Questions: Modding for Entrenchment v1.03

You could try just keeping the changed files in GameInfo, perhaps they made it so that everything else it picks up from the default folders, but I'm not sure. It's always safer to have everything, and you did it correctly as far as I can tell.

The Checksum is basically used to compare the game data. If your checksum is different from another player's, that means you have different modifications to your files, and ICO won't allow you to play together. It's not really useful for troubleshooting other than to make sure you have all the necessary files for the mod (if you were missing one or one folder got messed up, the checksum would be different from what it should be). Only the GameInfo and mesh files are checksummed, as far as I know, to allow for visual-only mods (particle/texture changes) to play online without the other players needing them. These don't change the simulation, so they don't need to match exactly.

That's basically it.

You only need to have the files you have modified in the Gameinfo folder everything else is taken from the default versions.

annatar,

while your advice it cautious,terraziel's is correct due to the manifest files giving the mod the complete list of all files needed, for example in my working personal megastarbase mod, I have the starbase entities,the starbase toughness,weapons and hangers, the carriers cap & frigate and the abilites that I altered, which also helps with MOD stacking AND space required for the mod

harpo

I figured, but I haven't actually put together a mod since Entrenchment so I wanted to be cautious rather than wrong

Thanks Harpo and Terraziel. It does in fact work as you said. During some of my mod testing I had stupidly placed the entity files into the root folder instead of a GameInfo folder. (If there was a little emoticon of a person bashing their head into a wall available that's the one I'd be using now)

Oh well. Live and learn. (hopfully)

But I am beginning to have some fun now. I've been tweeking the Strike Craft Build Rate Penalty around. Right now I have it at a 200% bonus instead of a 50% penalty just by removing the little ol' minus sign.

Oh WOW are those dev execs fun to play with! Building a fleet of capital ships with combinations of all the races if kinda fun!

Yargg! Modding is taking me back to the days of trying to write code for Fortran 77. (Hey don't age me. That language was OLD when I was doing it. Hey teacher can we use Pascal? No? Makes too much sense?)

So I made a mod with a single file in the GameInfo folder. The file is Gameplay.constants. I can edit it to my hearts content making any changes I want and it will work beautifully.

So now I just want to use a single file to test Illuminators. I have a mod with only FrigatePsiLongRange.entity in the GameInfo folder. I try to activate that mod, either edited or unedited, and Entrechment just flatout locks up. If I try to activate that mod in Sins at least I get a mini dump.

ANYONE have any ideas to make it work?

What did you change?

In the FrigatePsiLongRange.entity file? I've tried to change the damage per bank as follows

DamagePerBank:FRONT 36.000000 (changed from 53.500000) 

DamagePerBank:BACK 0.000000 (same)

DamagePerBank:LEFT 36.000000 (changed from 27.250000)

DamagePerBank:RIGHT 36.000000 (changed from 27.250000)

Note: the (changed from text) was not included in the file.

But I also tried to put in just the unedited FrigatePsiLongRange.entity. But it also locked up.

The only other thing I can think of is the FrigatePsiLongRange.entity file was converted to txt using the "DK - SoaSE Mod Tool GUI - 1.3.0.2"

Maybe I should just use the ConvertData exe for the single file?

Maybe I should convert the FrigatePsiLongRange.entity back to binary?

If you have a file comparison proggy (like Beyond Compare), run the vanilla file and your modded one through it and see if there are any missing lines. If there are than either the GUI is using an old convertdata, or the new convertdata is bonkered

just copy the files you want and paste them into your mod folders corasponding folders "mesh, GameInfo..ect" than change them as you see fit

I' ve made a bit of progress. I can copy all Sins 1.17 GameInfo files into my mod and then copy my edited FrigatePsiLongRange.entity into it and it will activate and I can start a game. I have not tested it enough to see if the changes I made actually activated, but it's a start. I still have not been successful with Entrenchment. I tried to copy Sins GameInfo then copy Entrenchment GameInfo and overwrite but that just crashes when activated.

If I can come up with a list of essential files in the GameInfo folder for both Sins and Entrenchment I will post the lists here.

The GameInfo files were all converted to txt using the DK tool.

mbaron did you put the the entity.manifest in the root folder of the mod?

harpo

No. I was not aware of the entity.manifest. I just looked in the Entrenchment folder and see the 6 manifest lists now.

I've discovered several mistakes I've made thanks to the help I've received here. One was I made an incomplete binary to text conversion of the Entrenchment GameInfo folder. That mistake convereted only 85 entity files. This leads to the second mistake which was since the FrigatePsiLongRange.entity files did not get converted I was using the FrigatePsiLongRange.entity file from vanilla sins.

So I will go back to the drawing board and hopefully get it right this time. And make new mistakes.