Abilities - Help Needed

from Sins Forums

Hi,

 

I'm trying to make a "slow field" around my interdictor ship but it's not working. The ability will flicker on and off on ships and not really slow them down at all.

I was using the GravityField ability and tried making it passive and editing it to the cahoots but had no luck. Eventually I tried using the PJI ability I had on the ship and just replacing the bufftarget. As it is right now my new ability and the PJI ability look exactly the same except:

 

I) PJI buff is named "xxxxxxxSpawner" and the GravField buff is named "xxxxxxCaster"

II) The criteria of the target buffs are set to changing speed and acceleration

It still flickers on and off but the PJI ability on the ship is fine. Is there anyway to make a passive gravityfield ability?

 

While we are on the topic, how could we make a tractor beam ability that pulls the ship in?

 

Thanks!

modding
8,841 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Why do you need nested buffs? Can't you just make a passive ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadius (or whatever it is) and stick the modifiers in the buff?

While we are on the topic, how could we make a tractor beam ability that pulls the ship in?
End of quote

Don't think you can, except maybe the reverse of Repulsion (flip the sign on the effect?)

+1 Loading…
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I'm total noob here. What does "nested buff" mean? Is that where there are two buffs for an ability?

 

Why does the PJI need a nested buff?

 

So then could I Just take something like "targetinguplink" and change it to affect linearmaxspeed and linearacceleration?

 

Quoting Annatar11, reply 1
Why do you need nested buffs? Can't you just make a passive ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadius (or whatever it is) and stick the modifiers in the buff?


While we are on the topic, how could we make a tractor beam ability that pulls the ship in?


Don't think you can, except maybe the reverse of Repulsion (flip the sign on the effect?)
End of Annatar11's quote

 

I think you're on to it here! And we can make that ability last longer, be slower and affect one ship only?

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

And we can make that ability last longer, be slower and affect one ship only?
End of quote

Sure, just change the target filter to set a constraint for max number of targets :P

I'm total noob here. What does "nested buff" mean? Is that where there are two buffs for an ability?



Why does the PJI need a nested buff?
End of quote

Yeah, nested buff is when one buff file calls another buff. It looks like the PJI uses nested buffs because it's trying to refresh it every 2.5 seconds, why I don't know. It should work just fine as an instantaction with just one buff file. The only reason I can think of for doing this is if for whatever reason passive buffs don't refresh themselves (like Ship A gets affected, then ship B enters range but isn't affected because the buff was already applied)... but that doesn't make much sense to me. Shouldn't be like that :P

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

What I don't get is why the format for PJI's don't work for the gravity field. What would cause the differentiation?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

You'd probably have to paste all the files here if you want me to answer that :P

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

err I'm at work so this is going to be limited. I just downloaded the TXT that Justin S. posted, but it's missing the ability files.

 

BuffHyperspaceDisruptionSpawner

 

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeOldBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusiveForAllPlayers"
isInterruptable TRUE
isChannelling TRUE
numInstantActions 0
numPeriodicActions 1
periodicAction
 actionCountType "Infinite"
 actionIntervalTime
  Level:0 2.500000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
 buffInstantActionType "ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadius"
 instantActionTriggerType "AlwaysPerform"
 buffType "BuffHyperspaceDisruptionTarget"
 targetFilter
  numOwnerships 1
  ownership "Enemy"
  numObjects 2
  object "CapitalShip"
  object "Frigate"
  numSpaces 1
  space "Normal"
  numConstraints 1
  constraint "CanBeJumpBlocked"
 range
  Level:0 31500.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
 maxTargetCount
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 -1.000000
  Level:2 -1.000000
 effectInfo
  effectAttachInfo
   attachType "Invalid"
  smallEffectName ""
  largeEffectName ""
  soundID ""
numOverTimeActions 0
numEntityModifiers 0
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 1
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"

BuffHyperspaceDisruptionTarget

 

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeOldBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusivePerPlayer"
isInterruptable FALSE
isChannelling FALSE
numInstantActions 0
numPeriodicActions 0
numOverTimeActions 0
numEntityModifiers 1
entityModifier
 buffEntityModifierType "HyperspaceChargeUpRate"
 value
  Level:0 -7.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 3
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "FirstSpawnerNoLongerHasBuff"
 buffTypeToQuery "BuffHyperspaceDisruptionSpawner"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OutOfRange"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"

