what can i do?

[B0LTS]

Are there hard limits to what can be done with modding? Like... is there a specific list of commands and arguments that the modding will recognize? Now that I've started the first steps of modding, my friends are asking for the moon. lol. Here are some of the suggestions I've gotten so far:

turning things into weapons, like candlesticks (club) and soup cans (thrown)

pretty sure i can figure those out on my own.

 

making it so red clothing gives you a speed buff. lol.

i'm pretty sure that can be done. whether or not i can figure out how to make it happens remains to be seen.

 

Then we started talking about mods for the minibike, and i have no idea where to start. But the ideas sounded pretty cool. So I thought I'd ask if anyone has done this, or if they're not possible at all right now.

Can I put a lawnmower/harvester on it and collect fiber and corn and stuff?

Can I put wheel spikes on it so I can go hunting with it again?

Can I put pontoons on it and make it float?

Can I waterproof it so it doesn't stop working when I go in the water?

 

I'm also interested in jumping. (not with the minibike, though that would be cool.) Is there any way to change a player's jump height and distance? It would be neat to play with jump jets or an acrobatics skill or something.

Is there a way to make it so players can climb walls like the spider zombies?

 

Regarding backpacks. Of course they want to make things easier. They like the idea of more backpack space, but I'm having a hard time finding things with the bigger backpack mod. There's just too much stuff. A way to compartmentalize the backpack would be cool.

I want to go the other way and make it harder to get your pack back. Is there a way to make it so your character turns into a non-despawning zombie when you die? And then in order to get your bag you've got to go fight your past self.

 

i'd love to have a way to recover brass. like... there have got to be thousands of bullet casings on the ground after zombie night. lol. I remember reading that you couldn't place an item in your inventory with a shot round because that command was connected to eating food. Is there a way to make it so a bit of brass appears somewhere? If we can't connect it to the shot for whatever reason, can we connect it to something else? heat maybe?

 

one player wants to be able to swing a sledgehammer with one hand. i'm not sure why. what's he doing with the other hand? maybe holding a shield? maybe carrying a second sledge. lol

 

I've thought for a while it would be neat to have some hidden stats. Do enough mining and you'll improve your strength score a bit. Maybe it's not listed in your character skills, but you do more damage with melee weapons

 

tl;dr I just started modding and I WANT TO DO ALL THE THINGS!!!!

[dreamdancer]

Ok, so... technically, there are no limits. You can rewrite everything. You can write a whole different game into the framework.

 

Practically, there are some very hard limits on what can be done -easily-. Adding new items and blocks that are similar to the ones that exist is trivial, as is making small changes to them within the scope of what already exists. Xml modding in general is pretty easy to learn. The limits of what you can do with xmls are weird, often convoluted, and require exploration. There's no way one could list out the possibilities, you sort of have to bang on it. Adding new assets is a bit trickier but something you can learn do without too much difficulty. UI tweaks too. Beyond that, there is a pretty high jump in skill curve, and things start getting exponentially harder.

 

Candlesticks and soupcans are easy. So is "Da red ones go fastah". Just make a buff. Messing around with minibikes is pretty tricky, and at this point it would probably be better to wait for Alpha 17 to come out, since they are getting a major overhaul(including making them do ramming damage). Plus there will be other vehicles.

 

Player movement: I dunno, maybe someone else can say. I haven't really looked into the code there.

 

Bigger backpack mod: Learn basic use of the SDX tool and you can add Bigger Backpack to anything, trivially. Zombie backpack: I don't know of any way to make a non-despawning zombie.

 

Recovering brass: Folks have tried, I am pretty sure that would require a .dll recode. Learning to use SDX for its higher functions and writing in modifications to the action code in C#. Within the realm of things that can be done with that method it's probably pretty low difficulty, but the method is a fair bit of work. Need to learn SDX, need to know C#, need dnSpy, need to spend a bunch of time reading through the base code and figuring out what to change.

 

Sledge: Idk, I think you can change the holdType to a different number but the animation might end up wonky-looking. Plus holding something in one hand has no real functionality apart from what you look like to other players.

 

Hidden stats I am not too sure about, but making new stats and making existing ones do more things wouldn't be hard. Making mining add melee damage would be pretty trivial, just add a %dmg to each weapon class to the mining skill(which oges up as you mine more). Might want to drastically reduce the skill xp that using an auger gives you though if you do, because at current using an auger can make your skill leap to max in a ridiculously short timeframe.

 

Welcome to modding.

[The-Walking-Dad]

Items that aren't consumed/used in some way can't apply buffs yet. I believe they will be able to in A17 though.

[B0LTS]

Thanks for the reply! And thanks again for the welcome! I'll start banging on things. XD

[dreamdancer]

Oh, right. Buffs are a pain. Forgot about that. Yeah, buffs on clothing might be a non-starter until A17. Unless you are willing to dig into the code.