is Tijer, Snoopy and company) should review them and only they should publish them.
3. Hopefully there will be a lot of new goods coming and that raises the question of the Cars that carry them. In the “CarIconSideViews.tga” file every car has a location assigned. (coordinates) Is the file expandable? Can we add an other row to it? There was some discussion about it in the past, but I don’t have the reference ready. How about conflict. Two different Goods having the same coordinates? There should be a master file assigning coordinates to the goods. Is that necessary? Is it possible?
Jancsika

[snoopy55]

1. How the authors of the original materials feel about it? It took Lowell a lot of his time and talent to make those files.

This is the way we look at it: Once a map is uploaded, the contents become fair game. Most Goods and TrainCars are nothing more than graphic edits of original ones. If a maker of a posted item states that he doesn't want it posted, it gets deleted. Simple.

2. If everybody is going to make and upload BB files, there will be a lot of confusion, duplication and conflict out there. I suggest that the creators of the BB-s (That is Tijer, Snoopy and company) should review them and only they should publish them.

Yes, it should go thru me or TIJER. The reasons are we want to make sure the files like Auction and Reposts are correctly done. That the XMLs are correctly written. We want icons for the item and not something like Steel for Fuel Oil. BBs other than Industries are going to have a color coded screen shot done in NifSkope. And to take a Junk Car and a Scrap Metal Car and list them both when the only thing different is the name is unneeded. That's one of the reason these are up here, so users can take them as is, or change the name or one of the other listed variables to make there own.

3. Hopefully there will be a lot of new goods coming and that raises the question of the Cars that carry them. In the “CarIconSideViews.tga” file every car has a location assigned. (coordinates) Is the file expandable? Can we add an other row to it? There was some discussion about it in the past, but I don’t have the reference ready. How about conflict. Two different Goods having the same coordinates? There should be a master file assigning coordinates to the goods. Is that necessary? Is it possible?

As to SideCarViews, these cannot be combined. Every car should have a pair with it's own name on it. Remember, these are going to be downloaded one at a time. You can do 1 pair and use it for different cars, but you'll find the easier way is to find a car that is like the one you are doing abd modify the Good icon on it. I took the Ore car and colored the Ore white-ish and called it Cotton. The set, in this case, would be called 'CottonCarSideView', or 'SideViewCottonCar', whatever. The two Original ones are only 135 Kb, so quantity is not important. As to expanding the files, may be possible, but not needed. As to two different Goods having the same coordinates, no big deal, the names will be different. I have records in both my computer (137Gb of Disk) and 2 2" binders for this game. If an item is sent to me I will check for duplicates and make any nessesary changes. At some time we will start stripping BBs also, meaning that if it uses the Smelter as a Copper Plant and all the 'Smelter' was changed to 'Copper_Plant', it may get edited to use as much of the original data as possible. Any DIFF names, NIF names and KFM names will be changed, but the rest will be left as Original File names. This cuts back on the size of the FPK files and the amount of space needed to store them.

As to what will be used for thi picture in Goods, about all I can think of is an enlarged icon.

Here is a simple sample:

[snoopy55]

Ok, let's start a minor debate here with a major tutorial.

Note!: the blue is the changes made to the XML code.

First, you own a railroad. I've just developed a new Good for you to deal with. It's a bean, how do you ship it? Grab a grain car, make sure it's clean, and ship it.

<TrainCar>
<szName>BNSF Grain Car</szName>
<szGood>Beans</szGood>
<szModel>Grain_Car_bnsf.Kfm</szModel>
<szDummyModel>Grain_Car_dummies.nif</szDummyModel>
<szIcon>ICON_Car_Grain.dds</szIcon>
<szGroundClackSound>AS3D_CLACK_PLANET_GROUND</szGroundClackSound>
<szBridgeClackSound>AS3D_CLACK_PLANET_BRIDGE</szBridgeClackSound>
<RunLength>30</RunLength>
</TrainCar>

Place the Beans BB into the Goods XML, put the Beans FPK and BNSF_Grain_Car FPK into your UesrMaps.

Now you want a place to grow it. You don't want that old Grain Farm or Corn Farm, so go to the New Barn DDS files thread and get that zip. There are two ways to do this. If you are making a SAM and not planning on having any Farms but the new one then take the barn DDS you wish to use and rename it "grain_elevator_diff.dds". Being the newest file by that name, it will override the original one. Note!: it will only effect the map you put it into. It will NOT effect any other maps or the Original maps. If you are able to play with the nif files, go in and change the DDS file name to the one you are using, along with any other files you are wishing to rename, and put them into a folder in your UserMaps. NOTE! When renaming a KFM set like this it is NOT necessary to rename all the files that the KFM uses! You only need to rename the files you edit, such as the KFM, NIF and the DIFF DDS files. If you feel the NMRL DDS needs to be changed, it can be. If you are unable to do it yourself, ask and be patient and I think you'll get someone to help you. One of the other two files has to do with light. If anyone can nicely explain those two files, please do so and, if possible, how to make them out of the DIFF DDS. If there is a build up file, go in and change the files name in that also.

