Sinperium Sinperium

Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

Answers from Modders, for Modders who "Ask a Question"

This is the place to ask and recieve specific modding (mod making) questions and answers. If you have a mod making question, post it here.

If your question involves long snippets of entity files and the like, please don't paste the entire file contents here but put them at the incredibly easy to use http://pastebin.com and then provide the link to your paste in your question posted here.

Please do limit  "just comments" here to brief posts please.  If you don't know the answer or can't point to help--don't post.  Please note that a random, uninformed guess isn't an actual answer.  

You can refer people to another source--IF it actually helps answer their question.  This could be in the form of links, outside sites, specific modding-useful programs, direction towards another post or poster, etc., etc.

Remember--specific questions, specific answers.  Only respond to the ones you can help solve.  Also, feel free to amplify, clarify, suggest alternatives to or correct answers seen here if such actions are merited and help provide a real solution. No flaming, insults or put downs here in the answers or other posts please.

Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation.  The reason for the rigid rules here is those this thread becomes a usable resource in the future to new people looking for answers.

NOTE: If an answer resolves your issue, please share it here.  These answers will help others coming along later too.  Karma is a great way to respond to people providing help without clogging the thread or bombing their forum mailbox here. Thanks!

 

OTHER SINS HELPFUL MODDING LINKS*

*Links are updated when requested.





The Soase Idiot's Guide

Confused?  No idea where to even start?

Determined to work at it?

This is the place!

 


 

 
   

Sins Modding Wiki

ZombieRus's Eclipse Wizardry

 

     


Tutorials

MyFist0's full modding site.

Emphasis on modeling  and

texturing.                            

 

 

 




                    

REBELLION MODDING TOPICS

Rebellion Modding Q & A

Mesh Editing

Changing Diplomacy Files to Rebellion

IT REALLY HURTS MY BRAIN--HOW TO START

An Idiot's Guide To Getting Started

MyFist0's Modding Megasite!

MOD DOWNLOADS

ZombieRus5's Mod Yard

Directory of Planet Mods

STEAM

STEAM Sins Forums

DEVELOPERS

Sins Developer Journals Forum 2007 to Present

REFERENCE FILES

Research Modifier List

MyFist0's Exported Models & Files

Modifier List

Harpo's Converted Sins Reference Files 2011

THIRD PARTY TOOLS

3dS Texturing Toool & Tips

Ship Fleet Calculator

SoaSE Eclipse Plugin Project

Mesh Resizing Tool--courtesy of the Reqiuem team.

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Dropbox

The Sins Optimization Project (TSOP)

Artificial Unintelligence (Mod and AI info)

Sins Data Converter by BCXtreme

EXPLANATIONS & DISCUSSIONS

Rebellion Updates by Blair Frazier

How to Add a Fourth Race

User-updatable Ship Reference Chart

Sins Modding Dictionary

Adding phase Effects to other weapon types

Culture, Explanation/Discussion

Weapons, Explanation/Discusion

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion-1

Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion -2

Graphic Chart of Sin's Counters

Annotated Guide to the Developer.exe

In-Game Map Creator

Weapons Banks & DPS

Combat Mechanics

Rebellion Shield Mitigation & Focus Fire testing

PARTICLE FORGE

Particle Forge Help Thread

GALAXY FORGE

Adding Artifacts

Working Template Examples

SemazRalan's Template Guide

Pirates Base Start Template

SOUND RESOURCES

[SFX] Black Sun SFX/Music Resource for Modders

MODELING & TEXTURING--SOFTIMAGE XSI, 3DS MAX

XSI Texturing, Tutorial

3dS Model Exporter

3DS Max Rigging, Texturing & Exporting, Guide

Modding/Modelling/Texturing/Converting, Tutorials

WIKI'S

Sins of a Solar Empire Official Wiki

 

7,603,840 views 2,761 replies
Reply #1676 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1676
Sounds fair enough. Would you mind giving me an example, how the ability has to look like? I dont know how to make abilities from scratch. I just copied already existing abilities and modified them so far.

Look at the Tech Envoy's Settler ability.

Reply #1677 Top

Quoting ZombiesRus5, reply 1676

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1676Sounds fair enough. Would you mind giving me an example, how the ability has to look like? I dont know how to make abilities from scratch. I just copied already existing abilities and modified them so far.

Look at the Tech Envoy's Settler ability.

Works. Thank you :D

 

 

Reply #1678 Top

Another question: I have an ability for a ship that deals damage to targets(max 1 target) in radius, but it seems like the ability picks targets randomly. Is it possible to change it so it attacks always the actual target of the ship?

