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Modder's "Get-an-Answer" Thread

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By on April 13, 2011 12:05:46 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Sinperium

Join Date 02/2010
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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 regularly.





The Soase Idiot's Guide

Confused?  No idea where to even start?

Determined to work at it?

This is the place!

 


 

 
   

Sins Modding Wiki

Vanilla Syntax

Entrenchment Syntax 

Diplomacy Syntax

ZombieRus's Eclipse Wizardry

 

     

Modding Home

Modeling Home 

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

Eclipse Definitions Wiki

3dS Texturing Toool & Tips

Ship Fleet Calculator

SoaSE Eclipse Plugin Project

Mesh Resizing Tool--courtesy of the Reqiuem team.

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Filefactory

Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Dropbox

The Sins Optimization Project (TSOP)

Sins Data Converter by BCXtreme

EXPLANATIONS & DISCUSSIONS

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

PARTICLE FORGE

Particle Forge Help Thread

GALAXY FORGE

Adding Artifacts

Working Template Examples

SemazRalan's Template Guide

Pirates Base Start Template

SOUND RESOURCES

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XSI Texturing, Tutorial

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Modding/Modelling/Texturing/Converting, Tutorials

WIKI'S

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June 30, 2012 11:21:47 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting psychoak,
I did spot a minor error in gameplay.constants, but the engine just ignores semicolons on the end of values so it's irrelevant to the crashing issue.

Do you remember what error you noticed?

Also, I'm about 90% certain it is tied to my planet bonuses...don't know how, but removing them from the planet entity files (and leaving everything else) seems to solve the problem....I think....I need to do some more testing...

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July 1, 2012 1:34:23 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Alright, this is really embarassing, but I think I found the issue...apparently Space Ponies is hardcoded, and if you don't include the file in the manifest then bad things occur...it would seem you have to keep the original name of the planet bonus (though you probably could change the string and icon locations)....

Still occasionally getting a bResult==True error...not sure what that's about...

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July 1, 2012 3:50:35 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Just search gameplay.constants for a ;

 

 

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July 1, 2012 3:57:47 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting psychoak,
Just search gameplay.constants for a ;

It's moments like these I feel really really dumb....thanks for your help, I feel like I wasted your time and I apologize...

Is there a thread that has a list of common errors (the ones that aren't obvious, like i>=0 and bResult==True and the StringT one or whatever) and what they generally mean?  The thread that volt made had 3-4 errors identified by psychoak but it'd be nice if there was something more general and comprehensive...and linked by this OP...

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July 1, 2012 7:10:32 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Seleuceia, do not feel embarrased you help so much in the community and silly things like this can get us all, sometimes we are looking for a much more complicated answer than it actually is, plus you obviously needed to take a break on the problem, I find that sometimes helps!

  Support an Error thread!

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July 1, 2012 9:23:46 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Are there any unused Abilitys or Buffs that I can use without adding to the Manifest?

so far as I can tell

entityName "AbilityTargetWeapons.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetWeaponsSelf.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetWeaponsTarget.entity"
entityName "AbilityTargetHangarBays.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetHangarBaysSelf.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetHangarBaysTarget.entity"
entityName "AbilityTargetBridge.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetBridgeSelf.entity"
entityName "BuffTargetBridgeTarget.entity"

are unused?

 AbilityTargetBridge is still using Incendiary shells Icons and IDS

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July 1, 2012 1:37:41 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting silencedhawk,
Are there any unused Abilitys or Buffs that I can use without adding to the Manifest?

Probably but why would you want to do that? That'll just make things a lot more confusing for you later on.

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July 1, 2012 2:17:54 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

I make alot of Modular mods, mainly because thats how I was taught to code but I also play a online mods with friends so... if I combine it all as 1 mod then change a few tiny little elements I have to upload an entire 300mb mod every time I change somthing

 

-2 new capital ships

-Changes to stock capitals in another

-an Orb as a starting structure that auto captures the first planet connected to the home system

-an ability for Shieldgenerator/AMrecharger/Nanojammer that increases local defense range 200%

-new titan for each race

-Changes to Titans that need a new Buff file

-Planets

-Economy

-Changes to starbases in 1

-A new race!