The XML code:

<RRTIndustry>
<szName>Bean Farm</szName>
<szModel>Bean_Elevator.kfm</szModel>
<szGrowKFM>Bean_Elevator_Build_Up.kfm</szGrowKFM>
<szTerrainmap>TerrainMap_GrainElevator.tga</szTerrainmap>
<fScale>1.0</fScale>
<bIsCoastal>0</bIsCoastal>
<bIsMountainous>0</bIsMountainous>
<bHasFields>1</bHasFields>
<bInCity>0</bInCity>
<iCost>-1</iCost>
<Production>
<Resource>
<Input>None</Input>
<Output>Beans</Output>
<InputOutputRatio>1.0</InputOutputRatio>
</Resource>
</Production>
<DisplayNames>
<szDisplayName>The @CITY Bean Farms</szDisplayName>
<szDisplayName>@CITY Feed Co.</szDisplayName>
<szDisplayName>@CITY Grain Company</szDisplayName>(remove this line)
<szDisplayName>@CITY Seed and Grain</szDisplayName>
<szDisplayName>@CITY Mills, Ltd.</szDisplayName>
</DisplayNames>
<szIcon>
<szFile>icon_beans_32.tga</szFile>
</szIcon>
</RRTIndustry>

The changes are simple enough. You can pack this, along with the files you use, and create a BB out of it. Just ask and I'll give a tutorial on how it's done.

The Annex for this one is simple enough:

<Depot>
<szName>Bean Farm Annex</szName>
<szModel>Grain_Elevator_Annex.kfm</szModel>
<szCreateKFM>Grain_Elevator_Annex_Creation.kfm</szCreateKFM>
<InfluenceRadius>500.0</InfluenceRadius>
<IsAnnex>1</IsAnnex>
<BuildCost>25000</BuildCost>
<fScale>1</fScale>
</Depot>

On the naming of the Annex, be sure you take the name you gave the Industry and add 'Annex' to the end of it. The game will look for the Annex using the name of the Industry. If you want, you can edit the DDS of your Annex to match the color of the Goods, in this case Beans, but it's not required. If someone has a problem with it, ask them to do it for you.

Well, we have the new Good, going into the TrainCar from the Annex. Your job as a railroad company employee is done. And forget the paycheck, it ain't gonna happen.

We have the Good sitting in a Traincar, so let's make it into Food. This can be done following the Farm editing using the Food Plant. You can go so far as to edit the looks of the Plant, or add a Beans to Food production:

<Production>
<Resource>
<Input>Grain</Input>
<Output>Food</Output>
<InputOutputRatio>1.0</InputOutputRatio>
</Resource>
<Resource>
<Input>Beans</Input>
<Output>Food</Output>
<InputOutputRatio>1.0</InputOutputRatio>
</Resource>
</Production>

Or replace Grain with Beans:

<Production>
<Resource>
<Input>Beans</Input>
<Output>Food</Output>
<InputOutputRatio>1.0</InputOutputRatio>
</Resource>

In all of this, be sure you pay strict attention to the spelling.


What we have done here is edit a resource, an Annex, a TrainCar and an Industry.

The Good itself can be edited simply by changing its name. And take that a few steps further and play with the '_64' TGA image in a graphics program and create your own Good. The various fruits were done by searching the Images in Google for a simple picture and doing a bit of editing and resizing. Give it a background color and a bit of cut, copy and pasting and you have the Icon. Name it, save it, resize it to 32, save it and resize it to 16, save it and you have the 3 required Icons. Decide how it would be most likely shipped, copy one of the CISV TGAs I made and paste the size 16 Icon into it. Check the existing Goods in the Wiki and in the Goods Are Us! thread and use the next number available for the first letter of the Goods name. Edit the name and TGA file names in the XML file, change the price if you so choose and give it some Industry Titles, serious of goofy and save it. Paste a size 64 Icon over the JPG and you have the display Icon for the thread.

Any time you create a new item for your map you can publish it as a BB. One thing I'd like to see avoided is taking existing items, making a minor change to them and posting them as a new item. Five different 'Beans' and six different colored 'Bean Farms' and four different 'Bean Cars' is a bit overkill. Creating several different colored/textured Farms would be nice. The name is not important, and they can be edited as shown above when used. Different TrainCars that haul grains that have different paint schemes sounds good also, but using the same paint scheme and posting them because you are hauling a different Good would be a bit much.

