we have done it the b5 mod have done it the star trek mod have done it... but i think we have the shineyest guns

the Emperor protects

It's been done with the beta, not the final game. I wanna see'em in the final!

Not to seem ungrateful to the Devs, but Question

Which is likely to come first if i ask nicely for both?

A list of all the various ActionTypes, ActionTriggerTypes, FinishConditionTypes, etc etc?

Or the rest of the forge tools? because im sure some of the ActionTypes are mutually exclusive, and im assuming atleast something in the mod tools would point this out, or at the very least contain a way to test stuff before its in game, so that i dont have to crash sins every 30 seconds to try things out. not at all subtle hints as to what i think the mod tools should include

Nice! But will there be some kind of editor to create/edit abilities and such or only textfiles to edit in notepad?

If there will be no "official" Editor(s) for .entity files I may create my own.

You and me both Bl4ck.

Try downloading the tools in this very thread!

There aren't any tools for editing, however -- just notepad.

Sure there are. Crimson Editor is the best one, as are Notepad++ and some others. Saying there needs to be an "official" text editor is silly.

...I think he wants a GUI editor for the files, much like Galaxy Forge for the maps.

At the very least, a list of ActionTypes and such would be very helpful.

ahahah oh wow

EaW's community was ruined by people who thought they could "code" by changing a couple weapons stats, let's not let that happen here

Well, you can't really "ruin" a modding community by having easy to use tools. Those who want to tinker and make silly stuff can do so, and those who want to make badass mods can do so as well. Then one day, when you have a gazillion mods to choose, you turn on the "number of downloads" filter and see who's on top.

My first ship model is allmost done, I'm skinning it right now.

You'd be surprised. The ones who thought they could code diluted the community to the point where there was a bunch of vaporware mods and then decided to shit-talk anyone who disagreed with them about what could be done with the xmls. It was really a bad situation and only a couple mods survived intact. There's no reason .entity editing needs to be any simpler, I've made a thread for minimod requests so if someone wants something simple done and doesn't want to do it themselves they can simply ask there.

Blame those pesky programmers, always thinking up ways to make things easy. Why, back in the day, to make a computer work you had to punch holes in sheets of cardboard - with your teeth! Nothing like these youngsters have now. It spoils the lot of them I tell you!

hey SD,
checked out the mod tools last night and the tutorial is great as is the whole package. so glad you guys took the time out for us. but i have small issue:

WHY DIDN'T YOU POST IN HUGE LETTERS ON THE MAIN SITE HOMEPAGE THAT THESE TOOLS WERE OUT?

i mean come on! i lost a whole 3hrs or modding time because of that . but seriously you guys are doing great work and i hope to see some more tools and options to mod built into future patches....which i already know they will be because you guys are awesome!

cheers

I dont think they wanted to advertise to everyone that the these tools were out. These are Beta-ish so I think they wanted to release the entire toolset and then have everyone download them.

I'll throw in my hat for a complete listing of ActionTypes and such - I don't need a fancy GUI editor to connect the dots. It'd be faster in some ways, but doing the nitty gritty yourself always gives you more knowledge and experience on how things really work

I have a quick question about this tool, is there no way to make a mod with altered IDS files? (the ones that have IDS_etc as their name in the entity files). I'd like to change a small part of the tech tree for a mod and need to add a research subject but I can't find the file that seems to contain that data (IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_COMBAT) anywhere.

Thanks for any help, and for such an amusing mod setup. Even if I haven't accomplished anything with it (yet) it's a lot of fun .

Here here for the ActionTypes and other such constants!! I'd personally rather have a complete PDF saying how it all works than the tools that do it for me. We can build those.

And Binksy - that piece is explained in the PDF, but I'll still place it here. The IDS files you are talking about are not like the other entity files we all know and love. They are refering to a string tag that is in your english language file (which is plain txt and not binary). Inside you can modify the individual strings or add your own with their own individual IDS. Just make sure that if you add any to change the string count near the beginning of the file and that each ID is unique. You will need to copy the entire strings folder to your Mod directory before doing this though so you don't mess with your vanilla copy of the game.

Ugh...guess I didn't pay enough attention to the PDF . Thanks a ton.

Has anyone found out how to fix the starting location so that it isnt random, so "Player-0" in the text file corresponds to a single player?

how do you use the convertdata exe ive tried many times i cant seem to understand the pdf plz could some 1 provide step by step instructions as the prog opens and closes instantly

Its a command line utility -- just use a dos window (you can open one using "CMD" in the run dialog box) to run it.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll need to get help from someone else.

Can anyone recommend a 3D modeling software program to use to create ships and possibly new structures? I've got a modest budget and have some badass designs in my head already.

Thanks

Well, I have heard great things about blender. It is free. Only thing I personally dont like about it is the horrid UI but others seem to like it.

There is also XSI Mod tool which is a free version of XSI. Havent tried much of it, but it looks to be a great program.

The commercial products are VERY expensive so it might be better to get one of the free ones if you are only going to do a few models.

Thanks for the fast reply m8.