-Changes to gameplay.constants

 

sometimes I want 2-3 on sometimes I want all on.

 

I want to be able to turn them on an off without any clashing Entity Manifest stuff

I know you can create a Base mod that has all the strings and Manifest for everything above it but this means you can't use this structure when Debugging and testing without turning off the Alerts in dev.exe which I kinda like since they alert me to .... Bugs!

 

 

tho I agree using the wrong names for abilitys/buffs is going to get confusing

 

 

 

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July 1, 2012 2:27:05 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

You may consider this...

For each "module", include a "manifest" that has only the new files added by that mod...it'd be helpful to also include how much the mod will increase the count...

When someone wants to mix and match any of your modular mods, all they have to do is copy the lines from the respective "manifests", add up the counts, and put it all in one manifest...still more work than a simple enable/disable but it's about the best I think you can do...

Also I think IonBlast (or IonBurst?) is unused...both exist, one of them is the akkan's ion bolt and the other is unused...

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July 2, 2012 8:09:27 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

On planet files what is and better what is the difference between

moveAreaRadius

AND

hyperspaceExitRadius

???

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July 2, 2012 8:30:19 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

moveAreaRadius is the area that you can give move orders in...you cannot select areas outside that radius for move orders....

hyperspaceExitRadius is the minimum distance you must be from the planet in order to phase jump....

Obviously, moveAreaRadius is larger...

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July 3, 2012 8:19:01 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

This minimum distance in hyperspaceExitRadius is from the center to the outside of the gravity well or from the end of gravity well to center of it?

 

Also this gave me a idea to test: Changing the gravity well of the planets to a huge one and then make a map where all those planets gravity wells touching the other planets gravity wells, have having just ultra small phase lane that connect the planets.

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July 3, 2012 9:34:27 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting exdeathbr,
This minimum distance in hyperspaceExitRadius is from the center to the outside of the gravity well or from the end of gravity well to center of it?

I don't understand what you mean by this...

It is my understanding that both moveAreaRadius and hyperspaceExitRadius are measured from the center of the planet (ie they are not relative to eachother)....

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July 3, 2012 9:59:58 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting Seleuceia,

Quoting exdeathbr, reply 1038This minimum distance in hyperspaceExitRadius is from the center to the outside of the gravity well or from the end of gravity well to center of it?

I don't understand what you mean by this...

It is my understanding that both moveAreaRadius and hyperspaceExitRadius are measured from the center of the planet (ie they are not relative to eachother)....

Your answered my question.

hyperspaceExitRadius is measured from inside to outside.

 

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July 8, 2012 11:36:00 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

So Ive come up with a mod idea that I think every one would like but it's a little out of my skill lvl So if a Modder who has some free time wouldent mind PM'ing so we could discuss my idea that would be great

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July 8, 2012 2:10:32 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Why don't you give a brief overview of what you want/need done?  Thing is, very few people have the free time to fully work on a mod project continuously...you may have to "divide and conquer" ie someone help you with planet entities, someone help you with the abilities, someone help you with textures, someone help you with icons, etc...

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July 8, 2012 7:07:56 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Alright what i want to do is take out the Empire building and make the focuson running a Single Capital and then a fleet when you get enough exp

plus i want to add missions if thats possible

Here's an over veiw (I primary play as the TEC so I'm usng them as the example)

You start out as a capitan of a single capital ship amoung a fleet then with the more exp/prestige you can recruit ships into your own fleet

It will be in series form

Tide of Iron- will be set before vanilla sins but after the converted there ships that way you can choose all of the types of Capitals You start out as a new captian of a Capital ship sent to combat the alien threat and after a few missions you'll be sent to the undefended sectors to recuperate and then the advent attack

Steel Inferno-Set during Entrenchment

Out of the Dark (name not set)-set during diplomacy

Titanium Typhoon-set during Rebellion

In at the Death-Set during when ever the dev's decide to add what ever have the visari running like skinned cats

Also you'll be able to change your Ships abilities I.E the Kol can have one of its abilities switched out with Ion Bolt

So anyone want to help on this?

