Disappointing change in the Steam workshop

As of today, the workshop will only feature ship templates. All weapons and other equipment are stripped from the upload.

I have no idea why they changed this. I certainly prefer to subscribe to a ship already outfitted. It is not a huge deal I guess, but the placement of weapons engines, modules, etc. added a lot to the appeal of many of the designs and they look a bit sterile with everything stripped.

14,311 views 15 replies
Reply #1 Top

Well the modding support from Stardock has been horrible in general no custom Tech Trees, no easy way to make Ship Styles no map editor (unless you fork 5 bucks), no way to make your own attributes, no way to easily upload mods, heck Im pretty sure this is far worst than what we got with Twilight of the Arnor, and that was, what half-a-dozen years ago?

I for one havent even touched the workshop, its pathetic in its current form, I think Ill stick with the Gal Civ3 nexus

Reply #2 Top

I think the reason is that a template is always useful once you've unlocked the hull size but using an outfitted ship requires you to get every tech needed for its modules plus enough miniaturization to make it all fit.

 

A lot of people would never see the ship they downloaded if it wasn't a template.

 

Edit:  Also, if you like the look of weapons or other modules on your ship you can add the models to the template.  Weapons are under the "small" category and everything else is under the "universal" category in the design tab.

Reply #4 Top

Quoting Yeller123, reply 2

I think the reason is that a template is always useful once you've unlocked the hull size but using an outfitted ship requires you to get every tech needed for its modules plus enough miniaturization to make it all fit.

 

A lot of people would never see the ship they downloaded if it wasn't a template.

 

Edit:  Also, if you like the look of weapons or other modules on your ship you can add the models to the template.  Weapons are under the "small" category and everything else is under the "universal" category in the design tab.

What you say is a good point and likely reason.  However, this is what I was hoping for in the workshop.  I know I won't be bothered to equip every design I could come up with.  I rely a lot on predesigned ships.  I figure if I download a bunch of different ships with different equipment distributions, then as I explore the tech tree, I will get different designs available.  That will be fun.  More importantly, I expected the AI would have access to all the workshop ships I subscribed to, so the AI would have a rich set of designs to choose from.  I understand that assumes the AI gets a way to choose meaningfully between all those designs, but I have faith in that.

I am an optimist about GC3, so I can only hope these are some initial implementation issues with Steam Workshop in preparation for a much more robust Workshop support.

Reply #5 Top

Sorry, double post

Reply #6 Top

Quoting Yeller123, reply 2

Edit:  Also, if you like the look of weapons or other modules on your ship you can add the models to the template.  Weapons are under the "small" category and everything else is under the "universal" category in the design tab.

I get what you are saying and you are correct but it would still be nice to have our cake and eat it too. BTW, I am not seeing any "weapons" parts in game stock, and the weapons parts from other contributors aren't sticking either. I am not sure what's going on with that problem.

Reply #7 Top

Quoting erischild, reply 4

I figure if I download a bunch of different ships with different equipment distributions, then as I explore the tech tree, I will get different designs available.  That will be fun.

Fun is one thing you might except. The reality is that you'd hate such ships. For example a ship might use a sensor for which you don't care about, but still have to research technologies to enable them.

What you really want are blueprints. A blueprint is a list of components of certain type that should be attached to a ship. They are created with XML, so I doubt they will have their own category for Steam Workshop. Here is an example of a Scout blueprint:

Code: xml
  1. <ShipBlueprint><InternalName>ScoutBlueprint</InternalName>
  2. <ShipHullType>Tiny</ShipHullType>
  3. <Role>Support</Role>
  4. <RequiredComponentType>Sensor</RequiredComponentType>
  5. <RequiredComponentType>LifeSupport</RequiredComponentType>
  6. <ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
  7. <ComponentType>LifeSupport</ComponentType>
  8. <ComponentType>LifeSupport</ComponentType>
  9. <ComponentType>LifeSupport</ComponentType>
  10. <ComponentType>InterstellarDrive</ComponentType>
  11. <FillerComponentType>LifeSupport</FillerComponentType>
  12. </ShipBlueprint>
 

Reply #8 Top

Quoting pendrokar, reply 7


Quoting erischild,

I figure if I download a bunch of different ships with different equipment distributions, then as I explore the tech tree, I will get different designs available.  That will be fun.


