Making Building Mods

[AthenaRoberts]

I'm curious about making building mods.  I'd like to create business that are able to sprout up when certain projects are completed (e.g. Fuel Depot, NEA mining) and provide benefits to the colony like income via exports.  Someone also mentioned having a hospital.  I agree that is also a good idea.

I've read the documentation on your site and you're right it is a bit thin.

What app do you all use to create OBJ files in High Frontier?  What about for the texture file or button icon?  Although I have some experience with SolidWorks, I don't have experience making OBJ files or things related to games.  I imagine that is is possible to create the texture file and button icon from the same app that makes that OBJ file.

[JoeStrout]

Almost any 3D modeling app can export OBJ files; it's a very common format.  Most people I know use Blender, because it is free, though I found its design rather difficult.  I use Cheetah3D, which is a commercial ($100) modeling app for Mac that I think is really good.  But SolidWorks ought to be fine too, I think.

For the textures and icon, use your favorite paint program — PhotoShop, Affinity Photo, whatever.

You can make a building require certain projects by adding a "requires" tag to the .hfmod file.  For example, the high-density agricultural buildings include this line:

Code:

requires: CELS

The services a building provides are defined by a "services" group.  Using one of the high-density ag towers as an example again:

Code:

services: {

    jobs: 80
    ambiance: 2
    taxBasis: 35000000
    waterUsePerDay: 500
    food: 15000
}

This says that this building provides 80 jobs, +2 ambiance to the city, etc.  You can leave out any tags that don't apply (e.g., leave out "food" if it's not a food-producing building).

Mods, like anything else, are best developed iteratively.  First try to make a building that looks like a simple box, has no special requirements, and provides no services.  Then tweak it to look and work more and more like what you want.  When you get stuck, ask us — we can either explain how to do it, or add something to the next version of High Frontier to make it possible!

[AthenaRoberts]

I looked into Blender.  Wow!  There is a lot going on there!  It will take a while to learn.

What other "services"  or properties can be applied to buildings?  I'm thinking of fire hazards again.  I notice some buildings (e.g. dehumidifiers) are more prone to being fire hazards than other buildings.  Along the lines of reducing the crime rate in an area by adding lights, I'd like to create a building mod that reduces fire hazard.  I was thinking of maybe a modification of the street lamp with a fire extinguisher attached to it.  In the world, I'd be having building codes the required fire suppression systems.  Since there isn't way to do that in this game, may creating a building mod that has say a "-2" to fire hazard as described above (I have no idea how the game measures fire hazards).  They could cost $200 each instead of $100.  Still it would be cheap insurance since having a fire inside a space station would be a serious problem.