StarCheat visual weapon-mod guide

So, it's about time I make this guide a little more up-to-date, and add to it with more information about melee weapons. In this post, I'll be explaining the method I use to construct various guns in Starbound, using the StarCheat program. Note; this guide assumes you have basic knowledge of how StarCheat works. So, let's get on with the interesting part of...

HOW TO MAKE GUNS
I'll start with my custom "Vintage AKS-74U".​

​

In its Drawables and Inventory Icon sections (both have the same values), the Vintage AKS-74U reads as follows:

Spoiler

Code:

[
    {
        "image": "/items/guns/randomgenerated/assaultrifle/butt/5.png?replace;e35f5d=aa1d1b;b22042=8b1311;871132=5d0100;808080=808080;606060=606060;404040=404040",
        "position": [
            -8.9,
            0.0
        ]
    },
    {
        "image": "/items/guns/randomgenerated/assaultrifle/middle/1.png?replace;e35f5d=64967f;b22042=446556;871132=1e2c26;808080=787784;606060=4f545a;404040=33343c",
        "position": [
            0.0,
            0.0
        ]
    },
    {
        "image": "/items/guns/randomgenerated/assaultrifle/barrel/17.png?replace;e35f5d=ff9d1e;b22042=bb6a0b;871132=6b3501;808080=787784;606060=4f545a;404040=33343c",
        "position": [
            10.9,
            -0.5
        ]
    }
]

(Feel free to use this if you want your gun to look like an AKS-74U if you want)

Wowsers! That's a lot to read! How are we ever gonna use that! Well, not so fast, let's break this down a bit. It's actually quite simple. There are three parts of an Assault Rifle: The butt, the middle, and the barrel. The amount of parts to a weapon will vary depending on the weapon, but there are three aspects to any part that will remain the same no matter how many parts there are. These three aspects, all of which you can edit, are the image the part uses, the colours of the image, and the position of the image.

Image: To use the buttstock as an example, the image aspect is obviously the "image": "/items/guns/randomgenerated/assaultrifle/butt/5.png line. You can go into your Starbound folder and find the /items/guns/randomgenerated/ folder, and honestly you can pick ANY part you want from ANY gun to attach to your assault rifle. You can have a crossbow stock, or a pistol barrel for a stock if you wanted. It's up to you. So long as you're using the assets already in the game, it'll be visible for anyone else. And guess what! You can place additional images onto the weapon! Just add another "image": line to the weapon and make sure that it has a comma at the end, UNLESS it is the last "image": line on the asset list.

Colours: The ?replace; immediately after that indicates that the default colours of the part are going to be changed, and the e35f5d=aa1d1b;b22042=8b1311;871132=5d0100;808080=808080;606060=606060;404040=404040 are describing the default colours, and what to change the defaults to. First example in the colour line above is e35f5d=aa1d1b, which shows that e35f5d is the default colour hex, and aa1d1b is the colour hex it has been changed to. This takes a fair bit more effort, but by taking a truecolour screenshot of your current gun and crossreferencing the colours in Photoshop (or another image editor that will give you the colour's hex value), you can more easily find which colour is which, and change up the colours visibly without having to trial and error it. Otherwise, you can use an internet colour hex chart/display and trial and error things.

Position: Finally, the position is described with the "position": [ line. Position is fairly simple. The first value is on the X axis (horizontal, positive moves it to the right, negative moves it to the left), and the second is the Y axis (vertical, positive moves it upwards, negative moves it downwards), so where 0.0 is the default point of origin it will begin at, other values then move it from the origin. Here's the example from the AKS-74U's buttstock:

Code:

  "position": [
            -8.9,
            0.0

The first value is the X value of "-8.9,". This means it's 8.9 pixels to the left of its default point (origin). The Y value is "0.0," which means it's exactly at the vertical origin point. You can edit these as you need to in order for the parts to sit where they need to so you don't have silly empty gaps in the gun.
A note on editing the position numbers, I'd round anything more than one decimal point up to only one decimal. You may find any of the default positions in your in-game gun to read as something ridiculously long. At the end of the day, you can't really notice a difference between something with only one decimal digits compared to something with ten decimal digits, so round it up to a single decimal just for readability and comprehension.


Oh, before I forget, you may also need to edit the firePosition value in the Item, which should be the option just below the Drawables. This just uses an X and Y axis in the same way as the Position line previously described.


So there you have it, my (rather lengthy) explanation in how to create your own guns using the default assets in Starbound! Hope it helps any of you that want to create/edit the look of your guns. (btw, editing melee weapons are almost exactly the same, except for the swinging animations, which is explained in detail in the next post.)

 

So, let's move on from guns. You know how to make a good shooter, and now you want something that'll carve a little more meat off the bone. You want to make a kickass sword, or hammer, or mop and bucket, or a plush of Numi that'll devour your enemies whole. Can we do it? Sure, it's pretty simple. Let's get started on...

HOW TO MAKE SWORDS
Note: Starbound refers to all melee weapons as a "sword", assetwise.​

Before we begin, make sure to read the post above on how to construct firearms if you're not already aware. It's got very similar aspects to melee weapons that I won't be repeating (mainly the image and colouring parts), but there are some differences that could throw you off. Keep in mind that although both are weapons, melee weapons aren't immediately the same as firearms in gameplay terms, for obvious reasons. They function in slightly different ways. It's still pretty easy to translate the knowledge of creating guns into creating a kickass blade, though.

With both melee weapons and firearms, you can construct prettymuch anything you want, weapon-wise, with just the vanilla assets, and positioning an image asset is more or less the same as a firearm.


