Create Blueprints with an online tool, usable? Possible?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 5:46 pm
I know this has been an idea for a long time in various posts, but non of the authors have actually continued or updated their ideas/projects, so here's another one from me 
What I am planning to do is this:
To avoid having to start a new game to try out new layouts, setups, ratios and so on, turn them into a blueprint (with the awesome new 0.15 built-in blueprints!),
one could simply login to an online portal which would have the entities, items, ratios and everything integrated and you could graphically start building your setup.
The application would be able to determine if a setup "makes sense" in regards to input/output ratios. Obviously the application couldn't tell if a layout is
space efficient, looks cool or makes sense at all, and let's maybe forget about pollution as well (at least at this point).
So far, so good. My questions to the mod community are:
1. I know that the blueprint string mod previously used a mix of base64 encoding and bz2 compression for it's strings, but apparently that's not what the integrated blueprint system in the game is using now. I haven't had time to check out the updated code of the blueprint string (since apparently it now supports to import old blueprint strings into the new integrated blueprint system), but I assume that it is possible to encode blueprints externally (in a mod or my planned online application), warp it into blueprint strings and import the whole stuff into the integrated blueprint manager in the game?
2. If yes to 1.: Would someone be able to provide the process that is now being used to encode/decode blueprint strings in the game?
3. Is there any interest from the community to even have the ability to externally create blueprints with a graphical interface online? Or would the application be more or less dead? Blueprint strings could be stored online, visible to the public as well, as a center point. This is also a call to the devs, as an application like this could possibly be hooked up into the game directly to upload and download blueprints directly from the game, edit/update them online and share it with all players. I'd be willing to share the application source code for free under a non-restrictive license. Not here to earn anything but fun from this.
4. Let me know what you think!
Greetings!
EDIT: So apparently I was wrong and the blueprint string mod isn't interacting with the new blueprints in any way. All it's still doing is importing the old blueprint strings (base64 and bz2) and making it available as a normal blueprint. stupid me
Anyone has any idea what the devs used to encode the blueprints? I tried several variations with hashing, base64 encoding and different compression methods but couldn't produce anything yet that looks like a blueprint at all...
What I am planning to do is this:
To avoid having to start a new game to try out new layouts, setups, ratios and so on, turn them into a blueprint (with the awesome new 0.15 built-in blueprints!),
one could simply login to an online portal which would have the entities, items, ratios and everything integrated and you could graphically start building your setup.
The application would be able to determine if a setup "makes sense" in regards to input/output ratios. Obviously the application couldn't tell if a layout is
space efficient, looks cool or makes sense at all, and let's maybe forget about pollution as well (at least at this point).
So far, so good. My questions to the mod community are:
1. I know that the blueprint string mod previously used a mix of base64 encoding and bz2 compression for it's strings, but apparently that's not what the integrated blueprint system in the game is using now. I haven't had time to check out the updated code of the blueprint string (since apparently it now supports to import old blueprint strings into the new integrated blueprint system), but I assume that it is possible to encode blueprints externally (in a mod or my planned online application), warp it into blueprint strings and import the whole stuff into the integrated blueprint manager in the game?
2. If yes to 1.: Would someone be able to provide the process that is now being used to encode/decode blueprint strings in the game?
3. Is there any interest from the community to even have the ability to externally create blueprints with a graphical interface online? Or would the application be more or less dead? Blueprint strings could be stored online, visible to the public as well, as a center point. This is also a call to the devs, as an application like this could possibly be hooked up into the game directly to upload and download blueprints directly from the game, edit/update them online and share it with all players. I'd be willing to share the application source code for free under a non-restrictive license. Not here to earn anything but fun from this.
4. Let me know what you think!
Greetings!
EDIT: So apparently I was wrong and the blueprint string mod isn't interacting with the new blueprints in any way. All it's still doing is importing the old blueprint strings (base64 and bz2) and making it available as a normal blueprint. stupid me
Anyone has any idea what the devs used to encode the blueprints? I tried several variations with hashing, base64 encoding and different compression methods but couldn't produce anything yet that looks like a blueprint at all...