Now I said that and there will probably be people who disagree, but each to his own and I'm not going to say 'Get that off my thread!'. And I'm not going to get upset if someone posts their thoughts on all of this, positive, negative, neutral, hey, post your thoughts.

If you decide to post any of your work as BBs, please try and follow the existing forms. This makes it easier for people to use them as they will follow the structures used in the instructions.

Hey, let's do one of those dreaded "EVENTS" for those Beans......

<Event>
<szTitle>BEAN_DECREASE</szTitle>
<szHeadline>STINK BUGS INVADE BEAN CROPS</szHeadline>
<szSubHead>Farmers wearing gas masks plow plundered plants under.</szSubHead>
<szImage>event_us_graindecrease.dds</szImage>
<Effects>
<EventEffect>
<szType>Good</szType>
<szGood>Beans</szGood>
<fModifierMin>.9</fModifierMin>
<fModifierMax>1.0</fModifierMax>
<fDurationMin>180</fDurationMin>
<fDurationMax>360</fDurationMax>
<fAccel>0.1f</fAccel>
<fDecel>0.05f</fDecel>
</EventEffect>
</Effects>
<szEarliestDate>1/1800</szEarliestDate>
<szLatestDate>12/2050</szLatestDate>
<fProbability>0.2</fProbability>
<bShowNewspaper>1</bShowNewspaper>
</Event>


<Event>
<szTitle>BEAN_INCREASE</szTitle>
<szHeadline>A NEW BEAN DIET CREATED</szHeadline>
<szSubHead>Dieters clear store shelves of legume family!</szSubHead>
<szImage>event_us_graindecrease.dds</szImage>
<Effects>
<EventEffect>
<szType>Good</szType>
<szGood>Beans</szGood>
<fModifierMin>1.3</fModifierMin>
<fModifierMax>1.8</fModifierMax>
<fDurationMin>180</fDurationMin>
<fDurationMax>360</fDurationMax>
<fAccel>0.1f</fAccel>
<fDecel>0.05f</fDecel>
</EventEffect>
</Effects>
<szEarliestDate>1/1800</szEarliestDate>
<szLatestDate>12/2050</szLatestDate>
<fProbability>0.2</fProbability>
<bShowNewspaper>1</bShowNewspaper>
</Event>

The creation of new Images would be great, but I'm not getting into that here. Again, watch your spelling, and don't be afraid to use the Event file. The ONLY problem I've found in using this file is having an Event in it that does not have a matching Good in the map.

If you have any other questions or if I left anything out, do a post.

[snoopy55]

If you open up one of the existing ones your question should be answered. But, just to be sure....

When you took the Goods from the Euro and US maps, you had to do copy and past using different parts from different maps. Basicly, the BBs are the same thing, but insteasd of searching maps to find what you want you just download the parts (BBs) and put them into your map's XMls.

Do you just download the 'Oranges' Good file and stick it in your map? No. You need to decide how you are going to ship it, where it's going to come from and where it's going to go. Yes, it used to be easy. The Goods, the TrainCars, the Annexes and the Industries were all in one place. But we've gone beyond that and created new materials for the game. Instead of digging thru a bunch of different maps to find parts, I've put them into threads by types. Decide what you want, download it, edit it if needed and put it in your map.

Effects are used in the KFM and NIF files. They have been played with a bit, but not much.

If you are looking to see if you should sink any time into this game, you need to look into the SAM style mapping and the Building Blocks that have been done. Catch up on what's been going on since you dropped out last June/July.

And most of the maps made and posted on this site make the Firaxis Blokes look like Pikers.......what are 'Pikers'? This game has possibilities that I don't think even they saw. STEP Inc has quite a few things on the drawing board for this game, and we're bumping into things we had looked at, played with and set aside that still have possibilities.

Jancsika - I agree we need some tutorials done, but we really need questions asked so we know where to go with those tutorials. What I wrote above gives info for what I thought Star Ranger4 was asking about. As to putting the BBs into the maps, that's really not any harder than making a map used to be. Now tho, instead of putting in 3 lines and adding any changes in the original parts, you put in the XML sections from the BBs and edit them as to the parsts you want to change. We can write loads of tutorials, but will they answer the questions that are asked?

As to posting them, they need a thread here in Construction Set since all the parts are here. Once each tutorial is written and worked out, it can be copied and plastered into a thread created just for tutorials with a line to click on to get to the thread where it was originally posted and discussed. This would put all the information accesable from one place, but still leave it researchable and with a place to discuss it. And then put an entry in the Wiki which would help also. Another way would be a Wiki post for each one and a line in each tutorials' post that takes you to the Wiki where all the others are listed with access lines to them.