[TOOL] RAMSLaM - Mod Making Made Easy
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:19 am
[align=center]RAMSLaM[/align]
[align=center]Red Alert Modification: Save/Load and Manipulate[/align]
READ: Currently, the program is in the tiny baby stages and is definitely not ready for any kind of release. This topic is for feedback on the idea and will eventually be the platform of distribution. So, inb4 'where do I download this?'.
What is RAMSLaM?
I don't know about you guys, but way back in the midsts of time, when CnC and RA still ran well on modern-at-the-time computers, a few different folks had created programs known as INI Editors specifically for these games.
Probably the one I favoured the most was TibEd, because it supported a lot of classic Westwood Engine games, including Dune and a few others.
Now that CnC and RA are open-domain and projects such as the very fine OpenRA one has sprouted up, I can't help but feel that the INI Editors have washed away. I certainly haven't found a tool as useful as their were for any of the new iterations of the classic Westwood Engine.
But then I got thinking...
OpenRA touts itself at being modifiable, and lays out a pretty simple structure to create your own mods. The only draw back is tedious amounts of file manipulation, hand-written YAML and sprite management. These are things that programs such as TibEd would handle for you, with a simplistic GUI to help navigate through everything. Essentially, it was possible to create your own Red Alert mod using TibEd.
So, why not make a program such as that for OpenRA?
Since no one else seemed interested in doing so, I decided to take up that role. Plus I thought it'd be a fun exercise of my programming skills.
What will RAMSLaM be able to do?
I intend to use to use the old INI Editors' method of modifying with OpenRA's format, which seems to be YAML files. You may have seen or even played with YAML if you run a Minecraft Bukkit server, since nearly all the plugins use YAML for configuration and other reasons. OpenRA too adopts YAML, which is great news, because it's easy to learn and handle, and very easy to create a program which can parse (read) the files.
For the first releases, I intend to have the program able to:
* Load unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Modify unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Add new entries into unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Add/Modify sprites for unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Save all changes to a new file structure and create a completely separate mod to load into OpenRA (A third entry into the mods list in-game, basically).
This is just what I plan to start with, once those are out the way, I hope to look into how OpenRA handles audio and video, as well as looking at the more aesthetics related things such as GUIs, Menu Screens and other things to help make a mod even more unique.
But the bottom line is, I want it to help close the gap between people with great ideas and people who know how to mod. Anyone can pick up RAMSLaM and essentially tell it what they want, and it'll respond by popping out a fully usable and workable mod instantly. No need to move files or modify things by hand, the program will do that for you.
Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear some feedback. This program isn't just a concept, it's a working idea. I've plugged lines of code in already and I've got something that's starting to work. I look forward to reading what you say and answering any questions.
[align=center]Red Alert Modification: Save/Load and Manipulate[/align]
READ: Currently, the program is in the tiny baby stages and is definitely not ready for any kind of release. This topic is for feedback on the idea and will eventually be the platform of distribution. So, inb4 'where do I download this?'.
What is RAMSLaM?
I don't know about you guys, but way back in the midsts of time, when CnC and RA still ran well on modern-at-the-time computers, a few different folks had created programs known as INI Editors specifically for these games.
Probably the one I favoured the most was TibEd, because it supported a lot of classic Westwood Engine games, including Dune and a few others.
Now that CnC and RA are open-domain and projects such as the very fine OpenRA one has sprouted up, I can't help but feel that the INI Editors have washed away. I certainly haven't found a tool as useful as their were for any of the new iterations of the classic Westwood Engine.
But then I got thinking...
OpenRA touts itself at being modifiable, and lays out a pretty simple structure to create your own mods. The only draw back is tedious amounts of file manipulation, hand-written YAML and sprite management. These are things that programs such as TibEd would handle for you, with a simplistic GUI to help navigate through everything. Essentially, it was possible to create your own Red Alert mod using TibEd.
So, why not make a program such as that for OpenRA?
Since no one else seemed interested in doing so, I decided to take up that role. Plus I thought it'd be a fun exercise of my programming skills.
What will RAMSLaM be able to do?
I intend to use to use the old INI Editors' method of modifying with OpenRA's format, which seems to be YAML files. You may have seen or even played with YAML if you run a Minecraft Bukkit server, since nearly all the plugins use YAML for configuration and other reasons. OpenRA too adopts YAML, which is great news, because it's easy to learn and handle, and very easy to create a program which can parse (read) the files.
For the first releases, I intend to have the program able to:
* Load unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Modify unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Add new entries into unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Add/Modify sprites for unit, structure, weapon and superweapon data.
* Save all changes to a new file structure and create a completely separate mod to load into OpenRA (A third entry into the mods list in-game, basically).
This is just what I plan to start with, once those are out the way, I hope to look into how OpenRA handles audio and video, as well as looking at the more aesthetics related things such as GUIs, Menu Screens and other things to help make a mod even more unique.
But the bottom line is, I want it to help close the gap between people with great ideas and people who know how to mod. Anyone can pick up RAMSLaM and essentially tell it what they want, and it'll respond by popping out a fully usable and workable mod instantly. No need to move files or modify things by hand, the program will do that for you.
Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear some feedback. This program isn't just a concept, it's a working idea. I've plugged lines of code in already and I've got something that's starting to work. I look forward to reading what you say and answering any questions.
