Anyone looking for help with VS - Add me on Steam

I've played with this system for about 300 hours and know it pretty well now as well as what crashes it and its little bugs and what not.

If you need a hand add me on Steam -> "Stollie".

I want to try and get more of us using this to create interesting Scenario's and make it worth Keen's time to fix its bugs.

I also go by the same name on Discord and can be found in the official Discord some days.

 

Has it been fixed? Last time I tried, the function to move between maps was broken.
I made a campaign that was just a showcase of some mods I made while I learned the basics of the VS tool, and I've been waiting for them to get fixed to finish them.

If you're willing to write some guides, this is probably the first thing people need to know.

If you ever want to collab on something, message me here or on steam(DonCDXX), I know most of the basics and I'm eager to learn more about VS and am already practiced at modding SE.

 

Hmm not to keen to write guides at this stage - maybe later

Willing to help out if your stuck trying to do something and cant understand why its not working or how a particular function/node works.

I don't really make 'campaigns' for a couple of reasons, one being Keen has disabled workshop publishing of them (which I've logged a bug report for since relative pathing was fixed at my request 6 months ago O.o) and two you can't move a players gathered equipment (ships/items etc) between maps.

I have messed with it a bit though, I know how the complete and mission end/checkpoint etc functions all work to cause script transitions, the official campaign is pretty much the template for this and it still works so it should still work for us too, if you throw your scripts up on gdrive or drop box I'll take a look.

I prefer to create LevelScripts and tie them to worlds as these can much more easily be shared on the workshop plus you can use the SharedStorage functions to save information directly into the Sandbox.sbc file which can be re-called when reloading worlds as opposed to the State Machine checkpoint system used in Campaigns.

 

That's the part that really has me hesitating on making anything with it right now. Both those problems are sign that it's either a low priority or they're doing some sort of overhaul on it that might break what we're making.
If it's low priority, it could be another year or two until it gets finished. If it's getting a complete overhaul, all the nodes may be changed and combined into more idiot proof nodes. Example; why have 3-4 nodes to trigger entering an area when a single node with prepared options would be more intuitive to new users?


I think the real project someone needs to make is a structured PvP that can run on servers, allows people to use their own bp's, but has some sort of scoring system for ships to keep it balanced. I tried to see if it was a viable option a while back, but it looked like it was most likely impossible at that time. I admit I didn't stick with it long enough to be certain and I'm not sure if anything else has been updated since then to make it a viable option.

The main reason I haven't revisited the idea is that lack of movement between maps. The original idea I had was a lobby map with some sort of voting system for modes like team death match, capture the flag, or scenarios like /attacking/defending a convoy or base assault/defense, then going to a map made for the mode. Maybe even add other map modes to vote for like races or something like that. I guess it could be done with a single map but it would be quite a mess to keep track of.

If you think it can work with what's there, I'll give it a try and I'll take all the advice I can get. Despite a lack of community uproar over it, I think structured PvP would be a popular alternative from survival.

 

Yeah I would say its low priority at the moment, not enough people using it due to the lack of information around about it as well as its bugs, such as not even being able to access the 'At' and 'Count' functions for string/float/integer lists without loading a Keen script that has them already used and copy pasting it O.o, which is a shame since its a really powerful tool for making scenario's.

Have a look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\VisualScripts

There are already some Keen designed Arena's with lobby's and assignment to teams, a convoy mission etc.,for some reason Keen hasn't made them public but they appear to have everything they need to function. I learnt a lot from the scripts used in them and you could definitely re-purpose them to do what you are thinking of doing.

Thing is though SE isn't Dota 2 or EVE Online etc., the style of MP gameplay that SE needs is what Tyrsis (creator of Radar and Nanite Control Factory mods + bunch of others) designed almost 3 years ago now on his custom made Revelation Server. A sparse asteroid outer zone with a dense middle area, owning asteroids by placing a grid provided a drip of ore's and therefore promoting fierce competition for ownership while being able to hide your factions main base out where it was really difficult to find in the sticks.

Throw in his custom Radar mod, custom Blueprint economy ship save/respawn mod and his custom station weapons only range increase mod and you had a real MP experience going on that had 300 people online most days across 4 servers

Sadly, Tyrsis didnt like the direction KSWH took the netcode and didnt feel like rebuilding a lot of his work so he's taken a hiatus until Keen solidifies their MP and then he'll probably be back, he still lurks around the official discord some times
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I also get notified by email if anyone posts here so if you have a specific question you can just post it in this thread as well.

 

I've also played with the VST quite a bit, mainly with MP game modes. I'm working on guides so if you don't want to deal with that or want to put in minimal effort I'll take care of that end. I'll pitch in my two cents if people need it as well. I am also extremely open to collabs.

In the past I've made a lot of noise to try to get stuff fixed for the VST but lately due to issues I've been kinda quiet about it.

Also, there is a 'cheaty' way to get access to the 'AT' and 'COUNT' functions that doesn't require copying and pasting. Just entering and exiting of the script a few times

The main project I've been working on is creating VST based game tmeplates that you can load onto a map with the correct entities and waypoints and have it work without needing to know how the VST Tool works. I have completed TDM (To the extent allowed, security exception error is the bane of my existence). I have CTF, Obliteration, and Conquest in the works. Rush is on the list as well but i haven't started it yet.

