So I have this ion blast ability, which can target anything with weapons. It's set to use buff X on Titans, and buff Y on everything else. However, for some reason it uses both buffs X and Y on Titans, which it should not do. The relevant files can be found in these two pastes, I'm wondering where I screwed up; I think it might be because of the different TimeElapsed settings, but I'm not sure.

I would consider using "ApplyBuffToSelfWithFilter"...use detonate AM as your template...this is the best (and perhaps only?) way to discriminate between different object classes once you've already applied a targetted buff....

Got the ability to work; set up the ability as an ApplyBuffToTargetWithTravel and the buffs as an ApplyBuffToSelfWithFilter.

Hey guys, I was wondering if an ability that I am trying to make for my custom race's battleship is even possible.  Its level 6 ability, "Mind Crush" is supposed to psychically destroy the minds of the crew on enemy ships in a small radius, causing them to go completely berserk and become neutral pirates that roam the gravity well, attacking everything that gets near them (or at least, if I cant change their faction orientation, make them go crazy and attack everything around them).  Can this be done?

Not quite. You could use ChangePlayerIndexToFirstSpawner, as the Advent Domination does, or take a look at the Insurgency? Tier 8 TEC research ability, you might could kill those ships and re-spawn pirate types.

Quick question, for adding research what all needs to be done as far as making sure it's in the entity.manifest and player.entity? Very odd I'm adding a ship unlock research ability and get:

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsDiplomacy\Release\CodeSource\GS/Entity/Interfaces/IResearchSubject.cpp(114)

m_Tier == researchWindowLocation.pos.m_X

Funny thing is I've added stuff like planet modules before....I think I've forgot something. I've triple checked it's in both manifest and player.entity with proper counts...the ship was already added but under another research unlock.

Insurgency isn't tied to any abilities, it's all research and stuff defined in the Gameplay.constants...

Oh yeah it's not tied to any structure/ship. You're right. Looked it up.

Piece of cake.

First put an ability on a pirate controlled structure in the pirate base, Their turrets for instance.

This ability needs to be set up with autocast conditions like Planetary vision.  It needs to apply directly to planets with no extra constraints beyond filtering for Planet.

The buff it applies is a simple one.  PrioritizeOldBuffs, with a single instant action, ApplyBuffToTargetsAtOrbitBody using AlwaysPerform, and no finish condition.

The buff applied to the ships also needs to be PrioritizeOldBuffs with a single instant action, ApplyBuffToSelf with OnBuffFinish for a trigger.

In the second buff applied to the ship, you put your ChangePlayerIndexToFirstSpawner on say a two second delay.

Then there's your Titan.

Your titan need only apply a buff that removes the first buff on the ship above, thus triggering the OnBuffFinish application.  Neutral side change achieved.

The turrets in the pirate base, so long as you don't allow them to stack it, can rapidly populate every planet with this fake passive.  It will apply to every ship built, an efficient and functional method.

Edit: CoronalFire, it's the research file itself.  Tier doesn't match the grid position.

Position is [ 6 , 1 ] at Tier 6....

Well, I'm not exactly sure what that assert is but it seems to be an interace issue, not a reference issue, so you probably have the manifest and player file fine...

Are you sure you aren't trying to place two techs in the same location?  You probably already know this, but tiers and positions start with zero, not 1...

Also, does this tech require another tech?  If so, what is the physical relationship between where these techs appear on the tree?  This sounds silly but I've gotten errors because the game doesn't know how to display the "arrows" for certain tech/prereq layouts....

Then you have the wrong research file, that's what the error is.

Yeah checked that no tech in same spot, even moved it around. I do think it's odd they start with 0 not 1, but as it applies to both tier and pos its not hard...

No prereqs for this particular tech. There is a tech that uses this one as a prereq. So far from what I can determine the error for those "arrows" come from when you have a prereq at a later tier, thus forcing a backwards arrow. Regardless this is not the case. I've moved the tech around.

What do you mean wrong? I've been very careful of typos...

