RAGE!!! Collected facts and answers for modders.

[tdevine]

  I find it insanely infuriating that this game has been out for 10 years and almost NO information is available to modders.    When I say no information, I mean that I have been trying to mod this game in a multitude of ways and could only find about 20%-30% of the info or help I needed after scouring the internet and forums for days and sometimes weeks, only to find no answer at all to a should be easy question.  I have watched vids on YT for 50 hours plus, and they all cover the same thing, just annoying.  So I wanted to start a general thread to include things that modders have either been taught or learned on their own through trial and error like myself.  Loading, unloading, testing, re-testing, loading and then unloading again just to find an answer that should have been covered by TFP or the community long ago is just rage inducing to me.  So I will start with some questions that maybe someone can answer, them list some facts I learned on my own.

 

I like the game, it has great potential.  But one sad feature is that you can beat about 90% of the game just by using an elevated position like a roof to get away from zombies and kill them.

 

 ??? How do you give zombies the ability to jump up more than one block?  I have used jump strength, jump distance, AI leap, and nothing works.  My spider zombie can "leap" up higher now, but it is not consistent.  When the spider zombie gets under my elevated position it just attacks blocks like all the others.  If I take the AI block out, it just stands there anyway.

 

FACT:  If you give a zombie an AI LEAP command like the spider zombie in the config files, then increase its "jump distance", the zombie will try to jump or leap onto the player and attack.  If you set the jump distance high enough like I did with my spiders, sometimes they can jump or leap onto a roof.

 

??? Why can some models or meshes of driveable vehicles be turned into undriveable blocks that will work like vanilla ones (sedans), while some models or meshes can not? You can't interact with them like other blocks no matter what settings you use.  I tried to turn the Apache Helicopter model from a mod I found into just a block that you can search and harvest, but never could interact with it no matter what settings in the config I used.

 

??? In the world editor, why can't I adjust the terrain with a shovel or whatever, add terrain or even water, and save it to the map?  The only thing I can do in the world editor it seems is place or remove/replace prefabs.

 

FACT:  If you are interested in having more control over your custom maps, try Maptoolz.  You can place water, roads, mountains, etc...  It works in 2023.

[khzmusik]

There are other forums that should be used for this. The Mods forum should only be used to announce published mods and modlets, and so users can post questions about those mods and modlets in their respective threads. (Click on the big red "Posting in the Mod Forum" banner at the top of the forums.)

 

If you want to share your knowledge with other modders, the appropriate place is in the Tutorials & Guides forum:
https://community.7daystodie.com/forum/39-tutorials-guides/

 

If you need knowledge from other modders, the appropriate place is in the Discussion and Requests forum:

https://community.7daystodie.com/forum/40-discussion-and-requests/

 

There are also non-forum places to ask about this. The most active one is Guppy's Unofficial Modding Discord server:

 

And, there is a reason that not a lot of information is given by TFP themselves. The game is still in development, so any information they give you could be outdated by the time the next alpha rolls around.

 

Just look in XML.txt in the game's Config directory. It gives you a whole lot of info about what is contained in those files, but there are entire sections that are obsolete or that needed to be added in A17 or above.

 

There is a similar issue with third-party tools. You recommended Maptoolz but there's no guarantee that will be around in future alphas. For example, we used to have Nitrogen and King Gen for generating RWG maps, but those tools don't deal with the A20 RWG system (tiles and parts, etc.) and AFAIK there are no plans from the authors to update them. So, any references to those tools will simply confuse people who are starting to play now.

 

According to TFP, the long-term plan is to offer Steam Workshop support, and once they start working on that, I'm sure there will be a lot more information coming from TFP themselves. Until then, you have to accept shifting requirements as part of the cost of modding an unfinished game.

[bdubyah]

Also, reading the bottom of buffs.xml has a good bit of info as well.

[tdevine]

1 hour ago, khzmusik said:

There are other forums that should be used for this. The Mods forum should only be used to announce published mods and modlets, and so users can post questions about those mods and modlets in their respective threads. (Click on the big red "Posting in the Mod Forum" banner at the top of the forums.)

 

If you want to share your knowledge with other modders, the appropriate place is in the Tutorials & Guides forum:
https://community.7daystodie.com/forum/39-tutorials-guides/

 

If you need knowledge from other modders, the appropriate place is in the Discussion and Requests forum:

https://community.7daystodie.com/forum/40-discussion-and-requests/

 

There are also non-forum places to ask about this. The most active one is Guppy's Unofficial Modding Discord server:

 

And, there is a reason that not a lot of information is given by TFP themselves. The game is still in development, so any information they give you could be outdated by the time the next alpha rolls around.

 

Just look in XML.txt in the game's Config directory. It gives you a whole lot of info about what is contained in those files, but there are entire sections that are obsolete or that needed to be added in A17 or above.

 

There is a similar issue with third-party tools. You recommended Maptoolz but there's no guarantee that will be around in future alphas. For example, we used to have Nitrogen and King Gen for generating RWG maps, but those tools don't deal with the A20 RWG system (tiles and parts, etc.) and AFAIK there are no plans from the authors to update them. So, any references to those tools will simply confuse people who are starting to play now.

 

According to TFP, the long-term plan is to offer Steam Workshop support, and once they start working on that, I'm sure there will be a lot more information coming from TFP themselves. Until then, you have to accept shifting requirements as part of the cost of modding an unfinished game.

 

Thanks, I will resume posting in the correct areas.

[zztong]

I realize your conversation is likely moving elsewhere, but I wanted to try to answer one of your questions here where I happened to see it for fear of not seeing where it picked up.

 

9 hours ago, tdevine said:

Why can some models or meshes of driveable vehicles be turned into undriveable blocks that will work like vanilla ones (sedans), while some models or meshes can not?

 

I recall asking about this in the "Discussion and Requests" part of these forums and got an answer. There's a flag that has to be set. As I'm not very conversant in Unity, I don't recall what that flag is, but you're welcome to review that conversation...

 

 

Feel free to necro that thread if it would help.

[tdevine]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:19 PM, zztong said:

I realize your conversation is likely moving elsewhere, but I wanted to try to answer one of your questions here where I happened to see it for fear of not seeing where it picked up.

 

 

I recall asking about this in the "Discussion and Requests" part of these forums and got an answer. There's a flag that has to be set. As I'm not very conversant in Unity, I don't recall what that flag is, but you're welcome to review that conversation...

 

 

Feel free to necro that thread if it would help.

Thank you for your help.