How do I change starting resources? I.E. remove Frigate Factories?

from Sins Forums
I'm trying to create a mod that removes all frigates and cruisers so players only have Capital Ships and fighters. The idea started to put a spoke in the wheel of those players trying a Zerg Rush (you can tell I'm an old timer, eh?). Should be a slower paced game although may beef up the capital ships weapons and cut the costs depending on game balance.

I'm still actually trying out ideas so haven't come up with anything to fill all the tech spots yet but actually I have a slightly more fundamental issue.

When you start a game you automatically start with a frigate factory - how do I either get rid of it or preferably change it to a capital ship factory?

Also the AI seems to spend all it's money on tech rather than buying a capital ship with a colony module - is there a way to bias it towards using the Capital Colony ships that each race has? Or do I have to replace one ability on all the others with "colonise". Even then it wasn't doing any exploring with it... I guess I could leave in the scouts and the colonisers but it's a bit annoying.

To make this happen I basically adjusted the following section to remove the frigate factory and the frigates:

planetModuleInfo
        Page:0
            count 8
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALMETALEXTRACTOR"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCOMBATLABORATORY"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALTRADEPORT"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCULTURECENTER"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCRYSTALEXTRACTOR"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCAPITALSHIPFACTORY"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALNONCOMBATLABORATORY"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALREFINERY"
        Page:1
            count 6
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALGAUSSDEFENSE"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALHANGARDEFENSE"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALREPAIRPLATFORM"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALJUMPBLOCKER"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALSHIELDGENERATOR"
            entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCANNON"
    capitalShipInfo
        Page:0
            count 5
            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP"
            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHCARRIER"
            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHCOLONY"
            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHSUPPORT"
            entityDefName "CAPITALSHIP_TECHSIEGE"
    frigateInfo
        Page:0
            count 0
        Page:1
            count 0           
        NotOnPage
            count 3
            entityDefName "FrigateTechModuleConstructor"
            entityDefName "FrigateTechTradeShip"
            entityDefName "FrigateTechRefineryShip"


modding
2,649 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
goto the galaxyDefScenario file and change the template. That defines what players start with. Interesting idea not to have frigates/cruisers, since the AI also just spam Lights.

My AI has ALWAYS build a colony capitalship first. Not sure what happened with your game. Maybe he was research?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Ahhh - thank you for that. I see it now at the line:
templateName "Template:DefaultHomePlanetSetup"
Maybe I'll put in one colony frigate and scout as a starting trigger to encourage the AI.

Well I worked my way over to the AI's position (in Normal difficulty) and discovered one ship - a Capital carrier which didn't appear to have even left the starting planet's area since the two planets linked from there still had their starting selection of rogue and independent ships. Perhaps the AI doesn't bother researching fleet and capital ships until it's colonised a planet?

Actually it makes for quite a tough game too - some planets start with easily enough independent ships to make mincemeat of your first capital ship. It was quite fun trying to claw my way over to the AI.

If it does work out quite well then I'll post up the mod to see what people think.
Sins of a Solar Empire II