make your own

Is there any way to make your own cargo types? I know this has been done on Arpia 2 (Gwaarks, InfiNight, etc). Has anyone tried doing this and can you do it without a significant knowledge of programming?

I'm pretty sure you can do it by modifying the basic cargo types in the str# fields to change "food" "med goods" etc. You can also make junks as well. Also, if I remember correctly, you can also create cargo types in the mission resources themselves, though these will never be for sale as comoddities.

The following explanation assumes that you're trying to create new cargo types for use in missions. If this is the case, read on. If not, skip to the bottom.

It's actually pretty simple; I accidentally discovered how when making a plug for EVO probably 7 years ago.

1. Open up Nova Data 5
2. Open the file called STR#
3. Copy resources 4000, 4001, 4002, and 4003 into the plug you're making
4. Open each one, get a feel for what information is represented there (i.e. 4000 is all cargo in caps, 4001 is all cargo in lower-case, and 4002 is all cargo but abbreviated; looks like 13 is the longest character count from a quick glance).
5. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the ***** following the last number (81 on 4000, 80 on the other two).
6. Hit Command K or select "Create Resource" under the Resource tab.
7. Type in what you want the name of your cargo to be.

The one tricky part is that since resource 4000 has 80 strings and the other two only have 79, you have to create a blank string in 4001 and 4002 so that all the strings you put in are on the same string (that is, 81 for your first one) across all three resources.

If you're trying to create a commodity that can be sold, you either have to, like Josh said, modify the existing normal types (food, med goods, industrial etc.) which is done by modifying the first 6 strings of STR#s 4000, 4001, 4002, and 4003, and modify the values in STR# 4004 to change their base values. You can also make new "junks" (Made By Helen, Lizard Pelts, Bio-Weapons) in the jünk resource. In that case you'll still follow my steps for creating new types, but just use STR# 4005 in conjunction with the jünk resource (instead of STR#s 4000-4003), which is much more intuitive.

I hope that wasn't too terribly confusing… :blink:

This post has been edited by Archon : 30 July 2007 - 12:35 AM

Read the 'STR#' and 'STR ' sections in the Resource ID Guide available at the link in my sig. Note two things: 1) Mission cargo only uses two STR#s, 4001 and 4002. 2) The first 100 STR# entries may be 'patched' using STR s.

This post has been edited by Guy : 20 October 2009 - 04:36 AM

Thanks guys. I do so love to edit STR#s.