If that research file has the correct matching tier and position values, your error is in another research file.  That message is specific.

I don't recall all the specific examples, but you can get an error even if the prereq is "earlier" (more left) in the tree...for example, if a prereq is 2 to the left and 1 down, you could connect with an arrow 2 different ways:  the arrow goes up one, then right 2 or the arrow goes right 2, then up one...however, Sins would only have one of those arrows, and if that arrow ends up going through another tech's icon then you can get an error...in some cases, Sins doesn't even have an arrow that works (can't remember the specific situation but there are some)...

Anyway that may not be your issue, but I just thought I'd bring it up in case...

Haven't got this to work yet... plus that paragraph is very short and confusing to me lol.

Ability A file --> Buff B file (periodic action) --> 2 buff files (C & D), C from the periodic that kills pop and D an instant delay (instead of from periodic) from B file?

Straighten me out.

Not sure what your comfort level is with new tools, but my Eclipse Soase Plugin would validate things like this and provide in editor warnings.

Okay so the error is a tier / pos being unaligned somewhere?

I have not yet added much in the way of research, fortunately it was easy for me to check all of them I have added...they all match. And this new research I've been talking about does not show up on the research tree while all the other ones I have added do.

A nice modding trick that can really save your life is clever use of onDelay instant actions to basically do checks for things you can't manually do. In this case, your periodic action has an action interval, which is how many seconds is in between attempts to apply the buff. If you set that buff (C) to "PrioritizeNewBuffs", the next time the periodic buff fires, the buff, along with all onDelay timers, is reset. So if you have a periodic action with an action interval of 3 seconds, and a onDelay of 4 seconds, that on delay will never work unless something happened to the periodic action, in this case your target filter preventing it from being applied again because the planet has no population.

I would set it up so that C kills the population and has an onDelay "ApplyBuffToLastSpawnerNoFilterNoRange" to apply D, which will "RemoveBuffOfType" B. If the planet itself has the ability, you don't need D and can just do RemoveBuffOfType instead of ApplyBuffToLastSpawner.

1. Make sure the Research is in the correct tree.

2. Make sure the research is in the correct "block". Note for all research tree numbers, they use "programing counting", that is they start with 0. Defense and Diplomacy trees only have block 0.

3. Double check the coordinates of your research, again remembering the research item in the upper left corner would be 0,0 not 1,1. Also make sure there is not a research already in the spot you are trying to place it in.

The periodic keeps applying even when the population shows 0. The constraint does work against (prevents attack) dead asteroids. I think it's that it can target a fractional population and planets are always growing. If there is a second ship, one that is currently holding the planet at 0, the first one cannot fire, otherwise they can target a 0 if it's a population type planet.

1. Done long time ago. Combat.

2. Block 1 (middle of 3). Done long time ago.

3. Way past double check, more like 10th check. 0,0 known. The only research next to it are [6,3] and [7,1].

What would cause the research to not show up? I put in the manifest an entity "researchsubject..." and in the player.entity under researchinfo. Checked counts and spelling countless times (har har)...this is just a research ship unlock file so it should be very easy...I know the ship is fine as taking off the research prereq I can build the thing. I've compared it side-by-side with other ship unlock files. This should be a piece of cake, particularly since I've added my own structures and the research that goes with it already.

upload the m0d somewhere so we can look at it.

Problem solved partially anyways.

Wow it's the dev.exe. Reloading a saved game or starting new ones but changing races did not work, but reloading dev with a new game as the race worked, the research I've added shows up now. The thing that really got me was other research already up I could move around but not new ones.

Knew it was something stupid. Still getting the tier/pos error.

We told you not to use save games...

In my defense, it wasn't just saved games, it was new games and using the command to switch races. Not quite that boneheaded.

Does anyone have an XSI version of the Vanilla planet model so I can mess around with it? Or any good techniques on making non-polar pinched textures on any planet model?

I'll import a few for you. I've looked at them in the past personally; iirc not every planet has the same type of UV mesh.