However, the animation of the weapon requires a little more effort, if you don't want to use a simple default swing. You will need to open up the 'primaryStances' option in the weapon.

I'm going to use Astora's 'Claymore of Light' as an example for this.​

Here's an overview of what the entire "primaryStances" option holds, for Astora's personal Claymore:

Spoiler

Code:

{
    "cooldown": {
        "armAngle": -45,
        "duration": 0.4,
        "handPosition": [
            -2.7,
            -27
        ],
        "statusEffects": [
            {
                "duration": 0.3,
                "kind": "shieldsuppressed"
            }
        ],
        "swordAngle": -90,
        "twoHanded": true
    },
    "directional": false,
    "idle": {
        "armAngle": -20,
        "armFrameOverride": "idleMelee",
        "duration": 0.3,
        "handPosition": [
            4.7,
            -10.5
        ],
        "swordAngle": 70,
        "twoHanded": false
    },
    "projectile": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "power": 1500.0,
        "speed": 0.1
    },
    "projectileType": "firebroadsword",
    "projectileTypes": [
        "firebroadsword"
    ],
    "windup": {
        "armAngle": 90,
        "duration": 0.3,
        "handPosition": [
            -2.7,
            -16.5
        ],
        "statusEffects": [
            {
                "duration": 0.3,
                "kind": "shieldsuppressed"
            }
        ],
        "swordAngle": 90,
        "twoHanded": true
    }
}

What's all this do? Well, it means the Claymore of Light looks a little different when compared to other 2H weapons. Something more like this.

​

Well, we start off by breaking it down a little more simply. We've got four major frames of the animation. In the primaryStances option, they are listed by cooldown, idle, projectile and windup frames.
However, in actual animation terms in-game, the frames seem to run in the following order:​

1. Idle
   
2. Windup
   
3. Projectile
   
4. Cooldown
   
5. Idle.

Let's explain each option further.

Cooldown:​

Spoiler

The Cooldown frame is the frame that displays after the blow has landed, but before the weapon is moved back into the idle position.​

Code:

{
    "cooldown": {
        "armAngle": -45,
        "duration": 0.4,
        "handPosition": [
            -2.7,
            -27
        ],
        "statusEffects": [
            {
                "duration": 0.3,
                "kind": "shieldsuppressed"
            }
        ],
        "swordAngle": -90,
        "twoHanded": true
    },

Now, I'll rip through this quickly. There are a few lines you'll notice to begin with here's a run down of what they do.

• "armAngle": {180 to -180}
  The angle the arm as a whole is directed at its Z pivot
  
  
• "duration": {time}
  How long the frame will be displayed for before moving to the next in the cycle
  
  
• "handPosition": [ {x, y} ]
  Where exactly the weapon is located in the hand. Note: This moves the weapon, not the hand.
  
  
• "statusEffects": [ {duration and kind} ] Things such as 'shieldsuppressed' and whatnot. Duration here is the same as above. I won't go into "kind". If you've unpacked your game files, you can find them in your Starbound\assets\statuseffects folder.
  
  
• "swordAngle": -90,
  The angle the weapon is pointing.

• "twoHanded": {true or false}
  This ripper of a value, believe it or not, dictates whether the frame is a 2H frame or not.

Idle:

Spoiler

Idle is the standby frame. It is the frame that plays when you're not swinging your sword.​

Code:

    "directional": false,
    "idle": {
        "armAngle": -90,
        "duration": 0.1,
        "handPosition": [
            0.5,
            -7.5
        ],
        "swordAngle": -90,
        "twoHanded": false

These options are mostly the exact same as the ones in the Cooldown frame, except for one new option right at the top.

• "directional": {true/false}
  This dictates whether or not your weapon is aimed with your mouse.

Projectile:

Spoiler

The Projectile frame runs right after the wind-up frame. Like in guns, it's the projectile that deals the damage.​

Code:

    "projectile": {
        "level": 1.0,
        "power": 1500.0,
        "speed": 0.1
    },
    "projectileType": "firebroadsword",
    "projectileTypes": [
        "firebroadsword"

• "projectile": {level, power, projectile speed}
  The damage and speed of the projectile. Remember, tweaking the level or power values is frowned upon, especially to make overpowered weapons or such.
• "projectileType": "{projectile/swoosh}"
  The specific projectile, or in the case of a melee weapon, "swoosh", used by the weapon when swung. You can find the swoosh projectiles in \Starbound\assets\projectiles\swoosh if your game data is unpacked.
• "projectileTypes": [ "{projectiles/swooshes}"
  Seems to be a reference list of swooshes the weapon can use. The swoosh used in projectileType MUST also exist in projectileTypes or the weapon doesn't work.

Wind-up:

Spoiler

The wind-up frame is the first frame in the animation sequence. It plays just before the weapon is swung.
​

Code:

    "windup": {
        "armAngle": 90,
        "duration": 0.3,
        "handPosition": [
            -2.7,
            -16.5
        ],
        "statusEffects": [
            {
                "duration": 0.3,
                "kind": "shieldsuppressed"
            }
        ],
        "swordAngle": 90,
        "twoHanded": true
    }

This one is basically the same deal as the Cooldown frame.

And there you have it so far! I hope to see some seriously awesome looking weapons circulating on the server soon!

 

[Reserved]

 

Yeah that's pretty much what I do. The easiest way to do it is start a new file and then drag those PNGs into the new Photoshop file. It's how I made my Howitzer, my Claymore, hell prettymuch all of my weapons these days. I also use Photoshop and StarCheat to colour my armors, to the point that I don't even use SBSE any more.

 

Seperate weapons. They look identical, however.