Modding public service announcement #1: Underscores

[NovaSilisko]

DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES put underscores in your part names. It will make your vehicle unable to be re-loaded after it was saved.

Wrong:

// --- general parameters ---
name = 2m_fuel_tank
module = FuelTank
author = NovaSilisko

Right:

// --- general parameters ---
name = 2mfueltank
module = FuelTank
author = NovaSilisko

Be smart! Keep underscores out!

[Sordid]

That info's already in the cfg documentation section of the wiki.

Also, please don't make threads with vague titles in all caps.

[Capt'n Skunky]

That info's already in the cfg documentation section of the wiki.

Because I put it there, yet people are STILL making this mistake k:(

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

[NovaSilisko]

That info's already in the cfg documentation section of the wiki.

Also, please don't make threads with vague titles in all caps.

Happy now?

[Sordid]

Happy now?

Much better. k:)

Because I put it there, yet people are STILL making this mistake k:(

Ya, I know, following our little troubleshooting of your SRB. I went to add it afterwards and saw that your pirate monkey astronaut ninja'd me. Again.

[NovaSilisko]

I'm also precursing the fact there will be more!

[sirmonkey]

thanks for posting this.. when skunkmonkey mentioned it to me the other day i spend 30 minutes going through all the mods trying to find ones using underscores.. and there are a TON of them that use it. maybe this thread will finally help stop it.

[Corona688]

The fact is a lot of folks (like me) jump in without reading the docs. This thread is thus useful

It also helps to know why underscores are bad: The game uses them in save files, like partname1_partname2_partname3 -- so if your part has underscores in it it'll break part_name_with_underscores into 'part' 'name' 'with' 'underscores' and throw a fit when none of those parts exist.

Dots seem to be okay.

[Capt'n Skunky]

The fact is a lot of folks (like me) jump in without reading the docs. This thread is thus useful

It also helps to know why underscores are bad: The game uses them in save files, like partname1_partname2_partname3 -- so if your part has underscores in it it'll break part_name_with_underscores into 'part' 'name' 'with' 'underscores' and throw a fit when none of those parts exist.

Dots seem to be okay.

That's not quite what's happening.

You are correct that the problem arises in the saving of craft files, but it's because it appends the instance number of the part to the name after an underscore. So if you have two 'sasmodule' parts in your craft, they each get saved as 'sasmodule_1' and 'sasmodule_2'. The game assumes everything after the first underscore is the instance number. This is why a simple appending of 'sasmodule_mycustompart' reverts to the original part when reloaded because the game reads it as simply 'sasmodule'.

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

[Capt'n Skunky]

This issue has been corrected. You can use underscores, but don't use a number as the last character after the underscore. It will still attempt to use it as the instance number.

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

[Andras]

This issue has been corrected. You can use underscores, but don't use a number as the last character after the underscore. It will still attempt to use it as the instance number.

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky

Is that for 0.10? Because they still cause problems in 0.9.

[Capt'n Skunky]

Interesting, HarvesteR said that he fixed this issue.

Arrr!

Capt'n Skunky