I plan to release a plug soon... I've made many minor ones but I think people will enjoy this particular one. It will be my first released plug, so I have a couple questions:

1. If I upload a .sit file, Windows users will be able to convert it, right? Or do I have to make it a .bin or something first? I think DropStuff can do that, but my trial period ran out long ago. Is there another way?

2. I plan to release 2 versions of my plug. One will be a cheat version which has very unrealistic mass values for the outfits, and another will be a normal version with realistic mass values and will require getting a ränk first. If I stuff them together, will the file go under "cheats" or "plugins" on the addons page? I'm guessing not both.

Also, I have a question related to the coding of the plug.
Can I set the Availability string to be available if the player has a certain rank without modifying the ränk to add a require bit? I've discovered that some availability test strings don't like "kxxx", but I'm not sure if I tried it with outfits.

The rank I want to have required is Red Branch Knight, and I've noticed that b818 is set when it is granted. Would anything else set or unset this bit? If not, I could just use that.

Thanks.

Use Guy's plug-in archiver. I would give you a link to Edward's article on plug-in distibution, but my permission to view the topic has been blocked.

@lnsu, on Dec 21 2006, 03:25 PM, said in Uploading Questions...:

Use Guy's plug-in archiver. I would give you a link to Edward's article on plug-in distibution, but my permission to view the topic has been blocked.

Thanks! I looked in Guy's sig and found it. I also found a "Readme before Uploading" file that should be very helpful!

Thanks again!

@xizzix, on Dec 21 2006, 01:14 PM, said in Uploading Questions...:

Can I set the Availability string to be available if the player has a certain rank without modifying the ränk to add a require bit? I've discovered that some availability test strings don't like "kxxx", but I'm not sure if I tried it with outfits.

Kxxx only works in Set strings. Here's a quote from the Nova Bible that might help:

EVN Bible said:

The following terms and operators are supported: (capitalization doesn't matter)

Bxxx Lookup the value of control bit xxx. Bits are numbered from b0 to b9999.
Pxxx Check if the game is registered ((P)aid for) ... evaluates to 1 if
the game is registered or is unregistered but less than xxx days have
elapsed. Evaluates to 0 only if unregistered for more than xxx days.
G Lookup the player's gender - 1 if male, 0 if female
Oxxx Returns 1 if the player has at least one of outfit item ID xxx, 0 if not
Exxx Returns 1 if the player has explored system ID xxx, 0 if not
| Logical or operator
& Logical and operator
! Logical negation operator
( ) Parenthetical enclosure

Some examples:
b13 & (b15 | !b72)
!(B42 | B53) & b103

Note that since the Nova evaluator is fairly primitive, it may do unpredictable
things if you give it an expression like b1 & b2 | b3 ... instead, use proper
parentheses to make it b1 & (b2 | b3) or (b1 & b2) | b3, as appropriate.

Also note that if you leave the field for a test expression blank, it will
evaluate to true as a default.

Also also note: The Oxxx operator also considers any carried fighters that are
deployed when it examines the player's current list of outfits, although this
feature may be confused if presented with a universe that includes multiple
fighter bay weapons that launch the same ship type, or different outfits that
grant the same fighter bay ammo.

For your purposes, it might be better to give the ränk in question a Contribute bit, and put the same bit in the outfit's require bits.

@lnsu, on Dec 21 2006, 03:25 PM, said in Uploading Questions...:

Use Guy's plug-in archiver.

I'm offended.

You should put up a little page with all your stuff on it.

@guy, on Dec 22 2006, 07:18 PM, said in Uploading Questions...:

You should put up a little page with all your stuff on it.

I'm mainly offended that he used the name for MY app to refer to YOURS. <_<

Maybe I should...

@lnsu, on Dec 21 2006, 09:25 PM, said in Uploading Questions...:

Use Guy's plug-in archiver. I would give you a link to Edward's article on plug-in distibution, but my permission to view the topic has been blocked.

I think here is a slight mistake on the identity of the person who wrote this guide. I can't blame you since you cannot access it anyway (and in fact, neither can I or anyone since the upgade to IPB 2.2), but check this...

Heh, yeah I didn't so much write that as mangle it from ZP's one - it says as much at the top of the document :p. I just felt it was rather more long-winded than it needed to be so made it for people who didn't want to read through all the explanations. And also that .sit is entirely unacceptable - I'll convince you someday, Zacha

This post has been edited by Guy : 23 December 2006 - 05:56 AM

Well, the name of it is Bomb's plugin guide, even if ZP wrote it. Sorry Orca. I get mixed up. The names are so similar. Anyway, I've PMed Ben Adams about the problem with ZP's plugin guide. Hopefully he'll fix it soon.

@lnsu, on Dec 23 2006, 09:06 AM, said in Uploading Questions...:

Well, the name of it is Bomb's plugin guide, even if ZP wrote it. Sorry Orca. I get mixed up. The names are so similar. Anyway, I've PMed Ben Adams about the problem with ZP's plugin guide. Hopefully he'll fix it soon.

It's alright. I plan to change the name for the next release; it's a logical extension from the spiffy new icon introduced last time.