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Someone else with 1.6.2 & your file will need to confirm this then.

I sure do love the word Superfluous.

I also fixed those issue in my mod as well. Those comma errors are strange beasts, you never know how they are going to affect the jsons. There is a lot of new info in that file now, and those comma errors could have hidden other errors. I really hope that HBS fixes all the files that have comma errors because there are quite a few! Then actually do a Q&A and test it.
 
I just installed Mech Designer and it seems really cool for my purposes.
However, on my Windows 10 laptop the interface is strangely condensed. All the lines jumble together and the UI takes up about 1/4 of the screen. Is there something I'm missing?
 
@Overbaron
Please provide a screenshot. Besides, The Mech Designer was created using standard 1920x1080 resolution, I don't exactly know how it looks in different ones.
 
Pretty awesome tool, discovered it just recently, but now i'm deeply into planning my mech configs.
One question; would it be possible to readout the mechs of the game that are not just part of the stock game but also of the mods? so instead of just searching the gamedata folder, also the mods folder?
 
All mods based on Mech Engineer like Roguetech would require practically separate, dedicated version of the Mech Designer, which is not planned currently. About simpler mods like Battletech Extended in fact I was doing research about possibility of integration, however the authors of the BEX mod and their Discord community didn't give a shit about any help for me, so I abandoned research.
However, it's possible to use BEX mechs in Mech Designer. You need to copy mechdef, chassisdef and movedef .json files of a mech into the appropriate subfolders of the base game - during installation you've been asked for path to Battletech.exe, so the folders lie in <that path>\BattleTech_Data\StreamingAssets\data\<here are chassis, movement, mech and weapons folders>. Restart the Mech Designer, and it should handle newly added mech.

And about Mech Designer, how do you find its intuitiveness @Alewx ?
 
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Oh thanks, then i will thrown files in there :)
Then i might have other simpliified it, was just thinking that the definition of the mechs was read out recursivly from the folders down, but never mind.

I didn't read the manual and got to work with it right from the start, so i would say it is pretty damn intuitiv to use.Due to daily use of excel I would prefer the different open windows to be tabs in a list rather than seperate windows, and to have the parts to add in a list on the left like ingame, but from coding it, i understand the way it is done with popup menu for the different components. Having maintained a mod for KSP in the past, I also might not be the usual user of the tool.
 
Alewx said:
I didn't read the manual and got to work with it right from the start, so i would say it is pretty damn intuitiv to use
Click to expand...
Perfect, that means my goal has been accomplished.

No issues with "Unsuccessful parsing <some .json file>"?
 
I meant .json data messed up by HBS, but it seems you've installed the component "Fixes for known .json data syntax errors" - in that case the app works flawlessly indeed.

Btw, I highly recommend to read manual, as some cool features like simultaneous setting armor for both sides of mech, maxing/zeroing armor, enabling/disabling equipment, or advanced mode are unlikely to be discovered on someone's own.
 
Hmm that might be, I installed quite some mods already, BTX (customized to work halfway with 1.9), and quite some other stuff.
I already expected some functions to be hidden behind the strg key^^ But yep the manual is still helpful. really appreciated tool.

EDIT: BTW endo steel does work with mechdesigner, you just have to throw the .json files into the genereal upgrades folder, then it is useable and can be found under systems.
 
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Really?? I must test that, could you attach to a post endosteel.json @Alewx ? Btw, some time ago I was researching if Roguetech mechs will be visible and handled - well they were, although the design window is ugly stretched. But endo steel? I'd never expect it works.
 
It won't allow to post files that have any non web extensions so here you can get it at the code section.
The issue seems to be that mech designer doesn't know in which category it should add the endo steel templates if they are part of the normal endosteel folder.
Creating a new category named after the folder they are in seems an option.


