Some basic modding questions

from Sins Forums
I am relatively new to modding, only ever having altered abilities, stats, and a few level builders before, but Sins has sparked some ideas in me and I have a few questions about how far the system can be modded before I get ahead of myself.

- Must planets be in the middle of the Gravity wells? Can we, for example, anchor them to be at the very top or bottom point of the well?

- Must gravity wells be spherical in shape? Can modding change them to cubes or cylinders?

- I know units have firing arcs, is it also possible to designate undamageable arcs? For example, can I make a unit which is impervious to head on attacks?

I am sure some of this is basic stuff, but I am just getting into 3D modeling and I figure slowly working on a mod would give me some focus and direction.
modding
6,780 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
- Must planets be in the middle of the Gravity wells? Can we, for example, anchor them to be at the very top or bottom point of the well?
Yes, however I think off-setting the actual model of the planet (done with an editor, such as 3dmax or maya) might give you the same results.

- Must gravity wells be spherical in shape? Can modding change them to cubes or cylinders?
I'm pretty sure you can't change the shape, since this appears to be hard coded.

- I know units have firing arcs, is it also possible to designate undamageable arcs? For example, can I make a unit which is impervious to head on attacks?
Naturally; no.
You can however, have armor on certain parts of the ship that takes far less damage than other parts. At least I think armor is attached to the texture file..
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

You can however, have armor on certain parts of the ship that takes far less damage than other parts. At least I think armor is attached to the texture file..


That one is news to me!
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
News to me too, tell us more Windexglow...
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
same , didn't know about that, can someone from IC confirm plz?
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Hmm, I'm just guessing on that one actually :/
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
All ship specs are in their respective .entity file. There is no "facing" for shields, or hull. Ships will take equal damage no matter what way the ship is facing. Once shields are down the hull takes damage. Once hull is gone the ship blows up. Armour reduces the amount of damage the hull takes by a percentage depending on research. You can also research stronger shields. I am not exactly sure how shield mitigation works, but i believe it works in the same way armour does except it reduces damage a shield takes.

The firing arcs are front, left, right, and rear. Covering 180 degrees for each arc. I think there is a way to limit arcs side to side angles. I'll need to look at this again. The Kols 3 gauss guns can only fire directly forward iirc. However i dont think you can control the up, and down angles. So there is a chance mod ships weapons will fire through their own hulls. Im not sure about this. Again i need to double check. In any case weapon firing arc angles are all in the ships .entity file.

AFIAK planet objects need to be at the center of the gravity well, and it is hardcoded. So you cant have more than 1 colonizable object in a gravity well. The wells size however can be adjusted.