[MOD] Replacing Asteroids with Moons

I think there is already a properly sized sphere in the Stock SINS fileset

I haven't checked to see if it wraps the planet with the "Tin Can" method used in the full sized planets, but it should work...

Thanks. Do you know which file that is?

Of course, I like using it...

Shield Planet Asteroid.mesh

Insert underscores where needed, but that should be it... ...It's 1901 units in radius and it makes a perfect planet for a smaller scale universe....

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I hope you are also replacing the planets themselves with Star Textures and covering the resource asteroid "moon meshes" with planet textures for a large scale galactic feel. Also, replace the "colonize" ability with the crew extractor ability and make all the resource asteroids into neutral extractors.

Those modifications will make the SINS "solar systems" into Proper Galaxies, as they always should have been in the first place.

The only problem is you will be colonizing stars themselves if you keep them colonizable, and if you make everything not colonizable to fix it, the game will end with a defeat message on startup because you need at least one planet colonized to stay in the game

Thanks alot. You've been alot of help. I'll probably use the gas giant mesh to add in a new star "planet" so I can have multiple stars and still keep all the new planet types I've made.

BTW... can anyone tell me what the render as volcanic function does on the planet .entity files?

Thanks, I'm glad you're actually doing a galactic style rewrite, SINS is all the better for it...

About volcanic rendering: try it and see

(my guess is that is does extra self-illumination, so it looks more fiery

-if you need any help, just ask

yeah, that asteroid shield mesh works great. I just need one that is smaller so I can mix it up a bit.

What should I do about separating the metal asteroids from the crystal ones?

added pics.

Can I get some feedback?

It's about the right proportions of the Earth-Moon system, with the moon being a quarter the radius of the Earth...

You could do a "Dune" style spice mining operation, with plumes of colored particles representing the metal/crystal...

hmm... I cant get my particle forge or my dev.exe to work. Is there another way to change particle effects?

MrAndrew420,
To cut out some work for you, you can download one of my mods, either 7 DEADLY SINS, or SOLAR SINS, and then edit them to get what you need. I have already made Stars as planets, as well as have Moons around planets.

If not, thats cool. But I wanted to offer that to you. Why reinvent the wheel when it is already done. Good luck with your mod!

DANMAN

Wow... I feel pretty stupid now

Doing things your self is always more fun!

Im still working on it regardless. I just did not realize that this had already been done. I cant crack open DANMAN's mesh files anyways, I cant convert them from binary.(none of my forge tools work for some reason)

Even if all the parts are the same, you can still arrive at a completely different end-result.

I say this because the Implementation is already different. For example: the moons in 7 deadly are new objects that are just for show (unless they were upgraded since last time I looked), and these moons replace the resource asteroids, which can result in entirely different possibilities.

I say this because the different ways of doing things will lead to many more things than just having the parts in place.

For instance, up above I stated that one could make a new gravity well setup that would in effect completely change the apparent scale of the game, so that you can have entire galaxies instead of an over-filled solar system, as designed by the developers.

Such a setup requires stars placed where the planet is, and resource asteroids remeshed to look like planets. You took the first step, so I felt it necessary to suggest the rest of the changes (although I could easily implement my list of changes in my own mod), but just as an example of how the same parts can lead to different results...

That sounds like a cool idea. I want to finish this mod up first to get the hang of things(I usually play with very few planets around 5 stars, Just to make it a more believable gaggle o' solar systems). Then I'll start on the galactic conversion.

Added new pics with the new texture. Looks a whole lot better I think.

Does anyone know how I can keep the moons from reflecting the teams color?

Seems your moons a little big.
I've made a MOD with moving moons, maybe you can download my MOD and find something useful for you.
Link: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/311978

Do you by any chance have a smaller mesh? I don't have any modeling experience or a 3d modeling program so I cant make any different meshes.

And regarding the size, I was trying to replicate the earth/luna proportions. I hope to add in more sizes to give it a more random feel.

Problems I have encountered:
1. Planets reflect team color
2. I cannot make a smaller moon mesh
3. I cannot make the different type of moons circle certain planets. (I want just Ice moons around Ice Planets, Baked moons around Volcanic/Desert Planets, Neutral moons around terran planets)

If you know any way to resolve these problems PLEASE let me know.

Thanks a bunch for helping me get this far, I never would have made it if it wasn't for you guys.

You need 3ds and download the "Sins 3ds Import/export tools", just search the forum, you'll find it.

About Planet's reflect, i'm not sure what're you talking about.

Planet has cloud layer, and astoroids don't.
You can edit the texture by photoshop or something can modify xxx_da.dds files.
But all refect color decide by that star-system's backgroud.

And also, in planet.eneity there is skyboxScalars setting (diffuseScalar/ambientScalar),
set diffuse number more small more darkness; Set ambient more big the cloud will more transparency.

About your last question, you'll need to modify AsteroidDef.asteroidDef files.
You can check one of my post here:
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/309250
It's about my experience to making moons.

well i just realized that you cant have more than two meshes for resource asteroids, this bums me out just a little bit. this means that I'll have to get rid of the neutral moon mesh If I were to add in smaller moons.

about the reflection, its not the normal skybox reflection. whenever you colonize a planet the moon changes to your teams color. Its a minor problem, but it really bothers me because I cant figure it out.

c:\gs\gamma\03\CodeSource\Engine/DataStructures/FixedArray.h(117)

I keep getting this message in dev.exe, does anyone know how to fix this?

Umm is there any other info, because that is worthless on its own (its just the point in the code where it found the error, which dosn't tell you much).

Added link for download