 

BuffGravityFieldCaster

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeNewBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusiveForAllPlayers"
isInterruptable FALSE
isChannelling FALSE
numInstantActions 1
instantAction
 buffInstantActionType "PlayPersistantAttachedEffect"
 instantActionTriggerType "OnDelay"
 delayTime 0.000000
 effectInfo
  effectAttachInfo
   attachType "Ability"
   abilityIndex 0
  smallEffectName "Buff_GravityFieldCaster"
  largeEffectName "Buff_GravityFieldCaster"
  soundID "EFFECT_INERTIALFIELD"
numPeriodicActions 1
periodicAction
 actionCountType "Infinite"
 actionIntervalTime
  Level:0 1.000000
  Level:1 1.000000
  Level:2 1.000000
 buffInstantActionType "ApplyBuffToTargetsInRadius"
 instantActionTriggerType "AlwaysPerform"
 buffType "BuffGravityFieldTarget"
 targetFilter
  numOwnerships 1
  ownership "Enemy"
  numObjects 2
  object "CapitalShip"
  object "Frigate"
  numSpaces 1
  space "Normal"
  numConstraints 0
 range
  Level:0 4000.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
 maxTargetCount
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 -1.000000
  Level:2 -1.000000
 effectInfo
  effectAttachInfo
   attachType "Invalid"
  smallEffectName ""
  largeEffectName ""
  soundID ""
numOverTimeActions 0
numEntityModifiers 0
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 2
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "TimeElapsed"
 time
  Level:0 10.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"

BuffGravityFieldTarget

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeOldBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusiveForAllPlayers"
isInterruptable FALSE
isChannelling FALSE
numInstantActions 0
numPeriodicActions 0
numOverTimeActions 0
numEntityModifiers 2
entityModifier
 buffEntityModifierType "LinearMaxSpeed"
 value
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
entityModifier
 buffEntityModifierType "LinearThrust"
 value
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 3
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OutOfRange"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "FirstSpawnerNoLongerHasBuff"
 buffTypeToQuery "BuffGravityFieldCaster"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

At home I replaced:

 

buffEntityModifierType "HyperspaceChargeUpRate"
 value
  Level:0 -7.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000

with:

buffEntityModifierType "LinearMaxSpeed"
 value
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000
entityModifier
 buffEntityModifierType "LinearThrust"
 value
  Level:0 -1.000000
  Level:1 0.000000
  Level:2 0.000000

and this: buffType "BuffHyperspaceDisruptionTarget"

with: "BuffGravityFieldTarget"

 

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Oh you're using Entrenchment files. Well there does seem to be a flickering bug with Entrenchment, easiest to notice when you're trying to spot mines with a scout. So if those are all the changes you made to the base files, chances are it's just that bug kicking in.

What you get for trying to mod a beta :P

Try it for 1.12 and it should work fine.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I suspected that but wasn't sure.

 

It was too much hassle uninstalling reinstalling just to mod, so I figured i'd start with beta. Maybe this will help them find the flicker bug! hahah


How many changes do you think I'll have to do when this goes live? I don't know how modders update their files from patch to patch lol.

Also, I don't know if they is beta related, but I tried deleting the boolmodifiers on the phase cloak so that ships could move while phasecloaked. It didn't work. When I activated the phase, the ships just sat there and in the info card it said all the usual stuff, like it's abilities, movement, weapons were all disabled. :S

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

It was too much hassle uninstalling reinstalling just to mod, so I figured i'd start with beta. Maybe this will help them find the flicker bug! hahah
End of quote

You could always install 1.12, make a folder copy, and update to Entrenchment. Run 1.12 with all your mod stuff from the copied folder :P

How many changes do you think I'll have to do when this goes live? I don't know how modders update their files from patch to patch lol.
End of quote

A bunch. I don't know about others, but I use Beyond Compare. Run a GameInfo folder comparison between my mod files and the stock GameInfo, then it picks up all the changed files and I get a side by side view of both along with highlighted lines that changes, and I get to pick what I move/replace from my file over to the new file. I can't imagine updating mods any other way.