Reply #1679 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1678
attacks always the actual target of the ship?

What do you mean?  Do you mean the ship that the ship is currently shooting at?  That would be easy....just require the ship to face its target in order to use the ability (it's a Boolean in each ability file)...

If you are looking for something else though (like for the ship to pick the target you specifically want) you are out of luck....you could change the target filter to caps/titans/SBs only if you want it to pick high value targets (or set the AI use target condition to IsCapitalShipOrStarbaseOrTitan)....if it is an ability that affects the targets AM or ability to use abilities, you could require the target to have an antimatter pool via a condition (though this won't work against ships/structures with abilities but no AM, such as turrets or culture centers)...

Reply #1680 Top

I want the ability to focus on the actual/same target of the ship, that posseses this ability (Ship A has the ability. Ship A fires at ship B. The ability of ship A fires at ship B as well and ignores other targets in range). And i want it to be used 360 degree, without facingrestriction.

I have already managed to fire it at 360 degree, but it fires randomly at targets if there are more than one target in range.

 

 

Reply #1681 Top

I'm confused...if you want it to target the same ship that "Ship A" is firing at, how can it be 360 degree?  Presumably, ship A has frontal weapons and those would only hit ship B if ship A is facing ship B...

Reply #1682 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1678
targets(max 1 target) in radius

I'm really confused why you would want a radius with 1 target if you don't want it to be a random target, so please describe the ability more. Still, any radius ability with a target filter applies them randomly, so I would suggest doing these instead.

Active Ability - ApplyBuffToTarget (With or Without Travel): Basically set it up like the Akkan's ion bolt so the player can choose which ship is the target.

Passive Ability - ApplyBuffToTargetOnWeaponFired: Whatever target your ship is shooting at will get the buff. However, if you want to do 360 degree fire, keep in mind you will be firing on one ship in each direction, so this buff will be applied to 1 ship in each direction if the weapons hit it.

Reply #1683 Top

Well, i dont like the style weapons work in sins(or to be more accurate the star trek mod).  The ships are using fighterstyle combat/strafe runs. Since some ships have just forward weapons and others have weapons in multiple directions while strafing its really hard to balance them out. I planed to set the damage of the conventional weapons on every ship to just 1(just for eyecandy pew pew) and let them do the real damage through an ability without any visual effect.  So the ability need to fire in any direction(thats the reason why i used radius) with the same damage but just at one target and not randomly.

The only problem i have not solved yet is the random targetting :/

Ps: "applybufftotarget" does that mean the target of the ship using the ability?

Pss: Would the ability fire in any direction if i get rid of the radius and just set a range with "applybufftotarget" and "hastofacetarget" set to false? EDIT: After changing buffInstantActionType from ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadiusWithTravel to ApplyBuffToTargetWithTravel the ability does not fire at all. Its set to passiv btw.

Reply #1684 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1684
Ps: "applybufftotarget" does that mean the target of the ship using the ability?

Pss: Would the ability fire in any direction if i get rid of the radius and just set a range with "applybufftotarget" and "hastofacetarget" set to false? EDIT: After changing buffInstantActionType from ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadiusWithTravel to ApplyBuffToTargetWithTravel the ability does not fire at all. Its set to passiv btw.

You cannot have a passive ability with ApplyBuffToTarget. The target is the target the ability is used on, which you cannot select with a passive ability. That is why I suggested OnWeaponFire if you must make it a passive ability.

Reply #1685 Top

There is another ability in the mod that does pretty much that, what i want. But i have 2 problems with it. 1.: Every time the ship uses the ability it stops moving for a short period of time. When i set the ability to a short cooldown of 1 or 2 seconds it doesnt move at all. Looks really weird with fighterstyle combat. 2.: Its an active ability. Sometimes the ability is used straight after the cooldown expires, sometimes it waits for some reason. The passive ability i was using with radius seemed much more fluent. 

Reply #1686 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1686
There is another ability in the mod that does pretty much that, what i want. But i have 2 problems with it. 1.: Every time the ship uses the ability it stops moving for a short period of time. When i set the ability to a short cooldown of 1 or 2 seconds it doesnt move at all. Looks really weird with fighterstyle combat. 2.: Its an active ability. Sometimes the ability is used straight after the cooldown expires, sometimes it waits for some reason. The passive ability i was using with radius seemed much more fluent. 

I fear there is no way to get exactly what you want then. You've seen the trade off with all the mechanisms, its up to you to decide which is the lesser evil.

