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

 

7,604,822 views 2,761 replies
Reply #1751 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1750

A simple example from my mod, from the English.str file.

NumStrings 7957
StringInfo
ID "IDS_Ability_E4X_DisruptRangefinders_NAME"
Value "Damage Rangefinders"

To make a new string, just copy the last three lines from any string reference, and update the NumStrings line by 1. ID is the most important, as that is the unique identifier for the string that all other files will use. To keep my strings unique, I add a prefix unique to the mod I'm working on, in this case E4X for "Enhanced 4X Mod". That way I do not have to worry about string conflicts with other mods, and even better it tells me in an instance what mod that string is originally from (Even in Enhanced 4X I have portions of other mods included, and their strings have their own prefixes for them).

 

okay so for example for me it would be something like

NumStrings 7957
StringInfo
ID "IDS_Ability_4MS_DisruptRangefinders_NAME"
Value "Damage Rangefinders"

right? aslo is there a thread or guide somewhere that explains it more for rebellion. like for research and stuff

Reply #1752 Top

also side note what do this mean? 

"

Invalid Mesh Point Data String Found by IWeapon (Weapon Index Out of Bounds)

Mesh = C:\Users\Jordon\Documents\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Mods-Rebellion v1.1 Dev\4000sins\Mesh\Frigate_TechLongRange.mesh
MeshPointString = 'Weapon-1'
Parsed Weapon Index = 1
Max Weapon Index = 0"

Reply #1753 Top

Quoting palaisy, reply 1751


okay so for example for me it would be something like

NumStrings 7957
StringInfo
ID "IDS_Ability_4MS_DisruptRangefinders_NAME"
Value "Damage Rangefinders"

right? aslo is there a thread or guide somewhere that explains it more for rebellion. like for research and stuff

Aye, but your NumStrings line will have the number for your mod. And if you were to add that string (A string section is everything in bold), you would have to increase it by one. Or in other words, the NumStrings must equal the number of "StringInfo" lines.

 

Strings are pretty much the same for all versions of Sins and for all objects. The ID name doesn't have to have ability or research etc. in it at all, it is just good to do so you know exactly what the string refers to. If you can't tell what file is supposed to use the string by looking at the ID that is not a good string ID.

The only thing to be careful of is that some strings used for generating the infocards will cause dumps if they are not present, but don't touch them and you should be fine. Also I believe the string character limit is 255.

Quoting palaisy, reply 1752

also side note what do this mean? 

"

Invalid Mesh Point Data String Found by IWeapon (Weapon Index Out of Bounds)

Mesh = C:\Users\Jordon\Documents\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Mods-Rebellion v1.1 Dev\4000sins\Mesh\Frigate_TechLongRange.mesh
MeshPointString = 'Weapon-1'
Parsed Weapon Index = 1
Max Weapon Index = 0"

I think you have a ship entity that has more weapon hardpoints in its mesh than its entity file had defined.

+1 Loading…
Reply #1754 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1753


Aye, but your NumStrings line will have the number for your mod. And if you were to add that string (A string section is everything in bold), you would have to increase it by one. Or in other words, the NumStrings must equal the number of "StringInfo" lines.

Strings are pretty much the same for all versions of Sins and for all objects. The ID name doesn't have to have ability or research etc. in it at all, it is just good to do so you know exactly what the string refers to. If you can't tell what file is supposed to use the string by looking at the ID that is not a good string ID.

The only thing to be careful of is that some strings used for generating the infocards will cause dumps if they are not present, but don't touch them and you should be fine. Also I believe the string character limit is 255.

 



I think you have a ship entity that has more weapon hardpoints in its mesh than its entity file had defined.

 

okay so if i delete strings then it must adjust the number otherwise it defaults to the sin string?

 

and for the hardpoints that wont cause it to crash correct?

 

third this how do i make it so i only have one race in instead of all of them and how do i get rid of the Rebel loyalist thing? 

 

sorry for the spam

Reply #1755 Top

thanks for all the help it means alot its hard doing a mod by yourself :P haha

Reply #1756 Top

The weapon error is you probably don't have a weapon point P001-Weapon-0, which is the 1st one in the entity, Weapon-1 is the 2nd weapon listed in the entity.

Reply #1757 Top

Quoting myfist0, reply 1756

The weapon error is you probably don't have a weapon point P001-Weapon-0, which is the 1st one in the entity, Weapon-1 is the 2nd weapon listed in the entity.

 

okay thanks

 

Reply #1758 Top

New question for the modelers. I just rotated my entire scene by the y axis, however this seems to mean by weapon point rotation values no longer match up to the nice 0/90/180/270 weapon alignments. Will the convertxsi be smart enough to figure out which direction the weapons are supposed to fire, or how do I set the new rotation positions to be the default (freezing anything seems to throw off at least my mesh points, so that doesn't seem to work).

 

Quoting palaisy, reply 1755

thanks for all the help it means alot its hard doing a mod by yourself haha

I've been doing it that way more or less for years.  ;P

Quoting palaisy, reply 1754
okay so if i delete strings then it must adjust the number otherwise it defaults to the sin string?

Or more commonly if you add a new string (which you should be doing). The game only knows what is in your mods string file, if you need the default strings keep them there, if you don't you can delete some of them if you want, but I'd leave them all just to be safe.

