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skel_common/readme_modders.txt

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+Mod Developer Notes
+
+Creating an .ftl File
+
+  An .ftl file is simply a renamed .zip with a specific file structure.
+  For an example, try renaming and unpacking the example .ftl file that
+  comes with the program.
+
+  The root of the ZIP file should contain one or more of these folders:
+    data/
+    audio/
+    fonts/
+    img/
+
+  You should ONLY put in the files that you want to modify. This keeps
+  mod sizes low and prevents major conflict between mods.
+
+
+The Append Extension
+
+  Any file in your .ftl with the extension .xml.append will be appended to
+  its respective vanilla file. (See the example mod.)
+
+  It is highly recommended that you take advantage of this as much as
+  possible. As a rule of thumb, if you're editing an event xml file,
+  you're going to want to append your changes rather then flat out replace
+  the file. Using .append helps prevent mod conflict.
+
+  Keep in mind that you can override vanilla events (among other things)
+  to your pleasure by writing an event of the same name. Whenever multiple
+  tags share the same name, only the last one counts.
+
+
+General
+
+  When developing a mod, save your text files as ANSI/ASCII, or UTF-8.
+  UTF-16 is tolerated. If all else fails, Slipstream will try decoding
+  text as Windows-1252 ANSI.
+
+  Unless you're overriding something, try to use unique names in your xml
+  so that it won't clobber another mod and vice versa. File and directory
+  names must be plain ASCII (no accents). That restriction isn't confirmed
+  for the game, but the mod manager enforces it just to be safe.
+
+  Images should be 32bit PNGs (24bit color + 8bit alpha transparency).
+  Things that *should* be opaque rectangles like backgrounds may vary,
+  but that would be undesirable for ship floors that should reveal the hull
+  under them.
+
+
+Mac-Specific
+
+  OSX adds a junk to .zip files.
+    These commands will address that:
+      zip -d mymod.zip __MACOSX/\*
+      zip -d mymod.zip \*.DS_Store
+
+
+Pitfalls
+
+  FTL Bug (fixed in 1.03.3): If a ship is modded to have level 5 shields,
+  asteroid storms will be abnormally fast.
+  http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11057
+
+  The game will crash at the main menu or hangar if an event choice loads
+  another event, which has a choice that loads the previous event. FTL
+  does not like event loops.
+  http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12265
+
+  When adding a music track to sounds.xml, the explore and battle theme
+  files are played simultaneously as one song (mixing between them when
+  entering/exiting combat). They should have similar duration because if one
+  is longer than the other, there may be noticeable silence at the end of the
+  shorter piece.
+  http://www.ftlgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9111