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July 8, 2012 7:38:51 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Simple question, how do you change the races in the race selection from the originals to new ones or, change the selection screen to the original. Which would be easier?

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July 8, 2012 8:30:37 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting kcirtap42593,
Simple question, how do you change the races in the race selection from the originals to new ones or, change the selection screen to the original. Which would be easier?

PlayerSetup.window

useRaceSelectDialog FALSE

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July 8, 2012 8:37:46 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting battlecrow,
Alright what i want to do is take out the Empire building and make the focuson running a Single Capital and then a fleet when you get enough exp

plus i want to add missions if thats possible

Here's an over veiw (I primary play as the TEC so I'm usng them as the example)

You start out as a capitan of a single capital ship amoung a fleet then with the more exp/prestige you can recruit ships into your own fleet

It will be in series form

Tide of Iron- will be set before vanilla sins but after the converted there ships that way you can choose all of the types of Capitals You start out as a new captian of a Capital ship sent to combat the alien threat and after a few missions you'll be sent to the undefended sectors to recuperate and then the advent attack

Steel Inferno-Set during Entrenchment

Out of the Dark (name not set)-set during diplomacy

Titanium Typhoon-set during Rebellion

In at the Death-Set during when ever the dev's decide to add what ever have the visari running like skinned cats

Also you'll be able to change your Ships abilities I.E the Kol can have one of its abilities switched out with Ion Bolt

So anyone want to help on this?

A lot of people have a lot of good ideas they would like to implement in Sins. Unfortunately due to engine limitations many will never be possible. My suggestion is to play Sins of a Solar Empire, then tinker with a few small modding ideas to get your feet wet. When you have a better grasp of what is actually possible with Sins you might be able to refine some of what you are wanting to accomplish and/or better present your ideas.

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July 8, 2012 10:34:48 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

One more question what does everyone use to edit the pictures in the Window folder?

 

Thanks Zombie

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July 8, 2012 10:44:32 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting kcirtap42593,
One more question what does everyone use to edit the pictures in the Window folder?

Those aren't pictures...those are Brush files and can be viewed with a text editor (like notepad)...of course, they are in BIN format (just like entity files) and need to be converted to TXT...

Each brush file specifies a texture file, and then each "entry" in the brush file specifies a certain rectangle on that texture (basically, a small, specific area)...brush files are used for in-game icons where 100s of, say, ability/research icons are in one file....you'll note that entity files have lines where you indicate the "entry" that specifies the appropriate icon or whatever...

Entity files do not specify the location of the "entry", only it's name...the "entries" can be in any brush file you want (though I believe a brush file can only refer to one specific texture file), so it is usually better to just add brush files (update the brush manifest) and textures if you are adding content instead of trying to put it all in a pre-existing brush file...

For example, if you added 2 planet types, it is easier to make a new texture with icons for just those two planets and a new brush file for those handful of entries instead of trying to copy the existing planet icons to a larger texture and then updating the current planet brush files...

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July 8, 2012 11:47:37 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

So what program is good to edit/create new brush files?

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July 9, 2012 12:04:52 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting kcirtap42593,
So what program is good to edit/create new brush files?

Whatever is your favorite text editor (I.e. same thing you use for entity files). Before I started to use Eclipse for all modding I just used regular notepad.

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July 9, 2012 3:27:25 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

If you expand the range of the VL Titans Micro Phase Jump ability to say 900,000 you Can teleport into another gravity well but you can't attack anything in that well and any command to attack causes the titan to warp out then warp back in.

I am guessing the same will happen with overlapping Grav wells.

You can also Micro-Jump into undiscovered planets wells with them still being greyed out and unexplored.

Seems to be a Coded limit that a Jump must take place for a system swap

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