Reply #1687 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1687

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1686There is another ability in the mod that does pretty much that, what i want. But i have 2 problems with it. 1.: Every time the ship uses the ability it stops moving for a short period of time. When i set the ability to a short cooldown of 1 or 2 seconds it doesnt move at all. Looks really weird with fighterstyle combat. 2.: Its an active ability. Sometimes the ability is used straight after the cooldown expires, sometimes it waits for some reason. The passive ability i was using with radius seemed much more fluent. 

I fear there is no way to get exactly what you want then. You've seen the trade off with all the mechanisms, its up to you to decide which is the lesser evil.

Gah, they really need to implement weaponarcs. Thanks anyway.

 

 

Reply #1688 Top

Quoting IskatuMesk, reply 1668
Gstar on particle meshes isn't producing any light or bloom. In fact, I can't get any textures to produce bloom at all. The data sheet's bloom channel is pure white, and I've tried having light pure white or variable or black with no change. What's wrong?

 

Yes, bloom is enabled, and the Undead work fine. But it's like the bloom doesn't want to display against the other meshes or something.

 

Hello, you handsome devil. I have bad news for you!


The bloom doesn't display against meshes. At all.

Wow. What a disgusting development. I hope I can contain my kidneys for the next year. By the end of this I will be a seething cesspool of rage and puke.

Keep rhymin', homedawg.

Reply #1689 Top

First: Is there a way to let abilitys have more than 3 lvls?  

Second: Is there a way to buff the damage of an ability via conventional weapontech like + 5% dmg to a weaponclass?

 

 

Reply #1690 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1690
First: Is there a way to let abilitys have more than 3 lvls?

Yes, buy Rebellion....in Rebellion you can have 4 levels...

Beyond that though, no not really...

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 1691
Second: Is there a way to buff the damage of an ability via conventional weapontech like + 5% dmg to a weaponclass?

Well, you can have a tech unlock an ability, and then a second tech improve that ability...or you can just have a tech improve an ability...

But, you'd be limited to 3 levels (or 2 "improvements") with diplomacy and 4 levels with rebellion....

Reply #1691 Top

only in rebellion, then it is four.

harpo

Reply #1692 Top

Dayum. Im playing a mod that doesnt work for rebellion yet. Anyway - thanks!

But i have another question: Is it somehow possible to let a capitalship start with an ability already at lvl 1?

And: I have noticed that some techs with prerequisite techs dont have any "arrows" attached to them but some have. Is there a way to influence that? I would like to have some techs with prereq-techs but without an arrow pointing at it across the whole techtree ^^

 

 

 

 

Reply #1693 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1693
But i have another question: Is it somehow possible to let a capitalship start with an ability already at lvl 1?

Yes, if you want to upgrade the ability with research. Look at the TEC Repair bays for how to do that. It is impossible to have it start a level 1 then use the capitalship upgrade points to increase it further.

Reply #1694 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1694


Yes, if you want to upgrade the ability with research. Look at the TEC Repair bays for how to do that. It is impossible to have it start a level 1 then use the capitalship upgrade points to increase it further.

I tried to give a capitalship a "researchwithbase" ability. Problem is: When the ability is not already max lvl through research, it will eat up command points without any effect.

 

 

Reply #1695 Top

Quoting ParadePartizan, reply 1695
I tried to give a capitalship a "researchwithbase" ability. Problem is: When the ability is not already max lvl through research, it will eat up command points without any effect.

This is a known, unfortunate, aspect of capitals with abilities boosted by research.

Reply #1696 Top

Works fine with the fifth passive. You can tie all kinds of research upgrades into that one passive slot.

Reply #1697 Top

i am curios as to if anyone has a advent hangar .xsi or .exp file? i searched around for a bit before posting and didnt find anything but im probably blind and missed it....

Reply #1698 Top

Quoting Dante551, reply 1697

i am curios as to if anyone has a advent hangar .xsi or .exp file? i searched around for a bit before posting and didnt find anything but im probably blind and missed it....

Ask some of the guys with 3DS max like Lavo or Myfist to send it to you. There's a script they can use to get vanilla Sins models. If you promise them karma I'm sure they'll be nice and send it to you. ;)

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Reply #1699 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1698


Quoting Dante551, reply 1697
i am curios as to if anyone has a advent hangar .xsi or .exp file? i searched around for a bit before posting and didnt find anything but im probably blind and missed it....

Ask some of the guys with 3DS max like Lavo or Myfist to send it to you. There's a script they can use to get vanilla Sins models. If you promise them karma I'm sure they'll be nice and send it to you.

aw alright, message sent and thanks. :thumbsup:

Reply #1700 Top

Its me again :D

Im looking for an ability that makes damage to a target per second and stops when the target is destroyed. Is that doable?