General logistics to modding?

(and the mechanics of it therein)

from Sins Forums

I have the motivation to do everything on my own for creating a mod I've had sketched and planned for years now, but I need several questions answered from some more experienced modders.

 

I have all the concepts down. All the specs, all the specific designs and animation specs, as well as story  etc, but.. well, now what do I do?

 

I've spent a long while trying to create this thing, on paper, but never really put in the time to bother actually creating it.

What are some of the general tools I'd need? Programs, to be more specific.

I'm not going to bother with 3dsm, because I know of its lesser compatability issues with a lot of the games I'd like to build from.. unless it proves usefull with SoaSE.

 

So.. any help would be greatly appreciated. Just in general:

 

1) progs for textures/models?

2) basic file editing knowlage?

3) scripting?

4)*anything else you're willing to help me with

 

 

 sorry for the noobish questions. I've never modded a damn thing in my life, but I know I have the very basic knowlage to do it if I wanted to, which I now do, and have all my ideas down. Drawn, written etc.

 

So, please help!

 

Thanks

 

 

modding
2,429 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I've done all my scripting in Notepad. Scripting isn't complicated enough that it really requires you to have a specialized program for it.

I would recommend reading through the buff list in the posts in https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/306405 to find buffs that are similar to abilities you want your mod to be able to do. Then tweak the numbers and fiddle with the ability or its buffs to make it do what you want it to do. Continue to play around with things, and you'll get more and better ideas for abilities that you wouldn't have thought were possible before you started playing with the scripts. The worst thing that will happen from your twiddling is you cause Sins to minidump crash, so go nuts. Always make small changes, and then test the changes to ensure that it does what you think it should do. As you do it more and more, you'll pick up on exactly how the scripting files work, and it'll get easier.

If you're really hardcore, you might want to pick up a version control system like Subversion... but that's probably a step beyond where you need to be right now.

Haven't done any modeling work myself, so I can't help you there.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah

I've understood enough about the scripting option, and I've done a deal of "minimods" in the past with other games.


I was, more so, interested in importing/exporting ship files, textures and models.

I know evillejedi well enough from his expoloits on Homeworld, concerning his "Warlords" mod and his work with "Empire At War," and obviously ther'es ways to do what I'm considering.

I had an idea for SoaSE mod that would incorporate more detailed additions, such as scaling issues with ships and planets (if possible) and better scaled battles.

In essence, the galaxies would be smaller, but the battleships in comparison to other fleet ships, would be gigantic. IE more appropriate to them being battleships. Increased planet/asteroid/etc scale, and new ship pricing..


but, i digress.. what I really would like to more than anything else, is -how- to import/export models.

Thanks for the scripting info, though. Any and all help is appreciated  :) 
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/311258/page/1/#1726739 is a tutorial for importing/exporting that I found.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
XSI is included in the mod tools. Its the modeling program used to do ship models in sins. So there is really no need to mess with 3dsm. there is a really good tutorial Here on how to use it.

I personally use Notepad++ for my text file editing, its a free notepad replacement.

For texture editing, I would have to say photoshop is the way to go IMO.

If you havent already download the forge tools [link="https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/downloads.aspx"]Here/link]. The files in the sins directory are encoded, the forge tools contain the decoded files.

Hope that helps,

Kushan