This is the Gear_Endosteel_Structure_IV.json
Code: 
{
    "StatName" : null,
    "RelativeModifier" : 0,
    "AbsoluteModifier" : 0,
    "MinTonnage" : 20,
    "MaxTonnage" : 40,
    "Description" : {
        "Cost" : 50000,
        "Rarity" : 2,
        "Purchasable" : true,
        "Manufacturer" : "Kurst inc",
        "Model" : "40T",
        "UIName" : "Endo Steel IV",
        "Id" : "Gear_Endosteel_Structure_IV",
        "Name" : "Endo Steel IV",
        "Details" : "Endo Steel IV for mechs up to 40 Tons. Endo Steel was designed especially for use in BattleMech skeletons, halving the weight of the chassis, but at an increase in overall bulk. A full chassis is 12 Endo Steel IV for 2.04 tons",
        "Icon" : "uixSvgIcon_special_Equipment"
    },
    "BonusValueA" : "-0.17T",
    "BonusValueB" : "Mechs up to 40T",
    "ComponentType" : "Upgrade",
    "ComponentSubType" : "NotSet",
    "PrefabIdentifier" : "",
    "BattleValue" : 0,
    "InventorySize" : 1,
    "Tonnage" : -0.17,
    "AllowedLocations" : "All",
    "DisallowedLocations" : "All",
    "CriticalComponent" : false,
    "statusEffects" : [],
    "ComponentTags" : {
        "items" : [
            "component_type_variant",
            "component_type_variant1"
        ],
        "tagSetSourceFile" : ""
    }
}
 
Hmm...just looking at the data I can say it'll reduce total weight by 0.17 correctly, however it may be applied on any mech, not only one up to 40t - though it'll be mentioned in description. of the item in add new stuff dialog. Also, it'll take only 1 space instead of 14, so you'll have to keep in mind you must have 14 slots empty. But yeah, seems it'll work otherwise.

EDIT:
Yepp, it is shown in Mech Designer correctly. Another finding - it may be added multiple times.

EDIT 2:
From what mod is that endosteel? Roguetech, or other?
 
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It is from Endosteel directly.

it is designed to take just one slot, you can fill up slots in the game with them to use their space as weight. i find it quite ok, for beeing not in the tabletop game. also it is in the game the same you can add the endosteel X which is intended for 85-100tons into a light mech, so that is not an issue of mech designer.

I didn't touch Roguetech, I only use BTX, and still play pretty nooblike.
 
Well, looks like it works correctly in Mech Designer, although you have to guard you're applying appropriate endosteel for given mech.
 
I just wanted to take a brief moment to give my endorsement for this great Mech Designer. It allowed me to redesign all the crappy stock mech into fantastic mechs in an about a weekend! It really is worth time to learn and make a dummy install to use for the mech designs. It has saved me a ton of time over making mechs manually.
 
Thanks @Xeryx , yet some more detailed feedback, like what features you've found the most useful, and which ones you've used the most, also if you added some non-vanilla mechs/stuff and was able to use them in Mech Designer, would be most welcomed ;)
Btw, some examples of new stock mechs?
 
Hey, question about how things work: I just made my first proper mod (as opposed to just editing some files and calling it done, only to weep when the next patch broke them), a small one that corrects the armour values on the Royal Crab and Marauder to what they should be. This required giving them an extra ton of payload capacity by decreasing the InitialTonnage variable in each of their chassisdef jsons by one.

If I wanted to use Mech Designer on those edited variants, without editing the HBS-approved versions and getting them overwritten if another patch comes out, would my best bet be to make a copy of them, change the filenames and the ID variable in both their chassisdef and mechdef to something other than the HBS-approved ones (say for example, 'chassisdef_marauder_MAD-2R_armouredit' for the relevant file), alter the Purchaseable variable to false so it doesn't show up in stores in addition to being blacklisted, then place those versions in the relevant StreamingAssets\data folders? That would make it so as far as the player is concerned they might as well not be there, because the game will never show them to them, but Mech Designer will see them and allow me to try out builds, right?

EDIT: Oh, and also the VariantName variables in the chassisdefs, forgot about those.
 
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Mech Designer works as follows:
1) it scans <jsonDataPath from setup.ini>\chassis folder for all files which follow wildcard chassisdef_*.json, and assumes these are all available mechs
2) based on found file name string, say chassisdef_marauder_MAD-3R.json it replaces phrase "chassisdef" by "mechdef" in the string, then searches for file chassisdef_marauder_MAD-3R.json in <data folder>\mech
3) It uses MovementCapDefID key from chassisdef file to acquire movementdef file

So, in order to get your altered Marauder you need separate mechdef, chassisdef and perhaps movedef files (though most mechs' variants use common movedef file). Generally you've guessed right, though VariantName is not mandatory, but without it you won't have a mean to distinguish between original and altered Marauder. TAGs can be edited in Mech Designer in advanced mode, btw.
All should be safe, because in case of error you'll get (already familiar to you) a messagebox about unsuccessful parsing .json file.
 
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