Fun is one thing you might except. The reality is that you'd hate such ships. For example a ship might use a sensor for which you don't care about, but still have to research technologies to enable them.

What you really want are blueprints. A blueprint is a list of components of certain type that should be attached to a ship. They are created with XML, so I doubt they will have their own category for Steam Workshop. Here is an example of a Scout blueprint:

 

 

I already get sensors I don't necessarily care about on pre-set ships.  So, I understand what you are saying.

If blueprints are bits of XML code, could they be little mini-mods of some sort?

 

Reply #9 Top


As of today, the workshop will only feature ship templates. All weapons and other equipment are stripped from the upload.

I have no idea why they changed this. I certainly prefer to subscribe to a ship already outfitted. It is not a huge deal I guess, but the placement of weapons engines, modules, etc. added a lot to the appeal of many of the designs and they look a bit sterile with everything stripped.

Okay, there is nothing to see here.  This has been expected and fully explained in the last dev stream before the Summer break.  The reason for this is with a template it provides the user the option to add weapons as they see fit.  This allows you to have the ability to use that ship design right away.  

If they had it the other way then one would only be able to use that ship when that player unlocked all appropriate techs for weapons and other parts which that ship required.  This makes perfect sense on why they chose to go this way and I wouldn't expect it to be any other way.

Quoting KD7BCH, reply 3

3 LETTERS

D L C

This is incorrect, one can not post a ship with weapons/defenses or other parts on their if they have any DLC or not.

 

Reply #10 Top

To anyone wanting to use weapon parts in their ship designs you need to click options in the ship designer and choose to show all parts, and yes those parts do show up as I have several workshop downloads with weapon model parts just nothing with actual modules.

Reply #11 Top

Couple of dump questions...

Quoting pendrokar, reply 7

Fun is one thing you might except. The reality is that you'd hate such ships. For example a ship might use a sensor for which you don't care about, but still have to research technologies to enable them.

So could you not just use designer in game to remove that part(s) not yet researched?

Quoting Deathwynd, reply 10

To anyone wanting to use weapon parts in their ship designs you need to click options in the ship designer and choose to show all parts, and yes those parts do show up as I have several workshop downloads with weapon model parts just nothing with actual modules.

 

So am i correct in assuming your comment solves the problem?

 

I only know enough about modding and ship blueprints to be very dangerous :S

Reply #12 Top

well it doesnt solve the issue of those obsessed with having pre equipped ships, but it does mean that ship designers who want the weapons for appearance sake have access to them.

Reply #13 Top

Quoting Deathwynd, reply 12

well it doesnt solve the issue of those obsessed with having pre equipped ships, but it does mean that ship designers who want the weapons for appearance sake have access to them.

 

cool thanks

Reply #14 Top

In GC2 shiptemplates could hold functional modules - however, only for their outward design, they were actually without function (*). So, essentially, one could use all available mods - functional or not - to make a design without any limitation whatsoever.

That this is not possible right now because of blablabla is just a lame excuse - the game could simply be coded to work like the prequel did and that would be the best solution, and given the fact that the code already exists it shouldn't be that difficult.

(*) Actually there was a minor function - if the auto-designer would pick weapons or defenses on a template it would use the anchors of the void non-functional weapon/defense modules and replace them with working ones. This was, again, a good solution, otherwise the autodesigner would have to place all these in random order at anchors (which could happen at some time, eg. if current miniaturization level would exceed the number of real weapons vs. the proxy-weapons) and that would lead to chaotic designs.

Reply #15 Top

Ok and as I have previously stated your argument holds no water as every single equippable module exists in the ship designer as a non functional version so a ship maker can include any of the modules they want they are simply non functional just as you describe from GC2 so you can climb down off your soapbox and quit bagging on GC3 for doing the same thing.