One project I really want to try is a campaign where you have a 'Home base world' and you can do missions in other worlds and bring back supplies and such, and take out ships and weapons to missions.

Also, question. Specifically in game when creating entities via the F11 menu, are your entities invisible? Want to check to make sure its not just my system. This has put a major hold on my work since i can't place stuff to test spawning, teleporting, capping and such. Renaming said entities also seems to 'freeze' the game. Very frustrating. Taking a slight break on my guides because of this as well.

 

That would be lovely, I may make some video guides at some point for YouTube, just need to set away some time, maybe after I'm done making my Scenario, its been a 6 month labor of love I've even done some C# scripting with some help from the guys in the modding channel for things VS just cant do - like modifying the available buttons on certain blocks (I'm enabling projectors but only with a list of prefabs I've selected, nothing else).

I would like help on my scenario but probably not with the first iteration, I have a certain vision and its hard to explain to others, maybe on expanding it once its out. I've collaborated with people in the past and they have left me high and dry with 2 half finished projects and a lot of wasted time so I'm more wary now.

Just tried your cheaty way, works like a charm, thank you very much!! Those security null reference errors were driving me nuts, I couldn't use lists at all >.<

Ahh nice yeah I was thinking along similar lines but more SP mission types, I've scripted in battles, escorts, assassination quests etc. I'll most likely make them part of the exploration overhaul script I've also created which improves substantially on the current iteration of Keen's, as in things actually spawn consistently based on Distance traveled between X & Y vector calculations and X is always updated once this distance has been traveled with the players current position and a GPS point is given if there is no active beacon or antenna on the grid that spawns.

Ahh nice I've made a working 'Gate System' to travel between the surface and space to keep the pace of my scenario up. You can grab the script here if you want to use it for travelling to other worlds easily, just make sure you don't put the transfer points directly near voxels, it will crash the game, both entry and exit points need to be a certain distance away, you'll have to experiment because I ended up shifting mine to low orbit.

Can be pretty amusing when you fly your perfectly working atmo ship through a gate... into space though

Yes at some point they made the entities invisible, the easiest way to find them is to attach a trigger to them and snap it to the entity, I avoid creating 'entities' mostly these days, I instead create 'triggers' on an 'ingame entity' i.e. ship, gird, etc. rather than the created ones, I do still use them for waypoints sometimes but again you can also create these things using Vectors inside visual scripting and avoid having to make entities at all - unless you want to do very scripted precise waypoint controls or create cinematics.

Yes that is a current bug which I've reported and so have many others over the last 6 months, its not just a VS issue, the same thing happens with C# scripts. I found a way around it using my gate script kind of. You can't rename a newly created entity in the game, you can give a 'name' to an entity that's just using the display name but if you try to change that 'name' in game again it'll crash. Known bug sadly.

The way around that is create it in game using the F11 menu (waypoint_0, waypoint_1 etc) and then go into the Sandbox_0_0_0.sbs file and change it manually using notepad++
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Anyone notice some new functions under G Screen?

PlayerResearchLock and PlayerResearchUnlock so you can now specify which players get what, I'm sure they weren't there before right... ?

 

hey there fellows,
@Stollie sent you Steam friend request.
@doncdxx couldn't find you on Steam.

I am attempting to put a small group together to turn out small simple campaigns so I can put together a library of videos on YouTube on using the VS system. I have experience in C# and understand the concept of VS but I have only recently learned of the VS tool for SE. I do have leadership experience and am looking for a few people to sit down on discord and lay out a plan or curriculum and associated short mods or script. I see a lot of potential in the tools given to us and not really seeing a community grow and produce content as far a campaigns or coop stories.

Stollie, DonCDXX, 666Savior, and anyone interested, please PM me here on the forum or on steam: [Its Fine] Mike. Don't directly reply to this post as I don't want to jack Stollie's help thread.

I have read the two official steam guides for the trigger/explosion and TDM mods, but I'm interested in making a campaign. I have looked and tried to replicate the Keen official missions with some success. Can one of you guys write a guide or something on how the Script, Level Script, State Machine, State Machine Script, and Campaign work and interplay with each other?

 

Hey mate,

I didnt get a friend request on steam, this is one my VS mods on the workshop (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1431620589) maybe try adding me through there.

I would definitely be interested in doing something like this, however I would steer away from using VST, the more I've come to use it and the more I've spoken to the guys in the modding API discord channel as well as tested it on Dedicated Servers (which it frequently crashes) the more I've realised how buggy and unreliable it is not to mention how many functions are severely limited as opposed to C# scripts due to the fact it was essentially abandoned something like 18 months ago when the KSH developer that made it left the company.

If you have the C# experience, it might be better to work around you creating a C# scripted campaign like Escape From Mars and other people involved can create the actual game world, cut-scenes, models and missions/dialogue elements in game. I have actually done this myself quite extensively in creating a SP campaign which I would have liked to make Co-op but I ran into the walls the Visual Scripting creates and I lost steam due to how much work was involved for one person.

You can also usually track me down hanging out on the official discord if you want to get hold of me through there.

- Stollie

 

I'm sorry to here that it appears that the VS has been dropped.

I have sent you a steam invite. I sent the other one to a different Stollie. There is like 3 different Stollie on steam, haha.