Reply #1759 Top

for the models it should

 

and trying to make just one race to show up and get rid of the loyal rebel crap how do i do this?

Reply #1760 Top

Goa, are you using FREEZE and not FREEZE M. Freeze M just freezes the mesh or model where Freeze does the entire scene and the mesh.
When I scale models I ctrl select all the nulls, and the mesh and check COG (center of gravity), scale mesh, select just the mesh, freeze all transforms, select all the nulls, freeze scaling. Not sure if that helps with your rotate issue.

Reply #1761 Top

hmmmmm k

 

I want BOTH faction titans

 

so Added an ability "returning armada" to the titan foundry to summon the factions other titan (loyalist/rebel) then I gave it a huge cool down.

 

problem is... I know how to cheat my own mod, scuttle foundry, rebuild... 3rd titan... 4th titan...  or even.. build a 2nd/3rd titan foundry in orbit.

 

how can I limit my summoned titan to 2 active at any one time?

 

I can put an ability on the titan foundry that MAKEDEAD the titan if a second one is spawned but.... meeeh  this kills the stock titan!

 

 

 

Reply #1762 Top

give each home world another custom structure that you get at game start and is invulnerable. 

Reply #1763 Top

Quoting silencedhawk, reply 1761
I want BOTH faction titans

Do you want them to be both optional to build, or possible to control both titans at once?

If the former, its pretty easy. You can add the other faction's titan to the player.entity file and the player will be able to choose which titan to build, but you can still only control one at a time. Then you just have to change the titan research prerequisites to be the same.

 

If you want to control both titans at the same time, your problem really isn't getting both titan factions but the problem getting around the 1 titan per player limit. And unless you want an unlimited number of titans, that answer will require having a custom structure at the start of the game that is not normally buildable as Myfist says.

Reply #1764 Top

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\main\CodeSource\GS/AI/BuildResearchAI.cpp(917)

ability->GetIAbilityPtr()->GetDef()->m_buffApplyAction.buffInstantActionType == BuffInstantActionType::CreateSpaceMine

This error is killing me....it is coming up in multiple mods that worked absolutely fine, had no errors what so ever...suddenly today it is coming up at startup, causing a skippable error for one mod and an MD for another...the mods were fine, no errors at startup, then suddenly this error comes up as I tried launching them later today....did some update occur that I don't know about?

EDIT:  This error has also come up while switching from a mod to VANILLA sins...it often comes up several times right in a row, but necessarily the same number of times, anywhere from 1 to ~11...the number of times it comes up does not seem to be related to whether an MD occurs or not...

Reply #1765 Top

The only time I see that one in SOA2 is when I load the mod in game, instead of at startup.

Reply #1766 Top

Well now that you mention it, I have only seen it while switching mods in-game....

Extremely annoying though...hit a new record of 13 times where I saw the error message....

Reply #1767 Top

Trying to tackle this error again:

Assert @ C:\Projects\P4\SinsRebellion\Release\CodeSource\GS/Player/PlayerOrbitBodyInfo.cpp(187)

squad != 0

I've searched it to death, multiple people have reported getting it but no one has seemed to figure out what it actually means...psychoak mentioned he knew what it was at some point but forgot IIRC.....

Reply #1768 Top

squad != 0

Do you have custom NPC?
I got it when custom NPC had hangars but no squads attached. Check everyones hangars. Actually, they may have had squads but the NPC was using TEC squads, they seemed to work but just spit the error.

Reply #1769 Top

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 1764
ability->GetIAbilityPtr()->GetDef()->m_buffApplyAction.buffInstantActionType == BuffInstantActionType::CreateSpaceMine

I get this just switching to base game or reference files. I think the expansions did not add a lot of the added stuff to the developer.exe for checking. Its like walling in your electrical box after construction and not giving anyone the ability to inspect it. Half assed work  :annoyed: .

Reply #1770 Top

Quoting myfist0, reply 1768
Do you have custom NPC?I got it when custom NPC had hangars but no squads attached. Check everyones hangars. Actually, they may have had squads but the NPC was using TEC squads, they seemed to work but just spit the error.

It only affects Advent (ie only when an Advent AI is involved), and all entities that originally had SC still have SC...

Reply #1771 Top

just wondering, is it possible to make a new set of diplomacy pacts for a new race or do we have to use existing pacts?

 

Reply #1772 Top

Quoting Wintercross, reply 1771
just wondering, is it possible to make a new set of diplomacy pacts for a new race or do we have to use existing pacts?

 

The number of pacts are hardcoded, you can change what they do but you can't add new ones without replacing existing ones.

Reply #1773 Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 1772

 The number of pacts are hardcoded, you can change what they do but you can't add new ones without replacing existing ones.

 

Darn, thats a real shame. Wish they didn't hardcode them.... Oh well, I'm going to have to stick with three sets then I guess... at least we can change what they do...

Reply #1774 Top

isAsteroid FALSE

What does this Boolean do in each planet entity file?

Reply #1775 Top

Quoting Seleuceia, reply 1774
What does this Boolean do in each planet entity file?

Asteroids and Volcanics use different shaders than the other planets. Setting those Booleans to true will cause them to be rendered as such.